Sunday at Home.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 4, 22 April 1893, Page 7

Sunday at Home.

RELIGION IN THE FAMILY. (By the Kev. J. Anderson Gardiner, 8.A., Bluff.) “ Hide not thyself from thine own flesh.” —Isaiah LVIII., 7. The family has been chosen, in the Divine wisdom, as the source thx-ough which alone the earth is peopled, as the basis of human society. No other sphere of actioxx px-esents the same capabilities of doing good. If the highest work which a man can pex--foi'm, if the noblest pux-pose which he can entertain, if the crown and glory of all his labour be to bxing souls to Christ, where are there such possibilities of doing so as within the bosom of the family, in the circle of one’s own nearest and dearest P If we have the vital light of truth within ourselves, will not its rays stx-ike with greatest fox-ce and bx-ightness upon those who are always standing in our px-esence ? If we be living epistles known and i-ead of men at all, must Ave hot be knoAvn best and read most attentively by those avlxo ax-e most intimate rvith us ? If, by our good Avox-ks avc can influence any heart to glox-ify God, surely Ave can most readily so influence those Avho are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, fx-om Avhose thoughts we are hardly ever absent, Avhose hearts are bound to us Avith the cords of affection, upon whose natures we haveimpx'essed our pex-sonality. What, indeed, can be said of those Avho px-ofess their desire to spread the kingdom of Christ, Avho appeal- to be in earnest in Avishing to sex*ve God, and yet Avho OA r ei'look and neglect the sphere of activity which is dearest and nearest to them, Avho pass by the oppoi-tunitics Avhich night and day their OAvn homes present to them, Avho never seem to see in the ordinary routine of their daily lives the occasions of holiness, nor in the persons Avho are unto them as sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, the souls which have been given them to train and cherish, the precious jeAvels of God, for Avhose safe keeping they shall one day be made an say ex-able ? What excuse or explanation can Ave offer for those Avho, professing to hav r e been bought by the blood of the Lord, and made felloAA r -Avox-kers in His holy cause, “ hide themselves from their oavu flesh,” —px-ovide not spiritual things for those of their own house, and yet do not recognise that they have denied the faith, and are worse than infidels P “ Theix- young childx-en ask bread and no man breaketh it unto them.” Do we not hear their voice because, forsooth, it utters itself not in words, or articulate sounds ? Are we deaf because the cry is only the dumb eloquence of their necessities and their pains ? Why, if our spix-itual ears were not stopped, every evil habit which manifested itself in tnem, every sin which they committed, e\ r exy temptation to which they yielded, evexy ebullition of self-will, every suffering inflicted upon themselves thi-ough ignorance, every out-burst of discontentment AA r ould be all unto us as so many voices asking piteously, pleading earnestly for something that would help and sustain them, for bx-ead, the bx-ead of light and of life, the A\ r oi’d of God and His Chx-ist.