Genesis 18:19, commentary and pictures

God knew Abraham's heart and character and his resolve to live in reverence toward Him, as He knows every person by name, where they live, and whether they will be faithful in the house. To command his children and household after him means to govern the family firmly and authoritatively under God's law, giving right instruction and restraining evil rather than indulging, coaxing, or merely warning. Keeping the way of the Lord means living in faithful obedience to His commandments, doing what is just and right and righteous at all times. God's promises to Abraham and his descendants depended on this faithful cooperation in training his household, to preserve the knowledge of God and pass obedience to future generations. This sets the standard for all parents and guardians, with the father as lawmaker and priest and the mother as guide united in authority and love, to make God's word the rule of life, hold morning and evening worship, and first walk in the way themselves.

God's Knowledge and Setting

The words I know him declare God as the Searcher of hearts, omniscient and omnipotent, in whom there is no hypocrisy or deceit. He knew Abraham's heart, character, and fixed determination to walk in the fear of the Lord and to guide his children and household firmly in the way of justice and judgment. That same searching knowledge extends to every person by name, knowing where they live, their spirit and actions, and who will prove faithful in the house. It marks Abraham as a man God could trust, a man of strictest integrity and faith whose life and character were fashioned by close communion with God and obedience to the laws of heaven.

The Lord who spoke these words and communed with Abraham was Jesus, revealing Christ in the Old Testament. Abraham had been selected for his work by being called out from his father's house and country, where idolatrous influences constantly impressed the mind. He was brought to a far-off place where he could be taught of God and carry forward a reformatory work in purest principles, opening a new stage in God's providence to turn the inhabitants of the world from heathen idolatry to the service and worship of the true God. Chosen to be God's representative to introduce this new order, he lived to receive instruction from God as priest of his household and to give it to his family, cultivating home religion and causing God's will to be respected and obeyed.

Because Abraham trained his household rightly and would faithfully direct them in righteousness, God took him into His counsels and told him beforehand about the destruction of Sodom. Angels visited Abraham on their way to destroy the corrupt city where licentiousness had been at work. Abraham pleaded with God to spare the city for its honest inhabitants, even if only ten could be found, but the city was destroyed.

His household entrusted to him numbered no less than more than a thousand souls, though very large. It included heads of families and many newly turned from heathenism, those led by his teachings to worship the true God who found a home in his encampment, together with parents and children, servants, and the many souls connected with his house. His encampment was as a school where they received instruction to prepare them to be representatives of the faith, guarding their religious life and imparting knowledge of the divine statutes as the most precious legacy to transmit to them and through them to the world. His influence reached beyond his own household wherever he pitched his tent and left his altar of worship. Through integrity, unselfishness, courage, kindness, and benevolence he revealed God's character to surrounding nations including Sodom, while his godly example, righteous conduct, and faithful instruction guided his servants and household to fear, love, and reverence God.

Commanding Household Faithfully

To command means firm, decisive, authoritative direction, not merely coaxing, petting, cajolery, consulting inclination and pleasure, or resting satisfied with mere remonstrances and warnings like Eli did. Parents are to follow Abraham's example in firmly guiding their households in the Lord's way by doing justice and judgment, requiring prompt obedience, correcting wrongdoing at once, and restraining children rather than allowing them to have their own way and do wrong without correction. Those who indulge wrong habits displease God, neglect duty, betray accountability for not restraining, and encourage habits that grow into unlovely disagreeable characters, while children who obey promptly, are helpful, behave with kindness, speak kind words, do right deeds, overcome faults out of love for Jesus who gave His life for them, and become unselfish, truthful, kind and tenderhearted are blessed by the Lord as lambs of His flock and prepared for the heavenly home where they will be happy forever. Faithful parents must not merely warn or remonstrate but faithfully teach their children to walk in God's ways, a solemn duty to be faced in the judgment.

Commanding involves both giving right instruction and maintaining the authority of just and righteous laws, enforcing energy, integrity, honesty, patience, courage, diligence and practical usefulness. It requires kindly yet firmly restraining evil propensities, wrong desires and inclinations, correcting evil habits and passions, lack of reverence and disrespect, even by crossing the will, punishing and denying, with persevering prayerful effort, and not leaving children to wander from the safe path marked out in God's word into dangerous ways open on every side. Training children for God's service and life's duties is one of a father's most important responsibilities, not a small matter to neglect for peace and ease, not indulging whatever they desire or submitting to their will and letting them control him. Parents are to teach obedience to their own authority as the first step in learning obedience to God, for leaving children to follow their own impulses is not love but cruelty that fosters resistance to God's will and passes an insubordinate spirit to later generations.

