A well-disciplined family who obey God will be cheerful and happy. The father, when he returns from his daily labour, will not bring his perplexities to his house, he will feel that home and the family circle are too sacred to be marred with unhappy perplexities. When he left his home, he did not leave his saviour and his religion behind. Both were his companions. The sweet influence of his home, the blessing of his wife and love of his children, make his burden light, and he returns with peace in his heart and cheerful encouraging words for his wife and children, who are waiting to joyfully welcome his coming. As he bows with his family at the altar of prayer to offer up his grateful thanks to God for His preserving care of himself and loved ones through the day, angels of God hover in the room, and bear the fervent prayers of God fearing parents to heaven, as sweet incense, which are answered by returning blessing.
The father should study how to make the mother happy. He should not allow himself to come to his home, with a clouded brow. If he is perplexed in business, he should not unless it is actually necessary to counsel with his wife, trouble her with such matters. She has cares and trails of her own to bear, and she should be tenderly spared every needless burden.
The desire of men and women to accumulate properly is not sinful, if, in their efforts to attain their object, they do not forget God and transgress the last six precepts of Jehovah, which dictate the duty of man to his fellow-man, and place themselves in a position where it is impossible for them to glorify God in their bodies and spirits which are His. If, in their haste to rich, they overtax their energies and violate the laws of their being, they place themselves in a condition where they cannot render to God perfect service, and are pursuing a course of sin.
Parents should not increase their families any faster than they know that their children can be well cared for and educated. A child in the mother's from year to year in is a great injustice to her. It lessens, and often destroys, social enjoyment, and increases domestic wretchedness.
The husband violates the marriage vow and the duties enjoined upon him in the word of God when he disregards the health and happiness of the wife by increasing her burdens and cares by numerous offspring. "Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church,(Ephesians 5:25) and gave Himself for it so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no men ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherishedth it, even as the Lord the church."
Fathers, especially are often guilty of manifesting less care for wife and children than that shown to cattle. A merciful farmer will take time and devote special thoughts as to the best manner of managing his stock, and will be particular that his valuable horses shall not be over worked, overfed, or fed when heated, lest they ruined. He will take time and care for his stock lest they be injured by neglect, exposure, or any improper treatment and his increasing young stock depreciate in value. He will observe regular period for their eating, and will know the amount of word they can perform without injuring them. In order to accomplish this he will provide them only the most the healthful food, in proper quantities and at stated periods. By thus following the dictates of reasons farmers are successful in preserving the strength of their beasts. If the interest of every father for his wife and children corresponded to that care manifested for his cattle, in that degree their lives are more valuable than the dumb animals, there world be an entire reformation in every family and human misery be far less.