33
January 1927
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
and quality to everything is LOVE. Well did Henry Drummond call love “the greatest thing in the world.” The same love which brought both the husband and wife together at first should be cherished and nourished as one of heaven’s rarest gifts. With such c a r e this love ever grows stronger and stronger, uniting the hearts »more closely day by day. God is not satisfied with a husband’s simply loving his wife, but wishes him to love her “even as Christ also loved the church.” This love which Christ had for the church caused him gladly to sacrifice everything and to go to the very limit, namely, h u m b l i n g ’’himself, becoming obedient even unto death, even the death of the cross.” Love expressing itself in sacrifice always loses sight of self in the interest of the o n e loved. Jonathan’s love for David caused him to strip “him self of the robe which was upon him and gave it to David and his apparel, even to his sword and to his bow, and to his girdle.” Someone has spoken of love as “that which gives the most, neither asks nor demands anything in return.” When Christian husbands thus love their wives and are loved in the same manner by their wives, the foundation for a real Chris tian home has b e e n thoroughly laid. This love will cause husbands to “dwell with their wives according to knowledge giving honor unto the woman as to the weaker vessel as being also joint-heirs of the grace of life to the end that your prayers be not hindered.” (1 Pet. 3 :7) T he P urpose op C hrist ’ s D eath ■‘‘Christ died upon the cross, that He might sanctify it (church).” The word translated “sanctify” was used in the days of the New Testament writers as a word o‘f greeting to express one’s desire that a friend enjoy good physical health. But Paul takes this word and puts into it a , spiritual message and thus uses it to ex press the idea that Christ died in order that the church might e n j o y spiritual health, (See I Peter 1:13-16, for the purity of soul and life which God has asked of His people.) “Haying cleansed it by the washing of water with the • word.” Commentators are not agreed as to the significance of this expression; but one comments on it in the following words; “Baptism is referred to, and the baptismal formula which interprets it as a reception into the name and spirit of the Triune God. Thus the very heart of religion is to be brought into the Chris tian home, making it the purest and so the happiest spot on earth.” “That He might present the church to Himself a glorious church." This thought is akin to that expressed in Isa. 53:11; “He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied.” W h e n Christ comes in glory, as is seen in Rev. 19:1-10, the marriage of the Lamb, the Bride shall be presented to the Lamb in glory, i.e. in a glorified condition. As a young man who is engaged to a girl may reasonably expect purity and chastity in her life and looks forward to the wedding day, so Christ desires that we, “cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” II Cor. 7:1, and earnestly yearns for the time lyhen the church, His bride, shall be presented to Himself. ■“Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish." In the first clause
That is rending one flesh and it is a ghastly parable of a home from which love has fled. In the physical world it is what divorce is in the spiritual world. Oh, the anguish resulting when those whom God has joined together, and who should have the love which Christ has for His Church, are torn asunder by divorce. m m B y D avid L. C ooper Only when one’s religion effects his home life to such an extent that it puri fies his thoughts concerning and actions toward those nearest him, can the home
Here is a closing reminder for father. “Keep your head!” 6:4). The father who cannot control his own temper is not fit to punish a child who cannot. Obedience in which there is no soul is worthless. The one way to retain paren tal authority is to exhibit righteous con duct Note that the duty of bringing up children in the “nurture” (discipline) and “admonition” (words of instruction) of the Lord is put squarely up to the father. Many men today leave such matters en tirely to mother. Plato, seeing a child in sin, went and corrected the father for it. P ith and P oint When a husband is fire and a wife is gasoline, there is sure to be a cortflagra- tion. An obedient wife commands her hus band. Don’t be yoked to one who refuses the yoke of Christ. . Scarcely a single hero, sage, reformer, statesman of saint ever came to adorn his age, who did not have a remarkable mother who shaped his life. When woman wields the spiritual sov ereignity God has given her, she will bless the world in the greatest way. The first essential in training a child is to have more sense than the child (6 :4). Children have more need of •models than critics. The childhood shows the man as morn ings shows the day. So near to Christ is His Church that she is His Body, as well as His Bride. S uggestive Q uestions Does a mother have as much authority as a father? (6:2; Prov. 1:8; 6:20). Why should not parents make unreas onable demands of children? (Col. 3:21; cp. Eph. 6:4). How early should Christian instruction be given? (Isa. 28:9, 10). Is it likely that men have discovered better ways of rearing children than God has defined? (Pro. 13:24; 19:18; 22:15; 29:17). What promise does God give those who train up their children in the knowledge of the Saviour? (Prov. 22:6). Does Paul teach the binding authority of the moral principles of the law upon Gentiles as well as Jews? (6 :2, 3). G olden T ext 1 John 4 :7—“Let us love one another : for the love is of God.” God, the Creator of male and female decreed that marriage should be the closest and most indissoluble of all human re lationships. Our Lord declares that the ' idea of marriage presented in the early chapters of Genesis is still to be realized, and that the divorcing of man and wife, in the sight of God, is like rending the body itself limb from limb. I shall never forget my father’s taking me, when a boy, to visit the Eden Musee in New York, where I saw many historic personages and scenes worked out in wax. The part that made an indelible impres sion was the reproduction of scenes of the days of the inquisition. I saw the infer nal machines in those dark dungeons, with wax men and women as the victims, their bodies being slowly torn to pieces. It seemed to me I could hear the cracking of their bones and their screams of agony. I could fairly see the quivering of their flesh. Horrible !
1i§£e be considered Christian. This con ception of the home life is, unfortunately, contrary to the home life of the vast ma jority of people! A certain w a l l motto speaks of h o m e as, “The place where we are treated the best
and where we grumble the most.” . The early Christians, according to church his tory, l i v e d s u c h pure, clean, and godly lives that when ceased, as for merly, to divide the population of the world into Greeks and barbarians but made a three-fold division, namely Greeks, barbarians, and The New Race. Whenever the home life of all who pro fess Christ approximates the high ideas set forth in the New Testament, only then will the world be able to see that Christianity is of divine origin. God’s idea of the purity and holiness of the home can be gathered from the home in Eden in which He placed man. Love, purity, and innocence and all which en- obles life predominated. Such is God’s ideal home. To make the home Christian is to make each member of the same a Chris tian—a real BORN AGAIN Christian. Counterfeit Christianity does not trans form the home; church membership does not purify the life; neither does outward profession s a n c t i f y the thoughts and deeds; but the regeneration of the Holy Spirit (Tit. 3:4-7). The New Birth;’ (John 3: 3-6), “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1 :27), are the factors which make possible the Christian home. 1. T he M arital R elationship . Eph. 5:25-33 Husbands love your wives” v. 25. At first it seems rather strange f o r an apostle, speaking by the Spirit of God, to exhort husbands to love their wives, but, when we see how very far short many men, who profess Christianity, are failing on this one point, the necessity is at once apparent. A husband’s duty is not ful filled when he has provided a roof to shelter his wife from the elements, cloth ing to keep her comfortable, food to nourish her body, and other necessities which are used in modern life. Amply providing for the material wants of life is but a very small fraction of the duty which the husband owes to his wife. Doubtless, in myriads of instances, after all material wants have been supplied, the wife is miserable and wretched. Life con sists, said our Saviour, of “more than the food, and the body than the raiment.” After all, the real values of life are found in the spiritual realm. That which contributes most to life and gives value
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