Commanding forbids sinful neglect to restrain evil, weak unwise indulgent favoritism, yielding conviction of duty to mistaken affection, betraying sacred trusts, flinching from the demands of truth, yielding to human weakness, hypocrisy and deception, and scheming or underhand dealing. True home government lets the voice of God be heard with no hypocrisy and no deception, for there is a law and it must be kept and God's will must be paramount, and genuine family love is of value because it is verified by perfect obedience, while blind affection, indulgence, and outward embracing and kissing without obedience are cheap, deceptive, cruel, and worthless. Failure to command and restrain teaches children to disregard God's commands and, as with Eli, ends in sorrow and ruin. Commanding means governing the family as God's representative under God's law rather than a self-made rule, keeping God's law as one answerable to the Lawgiver, with God's will supreme and paramount, following no other guide, yielding to no other will, bending no principle of truth to children's defects, and allowing no sinless swerving from His rules but requiring justice and judgment and God's way rather than their own will and pleasure.

Abraham served as priest, house-band, guardian, leader and lawmaker in his house, faithfully instructing and commanding his children and household after him, cultivating home religion with strict regard to the word of the Lord, looking upon his family as a sacred trust, and directing them to the divine Sovereign. His household was the little church in the house, a community of faith and place of instruction where as in a school they received instruction to prepare them to be representatives of the faith, and Christ's followers must be faithful in the family as Christ left orders as a parent leaving a family of children and expects obedience to them, teaching children justice and judgment so they will be ready when Christ comes to have the mark of God upon them as obedient and to be translated to heaven. The same spirit that controlled in the patriarch's home is to control in institutions established for the advancement of the Lord's work. This home faithfulness is what made him a remarkable example of godliness and the father of the faithful, a sacred trust laid on every father to exercise loving parental authority without yielding it on any point, a duty that remains even when a father called to public work must deprive his children of the presence and care they should receive from him, a lack that brings keen trials.

In his household there was not one law for master and another for servant, or a royal way for the rich and another for the poor, or one rule for superior and another for inferior, lordly and humble, old and young; all were treated with justice and compassion as fellow inheritors of the grace of life, and all were taught they were under the rule of the God of heaven and of Christ, with God's law appointing to each his duties and only in obedience could any secure happiness and prosperity, with no oppression by parents and no disobedience by children. Keeping the way of the Lord means keeping the commandments of God, which means more than is commonly supposed, making God's will and God's way one's own will and way, learning the first principles of holiness to God and trusting in Him instead of making finite man a dependence, with faithful duty by all in homes and institutions, with no tampering with conscience and no separate standard for leaders and workers, and with those in trust working with conscientiousness and fidelity, kindness, consideration, and patience, setting a right example and training others in right lines by precept and example. Meeting this standard brings God's blessing, peace and holy joy, and failing it brings God's curse. The power of Abraham's teaching lay in the influence of his own life, his unswerving integrity, benevolence, unselfish courtesy, nobility and loveliness of character, and the silent fragrance of daily connection with heaven, exercised with such wisdom and tenderness that hearts were won so they would follow God's way by practicing righteousness and justice, and he did not neglect the soul of the humblest servant but faithfully directed his household as one answerable to God, guiding servants and household to fear, love, and reverence God. His influence reached beyond his own household wherever he pitched his tent and left his altar of worship, and teaching of God's word today will be just as effective when faithfully reflected in the teacher's life, calling adults to guide and educate the young, give them a good example, and pass on counsel that can lead them to salvation.

Like Abraham believers must command their household after them even in crisis and furnace trials by keeping fast hold of God's guiding hand with childlike reliance, trusting the Lord day by day amid railers and accusers while doing God's refining work and leaving the future in His hands.

