The Home Council

Radiate Helpful Influence

Be one of those who are always radiating success thoughts, health thoughts, joy thoughts, uplifting, helpful thoughts, scattering sunshine wherever they go. These are the helpers of the world, the lighteners of burdens, the people who ease the jolts of life and soothe the wounded and give solace to the discouraged.

Learn to radiate joy, not stingily, not meanly, but generously. Fling out your gladness without reserve. Shed it in the home, on the street, on the car, in the store, everywhere, as the rose sheds its beauty and flings out its fragrance.

When the world learns that love thoughts heal—that they carry balm to wounds; that thoughts of harmony, of beauty, and of truth always uplift, beautify, and ennoble; that the opposite carry death, destruction, and blight everywhere—it will learn the true secret of right living.

—O. S. Marden.

Give Us To Build Above The Deep Intent

We know the paths wherein our feet should press,
Across our hearts are written Thy decrees:
Yet now, O Lord, be merciful to bless
With more than these.
Grant us the will to fashion as we feel,
Grant us the strength to labor as we know,
Grant us the purpose, ribbed and edged with steel,
To strike the blow.
Knowledge we ask not—knowledge Thou hast lent,
But, Lord, the will—there lies our bitter need,
Give us to build above the deep intent
The deed, the deed.

—John Drinkwater.

Alternate Reading: Acts 24:1-27.

We Thank Thee

For mother-love and father-care,
For brothers strong and sisters fair,
For love at home and here each day,
For guidance lest we go astray,
Father in Heaven, we thank Thee.

For this new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything His goodness sends,
Father in Heaven, we thank Thee.

For flowers that bloom about our feet,
For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet,
For song of bird and hum of bee,
For all things fair we hear or see,
Father in Heaven, we thank Thee.

For blue of stream and blue of sky,
For pleasant shade of branches high,
For fragrant air and cooling breeze,
For beauty of the blooming trees,
Father in Heaven, we thank Thee.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I Am An American

(At the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument)

When honored and decrepit age shall lean against the base of this monument, and troops of ingenuous youth shall be gathered round it, and when the one shall speak to the other of its objects, the purposes of its construction, and the great and glorious events with which it is connected, there shall rise from every youthful breast the ejaculation, “Thank God, I—I also—am an American!”

—Daniel Webster.

Reverence

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our feverish ways.
Reclothe us in our rightful mind;
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise.

—John G. Whittier.

Alternate Reading: Acts 22:1-29.

Jesus’ Farewell Sermon

“I have spoken to you in this way so that you may not falter. They will expel you from their Synagogues; indeed the time is coming when any one who kills you will think that he is making an offering to God. They will do this, because they have not learnt to know the Father, or even me. But I have spoken to you of these things that, when the time for them comes, you may remember that I told you about them myself. I did not tell you all this at first, because I was with you. But now I am to return to him who sent me; and yet not one of you asks me— ‘Where are you going?’ although your hearts are full of sorrow at all that I have been saying to you. Yet I am only telling you the truth; it is for your good that I should go away. For otherwise the Helper will never come to you, but, if I leave you, I will send him to you.”

—John.

The Need Of Spiritual Power

I do not think the world is dying for new ideas. A teacher has a high place amongst us, but someone is wanted here and abroad far more than a teacher. It is power we need; power that shall help us to solve our practical problems, power that shall help us to realise a high, individual spiritual life; power that shall make us daring enough to act out all we have seen in vision, all we have learnt in principle from Jesus Christ.

—C. A. Berry.

Life Ever Young

There is a life that remains ever young.
All through the day, all through the day,
Singing at evening the song it has sung
All through the length of the day;
Love is the glory that never grows old.
Keeping it light where the shadows have rolled,
All through the length of the day.

—George Matheson.

True Love

How do I love thee! Let me count the ways:—
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! And, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

—Elizabeth B. Browning.

