HOME AND RELIGION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 83, 22 June 1945, Page 2

HOME AND RELIGION

A recent address at Taunton by the Rev. F. C. Bryan, ot' Bristol, which has now been printed contained the following line eulogy of home and family life: The family is the cell of the cultura and religious life of the nation. It is in the family that we acquire .the accents of our mother tongue, and get our first ideas about life and God. The atmosphere of the home its culture, its spirit leave their indelible impression upon us. From our parents* lips Ave receive something of the accumulated wisdom and experience of bygone generations, and, if we are fortunate in our parents some--1 9 thing also of "the faith once for all delivered to the saints." At his mother's knees the child learns his first prayers and spells out from the Bible his first text. In her arms he is carried to his# dedication. Holding her hand he learns the way to the House of God. At her side he receives his introduction to Christian worship. It is> not the Church, in the first instance, but the home, that is his inroduction to religion. The Church plays its part. But the cells of Church life are Christian homes. Indeed it J is notorious that the thoughts and memories and habits that shape us and abide with us to the end of the journey—tending to outlive all others—are those derived from home and family. The home is our most formative influence.