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twg_000012923300 | we may take the starting-point of our _physical frame_, and read steadily all we can as to our bodily organisation and its laws; or we may take as our starting point the _land_ we dwell in, or even the locality where we live, and seek to learn all we can regarding its history. In this way distinct lines of study | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923301 | are opened up to us, and we are saved the evil of desultory reading, which too often fills the mind only with a jumble of facts undigested and unarranged, and therefore of but little value. The writer knew a young minister in a Scottish manse who had among the few books in his library the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_. In this work | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923302 | he took up distinct courses of reading--a course of biography, a course of history, a course of geography--and in this way he acquired knowledge well systematized, which was of great value to him in his after life. We should endeavor, according to some such method as we have indicated, to carry on our reading. "Every man and every woman who | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923303 | can read at all should adopt some definite purpose in their reading, should take something for the main stem and trunk of their culture, whence branches might grow out in all directions, seeking air and light for the parent tree, which it is hoped might end in becoming something useful and ornamental, and which at any rate all along will | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923304 | have had life and growth in it." These words of Sir Arthur Helps put very tersely the point on which we have been insisting. _Third_, We should read books _on the same principle as we associate with men_. We only admit to our society those whom we deem worthy of our acquaintance, and from whose intercourse we are likely to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923305 | derive benefit. We should do the same in regards to books. There are people who read books which, if they took to themselves bodily form and became personified, would be kicked out of their houses. Readers often associate in literature with what is vile and contemptible, who would never think of associating with people possessing a similar character. Yet the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923306 | society of a weak or bad s just as harmful to us in its way, and should be as little tolerated by us as the society of a weak or bad man. Indeed, between an author and a careful reader there is an intimacy established even closer than is possible in the intercourse of life, and evil books poison the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923307 | springs of thought and feeling much more thoroughly than an evil acquaintanceship could do. We cannot be too strict, therefore, in applying to books the rules we follow in regard to society, and refusing our acquaintance to those books unworthy of it. (_a_) Such books may be known by reputation. We would not associate with a man of bad reputation, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923308 | neither should we read a book of which the reputation is evil. (_b_) They may be judged of also by very slight experience. Very little tells us whether a man is worthy to be admitted to companionship, and very slight acquaintance with a s sufficient to tell us whether it is worth reading. (_c_) But especially by beginning with those | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923309 | great authors that are beyond doubt high toned, "the master-spirits of all time," we shall acquire a power of discrimination. We shall no more care to read foul, impure, and unwholesome literature than a man brought up in the society of honorable men would choose to cast in his lot with thieves and blacklegs and the offscourings of society. We | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923310 | have anticipated much that might be said in answer to the question _how_ to read, and only a few words need be written in regard to it. () Read with interest. Unless a nterests us we do not attend to it, we get no benefit whatever from it, and may as well throw it aside. () Read actively, not passively, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923311 | putting the book under cross-examination as we go along--asking questions regarding it, weighing arguments. Mere passive reading may do no more good than the stream does to the iron pipe through which it flows. Novel-readers are often mere passive recipients of the stories, and thus get no real benefit from them. () Read according to some system or method. () | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923312 | Read not always for relaxation, recreation, and amusement, but chiefly to enable you to perform the duties to which God has called you in daily life. [] See Appendix. . FAMILY LIFE. The words Family--Home--Household--all express one idea. They imply a relationship existing between certain individuals, a circle or sphere separate from the mass of human beings, within which there | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923313 | are special duties to be performed and a special life has to be lived. It is not necessary to define particularly what is meant by the word Family, for it is well understood by all of us. Family life is peculiar to man.--The lower animals have nothing in all respects resembling it. In some particulars their mode of life occasionally | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923314 | approaches it, but not in all. The birds of the air, for instance, care tenderly for their offspring, but when these come to maturity the relation between them and their parents comes to an end. The family relation on the other hand lasts through life, and is only broken by the hand of death, if even then. The family has | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923315 | been instituted by God for the welfare of man. The condition in which we come into the world requires it--our training for the work of life demands it--it is specially adapted to promote the great ends of human existence. Family life is that which most truly leaves its mark upon us.