Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 28, 1861
NOAH—HIS AGE AND OURS.
By Cumming
WE enter here on one of the great parallelisms of time. The coincidences we discover between the age of Noah and the nineteenth century are significant signs. They are proofs of the earth's old age, and yet foretokens of its predicted youth. Our Lord says, "As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all." Luke xvii, 26-29.
History, whether sacred or profane, seems always to repeat itself. One great era in the world appears, when narrowly examined, to be simply the reflection of another; and a deed done in the day that now is, to be the echo of a deed done hundreds or thousands of years ago. Time seems to move in circles, history constantly to repeat itself, and so far to illustrate the maxim of the wise man, "There is nothing new under the sun." When we examine great and startling epochs in the history of the world, we find points of contact, analogies, and coincidences most suggestive.
The deluge, the destruction of Jerusalem, the end of this age, all seem to have coincident points running, like sea and land, into each other.
The age of Noah is a prefiguration of the age that now is,—the last great epoch of this world's life. History is never obsolete. He that knows best the history of the past, humanity speaking, will be the truest prophet of the character of the future. Some one made the remark in scorn, "History is an old almanac." He stated a great truth, though he did not intend it. How does the almanac of this year differ from the almanac of the last? The dates differ slightly, but the acts are the same, the tides the same, the rising and setting of the sun, summer and winter, spring and autumn. History is an old almanac; it is the same great drama, only with different actors, and slight changes in the parts that they play. If you take the events of the last two thousand years and compare them with the events of the four thousand that preceded, you will be struck by the number of beautiful and interesting coincidences. The study of Genesis is a preparation for the study of the Apocalypse. Acquaintance with Leviticus is a ground-work for acquaintance with the gospel according to St. John. The history of humanity in the desert is a type and prefiguration of humanity in the age in which our lot is now cast.
Human nature as far as disconnected with the gospel, and uninfluenced by its elements, is the same in the days of Napoleon that it was in the days of Noah. The nineteenth century from creation, and the nineteenth century from the Christian era, in which we live, are very much facsimiles the one of the other; and where the difference is visible, that difference is the result of the touch of transforming grace, not the inherent attainment or development of original excellence in human nature.
Jesus, in his assertion of parallelism, recognizes Genesis as scripture. It is worth while to notice these points; because, admit the New Testament to be divine, and you cannot escape the conclusion that the Old is equally so; because the writers and speakers in the New quote the sentiments of the writers of the Old. Jesus quotes Genesis as true history. You are aware the Rationalists in Germany—called Rationalists, as they think themselves, from excess of reason, just as lucus, from lux, light, is the Latin for a grove, from its non lucendo, from its having no light; so these men are called Rationalists, because they have no reason—say that the tower of Babel, and Abraham leaving Ur of the Chaldees, and the flood, are myths—that is, fables. They say it was not a real history, but a fable, just as the parable of the prodigal son, or the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. But here our blessed Lord refers to Noah as a real person, to the flood as a fact, to the characteristics of that generation as types and prefigurations of the characteristics of ours; and in all respects he attests the authenticity of Genesis, the reality of its history; and that if Rationalists proclaim it to be a myth, the Way, the Truth, and the Life has anticipated them, by pronouncing it sacred and instructive history.
