Education in the Home by Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Sep 13, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 37.

Education in the Home

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

EDUCATION IN THE HOME. NO. 18.

GOOD evening, neighbors, all of you. I see you have come in a body to-night. It is no surprise party, however, because we were expecting you all,—every one of you,' said Brother Hartman, as he ushered his guests into the pleasant sitting-room.

'I was so tired to-night,' said Mr. Wilber, 'that I am afraid if it had not been for my wife, I should have excused myself from coming. But she said we were not quite done with the Sabbath question yet, and she's anxious to hear all there is in the Bible on the subject.'

'But,' replied Brother Hartman, turning to his guest, 'I am not at all sure that we shall touch every text in the Bible relating to the observance of God's Sabbath, for the Bible is a large Book, and God has said much about His sacred day. But we can at least find out our duty in regard to it. We will begin our study to-night by reading one of God's glorious promises to the Sabbath-keeper. Josie, will you read Isa. 58:13, 14?'

'Read carefully, child,' interrupted grandma, 'for you are about to read one of the most blessed promises in all God's Book;' and in a soft, subdued voice, the young girl read:

'If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.'

There were tears in Mrs. Wilber's eyes before her daughter had done reading, and, when she had finished, the mother said earnestly:

'I am perfectly willing to confess to-night that this subject has brought many surprises to me,—in fact, a constant succession of them,—one of the greatest of which was to read in one of our studies the confession and boast of the Catholic Church. Still there are a few points which remain unsettled.'

'If you feel free to mention these objections, we will be glad to examine them by the great search-light of God's Word,' replied Brother Hartman.

While Mrs. Wilber hesitated a moment to collect her thoughts, Mattie exclaimed, her bright eyes sparkling with enthusiasm:

'O father! to-day, as Beth and I were going to school, we met Mr. Davis, the gardner, and his hired man. 'Good morning, Miss Sabbatarian,' he said; this made the other man laugh. I said, 'Good morning, sir,' and was passing on, when he called after me: 'Say, Missie, God does not care which day you keep, if you only keep one.' 'Please, sir,' I said, 'He says, 'The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work;' and don't you believe God means what He says?' Then he told me he was going to begin picking his berries next Sabbath, and wanted me to help. I told him that I supposed God was just as much in earnest when he gave men the Fourth Commandment as He was when He said 'Thou shalt not steal,' or 'kill.' Then he looked pretty sober, and said: 'You've been well taught, Miss Mattie, I hope you'll always stick to your principles.''

'Well, to tell you the truth,' said Mrs. Wilber, 'this very thing was one of the unsettled points in my own mind,—but now—'

'And mine, too,' interrupted Mr. Jones, 'but I fully believe now, that the Almighty meant just what He says.'

All this time John was busy turning the leaves of his Bible.

'What is it, my son? Have you something to the point?' asked his mother.

'Yes, mother, Christ must have thought that the observance of any day would not answer, or He would never have commanded His disciples to pray to be delivered from the necessity of escaping out of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. Father says that Jerusalem was not destroyed until about forty years after this, so the ancient Sabbath must have been in full force as long as this at least. If any day, or a seventh part of time, will answer, why did the Lord command His disciples to pray in this way? Why did He not say: 'Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on any day in particular?'

'It would have been very foolish indeed!' exclaimed Mrs. Wilber. 'But please tell me how one is to observe the seventh day in going north or south to the poles where there are six months day and six months night.'

'Why, wife,' said Mr. Wilber, 'I suppose it would be as easy to keep the seventh day there, as it would the first, would it not?'

'You aren't intending to go there, are you, my friend?' chimed in Mrs. Jones, mischievously.

'But to be serious, Mrs. Wilber,' exclaimed Brother Hartman, 'those who have been very far north declare that the revolution of the earth upon its axis is quite plainly discernible; and I am sure the Almighty would never command us to keep His Sabbath, upon a world in which it was impossible to do so.'

'The verse Mattie read is a little hard to understand, I think,' said Josie. 'What does the Lord mean by the expression, 'If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath'?

'It means that He does not want us to trample upon His holy day any longer. See here,' continued Brother Hartman, placing his large Bible upon the carpet, and then putting his foot upon it, 'See; my foot is upon this Book. I have it underfoot. See, now I have taken away my foot from it, and I place it in an honorable position upon the table. In like manner, God would have His children stop trampling upon His holy day, and restore it to its rightful place in the bosom of His everlasting law; and O my dear friends and children, shall we not, all of us, join with the Psalmist David in saying from the heart: 'Then shall I not be ashamed, When I have respect unto ALL Thy commandments.''

THE habit of thinking lightly of marriage will wreck any man.—David Starr Jordan.