Without Natural Affection by John Norton Loughborough

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Nov 16, 1905

Without Natural Affection

By John Norton Loughborough

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

THE apostle Paul enumerates eighteen sins that would exist in the last days among a certain class, who, while “having a form of godliness,” in their lives deny the power thereof. This class he describes as being “without natural affection.” 2 Tim. 3:3. By natural affection reference is made to what we would expect to see manifest in the family and among kindred. Even in the animal kingdom there is that fondness of the parents for their offspring that leads them to risk even their own lives for the protection of their young. Surely this devotion and tenderness ought to be more fully manifested among reasoning, intelligent beings.

When the family relation was instituted by the Lord in the garden of Eden, he said, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” Gen. 2:24. In our Saviour’s instruction, as he quoted these words, he added, “Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Matt. 19:6.

The apostle, speaking of this same relation, said, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it. . . . So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.” Eph. 5:25-29. On the other hand, he writes, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is head of the church: and he is the savior of the body.” Eph. 5:22, 23.

When the husband realizes that on him so largely rests the preservation of the union in the family, much dissension and difference can be avoided. In the words of another, “Every member of the family centers in the father. His name, ‘house-band,’ is the true definition of husband. He is the lawmaker, illustrating in his own manly bearing the sterner virtues,—energy, integrity, honesty, and practical usefulness. The father is in one sense the priest of the household, laying upon the altar of God the morning and evening sacrifice, while the wife and children unite in prayer and praise. With such a household Jesus will tarry.”

Speaking of the harmony that should exist in the household, the apostle says still further: “Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.” Col. 3:19-21.

In the world, with the masses, little regard is given to these Scriptural injunctions, while self-love and self-gratification seem to be the ruling motive and power in their lives. With those professing godliness there surely should be a recognition of the sacredness of the family relation, and an earnest heeding of the Lord’s instruction concerning the same. But, alas! there are altogether too many instances of transgression, even as the apostle intimated, among those “having a form of godliness.”

Looking at things as they exist in the world to-day, we see that there has been in the past half century a very rapid increase in that which the apostle said would be seen “in the last days.” Until the writer was eighteen years of age, he never heard of but one divorce in the county where he resided in central New York. In that case a man deserted his wife, an estimable woman, and lived in another State for one year, that desertion might be proved against him. His course was the topic of conversation among the people for many months, and it was looked upon as a heinous offense.

As an evidence of the great change in this line of immorality we will quote a statement made in the San Francisco Chronicle of Sept. 25, 1889, a communication concerning what happened in the city of Chicago the day before. It reads as follows:—

“CHICAGO, September 24.—This city has to-day, it is asserted, broken the record in divorce cases; from morning until evening five judges were at work, and over one hundred cases were disposed of. Over two hundred persons, martyrs to wedlock, wanted their matrimonial existence judicially murdered, and over four or five hundred sympathizing friends were on hand to witness the executions. It was the biggest day’s work the divorce mills have had in a long time. Marriage knots were shattered with more than usual celerity in the Chicago divorce courts, and for every possible reason. One of the gray-haired judges, after the adjournment of the court, shook his head and said that something surely was wrong these days. He did not know what the world was coming to.”

Since the days of that article, judging from the multitudinous daily reports of divorces, we must conclude that this shattering of marriage ties is still on the increase. Noting the glibness with which this work is carried on, and reported, one would conclude that men thought they had received a commission to “put asunder” what the Lord had said “let not man put asunder.”

Not only is the lack of “natural affection” manifest in the increasing number of divorces, but in the bitterness, and even enmity, between parents and children. This is seen in the neglect of parents to care properly for their children, and in the children’s leaving aged and feeble parents to suffer for lack of support, or “go over the hill to the poorhouse.” The Lord has given in his Word instruction, which, if heeded, would materially remedy this difficulty. “Harken,” he says, “unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.” Prov. 23:22. It is certainly a lovely sight to see a child, though grown to manhood or womanhood, tenderly caring for the aged, feeble parents, even though they be in their dotage and second childhood. Who does not think with pleasure on the act of President Garfield, who, on the day of his inauguration as president of the United States, requested that his aged mother be placed near him, to share with him the honors bestowed upon him? To her his first attention was directed as the one to whom credit was due for the training she had given him, which brought him to the highest position in the nation.

Very different from this is a case which occurred in my ministry, when by request I was visiting a family professing godliness (not Seventh-day Adventists, however). In the corner by the fireplace I saw a very aged woman

eating her morsel as best she could from a tin plate, while we were eating at the table. True, she was childish with age, and was spoken of by the family as “that old woman.” But what was my astonishment to learn afterward that “that old woman” was the grandmother of the family whose hospitality I had shared.

Not long after this occurred, I read of a case, in a secular paper, where an aged father’s food was given to him by the wife of his son, in a wooden bowl, in the chimney-corner, while the family ate at the table. The report read that the little son was observed one day to be very busy with his jack-knife and tools, trying to form a little trough. When asked what he was making, he replied, “I am making a dish for my father to eat out of when he gets old like grandpa.” Suffice it to say there was a sudden change in that family toward the aged grandfather. It may be the words of the Saviour occurred to them, “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Matt. 7:2.

While those of the world are full of bickering, strife, and family jars, and are wronging the aged and needy, surely the church of Christ should be free from these sins. Those having the leadership of the church should teach the doctrine of the apostle, “If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” 1 Tim. 5:8.

Those who profess to be preparing to go to “heaven above, where all is love,” should seek to have their homes here “a little heaven on earth” in which they are preparing to go to the heaven of eternal bliss. The words of the apostle Peter should be carefully considered and heeded: “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life.” 1 Peter 3:7.

Mountain View, Cal.