The prophecy, however, that we are now to consider is, that men shall be at the close of this age just as they were at the close of the antediluvian age. But what was the character of the people at the time of the flood? and by finding the sketch of them as given by the inspired pencil, we shall be able to ascertain what shall be the character of those who shall live immediately before our Lord's coming. The condition and character of the world in the days of Noah are thus described: "And it came to pass, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh. There were giants in the earth in those days. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." Here is the portrait; not drawn by an inaccurate pen, but by the faithful historian, who was inspired by the Spirit of God to sketch it truly, and to set down nothing that was false. We may expect, then, that the next generation will be something like a reflection of this first. We are told that in the days of Noah the heart of man was deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. And is the natural heart improved now? There is no evidence that it is. Sins as grievous, crimes as flagrant, emanate from the unsanctified and unregenerate heart now as ever emanated from it in the days of Noah. We may be more civilized than they were in Noah's days, but not more sanctified; we may have more science, but we may not have more grace. If God's word speaks intelligibly it speaks pointedly, that out of the heart proceed all evil thoughts, appetites and desires, until that heart is sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God. It is a great mistake to think that education without religion makes man's heart one whit holier. We do not fear education in science; we only contend that it is not sufficient to make man holy, or to make him happy hereafter. In fact, education without religion does man so far good—that it tends to civilize him, but it does not one whit sanctify him; it needs the element of religion to accomplish that; and because we say mere secular education is not sufficient, we do not say it is not in itself good; however, all it can do is to improve man as an inhabitant of this world; it cannot fit man for being an inhabitant of a higher. If I carry filings of steel from a muddy street to a beautiful walk, or to a lovely garden, I make an improvement in their condition; but if I take a magnet and apply it to them I give them another motion altogether, and lift them not horizontally, but vertically from the earth. Secular education lifts man from degradation unto social civilization; but it is only a change of locality on the earth; it is a horizontal change; but grace touches him with its magnetic attraction, and draws him, not from one part of the earth to another;10but from the earth to heaven, from grace to glory, closer and nearer to God.
The heart of man is not one whit changed in its inherent nature from what it was in the days of Noah and immediately before the flood. David said it was the same in his days that it was in those of Noah; and faithful history records the crimes that have found their origin in the heart, and stained the annals of the fairest realms of Europe.
It is also written, that in the days of Noah the earth was filled with violence, that is, war, conflict, revolt, dispute. And are we very much wiser now? It was predicted by the great advocates, not of peace, but of the peace society, some years ago, that now war had become an obsolete thing, that all our shot should at once be made into rails, that our cannon should be turned into locomotives, our muskets sold as old iron, and our ships as fire-wood, and in fact that a mere pretence of a guard was all that we wanted on the shores of England, and that Europe had learned enough of war up to 1814 to shrink from it forever. Had these men recollected that as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of man cometh, they would have paused before they prophesied so badly. What better testimony can we have to what man is capable of, than that the very people who shed torrents of blood, and committed the awful deeds of 1793, all things, if possible, more awful in 1848? And at this present moment all Europe is one vast volcano, waiting for the match to be applied to explode into a thousand fragments. *
Notwithstanding all prophecies of peace, the nations are at this moment as ready for war as ever. This seems very strange; it only shows that men are not yet tired of war, and that until the Prince of peace shall sway his scepter over a transformed world there may be "peace, peace,"—the calm, the quiet—but not the permanent peace that keeps the heart and mind continually.
In the days of Noah, not only was the earth filled with violence, so that we may expect the same violence to be exhibited again; but out of all that vast population there were only eight persons that obeyed God's word, that worshiped the true God, and honored him. Far be it from me to pronounce where to pray is duty; but is it not fact at this moment, that if you take Christendom at large, you cannot say that the majority are Christians; you cannot say that the majority of the professing church are true, spiritually-minded Christians? It is still true that "broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat;" and "narrow is the way that leadeth to life, and few there be that find it." As "it was in the days of Noah"—that the overwhelming majority were opposed to the truth, and enamored of a lie—so previous to Christ's second advent in the bursting cloud that reveals the lightning in its splendor, and ushers in the Lord of glory, the great multitude will be without God, and without Christ, and without hope in the world.
Another feature of the men in the days of Noah was their intense worldliness. They were eating, drinking, marrying wives, and giving in marriage. Now there was no sin in any of these. It was not sinful, but dutiful to eat and drink, if they did so in moderation; it was lawful to marry then as it is lawful and dutiful to marry now, ever remembering the grand modifying law that gives it all its consistency and its beauty: "Let them that marry be as though they married not; and they that weep as though they wept not; and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not; and they that use the world as not abusing it, knowing that the fashion of it speedily passeth away." What was the sin of the antediluvians in eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage? It was the excessive love of the lawful which corrupted them, as truly as their constant indulgence in the sinful. Never forget the danger we are in, in loving to excess what is lawful as well as in practicing that which is forbidden; and there is probably more peril in the excessive love of the lawful than there is in the forbidden practice of the sinful.
