A Lamp to the Path / Or, The Word of God in the Heart, the Home, the Workshop and the Market-Place

by W. K. Tweedie

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? THE
ONLY
RULE. 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. THE
PRAYERLESS
HOME. 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.” THE WAY
OF THE
LORD. 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.

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.”