HUSBAND AND WIFE by A. Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 30, 1879

HUSBAND AND WIFE.

By A. Smith

The language of the apostle to husbands and wives as recorded in Eph. 5:22, 23 was addressed to a Christian church, of which they were all supposed to be members. It is just as applicable at the present day as at any past time. The institution of marriage, when based on pure principles, is a sacred one, and calculated to promote the highest social good of families, communities, and nations. Domestic felicity may exist in families that do not claim to be Christian; but it is the imperative duty of those belonging to the “household of faith,” to establish and maintain the conditions of such felicity. “Husbands, love your wives,” and “let the wife see that she reverence her husband,” is the command of Holy Writ, and, therefore, the imperative duty of the Christian.

Where there is a lack of reciprocal love and respect between husband and wife, it will dampen their religious ardor, and exert a baneful influence over their ever-observing children, and, indirectly, upon the church of which they may compose a part. If this infelicity exists to a great extent among the membership, it will nearly ruin any church. The root of neighborhood and church difficulties could, doubtless, in many instances, be traced to this source, and reform must begin here, if improvement in the condition of the church or neighborhood is contemplated.

The intuitive perception of children is sometimes wonderful, as evinced by the fidelity with which, in play, they will reproduce the customs of the domestic circle, and scandals of neighborhood gossip. Anxiety for the salvation of the children, and prayer for their conversion, though a duty, is not an equivalent for a neglect of the little courtesies, the expressed appreciation of little acts of kindness, between the parents, and between parents and children.

The pure angels must look with sadness on domestic discord among those who claim to be the followers of Jesus, and the salvation of either parents or children, under such circumstances, is very doubtful. Where this unhappy state of things exists, reform can best be effected by studying the conditions, and acting upon the principles, that promote peace and love at home.

Those attentions and courtesies that won the hand and heart of the youthful maiden, may, if repeated by the husband, awaken a response in the heart of the wife, even though age may have silvered her locks for the tomb; and the wife, in her turn, by a cheerful demeanor, and a loving attention to home duties, may make home, wife, and mother the nuclei around which her husband’s fondest regards and his best efforts in business will center, and around which the dearest memories of her children will twine in after years. A. SMITH.