St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-03-19
Establish a Christian Home.
BY GERTRUDE TENNEY TwINING

acquaintance, any one of whom a moth
er might be proud to call son. Intslli-
gent, industrious, upright ; they are a
fine class of boys. One after another,
they all started ont earnestly as Chris
tians. For awhile they ran well. Then
one after another, they all grew cold,
Indifferent, and most of them entirely
gave up the race. After a year or so
nearly all were back again, happy in
the fold. But their course is, in some
respects, an uncertain one. Why is it I?
Once behind the scenes it is not diff
cult to understand. They have never
had any religious home training they
have not the tender conscience, the
delicate sense of right and wrong,
which you sons of Christian mothers
have. If all your mothers prayers,
your fathers wise counsel, the family
altar, the religious books and newspa-
pers, all your religious home training,
would your religious experience be
now9 What would be your faith, your
hopes, your aims? We cannot begin
to appreciate the difficulties and doubts
besetting their paths. We can never
realize from what we have been saved,
what we are spared. The loving Fa-
Their cast our lines in pleasanter, safer
places; and it behooves us to do as
much for our families as was done for
us, to provide for them the safeguards,
the helps, of Christian home.
The Importance of good home train
ing and influence is so thoroughly I'M
derstOOd by our foreign missionaries
who find it impossible to make mission
work IA success until the people are
reached in their homes, that they pro-
vide boarding schools for children,
where they have the restraints and care
OF Christian homes and can see what
homes should be, from those of the mis-
siOnaries. The things learned in child
hood, the scenes and incidents of those
days, are the ones which have never
been etfaced. If we can place Christian
influences around children while they
are at home, while they are young and
plastic, the impressions for good which |
will be made upon them will be lasting
impressions, will become part of their
very being.
1t has come to be a saying that min
listers children are always wild and bad,
worse than others and some think that
If such is the case, they are not merely |
exceptions, but prove that it is possible |
to give too much religious training to
children. When we consider the sub
ject carefully we find that the saying is
not founded upon fact, and in the few
instances in which ministers children
have gone astray, they are not even ex-
captions, but are good examples, prov
ing the necessity of good training for
children. A pastors time is fully tax
en- up with the needs of his parish, so
that it often seems utterly impossible
to give any attention to the needs of
his family. Not only is this the case,
but constant demands are made upon
the time of the wife and mother. Per-
haps they are unable to keep a servant,
she has the Homework of family upon
her hands, probably their sewing also
and still she must be the leader in eve
rything that is undertaken in the
church work. President of several diff
ferent societies, criticised severely if
she fails in any of her outside duties, is
it any wonder her children are left to
their own devices ? The few instances
certainly prove the rule, that lack of
care and training is their ruin.
There is another class which proves
the rule: the children of protesting
Christians whose lives give the lie to
their words. Children whose parents
say one thing and do another, come to
believe that there is no such thing as
genuine religion in the world, that all
Christians are hypocrites.
1t is small wonder that a child
brought up under certain influences
should hate the name of religion. 1t is
not strange that Col. Ingersoll says,
"Nirtue does not consist in believing.
but in doing" Parents cannot be too
careful to let their lives show the love
of the religion they profess, to teach the
spirit as well as the letter of the law.
Those who are just commencing life
together should see the Importance of
beginning at once to establish Chris
tian home. There is always danger in
delay. 1t is never again as easy as at
first. Set up your family altar, ask
blessing upon your food, subscribe for
a religious newspaper, provide com
mentaries and religious books just as
soon as possible, before the evil one can
supply you with excuses for not doing
so.
Those who have failed to begin a.
right, do not say it is too late. 1t will
never be too late until your children
are all lost and yourselves in your
graves. Be warned in time. Begin at
once to undo the mischief you have al
lowed to obtain an existence. Ask
Gods help to make your lives and your
homes what they shonld be. The re-
ward will surely come, "Peace be both
to thee, and peace be to thy house, and
peace be unto all that thou bast."-Ad
rance.