Keeping the Lord's Way

The way of the Lord is faithful obedience to God, keeping His commandments and His law instituted in Eden as the standard of character and rule of life, from which there can be no sinless turning aside or swerving. To keep it is to make God's will and God's way one's own will and one's own way, walking in the fear of the Lord with a perfect heart and a heart right with God. It is lived by perfect trusting obedience to a Thus saith the Lord as subjects of God's kingdom, with the Bible as the voice of God to be implicitly obeyed, made the rule of life and counselor in the family. There is not one rule for the supposed superior and another for the inferior, one way for the lordly and another for the humble; those who so live receive peace and holy joy, while a heart not right drifts into conduct shaped by Satan, disregarding warnings and not avoiding even the appearance of evil.

Keeping the way of the Lord is defined as doing justice and judgment, doing what is just and right and righteous. It is the humble, self-denying path Christians must follow at all times and under all circumstances, joined with authority joined with affection, and amid trials and sacrifice it means trusting God and faithfully doing one's part in His work. God's rules provide the standard from which there can be no sinless swerving.

Justice in that way must be joined with Christ's mercy, love, goodness, long-suffering, patience, tenderness and compassion, shown in practical help to those who need it. Mercy and justice are to be united in the home and in service, with parents not oppressing and children not disobeying under God's holy, just and good law. This means acting with a single eye to the glory of God to do justice and exercise mercy and love, not letting souls go and turning from them, not being indifferent, careless and hard-hearted toward the erring, not excusing a wrong course toward them out of dependence on men and fear of alienation, but doing God's bidding by showing the defects of the indifferent and seeking to waken love and tenderness toward those who need help.

In practice keeping the way means recognizing God in every transaction and acting fairly toward others, knowing that God sees and examines conduct. It requires honest, fair business dealings and faithful care of people and trusts, rejecting selfishness, covetousness and unjust treatment. It refuses to gain at another's expense, to impose unfair demands, to withhold wages, to act overbearingly, to use advantage to wrong a brother, treating workers as persons accountable to God rather than as tools for profit, and it does not delay to make wrong transactions right.

Keeping the way requires more than merely professing belief in the truth or knowing truth and teaching it to others. It requires obedience to all God's requirements with confession and earnest prayer, keeping God's law as one answerable to the Lawgiver, Judge and King, refusing disobedience, with no hypocrisy or deception and no betraying of sacred trusts. It requires faith joined with works making complete in Christ, learning God's will and doing it wholeheartedly in daily conduct, with the same just rule of action from people in authority as from those under their decisions, without selfish practices or paths God has not marked out, guided by God's Word as counselor with a meek and lowly heart God can impress.

The way of the Lord is heaven's rule and the narrow way, God's rule for the guidance of all who will follow Him, to be kept with unswerving obedience. God's law is the standard, departing from it is sin, and where God's will and way are not first the first principles of holiness still have to be learned. Every other path leads to destruction, away from the city of God, and is the path of the destroyer. Those who claim to believe present truth who stay in the way to practice justice and right judgment may expect prosperity, making Him first and last and best in everything and avoiding desire for display, indulgence, self-glorification and unnecessary expensive undertakings that bring heavy debt, while those who wander from the narrow way bring ruin upon themselves and upon those who look to them for guidance, and false doctrines and refusal to heed instruction lead to careless neglect of that way.

The way is learned by studying to become acquainted with God's ways, will and purposes. Scripture as God's voice under the Holy Spirit's teaching enables growth in knowledge of Christ so people can distinguish right from wrong, and when rooted and grounded in truth they can live out justice and judgment. It is sought through prayer, through honest self-examination in God's Word as a great moral mirror that always tells the truth, and through working together with God out of love for Christ and for souls ready to perish, so each is found in place doing the work given for this time. God's people are taken out of the world as rough stones to be hewed and squared and polished for the heavenly building, fashioned after the divine Pattern through transformation of heart and character, which is the specified work of the Comforter, done as they are hewed by the prophets with reproof, warning, admonition, advice and counsel, and they cannot be safe trusting in men and making flesh their arm.

The Lord's way governs every part of life, including eating, drinking and dressing, is learned from Scripture and taught to children by instruction and example, and willful disregard of physical law accompanies disregard of moral law.

Man's ingenuity, judgment and power to execute all come from God and are to be devoted to God's service, with the principles of the Bible controlling His servants. His workers are ever to do justice and judgment, steadfastly keeping the way of the Lord, making the kingdom of God and His righteousness first and the center round which life is built, putting the Redeemer's interests before their own or those of any other human being because He has bought them and all their powers belong to Him, and then all things needful will be given.

