of the true law of family life, and render that life impossible. In
the family, more than in any other sphere, everyone should bear the
burdens of others. Everyone should seek, not his own, but another's
welfare, and the weak and feeble should receive the attention of all.

4. _Pleasantness_ should be the disposition which we should specially
cultivate at home. If we have to encounter things that annoy and
perhaps irritate us in the outer world, we should seek to leave the
irritation and annoyance behind when we cross the threshold of our
dwelling. Into it the roughness and bluster of the world should never
be permitted to come. It should be the place of "sweetness and light,"
and every member may do something to make it so. It is a bad sign when
a young man never cares to spend his evenings at home--when he prefers
the company of others to the society of his family, and seeks his
amusement wholly beyond its circle. There is something wrong when this
is the case. "I beseech you," said one addressing youth, "not to turn
home into a restaurant and a sleeping bunk, spending all your leisure
somewhere else, and going home only when all other places are shut up."
A young man, it is admitted, may find his home uninviting through
causes for which he has not himself to blame. Still, even then he may
do much to change its character, and by his pleasant and cheerful
bearing may bring into it sunshine brighter than the sunshine outside.

5. The highest family life is that consecrated by _Religion_. The
household where God is acknowledged, from which the members go
regularly together to the house of God, within whose walls is heard the
voice of prayer and praise, is the ideal Christian family. In such a
family the father is the priest, daily offering up prayers for those
whom God has given him, at the family altar. He makes it his duty, and
regards it as his privilege to bring up his children in "the nurture
and admonition of the Lord," and by personal example and teaching to
train them up as members of the household of faith. Unlike those who
leave the religious instruction of their children entirely to others,
he loves to teach them himself. A household thus pervaded by a
Christian atmosphere is a scene of sweet and tender beauty. Such a
household is well depicted by our Scottish poet, Robert Burns, in his
"Cotter's Saturday Night." There we see how beautiful family life may
be in the humblest dwelling.

Fro