Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1881-02-10
@eadiug fur the Sabbath'
CONDUCTED BY
REV. ROBERT LATHAM.
iOriginal.1
FAMILY GOVERNMENT.

of the several parts of which 1t IS composed.
"A little leaven leavens the whole lump"
One grain of musk is sufficient to scent
large room for years, and so intensely bitter
is strychnine, that a scruple will emb'tter
hogshead of water. The starting point of all
communities and governments is the family.
Every community, no matter how large, and
every government, no matter how extensive
its territory, is but collection of families.
Whether it be a neighborhood or an empire
as extensive as that of China, it is iniellectu.
ally, morally and religiousl y, what the fami,
lies composing it make it. Its standard is
the general average of the population. Above
this it cannot rise. Legislators cannot, by en-
acting laws, elevate people. 1t is impossi.
ble The laws Of England and America
would be as impotent to change the barbarous
manners and customs of the Turks, as the
manners and customs of the Turks are revolt.
ing to enlightened Englshmen and Ameri-
cans. If the children of savages we're taken
from their parents and educated by civilized
and enlightened persons they would grow up,
not savages, but civilized men and women.
On the contrary, when civilized parents, or
parents inhabitng a civilized country, exer.
else no better form of family government
than savages, their children grow up only a
shade better than wild Arabs.
Good men often make fearful mistake in
that they neglect to exercise proper govern
ment over their own households Every faith
er is king, and every mother is a queen. In
England and America, every mans home is
his castle. Neither King nor President dare
invade, in hostile manner, its sacred pre-.
cincts. There, by the laws of God, the father
and mother exercise control over their chill
dren, which no potentate can exercise over
his subjects. If the government of this small
kingdom is of the right kind, civilized men
and women are trained for the great battles
of life. If it is bal government, race of
semisavages is nurtured and trained. Eli,
the priest of God, neglected the training of
his sons, and God made an end of him and
his in one day.
1t is a very common thing for individuals
to abuse the government Of the country, and
heap anathemas upon the heads of the nation
al rulers, charging them with all the crime
and immortality of the land. Crime and i'm.
morality are not generated in legislative halls
Neither are legislators the propagators of in
fanny and vice. They may wink at these
things, but in so doing they only reflect the
moral character of those whom they repre-
sent The great nursery of vice, in all its
shapes and forms, is the family. Bad moral
government in the family does more to polute
the world, than perhaps all other causes put
together. It's consequences are fearful. No
good man can contemplate them without shud-
dering. 1t pollutes everything. Bad chill
dren are the worst things in the world. They
destroy the peace Of neighborhoods, render
the government of schools impossible, and in
hict upon the church of God an intolerable
disgrace. Bad children are, to very great
extent the direct result of bad family gov
ernment. Bad family government developes
the innate depravity Of the human heart, and
fits the promising boy for taking his place in
society as curse to his race and disgrace
to his parents.
God, by law of nature, has seen fit to
commit into the hands Of fparents the training
of the men and women Of the generation
which will succeed them. The boys and girls
of to-day will be the men and women of the
country in very few years. If they are
properly managed in the family, they will
make the community in which they may re-
side happy and prosperous. If, however, the
children of the present day are neglected by
their parents and permitted to grow up in ig-
norance and vice, then ignorance and vice
will be the prevailing characteristics of the
next generation.
A THANKFUL SPIR1T-Some Christians
are not eminent for thankfulness. They are
on the right side, but they have scarcely the
right spirit. Their complainings and mur.
murngs are deep spot on their Christian
character, or rather thick veil over it.
Their heavenly citizenship could never be
gathered from their benign and joyful mien,
or from their cordial, thankful words; for
even with the cup of salvation in their hand,
you never hear them asking, "What shall |
render to the Lord for all his gifts?'
There are some so grievously selfish that
they take as matters of right or as things of
course, every good and perfect gift and view.
ing themselves more frequently from the
little hill of their own selflove than from the
great mountain of Gods free grace, no gift is
so great as to surprise them, no mercy is 80
amazing as to make them thankful. Like
the Caspian sea, which has some unseen way
of disposing of its waters, so that whatever
rains come down, and whatever flows in, its
great gulf never fills, and never rill runs
out from it again; 80 theirs is a greedy, all
devouring selfshness, which whatever mighty
bursts of heaven descended bounty exhaust
their fullness over it, always contrives to dis
pose of the whole in the caverns and subter.
raueous passages of its egotsm-the vast
mare internum of self-without one drop
overAowing in kindness to man or gratitude
to God.
And if the sudden ad of some unhoped
for overwhelming mercy stagger them into
moments tenderness, they recover their pres
ence Of mind before they are betrayed into
tho lihoro itv nf n, pru1ent pratituda or tho
vehement expressions of an over ardent