The Home Mission

If it were possible to trace back to their beginnings, in each individual, those good or evil impulses which have become ruling affections - in most cases the origin would not be found until we had reached the home of childhood. Here it is that impressions are made, which become as enduring as existence itself. But the influence of home is not beneficial or baneful in early years alone. Wherever a home exists, there will be found the nursery of all that is excellent in social or civil life - or of all that is deformed. Every man and woman we meet in society, exhibit, in unmistakable characters - the quality of their homes. Timothy Shay Arthur was a popular 19th-century American author most famous for his temperance novel Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There. He was also the author of dozens of stories for Godey's Lady's Book. Arthur did much to articulate and disseminate the values, beliefs, and habits that defined respectable life in America. Arthur was one of the most popular and widely read author of his time.