--In the family habits are formed which make us what | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923316 | we are for the rest of our life. Home influences accompany us to the very end of our journey. Let any one ask himself what are the chief sources of his virtues, and he will feel that a large proportion of them are derived directly or indirectly from association with his fellow-creatures in the family. The training of parents, the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923317 | affection and influence of mothers and sisters, powerfully and lastingly affect our intellectual and moral nature. From a wise father we learn more than from all our teachers. When a celebrated artist, Benjamin West, was asked "What made him a painter?" his reply was, "It was my mother's kiss." "I should have been an atheist," said a great American statesman, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923318 | "if it had not been for one recollection, and that was the memory of the time when my departed mother used to take my little hand in hers, and caused me on my knees to say, 'Our Father, who art in heaven.'" On the other hand, those who have been so unfortunate as to have had an unhappy home rarely | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923319 | emancipate themselves from the evil effects of their upbringing. If they do, it is after the severest struggle. "The child," it has been said, "is the father of the man," and it is in the family the child receives his first impressions for good or for evil. The world he first lives in is his home. Family life supplies a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923320 | great test of character.--When Whitefield was asked whether a certain person was a Christian, he replied, "I do not know. I have never seen him at home." People are often one thing in the world and another in their own family. In the close intercourse of the home circle they exhibit themselves in their true colors. A man who is | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923321 | a good son or a good brother is generally found to be a good man. If he is a source of evil in his own home, in his intercourse with the world he will, sooner or later, be found wanting. It is beyond the scope of this book to dwell at length upon the duties incumbent on the various members | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923322 | of a family. It may be sufficient to indicate generally the feelings which should animate the young persons who belong to it. Probably most of those into whose hands this manual will come are members of a family. What should therefore be their conduct at home is a question that well deserves their consideration. . _Obedience_ is the fundamental principle | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923323 | of family life. Every family has a head, and that head must rule. "Order is heaven's first law." Where there is no obedience there can be no order in a family. The first form of authority which is placed before the child is that of the parent, and to the parent he has to be subject. "Children," says the apostle, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923324 | "obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord." Even for those members of a family who have grown out of the state of childhood obedience must be the rule, though in their case it is not to be, as in the case of the child, unquestioning obedience, but is to be founded on reason, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923325 | affection and gratitude. With them obedience takes the form of reverence, or, to use a more familiar word, respect. The child is bound to obey his parent without hesitation or reply; the young man who has entered into greater liberty than the child will still respect his parents' wishes and cherish reverence for their authority. This feeling on his part | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923326 | is termed in the Scriptures _Honor_. "Honor thy father and thy mother" is one of the Ten Commandments, and can never cease to be included among moral and religious obligations. It is opposed to everything like unseemly familiarity, discourtesy of treatment, insolence in reply, or deliberate defiance. It implies respect for age and experience, and a sense of the great | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923327 | sacrifices a parent has made for his children's welfare. It is said that in our time the bonds of parental authority are being loosened, and that young men do not regard their parents with the deference that once was invariably shown towards them; that they do little to smooth the path of life for them when they grow old and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923328 | weak, and are more ready to cast them on the public charity than to contribute to their support. Such a state of things would be shameful, if true. It would indicate a corruption of social life at the fountain-head that must lead to serious consequences. The family is the nursery both of the State and of the Church, and where | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923329 | the purity and well-being of family life is impaired, both State and Church are sure to suffer. There should be therefore an earnest and prayerful endeavor upon the part of the young to cherish towards their parents that loving sense of their superiority which is implied in the word Honor. "Let them learn first," says St. Paul ( Tim. v. