Christian mother, while she
teaches her babe the accents of her own name, never thinks of teaching it
to lisp the name of Jesus,--never seeks to unfold its infant spirit,--never
supplies it with spiritual food, nor directs its soul to the eternal world!
In the same way the pious wife neglects her impenitent husband; and the
pious husband, his reckless wife. There is too much such dereliction of
duty in the homes of church members.

Our homes give us an interest in, and bind us by peculiar bonds to, the
eternal world; those loved ones who have gone before us, look down from
heaven upon those they have left behind; though absent from us in body,
their spirits are still with us; and they come thronging upon glowing
pinions, as ministering spirits, to our hearts. Mother! that little babe
that perished in your arms, hovers over thee now, and is the guardian angel
of your heart and home. It meets thee still! And oh, how joyful will your
home-meeting be in heaven! Children! the spirit of your sainted mother
lingers around your home to minister in holy things to thee. She has left
you in body; she lies mouldering now in the humid earth; but she is with
thee in spirit. Your home, dwelling in the sphere of the church on earth,
has a spiritual communion with the sainted ones of the church in heaven.
Thus, as the home-feeling can never he eradicated, so the home-meetings can
never be broken up. Even the dead are with us there; their seats may be
empty, and their forms may no longer move before us; but their spirits meet
with us, and imprint their ministrations upon our hearts. The dead and the
living meet in home!

"We are all here!
Father, mother,
Sister, brother,
All who hold each other dear,
Each chair is filled, we're all at home!
Let gentle peace assert her power,
And kind affection rule the hour--
We're all--all here!
Even they--the dead--though dead so dear,
Fond memory to her duty true,
Brings back their faded forms to view.
How life-like through the mist of years,
Each well-remembered face appears;
We hear their words, their smiles behold,
They're round us as they were of old--
We are all here!"

CHAPTER II.

THE MISSION OF THE CHRISTIAN HOME.

"If in the family thou art the best,
Pray oft, and be mouth unto the rest;
Whom God hath made the heads of families,
He hath made priests to offer sacrifice."

The home is a divine institution, and includes th