RELIGION IN OUR HOMES.
It is a fatal and a paralysing mistake to suppose that the religion of Jesus is to be kept for certain days, or occasions, or places, and laid aside or neglected at other times. It is not meant to give solemnity merely to a few hours of the Sabbath, or a few deeds of the hand; and while we can be satisfied with that view of religion, we have not begun to feel its power, to partake of its joy, or enter into its spirit. It would not be more unreasonable to suppose that the body needs the vital air to breathe only on certain occasions, or that the eye needs the light of heaven to see only at peculiar seasons, than that man can dispense at times with the truth of God as his guide, and monitor, and friend. If there be a moment at which man is not prone to go astray, then for that moment he may dispense with truth. If there be a single breath during which man is not dependent upon God, for that breath he may lay aside God’s pure and holy word.
But it is the dictate of reason, the moment it is illumined from on high, that the truth should take the control of the conscience, the understanding, and the heart, in all we find to do. It is to preside over thought, word, and deed. It is to direct us not merely in actions which are strictly and properly religious, like praise, and prayer, and public worship. It is to give a religious character to all that we attempt; and one great reason why religion is often despised is, that not a few of those who profess to hold the truth forget its righteous claims in their dealings with their fellow-men.
There is a parent sitting by the couch where his first-born is stretched—a corpse. As he gazes on the pale features, more beautiful, he thinks, than ever now, because death has turned them into marble, what consolation can the truth yield to him, if it has been his habit to confine its influence to a corner, a fragment of life, instead of regarding it as the sunshine or the vital air of the soul?
There is a sister weeping by the grave of one who has just become a prey to corruption. Her heart is lonely, and stricken, and sore—she feels it would be a relief could it break. And what blessing can the truth, the very truth as it is in Jesus, yield to that wounded spirit, if it has been its habit to seclude and sequester religion, to keep it apart from the business of life, like some portion of our dress, meant only for solemn seasons or for holidays?
OUR HOMES.
There is another. The hand of death is on him. He cannot be blind to its approach. He must take home the warning, OUR
HOMES. “Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die and not live.” And of what avail to that man is the very truth which came from heaven, if it has been kept at a distance from the heart, like something which we dislike or dread? Can a name, an echo, a phantom, a shadow, really avail that dying man’s soul?
THE PROVINCE OF TRUTH.
Or there is another still. The Spirit of God has fastened conviction upon his conscience, and he feels now what it is to be a sinner. “What must I do to be saved?”—“O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?” now embody the fears of his awakened spirit; and to soothe that spirit, or hush these fears, what avails the solemn ceremonial or the decent form, while that is all? Can a form atone for guilt? Can a pageant cleanse the conscience? THE
PROVINCE
OF TRUTH. Can some occasional observance of a religious rite operate like a charm, and either silence the demands or uphold the purity of the law of God? Nay, “miserable comforters are they all.” It is truth in the heart guiding to Him who is the truth itself, which alone can yield the troubled conscience peace.
And, to name no more: There is a youth removed from the watchful guardianship of his father’s home. The crowded city has become his busy abode, and its endless temptations must now be encountered. He must hear the grossness of the licentious, and endure the scoff of the godless. He must brave the assaults of those who have grown hardened in guilt. He must resist those who have trampled upon conscience, and forgotten that there is either a death before them, or a God to meet. And what will give that tempted youth the victory? An occasional glance at the Word of God? An occasional petition to his throne? An occasional visit to his house? To ask these questions is to answer them: That man consents to be deceived and undone who is willing to be only occasionally devout, occasionally seeking God, occasionally a Christian.
A SOUNDING BRASS.
We have tried, then, in the spirit of these remarks, to show that if the truth of God is to regulate the life of man, it must be planted in his heart. Afraid lest the services of the sanctuary and the lessons of the Sabbath be not sufficiently practical and precise, we are following men into the different spheres in which they move, there to apply the truth at once as a touchstone and a guide—a test to man’s soul, and a light to man’s path. A
SOUNDING
BRASS. A creed which only decorates the exterior cannot be that of the people of God. If it produce no beauty in the soul, no benefit in the life, it is a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
And our next topic is—Religion in our Homes. If it be planted in the heart by the Spirit of holiness, it will soon spread outward and cover the life with its beauty. Like the widening circles on a pool whose smoothness a pebble has disturbed, the wave of truth flowing from the heart, first touches those among whom we constantly move; and in no sphere can the genuine power of godliness on the one hand, or spurious pretences on the other, be more easily or promptly discovered. A man is in God’s eye just what he is in the bosom of his family.
THE FATHER OF THE FAITHFUL.
