Wm. S. Plumer, 1853
“Domestic happiness requires the elements of truth, justice, consistency, humility, candor, gentleness and kindness from superiors; respect, love, obedience, honor from inferiors; truth, justice, tenderness and brotherly kindness from equals. A family thus regulated will be an emblem of the family named in heaven—an emblem, faint indeed, but clear enough to make a good man say: “It is good to be here.” The very last place on earth, where the fires of virtue and piety burn, is the domestic hearth. A profession of religion, when not accompanied by a cheerful and habitual performance of family duties, is worth nothing. Heaven is not a den of outlaws. If we love not our brother whom we have seen, how can we love God whom we have not seen? The merciful shall obtain mercy; the cruel shall reap the fruit of their own doings; the meek shall inherit the earth, but violent men shall not live out half their days. Tyrants and rebels are alike rejected. As truth is always in order to godliness, so it will produce its fruits under all circumstances.
The rules for domestic happiness are few and simple. He who runs, may read. Yet how little are they heeded except where impressed by Christian sanctions and inwrought in the soul by the power of God’s Spirit. Then they are mighty. Who can but admire the effects produced in a Christian household by such maxims and precepts as these?
1. Be humble. “Pride only breeds quarrels.”
2. “Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.”
3. Find your own happiness in trying to make others happy.
4. Mind your own business. Be not meddlesome.
5. Beware of a fretful, suspicious, or censorious temper.
6. “Overcome evil with good.” “Bless and curse not.”
7. “Love one another deeply, from the heart.”
8. Do not magnify the trials or afflictions of life.
9. Beware of sloth. There is no greater enemy of peace and happiness.
10. Make it your business to serve God.
11. Keep out of debt. “Owe no man anything.” Loans breed bad tempers and harsh dispositions.
12. Keep the ultimate purpose of life in view. This will repress many vain wishes and chasten immoderate desires.
13. Let your prayers be frequent and fervent.
14. Never listen to scandal nor backbiting.
15. Grieve not for things which cannot be helped.
16. Set the Lord always before you. Seek His glory. Do and suffer His will with readiness. Let Christ be all and in all. Trust in the Lord forever.
There is something peculiarly pleasing in the manifestations of the grace of Christ in a truly pious family, however poor their condition in life. Hitherto the Lord has gathered a far richer harvest of praise from the dwellings of the poor than from the palaces of kings. Not that humble souls in any rank of life are excluded, but it is so hard for the great to lie down in the dust—that most of them are offended in Christ.”
