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

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Sep 20, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 38.

Education in the Home

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

EDUCATION IN THE HOME. NO. 19.

ALL this time the young lad, Billy Black, seeing that the conversation had drifted somewhat beyond his understanding, had been looking wistfully over in the direction of the large parlor organ, standing in the corner of the sitting-room. Billy was very fond of music, and, withal, had an exceptionally-fine voice. But his extreme diffidence generally prevented him from improving his one talent, as his good old grandmother often expressed it. But to-night Billy felt an uncontrollable desire to hear some music; so when at last he saw the happy company breaking up, he remarked shyly, "I thought they always closed meetin's with a song."

"So they do, my lad, so they do," smiled Brother Hartman.

"O," cried Beth, "please ask Billy to sing, papa, he can sing so pretty."

"I believe Billy has a very fine voice," agreed John. "I often hear him and his grandmother singing when I pass the house."

And so it came to pass that poor Billy forgot his embarrassment and joined with the others in singing that matchless song: "Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee."

"I find something very interesting in that poor boy," said grandma, wiping her eyes, after their guests had again departed.

"Yes," said John, "so do I; he asked me to-night if I'd mind his coming to the next reading; of course I gave him a hearty invitation, poor fellow,—Walter and I are going to do all we can in every way for him."

"That's a good resolution, my children," said their father. "We must all be home missionaries, and try to be self-sacrificing and generous toward those not as fortunate as ourselves. And, my little Beth, I want you to learn this verse before you sleep, 'For even Christ pleased not Himself.'"

"By the way, father," said John, "it seemed to me that the Sabbath never looked so plain before as since we have begun these readings."

"Nor so beautiful!" echoed Elsie.

"I am very glad," declared grandma, "that the Holy Spirit put it into your hearts, my dear son and daughter, to take this method of instructing your children in the glorious truths of God's Word. Ah! if all the living church of Christ would heed the command to teach their children God's law, when they go out and when they come in, when they sit down and when they rise up, there would be fewer apostasies among the young, and fewer backsliders among the older ones. O, there is keeping power in God's Word."

"That's true, grandma," said Mrs. Hartman, "and it seems to me that our little church school, if we may so call it, is going to do great good, not only to our own, but to others."

"Josie Wilbur told me to-night," said Mattie, "that her ma hasn't studied the Bible so much in all her life, and Josie said she wouldn't miss coming for anything."

"Did you decide finally upon the subject for the next meeting, papa?" asked Mattie.

"I think it would be well to bind off our study of the Sabbath. Of course, it will not be possible or practical to make these studies exhaustive on any subject. Yet, on the important and fundamental principles of our faith, I wish you, my children, not to remain in ignorance for a single day longer than it is necessary to become perfectly enlightened regarding them. Every day you are in danger of being led into temptation and deception, and if you are not rooted and grounded in the love of the truth, I fear lest your mother and I be held guilty in the last day; and in order to be guiltless, we must leave no stone unturned in your spiritual education."

"What does 'rooted and grounded' mean, papa?" queried Beth.

"Just read the verse, little girl, and grandma'll explain it to you;" and Brother Hartman turned in Beth's Bible, to Ephesians, third chapter, while she read verses 17 to 19: "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."

"Now, dear," said grandma, "had not that great oak by the gate been rooted and grounded deep into the earth, it must have been overturned in the fierce storm of last night. And so, unless we are firmly established in the truth, we shall surely be overthrown by the winds of persecution and the floods of apostasy which will soon sweep over the world."

"Grandma's ideas are good. But while it is highly commendable to be well informed upon all points of doctrine, we must not forget that our salvation depends upon the merits of Christ, our crucified and risen Lord, and not upon our own good deeds. Tho we may be able to repeat the entire Bible from memory, still if we do not live out its great truths, or if we trust in our own puny strength instead of Christ, we shall fail of victory at last."