^ Joshua's words have had a long and active life. Not only are they enshrined imperishably in the Book of God ; they are frequently to be seen as a watchword in our modern homes, amidst the stir and movement of our life to-day, inscribed perhaps on card or tablet, and hung where the visitor cannot help seeing them, in an entrance hall, in a dining-room, or where not : " As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." The way of the world may run otherwise, and my choice may be out of the mode altogether. It does not matter ; this is my choice : " we will serve the Lord." Happy the home where the motto is realized in the household life, and happy the heart and character where it lies deep at the springs of individual thought and action every day.i
(2) He is a man of God at home and in the midst of his family. — ^No resolution to serve Christ, no profession of serving Him can be genuine on our part if they do not lead into a position like that which Joshua took. How could I be counted a truthful man if I spake truthfully in the street and told lies in the house ? Who could regard me as a friend if I shook hands with them when we were by ourselves and turned my back on them when in company ? And what right have I to consider myself a servant of Christ if I say I will be loyal to Him, but do not endeavour to carry my family with me into that service ? In the family we put off certain kinds of restraints which we put on when we engage in business or mingle in society. We feel that
1 H. 0. G. Moule.
JOSHUA XXIV. 15 161
we have no need to be other than we are there. If we ought to be the same men everywhere — true to what we believe — then, assuredly, if there is any place in which we should be more pro- nounced Christians than in another, it is in our home. If we are to walk worthy of Him whose we are and whom we serve, that straight walking ought to be shown in its most perfect develop- ment, not in prayer-meeting or church, not in pew or pulpit, but where every word tells, every habit makes a stamp — in the free circle of family life.
^ The epitaph Euskin inscribed over his father's grave in the churchyard of Shirley, near Croydon, is beautiful and characteristic: " Here rests from day's well-sustained burden John James Euskin, born in Edinburgh, May 10th, 1785. He died in his house in London, March 3rd, 1864. He was an entirely honest merchant, and his memory is to all who keep it dear and helpful. His son, whom he loved to the uttermost, and taught to speak truth, says this of him." 1
^ One of Principal Eainy's daughters writes : " I feel it diffi- cult to write of these things, for I have no words to tell you of them. To us he was just 'Father.' I suppose most children begin by thinking their father the most wise and strong and tender of beings, and with us that went on to the very end, with an always increasing sense of how unusual such wisdom and strength and tenderness were. For myself, it is to him I owe all my earliest ideas of what the Fatherhood of God might mean. They all came translated to me so inevitably, so securely, through that dear and familiar medium that never once failed me all my life — never once came short of my hopes or my needs. And it was so with us all. I remember how a sister once wrote to me, 'I know you read the thirteenth verse of the 103rd Psalm as I do — Like as my Father pitieth his children — and that means just everything.' " ^
He never made a fortune, or a noise In the world where men are seeking after fame; But he had a healthy brood of girls and boys Who loved the very ground on which he trod. They thought him just a little short of God; Oh, you should have heard the way they said his name — "Father."
* A. C. Benson, RusTcin : A Study in Personality, 102,
* The Life of Principal Rainy, ii. 93. DEUT.-ESTH. — II
i62 AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE
There seemed to be a loving little prayer In their voices, even when they called him "Dad." Though the man was never heard of anywhere, As a hero, yet you somehow understood He was doing well his part and making good; And you knew it, by the way his children had Of saying "Father."
He gave them neither eminence nor wealth, But he gave them blood untainted with a vice, And the opulence of undiluted health. He was honest, and unpurchable and kind ; He was clean in heart, and body, and in mind. So he made them heirs to riches without price — This father.
He never preached or scolded; and the rod — Well, he used it as a turning-pole in play. But he showed the tender sympathy of God To his children in their troubles, and their joys. He was always chum and comrade with his boys, And his daughters — oh, you ought to hear them say " Father."'