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923330 | ), "to show piety at home, and to requite their parents; for that is good and acceptable before God." There can be no more pleasing memory for a young man to have than this, that he has been a dutiful son; none more bitter than this, that he has set at defiance, or neglected, those to whom he owes so | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923331 | much. . _Affection_ is the atmosphere that should pervade the household. "Without hearts," it has been truly said, "there is no home." A collection of roots, and trunk, and branches, and leaves, do not make a tree; neither do a number of people dwelling together make a home. "A certain number of animal lives that are of prescribed ages, that | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923332 | eat and drink together, by no means makes a family. Almost as well might we say that it is the bricks of a house that make a home. There may be a home in the forest or in the wilderness, and there may be a family with all its blessings, though half its members be in other lands or in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923333 | another world. It is the gentle memories, the mutual thought, the desire to bless, the sympathies that meet when duties are apart, the fervor of the parents' prayers, the persuasion of filial love, the sister's pride and the brother's benediction, that constitute the true elements of domestic life and sanctify the dwelling." [] These beautiful words are true. It is | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923334 | love that makes home. The dweller, in a distant land sends again and again his thoughts across the sea, and reverts with fond affection to the place of his birth. It may be a humble cottage, but to him it is ever dear because of the love which dwelt there and united those who dwelt there by ties that distance | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923335 | cannot sever. Even the prodigal in the matchless parable of our Lord, herding with the swine and eating of their husks, was led to a higher and a better life by the remembrance of his father's house. A home without love is no home, any more than a body without a soul is a man. It is only a corpse. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923336 | . _Consideration_ for those with whom we live in the family is the chief form which affection takes. Each member has to remember, not his own comfort and wants, but the comfort and wants of those with whom he dwells. His welfare as an individual he must subordinate to the welfare of the household. There are various forms which want | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923337 | of consideration takes, and all of them are detestable. (_a_) Tyranny, where the strong member of a family insists on the service of those weaker than himself. (_b_) Greed, where one demands a larger share of comfort, food, or attention than that which falls to the others. (_c_) Indolence, where one refuses to take his proper part in the maintenance | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923338 | of the family, spending his wages, perhaps, on his own pleasures, and yet expecting to be provided for by the labor of the rest. (_d_) Discourtesy, where, by his language and manners, he makes the others unhappy, and, perhaps, by his outbursts of temper fills the whole house with sadness. (_e_) Obstinacy, which will have its own way, whether the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923339 | way be good or not. All these forms of selfishness are violations 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. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923340 | . _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 | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923341 | 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 | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923342 | 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 | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923343 | 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. . 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 | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923344 | 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 | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923345 | 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 | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923346 | 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. From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs, That makes her lov'd abroad, rever'd at home. [] Dr. James Martineau. . CHURCH.[] The word church is derived from the Greek word _Kuriakon_, the Lord's (from | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923347 | _Kurios_, the Lord), and it has various significations. (_a_) Sometimes it means the whole body of believers on earth--"the company of the faithful throughout the world"--"the number of the elect that have been, are, and shall be gathered into one, under Christ the Head thereof; and is the spouse, the body and the fulness of Him that filleth all in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923348 | all." [] (_b_) Sometimes it is applied to a body of Christians differing from the rest in their constitution, doctrines, and usages; as, for example, the Church of Rome, the Greek Church, the Reformed Church. (_c_) Sometimes it refers to the Christian community of a country or its established religion, as when we speak of the Gallican Church, the Swiss | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923349 | Church, the Church of England, the Church of Scotland. (_d_) It is used in a still more limited sense to represent a particular congregation of Christians who associate together and participate in the ordinances of Christianity, with their proper pastors or ministers. (_e_) It is applied also to the building in which the public ministrations of religion are conducted, as | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923350 | when we speak of the church in such a street, St. James' church, St. Peter's church, etc. In this chapter we use the word church in the fourth sense, as representing a particular congregation of Christians. To such a community every young man should belong, and in connection with it he is called to discharge certain special duties. There are | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923351 | four aspects in which the life of the Church, in this sense, may be regarded. I. It represents Christian worship.