Book-10-The Home

The Home Text.—“And they went unto their own home.”—

1Sa 2:20.

ONE of the best evidences of civiliza­tion is the dwelling. Every man should strive to own his own home. He then becomes interested in the country in which he lives, and feels himself a part of it. To be able to pay taxes to the Government on real estate is an honor. It gives to the man a feeling of indepen­dence, and he feels that his home is his castle and that under its roof he has security.

What It Should Be.—The home should be more than a place in which to eat and sleep and grunt. It should be a place of fellowship. Fountains of love should be seen springing up in every direction. Words of kindness should be heard on every hand. A home must be more than four brick walls with elegant rooms filled with fine and costly furniture. It should be a place where personalities blend and where affection, fidelity and loyal service are rendered. No man can be a good citizen who is not devoted to his home. He should prize it as the most holy and most sacred spot on earth. When a na­tion loses its love for the home it begins to decay.

There are homes in this country only in name. The fathers are strangers to their children. They spend their spare time at the lodge-rooms, on the streets and in the places of amusement. The mothers spend their time at the clubs, at the card parties, at the social gatherings and on the streets. The children are left to run at large and are being trained for the criminal courts and the prisons. The woman is at her best when she is a keeper at home. The ambition of some women is to enter politics and hold office. Wo­man clamors for her rights. She should know that in the home she is queen and that her home is her kingdom. It is here that she has the opportunity to influence the national life. The mother of James

A. Garfield made it possible for her son to become the President of the United States. Were you to study the lives of the men who have become prominent in the world’s history, you would discover that their success was made possible by consecrated motherhood. The Home Should Be Dedicated to God.—It should be just as sacred as the house of worship. It should be a place of worship. The altar should be erected, and we should be on intimate terms with Jehovah. Like the old patriarch, we should exclaim: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Jos 24:15). The apostle exhorts that men pray everywhere (1Ti 5:17-18). We are to pray without ceasing (1Th 5:17). The curse of God rests upon the home that has refused to acknowledge him. “Pour out thy fury upon the hea­then and upon the families that call not upon thy name” (Jer 10:25). The fam­ily is older than the church. The first re­ligion was a family religion. The father was the priest or minister. Noah builded an altar when he came out of the ark, and he worshiped God. Cornelius, the Gen­tile centurion, prayed to God with his house. When a man and woman unite their hearts and start in life together, they should take Christ as their silent partner. They should have him always as the honored guest in the home. A home with Jesus in it is a wealthy home; a home with no Jesus is a home of poverty, even though it be made out of the finest material and furnished with the most beautiful and most costly furniture. A little child was in the habit of visit­ing the child in the home of a rich man. It looked at the magnificent paintings and the many beautiful toys, and said to its little playmate: ⁱ ‘ Me do not have any nice paintings and nice toys in my home, but me has Jesus in my home. Does you have Jesus in your home?” When the child went home the little one in this home said to the parents: “Does we have Jesus in our home?” I’d rather live in a cabin by the side of the road, with bare floors and bare walls, and have to sleep in a bed of straw, with the consciousness of Jesus in my home, than to live in a mansion with all of the modem comforts and no Jesus. The Bible Should Have a Prominent Place in the Home.—It should not be one of these fancy, great big books to be placed on the center-table as an ornament, and a thing in which to record births and divorces—I beg your pardon, we do not record them, but it should be placed where it can be used by all the members of the home. At least once a day one of the parents should take it down and open its pages and read its great truths to the children. A Bible school should be or­ganized in the home. Israel was com­manded to make the Commandments known unto their children. “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul dili­gently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes saw, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life; but make them known unto thy children and thy children’s children; the day that thou stoodest before Jehovah thy God in Horeb, when Jehovah said unto me, As­semble me the people, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children” (Dent. 4:9, 10). “And that thon mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son’s son, what things I have wrought upon Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know that I am Jehovah” (Exo 10:2). “Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul; and ye shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, talking of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates; that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which Jehovah sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth” (Deu 11:18-21). The Psalmist tells us that it was ob­ligatory upon Israel to instruct the chil­dren in the words of Jehovah. (See seven­ty-eighth Psalm.) They were to make the words known, that the generations to come might know them, even the children that should be born. Timothy had known the Scriptures from his childhood. He had a mother and a grandmother who taught them to him.

There Must Be Law in the Home.— We are living in an age when discipline is discouraged. If a child is not taught to respect law and to render obedience in the home, when it becomes grown it will, in all probability, become an anarchist. The old patriarch said: “For 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” (Gen 18:19).

“He that spareth his rod hateth his son; but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes” (Pro 13:24). This doc­trine would be considered out of date by some of the modern psychologists. “Chast­en thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying” (Pro 19:18). “The rod and reproof give wis­dom; but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. Correct thy son, and he shall give delight unto thy soul” (Pro 29:15-17). The wise man exhorts ns to bring up the child in the way he should go. Today we are bringing them up in the way they would go. Often the czar in the home is the little chap that occupies the high chair, and the rattle is his scepter and he permits the family to compose his parliament. There is but little chance for a child under such influ­ences. He is never taught to mind, and when he gets older he will speak of the father as the “old man,” and the mother as the “old woman.” He will never re­spect law. He is destined to be a lawless creature. The True Home Should Have One Law.—The parents should be of one mind. When one disagrees and the child finds it out, the blunder has been made. There will come a time when the final test must be made. Often the fatal mistake is made at this time. The parents let go the reins and the child is permitted to have its way, and soon it has gone wild, and ruin and disgrace follow. When we see a child en route to the reformatory we pity the child and wonder if the fault was not with the parents. Take the case of David and Absalom. Children should be taught to honor the parents as the Lord God hath commanded them; that their days may be long, and that it may go well with them in the land which the Lord God giveth unto them. Let us take the advice of one who could speak with authority: “My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother; bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou wakest, it shall talk with thee” (Pro 6:20-22).

Some day we shall appreciate our homes, and we shall remember the words that fell from our lips which were spoken in anger and which wounded to the red. It is sad to think of the day when the family is scattered and the voice of chil­dren is no more heard, and the old peo­ple sit by the open grate through the long winter nights and live again the past. The home on earth must be forsaken; but we rejoice in the promise of our Lord, who is preparing a home for us in which there are many mansions, and which shall be our eternal home, in which the Master shall dwell with us.

One of the saddest things I ever wit­nessed was in Pennsylvania. It was an old woman who had followed her son from a strange land to America, and with the promise that she should live with him. He married, and the wife drove the wo­man from the home. She could not speak the language of her new country and was taken to the poorhouse to spend her days. She would walk up and down the corri­dors of the building, wringing her hands and crying. I asked the keeper to tell me what was her trouble. He told me that she was heartbroken and now crazy, and that she was crying because she was a homeless one and in a strange land. I have often wondered what it will mean to be a homeless one in eternity! To go into that land unacquainted with the lan­guage, and no inheritance! It must be so to all who die out of Christ.