It is not individual piety as such, not simply closet devotion, but family service of God,—­religion taken up in the home-consciousness and life.  Hence a family, and not simply a personal religion.

Such religion, we say, is as old as the church.  We find it in Eden, in the tents of the patriarchs and in the wilderness of the prophets.  We find it in the tent of Abraham in the plains of Mamre, in the “house” of Moses, in the “service” of Joshua, in the “offerings” of Job, and in the palace of David and Solomon.  It is also a prominent feature of the gospel economy.  The commendation bestowed by Paul upon Timothy, was that “from a child” he enjoyed the “unfeigned faith” of his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois.  Paul exhorts Christians thus:  “Rule well your own houses; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.”  The same family religion was a prominent feature of the homes of the primitive Christians.  With them, every house was a sanctuary, and every parent a minister in holy things to its members.  The bible was not only a parlor ornament, but a lamp to their feet and a guide to their path, used, meditated upon, prayed over.  Says Turtullian of its members, “They are united in spirit and in flesh; they kneel down together; they pray and fast together; they teach, exhort and support each other with gentleness.”

How, alas! have Christian homes degenerated since then in family piety!  They received a reviving impulse in the Reformation; yet even this was meteor-like, and seemed but the transient glow of some mere natural emotion.  The fire which then flashed so brilliantly upon the altar of home, has now become taper-like and sepulchral; and the altar of family religion, like the altar of Jehovah upon Mt.  Carmel, has been demolished, and forsaken.  Only here and there do we find a Christian home erect and surround a Christian altar.  Parents seem now ashamed to serve the Lord at home.  They have neither time nor inclination.  Upon the subject of religion they maintain a bashful, sullen, wonderful silence before their families.  They seem to be impressed with the strange idea that their wives and children put no confidence in their piety, (and may they not have reason for it?) and that it would, therefore, be vain for them to pray, or exhort their households.  “Many walk thus,” says Paul, “of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ!” Upon them shall be answered the prayer of Jeremiah, “Oh Lord, pour out thy fury upon the families that call not upon thy name!”

Thus, therefore, we see that the Christian home demands a family religion.  The private devotion of the individual can be no effectual substitute for it.

  “The parents pair their secret homage,
  And offer up to heaven the warm request,
  That He who stills the raven’s clamorous nest,
    And decks the lily fair in flowery pride,
  Would, in the way His wisdom sees the best,
    For them and for their little ones provide.”