Home as a Test

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There is the connection between harmony in a home and the honoring of God. Now, we may hope that when things are right with an earthly home the inhabitants may be ready for the heavenly home; because, there is no more searching test of solid Christianity than the home. It is all very well to be pleasant in society where you only meet the surface of people. It is all very well to be thought charming by strangers, or even to appear religious at a prayer meeting, or to deliver an eloquent sermon, but this will not stand God’s test. “In the outside world,” says J. R. Miller, “we do not get close to men. We often only see their best points,” that is, we see the coating of sugar which hides the unwholesome cake. “We do not feel the friction of their meaner qualities. But at home all is laid bare. Lives touch there. The selfish motives which make us polite to outsiders have no place there, for we are sure of the hearts there.” We can be as rude as we like at home; the place is still ours, they can’t turn us out. There are only hearts to break there; no money will be lost by rudeness. And this is often all that men care about! Nothing but love for Christ which “endureth all things” (1 Cor. 13) is equal to the string of simple home life. “It is God that maketh men to be of one mind in a house.”

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