No clever, brilliant thinker she, With college record and degree; She has not known the paths of fame ; The world has never heard her name; She walks in old long-trodden ways. The valleys of the yesterdays.
Home is her kingdom, love her dower ;
She seeks no other wand of power
To make home sweet, bring heaven near,
To win a smile and wipe a tear
And do her duty day by day,
In her own quiet place and way.
Around her childish hearts are twined. As round some reverend saint enshrined, And following hers the childish feet Are led to ideals true and sweet, And find all purity and good In her divinest motherhood.
1 H. S. Dyer, The Ideal Christian Home, 77.
EPHESIANS III. 14, 15 III
She keeps her faith unshadowed still ; God rules the world in good and ill; Men in her creed are brave and true And women pure as pearls of dew, And life for her is high and grand By work and glad endeavour spanned.
This sad old earth's a brighter place
All for the sunshine of her face ;
Her very smile a blessing throws,
And hearts are happier where she goes;
A gentle, clear-eyed messenger,
To whisper love — thank God for her ! ^
4. What a solace to our hearts is the assurance that we shall never cease to be members of a family ! The perfection of the great heavenly Household is that it is a Household of households. We are born into a family, we grow up in a family, we die in a family, and after death, we shall not simply go into the great heaven, but to our own family, in our Father's House. " Abraham gave up the ghost, and was gathered to his people." " Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace," God had said to him. All in heaven will not know us, but our own people will know us. We shall go to them.
We are but babes in the household of God ; and, moreover, we are in a very humble part of His House, rather in an adjoining house than in the very House. But we are loved as babes, by our n'amerous kindred ; and quite as much by our own in heaven as by our own on earth. The sweet affections of our heavenly kindred are ever seeking to reveal themselves in our hearts. What are our family altars but means of communication between families on earth and families in heaven ? They unite with us in saying, " Our Father," And in the joy of our fellowship with Him, and with His Son Jesus Christ, they joy with us.^
^ The two communities of earth and heaven are united. They, as we, live by derivation of the one life ; they, as we, are fed and blessed by the one Lord. The occupations and thoughts of Christian life on earth and of the perfect life of saints above are one. They look to Christ as we do, when we live as Christians, though the sun, which is the light of both regions, shows there a broader disc, and pours forth more fervid rays, and is never obscured by clouds, nor ever sets in night. Whether conscious of ^ li. M. Montgomery. ^ J. Pulsford, Christ and His Seed, 110.
112 THE FATHER AND THE FAMILIES
us or not, they are doing there, in perfect fashion, what we imperfectly attempt, and partially accomplish.^
5. But the members of families on the earth should see to it that they are members of the Household of God. Let there be no doubt touching their union with Christ, the First-born Son, Let them have clear evidence that they are born again, and partakers of the Divine Nature. Members of Christian families who are not personally in Christ should lay it to heart that they are not as yet members of any heavenly household, and that they will be separated from their own families, unless they enter in at the door of grace, while they may. Has the door been opened in vain ? We have been resting in the affections of our parents and enjoying the comforts of their house ; but are we with them in Christ, and members with them of their eternal family ?
In one sense, and that a very important one, every family with all its members has God for its Father, for He made all and upholds all ; and the thought should be a welcome one, that we share His love with all the world, and yet our own share in His love and His care is none the less, and that the family of God is made up of those who are loved by Him. But there is more than this — the admission into His family implies for us the recovery of a lost privilege. Sin separated and banished us, made us as though we were not God's children, and unwilling to accept the love and the care and the will of God ; we needed to be made the Sons of God again, and here came a provision of the Fatherly care which made the limits of the Family as wide as ever; the barrier of enmity was broken down by the great Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Since He died, it is now, not indeed, every one upon earth, but "whosoever will" — every one who feels that he would be a child of God. " As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God."