More men lose their souls by being absorbed in practices that are in themselves unexceptionable, than in practices that are positively sinful and forbidden. The world then was their temple; indulgences of the appetites was their delight; the gratification of the flesh was their enjoyment. They were the slaves of appetite, the servants of the world. This world was their all; they made the most of it—"Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die." But on the supposition that there is a world beyond it where the deeds of the present have their echo in the retributions of the future, their conduct was disobedient in the extreme. Now it will be so at the end of this dispensation. Men will eat and drink, and marry and give in marriage, and they will think nothing of the future. While it is their privilege and their duty to trade, they will not simply be in the world—where God has placed them—but they will be of the world, where Christians ought not to be. And the reason of this was that they were in those days atheists, or they lived without God. Now an atheist we shrink from in horror, and very justly. I cannot conceive a rational being with one ounce of common sense to come to the conclusion that there is not a God who made and governs this present world. The thing seems so absurd, that the man who could arrive at such a conclusion seems only fit to be the inmate of a lunatic asylum. The Psalmist's statement, "men that say, No God," does not mean that in David's days they were so foolish, as to conclude logically, "no God." If it were written not in the Hebrew, but in Greek, it would have been in the optative mood. "The fool hath said in his heart," not "There is no God;" but, "I wish there was no God." He cannot avoid the logical conclusion that there is a God; but he wishes that he could continue in his sins, and feel that there were no God to see him or to call him to account. The spirit of atheism may be where there is a perfect horror of the idea of an atheist. The man who explains every phenomenon without God, who sees nature's laws, but cannot see beyond them nature's Lawgiver, who accounts for every occurrence, prosperous or adverse, painful or pleasant, retribution or blessing without God, may theoretically be no atheist, but practically he is so. He is an atheist who looks on everything, and thinks of everything practically on the hypothesis that there is no God. He enters on to-morrow's duties not feeling, "If the Lord will, or if the Lord will not;" he goes to to-morrow's business calculating upon all he can do, and all he will do, not recognizing the possibly disturbing element, there is a God; such a man is not theoretically an atheist, but practically he is one. He is, as the Apostle describes him, "without God." For "atheist" does not mean a person opposed to God, but a person without God. An antitheist is one opposed to God. Voltaire was an antitheist, that is, one who deliberately and avowedly opposed and hated God; who swore in his blasphemy that he would dethrone him; whose letters closed with the execration that he would erase Christ's name from the earth. He was not an atheist but an antitheist—one full of conscious enmity to God, opposed to him, and determined at all hazards, and whatever might be the issue, to resist him. But many that profess to be Christians, in their practical life, are without God, by omitting him and his will and sovereignty in their calculations. At the same time we must be very careful not to see God in judgments only, but in mercies and blessings also. Many persons are atheists when mercies are showered upon them, and recognize God only when judgments overtake them. I see God in sunshine, if possible, more emphatically than in cloud. I see him in the golden harvest, in its plentiful abundance, more clearly than I see him in the waves and waters of misfortune. I would wish more to see God in prosperity, and more to see myself, and my sins, and my unworthiness in adversity. But man's tendency is to see God when trouble comes, forgetting that his sin alone is to blame; and to see himself when prosperity comes, and to praise his own ingenuity and cleverness. It is the Christian's joy to see God in all that is beneficent, and beautiful, and happy; and to see his own sins, and wickedness, and guilt in the evils and the judgments that occasionally overtake him.—Cumming.
(To be continued.)
WAITING.
At the beautiful gate of the Temple,
Full many a year ago,
A lame man waited, with silent eye,
Watching the ebb and the flow
Of the ceaseless tide of worshipers,
As they passed by, one by one,
From the gray of the early morning,
To the set of the golden sun.
The volume of inspiration
Tells of the lame made whole;
How the healing balm of heaven
Was poured on his waiting-soul.
At the beautiful gate of thy mercy
My spirit, O Father, waits;
It looks for a gleam of glory,
A hope from the golden gates.
And the hymns of its adoration,
Rise mingled with tears of pain,
As morn to night, and night to morn,
It watches and waits in vain.
Send, Father, some holy angel
To open the golden gate;
To pour the beam of glory
On spirits that hope and wait.
To whisper of thee in heaven,
And teach us to see aright:
On our souls to pour a chrism—
On our eyes a heavenly light.
CHRISTIAN KINDNESS.
