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The Christian Home: As it is in the Sphere of Nature and the Church; Showing the Mission, Duties, Influences, Habits, and Responsibilities of Home, its Education, Government, and Discipline; with Hints on "Match Making," and the Relation of Parents to the Marriage Choice of their Children; together with a consideration of the Tests in the Selection of a Companion, Etc.Philips, Samuel

Religion

The Christian Home: As it is in the Sphere of Nature and the Church; Showing the Mission, Duties, Influences, Habits, and Responsibilities of Home, its Education, Government, and Discipline; with Hints on "Match Making," and the Relation of Parents to the Marriage Choice of their Children; together with a consideration of the Tests in the Selection of a Companion, Etc.

Name: The Christian Home: As it is in the Sphere of Nature and the Church; Showing the Mission, Duties, Influences, Habits, and Responsibilities of Home, its Education, Government, and Discipline; with Hints on "Match Making," and the Relation of Parents to the Marriage Choice of their Children; together with a consideration of the Tests in the Selection of a Companion, Etc.
Author: Philips, Samuel

Philips, Samuel

Family; Home; Marriage; Parent and child

"Behold his little ones around him! they bask in the sunshine of smile;
  And infant innocence and joy lighten these happy faces;
  He is holy, and they honor him; he is loving; and they love him;
  He is consistent, and they esteem him; he is firm, and they fear him.
  His house is the palace of peace; for the Prince of peace is there.
  Even so, from the bustle of life, he goeth to his well-ordered home."

A serious obstacle to the efficacy of a good example is, the too frequent
want of agreement in the example of the parents. That of the father often
conflicts with and neutralizes that of the mother. They are not one in
their example. This the children soon see, and disregard the good rather
than the bad example. "How can two walk together except they he agreed?"
The child cannot follow the pious father in the way of life, when the
ungodly mother secretly and openly draws him back. Operated upon by two
opposite influences, he will move between them.

We are here taught the imprudence, and we might add, sin, of pious persons
forming a matrimonial alliance with wicked and ungodly persons. In the
choice of a companion for life, we should consider an agreement in
religious as well as in social character. How many unhappy matches and
homes and children and parents have been made by disobedience to the divine
precept, "Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers?" Isaac and Rebecca
showed their appreciation of this precept in the care they took to procure
a pious wife for Jacob. "I am weary of my life," says Rebecca, "because of
the daughters of Heth; if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such
as these, what good shall my life do me?" This should be the solicitude of
every Christian parent. Parents should possess unanimity of spirit and
practice in making up and giving the home-example. They should walk
unitedly, like Zacharias and Elizabeth, in all the ordinances and statutes
of the Lord blameless.




CHAPTER XXI

THE CHOICE OF PURSUITS.

  "For what then was I born? to fill the circling year
  With daily toil for daily bread, with sordid pains and pleasures?
  To walk this chequered world, alternate light and darkness,
  The day-dreams of deep thought followed by the night-dreams of fancy?
  To be one in a full procession?--to dig my kindred clay?
  To decorate the gallery of art? to clear a few acres of forest?
  For more than these, my soul, thy God hath lent thee life!"

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