Perhaps we can best and most simply introduce this topic by referring to an example. To find it, we go straightway to the fountain-head, and fix attention on “the father of the faithful.” THE
FATHER
OF THE
FAITHFUL. Among the things which signalized that remarkable man, was his strict regard to the fear of God in his home. “I know him,” it is said by the Searcher of hearts; “I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment.”—Abraham was selected to introduce a new epoch in the mighty movements of Providence, a new stage in that grand procession which is carrying the generations of men forward to their eternal lot; and one reason assigned for that selection is, that he would cultivate home-religion, or cause the fear of the Lord to circulate through his tents. Now every word that is employed to describe this epoch-making man deserves to be studied—it appears a very picture of the patriarch or the priest of home. He who blesses the habitations of the righteous, says, “I know him.” It is the Omniscient that speaks, and there can be neither hypocrisy on the one hand, nor deception on the other. “I know him that he will command.” There will be no betraying of the truth on his part, no yielding to any guide but one. There is a law, and Abraham will keep it. He is answerable to the Lawgiver, and he will act on that conviction.
PERFECT LAW, AND LIBERTY.
And “I know him that he will command his children.” Not blind affection; not that kind of indulgence which is the veriest cruelty; not that disorder which renders the young the masters of the old: Abraham will command his children. He and they are the subjects of a common Lord. His functions are purely executive. PERFECT LAW,
AND LIBERTY. The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; and parents and children alike are to be ruled by Him. This should equally prevent parental oppression on the one hand, and filial disobedience on the other, and when the laws which we obey are enacted by our Father who is in heaven, when they flow from Him whose heart is love, what but blessings can be the lot at once of him who administers and of those who obey them? By the combined influence of authority and affection, Abraham was thus to rule his home. Like David, he was to walk within his house with a perfect heart, and that is the method by which parents
“May sun them in the light of happy faces.”
If the Holy One has given us rules for the guidance of all, these rules form the standard from which there can be no sinless swerving, and the first principles of holiness have yet to be learned where God’s will is not thus paramount.
THE ONE WILL SUPREME.
And, moreover, his household as well as his children, were to be controlled by the patriarch. He is not one of those who forget that their dependantsT-3 or domestics have souls, and therefore take no interest in them as immortal beings. He did not act as if there were one God for the master and another for the servant; one rule for the superior, another for the inferior; one way for the lordly, and another for the lowly. THE
ONE WILL
SUPREME. Nay, the father of the faithful, combining faith and works in their proper places, “will command his household;” will take the control of it, and see that everything there is done decently and in order. There will be no tampering with a servant’s conscience, and as little conniving at his transgressions. The ten commandments were not yet given; but the spirit of them was a part of Abraham’s believing nature, and he sought to have duty done wherever he had influence, alike by superiors, inferiors, and equals. In a word, like Cornelius after him, he feared the Lord, with all his house.
And farther: the rule, the standard at once for master and servant, is given, “They shall keep the way of the Lord.” Every other path is that of the destroyer; it tends to death, for “the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked.” The question which we should ask in regard to our home religion is not, What is done by others? What do men think? What will the world tolerate? What will be most conducive to present ease or peace? but, What has God said? When that has been ascertained, every departure from it is just a wandering into the way of sorrow. Neither parent nor child, nor any member of a household, need expect to prosper in any path except the way of the Lord; and to anticipate prosperity or peace in any other, just shows that reason is still eclipsed, that conscience is still seared or dormant, that the mind of God is not our mind, that we are still doing as Adam did when he sought happiness in wandering from his Maker.
THE EASTERN PRINCE.
Such, then, are the principles which lie at the foundation of all family rule; these would make our homes a Bethel, and our hearts a shrine. Wherever such fear of God reigns in the soul, accompanied with the love of Christ, there will be peace and holy joy; but every other principle will leave our hearts and homes unblest. Tacitus tells us that “many find it a harder task to govern a family than to rule a province;” and it may be so where God’s law is not known or not regarded. But that law itself is abundantly clear, and the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein. Every family that calls on the name of the Lord should spread out his Word before them, and ask, What has God said? for that is the rule from which neither waywardness on the part of children, nor engrossment on the part of parents, can warrant our departure.—THE
EASTERN
PRINCE.It is computed that the household of Abraham could not contain less than a thousand souls. Living as he did in the rank of an Eastern prince, his retinue was such as we can scarcely understand; and yet, concerning him and his household, Omniscience says: “Commanded by Abraham, they will keep the way of the Lord.” Like Joshua while placed at the head of a migrating nation, and burdened with the care of millions, his resolution was, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Religion was to be planted in the heart of society, that is, in the sacred circle of home; and thence, like the banyan tree, was to spread, and spread, till it had covered or encircled the whole.
