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, "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? 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 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."
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. 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 dependants[*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. 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.--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.
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.
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? 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. 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." 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.
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. 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. 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/: "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.
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 taught[*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.
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: "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? 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:
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.
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: "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.
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. 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. 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. 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? 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! 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?
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.
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.