Quote 932
[Chrysostom] urged that every house should be church, and every head of a family a spiritual shepherd, remembering the account he must give even for his children.
Philip Schaff
Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity Vol 3 , 5454.1K
Other Quotes from the Author & Topic
As the loving mother rejoices to be the fountain of nourishment to the babe which clings to her warm bosom, so the Christian father delights to convey, even by reverent reading, "the sincere milk of the word" (1 Peter 2:2). He has found it good to his own soul; he rejoices in an appointed means of conveying it to his offspring.A Theology of the Family
A family without prayer is like a house without a roof, open and exposed to all the storms of heaven.
The way of family worship is a good old way, no new thing, but the ancient usage of the saints.Commentary Gen 12:6
The Lord's Day took the place of the Jewish Sabbath as the weekly day of public worship. The substance remained, the form was changed. The institution of a periodical weekly day of rest for the body and the soul is rooted in our physical and moral nature, and is as old as man, dating, like marriage, from paradise. This is implied in the profound saying of our Lord: "The Sabbath is made for man." It is incorporated in the Decalogue, the moral law, which Christ did not come to destroy, but to fulfil, and which cannot be robbed of one commandment without injury to all the rest.History of the Christian Church: https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc1/hcc1.i.IX.57.html
The day was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week, not on the ground of a particular command, but by the free spirit of the gospel and by the power of certain great facts which he at the foundation of the Christian church. It was on that day that Christ rose from the dead; that he appeared to Mary, the disciples of Emmaus, and the assembled apostles; that he poured out his Spirit and founded the churchHistory of the Christian Church: https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc1/hcc1.i.IX.57.html
the Jewish Sabbath was hedged around by many national and ceremonial restrictions, which were not intended to be permanent, but were gradually made so prominent as to overshadow its great moral aim, and to make man subservient to the sabbath instead of the sabbath to man.History of the Christian Church: https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc1/hcc1.i.IX.57.html
Lead Family Worship with a firm, fatherly hand and a soft, penitent heart: Even when you're bone-weary after a day's work, pray for strength to carry out your fatherly duty. Remember that Christ Jesus went to the cross for you bone-weary and exhausted but never shrunk from His mission. As you deny yourself, you will see how He strengthens you during Family Worship, so that by the time you finish, your exhaustion is overcome.Theology of the Family, 96
Set up and maintain the private worship of God in your family.
The due observance of it, in which the churches of England, Scotland, and America, to their incalculable advantage, excel the churches of the European continent, is a wholesome school of discipline, a means of grace for the people, a safeguard of public morality and religion, a bulwark against infidelity, and a source of immeasurable blessing to the church, the state, and the family. Next to the Church and the Bible, the Lord's Day is the chief pillar of Christian society. Besides the Christian Sunday, the Jewish Christians observed their ancient Sabbath also, till Jerusalem was destroyed. After that event, the Jewish habit continued only among the Ebionites and Nazarenes.https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc1/hcc1.i.IX.57.html
In the gospel dispensation the Sabbath is not a degradation, but an elevation, of the week days to a higher plane, looking to the consecration of all time and all work. It is not a legal ceremonial bondage, but rather a precious gift of grace, a privilege, a holy rest in God in the midst of the unrest of the world, a day of spiritual refreshing in communion with God and in the fellowship of the saints, a foretaste and pledge of the never-ending Sabbath in heaven.https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc1/hcc1.i.IX.57.html
The universal and uncontradicted Sunday observance in the second century can only be explained by the fact that it had its roots in apostolic practice. Such observance is the more to be appreciated as it had no support in civil legislation before the age of Constantine, and must have been connected with many inconveniences, considering the lowly social condition of the majority of Christians and their dependence upon their heathen masters and employers. Sunday thus became, by an easy and natural transformation, the Christian Sabbath or weekly day of rest, at once answering the typical import of the Jewish Sabbath, and itself forming in turn a type of the eternal rest of the people of God in the heavenly Canaan.https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc1/hcc1.i.IX.57.html
On that day he ordered the Galatian and Corinthian Christians to make, no doubt in connection with divine service, their weekly contributions to charitable objects according to their ability. It appears, therefore, from the New Testament itself, that Sunday was observed as a day of worship, and in special commemoration of the Resurrection, whereby the work of redemption was finished.https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc1/hcc1.i.IX.57.html
Observation shows that families which have no household worship are at a low ebb in spiritual things; that families where it is performed in a cold, slugglish, negligent, or hurried way, are little affected by it and little affected by any means of grace; and that families where God is worshipped, every morning and evening, by all the inmates of the house in a solemn and affectionate service are blessed with increase of piety and happiness. Every individual is blessed. Each one receives a portion of the heavenly food.Thoughts on Family Worship
Family prayer and the pulpit are the bulwarks of Protestantism! Depend upon it, when family piety goes down, the life of godliness will become very low. In Europe, at any rate, seeing that the Christian faith began with a converted household, we ought to seek after the conversion of all our families and to maintain within our houses the good and holy practice of family worship.
family worship will prevent much sin. It awes the soul, conveys a sense of God's majesty and authority, sets solemn truths before the mind, and brings down benefits from God on the home.
the whole household should be gathered together to bow before the Lord--parents and children, master and servant--to confess their sins, to give thanks for God's mercies, to seek His help and blessing. Nothing must be allowed to interfere with this duty: all other domestic arrangements are to bend to it.
we may observe what fearful threatenings are pronounced against those who disregard this duty. We wonder how many of our readers have seriously pondered these awe-inspiring words: "Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name" (Jer 10:25)!
And verily there is one spring and cause of the decay of religion in our day, which we cannot but touch upon and earnestly urge a redress of; and that is the neglect of the worship of God in families by those to whom the charge and conduct of them is committed.Second London Baptist Confession
They pray together, they worship together, they fast together; instructing one another, encouraging one another, strengthening one another... Psalms and hymans they sing to one another, striving to see which one of them will chant more beautifully the praises of their Lord. Hearing and seeing this, Christ rejoices.Ad uxorem, bk2 ch8
Brethren, ye are ordained of God to rule your own houses in his true fear, and according to his word... And therefore, I say, ye must make them partakers in reading, exhorting, and in making common prayers, which I would in every house were used once a day at least.Works of John Knox, Banner of Truth, 2014, 4:137
I am persuaded from my own ministry experience in hundreds of churches that so little family worship regularly exists in Christian homes today, that even in most of our best
churches, most of our best men do not even pray with their
wives (and children if they have them) much less lead them in
ten minutes or so of worship as a family.Family Worship, 13
Brethren, I wish it were more common, I wish it were universal, with all [Christians] to have family
prayer.
We sometimes hear of children of Christian parents
who do not grow up in the fear of God, and we are asked how it is that they turn out so badly. In many, very many cases, I fear there is such a neglect of family
worship that it's not probable that the children are at all impressed by any piety supposed to be possessed by
their parents. A Pastoral visit, pulpit v 54, 362-63
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3. Prayer (130)
4. Faith (113)
5. Preaching (112)
6. Gospel (92)
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