The
homes of our forefathers rule us even now, and will pass from us to our
children's children. Hence it has been called the "fixed capital" of home.
It keeps up a continuous stream of home-life and feeling and interest.
Hence the family likeness, moral as well as physical,--the family virtues
and vices,--coming from the family root and rising into all the branches,
and developing in all the elements of the family history.
Home-influence is attractive. It draws us to home, and throws a spell
around our existence, which we have not the power to break.
"The holy prayer from my thoughts hath pass'd,
The prayer at my mother's knee--
Darken'd and troubled I come at last,
Thou home of my boyish glee!"
Home-influence may he estimated from the immense force of first
impressions. It is the prerogative of home to make the first impression
upon our nature, and to give that nature its first direction onward and
upward. It uncovers the moral fountain, chooses its channel, and gives the
stream its first impulse. It makes the "first stamp and sets the first
seal" upon the plastic nature of the child. It gives the first tone to our
desires, and furnishes ingredients that will either sweeten or embitter the
whole cup of life. These impressions are indelible, and durable as life.
Compared with them, other impressions are like those made upon sand or wax.
These are like "the deep borings into the flinty rock.
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