Is the Mainstay of the Republic Crumbling? Is a House a Home? What of the N ext Generation? Danger!! By DR. JO H N ROA CH STRATON Calvary Baptist CKurcH, Nev? York
decay of the home life of the people? We are surrendering more and more to the materialistic conditions of our modern life, and the home circle is be ing broken up. The family altar has decayed almost universally, and more and more we are going outside of our homes for recreation and pleasure. With multitudes of people^ today, it seems th&t home is the last place they want to be. When everything else has played" out, they go home. For any family to really develop along wholesome and normal lines, the members of the family need to be much together . But with the father gone all day in business,, and the mother also often'gone all day in society and at club and theater, the unity of the home life is sadly broken up. Instead of gather ing around the fireside or at the piano, as in the olden days, for loving fellow ship and joyful songs,—as soon as sup per is over, the members of the average home today scatter far and near. The young people go to the theater, the movie, or the dance hall, or some worse place of resort, and even the mother and the father are often found leaving their homes seeking their social satisfactions elsewhere. These condi tions are fundamentally harmful. After many years of observation as a pastor in the homes of the people, I record it here as a profound conviction of my mind and heart that the modern theater and movie show have done more than any other single force to mar and destroy the holier things of human life. Especially have they harmed the home life and the children of today. I re joice to see that my old friend, Dr. M. P. Boynton, df Chicago, has recently denounced these evils in most scath-
HE fundamental need of human society today is the reestablishment of a right home life. Out of the home, at last, flow all of the forces that make our educational system, our religion, and our
society what they ought to be. The proper care of childhood and meeting that, the reverence and love of parents by children, is set forth in the fifth commandment, and in the sixth verse of the twenty-second chapter of Pro verbs. The commandment reads, “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be lofig in the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Ex. 20:12), and the verse in Pro verbs says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” God promises all who heed these precepts, the bless; ing of long life. This promise applies to the modern man as much as it did the ancient Jew. We Americans can not expect to have, as a heritage, the goodly heights of Lebanon and the forests of Gilead, the snow-crowned summit of Mount Hermon, the beauties of the Sea of Galilee, or the picturesque wonders of the Jordan valley; and yet the obligation of children to hold in tender affection and highest honor the parents who gave them life and nur tured their tender years, has not been diminished, but rather has grown with the passing centuries. The love of a son for a good mother, the respect of a child for a true father, these are among the holiest and most beautiful things of earthly life. The Danger Point Today Is it not true that the greatest dan ger point in our society today is the
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