Keeping the way of the Lord means living in obedience to God according to His way. Even when past conduct and past paths have turned aside from that way, clinging to God allows Him to change the course so they will keep it.

Promise Depends on Obedience

God’s promises to Abraham, to his descendants, and through Christ to the nations were not unconditional but were joined to his faithful cooperation in educating and training his household, so that his share in their fulfillment depended on his faithfulness in governing his household and promoting righteousness. God knew Abraham would direct his children and his household after him to follow the Lord’s way by practicing justice and judgment through both instruction and example, and this faithful instruction was connected with bringing upon Abraham what had been spoken concerning him. The command of the household is presented as a sacred trust not to be abandoned through blind affection, for Abraham would not only obey himself but would teach religion and righteousness at home and make the divine law the rule of his house.

Faithful household instruction would honor God, preserve knowledge of the true God and His commandments, and prepare the family and the people formed through them to preserve truth and serve His purpose. It would make God’s name known, feared and loved, prepare the promised child to honor God, and pass obedience to God’s way and law on to future generations. Parents were not to oppress and children were not to disobey, for the Lord is judge, lawgiver and king, and when families firmly follow His laws and pass right habits from one generation to the next, households are well ordered and God is loved and honored. Parents themselves must walk in God’s law before they can faithfully teach children to obey it, making God’s law the rule of life in the family and teaching the Bible as God’s word to be obeyed.

Parents bear a responsibility God will not do for them, yet when they realize that responsibility and do all in their power, God works with them as helper. He cooperates with every sincere unselfish effort and by His Spirit impresses children’s minds, aiding faithful efforts to correct children with His Spirit and grace and with angelic help. The verse sets the standard for all parents, who receive the same commendation given to Abraham when they work diligently and earnestly for their children instead of giving to the world the time and attention that belongs to them. Fathers are to teach obedience, uphold right principles, and lead their families to obey God as fellow workers with God in earnest religious work in the home.

Because Abraham would cultivate home religion and command his household to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is just and right, God approved, commended, honored and blessed him, bore witness to him, took him into His counsels, and pronounced great blessings upon him and his posterity. The Lord trusted Abraham to direct his children and household after him, and the spoken promise would be fulfilled in connection with this faithfulness. Parents who follow Abraham’s example and work diligently and earnestly to guide their children in this way receive the same commendation, are guided by the Lord in His way, and are brought what He has promised, including prosperity when they stay in the way practicing justice and right judgment.

Failure to command and restrain teaches children to disregard God’s commands and ends in sorrow, ruin, guilt and judgment on household and Israel, with loss and hindrance to God’s work. As with Eli, who was cursed with all his house because his sons were wicked and he did not restrain them, and as with Aaron, whose criminal neglect to command respect and reverence resulted in his sons’ death, neglect brings a fearful account to be settled. Permitting disobedience makes children candidates for perdition, and work leading to transgression and death displeases the Lord, for one undisciplined child can mar church peace and incite rebellion, while the good order and thorough discipline of families lies at the foundation of church discipline and national prosperity. Responsibility is recorded in heaven to be revealed at judgment, and parents who neglect this duty are not blameless, for God remains attentive to such matters.

Failure to keep the way is shown in jealousy, suspicion and contention among workers, which displeases God, closes the door so the Spirit cannot enter, and causes loss of hold upon God and upon the hearts of brethren, and in trusting men and making flesh one’s arm. Keeping His way enables brethren and sisters to unite and work together intelligently, gives victory at every step, and requires great reformation in the home through learning at the feet of Jesus, laboring together with God, and receiving the softening and subduing influence of the Spirit. Those who follow that way keep God’s Word in their hearts and speak it to others, distinguish right from wrong and light from darkness, discern clearly the character of the work God has appointed, and guide others toward righteousness and truth by devotion, conscientious self-denying conduct, and fair courteous treatment of others.

