heir home was a pious home and its breath was
sweet and fragrant with the breath of prayer.

And I have little hope for the rearing of a great Christian leader in
any other type of home. I have no hope of rearing a new and better
civilization in any other type of home. Our national life is
discordant and hate-torn to-day. We are living in a time of intense
bitterness and selfishness and sordid greed. But what civilization is
to-day, the home life of yesterday has made it. And what civilization
will be to-morrow the home life of to-day will make it. If we do not
have Christian homes, believe me, we will never have a Christian
civilization.

"I know Abraham," God said, "that he will command his children and his
household after him." And there are two remarkable assertions made of
Abraham in this text. First, He said, "I know that Abraham will
command; I know Abraham will control his own household. I know that
Abraham will control his children." And God considered that as highly
important. Of course we are too wise to agree with Him to-day. We
believe it best to let our children run wild and do largely as they
please. We believe that Solomon was an old fogey when he spoke of
"sparing the rod and spoiling the child." And I am not here this
morning to tell you just how you are to control your child. But what I
do say is that you cannot commit a greater blunder than to fail to
control it. A child is better unborn than untrained.

Then God said of Abraham next, not only that he would command his
children and his household, but that he would command them after him.
He would not only exercise the right kind of authority, but he would
exert the right kind of influence. He would set the right kind of
example. He knew that Abraham would be in some measure what he desired
his children to be, that by authority and by right living he would
Christianize his own home.

And so when God wanted to raise up a man Moses who was to remake the
world, He put him in a pious home. He gave him a godly father and
mother. And the dominant influence in the life of Moses was his
mother. No woman ever did a greater work. But it was a work that she
accomplished not because of her high social standing. Nor was it
accomplished because of her great culture. It was accomplished because
of her great faith.

And while I am not in any sense a pessimist, I cannot but tremble in
some measure for the future because of the decay of ho