0 A Family Well Ordered

The title of this post is borrowed from a little work by Cotton Mather, though I'm continuing to refer to Matthew Henry's fine work, Family Religion.

His first two exhortations to fathers in regard to their households were to make a regular practice of reading the Holy Word of God in their families, and to keep up sound doctrine in the home through the practice of catechesis of their children. These two fruitful practices both glorify God and edify the church as a holy seed is raised up to Him, and cannot be too strongly recommended to heads of households as part of their duty before God Almighty.

The third admonition Henry raises involves the fostering of a godly conversation (speaking in the old Puritan way) among the members of the house. This focus on an active setting apart of the home unto holy and godly conduct is a natural companion to the first two admonitions Henry sets before us. He writes,

Keep up family discipline, that so you may have a complete church in your house, though in little. Reason teaches us that 'every man should bear rule in his own house' (Esth. 1:22). And since that as well as other poewr is of God, it ought to be employed for God; and they who so rule must be just, ruling in his fear. Joshua looked further than the acts of religious worship when he made that pious resolution, 'As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord' (Josh 24:15). For we do not 'serve him in sincerity and truth', which is the service he there speaks of (v. 14) if we and ours serve him only on our knees, and do not take care to serve him in all the instances of a religious conversation. Those only who have clean hands, and a pure heart are accounted 'the generation of them that seek God' (Ps. 24:4,6). And without this those who pretend to 'seek God daily' do but mock him (Isa. 58:2).

The authority God has given you over your children and servants is principally designed for this end, that you may thereby engage them for God and godliness. If you use it only to oblige them to do your will, and so to serve your pride; and to do your business, and so to serve your worldliness, you do not answer the great end of your being invested with it; you must use it for God's honour, by it to engage them as far as you can, to do the will of God, and mind the business of religion. Holy David not only blessed his household, but took care to keep good order in it, as appears by that plan of his family discipline which we have in the 101st Psalm, a psalm which Mr. Fox tells us that blessed martyr Bishop Ridley often read to his family, as the rule by which he resolved to govern it. You are made keepers of the vineyard; be faithful to your trust, and carefully watch over those who are under your charge, knowing that you must give account. (p. 44, Family Religion, Matthew Henry)

God's will for us (need we look any further than this?) is clearly spelled out in His Word. All men are to worship Him and serve Him in all things - to seek His glory and honor above all else. As fathers and husbands, the service, glorification and honoring of God starts at home, and involves the whole family - not simply us as individuals. We are to seek Him and serve Him in every vocation we have been endowed with - the specific needs as fathers and husbands in this regard is to lead and guide them in God's ways, through His Word. May the Lord bless you (and me) in this Holy undertaking

0 Catechesis and the Privilege of Raising Children in the Fear of God, Part II

Just after posting the previous note, I began reading an article in the Puritan Reformed Journal (a new journal from Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, edited by the president, Joel Beeke) about John Murray, and happened upon the following paragraph, which reinforces exactly the same idea.

John Murray was brought up on the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Use was made of it in the home, in the church and in the day school. It was an educational process of priceless value. Archibald Alexander, who founded Princeton Theological Seminary where John Murray was later to study and teach, was also brought up on the Shorter Catechism. The invaluable role of catechetical instruction in a young child's life is beautifully captured in Charles Hodge's remarks about this important influence in Alexander's childhood, words that could have equally applied to the young John Murray: 'The principles of moral and religious truth contained in that sublime symbol, when once embedded in the mind, enlarge, sustain, and illuminate it for all time. That God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth is a height of knowledge to which Plato never reached...A series of such precise, accurate, luminous propositions, inscribed on the understanding of a child, is the richest inheritance which can be given to him. They are seeds which need only the vivifying influence of the Spirit of life, to cause them to bring forth the fruits of holiness and glory. Dr. Alexander experienced this benefit to its fullest extent.' ("John Murray and the Godly Life", John J. Murray, Puritan Reformed Journal, volume 1, number 1, 2009, p. 143)

The quotation from Hodge is taken from the autobiography of Archibald Alexander, written by James M. Garrison, entitled "Princeton and Preaching". It was published in 2005 by Banner of Truth, and is available here.

2 Catechesis and the Privilege of Raising Children in the Fear of God

"Let the word of God dwell richly in you," the Apostle tells us in Colossians 3:16. A primary means of obedience to this command is to read the Scriptures daily in our families, as Matthew Henry counsels in his treatise, Family Religion. The daily reading of the Word of God surely brings forth fruit pleasing to the Lord.

Additionally, the Puritans and Reformers counselled the use of good catechisms, which explain and expound the truth of God - not that they replace Scripture, any more than preaching replaces Scripture - but they draw the doctrine of Scripture out by summarizing and collecting teachings from various places, to give memorable expression to God's truth. In our family catechism is an important part of our evenings, and a means for me to rightly teach and train our children in their walk before the Lord. It is so beautiful to see their progress in learning, and beyond remembering the answers to questions posed to them, to see them actively applying what they have learned in other contexts.

