And Judas Iscariot | Page 8

greatest need of the American nation to-day is
homes; not palatial buildings, but homes where Christ is honored,

where God is loved, and where the Bible is studied.
A returned missionary, who had been for twenty-five years away from
his home because he would not accept his furloughs, was asked after he
had been in California for a little season what impressed him the most
after his absence of a quarter of a century. The reporter expected him to
say that he was impressed with the telephone system which bound
houses and cities together, or that he was amazed at the wireless
telegraphy, by means of which on the wave currents of the air messages
were sent from one city to another; but the returned missionary
expressed no such surprise. He said, "When I went away from America
almost every home had its family altar; now that I have returned I have
watched very carefully and find that a family altar in a home is the
exception and not the rule." Wherever this is true there is real cause for
great alarm, for in proportion as the home fails the nation is in danger.
Hezekiah had been sick unto death. The word of the Lord by the mouth
of the Prophet came to him, saying, "Set thy house in order, for thou
must die." Then he recovered for a season. The King of Babylon sent
messengers to him, and when the messengers had gone Isaiah asked
him the question of the text, "What have they seen in thy house?"
The dearest and most sacred spot on earth is home. Around it are the
most sacred associations, about it cluster the sweetest memories. The
buildings are not always palatial, the furnishings are not always of the
best, but when the home is worthy of the name ladders are let down
from heaven to those below, the angels of God come down, bringing
heaven's blessing and ascend, taking earth's crosses. Such a home is the
dearest spot on earth, because there your father worked and your
mother loved. There is no love which surpasses this.
Some years ago, when the English soldiers were fighting and a Scotch
regiment came to assist, the Scotchmen, strangely enough, began to die
in great numbers. The skill of the physicians was baffled. They could
not tell why it was that there seemed to be such a rapid falling away of
the men. But at last they discovered the cause. The Scotch pipers were
playing the tunes that reminded the Scotchman of the heather and the
hills, and they were dying of homesickness. When the music was

changed the deaths in such large numbers almost instantly ceased.
We are drifting away from our old-fashioned homes; fathers have
grown too busy, mothers have delegated their God-given work to
others. We have lost instead of gained. Wherever the homes are full of
weakness the government is in danger. The homes of our country are so
many streams pouring themselves into the great current of moral and
social life. If the home life is pure, then all is pure. I stand with that
company of people today who believe that we are at the beginning of a
great revival of religion, and I am persuaded that this revival is to be
helped on not so much by preaching, though that is not to be ignored;
nor by singing, though that in itself is useful; but it is to be helped or
hindered by the condition of the homes in our land.
I
I have a friend, George R. Stuart, who says that when God himself
would start a nation he made home life the deciding question. He
selected Abraham as the head of the home, and in Genesis, the
eighteenth chapter and the nineteenth verse, he gives the reason for this
in these words: "For I know him, that he will command his children and
his household after him."
There are two great principles which must prevail in every home:
First: Authority, suggested by the word "command."
Second: Example, suggested by the expression, "He will command his
children and his household after him."
In order that one may rightly command he must himself be controlled
or be able to obey an authority higher than his own. It is absolutely
impossible for one to be the father he ought to be and not be a Christian,
or to be worthy of the name of mother and not yield allegiance to Jesus
Christ. If we are to set before those about us a right example, we cannot
begin too soon. Your children are a reproduction of yourself, weakness
in them is weakness in yourself, strength in them is but the
reproduction of your own virtue.

A convention of mothers met some years ago in the