parental authority be taught and enforced as the first step in obedience to the authority
of God.
The light esteem in which the law of God is held, even by religious leaders, has
been productive of great evil. The teaching which has become so widespread, that the
divine statutes are no longer binding upon men, is the same as idolatry in its effect
upon the morals of the people. Those who seek to lessen the claims of God’s holy
law are striking directly at the foundation of the government of families and nations.
Religious parents, failing to walk in his statutes, do not command their household to
keep the way of the Lord. The law of God is not made the rule of life. The children,
as they make homes of their own, feel under no obligation to teach their children what
they themselves have never been taught. And this is why there are so many godless
families; this is why depravity is so deep and widespread.
Not until parents themselves walk in the law of the Lord with perfect hearts will
they be prepared to command their children after them. A reformation in this respect
is needed—a reformation which shall be deep and broad. Parents need to reform;
ministers need to reform; they need God in their households. If they would see a
different state of things, they must bring his word into their families and must make
it their counselor. They must teach their children that it is the voice of God addressed
to them, and is to be implicitly obeyed. They should patiently instruct their children,
kindly and untiringly teach them how to live in order to please God. The children of
such a household are prepared to meet the sophistries of infidelity. They have accepted
the Bible as the basis of their faith, and they have a foundation that cannot be swept
away by the incoming tide of skepticism.
In too many households prayer is neglected. Parents feel that they have no time
for morning and evening worship. They cannot spare a few moments to be spent
in thanksgiving to God for his abundant mercies—for the blessed sunshine and the
showers of rain, which cause vegetation to flourish, and for the guardianship of holy
angels. They have no time to offer prayer for divine help and guidance and for the
abiding presence of Jesus in the household. They go forth to labor as the ox or the
horse goes, without one thought of God or heaven. They have souls so precious that
rather than permit them to be hopelessly lost, the Son of God gave his life to ransom
them; but they have little more
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appreciation of his great goodness than have the beasts that perish.
Like the patriarchs of old, those who profess to love God should erect an altar to
the Lord wherever they pitch their tent. If ever there was a time when every house
should be a house of prayer, it is now. Fathers and mothers should often lift up their
hearts to God in humble supplication for themselves and their children. Let the father,
as priest of the household, lay upon the altar of God the morning and evening sacrifice,
while the wife and children unite in prayer and praise. In such a household Jesus will
love to tarry.
From every Christian home a holy light should shine forth. Love should be
revealed in action. It should flow out in all home intercourse, showing itself in
thoughtful kindness, in gentle, unselfish courtesy. There are homes where this
principle is carried out—homes where God is worshiped and truest love reigns. From
these homes morning and evening prayer ascends to God as sweet incense, and his
mercies and blessings descend upon the suppliants like the morning dew.
A well-ordered Christian household is a powerful argument in favor of the reality
of the Christian religion—an argument that the infidel cannot gainsay. All can see that
there is an influence at work in the family that affects the children, and that the God of
Abraham is with them. If the homes of professed Christians had a right religious mold,
they would exert a mighty influence for good. They would indeed be the “light of the
world.” The God of heaven speaks to every faithful parent in the words addressed to
Abraham: “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; that the
Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.”
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Chap. 13 - The Test of Faith
This chapter is based on Genesis 16;. 17:18;. 21 and. 22.
Abraham had accepted without question the promise of a son, but he did not wait
for God to fulfill his word in his own time and way. A delay was permitted, to test
his faith in the power of God; but he failed to endure the trial. Thinking it impossible
that a child should be given her in her old age, Sarah suggested, as a plan by which
the divine purpose might be fulfilled, that one of her handmaidens should be taken by
Abraham as a secondary wife. Polygamy had become so widespread that it had ceased
to be regarded as a sin, but it was no less a violation of the law of God, and was fatal
to the sacredness and peace of the family relation. Abraham’s marriage with Hagar
resulted in evil, not only to his own household, but to future generations.
Flattered with the honor of her new position as Abraham’s wife, and hoping to be
the mother of the great nation to descend from him, Hagar became proud and boastful,
and treated her mistress with contempt. Mutual jealousies disturbed the peace of
the once happy home. Forced to listen to the complaints of both, Abraham vainly
endeavored to restore harmony. Though it was at Sarah’s earnest entreaty that he had
married Hagar, she now reproached him as the one at fault. She desired to banish her
rival; but Abraham refused to permit this; for Hagar was to be the mother of his child,
as he fondly hoped, the son of promise. She was Sarah’s servant, however, and he
still left her to the control of her mistress. Hagar’s haughty spirit would not brook the
harshness which her insolence had provoked. “When Sarai dealt hardly with her, she
fled from her face.”
She made her way to the desert, and as she rested beside a fountain, lonely and
friendless, an angel of the Lord, in human form, appeared to her. Addressing her as
“Hagar, Sarai’s maid,” to remind her of her position and her duty, he bade her, “Return
