If home is a divine institution, and includes the religious element, moving in the multifaceted sphere of nature and of the church, then it's calling must be of God; its mission is divine; it is designed to subserve a spiritual purpose; it has a soul mission. This was the view of David when he "returned home to bless his household." To him his family was a church in miniature, and he its priest. Thus too Joshua felt his service of God must include family worship.

What then is the mission of the Christian home? It is twofold,--the temporal and eternal well-being of its members. They are parts of one great whole. Each must seek the welfare of all the rest. This involves obedience to the law of cooperation; and has special reference to that provision which the heads of families should make for the wants of those who are placed under their protection. As the parent sustains a physical, intellectual and moral relation to the child, it is his mission to provide for its physical, mental and moral wants. "He that provideth not for his own house hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." Natural affections will prompt this. Children are in a state of utter helplessness. The infant is at the mercy of the parent. God-given instinct impels the parent to provide for its wants.

That it is a part, therefore, of the home mission to provide for the physical wants of the dependents there, this is very evident. To refuse to fulfill it is a crime. This part of home-mission includes the education of the body, by properly unfolding and directing its powers, and providing it with appropriate nutriment, raiment and shelter. In a word, we should make proper provision for the development and maturity of the physical life of our children. This is the mission of the parents until the child is fully able to provide for itself. The child has a legal claim upon the parent for physical sustenance and education.

It is another part of the home-mission to provide for the intellectual wants and welfare of the child. Children have minds as well as bodies. The former needs nourishment and training as well as the latter. Hence, it is as much the mission of the family to minister to the well-being of the mind of the child as well as body. Civil law enforces this. Children have a legal as well as natural claim to mental culture. In a word, it is the home-mission to provide for the child all things necessary to prepare it for a citizenship in the state.

Parents abuse this mission in two ways, either when they by their own indolence and dissipation compel their children to support them; or, on the other hand when they become willing slaves of their children, labor to amass a fortune for them, and, in the anticipation of that, permit them to grow up in ignorance, idleness and prodigality, fit only to abuse and spend the fruit of parental servitude. In a 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 teach the gospel of Jesus as the only way to prepare their children in the truth of salvation, thus training them for heaven as well as for earth.

Parents are "priest 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 by God. 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 in 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 the spiritual training. Children have a right to such training.

This religious provision is twofold; their moral and spiritual faculties should be developed; and their moral nature supplied with appropriate sound doctrine in teaching. All the needs of their moral nature are to be faithfully provided for. The home-mission involves the business of education of the body, of the mind, and of the spirit;--of preparation for the state of the home, the church and for eternity. It is this which makes it so sacred and reasonable. Strip the Christian family of its mission as a nursery for the souls; wrest from the parents their high position as stewards of God; and you heathenize home, yea, you brutalize it! Tell me, what Christian home can accomplish its holy mission, when the soul is neglected, when Christ is left out of the home and the training of the children is abandoned, when the church is repudiated, and eternity is cast off? You may provide for the body and the mind of your children; you may amass for them a fortune; you may give them an accomplished education you may introduce them into the best of society; you may establish them in the best of business; you may even fit them for an honorable and responsible position in life; you may be careful of their health and reputation; and you may caress them with all the tender ardor of the parental heart and hand; yet if you do not teach them of the only Saviour Jesus Christ and pray earnestly for their salvation, all will be in vain, yea a curse both to you and them. Husband and wife may love each other, and live together in peace and harmony of reciprocated affection; yet if the religious part of their home-mission remains unfulfilled, their family is divested of its greatest interest and will fall into ruin; its highest fulfillment will not be attained and soon will be entombed in oblivion; while their children, neglected and perishing, will look back upon their home with bitterness of spirit which the world can neither soothe nor extract. Only God Himself will be their source of healing. The very source that the parent neglected to teach their children about. What a deep empty well, the children will draw upon, all because the parents neglected to instruct their little ones of the full well of salvation through Christ Jesus.

