+I. The duties parents owe to their children.+--1. _Children are weak
and helpless and totally incapable of caring for themselves_--hence
arises the first duty which parents owe them, that of feeding and
clothing them. 2. _Are ignorant and without understanding_--hence
they should not only be fed but taught. 3. _Are unruly, and therefore
must be governed._ 4. _Are prone to evil, and therefore must be
restrained._
+II. The obligations parents are under to practise these
duties.+--1. _They should do it for their own sakes._ 2. _For their
children's sake._ 3. _For society's sake._ 4. _For God's sake._
+Learn.+--1. _The practicability of a religious education._ 2. _How
awful is the responsibility of parents--of fathers
especially.--Sketches._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 5-9.
_The Duties of Servants and Masters._
+I. The duty of the servant to the master is to obey.+--1. _This
obedience is to be rendered with conscientious solicitude._ "With
fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart; . . . not with
eyeservice, as menpleasers" (vers. 5, 6). There must be a _genuine
care for our work._ "Be obedient, with fear and trembling." The fear
enjoined is no dread of human displeasure, of the master's whip or
tongue. It is the same fear and trembling with which we are bidden to
work out our own salvation (Phil. ii. 12). The inward work of the
soul's salvation and the outward work of the busy hands labouring in
the mine, or at the loom, or in the lowliest domestic duties--all
alike are to be performed under a solemn responsibility to God and in
the presence of Christ, the Lord of nature and of men. No man,
whether he be a minister of state or a stable-groom, will dare to do
heedless work who lives and acts in that august Presence. The sense
of Christ's Lordship ensures _honesty in work._ "Not with eyeservice,
as menpleasers." It is the common fault and temptation of servants in
all degrees to observe the master's eye, and to work busily or
slackly as they are watched or not. Such workmen act as they do
because they look to men and not to God. Their work is without
conscience and self-respect. Let us all adopt St. Paul's maxim; it
will be an immense economy. What armies of overlookers and inspectors
we shall be able to dismiss when every servant works as well behind
his master's back as to his face, when every manufacturer and
shopkeeper puts himself in the purchaser's place and deals as he
would have others deal with him (_Findlay_).
2. _This obedience should be cheerful and hearty as rendered unto a
higher than an earthly master._--"As unto Christ; . . . doing the
will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the
Lord, and not to men" (vers. 5-7). Obedience should be not only
careful and honest, but hearty. The heart is the source of our
greatest power. Nothing can be translated into an act that has not
first been conceived and set in motion by the heart. As the stroke of
the piston sets in motion the most complicated machinery and produces
certain results, so the throb of the heart brings all our activities
into play and gives direction and character to our work. The worth of
our work as a whole will be decided by the heartiness we throw into
every single duty. Workmanship counts for much. I have read of a
chain, weighing two ounces, costing £170, being 163,000 times more
than the value of the original bit of iron from which it was made.
The work of the artist made all the difference; he put into it his
best self, his heart, his genius. So in the works of the divine
Creator. The symmetry, the beauty, the perfect balance and shining
magnificence of the world are the result of the patient work and
hearty enthusiasm with which the great Architect has put together and
finished the most minute parts of the planet.
3. _Genuine obedience is always rewarded._--"Whatsoever good thing
any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord" (ver. 8). Even
in this world conscientious work is not without reward. "In all
labour there is profit. The diligent hand maketh rich." A stationer
settling a large account with a paper-manufacturer said: "I owe all
my success in business to you; but let me ask you how a man of your
caution came to give credit so readily to a beginner of my slender
means?" "Because," said the paper-maker, "at whatever hour in the
mourning I passed to my business, I always observed you at yours with
your coat off." Work gives character, and is the pathway to success
and wealth. But in the world to come, when servant and master stand
before the bar of Christ, reward will be equitably meted out
according to the work of each.
+II. The duty of the master is to act towards his servant on the same
principles as obedience to himself is regulated.+--"And, ye masters,
do the same things unto them" (ver. 9). The master is to put himself
in the place of his servant, and act towards him as he would desire
to be treated if their positions were reversed. It is a practical
application of the great rule, "Whatsoever ye would that men should
do unto you, do ye even so to them"--a rule we are in danger of
interpreting on one side only: our own side.
1. _To avoid irritating severity._--"Forbearing threatening" (ver.
9). The slave in early times was treated as scarcely human, and was
ruled by the fear of punishment. Christianity in the beginning did
not interfere with domestic slavery; but it introduced principles
which, wherever adopted, utterly abolished slavery. The Christian
master cannot act on the policy of cruelty, but treats his servants
with justice and kindness.
2. _To remember that both are servants of a higher and impartial
Master._--"Knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is
there respect of persons with Him" (ver. 9). A party of friends
setting out together upon a journey soon find it to be the best for
all sides that while they are upon the road one of the company should
wait upon the rest, another ride forward to seek out lodging and
entertainment, a third carry the portmanteau, a fourth take charge of
the horses, a fifth bear the purse, conduct, and direct the route;
not forgetting, however, that as they were equal and independent when
they set out, so they are all to return to a level again at their
journey's end. The same regard and respect, the same forbearance,
lenity, and reserve in using their service, the same mildness in
delivering commands, the same study to make their journey comfortable
and pleasant which he whose lot it was to direct the rest would in
common decency think himself bound to observe towards them, ought we
to show to those who, in the casting of the parts of human society,
happen to be placed within our power or to depend upon us (_Paley_).
Master and man must give an account to Him who will judge every act
according to its merit.
+Lessons.+--1. _Masters and servants are amenable to Divine law._
2. _Neither master nor servant gains any advantage by tactics that
violate Divine law._ 3. _Where the Christian spirit predominates
trade disputes will soon be satisfactorily settled._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._