Parents Train the Household

Abraham's charge to direct his children and household after him to keep the way of the Lord in justice and judgment is the rule for governing every family, laying a sacred trust on all parents and guardians to guide their families in obedience to God. Fathers and mothers are responsible for this instruction at home regardless of whether neighbors approve or relatives agree, for loyalty to God's word must take precedence over people's opinions. Sending children to school or Sabbath school does not replace that home duty, nor is it placed upon the minister, and parents receive the same commendation as Abraham when they work diligently and earnestly for their children instead of giving to the world the time and attention that belongs to them. It means parents bear a responsibility God will not do for them, yet when they realize it and do all in their power, God works with them as helper, cooperating with every sincere unselfish effort and by His Spirit impressing the children's minds. God who spoke these words sees the education given in every home and measures its influence, and Abraham's strict regard to God's commands and cultivation of home religion made him a remarkable example of godliness and the father of the faithful.

The father stands at the head as lawmaker, priest and house-band, to be reverenced and respected, making the law of God the rule of his home by both giving right instruction and maintaining the authority of just and righteous laws. The mother is queen, guide and educator of the children, to be cherished and respected by the husband, and father and mother are to unite their interests with authority in the home. The father's wise discipline and firmness are to work together with the mother's instruction, joining faith and action in teaching children to love Jesus and to form character by God's standard in Scripture. This leading requires guiding without scolding, fretting, and constant bickering, not leaving children to have their own way and do as they please, and not treating provision and work as all that fatherhood requires. The duty remains even when a father called to public work must deprive his children of the presence and care they should receive from him, a lack that brings keen trials.

The house is to be ruled by the combined influence of authority and affection, love with firm restraint, kindness and sympathy with firmness as a rock, in perfect trusting obedience to a Thus saith the Lord as subjects of God's kingdom. Teaching the law of the Lord and calling children to obedience is not to be done with a harsh, dictatorial, overbearing spirit that provokes children to wrath, nor with violence or oppression by parents, and there is to be no disobedience by children. Rule is to be uniform from principle rather than impulse, keeping promises, avoiding fretting, scolding, threatening and unreasonable punishment, exercising wise, Christlike authority that restrains disobedience and trains in reverence for God. That authority works together with affection, not blind indulgence, uniting mercy and justice and preventing both parental oppression and filial disobedience.

Obedience to parental authority is the first step in obedience to God's authority, and parents must require prompt obedience, correct wrongdoing at once, and restrain children rather than allow them to have their own way. Command means firm, authoritative direction, not merely coaxing, and parents who let children do wrong without correction displease God, neglect duty, will be held accountable, and by indulgence encourage habits that ought to be corrected. Children belong to God, and parents are to train them patiently to obey, follow Christ's example, practice self-denial, help others, attend to duties, be helpful, truthful, kind and tenderhearted, speaking kind words and doing right deeds. This commanding and obeying trains children to be unselfish and prepares them for the heavenly home where they will be happy forever, while children who obey are blessed by the Lord. Parents in their homes are educating God's little ones and must command, discipline, and govern them, proving where their children are, whether coming up for God or for the devil, because if mother and father do not discipline them the devil will control them.

Blind affection, indulgence, petting and letting children choose their own course and control the household is cheap, deceptive, cruel, and worthless, confirming them in evil and undermining respect for parental authority. Such indulgence lays the foundation for disregard of God's commandments, fosters resistance to God's will, and, as with Eli who rested satisfied with mere remonstrances and warnings, ends in sorrow, ruin, guilt and judgment. To command tolerates no petting and cajolery, no excusing perversity, no betraying sacred trusts, no flinching from truth, no yielding to human weakness or mistaken affection, for there is a law and it must be kept and God's will must be paramount. Unless evil habits are corrected, children grow up with unlovely, disagreeable characters, transmitting an irreligious insubordinate spirit to children and children's children. Abraham neither indulged his children in ways that ruined them nor showed them blind affection, but cherished home religion, honored sacred trusts, followed God's guidance, and kept His law.

Discipline must begin with the baby in arms and continue from earliest years, bringing passions and evil tempers under control lesson after lesson to prepare children for immortal life. Parents are accountable to train and correct rather than foster evil tempers through neglect, doing their part faithfully and asking God to help shape dispositions, for parents who neglect this leave the work of training to Satan. This includes teaching reverence and quiet conduct in God's house, keeping children quiet from play and running about where God meets His people, teaching Sabbath observance, habits of industry, Christian politeness, patience and kindness, self-denial and self-control, and valuing inward adorning above outward show. When parents do their part in living faith and reliance on God, God does His part, and children may be brought into the church and shaped after the divine pattern.

