nsibilities.

This gives to the Christian home its true meaning, and secures for its
members--

"A sacred and home-felt delight,
A sober certainty of waking bliss."

Such was the home of Abraham, who "commanded his children and his household
to keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment,"--of Joshua, who
with "his house served the Lord,"--of David, who "returned to bless his
household,"--of Job, who "offered burnt-offering according to the number of
his sons,"--of Cornelius, who "feared God with all his house,"--of Lydia,
and Crispus, and the jailor of Philippi, who "believed in the Lord with all
their house."

How many Christian parents practically discard this attribute of home!
While all their temporal interests cluster around their home, and their
hearts are fondly wedded to it as their retreat from a cold and repulsive
world, they never think perhaps that God is in their family, that He has
instituted it, and given those cherished ones who "set like olive plants
around their table." They are faithful to all natural duties, and make
ample provision for the temporal wants of their offspring; the mother bends
with untiring assiduity over the cradle of her babe, and ministers to all
its wants, watching with delight every opening beauty of that bud of
promise, and willingly sacrificing all for its good. With what rapture she
catches its first lispings of mother! The father toils from year to year to
secure it a fair patrimony, a finished education, and an honorable position
in life. How unremittingly these parents watch over the sick-bed of their
children and of each other; and oh, what burning tears gush forth as the
utterance of their agonizing hearts, when death threatens to blight a
single bud, or lay his cold hand upon a single member!

This is all right, noble, and faithful to the natural elements of home.
Natural affection prompts it, and it is well. But if this is all; if
Christian parents and their children are governed only by the promptings
of nature; if they are bound together by no spiritual ties and interests
and hopes; if they are not prompted by faith to make provision for the
soul, and for eternity; then we think they have not as yet realized the
deepest and holiest significance of their home.

The Christian home demands the Christian consciousness,--the sense of a
spirit-world with all its obligations and interests and responsibilities.
Oh, is it not too often the case that even the