The family is "God's husbandry;" and
this implies a spiritual culture. As its members dwell as "being heirs
together of the grace of life," it is the function of each to labor to make
all the rest "fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of
God." Parents should provide for the religious wants of their children.
Mere physical maintenance and mental culture cannot supersede the necessity
of spiritual training. Children have a right to such training.
This religious provision is twofold; their moral and spiritual faculties
should be developed; and their moral nature supplied with appropriate
nutriment. All the wants of their moral nature are to be faithfully
provided for. The home-mission involves the business of education of body,
of mind, and of spirit;--of preparation for the state, for the church, for
eternity. It is this which makes it so sacred and responsible. Strip the
Christian family of its mission as a nursery for the soul; wrest from the
parents their high prerogative as stewards of God; and you heathenize home,
yea, you brutalize it! Tell me, what Christian home can accomplish its holy
mission, when the soul is neglected, when religion is left out of view,
when training up for God is abandoned, when the church is repudiated, and
eternity cast off? You may provide for the body and mind of your children;
you may amass for them a fortune; you may give them an accomplished
education; you may introduce them into the best society; you may establish
them in the best business; you may fit them for an honorable and
responsible position in life; you may be careful of their health and
reputation; and you may caress them with all the tender ardor of the
parental heart and hand; yet if you provide not for their souls; if you
seek not their salvation; if you minister only to their temporal, and not
to their eternal welfare, all will be vain, yea, a curse both to you and to
them.
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