Plain Words for Christ, Being a Series of Readings for Working Men — John Shaqi
Plain Words for Christ, Being a Series of Readings for Working MenDutton, Reginald G.
Religion
Plain Words for Christ, Being a Series of Readings for Working Men
Dutton, Reginald G.
Christian life; Religion
But the home can only be really home in the truest and best sense of the
word, when the people who live there make it home-like. It need have no
costly adornments, but every member of the family should have "the
ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of
great price." There should be no display of angry tempers, or of hard
words. Kindness should reign there; gentleness and love should be
practised there. In short, that home can only be a happy one which is a
copy of the home in heaven. Parents have a very solemn and important
duty to perform here. It is for them to make their homes not nurseries
of vice and sin, but homes of love and happiness, where Jesus and His
angels will be glad to come. How many men and women there are who can
trace an evil, misspent, sinful life back to their early home. It was,
may be, from a father’s lips they first learnt to swear; perhaps from a
mother’s example they first learnt to lie. And the children, too, have
a solemn duty to perform with regard to home. There are life lessons
which must be learnt at home, if we would learn them at all. Obedience,
purity, love, and piety, all must be learnt at home; and if these are
indeed to be found there, the home on earth is a fit type of the home in
heaven.
Reader, are you doing your utmost to make your home on earth like the
home beyond? Perhaps you have never thought much about it. Perhaps you
have never considered that there was any connection between them. But
there is; there should be. They should be, as it were, the same home,
separated indeed by a narrow gulf, but joined by a bridge over which all
must pass, even death itself.
Some people look upon death quite wrongly, for this reason. If one of
their children die, they almost think that when the earth covers it they
will never see it again; but the Bible does not teach that. Rather
should we feel, in the beautiful words of the hymn, that our little ones
are going home--
"They are going--only going--
Jesus called them long ago;
All the wintry time they’re passing
Softly as the falling snow.
When the violets in the spring-time
Catch the azure of the sky,
They are carried out to slumber
Sweetly, where the violets lie.
All along the mighty ages,
All adown the solemn time,
They have taken up their homeward
March to a serener clime,
Where the watching, waiting angels
Lead them from the shadow dim,
To the brightness of His Presence
Who has called them unto Him."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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