EDUCATIONAL INFIDELITY.
EDUCATIONAL
INFIDELITY. And here, as we pass along, it may serve as a warning to some, if we glance at that infidelity which characterizes the schemes of some pretended friends of education and the young. They would divorce religion from education. They would let children grow up without any training in the fear of God. They would develope mind. They would impart secular knowledge; but the knowledge of salvation, of sin, and of redemption from its woe, its bondage, and defilement, they would not name. Passion may grow rampant; the world may be ascendant in the heart, the mind, and all the powers of man, yet youth is to be left unchecked by any heavenly warning, untaught by any heavenly lesson! Now, waiving every other objection to this scheme, we say that it is unequivocally and utterly infidel; it should on that account be branded with the reprobation of all who love the rising race, on the one hand, who know their perils on the other, and who, moreover, feel assured that nothing but the truth of God can either make man savingly wise or keep him so. If God’s favour be a dream, and man’s soul only organized matter, destined to pass away as other matter does, it is needless to be very zealous for one scheme of training in preference to another. But if man be immortal, and if his immortality can be blessed, only by having his mind in harmony with God’s, then the training of the young in the good way of the Lord is a matter of solemn obligation. Man has no choice here. To neglect that way in training, is to arrogate a wisdom superior to God’s, and the man who does that is perhaps blindly and unconsciously, but not the less certainly, evading God’s truth and perpetuating the misery of man’s soul.
But we are too general. Ere we can plant and foster religion in our homes, we must descend into more minute details.
THE SACRED CIRCLE.
THE
SACRED
CIRCLE. Parents here demand the first place, and as the basis of all that can be addressed to them, we observe that the supreme, we might say the single maxim which should guide them in all they do, in regard to the religion of home, is suggested by the question, “What is the way of the Lord?” Parents who do not walk in that way themselves, who find no pleasure there, and feel under no constraint either to seek to enter upon it, or advance after they have entered, will feel no obligation to lead their children or their household there. That is the secret of our godless families, our prayerless homes, our nurseries of folly and of woe. The fountain which should send forth sweet water is poisoned. The tree which should bear grapes produces only wild berries, and society is at once crowded and corrupted by the ungodly children of ungodly parents.
THE ONLY RULE.
But wherever a parent has felt the value of a soul, and loves it—wherever he has found out the good way of the Lord, and tried to walk in it—his guiding inquiry at every step will be, How does the God of all our families instruct us to act? What is his mind at any given point? THE
ONLY
RULE. That once ascertained, it becomes our only rule; and where it is not our only rule, religion in that home is not supreme—all besides is sin. “The nurture and admonition of the Lord”—“The fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom”—“The way in which they ought to go”—These, and similar portions of God’s revealed mind, point at once to the sovereign rule. True, difficulties innumerable meet us in that way. The iniquity that is bound up in the heart of the young—the love of folly, and the hatred of wisdom—devotedness to baubles—indifference to things eternal and divine, with all the array of evil influences which assail or ensnare the young in a world where God is unknown, dishonoured, or forgotten, may augment the godly parent’s difficulties. But difficulties are not the rule of duty. They are only a call to prayer, to dependence on the heavenly Teacher, and, in his strength, to steadfast opposition to all that is wrong, and affectionate encouragement of all that is right and true. The Word of God is thus our only rule; to consult another is to listen to the evil heart of unbelief.
THE PRAYERLESS HOME.
It has no doubt come to pass in our day, that that standard is set aside by many parents who dislike the holiness of the Bible, and would prefer some freer scope to sin than it will tolerate. They overlook the holy requirements of God, and there are many homes where He is never worshipped. THE
PRAYERLESS
HOME. There are children who never heard their parents pray. There are domestics whose souls never drew forth one anxious thought from their employers. The religion of home is, in short, a discarded thing, and souls are trained in ungodliness by those who should watch over them as over their most precious possession. Now, it is needless to add that Christianity is exiled from such homes; the truth, the Spirit, the love of God, are not presiding there. There may be individual Christians under these roofs, who sigh and cry for the reigning ungodliness; or who, in some retired place, have set up an altar where God in Christ is worshipped, as has been done in a miserable cellar, in a home where no other place of prayer was allowed. Such homes, however, are not Christian homes. The practice of Abraham is there reversed: “The way of the Lord” is not observed; and when men wander from it, what can the end be but labour and sorrow?
THE WAY OF THE LORD.
