Besides, he fails to meet those conditions upon which
the vigorous development of individual life and character depends.
Indolence is no friend either to physical, mental or moral development. The
body becomes imbecile, the spirit supine and sentimental, the morals
vitiated, and the mind sinks into complete puerility. Activity is a law of
all life, and the condition of its healthy development and maturity.
Without it we resort to jejune amusement, and from amusement we are hurried
on to dissipation, to the card table and dram shop; and from dissipation
we sink to degradation, infamy and wretchedness. Idleness is thus the
fruitful mother of vice and misery. Our lives cannot exist in a state of
neutrality between active good and active evil. It is, therefore, the duty
of the Christian home to prepare her young members for some useful calling
in life, not only as a means of subsistence, but also as a safeguard
against the evils of idleness.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE HOME-PARLOR.
"The foolish floatiness of vanity, and solemn trumperies of pride,--
Harmful copings with the better, and empty-headed apings of the worse;
Vapid pleasures, the weariness of gaiety, the strife and bustle of
the world;
The hollowness of courtesies, and substance of deceits, idleness and
pastime--
All these and many more alike, thick conveying fancies,
Flit in throngs about my theme, as honey-bees at even to their hives!"
The Christian home includes the parlor.
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