THE grace of christian kindness cannot be too highly prized, nor can it be too freely exercised in this life of vicissitudes, where all are alike subject to trials, temptations and besetments, and where the christian warfare never ceases. No one but the fault-finding Pharisee boasts of his having attained to the high state of christian perfection, where he can look down upon his less favored brother with an air of "christian contempt," nor does any but the cold-hearted scoffer taunt them when they stumble and fall. In times of temptation the charitable Christian will suffer long and be kind. When we are bereaved and sorrow has stricken our heart, the sympathizing brother will soothe our griefs and administer words of comfort, and when it is ours to be sorely tried, the true-hearted Christian will in some way exercise toward us the grace of christian kindness. Oh! how quieting to the desponding soul are the words, sweet words of christian kindness! And to the weary pilgrim, when tired and almost forsaken, how comforting are kind words and acts exercised towards him by a fellow Christian! The best Christians are not always on the mountain of delights, nor are they exempt from the buffetings of Satan. All are liable to err, and are alike exposed to the poisoned arrows of the enemy. Let us consider the matter wisely, and not forget that we are frail, erring mortals, and that in us dwelleth no good thing. Let us, instead of watching for the haltings of others, and seeking an opportunity to expose real or imaginary error in a fellow traveler, turn our eyes within, and by the light of the gospel examine ourselves, and see whether we are altogether as pure in heart and as free from errors as we could desire. "Charity suffereth long and is kind;" therefore let us exercise this grace also, and be willing to do unto others as we would that they should do unto us. Instead of hunting up and magnifying the faults of erring brethren, we should endeavor to hide them from the eager gaze of a cold-hearted, uncharitable, and selfish world. Let us not exult when our brother stumbleth, nor be glad at his calamities; rather let us be grieved for the afflictions of Joseph, and administer kind words and christian sympathy. Do not say with an air of satisfaction when thy brother is tempted, "Ah! it is his own fault; he is always getting out of the way." These things ought not so to be. Christians ought to love one another and try to build one another up,11Christians are the light of the world; but if the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! "Ye are the salt of the earth." As it is with salt so with the Christian; if its saving properties are lost, it is thenceforth good for nothing. If the Christian does not exert a christian influence, and is not alive unto God for the salvation of souls, he is like salt that has lost its saltness,—good for nothing. The soldier of the cross is always expected to be at his post with his harness on, ready for the coming conflict, prepared for war. There should be no discord in the ranks, no bickerings in the church of Christ; but love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness and truth. "For ye are members one of another." Be ye therefore, brethren, "kind and tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." A loving brother will not suffer his tongue to slander his neighbor, nor will he credit, without good and sufficient evidence, evil reports that may be in circulation against his neighbor, whether he be a member of the church or not. A true disciple of the meek and lowly Jesus will not be harsh and overbearing in his conversation, but will use kind words and gentle means to reclaim the erring one.
Let the grace of christian kindness be exercised, and all wrongs will be removed; minds that have been at war with each other, hearts that have long since ceased to beat in unison, will again be united, and the warm gush of love and affection will begin to flow. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath. Speak kind words, O my brethren, and use kind and gentle means if you would break up the deep fountain of the heart, and cause the tears of true penitence to flow. Is there a brother or a sister whose heart you have caused to bleed, and whose spirit you have wounded? Go to that brother or sister, and say to him or her in the language of a true penitent, "Brother, sister, be comforted. I am sorry for the wounds I have inflicted. Forgive me; I will do so no more." Let the kindly accents prove that you are sincere, and how soon the bleeding will cease, and the wound begin to heal! Let the spirit of meekness and christian love have liberty to exercise itself, and all misunderstandings, jealousies, and hateful animosities are at once removed. "Let brotherly love continue." Be not in haste to avenge the wrong done you. Remember it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." Do not misrepresent thy brother by putting a wrong construction upon his language. Be as careful of his reputation as you would of your own. When thy brother is in trouble, when the clouds of adversity lower upon him, and losses, crosses, and disappointments are his lot, if it is in thy power to relieve him, do not call down the curse of God upon your own head by neglecting to discharge the obligations you are under to that afflicted brother.
