from the breakdown of vice and crime. But the family must be first of all protected against sex immorality, for this is the fundamental sin that destroys the life of the community root and branch. This is the reason why Christianity must wipe out a red light district where college men are "initiated" and change a system which wrings from a Moslem boy the cry: "What chance have I for purity of life? My father has one hundred and three wives and concubines." The prevalence of sex immorality is one of the manifest signs of decadence in modern community life. Recent investigations here in America show conditions almost past belief. Their testimony cannot be evaded or escaped. The records of our vice commissions are "the handwriting upon the wall." They recall what Paul wrote about the works of the flesh in the Roman Empire, and parallel the conditions that the missionary finds in the Orient. Alongside the facts are the records of results. The spread of sex disease, the increase of defective children, sterility-here is the real race suicide! But the nation has begun to grapple in dead earnest with the sin of commercial vice. We are able now to pass regulations wiping out segregated districts, to develop campaigns of sex education, to proceed perhaps to quarantine sex diseases, but how shall the personal standards of men and women be reached and changed? In certain of our own intellectual circles, theories of free love are bandied to and fro upon the lips of callow youth, as though they were a sign of emancipation, instead of a sign of utter weakness and bondage. What an immeasurable tragedy if woman, emancipated from sex servitude and economic dependence, should lead man with her along the path of imaginary freedom into the old bondage of sex sins! One has only to recall the lot of woman and children under systems of polygamy and promiscuity to see how stern is the choice if racial purity is to be preserved. The straight path of the single standard of morals—the Christian ideal of purity-is the only safety for the race. Christianity must now save the family as it saved it once before in the Roman world. V The conclusion of the whole matter is this: The Christian ideal of the family must be realized throughout the whole community the world around. The time was when the home was the consciouș center of religion. Family worship in countless homes was a great reality. The early strength of the American nation traced back to the devout simplicity of its home life. At the center of its power was the sense of reverence. In overcoming the evils that developed from prudish ignorance of sex matters, have. we fallen into a flippancy that destroys the sense of reverence and increases immorality and divorce? There will be little appeal, however, in the proclamation of a family ideal for its own sake. The real reason for having a Christianized family is because it may become the great regenerating force to Christianize the community life. It is the fulcrum of social Christianity. This is the challenge of the Christian family ideal to college men and women: that they shall approach the marriage relationship, the inner sanctuary of the temple of life, in reverent awe; that they shall dedicate themselves to the creation of a holy family, to the development of creative lives which shall count for the Commonwealth of God. SUGGESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AND ACTION (NOTE-There is more material suggested under Suggestions for Discussion and Action in each chapter than can possibly be covered in the group hour. The leader of the group, in mapping out the work of the hour, should select for attention those parts which are of most moment to the group.) I. Home Conditions Think over in advance for the particular community selected the conditions of family life in a number of typical homes which are representative of varying economic levels. Especially valuable material can be secured on family life in Moslem lands, and in many Oriental countries. I. In how many does home life appear to be normal and happy? What factors do we consider indispensable to make them so? 2. What proportion of these homes are providing successful family life in spite of heavy handicaps? What handicaps do we discover under which it is unfair to expect any family to work out a successful family life? II. Housing and Happy Homes I. How much overcrowding and bad sanitation are there in the housing of the college town? Compare these conditions with the various communities represented in the group, with those in city tenements and tenant farm houses, with those in some particular mission lands. 2. Trace the effects of house crowding on the morality of the members of the home. 3. What are the local housing ordinances? How far do they ensure proper spacing, light, air, safety, and sanitation? What provision is there for inspection and enforcement? How difficult is it for a family in our communities to own their own home? 4. What can we do to secure better housing in our communities? What effects do Christian missions have on housing conditions abroad? III. Household Management and Happy Homes I. How does household management compare in difficulty with business management? Do the same causes of success and failure operate in both? 2. What are the comparative difficulties of training children in the home and in the school? Ought a certificate of efficiency to be demanded of intending heads of households comparable to that demanded of prospective teachers? 3. Are courses in household economics and household arts given in our public schools? Are they practical? How does the amount of preparation given in our colleges for carrying on successful homes compare with that for teaching and the other professions? 4. How can bad household management and inadequate care of children be prevented? What share must the husband take in home management more than to be the "provider"? 5. Why are effective household arrangements so difficult in non-Christian lands? IV. Morals and Happy Homes 1. How far is extravagance wrecking the home life in our town? Are the standards of living and the social life of our college on a grade of extravagance which would wreck the homes from which students come? which would imperil their future homes if continued? 2. How far is the double standard of morals wrecking home life in our town? What is the prevalent college attitude toward loose talk and vulgar stories which undermine home life? toward lax and "Bohemian" relationships? toward the double standard? 3. What elements in the family life of Moslem lands are inherently immoral from the Christian point of view? V. What Makes a Happy Home? I. What transformation does Christianity work in the family life of non-Christian lands? 2. What real differences does Christianity make in home life in America? CHAPTER III THE CHILD IN THE MIDST The child is the reason for the family, that life may be perpetuated. This is why the community must protect the family. In childhood lie hidden all the possibilities for the improvement of mankind. You may be Christ or Shakespeare, little child, -James Oppenheim. "What we want the future to With something of the same "He is the future, sitting there as a guest at our table," a mother said of her young son. become we must put into him." awe must the community look upon the child, for childhood is ever the new material for the Commonwealth of God. Of what else shall it be built? We have no other stuff wherewith to make it. "Of such is the Kingdom of God." DAILY MEDITATIONS FIRST DAY: Look at the Boys and Girls Blessed is every one that feareth Jehovah, That walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labor of thy hands: Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine, In the innermost parts of thy house; Round about thy table. |