The Adventist Home

436 Pages·2013·1.36 MB·English

by  Ellen G. White

The Adventist Home
Ellen G. White
1952
Copyright © 2013
Ellen G. White Estate, Inc.

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About the Author
Ellen G. White(1827-1915)isconsideredthemostwidelytranslated
American author, her works having been published in more than 160
languages. She wrote more than 100,000 pages on a wide variety of
spiritual and practical topics. Guided by the Holy Spirit, she exalted
Jesus and pointed to the Scriptures as the basis of one’s faith.
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i
Foreword
The Adventist home is a home where Seventh-day Adventist
standards and practices are lived and taught, a place to which Sev-
enth-day Adventist fathers and mothers are commissioned by Christ
to go and make Christians of the members of their own households.
And in order to perform that task well, Seventh-day Adventist par-
ents are looking for all the help they can possibly find.
Ellen G. White has written much and very valuable counsel
for parents. She has touched upon every phase of the home, and
offers specific instruction on many of the problems which give so
much concern to thoughtful and often anxious parents today. Some
years before her death, she indicated her desire to get out “a book
for Christian parents” that would define “the mother’s duty and
influence over her children.” In the present work an endeavor has
been made to fulfill this expectation.
This book, The Adventist Home, is at once a sort of handbook or
manual for busy parents, and a pattern or ideal of what the home can
and should become. Here are the answers to your many questions,
the words of wisdom from the heavenly Father.
In compiling this work, excerpts have been drawn from the Ellen
G. White writings penned through seven decades, but especially
from the thousands of E. G. White articles which were prepared
for the journals of the denomination. The current published works,
special testimonies issued in pamphlet form, and the E. G. White
manuscript files have also enriched the Volume. Appropriate source
credits are given in connection with each chapter. As the excerpts
[6] drawn from different sources written at different times are linked
together in their logical sequence, there may be occasionally a slight
unavoidable breakin thoughtormannerofaddress, forthe compilers
are limitedin theirworkto selecting andarranging the subjectmatter
and supplying the headings.
This document has been prepared in the office of the Ellen G.
White Publications. The work has been done in harmony with Mrs.
ii
White’s instruction to her trustees in providing “for the printing
of compilations” from her manuscripts, for they contain, she said,
“instruction that the Lord has given me for his people.”
Neverin the history ofthe worldhas a booklike this been needed
more urgently than it is right now. Never have parents and children
been more anxious for the right answer to the things which trouble
them. Never have homes been in such jeopardy as they are today.
Every one of us knows that conditions in society are but a re-
flection of conditions in the homes of the nation. We likewise know
that a change in the home will be mirrored in a changed society.
To this end this Volume—The Adventist Home—has been prepared
and, as a part of the Christian home library, is now sent forth on its
important mission by the publishers and
The Trustees of the
Ellen G. White Publications
Washington, D.C.,
May 8, 1952.
[7]
Contents
Information about this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .i
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
Section 1—The Home Beautiful . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter 1—Atmosphere of the Home. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Chapter 2—Fundamentals of True Homemaking . . . . . . . . . . 13
Chapter 3—The Eden Home a Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Section 2—A Light in the Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Chapter 4—Far-Reaching Influence of the Home . . . . . . . . . . 20
Chapter 5—A Powerful Christian Witness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Section 3—Choosing the Life Partner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Chapter 6—The Great Decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Chapter 7—True Love or Infatuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Chapter 8—Common Courtship Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Chapter 9—Forbidden Marriages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Chapter 10—When Counsel is Needed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Section 4—Factors that Make for Success or Failure . . . . . . . . . 55
Chapter 11—Hasty, Immature Marriages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Chapter 12—Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Chapter 13—Domestic Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Chapter 14—True Conversion a Requisite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Section 5—From the Marriage Altar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Chapter 15—Solemn Promises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Chapter 16—A Happy, Successful Partnership . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Chapter 17—Mutual Obligations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Chapter 18—Marital Duties and Privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Section 6—The New Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Chapter 19—Where Shall the Home Be? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Chapter 20—The Family and the City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Chapter 21—Advantages of the Country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Chapter 22—Building and Furnishing the Home . . . . . . . . . 111
Section 7—Heritage of the Lord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Chapter 23—Children a Blessing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Chapter 24—Size of the Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Chapter 25—Caring for Needy Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
