The same may be said of the habits of a family.  They enter into its very constitution, rule and direct all its activities and interests.  They cling to each member with more than magic power, and become interwoven with his very being; and by them we may easily ascertain the moral and spiritual strength of that family; we can tell whether the parents are faithful to their mission, and whether its members will be likely to pass over from the home of their childhood to the church of Christ.  Who has not felt this power of habit?  Who has not wept over some habits which haunt him like an evil spirit; and rejoiced over others as a safeguard from sin and a propellor to good?  Is it not, therefore, a matter of momentous interest to the Christian home, that it establish habits of the right kind and quality?

It should never be forgotten by Christian parents, and they cannot be too careful to impress it upon their children, that habit engenders habit,—­has the power of reproducing itself, and begetting habits of its own kind, increasing according to the laws of growth, as it is thus reproduced.  A habit in one member of a family may produce a like habit in all the other members.  The habits of the husband may be engendered in the wife, and those of the parents, in their children.  If so, then are we not responsible for our habits?  And shall any other kind save Christian habits, be found in the Christian home?  These we cannot give in detail.  It is plain that those habits only are Christian, which receive the sanction of God’s Word and Spirit, and find a response in the Christian faith and conscience.  Here, for instance, is a habit being formed,—­habit of thought:  is it pure?  Here is a habit of conversation:  is it holy?  Here is a habit of action:  is it godly?  And if not, it does not belong to the Christian home.

See, then, ye members of the Christian home, to the habits you are forming.  Form the habit of “doing all thing’s decently and in order.”  Let the work and duties of each day be done according to method.  This is essential to success in your pursuits and aims.  Without this, your Christian life may be blustering and stormy, but you will accomplish little, and will be as unstable as water.  One duty will interfere with another.  You may have family prayer and instruction to-day, but something will prevent it to-morrow.  Establish the habit of Christian industry.  Be diligent; not slothful in business.  Industry must be the price of all you obtain.  You must be instant in season.  The Christian home cannot be an indolent, idle home.  Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might.  Press forward.

It is said of Rutherford that “such was his unwearied assiduity and diligence, that he seemed to pray constantly, to preach constantly, to catechise constantly, and to visit the sick, exhorting from house to house, to teach as much in the schools, and spend as much time with the students in fitting them for the ministry, as if he had been sequestered from all the world, and yet withal, to write as much as if he had been constantly shut up in his study.”  Such should be the industry of each Christian home.  Without it, temptation will beset the members.  “A busy man is troubled with but one devil, but the idle man with a thousand.”