The Home Council

The Transfiguration of Jesus

About eight days after speaking these words, Jesus went up the mountain to pray, taking with him, Peter, John, and James. As he was praying, the aspect of his face was changed, and his clothing became of a glittering whiteness. And all at once two men were talking with Jesus; they were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in a glorified state, and spoke of his departure, which was destined to take place at Jerusalem. Peter and his companions had been overpowered by sleep but, suddenly becoming wide awake, they saw Jesus glorified and the two men who were standing beside him. And, as Moses and Elijah were passing away from Jesus, Peter exclaimed:

“Sir, it is good to be here; let us make three tents, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

He did not know what he was saying; and, while he was speaking, a cloud came down and enveloped them; and they were afraid, as they passed into the cloud; and from the cloud came a voice which said—

“This is my Son, the Chosen One; him you must hear.”

And, as the voice ceased, Jesus was found alone. The Apostles kept silence, and told no one about any of the things that they had seen.

Jesus Befriends a Man with an Epileptic Boy

The next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met Jesus. And just then a man in the crowd shouted out:

“Teacher, I entreat you to look at my son, for he is my only child; all at once a spirit will seize him, suddenly shriek out, and throw him into convulsions till he foams, and will leave him only when he is utterly exhausted. I entreated your disciples to drive the spirit out, but they could not.”

“O faithless and perverse generation?” Jesus exclaimed; “how long must I be with you and have patience with you? Lead your son here.”

While the boy was coming up to Jesus, the demon dashed him down and threw him into convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the foul spirit, and cured the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all present were struck with awe at the majesty of God.

—Luke.

When you find a youth sowing wild oats, go back to his home and you will find he got the seed there.

Jesus’ Brother Advising Christians

Above all things, my Brothers, never take an oath, either by heaven, or by earth, or by anything else. With you let “Yes” suffice for yes, and “No” for no, so that you may escape condemnation.

If any one of you is in trouble, let him pray; if any one is happy, let him sing hymns. If any one of you is ill, let him send for the Officers of the Church, and let them pray over him, after anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer offered in faith will save the man who is sick, and the Lord will raise him from his bed; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be cured. Great is the power of a good man’s fervent prayer. Elijah was only a man like ourselves, but, when he prayed fervently that it might not rain, no rain fell upon the land for three years and a half. And, when he prayed again, the clouds brought rain, and the land bore crops. My Brothers, should one of you be led astray from the Truth, and some one bring him back again, be sure that he who brings a sinner back from bis mistaken ways will save that man’s soul from Death, and throw a veil over countless sins.

—James, a Brother or Jesus.

Nothing Walks with Aimless Feet

That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That not one life shall be destroyed,
Or cast as rubbish to the void.
When God hath made the pile complete.

Behold, we know not anything:
I can but trust that good shall fall
At last—far off—at last, to all,
And every winter change to spring.

—Alfred Tennyson.

The Value of Genius

There are but few persons, in comparison with the whole of mankind, whose experiments, if adopted by others, would be likely to be an improvement on established practice. But these few are the salt of the earth; without them human life would become a stagnant pool. Not only is it they who introduce good things which did not before exist; it is they who keep the life in those which already exist. If there were nothing new to be done, would human intellect cease to be necessary? Would it be a reason why those who do the old things should forget why they are done, and do them like cattle, not like human beings? There is only too great a tendency in the best beliefs and practices to degenerate into the mechanical; and unless there were a succession of persons whose ever-recurring originality prevents the grounds of those beliefs and practices from becoming merely traditional, such dead matter would not resist the smallest shock from any thing really alive, and there would be no reason why civilization should not die out, as in the Byzantine Empire.

Persons of genius, it is true, are, and are always likely to be, a small minority, but in order to have them, it is necessary to preserve the soil in which they grow. Genius can only breathe freely in an atmosphere of freedom. Persons of genius are more individual than any other people—less capable, consequently, of fitting themselves, without hurtful compression, into any of the small numbers of moulds which society provides in order to save its members the trouble of forming their own characters. If from timidity they consent to be forced into one of these moulds, and to let all that part of themselves which cannot expand under the pressure remain unexpanded, society will be little the better for their genius. If they are of a strong character, and break their fetters, they become a mark for the society which has not succeeded in reducing them to commonplace to point at with solemn warning as “wild,” “erratic,” and the like; much as if one should complain of the Niagara River for not flowing smoothly between its banks like a Dutch canal.

