Such a home, being “right with God,” must be “full of good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”  Here the Christian shows his real character.  In the sphere of the church, the family reaches its highest excellence and its purest enjoyment.  Says the learned D’Aubigne, “Without the knowledge and the love of God, a family is but a collection of individuals who may have more or less of natural affection for one another; but the real bond,—­the love of God our Father, in Jesus Christ, our Lord,—­is wanting.”

We, therefore, abuse the idea of home when we divest it of the religious element.  As the family is a divine institute and a type of the church and of heaven, it cannot be understood in its isolation from christianity; it must involve Christian principles, duties, and interests; and embrace in its educational functions, a preparation, not only for the State, but also for the church.  The church gives to home a sacred religious ministry, a spiritual calling, a divine mission; investing it with prophetic, priestly and kingly prerogatives, and laying it under religious responsibilities.

This gives to the Christian home its true meaning, and secures for its members—­

  “A sacred and home-felt delight,
  A sober certainty of waking bliss.”

Such was the home of Abraham, who “commanded his children and his household to keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment,”—­of Joshua, who with “his house served the Lord,”—­of David, who “returned to bless his household,”—­of Job, who “offered burnt-offering according to the number of his sons,”—­of Cornelius, who “feared God with all his house,”—­of Lydia, and Crispus, and the jailor of Philippi, who “believed in the Lord with all their house.”

How many Christian parents practically discard this attribute of home!  While all their temporal interests cluster around their home, and their hearts are fondly wedded to it as their retreat from a cold and repulsive world, they never think perhaps that God is in their family, that He has instituted it, and given those cherished ones who “set like olive plants around their table.”  They are faithful to all natural duties, and make ample provision for the temporal wants of their offspring; the mother bends with untiring assiduity over the cradle of her babe, and ministers to all its wants, watching with delight every opening beauty of that bud of promise, and willingly sacrificing all for its good.  With what rapture she catches its first lispings of mother!  The father toils from year to year to secure it a fair patrimony, a finished education, and an honorable position in life.  How unremittingly these parents watch over the sick-bed of their children and of each other; and oh, what burning tears gush forth as the utterance of their agonizing hearts, when death threatens to blight a single bud, or lay his cold hand upon a single member!