Religion at Home | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 29, 1885

Religion at Home.

It is laughable to see one hunting high and low for his spectacles when they have been only shoved over his forehead. But it is not laughable to see Christians hunting for what they call opportunities to honor God while overlooking such opportunities, which they undoubtedly carry with them wherever they go. A slovenly carpenter was once heard, at a weekly prayer-meeting, to pray with great fervency for the spread of Christ's cause—a cause which he disgraced and hindered in his sphere every time he stood at his bench.

When he ended his prayer, a hearty "Amen!" came from a servant who puts his mistress out of temper many times a day by his carelessness. A clerk, also, was there, who, although he taught a class in the mission school on Sabbaths, was always late at his employer's store on week days. He whispered, "Amen," too, and meant it, as far as he knew himself. A lady hearer, as she listened, resolved to join the church missionary society, and then went home and found unreasonable fault with her cook. And others also felt constrained to do something for Christ, who never even dreamed that religion, like charity, begins at home.

The mechanic who is powerful in prayer-meeting, and weak at his trade, is not a credit to the cause he professes. The servant who drops tears feelingly at religious services, and drops dishes unfeelingly in the kitchen, has her tenderness altogether too much on one side. And it is a poor kind of religion which seeks opportunities to set others straight, but overlooks one's own crookedness.—Sel.