The mission of the christian home.

  “If in the family thou art the best,
  Pray oft, and be mouth unto the rest;
  Whom God hath made the heads of families,
  He hath made priests to offer sacrifice.”

The home is a divine institution, and includes the religious element, moving in the sphere of nature and of the church, then its calling must be of God; its mission is divine; it is designed to subserve a spiritual purpose; it has a soul-mission.  This was the view of David when he “returned to bless his household.”  To him his family was a church in miniature, and he its priest.  Thus too Joshua felt that his service of God must include family worship.

What then is the mission, of the Christian home?  It is two-fold,—­the temporal and eternal well-being of its members.  It is the mission of home to provide for the temporal well-being of its members.  They are parts of one great whole.  Each must seek the welfare of all the rest.  This involves obedience to the law of co-operation; and has special reference to that provision which the heads of families should make for the wants of those who are placed under their protection.  As the parent sustains a physical, intellectual and moral relation to the child, it is his mission to provide for its physical, mental and moral wants.  “He that provideth not for his own house hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”  Natural affection will prompt to this.  Children are in a state of utter helplessness.  The infant is at the mercy of the parent.  Instinct impels the parent to provide for its wants.  Even the brute does this.

That it is a part, therefore, of the home mission to provide for the physical wants of the dependents there, is very evident.  To refuse to fulfill it is a crime against nature.  This part of the home-mission includes the education of the body, by properly unfolding and directing its powers, and providing it with appropriate nutriment, raiment and shelter.  In a word, we should make proper provision for the development and maturity of the physical life of our children.  This is the mission of the parent until the child is able to provide for itself.  This, says Blackstone, “is a principle of natural law;” and, in the language of Puffendorf, is “an obligation laid on parents, not only by nature herself, but by their own proper act in bringing them into the world.”  The laws of the land also command it.  The child has a legal claim upon the parent for physical sustenance and education.

It is another part of the home-mission to provide for the intellectual wants and welfare of the child.  Children have mind as well as body.  The former needs nourishment and training as well as the latter.  Hence it is as much the mission of the family to minister to the well-being of the mind of the child, as to that of its body.  Civil law enforces this.  Children have a legal as well as a natural claim to mental culture.  In a word, it is the home-mission to provide for the child all things necessary to prepare it for a citizenship in the state.