Abraham cultivated home religion and caused the fear of the Lord to circulate through his tents, letting the voice of God be heard with no hypocrisy and no deception, ordering the household so the fear of the Lord governs as leader, guardian, and priest in his house. Parents must make God's law and word the rule of life and the child's first textbook, teaching that the Bible is the voice of God to be implicitly obeyed, studying to become acquainted with God's ways, will and purposes, and teaching God's character from its lessons. They are to hold morning and evening worship with prayer and praise led by the father as priest of the household, with love shown in thoughtful kindness and gentle, unselfish courtesy. They are to weave Jesus into childhood experience from very childhood as a practical, living helper against temptation who helps overcome evil desires and gain victory when Satan tempts, keeping a practical living Jesus with the family every day which brings peace into the house. They are to bring heaven into this life and into the family, turning from earth's attractions, educating children not to live for this world but for the future immortal life, and bringing children into the house of God away from ungodly association.

The power of teaching lies in the influence of the teacher's own life, and parents must first walk in the law with perfect hearts and keep the way themselves before they can teach it. Precept and example must agree, showing by conduct that God's Word teaches duty, being true to principle with unlimited faith in God, controlling appetite, disciplining self to perfect self-control free from anger and passion, having Christ abiding within, and becoming acquainted with the Word. Abraham's daily life gave power to his teaching, exercised with such wisdom and tenderness that hearts were won, for he understood he was answerable to God and faithfully directed his large household of more than a thousand souls including heads of families and many newly turned from heathenism to follow God's way by practicing righteousness and justice. His influence reached beyond his own household wherever he pitched his tent and left his altar of worship, and teaching today will be just as effective when faithfully reflected in life. Parents who keep God continually in view order work by divine principles for both present life and eternity, guiding households in upright principles and training children in habits that form character.

Parents stand in the place of God to children and must render an awful account of faithfulness to the trust, for family government is an obligation Heaven lays upon a father, and especially upon a minister. A man with only a feeble sense of this fatherly responsibility will fail at home and will also fail as minister and shepherd, because the same lack seen in managing his family will appear in public work where wrongs are left uncorrected to avoid unpleasant reproof. Negligent, unfaithful parents rear children to be cut down by the destroying angel, because God hates unruly passion and evil tempers and cannot cover, hide, preserve, or save such children in trouble, so they will be eternally lost. The blood of lost children who might have been saved will be upon unfaithful parents, and parents with that blood upon them cannot expect to be saved in the day of God's fierce anger but must meet their work in the judgment. This extends to requiring respect and reverence for parental authority and disciplining in self-denial instead of allowing inclinations, for neglect brings a fearful account, as seen when Eli's failure to restrain his sons brought guilt and judgment on household and Israel and Aaron's criminal neglect resulted in death.

A well-ordered home where prayer ascends and mercy and blessing descend like morning dew shines as light and stands as proof of Christianity no unbeliever can deny. Such homes bear witness to faith, make straight paths so the vulnerable are not led astray, and when Christians live out God's word their example can help bring relatives to serve the Lord. The work of obedience begins in the family, the little church in the house, by teaching children justice and judgment, so they will be ready when Christ comes to have the mark of God upon them as obedient and to be translated to heaven, forming characters that will stand in judgment and shaping character for this life and the life to come. Where religious parents fail to walk in the statutes and to direct their household, the law is not the rule of life, children feel no obligation to teach their own children, and the result is godless families and deep, widespread depravity.

Where this work has been neglected, keeping the way begins with redeeming the time by consecration of self to God, prayer for a clean heart and right spirit, and wise labor in fear and love for conversion of the unconverted in the household whom the Lord regards as purchased by blood. It begins with confessing sins before God, gathering children, acknowledging neglect, telling of desire for reformation and asking their help to make the home what it ought to be, reading the directions found in the Word of God, and praying asking God to spare life and help prepare for a home in His kingdom, then continuing in that reformation.

Faithful commanding includes responsibly guiding children's affections toward suitable companions and judging marriage suitability lest idolatry draw the household from God. Parents are to teach respect for parental authority even in decisions about marriage, a respect required unless it conflicts with duty to God, training children to love noble obedience. Worldly influences can make children regard such instruction and care over companions as excessive, and vain proud unbelieving associates and fictitious reading that intoxicates the mind like an idol are to be refused. The father is the proper ruler as long as he lives, and his authority does not cease even after children are grown and have families of their own, with grown and married children still to respect and heed godly parental counsel except where it conflicts with duty to God.

