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 the religious element, moving in the sphere of nature and of the church, then its calling must be of God; its mission is divine; it is designed to subserve a spiritual purpose; it has a soul-mission. This was the view of David when he "returned to _bless_ his household." To him his family was a church in miniature, and he its priest. Thus too Joshua felt that his service of God must include family worship.