I insist thus emphatically on the importance of genius, and the necessity of allowing it to unfold itself freely both in thought and in practice, being well aware that no one will deny the position in theory, but knowing also that almost everyone, in reality, is totally indifferent to it. People think genius a fine thing if it enables a man to write an exciting poem, or paint a picture. But in its true sense, that of originality in thought and action, though no one says that it is not a thing to be admired, nearly all, at heart, think they can do very well without it. Unhappily this is too natural to be wondered at. Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of. They cannot see what it is to do for them. How should they? The first service which originality has to render them is that of opening their eyes; which being once fully done, they would have a chance of being themselves original.

—John Stuart Mill.

Alternate Reading: Romans 14:13-23.

Life Triumphant

To suffer woes which hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;
To defy power, which seems omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope till hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This is alone life, joy, empire, and victory!

—Percy B. Shelley.

COMPLAINT

How seldom, Friend! a good great man inherits
Honor or wealth, with all his worth and pains!
It sounds like stories from the land of spirits,
If any man obtain that which he merits,
Or any merit that which he obtains.

—S. T. Colbridge.

Reproof

For shame, dear Friend; renounce this canting strain!
What would you have a good great man obtain?
Place—titles—salary—a gilded chain—
Or throne of corses which his sword has slain?
Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends!
Hath he not always treasures, always friends,
The good great man? three treasures,—love and light,
And calm thoughts, regular as infant’s breath;
And three firm friends, more sure than day and night—
Himself, his Maker, and the angel Death.

—S. T. Colbridge.

Alternate Reading: Romans 13:1-14.

Peter’s Confession of the Christ

Afterwards Jesus and his disciples went into the villages round Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples this question—

“Who do people say that I am?”

“John the Baptist,” they answered, “but others say Elijah, while others say one of the Prophets.”

“But you,” he asked, “who do you say that I am?”

To this Peter replied:

“You are the Christ.”

On which Jesus charged them not to say this about him to any one.

Jesus Foretells his Death

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo much suffering, and that he must be rejected by the Councillors, and the Chief Priests, and the Teachers of the Law, and be put to death, and rise again after three days. This statement he made openly. But Peter took Jesus aside, and began to rebuke him. Jesus, however, turning round and seeing his disciples, rebuked Peter.

“Out of my sight, Satan!” he exclaimed. “For you look at things, not as God does, but as man does.”

A Call to Renounce Self

Calling the people and his disciples to him, Jesus said:

“If any man wishes to walk in my steps, let him renounce self, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, and whoever, for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, will lose his life shall save it. What good is it to a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what could a man give that is of equal value with his life? Whoever is ashamed of me and of my teaching, in this unfaithful and wicked generation, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed, when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels. I tell you,” he added, “that some of those who are standing here will not know death, till they have seen the Kingdom of God come in power.”

—Mark.

Educated and Rich Fools

Listen to me, you who say “To-day or to-morrow we will go to such and such a town, spend a year there, and trade, and make money,” and yet you do not know what your life will be like to-morrow! For you are but a mist appearing for a little while and then disappearing. You ought, rather, to say “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But, ah it is, you are constantly boasting presumptuously! All such boasting is wicked. He, then, who knows what is right but fails to do it—that is sin in him.

Listen to me, you rich men, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches have wasted away, and your clothes have become moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are rusted; and the rust on them shall be evidence against you, and shall eat into your very flesh. It was fire, so to speak, that you stored up for yourselves in these last days. I tell you, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have been fraudulently keeping back, are crying out against you, and the outcries of your reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts! You have lived on earth a life of extravagance and luxury; you have indulged your fancies in a time of bloodshed. You have condemned, you have murdered, the Righteous One! Must not God be opposed to you?

—James, a Brother of Jesus.

Life’s Record

Life is a sheet of paper white
Whereon each one of us may write
His word or two, and then comes night.
Greatly begin! though thou hast time
But for a line, be that sublime.
Not failure, but low aim is crime.

—James Russell Lowell.

He who raises a hand against a fellow-man, even if he injure him not, is wicked.

—The Talmud.

The Power of Religion

It is not so much resolution as renunciation, not so much courage as resignation, that we need. He that has once yielded thoroughly to God will yield to nothing but God.

—John Ruskin.

