grow up in ignorance, idleness, and prodigality, fit only to abuse and
spend the fruit of parental servitude. In this way the misapplied provision
made by parents often becomes a curse, not only to the members of the
family, but to the state and church.

Another part of the home-mission is, the spiritual and eternal well-being
of its members. This is seen in the typical character of the Christian
family. It is an emblem of the church and of heaven. According to this,
parents are called to administer the means of grace to their household, to
provide for soul as well as for body, to prepare the child for a true
membership in the church, as well as for a citizenship in the state, to
train for heaven as well as for earth.

Parents are "priests unto their families," and have the commission to act
for them as faithful stewards of God in all things pertaining to their
everlasting welfare. Their souls, as well as their bodies, are committed to
their trust, and God says to them,--

"Go nurse them for the King of Heaven,
And He will pay thee hire."

This is their great mission, and corresponds with the conception of the
Christian home as a spiritual nursery. The family is "God's husbandry;" and
this implies a spiritual culture. As its members dwell as "being heirs
together of the grace of life," it is the function of each to labor to make
all the rest "fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of
God." Parents should provide for the religious wants of their children.
Mere physical maintenance and mental culture cannot supersede the necessity
of spiritual training. Children have a right to such training.