HOW TO MAKE HOME A BETHEL.
By I. Burns
1. Seek habitually to view your family18cerns in the light of eternity. Remember, you are now in your little garden sowing the seeds which you shall reap hereafter—a harvest of glory or a harvest of woe. 2. Meditate much and often of the honor of bringing up children for glory. How would a mother's heart swell were the vail of futurity drawn aside, and she saw the child of her bosom raised above his fellows to illustrious rank and honor—to wear a coronet, or to be covered with glory. But oh! what is this compared with being the parent of an heir of God—to have a child sitting with Jesus on his throne, and shining in the eternal firmament as a star forever and ever. 3. Keep constantly in view the one thing—the only matter of real concern for you and yours. Keep constantly at the one work given you to do as a parent, training up your children for eternity. Be always on your guard, always watchful. One opportunity of blessing lost may be the very one that might have been their salvation; one rash or angry word may ruin all—leaving an impression which all your subsequent care and pains may never be able to efface. 4. Be yourselves a pattern of all you would have them to be. You must yourselves show them the way and bid them follow. "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord." Oh! let the way to the cross, the way to the closet, the way to heaven be well beaten by a father's and a mother's steps, and then we may hope your little ones will follow. 5. Seek to leave the best legacy to your children—the legacy of holy example and many prayers. Let the image of you, imprinted on their memories, be one that will allure and quicken them to seek the Lord. May you so live, or so die that they may be quite sure, and never be able to forget that they will have a father and mother in heaven. 6. In all your dealings with them try to win, not drive. Clothe not your religion in clouds and frowns. Let not your demure and sullen countenance be a stumbling block to repel them from the narrow way. Allure them by the beauty of holiness, and by the meekness and gentleness of Christ; and show by your beaming eye and bright countenance, and light cheerful step, that the way you tread is a way of pleasantness and a path of peace. Finally, 7. Be much in your family. Snatch as much time as possible to spend it with your family and children. Let husbands hasten from the toils of the day to the bosom of their family circle as the home of their hearts, and of their best affections. And let wives on their part, strive to make their houses delightful, and to allure their partners thither at once by its outward comeliness and by the beauty of holiness. Gather round the family hearth; and while the toilworn father rests, and the happy circle ply their cheerful industry, amid hallowed endearments, and sweet improving intercourse, pass the evening hours in a way that will at once be blessed for time, and an earnest pledge of the eternal home above.—I. Burns.