To The Christian Reader The Puritans maintained a high view of family, seeing it as a brick in the larger structure of both church and society. These bricks can be solid, true, and square—or of a mealy, crumbling, and warped quality. The difference is largely in how the bricks are shaped and fired, even as our family members’ lives will be shaped by the priority we put upon establishing and maintaining an orderly family (with each part working together in harmony) and fired by a god-honouring response to sin and suffering.
