3. _Obedience._--Responsive to His will as a part of
Himself.--_G. Brooks._
Ver. 33. _The Sanctity of Home Life._--The Christian home is the
corner-stone of modern civilisation--the best fruit Christianity has
yielded the earth. The Anglo-Saxon home is the crowning glory of the
race. Contrast it with French home life, or the miserable home life
in Utah! National self-preservation demands a vigorous uprooting of
Mormon polygamy and Western divorce lawlessness. That which is
punished as a crime in the best and purest Christian lands must be
punished as a crime wherever it is found. Garfield kissing his mother
and his wife at his Inauguration was a sweet revelation of holy
family life.--_Homiletic Monthly._
* * * * * * * *
+CHAPTER VI.+
_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._
Ver. 1. +Children, obey.+--Until the days of discretion arrive this
is the grace of childhood. If through obedience the child errs, the
responsibility of that is with those who have commanded. It is only a
"surrendered soul" that can sing:
"I would be treated as a child,
And guided where I go."
Ver. 2. +Honour thy father and mother.+--As long as they are so.
Ver. 3. +That it may be well with thee.+--If ever "that it may be"
could mean "and so it shall be," we should strenuously plead for that
meaning here. For it would be a pitiable thing indeed to find a man
showing filial piety as a profitable course.
Ver. 4. +Nurture and admonition.+--The former word is more general
than the latter, including everything that goes to the instruction of
the child. "Admonition" is reproof, either of word or punishment, or
yet again, warning.
Ver. 5. +Servants, be obedient.+--R.V. margin, "bond-servants." There
was One who had "become obedient even unto death," having "taken the
form of a bond-servant" (Phil. ii. 7). +With fear and
trembling.+--"With that zeal which is ever keenly apprehensive of not
doing enough" (_Meyer_). The same phrase is used of the way in which
our personal salvation is to be worked out (Phil. ii. 12).
Ver. 6. +Not with eyeservice.+--A word used only by St. Paul. The
thing it describes is easily recognised to-day.
Ver. 7. +With good will doing service.+--If a philosopher-slave like
Epictetus could rise superior to his condition, surely Christianity
could do as much for the humblest believer.