the promises of God dispel the gloom,
and surround his home and his heart with the sunshine of peace and joy.

His promises extend to both the parents and their offspring. "Unto you, and
unto your children," "I will pour my spirit on thy seed, and my blessing on
thine offspring; and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by
the watercourses. One shall say, I am the Lord's; and another shall call
himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand
unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel." His promises
extend to children's children; and whatever they may be for the parent,
they are "visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation."

Now these divine promises are of two kinds,--the promise of punishment, and
the promise of reward. He promises to punish the unfaithful parent, and to
reward the faithful parent. He also promises to visit both the evil and the
good of the parents upon their children. Such is the constitution of the
family, and such are the vital relations which the members sustain to each
other, that by the law of natural and moral reproduction, the child is
either blessed or cursed in the parent. What the parent does will run out
in its legitimate consequences to the child, either as a malediction or as
a benediction.

We have divine promises to punish the unfaithful members of the Christian
home. If the parent becomes guilty of iniquity, it will be visited upon the
children from generation to generation. There is no consideration which
should more effectually restrain parents from unfaithfulness than this. Let
them become selfish, sensual, indolent, and dissipated, and soon these
elements of iniquity will be transmitted to their offspring. What the
parent sows, the child will reap. If the former sow to the flesh, the
latter shall of the flesh reap corruption. Thus, whatsoever the parent sows
in the child he shall reap from the child. The promised curse of the
parent's wickedness is deposited in the child so far as that wickedness
affected the child's character. This is all based upon the great principle
that the promises are unto you, and to your children.

But while this great principle is ominous of terror to the ungodly, it is a
pleasing theme to the pious and faithful. Home is a stewardship; and if
faithful to its high and holy vocation, it has a good reward for its labor
of love. "If ye sow to the spirit ye shall of the spirit reap life