--(_a_) Public worship seems essential to the very existence of religion. At least, every religion the world has seen has had its meetings for public rites and ceremonies. Faith unsupported by sympathy, as a rule, languishes and dies out in a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923352 | community. Were our churches to be shut Sunday after Sunday, and men never to meet together as religious beings, it would be as though the reservoir that supplies a great city with water suddenly ran dry. Here and there a few might draw water from their own wells, but the general result would be appalling. (_b_) Public worship also strengthens | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923353 | and deepens religious feeling. A man can pray alone and praise God alone; but he is, beyond all doubt, helped when he does so in the company of others. He is helped by the conditions of time and place; and the presence and sympathy of his fellow-worshippers have upon him a mighty uplifting influence. (_c_) Above all, public worship is | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923354 | the channel through which we receive special blessings from God. There is communion in the sanctuary between us and Him. "The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father _seeketh_ such to worship him." God desires our worship, and blesses it to us. That He does so has been the experience of Christians in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923355 | all ages. They have found in the house and worship of God a strength and power that supported and blessed their life. They have realized that the promise of Christ is still fulfilled, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matt. xviii. .) II. The Church represents Christian teaching.--In | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923356 | the congregation the Word of God is read and preached. (_a_) Preaching has always formed part of the service of the Christian Church from the very earliest times. In the second century Justin Martyr says: "On the day called Sunday, all who live in the cities or in the country gather into one place, and the memoirs of the apostles | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923357 | and the writings of the prophets are read as time permits; then when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs and exhorts to the imitation of these good things." This description of an early Christian service is applicable still. Wherever the Church meets there is religious teaching. (_b_) And it is the only such teaching that multitudes receive. Without | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923358 | it they would be left to grope their way alone. (_c_) Whenever, therefore, there has been a revival of life in the Church, great stress has been laid upon the preaching of the Word of God, and God has specially blessed it to the conversion of sinners and the edification of His people. III. The Church represents Christian fellowship.--(_a_) It | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923359 | keeps up the idea of brotherhood in the world. It brings people of different ranks and classes together, and that under most favorable circumstances. Whatever a man is in the world, in the Church he is made to feel that in the eye of God he is a member of one family, having the same weaknesses, the same sorrows, the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923360 | same needs, the same destiny before him as those around him. In the Church "the rich and poor meet together" in equality before the same God, who is the Maker of them all. (_b_) But especially in its worship is the Church a common bond between _believers_. On one day of the week men of all nations, kindreds, peoples and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923361 | tongues, a multitude whom no man can number, unite in spirit together. Their prayers and praises ascend in unison to the Throne of Grace. They enter into the "communion of saints." They belong to one holy fellowship. (_c_) At the table of the Lord they take their places as partakers of one life--as one in Christ. "The cup of blessing | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923362 | which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are all partakers of that one bread." ( Cor. x. , .) IV. The Church represents Christian Work.--It is not merely a society for instruction or for the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923363 | cultivation of devout feelings. It is an aggressive society. Every congregation of believers is a branch of the great army which is warring against the kingdom of darkness. Every individual is called upon to be a "fellow-laborer with Christ," and not merely to work out his own salvation, but to work for the salvation of others. The motto of every | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923364 | true Christian Church should be, "Work for everybody, and everybody at work." Those who may be able to do little as isolated individuals may do much by combining their efforts with those of others. The Church gives them the power and the opportunity. We may now glance at some of the special duties incumbent upon those who are connected with | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923365 | the Church, and particularly upon young men. . We should be regular in availing ourselves of the means of grace which the Church affords. If it be the home of worship, of teaching, of fellowship, and of work, it is a home from which we should not make ourselves strangers. There is a blessing to be found there, and we | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923366 | are remiss if we do not seek it. Every young man should be a regular attendant on the ministrations of religion. He should be so (_a_) for his own sake, and (_b_) for the sake of others. He may perhaps have at times the feeling, I can get my worship in the fields and my teaching from my books; I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923367 | can get along without the Church. But surely he undervalues the promised blessing to those who "forsake not the assembling of (themselves) together." Surely he undervalues the power, and strength, and comfort, that come from association with believers. But even if he could