May, 1934
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
171
c Around the King’s Tables B y L ouis T. T albot
The Christian Home We knelt together, and that evening the teaching of that r\7 " E A R S AGO, when England was in the midst of a period man’s mother became a living reality to him, and the Lord JJL similar to the one through which America is passing Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into his life] Did I today, a period characterized by lawlessness and crime, the put his name down as one whom I had been permitted to situation was being discussed in the House of Lords] In, lead to Christ? No, my friends, I did not. The man’s the assembly was the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, one ofy^fnother had had a hold on him long before I was born. She the outstanding evangelical philanthropists of nineteenthVbuilt into his heart and mind the things that the Spirit of century England. He made some such claim as this: “Give ''God used in after years to bring him to a saving knowledge of the Christ of God. Her prayer and faith bore fruit. As we approach the day me a foundation of godly mothers, and give me homes that have in them those elements that make them Christian, and I will undertake to change the face of English society.” Youth and the Fam ily A ltar 6 (* " W J HAT does it mean to you to have had VV a Christian home?” The question _ How keen was his insight! (.Home is the place where char acter is molded, where habits are established, and where hearts are trained. A man is chiefly what his early home was. And although a boy may seem to be far away from the influences of a godly home, his wandering is only for a period, for God’s Word, taught in the home and accepted by the child, “Why,” he said, “it means everything; that’s why I’m here. In our home in China, family worship was a normal part of every day’s ac tivities. There was nothing spectacular about it. In fact, I cannot remember anything of out standing influence that occurred at our family altar. But that wholesome home atmosphere will not return to Him ypeijjy/£ /* and the constant realization of God's presence Several years ago, I w a s A nave helped me to put God first.” was put to a student of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, a young man whose parents are mis sionaries.
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that is called Mothers’ Day, let us ask ourselves the question: Are the homes for which we are responsible, really Chris tian homes ? Let us remember that a home is more than a hab itation. The heathen have hab itations, but they do not have homes. A home is more than a place where one eats and sleeps. A boarding house offers these privileges, but it may not be a home. A really Christian home is a place where there is not only companionship and love, but it is a place where there is also the fear of God, an open Bible, and the prayer of wor ship and petition, giving to God His rightful place. From the influences of such a home, a man cannot long depart. —L. T. T. Sealed unto the Day of Redemption (C T n w h o m ye also, having J. heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salva tion,—in whom, having also be lieved, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance,
unexpectedly asked to preach in the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago. As I looked upon that company of derelicts— those lives ostracized from so ciety—I saw men and women who gave many outward evi dences that they had missed the way. With a deep sense of their great need, I earnestly sought for divine guidance con cerning the subject on which I was to speak to them. I felt strangely led to speak on the Twenty-third Psalm. I realized the probability that there were men there who had had Chris
Another student, the eldest daughter in a family of four children, is an accepted candidate for missionary service in Africa. “In our home,” she said, “we usually sing at worship time—the old hymns, with their depth of meaning. My parents feel that music is one of the strongest ties for binding together the members of a fam ily. When Father reads the Word, each of us follows the reading in his or her own Bible, and every one has a part in the worship. The younger children select and read Scripture verses that become their own prayers. I was saved when I was nine. The influences of my Christian home have molded my life, and they will extend soon, the Lord willing, to Africa.”
tian training at their mother’s knee, and that if any Scrip ture had been taught them there, it would have been the Twenty-third Psalm. As I preached from that passage, one man in particular became deeply interested. The tears flowed down his cheeks, and I could see that he was pro foundly touched. At the close of the meeting, he asked me to repeat that psalm again. When I had complied, I asked him why he was interested in that particular passage. He told me that he had not always been a derelict, that he had been reared in a Christian home. And/when I had read that psalm and was preaching on it, there was the pull of old memories. His mind was carried back to his old home in England, and he saw himself once again at his mother’s knee, lisping that psalm and praying a childish prayer. “Since that time,” he said, “I have gone a long way from my mother’s teaching. But I am tired of the way I am going and the life I am living, and want to get back to my mother’s God.”
unto the redemption of God’s own possession, unto the praise of his glory. . . . And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption” (Eph. 1:13, 14; 4:30). In this statement is suggested the fact that God has pur chased us unto Himself—and that He has given a seal in token of the completion of that transaction. Ephesus was a lumber mart. The lumber merchants could purchase their logs in distant forests, and these logs were then floated down to the city and there separated and claimed. But how could a man know the logs that he had purchased ? The seal that was stamped on the log was his evidence of ownership. In his lumber camp, the man who scaled the logs, after he had measured and computed the lumber in any particular log, struck the butt of the log with a heavy hammer which had an initial on the head. This mark was the seal that was indelibly implanted on the end [Continued on page 177]
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