Sermons for the Christian Seasons.

TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

HOME, A TRAINING SCHOOL FOR HEAVEN.

EPHES. v. 21. Submitting yourselves one to another, in the fear of God.

MEN are the devil's best assistants in tempting their fellow men. They seem ever ready to work for him, and with him, doing his work from the heart. If he would seduce, they are ever at hand with persuasions; if he would hinder, they throw themselves eagerly in the path; if he would enrage or excite, fit ministers of his wishes are seldom far to seek. It is as sport to them to heap up stones round the steps of their hesitating brother. Accordingly we find that where men meet the oftenest in the intercourse of life, where hand joins with hand, and voices mingle, and the sounds of the world's stir are most deafening and continued, here assuredly springs up a tenfold crop of iniquity. Our crowded cities with their luxury and covetous

ness, and misery, and sin, bear too clear a testimony to the zeal of the devil's agents.

But now, is this according to God's will? was it, or could it be His purpose that the gathering together of His creatures should bear a fruit so deadly? that souls formed to share His glory should meet for no better end than to strike out sparks of such fatal fire? to strengthen and encourage each other in a fearlessness of transgression which must soon fill up the cup to the brim? Or has He not rather, in His wisdom and love, foreseen and provided for this spreading taint of corruption? Has He not ordained a counter-acting power by which men might not only congregate without mischief, but even find in their collected numbers an element of harmony and strength?

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Doubtless He has though, here too, as elsewhere, men have turned to their own devices, and have compelled Him in this likewise to cry out, "all the day long have I stretched forth My hands to a disobedient and gain-saying people."

What then was God's counsel for preserving the gathering together of men from this accumulation of sorrow and sin? What was the salt that should season the whole mass, and enable it to send up a "savour of rest" wherever men were gathered together?

Now I am not speaking of His great plan for the salvation of man,—the Spirit of His Son and the word of His grace, and the Gospel scheme : these doubtless are able to build up men unto salvation wherever they may be placed or however surrounded. They are mighty alike in the temple courts at Jerusalem, or amid the solitudes of Horeb. But I speak of a special provision for a special danger. The danger is, that men in their dealings with each other, heap up and add to their mutual temptations; the remedy which God has provided against this, is to be sought in the power and influence of home and of the Christian family. If these were thoroughly understood, and honestly carried out, the dangers that men cast in each other's path would be daily lessened and neutralized.

God has marked with unmistakeable clearness the important place which the family holds in His government of the world. And it was by a display of power hardly less wonderful than the creation itself, that the Lord God from the solitary man, raised the first example of social life. The type thus shewn has been followed throughout. Very seldom has God dealt with crowds or companies of men, unconnected by any nearer tie than mere political association.

When all the social decencies of life were set aside in the days of Noah, and the natural consequence of such ways appeared in the earth being full of violence, then it was not one good man here, and another there, who were found to embrace the shelter of the ark: but God said to Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; and Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him.

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And more clearly still the stress laid on the family is seen in the history of Abraham. the very first summons which God gave him to leave his country and his kindred, there was added to the promise of blessing and protection, "and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." God thus looking at the countless generations of men, not at each by himself a lonely pilgrim on the earth, but linked with those around him by all the necessities and sympathies of kindred.

What again is the praise given to the father of the faithful, when God would reveal to him the approaching lot of the cities of the plain? The words may throw light also on the reasons of their wickedness, and tell more strongly still on this point. The men looked towards Sodom, and Abraham went with them. And the Lord said,

Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do, in overthrowing these wicked cities. For I know him, he is not like they are, he will not fall into their sins, but he will command his children and his household that they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and mercy; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. Where not only is the promised blessing joined with the right exercise of family influence, but the miserable destruction. of Sodom and Gomorrah seems to be attributed to the neglect or abuse of this chosen instrument of God.

But we must not linger on these early times; though almost every group which the Bible sets before us, almost every deed which it hands down, bears witness to the weight of power which God meant the ties of family to maintain. In all those strongly coloured pictures we find ourselves looking not at neighbourhoods, or nations, but at brethren and households.

And so when God's work of preparation took its completer form, we find in His chosen people only a household of larger growth; while still within the wider circle every care was taken to foster and strengthen the home feelings of each particular family. Offices were allotted to