thfully
provided for. The home-mission involves the business of education of body,
of mind, and of spirit;--of preparation for the state, for the church, for
eternity. It is this which makes it so sacred and responsible. Strip the
Christian family of its mission as a nursery for the soul; wrest from the
parents their high prerogative 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 religion is left out of view,
when training up for God is abandoned, when the church is repudiated, and
eternity cast off? You may provide for the body and 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 society; you may establish
them in the best business; you may 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 provide not for their souls; if you
seek not their salvation; if you minister only to their temporal, and not
to their eternal welfare, all will be vain, yea, a curse both to you and to
them. Husband and wife may love each other, and live together in all the
peace and harmony of reciprocated affection; yet if the religious part of
their home-mission remain unfulfilled, their family is divested of its
noblest attraction; its greatest interests will fall into ruin; its highest
destiny will not be attained; and soon its fruits will be entombed in
oblivion; while their children, neglected and perishing, will look back
upon that home with a bitterness of spirit which the world can neither
soothe nor extract!

How many such homes there are! Even the homes of church members are too
often reckless of their high vocation. 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 interests, their hopes and their enjoyments;
their education, their labor and their rest, are all of the
world,--worldly. 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
of moral reproduction is manifest in all the home-relations. What the
p