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God’s Purpose in the Home

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 15, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 7.

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God’s Purpose in the Home

By Iza E. Clement

IZA E. CLEMENT
Ever since the expulsion of our first parents from their Eden home, home has been the theme and song of “every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.” A return to the home that was lost through sin, has been the hope of all ages, the goal of the gospel from Adam’s time till the present day. Home is the all-embracing promise of God to his suffering people; and it has been their anchor all along the bloody, persecuted route of the church militant.
Hope of an eternal home that “fadeth not away” has led many to offer themselves as a sacrifice on the bloody altar of martyrdom. It has been the ruling motive in the lives of others, causing them to spend the greater part of their earthly allotment in foreign fields, among heathen people, that these might share with them in their hope of glory and a home everlasting; while still others have been moved by its allurements to leave their earthly home and all that was dear to them in this world, and brave the wrath of ocean storms and the carnage of battle-field, that a nation might be born wherein every man could worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and be unmolested in his quest of the home eternal. It has ever been the guiding star of the righteous ones of earth, and will continue to be so until their hope is realized in the home of the saved.
Not only has a forward look to the heavenly home been an inspiration to the fallen race, but a backward glance to the earthly home, its sacred ties and childhood joys, has been a potent factor in restraining the onward march of sin and crime, and in turning many lives into channels of righteousness. What stronger influence for right living, love, mercy, and truth can be wielded than that of the cherished memories of a Christian home, of the family circle, of childish happiness, of the soothing power of parental love and sympathy in hours of trial and distress or of physical pain and sickness?
The Saviour recognized the appealing force of “thoughts of home,” when he related the simple story of the prodigal son, which still lives in song and verse and in the hearts of men; and many there are who will testify that their steps have been turned homeward by its recital.
The prodigal, like many to-day, did not sense the blessing of home until he was beyond the reach of its bounties, a sinner and an outcast. But hardships and suffering cleared his vision; and the home once despised for the glamour of worldly pleasures, rose in reproachful magnificence before him. The memory of that far distant home, with its atmosphere of holiness and purity, its peace and plenty, where not only the family but the servants had bread and to spare, while he perished with hunger, awakened in him such a consciousness of guilt and unworthiness that his soul cried out in agony for even the most menial position there. His only thought, his one longing desire, was for home. As a penitent and an alien he would return; as a servant he would live and be content, if only he could find a place once more in its restful, sheltering embrace.
What better representation of the heavenly home can be found than that of the home where the spirit of Christ reigns? It was for this purpose that the earthly home was called into existence; and it was God’s express intention that the attributes of the heavenly home should be revealed in the earthly, and that by its influence sinners should be reclaimed and brought to the fold of Christ.
The earliest gift that the great heart of a loving Creator bestowed upon man was home. He gave him a garden planted by the Lord’s own hands, told him how to keep it, and then gave him a companion as a suitable helper to make that home a type of the one above.
The first chapter of James says that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Of the only begotten Son we read: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” Thus God’s purpose, through Christ, concerning the home that he gave to man has never changed, nor will it ever change, but it will continue the same until he has wrought righteousness in the earth.
The home is the cradle of the church, the stronghold of God’s love, the citadel of purity; and when rightly understood and its affairs cooperatively administered, it presents a most formidable front to the enemy of all righteousness. When God created that Eden home and placed in it the sinless pair, he laid down a principle against which “the gates of hell shall not prevail.”
How essential, then, that the home be kept pure, peaceful, elevated, sacred; for the triumph of the gospel, the expectations of Christ, and the assurance of love’s victory, are all centered in its limited but mighty confines.
College View, Nebr.