The Christian home is a true type of the church. "The husband is the head
of the wife, as Christ is of the church." The love of the family is
self-denying and holy, like that between Christ and His church. The
children are "the heritage of the Lord;" the parents are His stewards.
Like the church, the Christian home has its ministry. Yea, the church is in
the home, as the mother is in her child. We cannot separate them; they are
correlatives. The one demands the other. The Christian home can have
existence only in the sphere of the church. It is the vestibule of the
church, bound to her by the bonds of Christian marriage, of holy baptism,
and of the communion of saints, leading to her in the course of moral
development, and completing her life only in the church-consciousness.

Home is, therefore, a partnership of spiritual as well as of natural life.
The members thereof dwell "as being heirs together of the grace of life."
"Heavenly mindedness," "the hidden man of the heart," and a "hope full of
immortality," are the ornaments of the Christian home. Hers is "the
incorruptibility of a meek and quiet spirit;" her members are "joint heirs
of salvation;" they are "one," not only in nature, but "in Christ." They
enjoy a "communion in spirit," that their "joy might be full." "What God,
therefore, hath joined together, let not man put asunder."

Such a home, being "right with God," must be "full of good fruits, without
partiality and without hypocrisy." Here the Christian shows his real
character. In the sphere of the church, the family reaches its highest
excellence and its purest enjoyment. Says the learned D'Aubigne, "Without
the knowledge and the love of God, a family is but a collection of
individuals who may have more or less of natural affection for one another;
but the real bond,--the love of God our Father, in Jesus Christ, our
Lord,--is wanting."

We, therefore, abuse the idea of home when we divest it of the religious
element. As the family is a divine institute and a type of the church and
of heaven, it cannot be understood in its isolation from christianity; it
must involve Christian principles, duties, and interests; and embrace in
its educational functions, a preparation, not only for the State, but also
for the church. The church gives to home a sacred religious ministry, a
spiritual calling, a divine mission; investing it with prophetic, priestly
and kingly prerogatives, and laying it under religious respo