FAMILY DUTIES by Dean Vaughan

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, November 25, 1884

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 61, No. 47

FAMILY DUTIES.

By Dean Vaughan

It may be said, and with as much truth as is generally to be found in a paradox, that man made the State, but that God made the family. Of the last clause, at all events, there can be no denial—God made the family. It is the unit of society itself. According to the state of the homes of a town, or of a country, is the state of the place, and the state of the nation. I do not think that I err in noticing a decided diminution of respect and reverence inside the walls of homes within the limits of the half century to which my observation is restricted. I believe that an independence of act and speech, of conduct and manner, is now claimed, and now conceded between parents and children, whether sons or daughters, which would not have been dreamed of in the earlier years of this century.

“The mystery of lawlessness doth already work” in the midst of us here, while we are, perhaps, deploring the state of society abroad and thanking God that we are not as other nations are. If we would keep in any sense at the head of the nations, as the country of free institutions, of willing loyalty, of strong family ties, above all, of a pure and enlightened faith, we must look to homes. We must see that the relationship—the primary, the aboriginal relationship—of parents and children is exercised with all authority, and with all obedience.—Dean Vaughan.