How many such homes there are! Even the homes of the church members are too often reckless of their vocation, leaving the full training to others. Their moral stewardship is neglected; their dedications, formal and heartless. No prayers are heard; no Bible read; no instructions given; no pious examples set; no holy discipline exercised. Their interest, their hopes and their enjoyments; their education, their labor and their rest, are all of the world,--"worldy". The curse of God is upon such a home!

The importance and responsibility of the home-mission may be seen in its vicarious character, and in its influence upon the members. The principle moral reproduction is manifest in all the home-relations. What the parent does is reproduced, as it were, in the child, and will tell upon the generations to follow them. Those close affinities by which all the members are allied, give to each a molding influence over all the rest. The parents live, not for themselves alone, but for their children, and the consequences of such a life is is also entailed upon their offspring. "The iniquity of the father shall be visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation." If the parents "sow to the flesh," their home, "shall of the flesh reap corruption;" but if the parents "sow to the spirit" they will reap blessings.

Sacred and profane history proves and illustrates this great truth. Did not God punish the first born of Israel, because their fathers had sinned? And is it not a matter of daily observation that the wickedness of the parent is entailed upon the child? Such is indeed the affinity between them that the child cannot, unless by some special interposition of God, escape the curse of a parent's sin. This special interposition is the gift of Christ Jesus. Through Him and Him alone can one escape the penalty of sin. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

The guilt and condemnation of the unfaithfulness to the home-mission may be inferred from its importance and responsibility. Those who are unfaithful are guilty of "blood." We see the curse of such neglect in the deterioration of character which so rapidly succeeds parental delinquency. They must answer before God for the loss which the soul, the state, and the church sustain thereby.

The Christian home should be qualified for this mission There can be no such qualification, however, where the marriage alliance involves inequality--one of the parents a Christian, the other not; for they cannot dwell "together as heirs of the grace of life," neither can they effectually dispense that grace to their offspring. When thus "the house is divided against itself, it must fall." "Be ye not, therefore, unequally yoked together." If one draws heavenward and the other hellward there will be a halting between Baal and God, and the influence of the one will be counteracted by that of the other." What communion hath light with darkness? What fellowship hath righteousness with the unrighteousness? What part hath he that believeth with an infidel? Thus divided, their home will be unfit for its high vocation. Can the ungodly husband or wife fulfill this mission? Can the irreligious parent bring up his offspring "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?"

Many parents disqualify themselves for their home-mission by devoting too much attention to society,--by spending more time abroad at parties, theaters and various social gatherings of this and that, as well as gossiping and recreation, than that of home with each other and their precious gift of children. They commit their children, with all the family interest, to nurses or caregivers. They regard their offspring as mere playthings to be dandled upon the knee, brought up like calves in a stall, and then turned out to shape their own destiny.

This is a terribly sad mistake! There is no substitute for home, no transfer of parental commission, no adequate compensation for the parent's loss. None can effectually take the parent's place. Their influence is overwhelming and absolute. What a folly and a sin, therefore, for Christian parents to give over their holy mission to another, while they immerse themselves in the forbidden pleasures and recreation of the world! Oh, if you are loving, faithful parents, you will love your household more than the fashions of the world and the fashionable resorts of the world; you will not substitute the "sitter" and the "boarding schools" for the more efficient ministration of the Christian home.

"Walk, therefore, worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness." "Magnify your office." Be faithful to your home-mission. Draw your pleasure from it. Souls are committed to your trust and hang upon your hire. Your regard for the temporal and eternal welfare of your children should prompt you to faithfulness to the holy mission of your family. You love your children, and desire their welfare and happiness. But do what you will for them, if you are unfaithful to their souls, you wrest from them the means of safety and of happiness; you aid in their misery in this and in the world to come. Do not let worldly desires rob your home-mission; stay true to the calling of faithful godly parents. Provide therefore, for your family as the Lord commands. Your children are depending on you! Lead them to the Saviour and guard your precious treasury of Home.

Edited by Titus 2 Ministry.