The Home Council

A Child’s Thought of God

They say that God lives very high!
But if you look above the pines
You cannot see our God. And why?

And if you dig down in the mines,
You never see Him in the gold.
Though from Him all that’s glory shines.

God is so good, He wears a fold
Of Heaven and earth across His face—
Like secrets kept for love untold.

But still I feel that His embrace
Slides down by thrills, through all things made,
Through sight and sound of every place;

As if my tender mother laid
On my shut lids her kisses’ pressure,
Half waking me at night, and said,
“Who kissed you through the dark, dear guesser?”

—Elizabeth B. Browning.

“Educate children without religion, and you make a race of clever devils.”

—Duke of Wellington.

Alternate Reading: Luke 4: 31-37.

Be Careful with Your Own

If I had known, in the morning,
How wearily all the day
The words unkind would trouble my mind
I spoke when you went away,
I had been more careful, darling,
Nor given you needless pain;
But—we vex our own with look and tone
We might never take back again.

For though in the quiet evening,
You may give me the kiss of peace,
Yet it well might be that never for me
The pain of the heart should cease!
How many go forth at morning
Who never come home at night;
And hearts have broken for harsh words spoken
That sorrow can ne’er set right.

We have careful thought for the stranger,
And smiles for the sometime guest,
But oft for our own the bitter tone,
Though we love our own the best.
Ah, lip with the curve impatient,
Ah, brow with the shade of scorn,
‘Twere a cruel fate were the night too late
To undo the work of the mom.

—Anon.

Alternate Reading: Proverbs 17: 1-10.

Jesus with Babies

Some of the people were bringing even their babies to Jesus, for him to touch them; but, when the disciples saw it, they began to find fault with those who had brought them. Jesus, however, called the little children to him.

“Let the little children come to me,” he said, “and do not hinder them; for it is to the childlike that the Kingdom of God belongs. I tell you, unless a man receives the Kingdom of God like a child, he will not enter it at all.”

—Luke.

What Jesus Teaches About Babies

It is Jesus’ teaching concerning the child which helps us to understand clearly His teaching concerning the family. He makes the child the center of gravity in His system of concrete values not less clearly than does modern social science. So great is the value of the child, He tells His disciples, that an offense to a child is among the worst of sins, while the slightest service, even the giving of a cup of cold water, is a religious act of the highest significance. He tells His disciples further that whoever receives a little child in His name receives Him, and that to children belongs the Kingdom of God.

If humanity is to progress, the whole of human society has to be so organized as to maximize the number of normal homes in which children can be properly cared for and given a fair start in life.

—C. A. Ellwood.

The Man of Life Upright

The man of life upright,
Whose guiltless heart is free
From all dishonest deeds,
Or thought of vanity;

The man whose silent days
In harmless joys are spent,
Whom hopes cannot delude
Nor sorrow discontent;

That man needs neither towers
Nor armor for defense,
Nor secret vaults to fly
From thunder’s violence:

Thus scorning all the cares
That fate or fortune brings,
He makes the heaven his book,
His wisdom heavenly things,

Good thoughts his only friends,
His wealth a well-spent age,
The earth his sober inn
And quiet pilgrimage.

—Thomas Champion.

Alternate Reading: Leviticus 19: 33-37.

As You Go Through Life

Don’t look for the flaws as you go through life;
And even when you find them,
It is wise and kind to be somewhat blind
And look for the virtue behind them.
For the cloudiest night has a hint of light
Somewhere in its shadows hiding;
It is better by far to hunt for a star,
Than the spots on the sun abiding.

The current of life runs ever away
To the bosom of God’s great ocean.
Don’t set your force ‘gainst the river’s course
And think to alter its motion.
Don’t waste a curse on the universe—
Remember it lived before you.
Don’t butt at the storm with your puny form,
But bend and let it go o’er you.
The world will never adjust itself
To suit your whims to the letter.
Some things must go wrong your whole life long,
And the sooner you know it the better.

It is folly to fight with the Infinite,
And go under at last in the wrestle;
The wiser man shapes into God’s plan
As water shapes into a vessel.

—Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

Alternate Reading: Micah 6:1-8.

Jesus at Work in his Home Town

Moved by the power of the Spirit, Jesus returned to Galilee. Reports about him spread through all that neighborhood; and he began to teach in their Synagogues, and was honored by every one.