Let the love that worketh no ill to his neighbor prompt thee to action. Do not grudge to give a penny to the poor, nor turn a deaf ear to the voice of the stranger. Hast thou by cold neglect and scornful indifference saddened the heart of an humble disciple of Jesus? Hast thou by misrepresentation or otherwise awakened jealousy and suspicion in the minds of others toward him? Go and make reparation. Take with you kind words, and a cup of oil and wine. Is thy brother offended? Win him back to thee by kindness. Prove to him by words and acts that you do not mean to offend. It is not weakness to confess a fault, but it is an indication of a weak mind to cultivate a spirit of retaliation and revenge. Jealousy, hatred and revenge are not the fruits of the spirit of holiness, but are the poisoned arrows of the demon of darkness, sent up from the pit to wound the hearts of Christians. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Do not be a sower of discord among brethren. No rich blessing is promised to them that stir up strife. A quiet and peace-making spirit is a healing balm, and a star of light in the midst of the camp. Let us in all our business transactions be honest, upright, truthful, benevolent. It is the duty of the Christian to elevate the standard of piety, and bear living testimony in the cause of truth and holiness. Fidelity in the cause of Christ should mark the Christian's career through life, and by the grace of God it will be his comfort and solace in the hour of death.
GOD UNCHANGEABLE
By Ambrose Serle
"I may be faint and weary (says the believer), but my God cannot. I may alter and fluctuate, as to my frames, but my Redeemer is unchangeably the same. I might utterly fail and come to nothing if left to myself; but I cannot be so left to myself, for the spirit of truth hath said, 'I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' He will renew my strength, either by changing my weakness into strength, or by enduing me with his own power. He is wise to foresee and provide for all my dangers; he is rich to relieve and to succor me in all my wants; he is gracious to hear and to answer all my prayers; he is omnipotent to deliver and defend me from all mine enemies; he is faithful to perfect and perform all his own promises; he is eternal and immortal, to bless my poor depending soul with eternal blessedness and immortality. O what a great and glorious Saviour for such a mean and worthless sinner! O what a bountiful and graciously indulgent friend for such a base and insignificant rebel! What, what am I when I compare myself, and all I am of myself with what I can conceive of my God, and of what he hath kindly promised even to me? What a mystery am I to myself, to angels, to men! A worm of earth to be like a star of heaven; a corruptible sinner to be an incorruptible saint; a rebel to be made a child; an outlaw to become an heir; a deserver of hell to become an inheritor of heaven; a strong hold of the Devil to be garnished into a temple of God; an enemy and a beggar to be exalted to a throne, to be in friendship with God, one with Christ, a possessor of his Spirit, and of all this honor, happiness, and glory, forevermore; and all without any right to any one thing on my part but the miseries of the lowest hell! O what manner and what matter of love is this! Lord, take my heart, my soul, my all! I can render thee no more, and I would render thee no less. It is indeed a poor return. My body and soul are but 'two mites,' and yet (glory be to thee!) thou who didst esteem those of the poor widow, wilt not despise these of mine. Lord, they are thine own too; and I can only give thee what is thine! I melt with gratitude; and even this gratitude is thy gift. O take it, and accept both it and me in thyself, which is all my salvation and all my desire, for ever and ever!"—Ambrose Serle.
HOW TO TAKE LIFE.
TAKE it just as though it was—as it is—an earnest, vital, important affair. Take it as though you were born to the task of performing a part in it—as though the world had waited for your coming. Take it as though it was a grand opportunity to do and to achieve, to carry forward great and good schemes; to help and cheer a suffering, weary, it may be, broken-hearted brother.
The fact is, life is undervalued by a great majority of mankind. It is not made half so much of as should be the case. Where is the man or woman who accomplishes one tithe of what might be done? Who cannot look back upon opportunities lost, plans unachieved, thoughts crushed, aspirations unfulfilled, and all caused by the lack of the necessary and possible effort? If we knew better how to do and make the most of life, it would be far greater than it is. Now and then a man stands aside from the crowd, labors earnestly, steadfastly, confidently, and straightway becomes famous for wisdom, intellect, skill, greatness of some sort. The world wonders, admires, idolizes, and it only illustrates what others may do if they take hold of life with a purpose. The miracle, or the power that elevates the few, is to be sought in their industry, application, and perseverance, under the promptings of a brave, determined spirit.