Matthew Henry strongly motivates the use of catechesis, and discusses the fruits of it, in the extract from Family Religion below:

This way of instruction by catechising does in a special manner belong to the church in the house; for that is the nursery in which the trees of righteousness are reared, that afterwards are planted in the courts of our God...

The baptism of your children, as it laid a strong and lasting obligation upon them to live in the fear of God, so it brought you under the most powerful engagements imaginable to bring them up in that fear... you are unjust to your God, unkind to your children, and unfaithful to your trust, if having by baptism entered your children in Christ's school, and listed them under his banner, you do not make conscience of training them up in the learning of Christ's scholars, and under the discipline of his soldiers.

Consider what your children are now capable of, even in the days of their childhood. They are capable of receiving impressions now which may abide upon them while they live; they are turned as clay to the seal, and now is the time to apply to them the 'seal of the living God'. They are capable of honouring God now, if they be well taught: and by their joining, as they can, in religious services with so much reverence and application as their age will admit, God is honoured, and you in them present to him 'living sacrifices, holy and acceptable'. The hosannas even of children well taught wil be the perfecting of praise, and highly pleasing to the Lord Jesus.

Consider what your children are designed for, we hope, in this world; they must be a 'seed to serve the Lord', which shall be 'accounted to him for a generation'. They are to bear up the name of Christ in their day, and into their hands must be transmitted that good thing which is committed to us. They are to be praising God on earth, when we are praising him in heaven. Let them then be brought up accordingly, that they may answer the end of their birth and being. ...(p. 36, Family Religion, Matthew Henry)

God has given us length of days and closeness of contact with our children in order that we might care for them in, to use Henry's phrase elsewhere, 'the nursery in which trees of righteousness are reared.' They aren't to be thrust out the door to fend for themselves at a young age, but nurtured and cared for, and made strong in the Lord's teaching. We must undertake this from day one, and not be pleased to lose time - but take it, all for God's glory, and take seriously the role we have been given by God as parents. They are indeed God's lambs in our care. Henry next turns to a more direct and serious motivation as he closes the section of this work on catechism:

Consider especially what they are designed for in another world: they are made for eternity. Every child you have has a precious and immortal soul, that must forever either in heaven or hell, according as it is prepared in this present state; and perhaps it must remove to that world of spirits very shortly: and will it not be very sad, if through your carelessness and neglect, your children should learn the ways of sin, and perish eternally in those ways? Give them warning, that, if possible, you may deliver their souls; at least, that you may deliver your own, and may not bring their curse and God's too, their blood and your own too, upon your heads. (p. 36-37, Family Religion, Matthew Henry)

Stern warning... but afterward a necessary pastoral word:

I know you cannot give grace to your children, nor is a religious conversation the constant consequence of a religious education; 'the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong' (Eccl. 9:11), but if you make conscience of doing your duty, by keeping up family doctrine; if you teach them the good and the right way, and warn them of by-paths; if you reprove, exhort and encourage them as there is occasion; if you pray with them, and for them, and set them a good example, and at last consult their soul's welfare in the disposal of them, you have done your part, and may comfortably leave the issue and success with God. (p. 37, Family Religion, Matthew Henry)

Thanks be to God that the salvation of our children is in His hands. We may freely teach and raise them to trust in His Son and walk in His ways - freely, because we know that the work is the Lord's, and by His Holy Spirit he shall bring forth His fruit. Our duty is to obey, and faithfully carry out His call upon us as parents - the increase is His; and so is the glory.

0 The Word at Home

If our homes are indeed to be "little churches" - gatherings of God's flock under one roof, dedicated to Christ's service in all things - then we'd best be devoted to the doctrine of truth. It seems an obvious charge to fathers and husbands to maintain sound doctrine in the home - but it isn't necessarily the case. Matthew Henry deals with this topic in the next section of Family Religion, when, introducing the subject, he writes:

It is not enough that you and yours are baptized into the Christian faith, and profess to own the truth as it is in Jesus, but care must be taken, and means used, that you and yours be well acquainted with that truth, and that you grow in that acquaintance, to the honour of Christ and his holy religion, and the improvement of your own minds, and theirs who are under your charge. You must deal with your families as men of knowledge (1 Pet. 3:7) that is, as men who desire to grow in knowledge yourselves, and to communicate your knowledge for the benefit of others, which are the two good properties of those who deserve to be called men of knowledge. (p. 33, Family Religion, Matthew Henry)

As I noted in a previous post just yesterday discussing John Flavel, if we are to find any fruit in the work of cultivating our hearts, and caring for them, then the Word of God must be central to our task. It is the only proper instrument for discerning the good from the refuse, dividing bone from marrow, as the Scripture teaches.

