Religion in the Home Part 2

THE HOME IS THE GREATEST TEACHING AGENCY IN THE WORLD

When I make this statement I do not make it hastily and without due consideration as to what I am saying. I am not unmindful of the billions of dollars worth of fine equipment of various kinds. I am not unmindful of the hundreds of thousands of men and women that are giving of their time and talent to the teaching and training of the youth of our nation. I do want to say, however, with all the earnestness of my heart, that there are some things that can and must be taught in the home. If they are not taught in the home, then they will never be adequately taught in our public schools and colleges.

I rejoice in the fine program of religious education that is being put on today by our churches, all up and down this land. I rejoice in the fine buildings and other equipment that we have in our Church Schools and Colleges. I am also happy over the fact that we have so many fine Christian men and women that are willing to give of their time and talent to teach the Bible in our Church Schools and our Daily Vacation Bible Schools. But I am saying to you that there are some things that can and must be taught in the home; they can never be properly taught anywhere else. The Sunday school teacher has our child about one hour out of each week only, and we have him seven days out of the week. We also have our children at the time when their wills are most pliant and their minds are most impressionable to their training and the example set before them. The parents can teach children things that the schools can never completely counteract. The child, therefore, is largely what the home makes it. As a twig is bent, so it will grow. No one can completely eradicate the influences of his father and mother and the teaching they give to their child.

The Constitution declares that all men are born free and equal. That is doubtless true from a political standpoint, but it is certainly not true from a moral and religious point of view. I believe that from birth I had a better chance to succeed and amount to something in this world, than many of the boys I grew up with. It was my good providence to be born and brought up in a devout, Christian home. My mother was one of the godliest women I have ever known. I cannot remember the first time I ever heard her pray. As far back in my recollection as I can go, I remember kneeling at mymother's knee and lisping that little prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray Thee Lord, my soul to take," etc. Some of the fondest recollections of my childhood were of those times when mother had finished washing the supper dishes and got down the old Bible, or Aunt Charlotte's Bible Stories, and read to us. She talked to us about God and our souls. I have gone to bed many nights with my head wet with mother's tears, and with her prayers ringing in my ears, begging God to keep my feet in the straight and narrow way.

How I do thank God that He did not give me a cigarette-smoking, card-playing, cocktail-drinking mother. No, she did not hunt for her pack of cigarettes or a deck of cards at night. She did not gad around all over the country at night, attending all kinds of meetings and shows. She stayed at home with us children and taught us about God and religion. How I do thank God for such a mother and for the teaching and training she gave me! I could never be what I am today if it had not been for her piety, her teaching and training. God knows we need some more mothers like her today.

My parents did not believe in sending children to Sunday school. Neither do I. I believe the parents should get up on Sunday morning, get ready, and take their children to the house of God. That is exactly what my mother and father did. My parents were, poor people, my mother had to do her own cooking, washing and ironing. She had eight children; but on Sunday morning she would get up and get all eight of us children ready and take us to Sunday school. From the time my baby sister was five weeks old until she was a little over five years of age, my mother never missed a single Sunday at Sunday school during those five years. How in the world she ever did it, I don't know! I know strong, able-bodied women of today that can't get up and get themselves ready or get one child ready, but my mother got up and got eight of us ready and went with us to Sunday school. Of course my father co-operated with my mother in that undertaking, just as every true husband should do. My father was a horseman, working with horses nearly all of his life. For twenty-five years he was employed by the Crystal Ice and Coal Company in Winston-Salem. It was his job to look after their horses and mules. I can remember when he had from forty to sixty head of horses to water and feed every morning. But he would get up one hour earlier on Sunday morning than any other morning in the week, and would go to the barn to water and feed. Then he would rush home, change clothes, and go with mother and us children to Sunday school. Though sometimes he had to go without his breakfast in order to make it in time, he always went with us. When father closed and locked the front door at home on Sunday morning it meant that the family was ahead of him on the way to church.

Then when Sunday school was over my parents did not turn us children loose to run the streets or permit us to go home and read the funny papers. We all stayed for the eleven o'clock preaching service. In the old Salem Methodist Church, where I was converted and grew up, we had three different rows of benches. The second pew of the center section was known as the "Church" pew. We did not have it rented, but it was generally understood that the Church family would occupy that pew at all the religious services. The family sat together. Usually my father sat on one end of the bench, with my mother on the other end: the eight little "Churches" sat in between. We not only stayed for preaching service, but we also behaved ourselves. If one child got a little rowdy all my father would have to do would be to eye down the line and catch the eye of that child. That child knew exactly what was meant. That glance meant, "Young fellow, you had better be quiet and behave yourself. If you don't, then there will be an extra session for you in the woodshed when we get home." I do thank God that I had such teaching and training as that! I thank God I grew up in a home like that! Sad to say, there are millions of children in our nation today who are not getting such teaching and training. Yes, there are millions of children today that are not getting any kind ofreligious teaching and training from their parents. They never hear prayer offered in their home, except on those rare occasions when the minister comes for a visit and offers prayer for the family. Millions of children never see their parents on their knees in prayer. Many of them never hear religion discussed in their homes, unless it be in a critical manner that would cause them to sneer at religion and a belief in God. Many of them never hear the name of God mentioned, except in some profane or frivolous manner. Many of them are never taken to church and Sunday school; and so far as the influence of the Church is concerned, they might as well have been born and brought up in the dark jungles of Africa, or in any other heathen land. They are not getting any kind of religious teaching and training in their homes.

Many judges of Juvenile Courts testify that they seldom ever have boys and girls come before them who have been brought up in Christian homes, and have been taught to go to Sunday school. The young boys and girls today that are giving so much trouble are those that come from godless homes and have had no Christian training. When you stop to think of how the homes are falling down at the task of reaching and training the children for God, it is not surprising that we are having such a great wave of juvenile delinquency today. We need a revival of religion in the home that will re-establish the family altar, and that will cause parents to see their need for teaching their children in the ways of the Lord. And if we do not have such a revival, it looks as if we might be headed for the rocks. Our nation cannot long survive unless something is done that will bring religion back into her homes. The home is the foundation of civilization and civilization cannot long outlive unchristian homes. This is one of the greatest needs of the day and age in which we live.