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Contents v
Chapter 26—Parents’ Legacy to Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Section 8—The Successful Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Chapter 27—A Sacred Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Chapter 28—The Child’s First School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Chapter 29—A Work That Cannot Be Transferred . . . . . . . . 142
Chapter 30—Family Companionship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Chapter 31—Security Through Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Chapter 32—Preoccupy the Garden of the Heart. . . . . . . . . . 153
Chapter 33—Promises of Divine Guidance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Section 9—Father—The House-Band. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Chapter 34—Father’s Position and Responsibilities . . . . . . . 162
Chapter 35—Sharing the Burdens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Chapter 36—A Companion With His Children . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Chapter 37—The Kind of Husband Not To Be . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Section 10—Mother—Queen of the Household . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Chapter 38—Mother’s Position and Responsibilities . . . . . . 178
Chapter 39—Influence of the Mother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Chapter 40—Misconception of the Mother’s Work. . . . . . . . 188
Chapter 41—Imperfect Patterns of Motherhood . . . . . . . . . . 191
Chapter 42—Mother’s Health and Personal Appearance . . . 194
Chapter 43—Prenatal Influences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Chapter 44—Care Of Little Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Chapter 45—Mother’s First Duty Is To Train Children . . . . 204
Chapter 46—The Stepmother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Chapter 47—Christ’s Encouragement to Mothers . . . . . . . . . 212
Section 11—Children—The Junior Partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Chapter 48—Heaven’s Estimate of Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Chapter 49—Mother’s Helpers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Chapter 50—The Honor Due Parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Chapter 51—Counsel to Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Section 12—Standards of Family Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Chapter 52—Home Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Chapter 53—A United Front . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Chapter 54—Religion in the Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Chapter 55—Moral Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Chapter 56—Divorce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Chapter 57—Attitude Toward an Unbelieving Companion . 273
Chapter 58—The Minister’s Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
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Chapter 59—The Aged Parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Section 13—The Use of Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Chapter 60—Stewards of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Chapter 61—Principles of Family Finance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Chapter 62—Economy to be Practiced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Chapter 63—Instructing Children How to Earn and Use
Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Chapter 64—Business Integrity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Chapter 65—Provision for the Future. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Section 14—Guarding the Avenues of the Soul. . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Chapter 66—The Portals We Must Watch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Chapter 67—Enticing Sights and Sounds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Chapter 68—Reading and its Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Section 15—Graces that Brighten Family Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Chapter 69—Courtesy and Kindness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Chapter 70—Cheerfulness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Chapter 71—Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Chapter 72—Hospitality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Section 16—The Home and its Social Relationships . . . . . . . . 355
Chapter 73—Our Social Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Chapter 74—Safe And Unsafe Associations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Chapter 75—Parental Guidance In Social Affairs . . . . . . . . . 365
Chapter 76—Holidays And Anniversaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Chapter 77—Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
Chapter 78—The Family a Missionary Center . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Section 17—Relaxation and Recreation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Chapter 79—Recreation is Essential. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Chapter 80—What Shall We Play? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Chapter 81—Recreation that Yields Enduring Satisfactions 396
Chapter 82—How the Christian Chooses His Recreation. . . 401
Chapter 83—The Lure of Pleasure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Chapter 84—Directing Juvenile Thinking Regarding
Recreation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
Section 18—Thou Shalt be Recompensed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Chapter 85—The Reward Here and Hereafter . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
Chapter 86—Life In the Eden Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Chapter 87—Pen Pictures of the New Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429