But to a parent who really loves his children, and who would do as the great patriarch did, it would be an important boon, could a brief directory be suggested for Christianizing our homes, or rendering them places where prayer is wont to be made. How shall we subdue the spirit of the world, which is ever seeking to insinuate its deadening influence? How shall we be prepared to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, in our homes? These are questions which enter deeply into the well-being of society; and yet no brief answer can be given applicable to every case. Every parent, impressed with a solemn sense of his own responsibility to God, must here seek daily grace for daily guidance, and make each difficulty, as it rises, a new errand to the throne. Thus only will the religion of the Redeemer preside in our homes, and fit us for “the house of the Lord for ever.” THE WAY
OF THE
LORD. Perhaps the only universal rule that could be given is this: In regard to any action, any pleasure, any practice in our homes, let the question be asked, with the Bible open before us, “Is this the way of the Lord? Is it thus that I can train my children in the way in which they ought to go?” The answer to that, honestly sought and honestly found in prayer to God for light and guidance, would detect many an unholy practice, or repress many an unholy plan. It would make the religion of our homes the religion of Jesus, of purity and peace—the guide who came from heaven to lead us to its glory and its God. It would infuse a right spirit into our catechisings and all our details, and end in raising up godly households in the land.
INORDINATE AFFECTION.
INORDINATE
AFFECTION. Blind parental affection ranks among the greatest obstructions to the religion of home. It prompts indulgences which should be at once put away, and prevents correction where correction is an ordinance of God. It seems to turn the hearts of parents to their children according to the promise, but it is, in truth, like the tender mercies of the wicked, only cruelty in disguise.
And to correct this, let us glance at an incident in the life of Him whom no one will suspect of the want of affection the most profound, for “He loved us, and gave himself for us.”—The hour of the power of darkness was drawing on. His enemies were gradually narrowing the circle around him, and preparing to spring on him at last, as the victim of their hatred unto death. He had intimated to those around him what was about to happen; and Peter, ever resolute, impulsive, and loving, could ill brook the tidings. “Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee,” were the apostle’s ardent and affectionate words; and how did the Saviour regard them? Did he welcome them as a solace to his troubles? Nay, his instant rejoinder was, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” In other words, all-affectionate as the apostle’s remonstrance seems to our minds, it was opposed to the mind and will of God, and whatever bore that character, was offensive to the Redeemer’s holy soul—offensive as Satan himself. Without regarding Peter’s love, then—without treating that as love at all which opposed the appointments of Jehovah, Jesus addressed the apostle just as he had once before addressed the tempter himself. “Get thee hence, Satan,” were his words when asked to fall down and worship Satan; “Get thee behind me, Satan,” was his equally emphatic language to his own apostle, when he pointed to a path which was different from “the way of the Lord.”
And that is written for our instruction. Human affection is only an angel of darkness in the garb of an angel of light, when it would counsel us to walk in any path but God’s. Parents may indulge their natural affection at the expense of His holy law. They may concede what He has forbidden, or withhold what He appoints, but that was never yet done without danger of the second death; and parents not a few have helped to bring their own gray hairs in sorrow to the grave, by such concessions to their offspring. The father or the mother who represses the young soul, and lays burdens upon it which the Word of God does not warrant, ranks among the worst of tyrants or oppressors. The father or the mother who yields where God’s Word opposes, or cheers the young in ways which our Father who is in heaven has forbidden, is cruel to their soul.
ELI.
But we are not left merely to infer the results of a blindfold affection on the part of parents; these results have been made the subject of an affecting revelation; and to show how much depends upon the right discharge of parental duty, we have line upon line and precept upon precept. ELI. The case of Eli, for example, a man who was at once a priest and a ruler in Israel, is recorded for our warning. His sons did wickedly, and he restrained them not. From indolence of nature, or that phase of affection which leads to connivance at sin or pampering the inborn evil of the heart, Eli did not repress iniquity; he suffered it to grow, even in the house of God, without any effectual restraint; and what was the result? It ranks among the most terrific of all that is contained in the Word of God. “Behold I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of the hearer shall tingle”—“When I begin I will also make an end, for I have told Eli that I will judge his house for ever, for the iniquity which he knoweth, because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.” Here is both the sin and the result. The sin—parental neglect, from blindfold affection, or whatsoever cause. The result—an amount of iniquity which was not to be forgiven for ever. Parent and child were to suffer, and neither sacrifice nor offering was found for that transgression “for ever.” Eli was a believer, though compassed about with infirmities; but there is only one other case in all the Word of God where we learn so plainly the eternal portion of any individual soul, as we are told the doom of the godless sons of Eli.
WOE.
