Home Government-What is It?

          It is not to watch children with a suspicious eye, to frown at the merry outbursts of innocent hilarity, to suppress their joyous laughter, and to mould them into melancholy little models of octogenarian gravity. And when they have been in fault, it is not simply to punish them on account of the personal injury that you have chanced to suffer in consequence of their fault, while disobedience, unattended by inconvenience to yourself, passes without rebuke.
          Nor is it to overwhelm the little culprit with angry words; to stun him with a deafening noise; to call him by hard names, which do not express his misdeeds; to load him with epithets which would be extravagant if applied to a fault of tenfold enormity; or to declare, with passionate vehemence, that he is the worst child in the world and destined for the gallows.
          But it is to watch anxiously for the first risings of sin, and to repress them; to counteract the earliest workings of selfishness; to repress the first beginnings of rebellion against rightful authority; to teach an implicit and unquestioning and cheerful obedience to the will of the parent, as the best preparation for a future allegiance to the requirements of the civil magistrate, and the laws of the great Ruler and Father in heaven.
          It is to punish a fault because it is a fault, because it is sinful, and contrary to the command of God, without reference to whether it may or may not have been productive of immediate injury to the parent or others.
          It is to reprove with calmness and composure, and not with angry irritation,--in a few words fitly chosen, and not with a torrent of abuse; to punish as often as you threaten., and to threaten only when you intend and can remember to perform; to say what you mean, and infallibly do as you say.
          It is to govern your family as in the sight of Him who gave you authority, and who will reward your strict fidelity with such blessings as He bestowed on Abraham, or punish your criminal neglect with such curses as He visited on Eli.

          The importance of sacredly guarding the family relation can not well be overestimated. It is the foundation-stone of all that is good and pure both in civilization and religion. Take this away, and the whole fabric must topple and fall.
          The first government on earth was patriarchal, and in it was contained the inception of all civil authority; and, indeed, all rightful civil government to the present day is only an enlarged form of family government in a representative form, taking into consideration the wants and necessities of each individual family within its jurisdiction. The unity and perpetuity of the family tie in purity and peace is the only safeguard to national perpetuity, peace, and honor. Demoralize the family and you thereby destroy both domestic and national happiness, and undermine completely the temple of virtue and hope, and prepare the way of moral and civil desolation. The first impulse of patriotism and morality is germinated, nurtured, and largely if not entirely developed in the family circle. It is here that the first fruits of everything which is good and pure are brought forth. Hence the nations that disregard the sacredness of this relation have no permanent forms of government, and anything like common morality is nowhere to be found among them. And it is also worthy of careful note that just so far as any people depart from the true form of the family tie, just in that same ratio do they give evidence of it in their civility and morality. It is therefore within the family circle that the star of hope, of religion and civil rights is to be seen, and let it go down and all would be turned into the dismal darkness of midnight without moon or star to guide the weary pilgrim on his way. This spot is to be guarded as the tree of life, with the flaming sword turning either way, perpetually guarantying thus the most sacred bond of union and strength and the only remaining institution of man's primeval state. There may be, and doubtless are, numberous abuses of the marriage state; but that does not argue against its importance, neither does it detract from its absolute value and necessity.
          The family circle may be--ought to be--the most charming and delightful place on earth, the center of the purest affections and most desirable associations as well as the most attractive and exalted beauties to be found this side of paradise. Nothing can exceed in beauty and sublimity the quietude, peace, harmony, affections, and happiness of a well-ordered family, where virtue is nurtured and every good principle fostered and sustained. From the well-ordered homes in this great, broad land of religious and civil liberty not only are great and good statesmen to come, and eminently pious and intelligent divines; but what is equally important, from these homes must come the more common populace of the land, upon whose intelligence, patriotism, and purity depends the continuancy of the rich blessings which are now common to all. If freedom is kept and sanctified by the people; if the true spirit of Christianity is to be continued, in all its sacred purity, on to our children's children, even to the latest generations of men, they must be kept inviolate in our families and impressed in our homes. They are both dependent upon the family circle and the training and order administered therein. Then they who would dissolve the marriage rite, with all its hallowed and binding influences, would overthrow everything that is worth living for, and turn society into a bedlam of confusion and moral degradation; for it is the chain that binds the entire network of human society together, in all of its highest prospects, both for time and eternity. There is no civilization equal to it; in fact, there is none without it to the Christian, and there is no Christian civilization without the marriage ceremony, in all of its binding and uniting force. In fact, domestic happiness is wholly dependent upon the sanctity of the marriage relation; is an exclusive trait of Christianity; and Christianity is the only system in the world calculated to advance the interests of common humanity, and insure to all equal rights, earthly bliss, and a sweet home forever beyond the narrow limits of the quiet tomb.
          What was said concerning Abraham may be said of every true Christian father: "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him; and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." Happy is that nation whose children are brought up in families like this. There purity, virtue, and true manhood in every principle of justice and mercy will be permanently secured. What an important place, therefore, does the family occupy in the social, moral, and political worlds! Take this away, and the bond of sacred union is forever dissolved, and the most distressing and deplorable results must follow. Break asunder these centers of holy affections of truth, honor, and purity, and you will fill the land with every enormity, and desolation, the most far-reaching and dreadful, will fill its entire breadth. It is highly important and necessary not only to continue the validity of the marriage rite, upon which the true idea of the family is based, but great care should be exercised to make these homes all that they can and should be made,--the most delightful and enticing places on earth, where everything that is good is encouraged, and everything evil pointed out and discountenanced; for as children leave the parental home they are, to a large extent, molded for life. Orders and correct morals should here receive the proper stamp upon the opening mind. Yes, everything we wish our children to be, in time and eternity, should here be taught and enforced. Then "all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children."