p. 13 | The Decay of Family Life by C. S. Robinson.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 6, 1907

The Decay of Family Life

By C. S. Robinson.

THE family is a divine institution founded by God and hedged in by his laws. To-day, however, its religious significance is largely lost sight of, and both before and after marriage, convenience is the principle that regulates everything. Christ’s teaching on the subject of divorce was plain; but when it is proclaimed from the pulpit now, the hearer goes his way and says, “Our minister thinks thus about divorce,” as if it were merely an individual opinion and could be disregarded. The old romance and sanctity that lay about the home has been largely destroyed by what we call increasing civilization. When I was a boy, I used to declaim the stirring lines, “Strike for your altars and your fires; strike for the green graves of your sires.” But now the altars and fires are register-holes in the wall, and the green graves of the sires are vaults of stone made to look as much like small palaces as wealth can make them; and nobody would care to fight for either. I saw the other day a motto, “God Bless Our Flat;” that was all that there was left of the home. I do not oppose the flat system; but I say that anything that breaks up the home feeling aims a blow at the morals of the family. When the romance and sacredness of home is gone, then it seems as if even decency very soon departs. Bickerings arise, recriminations follow; and one of the pair goes across the State line to get permission to break the sacred union. How can there be any home life among our rich people, with one house in the country, another in town, and two months in Florida between? And as if this were not bad enough, they take their children abroad for some years. I have lived in Paris and watched the effect of these European sojourns; and I know whereof I speak, when I say that they are bad for our sons, and still worse for our daughters. They come back having lost all idea of love of home life, and happy only when counting the days before they return to their beloved Europe. When this family life is destroyed, the church has lost its chief ally.—C. S. Robinson.