Keeping the way of the Lord is the standard for parents, children, and every member of a household, all to be guided by God's word, with no prosperity apart from following the Lord's way. Those who love and fear God receive His salvation, which they are to share with others. The work of parental training and commanding children after them to keep God's ways and do justice and judgment is a science that many need to learn. Neglecting spiritual things for temporal gain leaves parents unfit to educate and train their children in the Lord's way. That training requires remembering God every moment, obtaining the Holy Spirit's grace by faith and prayer with heart devotion and single eye to God's glory, for seeking temporal enrichment to the neglect of heavenly enlightenment leaves a man unfit physically and mentally, robs God and souls, and makes labor without Christ worthless and gain of the world at cost of the soul eternal loss.

Wider Service and Witness

Keeping the way of the Lord by doing justice and right judgment must be learned before anyone is qualified to lead, and each one should ask in humility whether he has learned it. It means not walking in one's own strength but following Christ's earthly example of dependence, counting oneself as a little child as Solomon did. Position never changes character, never makes a man infallible, and never gives holiness and excellence of character. The higher the position the greater the responsibility, the wider the influence, and the greater the need to depend on God's wisdom and strength, to walk carefully before God and men, and to remain a learner instead of ordering and dictating and commanding. He who honors God and keeps His commandments is himself honored.

A man must command his household after him and rule well his own house, managing home matters rightly, to be fit for the church. That family government of directing children and household to keep order, discipline and obedience is an obligation Heaven lays upon a father, and especially upon a minister. Ministers must first govern their own households before they are ready to judge or decide matters in the church. A man with only a feeble sense of this fatherly responsibility will fail at home and will also fail as minister and shepherd of the flock, because the same lack seen in management of the family will be seen in public work in the church, where wrongs are left uncorrected to avoid the unpleasant results of reproof and earnest appeal. Failure to command the household while yielding to a wife's influence that injures usefulness or following the promptings of one's own spirit brings perplexities and discouragements, clouds discernment, weakens spirituality, and marks labor with great imperfection. Those who fail to order their household are inconsistent when they oppose order in the church, and parents must lead children, govern them, and restrain and correct their passions rather than be led by them, for neglect brings guilt and judgment as with Eli's failure to restrain his sons. Fulfilling the duty of teaching children to follow God's way and to practice righteousness and right judgment requires adequate support for the family and freedom from excessive business burdens, travel, and meetings that would leave no time for instruction and care in the home. Young preachers should therefore counsel with aged brethren who have done this work.

Teachers in church schools must keep the way of the Lord as part of the Lord's work for this time, and must not lightly regard this responsibility because their influence forms the characters of children and youth under their care. When they strive diligently to keep that way they are a blessing and help to students, aiding them to form characters that will stand in the day of judgment. Teachers who neglect that way contribute to failures in schools, and their words and behavior negatively influence students, undermining the example of those who seek to uphold Christian education. That instruction means educating line upon line and precept upon precept to stand firmly for truth and righteousness, with training at home supported by schooling. Commanding means firm, consistent discipline that does not leave children to have their own way but requires them to give up their own way to discipline, correcting outbursts of passion and self-will and defiance at once instead of excusing them as nothing but children who will learn when older, so the devil is not allowed to work through the child and take possession. This commanding is part of resisting the devil, a lesson many families still have to learn, and families and schools, including schools connected with sanitariums, must learn it and practice and display it so visiting families can see and learn it and a right impression and influence are carried.

Managers and workers in institutions devoted to God's service must keep the Lord's way by doing justice and judgment as the standard for God's people, shaping conduct with reverence for God, goodness, and holiness, without partiality or hypocrisy. Keeping that way requires more than fair decisions; justice must be joined with Christ's mercy, love, goodness, patience, and tenderness, shown in compassion and practical help to those who need it. There is one standard for master and servant, superior, inferior, and equal, old and young, which is to fear God with the whole heart and keep the Ten Commandments by keeping the way to do justice and judgment, with faithful duty by all in homes and institutions, no tampering with conscience, no separate standard for leaders and workers, and those in trust working with conscientiousness and fidelity, kindness, consideration, and patience, setting a right example and training others in right lines by precept and example. Meeting this standard brings God's blessing, and failing it brings God's curse. Ordering the household after him is the model for leaders to care especially for the spiritual welfare of everyone connected with their work.

