The Law of the Household.
By John Bascom
LAW, strength, beauty, holiness, are only expanding expressions of one thing; the root of them all is law. The nursery of law among men, whence all its tender plants are transferred to society, to the State, to personal life, and to spiritual activity, is the household. What our households are, that shall we be, and such also will be society, the State, and the church. Our fathers, worthy of all honor and love, laid much emphasis on law in the household. Implicit and immediate obedience was expected. This sentiment was just and wholesome, but was not always supported by the gentle concessions and tender affections which should accompany it. Our attention, in contrast with theirs, and in consequence of this partial failure on their part, is turned strongly to the household as the seat of enjoyment and social concord. These two ideas, law and love, which should never be separated, which can never be separated without endangering both, have been won by us piecemeal and in succession—our gains in each instance being accompanied by corresponding losses. Law came first, and was, more or less, severe and forbidding; then came love, often concessive to the point of moral imbecility and weakness. That which we need in the household is law and love; law that uses all its strength and sets up all its safeguards in the service of love; and love that, in all its indulgence, and in all its tenderness and watchfulness, feels the ever-present need of law, and finds in obedience to law the only divine assurance of safety and happiness. The moist rock lies hidden beneath the deeply bedded mosses and ferns and flowers.—Dr. John Bascom.