Religion and the Home


Show piety at home.--I Tim. 5: 4.

To show piety at home is to express therein those qualities and graces that enter into Christian living--self-control, courtesy, good manners, affection, tenderness, kindness, appreciation, devotion, loyalty.

The best and sweetest homes are those ruled by the teachings and ideals of religion set forth in the Word of God.

It was that great preacher of immortal fame, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who said: “When a home is ruled according to God”s Word, angels might be asked to stay a night with us, and they would not find themselves out of their element.”

Thanks to my mother, I was reared in such a home, and for that I bless her memory. Let your home be ruled according to God”s Word, and if you are blessed with children they will rise up and call you blessed (Prov. 31: 26-28).

A house is not a home because people live in it, because it is secure against the elements, because it is equipped to assure the comfort of its occupants.

A house is made a real home by the capacity of its occupants to bring into it the homely blessings of love, of understanding and sympathy, of respect for each other, of appreciation toward one another.

If the occupants of a house possess this capacity, the meanest cottage can be the grandest home. Where this capacity is lacking, the grandest mansion falls far short of being a home. It is because this capacity is so often missing that so many homes miss happiness and fall apart.

The Bible and religion have done more for the home than any other influence.

We owe to Christ the truth, the tenderness, the purity, the warm affection, and holy aspiration, the peace and contentment which go together in that endearing word home. It is He who has made parenthood so sacred, obedience so be beautiful, affection so pure and sweet. It is He who binds the family together in a sacred bond. It is He who has brought the heavenly Father’s home so near and made it the pattern for our earthly homes.

The nearest thing to heaven on this earth is the Christian home.