RELIGION IN EVERY-DAY LIFE.
By Spurgeon
This is what the grace of God does when it comes into a family. It does not alter the relations; it does not give the child a right to be pert, and to forget that he is to be obedient to his parents; it does not give the father a right to lord it over his children without wisdom and love; for it tells him that he is not to provoke his children to anger, lest they be discouraged; it does not give the servant the right to be master, neither does it take away from the master his position, or allow him to exaggerate his authority; but all around it softens and sweetens. Rowland Hill used to say that he would not give a half-penny for a man's piety, if his dog and cat were not better off after he was converted. There is much weight in this remark. Every thing in the house goes better when grace oils the wheels. The mistress is perhaps rather sharp, quick, tart; well she gets a little sugar into her constitution when she receives the grace of God. The servant may be apt to loiter, be late up of a morning, very slovenly, fond of gossip at the door; but if she is truly converted, all that kind of thing ends. She is conscientious, and faithful in every duty. The master, perhaps—well he is the master and you know it; but when he is truly a Christian man, he has a gentleness, a suavity, a considerateness about him. The husband is the head of the wife; but when renewed by grace he is not at all the head of the wife as some husbands are. The wife also keeps her place, and seeks by all gentleness and wisdom to make the house as happy as possible. I do not believe in your religion, dear friend, if it belongs alone to the tabernacle and the prayer-meeting and not to your home. The best religion in the world is that which smiles at the table, works at the sewing-machine, and is amiable in the drawing-room. Give me the religion that can black boots, and do it well; cook the food, and cook it so that it can be eaten; measure off yards of calico, and not make them half an inch short; and can sell a hundred yards and not label ninety a hundred, as some tradesmen do. That is the true Christianity which affects the whole of life. When we are truly converted we shall seem to be changed in all our relationships to our fellow-men; and hence, we shall regard those we call our inferiors with quite a different feeling. It is wrong in Christian people to treat with too much severity the little faults they see in servants, especially Christian servants. That is not the way to correct them. They see a little something wrong and at once condemn, as if the offense were the greatest crime. If your Master and mine were to treat us in that style, I wonder how we would get on. How quick some are in discharging their maids for small errors! No excuse, no trying the offender again: they must go. Many a young man has been turned off for the veriest trifle, by a Christian employer, when he must have known that he would be exposed to all sorts of risks. And many a servant has been sent adrift as if she were a dog, with no thought whether another position could be found, and without any thing being done to prevent her going astray. Do let us think of others, especially of those whom Christ loves even as he does us. Philemon might have said, No, no, I don't take you back, Mr. Onesimus, not I. Once bitten; twice shy, sir. You stole my money; I am not going to have you back again. I have heard that style of talk, have not you? Did you ever feel like it? If you have, go home and pray God to get such feelings out of you; for it is unchristianlike to entertain them. You cannot take them to Heaven. When the Lord Jesus Christ has forgiven you so freely, are you to take your servant by the throat and say, “Pay me what thou owest”? God forbid that we should continue in such a temper. Be pitiful, easily entreated, ready to forgive. It is a deal better that you should suffer a wrong than do a wrong; much better that you should overlook a fault which you might have noticed, than notice a fault which you ought to have overlooked. “Let love through all your actions run,
And all your words be mild,”
is said in the little hymn we used to learn when we were children. We should practice it now, and
“Live like the blessed virgin's son,
That meek and lowly child.”
God, in his infinite grace, grant we may.
—Spurgeon.