book is sent out as a cultivator among the long rows of theological plants, so nicely sown and arranged by the Christian sects. The author is as sensible as any one can be of its defects. He timidly consecrates it to its work. In prayerful solicitude for its frailties, he asks the printer to put it into the hands of the world; the men and women of that world, into whose hands it may fall, he asks to read it as it has been written, in a deep and earnest desire for Christian improvement; and the critics who feel a desire to display their wisdom in an exhibition of its weaknesses, he asks to withhold that labor, and devote it to writing a better book for the same good mission. We want more home books, home culture, home religion. Home is the heart of the world, and that heart needs christianizing. If it were baptized in the fount of our holy religion, how pure and healthy would be the life-currents it would send out through the whole body! If one home shall be made more Christlike and happy, it will be well that I have given this labor to the public. ST. LOUIS, Feb. 27, 1854. G. S. W. CONTENTS. A gallery of art- Christian-Home- A Christian-A home - Home piety The world without religion- Religion the guardian of home-The trials of home Disease-Death-The balm of sorrow- Worldly trials-Sin-Home need not be wretched- Religion the heart of home-Piety defined - Love in action Religion in practice- Respect for the name of God-Respect for God's word-Books Conversation- Music - Devotional exercises - Prayer Man alone-Woman-The two together -A companion-True companion- ship- Marriage a divine institution - The objects of marriage - Low views of marriage-Spiritual companionship - Unhappy unions-Earthly husbands -Half companioned wives-The husband's marriage promise - His duties -He should companion and cultivate his wife's spirit- What makes home valuable - He should seek the mental and religious improvement of his wife - He must lead the way -Religious reading The intellectual nature of relig- ious study Public worship-Family devotions- Progress, the motto of Woman the last work of creation- Woman fallen in sin - Christianity for woman -Man and woman- Woman the friend of Christ Woman as a wife Woman and home-The wife's influence Little things-An influence-A Christian woman- Woman's relation to Christianity-Means of improvement -Sabbath duties-Religious reading-The wife's spiritual duties. . . .49 - The fatherhood - Hereditary gifts The Christian father's gifts - Character is Christian example-The father a ruler-The child must obey-The ruler must govern himself - The rod - Love the governing principle- The father is a teacher- If he does not teach his children, others will-The means of instruction-The father a protector Guard against errors - Against vice- False teachers -The father a provider - Spiritual wants.. Richness of the subject Childhood and its mother-Incident of Rev. Mr. Soule Childhood knows not its mother- A mother's love sacred-Incidents -All mothers alike in love-The Christian mother-The natural, the type of the Christian mother-The offices of both considered-The Christian mother gives spiritual food - The mind craves aliment-The mother should know how to prepare mental aliment-The mother a teacher Early impressions -An incident of the power of early impressions - An incident of Mr. Greene -The idea of God An incident from J. Q. Adams - The Christian mother clothes her children's spirits -She guards their spirits against disease— Children A child's love-The universe - Human nature-The world without children A Shaker village - Children in heaven- -The mission of children Culture the end of existence - The Christian child-Honor to parents- Love Self-denial-Sympathy - Incident of a little girl Honesty -Kund The family-Brotherhood - The knowledge of physical and spiritual things compared Brotherhood eternal Originates in our families - The education of the fraternal relation - The elder brother - The Christian brother-Early Christian training-The brother a teacher-Example-Fraternal unselfishness -The Christian brother a peacemaker-Family peace-Religious teachings -Good associates - The brother a kind friend to a sister - Fraternity per- The sister God in Christ Christ in the sister-Woman the last of the crea- tion-The first herald of the risen Lord-Woman's relation to Christianity The face of love - An example of charity-Sectarianism - Slander - CHAPTER I. THE CHRISTIAN HOME. THERE are things which, of themselves, are intrinsically lovely. There are objects, even in earth, which win upon our hearts, like a miracle upon our minds. Some of these objects are presented in this little volume. We have attempted a little gallery of art. If we have hung it with truthful pictures, those into whose hands it may fall may find pleasure and profit in it. The pictures we have hung here are designed as examples. They are sketched for an inspiration to all who may look upon them. They are from the Great Master, and are truthful so far as the copyist's hand has proved skilful. He has knelt at the shrine of his Master, and sought, by prayer and devotion, to baptize his soul into the spirit of his holy art. The themes on which he has risked his pencil are those in which he most delights. His heart has dictated his work, while his head has helped to steady his hand for its execution. The theme for his first effort he has chosen out of his heart's fulness. He loves it. And, should his reader feel a similar interest in it, he will be paid for his penciling. It is expressed in two words. Those two are the richest words in human language. The first is that word which expresses all of the divine relations, and the human duty and blessedness which grow out of them; that great word which is the synonyme of "the gospel of the blessed God; " which holds in its large embrace the full meaning of moral perfection, the sublime fulness of virtue. Reader, know you the word, the word which means more than any other, the word which, while it is of earth, came from, and points to, heaven, and is full of that which goes to make heaven? That word is CHRISTIAN, a common, but a glorious word. and Now, join with it the sweetest, tenderest word of earth, the most affectionate word of human utterance, the word which carries the heart around the whole circuit of love at one sweep, you have the subject. Have you the word? Ask your heart. Is it husband, wife, father, mother, brother, sister, child, friend? These words are brimful of tenderness. But is there not one word that means as much as all of them; that mingles in its chalice of sweetness the richness of this whole family cluster? Yes, there is; and that word is HOME. Ask the lone traveller, when far away in foreign wilds, for the word, the very utterance of which unseals the fountains of his heart, and he will tell you it is home. Ask the brave mariner, tossed upon the deep amid a thousand perils, where storms, and billows, and thunders, move him not, |