The loveliest feature of a matchless scene;
Beneath its shading elm, with pious fear,
An aged mother draws her children near,
While from the Holy Word, with earnest air,
She teaches them the privilege of prayer.
Look! how their infant eyes with rapture speak;
Mark the flushed lily on the dimpled cheek;
Their hearts are filled with gratitude and love,
Their hopes are centered in a world above!"


The Christian home demands a family religion. This makes it a "household of
God." Without this it is but a "den of thieves." It is "the one thing
needful."

What is "family religion?" It is not an exotic, but is indigenous to the
Christian home. It is not a "new measure," but an essential ingredient of
the home-constitution,--coexistent with home itself. The first family
"began to call upon the name of the Lord;" the first parent acted as
high-priest of God in his family.

It is not individual piety as such, not simply closet devotion, but family
service of God,--religion taken up in the home-consciousness and life.
Hence a family, and not simply a personal religion.

Such religion, we say, is as old as the church. We find it in Eden, in the
tents of the patriarchs and in the wilderness of the prophets. We find it
in the tent of Abraham in the plains of Mamre, in the "house" of Moses, in
the "service" of Joshua, in the "offerings" of Job, and in the palace of
David and Solomon. It is also a prominent feature of the gospel economy.