In contrast, then, with the conduct of Abraham, that of Eli brings to parents a lesson as distinct as if it were spoken in thunder, or written in light on the face of the heavens. “The way of the Lord” was the path chosen by the one. He walked there, and led his children with him; and like the palm-tree in its fertility, that man was blessed and made a blessing. WOE. But evil without effectual restraint was what Eli tolerated. “The way of the Lord” was forsaken partially by himself, and wholly by his sons; and woe, beyond what tongue can tell, was therefore Eli’s lot while he sojourned here below.
THE MODEL.
Again, in the very constitution of our being the Almighty Maker of heaven and earth has inserted a provision for securing parental ascendency and aiding parental duty. Without dwelling at present or at large on the power of parental affection, responded to by filial love, let us call to mind the fact that the Saviour made a little child his model disciple: THE
MODEL. “He called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst” of his attendants, and made that child the text of one of his marvellous discourses. Now, consider how it is with the minds of children, that parents may be encouraged amid what is often irksome, namely, making our homes so many nurseries for heaven.
A little child, then, was the Saviour’s model disciple; and what are the characteristics of childhood? It is ready to associate with any who are friendly to it. Regardless of external distinctions, it will condescend to men even of the lowest estate.—And is it not thus that they who are born of God should at all times act? Instead of overbearing arrogance, or selfish endeavours to outstrip or supplant, does not the truth as it is in Jesus teach us to do as a little child instinctively does, to condescend to men of low estate? Are we not taught to esteem others better than ourselves, to love as brethren, to be pitiful and courteous?
SIMPLE FAITH.
SIMPLE
FAITH. Farther, we commonly find a little child transparently guileless. Infancy is proverbially artless; it is reserved for advancing years to develope deceit, or mature the power to be false.—And is it not ever so with those who are taughtT-4 of God? They should be pre-eminently men in whom there is no guile, whose word is truth, and whose ways are uprightness. Who has not seen the flushed cheek, the quivering lip, and the downcast eye of youth, when first beginning to deceive? A similar confusion would be produced in the conscience of him who is born from above, were he to yield himself up to the guidance of lies. The little child is here again a model.
Or farther: Mark how devoid of care the infantine are. They repose without forethought or fear upon those whom they love—literally and absolutely, they take no thought for to-morrow. Borne up by the arms of affection, and neither doing nor dreading evil, they are kept in perfect tranquillity: every want is attended to, nay, every want is anticipated. A wisdom beyond what the young can fancy, and a love beyond what they can fathom, are engaged on their behalf, and resting upon these, the helpless and the feeble are safe amid a thousand dangers.
Now, is not that a model to be copied by all who know God’s name, and put their trust in Him? Are we not told that only the Gentiles are anxious and fretful? Is it not announced as a general maxim, to which there can be no exceptive case, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof?” And is not one of the most exquisite proofs of a particular providence that ever gladdened the heart of man, furnished by the Saviour with the flowers of the field and the birds of the air for his text, just meant to produce a child-like confidence in our heavenly Father?8
And once again: Are not children proverbial for their dependence on a parent’s word? Do they not place the most unquestioning confidence in the information of those whom they love? Unless the parent be detected as a deceiver, or unless the child be perverted by the vicious example of those who should train it in the truth, not a doubt is felt regarding the word of those with whom infancy associates. And is not that a perfect model of the trust we should repose in the word of our Father who is in heaven? Are we not both reproved and instructed by such little children, as to implicitly confiding in the promises of the unchanging One?9
Now, these things may well encourage parents in the training of the young. There is already a groundwork prepared. They have materials upon which to operate; and though all is vain without the teaching of the Spirit of God, yet with that and the use of means, the hope may be cherished that a race will be trained to serve the Lord when their fathers are no more.
ALFRED THE GREAT.
A ROYAL CHRISTIAN.
Nor is history devoid of examples tending to enforce the duty of godly training. Of all the names which embellish the history of our island, that of Alfred the Great stands among the foremost. ALFRED THE
GREAT. Equally remarkable for his genius, his wisdom, his godliness, and his trials, we might find in his single case enough to encourage parental painstaking or rebuke parental neglect. Hear how this monarch speaks: A ROYAL
CHRISTIAN. “To thee, O God, I call and speak. Hear, O hear me, Lord! for thou art my God and my Lord, my Father and my Creator, my ruler and my hope, my wealth and my honour, my house, my country, my salvation, and my life! Hear, hear me, O Lord! Few of thy servants comprehend thee. But thee alone I love indeed, above all other things: Thee I seek: Thee I will follow: Thee I am ready to serve. Under thy power I desire to abide, for thou alone art the Sovereign of all. I pray thee to command me as thou wilt.”
A MOTHER’S POWER.
