happy. But let families break loose from His government, and by that revolt they may have imitated Samson when he tore down the pillars of a temple; but, like Samson also, they perish in the ruin they have caused. They may seem to be happy, but that happiness is transient, "As when the midnight lightnings cast A short-lived radiance o'er the plain." When we behold, then, the importance which is attached to home by God, only wise, we are in some degree prepared to study with profit the character of a family moulded according to His mind; we may be able to point out the fountainhead of man's joys, upon the one hand, or of his sorrows upon the other. NAMES FOR HOME. CHAPTER III. 25 25 NAMES FOR HOME. Ideal Homes-Home joys-"The Paradise of Childhood"-" God's first Church”— "A Miniature of Heaven"-"A Nursery for Heaven"-"The Republic of Home"-"A little World"-The Mimosa and The Sundew-The paramount power, Love. It would not be difficult to depict an ideal home, and so present one of the faultless exaggerations which the world never beheld realised. Forgetting man's inborn selfishness, or refusing to recognise what must ever be kept in view if we would not make all our opinions errors, we might present some fancy sketch which would belong neither to earth nor to heaven. A household might then be viewed as a sanctuary or a church, and every member as one of the living stones which are in preparation for their place in the heavenly temple. We might describe that abode as one in which there are no separate interests, and therefore no collisions, no fierce passions, and therefore no violence upon the one hand, nor wrong upon the other. Having presented such a picture, men might be asked to admire and to copy it, to see there what home should be, and then to imitate the model. A kind of golden age might thus be reproduced, as poetry has often done, and home might be robbed of its moral power by being made a fancy picture. Now our homes should be all that has been sketched, but there is only one which fully corresponds to the sketch— 26 THE THEORY OF HOME. the home of the Redeemer on high. Even on earth, however, so much that is blessed and benign gathers around home that it were difficult to exaggerate its felicity when the truth of God presides. In spite of all the interruptions to peace which "Neglects of temper Shed into the crystal cup," such are the interlinkings of heart with heart-such the character of a godly father, the priest and guide of all beneath his roof; of a godly mother, their guardian angel, and dear to all as their own soul; of children trained in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; of domestics guided more by the fear of God than that of man—that the domestic constitution appears to be indeed one of the most signal proofs at once of the wisdom and the goodness of the great Father of all. But to shed some light upon man's views of that constitution, let us next consider some of the titles by which he delights to name it. Was Paradise an abode of purity and peace? Or will the New Eden above be one of unmingled beatitude? Then "the Paradise of Childhood," "the Eden of Home,” are names applied to the family abode. In that paradise, all may appear as smiling and serene to childhood as the untainted garden did to unfallen man-even the remembrance of it, amid distant scenes of woe, has soothed some of the saddest hours of life, and crowds of mourners have spoken of "A home, that paradise below Of sunshine, and of flowers, By calm sequester'd bowers." -There childhood nestles like a bird which has built its abode among roses; there the cares and the coldness of earth "GOD'S FIRST CHURCH." 27 are, as long as possible, averted. Flowers there bloom, or fruits invite on every side, and there paradise would indeed be restored, could mortal power ward off the consequences of sin. This new garden of the Lord would then abound in beauty unsullied, and trees of the Lord's planting, bearing fruit to his glory, would be found in plenty there it would be reality, and not mere poetry, to speak of "My own dear quiet home, The Eden of my heart." Or another name, which some delight to apply to home, is "God's first Church." It is there that we first learn to fear, to love, and to adore Him; there that we get our first lessons regarding both holiness and sin; there that we first feel as if the hand of the Saviour were on our head to bless us; and there, in the first years of unquestioning, unsuspecting faith, that we display those dispositions which make a little child a model disciple, or which explain why the Saviour said, "of such is the kingdom of heaven." "Every Christian family ought to be, as it were, a little Church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by his rules.”* " If there were a Church in every house, there would be such a Church in our land as would make it a praise throughout the whole earth."† We give no place, we repeat, to mere visionary pictures; but, setting aside all that is fabled upon the subject, it is still true that man's first home is God's first Church to all who are trained as children ought to be—the heart and the hand are both pointed heavenward there. "The scene is touching, and the heart is stone That feels not at that sight." No doubt, the world may reign in the soul after all; the 28 66 A MINIATURE OF HEAVEN." impressions even of such a home, may prove like a writing upon sand, upon water, or the yielding air. But it can still be said with truth "Lord, with what care hast thou begirt us round? Parents first season us Bibles laid open, millions of surprises, "first all, all are found within the sacred pale of our Church," and the heart which can resist its sanctities is preparing to be at once a tormentor and tormented. "A Miniature of Heaven," "a Copy of Heaven," "a Nursery for Heaven," are other names by which home is known. Young immortals should there enter upon the true immortality, and the love which reigns paramount in the house not made with hands should be ascendant in our abodes on earth. As the father is likened to the prophet of home, its teacher, its guide, and model, all should be his disciples, while the mind of the Great Teacher presides at once over the head and the members. Moreover, as the father is called the priest of home, the other inmates should surely be the worshippers; or, as he is likened to a king among his subjects, obedience should be universal, while the Eternal One is crowned Lord of all. It is His will that makes heaven what it is be that will done by the families of men, and they become component parts of the great family of God; the kingdom of heaven is among us of a truth. But this suggests another of the titles lavished upon a household; it is called "The Republic of Home." The rights of all are alike in their origin-God; and in their aim or tendency, namely-God again. There is to be neither lordly |