Mark 5:19

THE CHRISTIAN IN THE HOME

‘Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee.’

Mark 5:19

Christianity has quite as much to do with the little things as with the great matters of life. A true Christian never forgets his faith; he is as much a Christian at home as in Church, and he does not lay aside his religion like a Sunday suit of clothes.

I. Where a man shines.—It is in the little common things of life that we need to show our Christianity. One man says, ‘I would do some great thing for Jesus; I would give my body to be burned for the true faith, like the martyrs of old.’ But are you prepared to bear patiently the fiery trial of some unkind, passionate tongue? A woman says, ‘I should like to nurse God’s sick and needy; I should like to go far off to the ends of the earth and do this work for Jesus.’ And all the time there is an invalid relative at home whom pain and sickness have made fretful and ill-tempered, and it never occurs to the woman that here is a work of nursing to be done for Christ’s sake—here, at home. If we would be sure that our religion is true and genuine we must test it in the little common duties and trials of daily existence, rather than on occasions and under circumstances of great importance.

II. The grace of cheerfulness.—Cheerfulness is one outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace of true religion. The person who professes religion—yet is gloomy, morose, discontented, miserable—is making a mistake. There is no real religion in being wretched. A true Christian is like sunshine in the house, making everything brighter and better for its presence. Some so-called religious people look as if they were always preparing for their own funeral. I believe that if the love of God dwells in our hearts it will shine out through a happy, smiling countenance. Be cheerful; if you have the Lord Jesus in your home it must be a happy one. It is a sign of true religion to make others happy. There are people who keep all their cheerfulness and their laughter for their friends outside, and bring nothing but their troubles, and their ill-tempers, and their fault-findings to their home.

Rev. H. J. Wilmot Buxton.

Illustration

‘There was a poor hard-working woman in London who used to get up very early on dark and frosty mornings and, before going to her own work, would carry a heavy bag of sand and scatter its contents on the slippery roadway to keep the horses from falling. When she died she left her hardly-earned savings to provide a regular supply of sand for the same kindly purpose. Surely the humble London toiler was as much God’s hero as one who founds a hospital or builds a cathedral.’