Even as it has been with the nations of antiquity, so would it be again. Social corruption would prepare the way for national destruction.

The more carefully we consider the law of the family as ordained by God, and view it in relation to the higher necessities of man's spiritual nature, the more fully we must be convinced that He, who knew what was in man, contemplated in this gracious ordinance our highest good as well as our greatest earthly happiness. And when the family relationship is sanctified by piety; when husband and wife are one in the possession of a saving faith and of spiritual hopes; when the children are regarded as a "heritage of the Lord,” and, therefore, as a sacred trust, of which He will require an account; when the whole home-life is regarded as His,—there is a guarantee for happiness purer and more enduring than any that can exist on this side heaven. The Christian hope gives it its crowning glory, and makes it the purest earthly type of that state of blessedness which the believer can call by no name more endearing than his eternal home!

CHAPTER II.

THE BIBLE AND HOME-LIFE.

IF the statements of the previous chapter be accepted, we shall be prepared at once to make our appeal to the word of God. In it the law of the family is written for us, both in precept and example. The family rests upon marriage, as marriage is understood according to the Divine ordinance. The statement of the book of Genesis is decisive upon this point. "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." This law was ordained for the human race at the very outset of man's life, before the entrance of sin into the world; and was thus invested with a high moral significance. It contemplated not only earthly but spiritual blessings. As expounded by prophets, by apostles, and by our Lord himself, it is a type of the Divine relationship subsisting between God and the church.2

Our Lord came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil; and in his teaching, the law of marriage, which had been greatly violated by the Jews, was restored in its original purity. The Pharisees, tempting him, asked him to pronounce upon

'Gen. ii. 18, 24. 2 Isa. lxi. 10; Ephes. v. 23-27; Rev. xix. 7.

the lawfulness of divorce. His answer is contained in the words of the original law. The law of Paradise was restored by "the second Adam, the Lord from heaven," and remains the fundamental law of the family relationship in the new order of things introduced by his redemption.2

Lawless marriages were among the earliest fruits of man's sinful fall, and materially helped to bring about the corrupt state of society which existed before the flood. But in the midst of the increasing wickedness one family maintained its purity, and that purity God himself signally approved. Not for Noah's sake alone, but because his family had stood aloof from the seething vice amidst which they had lived, did God say to him, "Come thou and all thy house into the ark." There was one sad exception, even here, as to personal character, but the purity of the family relationship had been preserved. In this respect they had isolated themselves from the world's corruption, and now they were alone with God in the awful solitude of a world destroyed. The one righteous family was saved.

The Divine law provides for the faithful discharge of family duties. The duties of husbands and wives, of parents and children, are clearly stated and enforced by the highest considerations. The religion of the Bible blends most fully with family life; and family life, as taught by that book, is the purest form of social life possible to man in his fallen state. It is poetic truth rather than poetic licence which says,

"Domestic happiness, thou only bliss

Of Paradise which hast survived the fall!"

1 1 Cor. xv. 45, 47.

2 See Matt. xix. 3—9; v. 32.

The influence of the gospel on the position of woman in the family is so well known as to need only a passing allusion. "Wherever," says Neander, speaking of the early progress of the gospel, “Christianity found entrance, the equal dignity and worth of the female sex, as possessing a nature created in the image of God, and allied to the Divine no less than the man's, was brought distinctly before the mind."

One of the early Christian fathers, combating those ascetic tendencies which, no less than heathen licentiousness, are opposed to the pure spirit of the Christian life, writes, "It is not in the solitary life one shows himself a man; but he excels other men who, as a husband and father of a family, withstands all the temptations that assail him in providing for his wife and children, without allowing himself to be turned from the love of God." And the same writer, describing the Christian matron, says, "The mother is the glory of her children; the wife, of her husband; both are the glory of the wife, and God is the glory of them all." And Tertullian writes of marriage between believers, "What a union is that between two believers, having in common one hope, one desire, one order of life, one service of the Lord! Both, like brother and sister, undivided in spirit or body, nay, in the true sense twain in one flesh, kneel, pray, and fast together; mutually teach, exhort, and bear with each other; they share in each other's troubles, persecutions, joys; neither has anything to hide from the other; the harmony of psalms and hymns goes up between them: Christ rejoices to behold and hear such things, and sends them his peace."

Indirectly, by incidental allusions as well as by

2

3

direct statements, the word of God gives its sanction to the family bond. The most endearing relationship which can subsist between man and his Maker is set before us by figures drawn from the parental and filial union.' The kindness of earthly parents is employed to set forth his compassion towards those that fear him. The tenderness of a mother's love illustrates his tender care and affection to the sorrowing. The union between Christ and the church is symbolized by the marriage tie.* The affection and obedience of the child, and the willingness of the parent to listen to his requests, represent the feeling of the believer towards his heavenly Father, and the gracious willingness of the Father to answer his prayers." Purity in the family relationship, and wise discipline in the household, were tests of a man's fitness to rule in the church of God. The laws of the family life stand in most intimate and beautiful association with the hopes of the gospel. The spirit of Christ towards little children pervades the whole record, and teaches its writers an unspeakable tenderness in dealing with this subject.

Parental obligation is very frequently taught in the Bible. The familiar intercourse of home was to be made subservient to religious instruction. Parents were to talk of "these words" with their children when they sat in the house and when they walked by the way, and when they lay down and when they rose up. The law of God was thus pointed out as