Earth Hallowed By Jesus’ Holiness

“This is the earth He walked on; not alone
That Asian country keeps the sacred stain;
Ah, not alone the far Judean plain,
Mountain and river! Lo, the sun that shone
On him, shines now on us; when the day is gone
The moon of Galilee comes forth again
And lights our path as His; endless chain
Of years and sorrows makes the round world one.
The air we breathe, He breathed—the very air
That took the mould and music of His high
And godlike speech. Since then shall mortal dare
With base thought front the ever-sacred sky—
Soil with foul deed the ground whereon He laid
In holy death His pale, immortal head!”

—Richard Watson Gilder.

Alternate Reading: Nehemiah 4.

The Puritans

The Puritans were men whose minds had derived a peculiar character from the daily contemplation of superior beings and eternal interests. Not content with knowledge, in general terms, of an overruling Providence, they habitually ascribed every event to the will of the Great Being for whose power nothing was too vast, for whose inspection nothing was too minute. To know him, to serve him, to enjoy him, was with them the great end of existence. They rejected with contempt the ceremonious homage which other sects substituted for the pure worship of the soul. Instead of catching occasional glimpses of the Deity through an obscuring veil, they aspired to gaze full on His intolerable brightness, and to commune with Him face to face.

Hence originated their contempt for terrestrial distinctions. The difference between the greatest and the meanest of mankind seemed to vanish, when compared with the boundless interval which separated the whole race from Him on whom their own eyes were constantly fixed. They recognized no title of superiority but His favor, they despised all the accomplishments and all the dignities of the world. If they were unacquainted with the works of philosophers and poets, they were deeply read in the oracles of God. If their names were not found in the registers of heralds, they were recorded in the Book of Life. If their steps were not accompanied by a splendid train of menials, legions of ministering angels had charge over them. Their palaces were houses not made with hands, their diadems were crowns of glory which should never fade away. On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests, they looked down with contempt; for they esteemed themselves rich in a more precious treasure and eloquent in a more sublime language, nobles by the right of an earlier inheritance and priests by the imposition of mightier hands.

—T. B. Macaulay.

Alternate Reading: Acts 21: 27-40.

The World And God

“I am giving you these commands that you may love one another. If the world hates you, you know that it has first hated me. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world— that is why the world hates you. Remember what I said to you— ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have laid my Message to heart, they will lay yours to heart also. But they will do all this to you, because you believe in my Name, for they do not know him who sent me.”

—John.

God needed human hands with which to minister to His children, therefore He made mothers.

The Mother’s Heart

The mother’s heart is the child’s school-room. When God thought of Mother, He must have laughed with satisfaction and framed it quickly,—so rich, so deep, so divine, so full of soul, power and beauty was the conception.

—Henry Ward Beecher.

God’s Teachers

God sends His teachers unto every age,
To every clime, and every race of men,
With revelations fitted to their growth
And shape of mind, nor gives the realm of Truth
Into the selfish rule of one lone race;
Therefore each form of worship that hath swayed
The life of man, and given it to grasp
The master-key of knowledge, reverence,
Enfolds some germs of goodness and of right.

—Anon.

Freedom And Tolerance

Is true Freedom but to break
Fetters for our own dear sake,
And, with leathern hearts, forget
That we owe mankind a debt?
No! true freedom is to share
All the chains our brothers wear,
And, with heart and hand, to be
Earnest to make others free.

They are slaves who fear to speak
For the fallen and the weak;
They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think;
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.

—James Russell Lowell.

The Brotherhood Of Man

They tell me, Liberty, that in thy name
I may not plead for all the human race;
That some are born to bondage and disgrace,
Some to a heritage of woe and shame,
And some to power supreme, and glorious fame:
With my whole soul I spurn the doctrine base,
And, as an equal brotherhood, embrace
All people, and for all fair freedom claim!
Know this, O man! whatever thy earthly fate—
God never made a tyrant nor a slave:
Woe, then, to those who dare to desecrate
His glorious image!—for to all He gave
Eternal rights, which none may violate;
And, by a mighty hand, the oppressed He yet shall save!

