Influence of Family Worship on a Nation (1)

To the earthly politician nothing can seem more absurd than to ascribe to the devotions of private Christians any power in regard to states and empires. Religion is an element in political changes not recognized by the wisdom of this world. Yet it cannot be a matter of indifference, even in respect to civil government and national wealth, that hundreds of thousands of families dispersed abroad in the earth are daily addressing themselves to God in prayer. And it may turn out to be true that a nation in which all the families shall be thus employed will derive from this very peculiarity a character conducive to public strength.

Before treating of the direct influence of prayer on nations, we ask attention to some particulars which are too much neglected. The indispensable material of a happy State is a body of good citizens. It is not territory, fertile soil, mines, cities, arts, navies, armies, monuments, laws, constitutions, or even liberty, which sustain and ennoble a people, but good citizens. That which makes good citizens tends directly to the felicity and glory of a State. This will not be denied in an age and country of which it is the genius to flatter, and almost deify, the people. Viewing the matter even from the low point of temporal things, all admit that the power and stability of government reside in the virtue of the citizens.

This grand desideratum is to be secured, not by wholesale enactment, but in detail. No general arrangements, however good, can reach the mind of the people. Legislation and polity presuppose good citizenship. National virtue is the virtue of collected individuals. The power to be applied, for this result, will therefore operate to most advantage when brought to bear on the primary and constituent portions, especially on each family and each individual.

To make good citizens we must begin early. It is too late when the adult character is attained; hence the acknowledged importance of universal education in a free country. But this early training may be complete in respect of intellectual discipline, and may yet be inadequate. We need moral qualities in the good citizen. If we could so descend to the elements of society as to make every family a school of sound principles and virtuous habits, we should plainly be dealing with the very factors and constituents of a prosperous State; and the method which should accomplish this would be a national blessing. Such a method is domestic religion, including, as one of its principal parts, family worship. We are prepared to maintain that this institution cannot flourish in any country without directly contributing to those habits which are favorable to law, order, and peace.

It is not more true that the infant brood grows to the power of caring for themselves, in the nest, than that men are formed into the habits of life, in the family. It is the earliest, cheapest, safest, and mightiest institution for this purpose.

Every Christian household is a school of good citizenship. This might be safely rested on reasons already given. But one or two particulars merit separate consideration. Family worship, as we have seen, promotes habits of order. It brings a stated regulation into the house, and gathers the inmates by a fixed law. It sets up a wholesome barrier against wanton irregularity, sloth, and night-wandering. It encourages early hours, thoughtful ness, and affection; and above all, it adds strength to the principle of subordination and obedience, a point which we dare not pass lightly.

Good citizens are such as abide by the law and submit themselves to authority. The habit of so doing must be formed under the parental roof. All the duties of subjects and citizens range themselves under the fifth commandment; and he who is not a good son cannot be a good citizen. Here we may refer to a passage already cited, in which God says of Abraham: “I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him” (Gen. 18:19). Domestic discipline is an ordinance of God. As the family was the earliest community, so this is the earliest form of government; and notwithstanding the dreams of Rousseau and his disciples about a social contract which never existed, here is the true origin of States. Observe the connection: “Abram shall surely become a great and mighty nation: for I know him, that he will command his children.” Here is the influence of family religion on a nation. We have already said enough to show the bearing of domestic worship on parental control and filial obedience. Our present inquiry is in regard to the tendency of this to public safety and peace.

The popular evils which threaten our country arise in great measure from a spirit of insubordination; and this is caused by neglect of parental authority. He who has never learned to obey and honor his father and his mother will never yield himself to magistracy and law. But a nation of families worshipping God will ever be a nation of law and order.

No municipal police can make up for the absence of domestic authority. The weakening of this principle over a whole land is nothing but the rupture of each of several links in the chain. As the evil advances, we lose the very material of magistracy and the capacity for firm and gentle command.

Dr. James W. Alexander (1804–1859), eldest son of the renowned Archibald Alexander, wrote many volumes on practical Christian themes, including Plain Words to a Young Communicant (1854) and Thoughts on Preaching (1864). This article is drawn from his Thoughts on Family Worship (1847).

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