The Hearth-Stone: Thoughts Upon Home-Life in Our CitiesOsgood, Samuel
Religion
The Hearth-Stone: Thoughts Upon Home-Life in Our Cities
Osgood, Samuel
Christian life; Conduct of life
Our home blessings! Take first the most obvious view of them. Consider the
plenty that abounds. I speak not of the few affluent, but of the great
majority who enjoy the common lot. What abundance in their homes! Look at
the household of any unpretending citizen, and say what realm of earth,
what domain of nature, does not send its treasures thither? The orchards,
the fields, the pastures, the hills, the rivers, the mines, the oceans,
bring their tribute to the fireside. From the shores of the Mediterranean
come the olive, the grape, the orange, the fig, the date. The farther
Indies send their fragrant herbs and sweet spices. The repast of a frugal
family is rarely set forth without offerings from all quarters of the
globe. The cottager's lamp, that burns by night, is fed with oil from the
Arctic zone. The light of day shines through clear crystal, that shows the
perfection of the arts, and the cheapness of their most beautiful
products. In humble abodes the wonders of manufacture appear. Rich cotton
stuffs tell of the affluence of the Southern soil and the skill of the
Northern artisan. Luxuries, of old the prerogative of princes, are now
familiar things. The silks of France and Italy are worn by the wife and
daughters of the farmer and the mechanic. I will not try to describe the
mansions of the wealthy, although these, when graced by refinement, and
exalted by piety and charity, may give impressive views of the ample
bounty of Providence. It is better to contemplate the plenty within reach
of the common lot. Among what people, in what age, has the common lot been
so favored as with us? When in the earth's history have so many persons
had reason to be grateful at the feast of the ingathering as now? We boast
not of great banquets, in which the luxury of the few is wrung from the
misery of the many. We speak not of pearls dissolved in the wine cup, and
the price of cities thus quaffed at a draught. Our country, prouder than
the empire of a Caligula, or a Cleopatra, can point to the households of
her people, and in the amount of their combined blessings pity the poverty
of the builders of the Coliseum or the Pyramids. Other lands may have
prouder palaces and more princely fortunes. None can show so many favored
homes. Go to thy home, and tell how great things the Lord, the giver of
the harvests, hath done for thee in its plenty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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