Family Religion by George B. Stevens

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 20, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 44.

Family Religion.

By George B. Stevens

The power of family religion consists, primarily, in the fact that the home has the first chance to reach the children. It touches the springs of thought and emotion long before school, or church, or pulpit touches them. These agencies have to do with the stream after it has gathered volume, but the father and mother at home sit at the very fountain of the young life. It is commonly supposed that the four or five years of opening manhood are the great formative years of character. It may be doubted if the same number of years in childhood do not exert an equal power upon the future life. It is hard to tell just when the day is really breaking, after once the flash of dawn is seen on the horizon; it is hard to tell when the gates of day are shut, as the light steals away at nightfall and hides itself in shadows. So hard is it to tell when character is forming. The home has the first chance, and the most continuous opportunity, extending over the most pliant years. Hence its power. Other agencies can do much, but no other agency can do what the home can do. Other influences are strong, but that of the home is paramount. The school can give training; the pulpit can give instruction; society can give culture and experience; but what shall give direction, motive, inclination, if they be not given in the home, and what shall turn them if they be wrongly given?

—Rev. George B. Stevens.