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Chapter 30—Choice and Preparation of the Home
The gospel is a wonderful simplifier of life’s problems. Its in-
struction, heeded, would make plain many a perplexity and save us
from many an error. It teaches us to estimate things at their true
value and to give the most effort to the things of greatest worth—the
things that will endure.
This lesson is needed by those upon whom rests the responsi-
bility of selecting a home. They should not allow themselves to be
diverted from the highest aim. Let them remember that the home on
earth is to be a symbol of and a preparation for the home in heaven.
Life is a training school from which parents and children are to
be graduated to the higher school in the mansions of God. As the
location for a home is sought, let this purpose direct the choice. Do
not be controlled by the desire for wealth, the dictates of fashion, or
the customs of society. Consider what will tend most to simplicity,
purity, health, and real worth.
Cities are becoming hotbeds of vice the world over. On every
hand are the sights and sounds of evil. Everywhere are enticements
to sensuality and dissipation. The tide of corruption and crime is
continually swelling. Every day brings the record of violence—
robberies, murders, suicides, and crimes unnamable.
Life in the cities is false and artificial. The intense passion
for money getting, the whirl of excitement and pleasure seeking,
the thirst for display, the luxury and extravagance, all are forces
that, with the great masses of people, turn the mind from life’s true
purpose. They open the door to a thousand evils. Upon the youth
they have almost irresistible power.
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One of the most subtle and dangerous temptations that assail the
children and youth in the cities is the love of pleasure. Holidays are
numerous; sports events draw thousands, and the whirl of excitement
and pleasure attracts them away from the sober duties of life. Money
that should be saved for better uses is frittered away on amusements.
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