"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Josh. 24:15).

The family circle—this is the first place where the influence of an individual life should be seen and felt. It has been well said that "private life governs the world," for when God is honored in the family, He will be honored in the nation which is built up of families. . . . Never will one father forget the words of his boy as they were climbing a Scottish mountain, with the father some little distance ahead. He heard his son from close behind call: "Choose the safe path, Father, I am coming after you!" The influence of Christ in the family will always be such that the children will be early taught the elementary truths of the gospel and placed in the Saviour's hands in loving trust. They will be daily enabled to see the reality of the gospel in the lives of their parents, so that they will need no other evidences of its power.

—Things New & Old

"And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up" (Deut. 6:7).

In my father's home we had large print New Testaments at the breakfast table for each of the children. These were covered with oil cloth, so that spilled milk or cereal would not spoil the covers. We read a verse each around the table to complete a chapter each morning, for the Word of God was esteemed as necessary as our food. At night we gathered around the sacred Book and my father read from the Old Testament and prayed. A deep sense of the holiness and peace of that hour gripped our young hearts. Every child was early won for God, and the benediction of that holy practice has blessed all our lives.

—A.S.L.