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? THE
PROVINCE
OF TRUTH. 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
SOUNDING
BRASS. 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.” 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. PERFECT LAW,
AND LIBERTY. 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.”