Religious Conceit Versus God’s Mercy

And every one went home except Jesus, who went to the Mount of Olives. But he went again into the Temple Courts early in the morning, and all the people came to him; and he sat down and taught them. Presently, however, the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placed her in the middle of the Court, and said to Jesus:

“Teacher, this woman was found in the very act of adultery. Now Moses, in the Law, commanded us to stone such women to death; what do you say?”

They said this to test him, in order to have a charge to bring against him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger. However, as they continued asking him, he raised himself, and said:

“Let the man among you who has never done wrong throw the first stone at her.”

And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. When they heard that, they went out one by one, beginning with the eldest; and Jesus was left alone with the woman in the middle of the Court. Raising himself, Jesus said to her:

“Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?”

“No one, Sir,” she answered.

“Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus; “go, and do not sin again.”

—John.

Follow Your Star

Follow your star that lights a desert pathway, yours or mine,
Forward, till you learn the highest human nature is divine.
Follow light and do the right—for man can half control his doom—
Till you see the deathless Angel seated in the vacant tomb.

—Alfred Tennyson.

Alternate Reading: I Samuel 25:1-38.

The Two Armies

As life’s unending column pours,
Two marshalled hosts are seen,—
Two armies on the trampled shores
That death flows black between.

One marches to the drumbeat’s roll,
The wide-mouthed clarion’s bray,
And bears, upon a crimson scroll,
“Our glory is to slay.”

One moves in silence by the stream,
With sad, yet watchful eyes,
Calm as the patient planet’s gleam
That walks the clouded skies.

Along its front no sabers shine,
No blood-red pennons wave;
Its banner bears the single line,
“Our duty is to save.”

—Oliver Wendell Holmes.

The Achievement of Health

Finally, I have one advice which is of very great importance. You are to consider that health is a thing to be attended to continually, as the very highest of all temporal things. There is no kind of an achievement equal to perfect health. What to it are nuggets or millions?

—Thomas Carlyle.

Alternate Reading: I Samuel 3.

Jesus Befriends a Blind Man

They came to Bethsaida.

There some people brought a blind man to Jesus, and begged him to touch him. Taking the blind man’s hand, Jesus led him to the outskirts of the village, and, when he had put saliva on the man’s eyes, he placed his hands on him, and asked him: “Do you see anything? ” The man looked up, and said:

“I see the people, for, as they walk about, they look to me like trees.”

Then Jesus again placed his hands on the man’s eyes; and the man saw clearly, his sight was restored, and he saw everything with perfect distinctness. Jesus sent him to his home, and said: “Do not go even into the village.”

—Mark.

What we are in Ourselves

That awful and blessed gift of life,—we only take its measure in the presence of death. Then only do we perceive that, whatever may be its length, it is but the moment upon which there hangs an eternity. What we are outwardly in this world, what men think or say of us, of our titles, of our incomes, or of the absence of them, all this matters but little; all these are leveled by death. But what we are in ourselves, in our consciences, our hopes, our affections and wills, before God our Father, this is a matter of importance that is simply unspeakable, fraught to each one of us with consequences more lasting and momentous than the mind of men can conceive.

—Henry P. Liddon.

A beautiful home is the garden of beautiful characters.

The man who defiles a home wrongs all the future.

Recollect that trifles make perfection, and that perfection is no trifle.

—Michel Angelo.

Jesus, the Grand Reality

Reality, reality.
Lord Jesus Christ Thou art to me!
From the spectral mist and the driving clouds,
From the shifting shadows and phantom crowds,
From unreal words and unreal lives,
Where truth with falsehood feebly strives;
From the passings away, the chance and change,
Flickerings, vanishings, swift and strange,
I turn to my glorious rest in Thee,
Who art the grand reality!

Reality, reality.
Lord Jesus Christ Thou art to me!
Thy name is sweeter than songs of old,
Thy words are better than “most fine gold,”
Thy deeds are greater than hero-glory,
Thy life is grander than poet story;
But Thou, Thyself for aye the same
Art more than words and life and name!
Thyself Thou hast revealed to me,
In glorious reality.

Reality, reality,
Lord Jesus Christ, is crowned in Thee.
In Thee is every type fulfilled,
In Thee is every yearning stilled
For perfect beauty, truth and love;
For Thou art always far above
The grandest glimpse of our ideal,
Yet more and more we know Thee real,
And marvel more and more to see
Thine infinite Reality.

—Frances R. Havergal.

Brother, make your home a miniature Kingdom of God and you will be greater than any king that ever wore a crown.

If there is aught surpassing human deed or word or thought, it is a mother’s love.

—M. D. Spadoro.