—William L. Garrison.

Alternate Reading: Acts 21:1-14.

A Psalm Of The Good Teacher

The Lord is my Teacher:
I shall not lose the way to wisdom.

He leadeth me in the lowly path of learning,
He prepareth a lesson for me every day;
He findeth the clear fountains of instruction,
Little by little He showeth me the beauty of the truth.

The world is a great book that He hath written,
He turneth the leaves for me slowly;
They are all inscribed with images and letters,
His voice poureth light on the pictures and the words.

Then am I glad when I perceive His meaning,
He taketh me by the hand to the hill-top of vision;
In the valley also He walketh beside me,
And in the dark places He whispereth to my heart.

Yea, though my lesson be hard it is not hopeless,
For the Lord is very patient with His slow scholar;
He will wait awhile for my weakness,
He will help me to read the truth through tears.

Surely Thou wilt enlighten me daily by joy and by sorrow;
And lead me at last, O Lord, to the perfect knowledge of Thee. .

—Henry Van Dyke.

That Which Endures

Build as man may, Time gnaws and peers
Through marble fissures, granite rents;
Only Imagination rears
Imperishable monuments.

Let Gaul and Goth pollute the shrine,
Level the altar, fire the fane:
There is no razing the Divine;
For God returns and God remains.

—Alfred Austin.

Alternate Reading: Acts 20:17-38.

Advice To The Young

My son, be this thy simple plan:
Serve God, and love thy brother man;
Forget not, in temptation’s hour,
That sin lends sorrow double power;
Count life a stage upon thy way,
And follow conscience, come what may;
Alike with earth and Heaven sincere,
With hand and brow and bosom clear,
“Fear God, and know no other fear.”

—Anon.

The Higher Good

Father, I will not ask for wealth or fame,
Though once they would have joyed my carnal sense;
I shudder not to bear a hated name,
Wanting all wealth—myself my sole defence.
But give me, Lord, eyes to behold the truth,
A seeing sense that knows eternal right,
A heart with pity filled, and gentle ruth,
A manly faith that makes all darkness light;
Give me the power to labor for mankind;
Make me the mouth of those that cannot speak;
Eyes let me be to groping men and blind;
A conscience to the base; and to the weak
Let me be hands and feet; and to the foolish, mind; And lead still farther on such as Thy Kingdom seek.

—Theodore Parker.

Troubles That Never Come

Some of your hurts you have cured,
And the sharpest you still have survived.
But what torments of grief you endured
From evils that never arrived!

—Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Alternate Reading: Acts 17:16-31.

Fellowship With God On Earth

“I am the True Vine, and my Father is the Vinegrower. Any unfruitful branch in me he takes away, and he cleanses every fruitful branch, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the Message that I have given you. Remain united to me, and I will remain united to you. As a branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains united to the vine; no more can you, unless you remain united to me. I am the Vine, you are the branches. He that remains united to me, while I remain united to him—he bears fruit plentifully; for you can do nothing apart from me. If any one does not remain united to me, he is thrown away, as a branch would be, and withers up. Such branches are collected and thrown into the fire, and are burnt. If you remain united to me, and my teaching remains in your hearts, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be yours. It is by your bearing fruit plentifully, and so showing yourselves my disciples, that my Father is honored. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; remain in my love. If you lay my commands to heart, you will remain in my love; just as I have laid the Father’s commands to heart and remain in his love. I have told you all this so that my own joy may be yours, and that your joy may be complete. This is my command—Love one another, as I have loved you.”

—John.

There’s A Wideness In God’s Mercy

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in His justice,
Which is more than liberty.
For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of man’s mind;
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.
If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at His word;
And our lives would be all sunshine
In the sweetness of our Lord.

—F. W. Faber.