Table of Contents

 

 Chapter 177.

The Happy Home, and How to Make It

1. WHERE and by whom were the foundations of home laid?

"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed." Gen. 2:8.

2. In making this home, what besides man was needed?

"And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet [one adapted, or suitable] for him." Verse 18.

3. After creating Adam and Eve, what did God say to them?

"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." Gen. 1:28.

4. To what are the wife and children of the man who fears the Lord likened?

"Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive-plants round about thy table." Ps. 128:2,3.

5. What are children declared to be?

"Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord." Ps. 127:3. "Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers." Prov. 17:6.

6. How should the wife relate herself to her husband?

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church." Eph. 5:22,23.

7. And how should husbands regard their wives?

"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it. . . . So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. . . . Let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband." Verses 25-33.

8. Against what are husbands cautioned?

"Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them." Col. 3:19.

9. Why should wives be in subjection to their husbands?

"Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation [manner of life] of the wives." 1 Peter 3:1.

10. Why should husbands be considerate of their wives?

"Likewise; ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered." Verse 7.

11. Why should children obey their parents?

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right." Eph. 6:1.

12. How should parents bring up their children?

"And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Verse 4.

13. Why should fathers not provoke their children to anger?

"Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged." Col. 3:21.

14. By what means may the mother bind the hearts of the loved ones at home together?

"She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness." Prov. 31:26.

NOTE.-"We want to get into the hearts of our children if we hold them, and help them, and bless them, and take them to heaven with us."- Frances Murphy.

15. How will such a mother be regarded?

"Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her." Verse 28.

NOTE.-"Show me a loving husband, a worthy wife, and good children, and no pair of horses that ever flew along the road could take me in a year where I could see a more pleasing sight. Home is the grandest of all institutions."- Spurgeon.

16. How faithfully should parents teach the precepts and commandments of God to their children?

"And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Deut. 6:7.

NOTES.-"The home should be made a school of instruction, rather than a place of monotonous drudgery. The evenings should be cherished as precious seasons, to be devoted to the instruction of the children in the way of righteousness. But how many children are sadly neglected! They are not educated in the home, that they may comprehend the truth of God, and are not trained to love justice and to do judgment. They should be patiently instructed, that they may understand the laws that govern them, and that they may know the springs of their actions. They are to be brought into harmony with the laws of heaven, to cherish the truth as it is in Jesus. In this way they may be fitted to join the society of the angels, and to stand in the presence of the adorable Redeemer."- Sabbath School Worker, August, 1896.
"A church within a church, a republic within a republic, a world within a world, is spelled by four letters- home! If things go right there, they go right everywhere; if things go wrong there, they go wrong everywhere. The door-sill of the dwelling-house is the foundation of church and state. . . . In other words, domestic life overarches and undergirds all other life. . . . First, last, and all the time, have Christ in your home."- Talmage.

17. What is the great secret of a happy home?

"Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith." Prov. 15:17.

 

Previous Chapter l Table Contents l Next Chapter