get on without the Church, is he not bound to consider others? Has any man in a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923368 | world like ours, where all are bound together and are dependent on one another, any right to consider as to whether he can get on alone? Is he not bound to consider those around him? We must all feel that it would be a great calamity to a nation were public worship given up, churches closed, and Sunday made a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923369 | day of recreation. But those who absent themselves from public worship are undoubtedly using their influence in that direction. If it be right for them to absent themselves, it must be right also for others to imitate them, and it is easy to see how disastrous generally such imitation would be. Especially should every young man become _a communicant_ at | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923370 | the table of the Lord. Besides the many spiritual benefits of which the sacrament is the channel to every devout believer, it is an ordinance which is particularly helpful to the young. It leads them to make a decision, and decision gives strength. From the moment they deliberately and solemnly make their choice, there is a power imparted to their | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923371 | life that it had not before. In the life of the well-known Scotsman, Adam Black, it is said that shortly after he went up to London he became a communicant in the Church to which he belonged. "I found," he says, "this step gave a stability to my character, and proved a defence from follies and vices, especially as a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923372 | young man in London, entirely my own master, with no one to guide or check me." . We should take each of us our full share in the work of our Church. It is a poor sign of a church when all the work done is by the minister, or by the office-bearers alone, and it is a still poorer | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923373 | sign of those who belong to it. It is a sign that they have not felt the power of that grace which ever leads the soul to put the question, "What wilt thou have me to do?" There are none who cannot do something. The writer read lately of a church in England, the grounds of which were regularly tended | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923374 | and made beautiful by the young men belonging to it. That may seem a small service, but it was something. It showed a good spirit. If we are to get the most out of the Church, we must help it to do its work--charitable, missionary, Sunday School, Young Men's Guild. If the best heart and talent of young men were | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923375 | put into these and other agencies, the power of the Church for good would be increased immeasurably, and not the least of the advantage would come to the workers themselves. Let each do his own part. There is one way, we need scarcely say, in which we can all help the Church's work: by giving to it "as the Lord | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923376 | hath prospered us." Under the Old Testament dispensation every one was under strict obligation to give a fixed proportion of his substance for religious purposes. Surely we should not be less liberal when the proportion is left to our own sense of duty. Freely we have received. Let us also freely give. . While loyal to our own Church, we | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923377 | should cherish towards all Christians feelings of charity and good-will. Many of us, probably most of us, belong to the Church to which our parents belonged; and so long as we feel it ministers to our spiritual benefit we should keep by it and work with it. There is little good obtained by running from church to church, and those | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923378 | who sever themselves from their early religious associations are often anything but gainers. But while we are loyal to our own regiment in the Christian army, and proud, so far as a Christian may be so, of its traditions and achievements, let us ever feel that the army itself is greater than our own regiment, and not only cherish good-will | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923379 | and brotherly love towards those who fight in that army, but be ready at all times to co-operate with them, and to fight with them against the common enemy. It is well to be a good churchman, it is infinitely better to be a good Christian. It is best when one is both; for indeed he is the best Christian | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923380 | who is the best churchman, and he is the best churchman who is the best Christian. [] The subject of "The Church, Ministry and Sacraments" is to be fully dealt with in a Guild text-book by the Rev. Norman Macleod, D. D. We only refer in this chapter to those phases of Church life that are more immediately connected with | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923381 | Life and Conduct. [] _Confession of Faith_. . CITIZENSHIP. Citizenship is derived from the Latin word _civitas_, the state, and comprehends the duties that are binding upon us as members of the state. The first question then that arises in considering these is, What do we mean by the state? The state may be defined as the larger family.--The family | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923382 | is the origin of the state. (_a_) In early times government was of the simple kind that prevails in a family. The father was the head of the household and ruled over his children. As these grew up and had families of their own, they naturally looked to the aged head of the family, listened to his counsels, and were | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923383 | guided by his wisdom. Hence the first form of the state was the tribe or clan, and the first form of government was _patriarchal_. The head of the family governed the tribe. (_b_) On the death of the patriarch it was necessary that a successor should be appointed. Sometimes he was the son of the patriarch or his nearest descendant. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923384 | Sometimes he was chosen by the tribe as the strongest and bravest man and most competent to lead them against their enemies. Often tribes combined for mutual protection. Thus nations were formed, and the government passed from the patriarchal to the _monarchical_ form. The head was called the _king_, which literally means the "father of a people." We trace this | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923385 | growth in government in the history of the Israelites. First, we have the family of Israel in immediate relation with the patriarchs. As the Israelites grew and multiplied, they came under the leadership of Moses, who governed the tribes. Finally, when they settled in the land of Canaan, they became a nation, and were governed by a king. The kingdom | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923386 | was the expansion of the family. (_c_) In modern times there has been a further development. Government by a king or monarch was in the first instance _despotic_. It is so in some cases--as in Russia at the present day. The will of the sovereign is the law by which the people are ruled. But just as a wise father | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923387 | relaxes his control over his full-grown sons, and admits them to a share in the government of the household with himself, so the people have in modern times been permitted to exercise power in the state. The head of the state remains, but the main power of government lies with the people. This form of government is called _constitutional_. In | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923388 | Great Britain we have a _limited monarchy_; the power of the sovereign is controlled by the will of the people, who have a large share in making the laws. In the United States of America, in France, and in other countries, we have _republics_, where the voice of the people is supreme, though at the head of the state is | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923389 | a president, elected by the people, and bound to carry out their wishes. As the state is the larger family, the duties of those who compose it correspond with those belonging to the members of a household. . There is the duty of loyalty or patriotism. The first duty of the member of a family is love of home and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923390 | of those who belong to it. However poor or humble it may be, he feels bound to it by no ordinary ties. He defends its interests. Above all other households, he loves his own the best. The first duty of the citizen is of the same kind. He loves his land; his own country is dearer to him than any | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923391 | other on earth. He is ready to defend it even with his life. The words of Sir Walter Scott, as of many another poet, express this patriotic feeling: Breathes there the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land, Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned, As home his footsteps | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923392 | he hath turned, From wandering on a foreign strand. Many have died for their country's sake, and in all ages this has been thought a specially noble death. History records with affection the names of such men as Wallace, Bruce, William Tell, and Garibaldi, who sacrificed very much for the land they loved. And as "peace has its victories no | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923393 | less renowned than those of war," it has been the pride of others to serve their country by guarding its liberties, increasing its happiness, diminishing its evils, reforming its laws. The _flag_ of a country is the symbol, to those who belong to it, of their common inheritance. Brave men will follow it through the shot and shell of battle. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923394 | Men have wrapt it round their breasts, and have dyed its folds with their heart's blood to save it from the hands of the enemy; and wherever it waves it calls forth feelings of loyalty and allegiance. . Another primary duty of citizenship is obedience to the law. Here again we have the rule of the family extended to the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923395 | state. The child is bound to obey his parents unless they bid him do what his conscience clearly tells him is wrong; so, a good citizen will obey the laws of his country, unless these laws are so evidently unjust that the good of all demands that they should be resisted. Whatever the law is, he will endeavor to respect | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923396 | and obey it. If he believes it to be an unjust or unrighteous law, he will do his best to get it amended or abolished. It is only in an extreme case, though this opens a subject on which we cannot enter, that he can be justified in refusing obedience. "Let every soul," says Scripture, "be subject unto the higher | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923397 | powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves condemnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. . . . Wherefore, ye must needs be subject, not only | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923398 | for wrath, but also for conscience sake." . It is a duty of citizenship to see that the laws are reasonable and just. In a family, the grown-up members will use their legitimate influence to promote the wise regulation of the household, that there may be peace and harmony. The same desire will animate the members of the state. (_a_) | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923399 | This is specially incumbent upon those who, like ourselves, live under constitutional government. With us, government is not the prerogative of the Crown, or of a few families; or of men of rank or wealth. It is not _despotic_, or _aristocratic_, or _plutocratic_, but _democratic_--that is to say, it is in the hands of the people, or of those of | 60 | gutenberg |
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