All workers in publishing houses must be educated not only in business lines but to bear spiritual responsibilities, with personal connection with Christ and personal experience of His power to save, with minds molded by God as the youth were in the schools of the prophets, rooted and grounded in principles of truth by training in Bible lines. So trained they keep the way by doing justice and judgment, live with aroused missionary spirit, sense the high privilege of being used by God as His helping hand in this last work of salvation, work for others by practical labor for souls just where they are, and look to the word of God for instruction in every line of missionary effort, so that as the word is communicated their minds are supplied with suggestions for working the fields in a way that brings God the best returns from all parts of His vineyard. Workers trained in Bible principles can thus live by God's way. Guardians are to guard helpers with a godly man and wife and a wise converted matron sheltering young women with prayer and Bible study, rather than seeking display, debt or selfish ways.

Systematic missionary work charged upon every church member begins at home by teaching children to keep the way by doing what is right and just, joined with faithfully doing duty to those within their own borders and generously supporting their own poor. Keeping the way begins with doing whole duty to the church in the home and to neighbors, following the pattern Christ gave, faithfully teaching children lessons of Christian politeness, improving the government of the home, not neglecting children, and learning self-discipline so as to be worthy of the respect of children and neighbors. It requires having Christ abiding in the heart with the patience and kindness that must be manifest in the life of every Christian, and only when the way is kept in this manner is a person ready to teach truth to those around him. All are to keep God's way by doing what is just and right, seeking the Holy Spirit's teaching through prayer, examining themselves honestly in God's Word as a great moral mirror that always tells the truth, and working together with God out of love for Christ and for souls ready to perish, so that churches receive a very different atmosphere with each person found in his place recognizing and doing the work God has put in his hands to be done for this time. When God's people live this way and share the truths of His Word, the Holy Spirit works through them, opening spiritually blinded eyes, so sinners are drawn to Christ and converted.

The words I know him show that God knows those who are faithful in home life and conduct. As He knew Abraham would guide his children and household to follow the Lord's way and practice justice, so He knew Cornelius, who like Abraham revered God, sought His counsel, and made his household a place of worship. The same God knows each person by name, where they live, the spirit they possess, and their actions, and as He knew Abraham He knew Cornelius and sent an angel to direct him to Peter so he could receive greater light.

Abraham's household was to keep the Lord's way by practicing justice and judgment, but Israel's leaders later failed to follow that way despite temporary reformation after the return from Babylon. They rejected the prophets and then God's Son, making themselves guilty of grave sin and bringing judgment upon Jerusalem. False doctrines and refusal to heed God's instruction still lead to careless neglect of that way.

God values people who keep His way and do justice and judgment, and He can continually impart wisdom to such people, as He did to Daniel. Cultivating religion in the home helps a person preserve clear discernment and makes that person a safe counselor, with character fit for responsibility. Keeping the way enables people to discern clearly the character of the work God has appointed. A leader who seeks God conscientiously and constantly can likewise grow into a representative person worthy of trust, as Abraham was a person God could trust. A Christian is one whom the Lord, the God of hosts, can work through to keep the way in the earth and make His will manifest to men, and genuine religion does not make its possessor narrow and cramped but enlarges the faculties and mind, while narrowness evidences lack of religion and need of grace and heavenly anointing.

God Himself taught Abraham how to keep the way and how to be a Christian gentleman, revealing Himself in visions of the night and giving instruction word by word. Keeping the way means treating sacred things as sacred and not as common, magnifying the Lord's name, not counting time spent in spiritual devotion as lost, and devoting every capability of mind and body to God. Counselors and teachers in the Lord's work must have this education and training, daily learning lessons from Him who taught Abraham. They must humble proud hearts, strip off self-importance and self-assumed dignity under the sight of the Omniscient One, feel they are only the Lord's little children, and learn from Him how to behave as gentlemen and gentlewomen, becoming through careful training under Bible precepts members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. Those handling sacred things who have lost a sense of their sacredness will be removed from His work unless they change.