What is the _Christian_ home? Only in the sphere of christianity does the
true idea of home become fully developed. Home with the savage is but a
herding, a servitude. Even among many of the Jews it was little better
than a Mahommedan seraglio. The most eminent of the heathen world degrade
the family by making it the scene of lust, and introducing concubinage and
polygamy. Plato, one of the most enlightened of the heathen, had base
conceptions of home, and abused its highest and holiest prerogatives by his
ideas of polygamy. We find too that in the ethics of Aristotle, the most
lovely and sacred attributes of the family are totally discarded. The home
which he holds up to view is unadorned with chastity and virtue. And
Sophocles follows in the same path, stripping home of all that is sacred
and essential to its true constitution. And when we come down to the
present age, and view this divine institute in the light of Mormonism and
Socialism, who will say that here we have unfolded its true idea and sacred
character?

How different is the true Christian home! Here the marriage union is
preserved "honorable," held sacred, and woman is raised to her true
position. In the sphere of the Christian church, home is brought fairly and
completely into view. Here it rises above the measure of natural affection,
and temporal interest. It enters the sphere of supernatural faith, and
becomes the adumbration of our home in heaven.

The Christian home is a true type of the church. "The husband is the head
of the wife, as Christ is of the church." The love of the family is
self-denying and holy, like that between Christ and His church. The
children are "the heritage of the Lord;" the parents are His stewards.
Like the church, the Christian home has its ministry. Yea, the church is in