The Master in the Home by Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · May 20, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 34, No. 21.

The Master in the Home

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

HANGING conspicuously upon the wall in the family sitting-room is a motto. It is a very plain, brown cardboard, and has never known the dignity of a frame. But we think as much of that unpretending little motto as of any picture in the house. We would do well to call it "our reminder." O how it reproves us sometimes for worldliness and folly! how loudly it cries out against every foolish ambition and every neglect of duty!

Come, let us read the plain, silver letters:

"CHRIST IS THE HEAD OF THIS HOUSE; THE UNSEEN GUEST AT EVERY MEAL; THE SILENT LISTENER TO EVERY CONVERSATION."

My sister, for what does this motto reprove you? Would you be rebuked for sinful extravagance? Would your elegant furniture, your luxurious couches, your expensive pictures, bear silent but powerful witness against you? Thousands around you are perishing for the Bread of Life, and suffering for the barest necessities with which to sustain their perishing bodies. Knowing these facts, can you affirm Christ to be the head of a house filled with costly gewgaws?

What! Jesus Christ the head of a house where the voice of prayer is seldom heard? Christ the head of a house flooded with trashy literature, and where the daily paper is read more and oftener than the Bible? Do you acknowledge that Jesus Christ is a silent Listener to your foolish conversation, or to the cruel dialogue in which you so often take up a reproach against your neighbor?

My sister, how can Jesus Christ be the head of an untidy and slovenly house, a home of uncleanliness and disorder? I entreat you, make a radical change in this respect, or tear that motto from your dingy and germ-laden walls,—for I assure you, it is a shameful libel.

My brother, dare you affirm Christ to be the head of a house where the loud and angry voice is heard oftener than the voice of prayer? This morning as I passed your barn, I heard you using rough and unbecoming language to your faithful horses, and rude and unchristian words to Jim, your hired man. Your little boy heard the same words, and saw you kick the poor, dumb brutes in the yard, because you were in a temper. What! do you expect him ever to become a Christian, with such a sound of his father's voice in his ears? Go, tear down that motto from the walls of your sitting-room, for it declares Christ to be a listener to every conversation. Tear it down, I say, or else turn square about—for you stand self-condemned in its presence.

Wait! I'm not done talking to you yet. Not only were you rude and discourteous to your help, and brutal toward the dumb animals which should share your kindness and care, but O! hide your face in shame and confusion, for—no, I am not mistaken—I heard you speak bitterly and cruelly to the gentle and faithful little woman whom, only a few years ago, you promised to love and to protect. I saw her shrink from your presence, and so did you. Is that love? do you call that protection? What! Jesus Christ a listener to such words as you made use of to your own wife because you were out of temper and she was unfortunate enough to cross your track! Take the motto from your walls,—it has no business there.

If Jesus Christ is, in very deed, the Head of our homes, what abodes of love, what veritable refuges of contentment and peace will they become!

When we realize as we ought, that He who will one day judge us by the words we have uttered, listens to every conversation, notes every impatient word, every slander repeated by lips that have named the name of Christ, how careful we should be. How will we behave ourselves in the presence of the King of Kings?

Christ in the home forbids selfishness of every kind: forbids the sharp bargain; forbids the taking of usury; forbids the underhand trick, the deceitful weight, the false balance, the extortion, the injustice, the scant measure. If Christ abides in our home as Master, as Friend, as Counselor, as kind Elder Brother, as Burden-Bearer, we shall go to Him often, that we may understand His will. Because He is our Master, we shall be ready to do His slightest bidding. Because He is our Friend, we will confide in Him; we will hide nothing from Him. If He is our Counselor, we shall learn wisdom by sitting at His blessed feet. Is He our Elder Brother? we shall go to Him for sympathy, for consolation, for comfort, for encouragement. Is He our Burden-Bearer? blessed, restful thought! yea, more than Burden-Bearer; He bears the cruel weight of our sins, and carries us as well as our every burden. And as tho this were not enough, He invites, yea, pleads: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls."

The Scotch use the word "worry" instead of the word "labor." And so I suppose to them the text would read: "Come unto Me, all ye who worry and are heavy-laden."

Whichever way it reads, it means peace and joy, a light heart and a clear conscience. It means Christ in the home, in the head, in the heart, in the life, and, blessed be God, it means, if we heed it, glory, honor, immortality, and eternal life.