every scene and feeling and look, and in each heart, as the life, the
light, the hope, and the joy of all the members.

The necessity of family religion is seen in the value of the soul. The soul
is the dearest treasure and the most responsible trust of home. What shall
it profit the family if its members gain the whole world and lose their own
souls? What would Christian parents give in exchange for the souls of their
little ones? Is it not more important that they teach them to pray than to
dance, to "seek the kingdom of heaven" than the enjoyment of "the pleasures
of sin for a season?" Oh, what is home without a title to, and personal
meetness for, that kingdom? It is a moral waste; its members move in the
putrid atmosphere of vitiated feeling and misdirected power. Brutal
passions become dominant; we hear the stern voice of parental despotism; we
behold a scene of filial strife and insubordination; there is throughout a
heart-blank. Domestic life becomes clouded by a thousand crosses and
disappointments; the solemn realities of the eternal world are cast into
the shade; the home-conscience and feeling become stultified; the sense of
moral duty distorted, and all the true interests of home appear in a haze.
Natural affection is debased, and love is prostituted to the base designs
of self, and the entire family, with all its tender cords, ardent hopes,
and promised interests, becomes engulfed in the vortex of criminal
worldliness!

But reverse the picture! See what home becomes with religion as its life
and rule. Human nature is there checked and moulded by the amiable spirit
and lovely character of Jesus. The mind is expanded, the heart softened,
sentiments refined, passions subdued, hopes elevated, pursuits ennobled,
the world cast into the shade, and heaven realized as the first prize. The
great want of our intellectual and moral nature is here met, and home
education becomes impregnated with the spirit and elements of our