George Whitefield: “The Great Duty of Family-Religion”

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

“The Great Duty of Family-Religion” is a relatively simple sermon. Whitefield takes his text from the story of Joshua in the Old Testament, using it as a jumping-off point to press his belief that “it is greatly to be feared, that out of those many households that call themselves Christians, there are but few that serve God in their respective families as they ought.” He then “begs leave” to explain the duty of a family’s “governor” (the male head of household) to ensure that he and those “committed to his charge” serve God, the ways in which a governor and his household ought to do so, and the motives that should “excite” householders to serve God.

Whitefield takes up each of these points in turn. With regard to the first, he argues that every householder is a prophet, a priest, and a king, and that “every house is as it were a little parish, every governor . . . a priest, every family a flock; and if any of them perish through the governor’s neglect, their blood will God require at their hands.” With regard to the second point, Whitefield maintains that it is the duty of every Christian householder to read aloud the word of God daily, noting: “Besides, servants as well as children, are, for the generality, very ignorant, and mere novices in the laws of God: and how shall they know, unless some one teach them?” Additionally, he calls on householders to lead the family and its servants in daily prayer and to catechize and instruct children and servants.

Whitefield then turns to his third point, the motives that should induce householders to create an atmosphere of family religion. The first is the gratitude they owe to God. The second is love and pity for their children, making family religion “the best testimony they can give of their affection to the darling of their hearts.” The third is common honesty and justice; thus, “none can be more liable to such censure, than those who think themselves injured if their servants withdraw themselves from their bodily work, and yet they in return take no care of their inestimable souls.” A fourth motivation is self-interest, for family religion is the “best means to promote your own temporal, as well as eternal welfare.” Finally, Whitefield refers to the “terrors of the Lord,” reminding his listeners that “the time will come, and that perhaps very shortly, when we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ” and will not want children and servants as witnesses against us.

Whitefield ends the sermon on a slightly darker, more Calvinist note:

I beseech you to remember, that you are fallen creatures; that you are by nature lost and estranged from God; and that you can never be restored to your primitive happiness, till by being born again of the Holy Ghost, you arrive at your primitive state of purity, have the image of God restamped upon your souls.