Christianity is essentially a religion of ideal family life.  It conceives of human society, not in terms of a monarchy with a king and subjects, but in terms of a family with a great all-Father and his children, who live in brotherhood, who take life as their opportunity for those family joys of service and sacrifice.  It hopes to solve the world’s ills, not by external regulations, but by bringing all men into a new family life, a birth into this new family life with God, so securing a new personal environment, a new personality as the center and root of all social betterment.  He who would come into this new social order must come into the divine family, must humble himself and become as a little child, must know his Father and love his brothers.

Christianity, then, not only seeks an ideal family; it makes the family the ideal social institution and order.  It makes family life holy, sacramental, religious in its very nature.  This fact gives added importance to the preservation and development of the ideals of family life for the sake of their religious significance and influence.  It not only makes religion a part of the life of the home but makes a religious purpose the very reason for the existence of the Christian type of home.  It makes our homes essentially religious institutions, to be judged by religious products.

     I. References for Study

     G.A.  Coe, Education in Religion and Morals, chap. xvi.  Revell,
     $1.35.

     Article on “The Family,” in Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion
     and Ethics.

     II.  Further Reading

     On the educational function of the family:  A.J.  Todd, The
     Primitive Family as an Educational Agency.  Putnam, $2.00.

     On the religious place of the family:  C.F. and C.B.  Thwing, The
     Family.  Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, $1.60.

     I.J.  Peritz, “Biblical Ideal of the Home,” Religious Education,
     VI, 322.

     H. Hanson, The Function of the Family.  American Baptist
     Publication Society, $0.15.

     W. Becker, Christian Education, or the Duties of Parents.  Herder,
     $1.00.  A striking presentation of the Roman Catholic view; could be
     read to advantage by all parents.

     III.  Topics for Discussion

1.  What place did religion hold in the primitive family?  What reference or allusion do we find in the Old Testament to the place of religion in the family (Deut. 6:7-9, 20-25)?  What in the New Testament?

     2.  What has been the effect of purity of family life on the Jewish
     race?

     3.  What place did the family hold in the teachings of Jesus?

     4.  What shall we think of the relations of the church and family as
     to their comparative rights and our duty to them?

     5.  Do you agree that the family is the most important religious
     institution?