Just as we are convicted individually that the Word of God must be part of our daily diet as Christians, so too even moreso for those of us tasked with raising children and guiding families in God's service. How we can be devoted to such folly that the world tells us we have to be interested in as fathers and children... and miss the central part of our family's nourishment and needs! Henry writes:

READ THE SCRIPTURES TO YOUR FAMILIES, in a solemn manner, requiring their attendance on your reading, and their attention to it; and inquiring sometimes whether they understand what you read. I hope you are none of you without Bibles in your houses, store of Bibles, every one a Bible. Thanks be to God, we have them cheap and common in a language that we understand. The book of the law is not such a rarity with us as it was in Josiah's time. We need not fetch this knowledge from afar, nor send from sea to sea, and from river to the ends of the earth, to seek the word of God; no, the Word is near us. When popery reigned in our land, English Bibles were scarce things; a load of hay (it is said) was once given for one torn leaf of a Bible. But now Bibles are everyone's money. You know where to buy them; or if not able to do that, perhaps in this charitable city you may know where to beg them. It is better to be without bread in your houses than without Bibles, for the words of God's mouth are and should be to you more than your necessary food. (pp. 33-34, Family Religion, Matthew Henry)

Today, as in Henry's day, there is no excuse to be without the Word of God in one's home. It is such a precious gift to us, that we are free to obtain the Word for a pittance - the investment is the best one can possibly make in any purchase. Henry then points out, though, that to have the Word at your ready is not sufficient... we do not learn by osmosis, but by reading. To have the Word and neglect it is grievous:

But what will it avail you to have Bibles in your houses if you do not use them? To have the great things of God's law and gospel written to you, if you count them as a strange thing? ... It is not now penal to read the Scriptures in your families, as it was in the dawning of the day of reformation from popery, when there were those who were accused and prosecuted mid-prose for reading in a certain great heretical book, called an English Bible...if you or yours perish for lack of this knowledge, as you certainly will if you persist in the neglect of it, you may thank yourselves, the guilt will lie wholly at your own doors. (p. 34, Family Religion, Matthew Henry)

Strong words to be sure, but consider it well. We have the blessing of God's Word - what FOLLY it is to neglect it in our families!

Let me, therefore, with all earnestness press it upon you to maket he solemn reading of the Scripture a part of your daily worship in your families. When you speak to God by prayer, be willing to hear him speak to you in his word, that there may be a complete communion between you and God. This will add much to the solemnity of your family worship, and will make the transaction the more awful (awe-ful: TKP) and serious, if it be done in a right manner; which will conduce much to the honour of God, and your own and your family's edification. It will help to make the word of God familiar to yourselves, and to your children and servants, that you may be ready and mighty in the Scriptures, and may from thence be thoroughly furnished for every good word and work. It will likewise furnish you with matter and words for prayer, and so be helpful to you in other parts of the service. (pp. 34-35, Family Religion, Matthew Henry)

I can vouch for this statement of Henry's directly. It is amazing what the girls have learned as we have made Scripture reading a part of our exercises of family worship morning and evening. It is fantastic to see what they retain, even at the very young ages, when familiar words come up again as a passage is read again to them - or as passages in the Old Testament are referred to in the new. If you have any doubts about the word "sinking in" through simply reading the Word straight from your Bibles, you can cast them aside. The Word is powerful and lively to cut to the heart even of your youngest children - it is a mighty blessing.

As the new year dawns, perhaps you would consider, if it is not part of your daily practice in your families, to dedicate time and effort to systematic reading of the Scriptures in family worship? It has blessed us in our home - and I trust the Lord will bless you as you undertake to serve Him in this duty as well in yours. He has promised His children blessing as they seek Him and His will - and a choice means to that end is the regular dedication to the reading and study of God's Holy and Powerful Word.

0 A Family Devoted to God

As the Westminster Shorter Catechism says in its first question and answer, 'The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.' Indeed, this being our individual chief end, it must also be the chief end of all institutions - the marriage and family being the next two institutions of God in number and/or size. As a father and husband, this weighs on me now and again as I look at the shortcomings in my own fulfillment of the grand duty of glorifying and honoring God Almighty. Matthew Henry in an essay entitled 'A church in the house', found in Family Religion writes the following as reflecting the commitment of the head of a household, if he rightly understands his responsibilities before God:

Let all I have in my house, and all I do in it be for the glory of God; I own him to be my great Landlord, and I hold all from under him: to him I promise to pay the rents - the quit-rents - of daily praises and thanksgivings; and to do the services - the easy services - of gospel obedience. Let holiness to the Lord be written upon the house, and all the furniture of it, according to the word which God has spoken (Zech. 14:20-21), that every pot in Jerusalem and Judah 'shall be Holiness to the Lord of hosts'. Let God by his providence dispose of the affairs of my family, and by his grace dispose the affections of all in my family, according to his will, to his own praise. Let me and mine be only, wholly and forever his. (p. 32, Family Religion, Matthew Henry, Christian Heritage Press.

If we truly understand our place before God, can our thoughts as husbands and fathers be any but these? How would our churches break forth in the light of Christ if all of us relinquished the pride of autonomy and dedicated our homes fully to His glory? Let it begin with me and my house.

0 Matthew Henry, "Family Religion"

I was told by a friend of the printing by Christian Heritage books of a collection by Matthew Henry entitled "Family Religion: Principles for raising a godly family."



For those of you raising children (or hoping to), this is a WONDERFUL book, well worth the pittance of its cost at a hair more than $10.

I found greatly edifying counsel in the first chapter as I began reading this book this month, and thought I'd blog a little on the work - so stay tuned.