CHRISTIAN LACONICS.
Long afflictions will much set off the glory of heaven. The longer the storm, the sweeter the calm; the longer the winter nights the sweeter the summer days. The new wine of Christ's kingdom is most sweet to those who have long been drinking gall and vinegar. The higher the mountain, the gladder we shall be when we get to the top of it. The longer our journey is, the sweeter will be our end; and the longer our passage is, the more desirable will the haven be.
A murmurer is an ungodly man; he is an ungodlike man; no man on earth more unlike to God than the murmurer; and therefore no wonder if, when Christ comes to execute judgment, he deals severely and terribly with him. Let him make what profession he will of godliness, yet if murmuring keeps the throne in his heart, Christ will deal with him at last as with ungodly sinners. A lazy Christian will always want four things—comfort, content, confidence, and assurance. Assurance and joy are choice donatives that Christ gives to laborious Christians only. The lazy Christian has his mouth full of complaints, when the active Christian has his heart full of comforts.
God loves to smile most upon his people when12the world frowns most. When the world puts its iron chains upon their legs, then God puts his golden chains about their necks; when the world puts a bitter cup into their hands, then God drops some of his honey, some of his goodness and sweetness into it. When the world is tearing their good names, then he gives them a name that is better than that of sons and daughters.—Spurgeon's Smooth Stones.
DEMOCRACY OF THE BIBLE.
CHRISTIANITY, avoiding anarchy on the one hand and despotism on the other, sets the race on a path of unlimited advancement. It pronounces all men equal. In express terms the christian revelation declares all nations of the earth to be of one blood; it pronounces all men equally the subjects of one King; it makes the value of the soul infinite, and shows no difference between the worth of that of a beggar and that of a prince. Look into the stable of Bethlehem, on that night when crowned sage and humble shepherd knelt by the cradle of that babe who was their common King; do you not see in that spectacle the bond of an essential equality uniting all ranks, and making the regal purple and the peasant's russet, faint and temporary distinctions? Well might Coleridge say, that the fairest flower he ever saw climbing round a poor man's window, was not so beautiful in his eyes as the Bible which he saw lying within. If all classes forsook the gospel, one might expect the poor, the hard-toiling, the despised to cling to it. Whatever christianity may have become in our churches and in our times, the great class of the workers can find in its aspects no excuse for abandoning itself, unless they can show that the churches have rewritten the Bible; unless they can allege that it no longer exhibits the divine Founder of christianity preaching to the poor, companying with publicans and sinners; unless they can show that it was the sanctioned usage of apostolic times to honor the rich in the christian assemblage; unless, in one word, they can deny that the gospel holds forth to every man the prospect of being a king and priest to God.—Bayne's "Christian Life, Social and Individual."
ONCE, AND ONLY ONCE.
OnCE is enough, all-sufficient, better than a thousand. Parents, never allow your little ones to disobey or trample on the first moving muscle, the slightest wink, the least nod of parental requisition. Make no requests of your children, give no commands to them but such as are just, right, and reasonable, such as can be complied with and ought to be complied with; then let it be fully understood, the command given is to be obeyed, cheerfully, unhesitatingly, the very instant the word falls from your lips.
Children, even little children, are eagle-eyed; they read the eye of the parent, his every look, the tone of his voice, the manner of his expression; they very soon learn whether or not the parent is in good earnest and intends to be obeyed. Beloved, do you request a child of yours to rise in the morning at a specific time, come to the altar of prayer, the breakfast-table, to do this or that? What now?—slacken the reins, repeat and re-repeat your requisitions; permit your little ones to obey or disobey at their own will and pleasure? Very soon you reap the fruits of this tardiness or parental slackness. What you sow you reap. Sow to the wind, you reap the whirlwind. It is utterly impossible to have clock-work in doors, or out, in the kitchen or in the parlor; quiet, order, peaceful harmony, good will, at table, around the family altar, where this repetition is allowed for a moment. Besides, this one deviation from family order is the letting out of water, the stepping-stone to more general and perpetual deviations, to more startling, headstrong, reckless out-breaks; till the family (instead of an Eden of paradise) becomes a little bedlam, a scene of disorder and confusion.—Golden Rule.