Now, by what process was this youth enabled to make such acquirements in godliness as that prayer betokens? A
MOTHER’S
POWER. It was by a device of his mother, who allured him into paths where he learned that truth which he has so beautifully embodied. Her wise and loving heart struck upon a plan which proved the turning-point in Alfred’s history. It gave or it confirmed that bent of his mind which made him what he was—which led to the enacting of some of the laws which still signalize England among the nations, as well as prompted this memorable address to his son and successor Edward, on Alfred’s dying bed: “We must now part,” the sinking monarch said; “I go to another world, and thou shalt be left alone in all my wealth. I pray thee (for thou art my dear child) strive to be a father and a lord to thy people. Be thou the children’s father and the widow’s friend. Comfort thou the poor, and shelter the weak; and with all thy might, right what is wrong. And, son, govern thyself by law. Then shall the Lord love thee, and God, above all things, shall be thy reward. Call thou upon him to advise thee in all thy need, and so shall he help thee the better to compass what thou wouldest.” Now that, we repeat, and similar examples may well stimulate parental diligence and animate parental hope. In a barbarous age, amid rude and martial men, with superstition seeking to efface all that was divine, and ignorance combining its power to help superstition to accomplish that object, Alfred rose above every obstacle, and stamped impressions upon his country which all time cannot efface.—What can Christian principle in the hands of a godly mother not achieve? What forms may not be impressed upon the molten lead?
A DIFFICULTY:
A
DIFFICULTY: On this subject, however, there is a difficulty which sometimes meets us, at which it may be instructive to glance. On the one hand, we read, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it,” but on the other, it is too well known that even children who have been trained by godly parents often go astray. They make haste to abandon the narrow path as soon as they dare, and plunge into sin as if they were determined to show how boldly they can trample upon all that is sacred or constraining. How many a parent’s heart is at this moment aching, or how many have gone down in sorrow to the grave, lamenting the iniquity of those whom they had tried to train, or for whom they had watched and prayed! Ten thousand mothers have had Monica’s trials, without living to share her joy, and the homes which should have been like temples of religion, have become the abodes of woe.
Now, how is this apparent contradiction to be explained? The Scriptures say, “Train up a child in the way that he should go,” and add the assurance, “When he is old, he will not depart from it;” but, in opposition to that, we see some of the children of godly parents plunging into sin; and how do we explain the seeming contradiction?
—ITS EXPLANATION.
—ITS
EXPLANATION. We explain it just by stating the truth. The child who has gone astray never was in the right way: he refused so much as to enter it. His training was a burden and an offence. Fear might compel him to comply with a form for a season. The parent took pains; he corrected the child, perhaps through tears; he warned; he prayed; but the heart was never won to God. The iniquity which was bound up in the heart of that child resisted every appliance. Sin was still loved. It was turned like a sweet morsel under the tongue. Holiness continued to be disliked. The constraints of a Christian home were like fetters to that child; and, when his pent-up iniquity broke out at last, it was only the open display of what had always been latently ruling. In a word, he had not been trained, nay, he had resisted every attempt to train him, in the way in which he ought to go. He might be the inmate of a Christian home; but he never had a Christian heart; the truth of God was repelled; the Spirit of God was quenched; and the explanation is:—“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”
On the other hand, however, does some child receive the truth into the heart? Does sin become an offence? Is the Word of God loved? Is the salvation of God sought? Then that child is trained in the way in which he ought to go. There may yet come an eclipse of faith. Temptation may for a season prevail, and the world may appear to have regained the mastery. But if the nurture and admonition of the Lord has been welcomed into the heart, as the Spirit imparts his blessing, the effect produced will never fade utterly away. Out of the mouth of such a one God will perfect praise; and while some companion beside him is growing up in wickedness, or casting the Word of God behind his back—searing the conscience, hardening the heart, and ruining the soul—the other is growing up to the stature of a perfect man in Christ. Like a tree planted by the rivers of water, he bears his fruit in his season, and all he does shall prosper.
THE WORLD—ITS ANTIDOTE.
But further, the subject of parental training suggests a question which occasions not a little perplexity to some Christian minds. We refer to the line which separates the unquestionably worldly from the decidedly Christian, in the training of the young. There are practices on which every Christian parent must frown, and from which he must recoil, if he would not promote the ruin, by fostering the worldly-mindedness, of his children; but there are intermediate practices, regarding which he may find it more difficult to decide, and upon this point we quote the authority of one whose weighty words all who would not conspire with the world against their own children, should very gravely ponder. Dr. Chalmers says: THE WORLD—
ITS ANTIDOTE. “In the face of every hazard to the worldly interests of his offspring, will a Christian parent bring them up in the strict nurture and admonition of the Lord; and he will loudly protest against iniquity, in all its degrees and in all its modifications; and while the power of discipline remains with him, will it ever be exerted on the side of pure, faultless, undeviating obedience; and he will tolerate no exception whatever; and he will brave all that looks formidable in singularity, and all that looks menacing in separation from the custom and countenance of the world; and feeling that his main concern is to secure for himself and for his family a place in the city which hath foundations, will he spurn all the maxims and all the plausibilities of a contagious neighbourhood away from him.”10
FAMILY WORSHIP.
