May, 1935
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
162
c_ Around the King’s Tables By Louis T . T albot
Christ came into the world, what it means to be saved, and what are the consequences o f rejecting Christ. Third, there must be family prayer. The boy who has spent say eighteen years of his life in a home where he has the opportunity of looking into the face of his father each day as that parent has poured out his heart in prayer to God for the protection o f his boy, or the girl who has grown up in a home where the arms o f a mother have been around her, and where the breath of prayer has been breathed into her soul, cannot depart far from the influence o f such a godly environment. Fourth, there must be parental authority. O f Abraham, God said: “ For I know him, that he will command his chil dren and his household after him.” The voice o f authority gives strength and stability to the home. Every parent who would have a Christian home must meet the same require ments that Paul said were necessary in a bishop: A bishop is “ one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity.” Home should be not only a place of safety but also a place o f fellowship. There should be companionship and love between the children and the parents. I wish to acknowledge, with praise to God, all that I owe to my father and mother. There were eight children in our family. All the members of that family came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour, and so far as human instrumentality is concerned, that glorious outcome can be traced largely to the sweet Christian influence of my mother and to the wise counsel o f my father. A few months ago, when I was in Australia, one of the first places that I went to see was the house in which I had been born and where I had spent the first sixteen years of my life. As I walked along the street, recalling boyhood scenes, the faces of the persons that I passed were all strange to me. The neighborhood had deteriorated; what was once a residential district had become a part of the slums. With strange emotions, I stood outside the house that had been my early home. I ventured to the door and offered a sum o f money to the woman who was using the place as a boarding house, asking if she would allow me to walk through my old home again. She seemed greatly surprised at this request, but cheerfully complied. I went into the room that had been my bedroom. This was the place where my mother had come every night and prayed with me and taught me the way o f life— the place where my father had often entered to advise or reprove me. The room did not have at all the same appearance that it had had years before. It had lost its clean attractiveness. A man, half-drunken, lay upon the bed. But as I glanced around those worn old walls, my heart rejoiced, for though the house had changed, I could still clearly see by faith those strong battlements that my father and mother had built about my early home. Those protecting walls had been used of God to spare us children many a heartache and to lead us to a saving knowledge o f Jesus Christ. Are there battlements about your home today? I f not, and if one o f the little ones shall fall, in the light o f God’s Word, whose fault will it be?— L. T. T.
Battlements for the Christian Home W hen thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not I I The Oriental home had a flat roof where family and friends were accustomed to assemble. For the protection of every man, woman, and child, God commanded that whosoever built a new home should provide battlements on the sides of the roof. The householder was solemnly in structed to see to it that these retaining walls were erected in order to avoid accident and possible loss o f life— “ that thou bring not blood upon thine house.” God is concerned, my brother, about the kind o f home you build. As a parent, you are responsible not only for the physical safety but also for the spiritual protection o f every member of your household. |One of the most subtle weapons that the enemy is using against parents in their attempt to make their homes dis tinctly Christian is the system o f teaching which boys and girls are receiving in the public schools of our nation. A little while ago I approached a number o f Christian busi ness men and asked this question: What do you gentlemen consider the greatest menace to the Christian home and to our present civilization? I expected to receive numerous answers, but only two or three were given. According to these men, the greatest menace to the Christian home is not the amusement craze or the love o f the fashions o f the world, but it is the rationalism o f our schools which makes an insistent effort to take from the rising generation all fear of God and reverence for and belief in the Bible!} The emphasis upon materialism is one o f the fundamental causes o f the sweep o f lawlessness through every nation and the increase o f vice everywhere. When God is out lawed, the sense of responsibility is lost. A s we recall in these perilous days the influence for good which was ex erted by the old-fashioned homes in which many o f us had the honor to be reared, shall we not determine, by the grace o f God, that we will build the battlements in our households which the W ord o f God requires ? If the means of protection are not there, and if your boys and girls fall into sin, their blood will be upon you. This is the plain teaching of the text. There are at least four battlements that should be placed around every home. First, there must be the fear o f G o d The only home that is truly safe today is the one where God is acknowl edged, where Jesus Christ is recognized—where Christ is the Head of the house. It is one thing to have a wall card which reads “ Christ is the Head of this House,” and it is another matter to recognize Him as Head in all things. Second, there must be reverence fo r the Bible. By “ rev erence for the Bible” I do not mean that merely to have a Bible in the home is sufficient. The Bible must be open, loved, and read in such a way as to beget respect and long ing for the Book of books. While the children are about you, during the impressionable years o f their lives, take timé to teach them the great truths o f the Word o f God. Put before them in unmistakable language why Jesus (Deut. 2 2 : 8 ).
blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence”
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