ONE of the first things you should endeavor to secure to yourselves is a home. Each family should aim at this. No matter how small your house be, if it is a home, and your home, there will be a charm about it. I see not why every family among the freedmen may not obtain such a home—where he can have his family to himself, and train his children to good morals and religion. Freedom makes a home worth something.
Get a house, then, as soon as you can; no matter how small or how poor it is. Perhaps by your industry you may make it larger and better. Move your family into it, and begin to live as one who is responsible to God, and who is determined to show that slavery has not robbed him of all his manhood.
In this home have family worship. Pray with your family every morning, asking God’s blessing in something like the following words: