arent does is reproduced, as it were, in the child, and will tell upon the
generations that follow them. Those close affinities by which all the
members are allied, give to each a moulding influence over all the rest.
The parents live, not for themselves alone, but for their children, and the
consequence of such a life is also entailed upon their offspring. "The
iniquity of the fathers shall be visited upon the children unto the third
and fourth generation." If the parent "sow to the flesh," the child, with
him, "shall of the flesh reap corruption;" but if he "sow to the spirit,"
his offspring, with him, shall "of the spirit reap life everlasting."

Sacred and profane history proves and illustrates this great truth. Did
not God punish the first born of Israel, because their fathers had sinned?
And is it not a matter of daily observation that the wickedness of the
parent is entailed upon the child? Such is indeed the affinity between them
that the child cannot, unless by some special interposition of Providence,
escape the curse of a parent's sin. "If one member suffer, all the members
suffer with it."

The guilt and condemnation of unfaithfulness to the home-mission may be
inferred from its importance and responsibility. Those who are unfaithful
are guilty of "blood." We see the curse of such neglect in that
deterioration of character which so rapidly succeeds parental delinquency.
They must answer before God for the loss which the soul, the state, and the
church sustain thereby. "It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah
in the day of judgment than for them."

The Christian home should be qualified for this mission. There can be no
such qualification, however, where the marriage alliance involves
inequality--one of the parents a Christian, the other not; for they cannot
"dwell together as heirs of the grace of life," neither can they
effectually dispense that grace to their offspring. When thus "the house is
divided against itself, it must fall." "Be ye not, therefore, unequally
yoked together." If one draws heavenward and the other hellward, there will
be a halting between Baal and God, and the influence of the one will be
counteracted by that of the other. What communion hath light with darkness?
"What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What part hath he
that believeth with an infidel?" Thus divided, their home will be unfit for
its high vocation. Hence parents, in their marriage alliance as