But it is more than time that we should proceed to refer to the duties of Children. Had it been our object to submit detailed directions for a Christian home, we must have spoken at length of the cardinal duty of family worship, without which, it should never be disguised for a moment, our homes cannot be Christian. FAMILY
WORSHIP. The household in which God is not worshipped is like a ship at sea without a pilot or a helm, while the tempest is rising and threatening to rage. However majestic the vessel or costly the cargo, she is at the mercy of the first rock—it may be, the very first wave. “Him that honoureth God, God will honour; but he that despiseth God shall be lightly esteemed;” and the neglect of this honour is, beyond all controversy, one cause of the degeneracy which is now so apparent in many spheres.
Or we must have told that parents, and very specially that mothers, should deal with their children from time to time, as only Christian mothers can do, regarding the state of the soul, according to the measure of the young capacity. To stimulate them to that duty, we might quote or enforce the words of a man much honoured of God: “Ah, could you see your children standing at the bar of Christ, unconverted, through an affectionate mother’s neglect of their souls, how would the scene rend your hearts with anguish!”11
SABBATH SCHOOLS—THEIR USE AND ABUSE.
Or we must have dwelt on the fact that no parent is at liberty to devolve the Christian training of his child upon another. It is the primary law of God over all, that the parent should see to the child’s religious training; and the home in which that is neglected, is one where a large portion of the law of God is ignored. Sabbath-schools have been blessed beyond what can be told, to remedy existing evils—to roll back, or at least repress, the rising tide of iniquity; and multitudes will rejoice for ever over such institutions. SABBATH
SCHOOLS—
THEIR USE
AND ABUSE. In the state of degradation into which multitudes have sunk, they have long been our only hope—but they belong to a diseased state of society. They are for those who would otherwise be neglected or outcast, and can never supersede the obligation imposed upon all parents, without exception, to bring up their children in the nurture of the Lord.
Or, in providing for the Christianizing of men’s homes, we might have spoken on the subject of correction, and told that, in spite of modern theories to the contrary, that is an ordinance of God—though never to be employed till all else has failed, and to be administered, when administered at all, through tears, as giving more pain to the parent who corrects, than to the child who is corrected.
CHILDREN—THEIR ONLY RULE.
Or, in adverting to the ascendency of Christian principle in our homes, we might mention the need of care on the part of parents, lest they commit their children to paths, in regard to this world’s business, where a very miracle of grace is needed to save them from destruction. CHILDREN—
THEIR ONLY
RULE. Who can doubt, that in selecting the school where their offspring shall be trained, or the master whom they shall serve, or the profession which they shall follow, many a parent has sacrificed his child to the god of this world? This is a sore evil; and in an age like ours, when even the souls of men are made a matter of merchandise, a Christian parent will beware lest he expose inexperienced youth amid scenes where everlasting destruction may await the soul.
But these we only name, and now offer one suggestion to the young themselves: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord;” or, “Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord.”—These are the Scriptural injunctions, from which there can be no swerving without committing sin. Did parents issue some command contrary to the Word of God, then a Christian child must decline obeying it, for that child is bound by a higher allegiance to God; but in all common cases, the parent is in God’s place to the child. The parent’s will is law—a law which cannot be broken without guilt. That law, indeed, is to be administered with the sceptre of love, and not with a rod of iron; and while children are to obey their parents, “parents are not to provoke their children to wrath.” But still, the unvarying rule is—the parent’s will is supreme; and wherever filial affection reigns, that law will be sacredly observed, because it is founded on the authority of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is guarded on the one hand by the promise of blessings to the obedient, and on the other by such words as these: “He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind.” Insubordination here is the root of wrath and woe.
MASTER AND SERVANT.
Next to the relation of husband and wife, and parent and child, stands that of master and servant; and here also our homes should be presided over by Christian principle. MASTER
AND
SERVANT. On the one hand, there is obedience due even to the forward; and on the other, there is care and kindness—kindness to the souls of our domestics, as well as in other respects. In our mercenary and utilitarian age, when human beings are often regarded by hard-minded men, only as so much living machinery, and when the chief question concerning them is too often the same as that which is employed concerning the beasts that perish—How can their flesh and blood be turned to most profitable account?—this relation is often formed or conducted upon principles the reverse of Christian. The employed are too ready to prey upon the employer, while he treats them with lordly indifference or with heartless disregard. They are thus often arrayed against each other, like natural enemies, instead of being united, as mutually dependent.
