From the potent influence and moral stewardship of the Christian home, we may infer its responsibility. The former is the argument for the latter. The extent of the one is the measure of the other. "...For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required..." (Luke 12:48) Our responsibilities are thus commensurate with our abilities. If the latter are properly devoted, we have our reward; if not, our curse. God will hold us accountable for the achievements we make by the abilities he has given us. If he gives us a field to cultivate, seed to sow, plants to train up, then we are responsible for the harvest, just in proportion to our agency in its production. If there is not a harvest of the right kind, because we neglected to cultivate the soil, to sow the proper seed, and to train up the plants, then He will hold us accountable.

This is an evident gospel principle. Who will doubt its application to the Christian home? The family is such a field; the seed of good or evil the parents can sow therein; their children are young and tender plants, entrusted to their care; their mission from God is to "...bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."(Ephesians. 6:4) They are also to train them up in His ways. Remember, where God gives the command, He also gives the power to obey.

If, then, by their neglect, these tender plants are blighted, grow up in crooked ways of folly and iniquity, and the leprosy of sin is allowed to spread its dreadful infection over all the posterity of home; or if, on the other hand, as the fruit of faithful parental stewardship, blessings are abounding and children have grown to serve the Lord in His chosen capacity for their lives, is it not plain that a responsibility rests upon the Christian home, commensurate with those abilities which God has given her, and with those interests He has entrusted to her care?

Let us look at the objective force of this. The family is responsible for the kind of influence she exerts upon her members. Look at this in its practical light. There is a family. God has given children to the parents. How fondly they cling to them, look up to them for support and direction. They imitate their parents as their example in all things, take their word as the law of life, and follow in their footsteps, which they believe will lead to the sure path of happiness. Yet, in this home, no prayer is offered up, no Bible instructions given, no holy example set, no Christian government and discipline instituted, no religious interests promoted. But on the other hand, sin is overlooked, winked at, and the world alone is sought. These children behold their parents toil day after day to provide for their natural life; they notice the interest they take in their health and education, and the self-denial with which they seek to secure for them a temporal competency. And from all this they quickly infer that their parents love their bodies and value this world above Christ, and by the force of filial imitation they soon learn to do the same, and with their parents neglect their souls and become slaves of the world system instead of children of God. And thus they go on from one step in departure from God to another, until they die without hope and without salvation.

Home-responsibility may be inferred from the relation of the family to God as a stewardship. We have seen that parents are stewards of God in their household, and that as such they are placed over their children, invested with delegated authority. God entrusts them to the care of their parents. Their nature is pliable, fit for any impression, exposed to sin and ruin, entering upon a course of life which must terminate in eternal happiness or misery, with bodies to develop, minds to educate, hearts to mold, volitions to direct, habits to form, energies to rule, pursuits to follow, interests to secure, temptations to resist, trails to endure, souls to save! Oh, how the parental heart must swell with emotions too big for utterance, when they contemplate these features of their important trust. What a mission this, to superintend the character and assist to shaping the destiny of a child. Such is the influence you exert upon it, that upon your guidance will hinge it's weal or its woe; and yours, therefore, will be the lasting benefit or the lasting shame. What you are now doing for your children is incorporated with their very being, and will be as imperishable as their undying souls. We have seen that God has given to you the ability and means of making them subservient to His glory; and hence from you He will require them as entrusted talents.

Thus, therefore, you see, Christian parents, how your responsibility is measured by the magnitude of those interests committed to your care, by the kind of influence you exert over them, and by the enormity of that guilt and woe which are consequent upon your unfaithfulness. Let this be an incentive to parental integrity. The day is rapidly approaching when you must give an account of your stewardship.

And let me say too, that a similar corresponding responsibility rests upon those saved children who enjoy the benefits of a faithful Christian home. What words of gratitude your heart should daily express to your loving Heavenly Father who has blessed you richly. You should strive to be cheerfully submissive to your parents, realizing that God himself saw fit to put you in their charge, and to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.

And, ye parents, be faithful to those little ones that are growing up "...like olive plants round about thy table," (Psalms 128:3) so that in the day of judgment, you may say with joy, in the full assurance of reward, "Here are we, Lord, and the children whom thou hast given us!" And your reward shall be, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." (Matthew 25:21)

This selection has been edited by T2M.