HOUSEHOLD RELIGION by Indian Witness

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 18, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 32.

HOUSEHOLD RELIGION.

By Indian Witness

SURELY this is the only kind worth mentioning; that is, the religion which is not felt in the household from day to day, the religion which confines itself to the church and to Sunday, or to a certain round of outward observances, must be spurious. It certainly will not pass muster as genuine Christianity.

The sort of piety on which Christ puts his stamp studies the comfort of all around. It is full of sympathy, brotherly kindness, and friendly aid. It is considerate for other's feelings, and scrupulous about other's rights. It carries a cheerful countenance, speaks pleasant words, and abounds in little deeds of love. It does not forget that happiness is made up mainly of trifles, being not a single magnificent gem, but a mosaic composed of a thousand pieces; and it resolves to enroll itself in the number of happiness makers, burden bearers, who scatter flowers, diffuse sunshine, and take all possible pains to give pleasure.

Of what vital importance it is to every household that it be a shrine of this religion! How otherwise can the children grow up good? Of what use is right instruction by the preacher one day in the week if it be offset by bad example at home six days? What avails a formal lecture from the parent now and then if it be not emphasized by a consistent life?

Blessed are the children of true Christian parents, day by day drinking in wholesome spiritual food and strengthening moral nutriment. Blessed are the parents of Christian children, sending forth into the future prolonged influences for good, permanently represented on the earth by intelligence and virtue long years after they themselves have passed away. How miserable the estate of those whose names must go down to posterity linked with creatures of wretchedness, vice, and crime! Too late for repentance do such behold the legitimate outcome of the absence of household religion.

Some have we seen whose own parents had left in their hearts and lives a precious legacy of Christian faith and love divine. Yet they themselves were not pious, and so were making a break in the chain, and defrauding their children of that boon which should have passed on without diminution. Those children had no godly influences around them, and hence in the hour of temptation would have no sweet memories to hold them fast, and in the stress of the world's conflicts they would be almost sure to deteriorate. An impaired vitality of virtue would probably be

passed on in turn to their children, and so the stock would degenerate. How sad!

Let every man that is a man, every woman that is a woman, reflect very seriously on these things, and in some moment of sacred silence answer honestly one or two questions: Will your children have as good a chance as you had, not merely in temporal but in spiritual matters? or will they reproach you some day, and say that they have been robbed of the best part of what should have been theirs? Are you doing by them as you would wish to be done by? They have a right to receive from you an example of positive piety. It will be worth to them more than lands and gold.

Household religion, something that shall brighten the eye, sweeten the voice, check the hasty word, alter the impatient tone, make the brow smoother, the heart happier, and the home a paradise—this is what we need. May it grow and prevail mightily throughout the land in this year of our Lord 1894.—Indian Witness.