But a better day has dawned, in which the bonds which unite master and servant are better understood. If servants are to act like those who serve the Lord Christ, and to do their duty heartily as unto the Lord, masters are to beware lest their dependants be hindered in that service by selfish exaction or inconsiderate unkindness. This relation is not a merely mercenary one—it is degraded when viewed only in that light. It has moral elements mixed up with it now, as in the days of old, when Abraham commanded his household, as well as his children, to “keep the way of the Lord.” The soul as well as the body, eternity as well as time, are to be kept in view in this as in every relation; and never was that principle outraged without eventual injury to all. It is much to oppress the hireling, or rob him of his wages; but it is more to defraud the soul of its due. It is much to occasion pain by haughtiness or harshness; but it is more to coerce or to sully the conscience; and the Bible is not the lamp of that home where souls are thus defrauded.
“NOT AT HOME”—A LIE.
And who can ever compute the guilt of those who tamper with a servant’s truthfulness, and train her to falsehood, to screen them from intruders? “NOT AT HOME”
—A LIE. That form of sin is perhaps now well-nigh banished to the highest ranks, and to those who mimic their example; but we can picture no more certain process for defacing all that is pure and lovely in a soul, than the practice to which we advert. And when such a habit as the utterance of a falsehood, for any purpose, is imposed upon a servant, that servant should resolutely reject it. There may come the storm of the cruel seducer’s anger; but better that than the tempest of the Judge’s wrath. There may come homelessness or poverty; but better that than a polluted conscience and a shipwrecked faith. Stanch Christian principle never yet inflicted a lasting injury upon any one, and he need not be afraid for what man can do, who has learned humbly, but firmly, to say, “It is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment.... He that judgeth me is the Lord.”12
CHRISTIAN HOMES.
Nor let us fail to remark, that it was for the guidance of servants that these memorable words were inspired: “Exhort servants to be obedient to their masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; not purloining, but showing all good fidelity;” and mark the lofty motive, “that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.” That is surely truest dignity, and again we say, How would domestic life be sweetened; how would many of our sins be compelled to hide their head ashamed; how would the lowly be exalted; how would the general aspect of society be changed—were our homes Christian homes in this respect! CHRISTIAN
HOMES. Were masters in their spheres, and servants in theirs, alike setting the Lord before them, alike serving him, alike “walking in the way of the Lord”—that one maxim steadfastly obeyed, would revolutionize many a home for good. No petty invasion then of another’s rights on the one hand; no haughty neglect upon the other;—all would be well-ordered, for all would be according to the mind of God.13
THE TYPE OF HEAVEN.
And with this all before us, let fathers, mothers, and children—let masters and servants, or the employer and the employed, decide—Are they realizing their responsibility? Are they seeking the eternal good of those with whom they are connected? Are they enduring no wicked thing before their eyes, according to the Word of the Eternal? We know that a parent, for example, cannot impart grace to his child; nay, some of those whom parents most fondly cherish, may turn at last and rend them. But may not the hope be cherished that the blessing of God upon the use of means will turn the hearts of the children to the parents; or better still, to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? May not parents hope, that in answer to their prayers and their pains, God will guide the young to Him whom these parents fear, to the Saviour whom they love, and the heavenly abode of which a Christian home on earth is the vestibule or type? THE
TYPE OF
HEAVEN. Let parents pray for that result; let them labour for it; let them hope for it; and the Spirit of God may thus honour them to win the young to Christ. But how terrific the portion of the parent who shall meet his child in the presence of God, when that child has perished through the parent’s sin! How blessed, how double the heaven, which is the home at once of parent and of child!
THE HAPPY HOME.
THE
HAPPY
HOME. Would men then be happy? Let the love of Christ reign in their homes. Let them yield to that heavenly power which alone can quell tumultuous passion, or charm away the unhallowed effects of sin from scenes which should ever be sacred to holiness and peace. That love should well up in the Christian soul like a stream in the desert, refreshing all, and turning sterility into greenness. Now, is that the case? Has the truth been lodged in the heart? Is the mind of God, the law of the Lord, our guide? Then the cheerfulness of heavenly peace will glance through our abodes. They may be only a straw-built shed, or they may be the halls of the princely; but wherever the love of Jesus reigns, there is peace with God, joy in God, and preparation to be for ever with Him.