Coming to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, Jesus, as was his custom, went on the Sabbath into the Synagogue, and stood up to read the Scriptures. The book given him was that of the Prophet Isaiah; and Jesus opened the book and found the place where it says—

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, For he has consecrated me to bring Good News to the poor, He has sent me to proclaim release to captives and restoration of sight to the blind, To set the oppressed at liberty,
To proclaim the accepted year of the Lord.”

Then, closing the book and returning it to the attendant, he resumed his seat. All eyes in the Synagogue were fixed upon him, and Jesus began:

“This very day this passage has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

All who were present spoke well of him, and they were astonished at the beautiful words that fell from his lips.

“Is not he Joseph’s son?” they asked.

“No doubt,” Jesus said, “you will remind me of the saying— ‘Doctor, cure yourself,’ and tell me to do here in my own country all that you have heard took place at Capernaum. Believe me,” he continued, “no Prophet is acceptable in his own country. There were plenty of widows in Israel, I assure you, in Elijah’s days, when the sky was closed for three years and a half, and a severe famine prevailed throughout the country, and yet it was not to one of them that Elijah was sent, but to a widow at Sarephath in Sidonia. There were, too, plenty of lepers in Israel in the time of the Prophet Elisha, yet it was not one of them who was healed, but Naaman the Syrian.”

All the people in the Synagogue, as they listened to this, became exceedingly angry. Starting up, they drove Jesus out of the town, and then took him to the brow of the hill on which their town stood, intending to throw him down. But Jesus passed through the middle of them and went on his way.

—Luke.

Jesus

Jesus spoke with the sublimest eloquence.

—Thomas Jefferson.

The best of men that e’er wore earth about him was a sufferer; a soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit, the first true gentleman that ever breathed.

—Thomas Dekker.

The one name above all glorious names—Jesus.

—Bishop Porteus.

If Jesus Christ is a man,—
And only a man,—I say
That of all mankind I cleave to Him,
And to Him will cleave alway.

If Jesus Christ is a God,—
And the only God,—I swear
I will follow Him through heaven and hell,
The earth, the sea, and the air.

—Richard Watson Gilder.

Jesus wrote no book; He formed no system; His words were jets of truth, and chose their own forms. The Empire was not in the consciousness of Jesus: His only point of contact with Rome was the cross. When His followers wished to make Him king, He shuddered and fled as from an insult. As for wealth, it seemed so dangerous that He laid poverty as a condition of discipleship, and Himself knew not where to lay His head. You cannot trace Jesus: you cannot analyze Jesus. His intense spirituality of soul, His simplicity of thought, His continual self-abnegation, and His unaffected huimility descended on a worn-out, hopeless world, like dew upon the dry grass.

—John Watson.

Alternate Reading: Acts 2:14-42.

Benjamin Franklin’s Birthday

“Here is my creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That He ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable service we render to Him is doing good to His other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion.”

—Benjamin Franklin.

Paragraph from Franklin’s Speech in the Federal Convention, in Favor of Opening its Sessions with Prayer

“I have lived, Sir, a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that ‘except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel: we shall be divided by our little partial local interests, our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest

“I therefore beg leave to move,—

“That henceforth prayers, imploring the assistance of Heaven and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business.”

Franklin’s Morning Prayer

“O powerful Goodness! bountiful Father! merciful Guide! Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolutions to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to Thy other children as the only return in my power for Thy continual favors to me.”

Alternate Reading: Isaiah 42:1-21.

Jesus Befriends an Officer with a Sick Child

After these two days Jesus went on to Galilee; for he himself declared that “a prophet is not honoured in his own country.” When he entered Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, for they had seen all that he did at Jerusalem during the Festival, at which they also had been present.

So Jesus came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. Now there was one of the King’s officers whose son was lying ill at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had returned from Judea to Galilee, he went to him, and begged him to come down and cure his son; for he was at the point of death. Jesus answered:

“Unless you all see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

“Sir,” said the officer, “come down before my child dies.”

And Jesus answered: “Go, your son is living.” The man believed what Jesus said to him, and went; and, while he was on his way down, his servants met him, and told him that his child was living. So he asked them at what time the boy began to get better.

“It was yesterday, about one o’clock,” they said, “that the fever left him.”

By this the father knew that it was at the very time when Jesus had said to him, “Your son is living”; and he himself, with all his household, believed in Jesus. This was the second occasion on which Jesus gave a sign of his mission on coming from Judea to Galilee.

—John.

Looking for a King

They were all looking for a king
To slay their foes and lift them high;
Thou earnest a little baby thing
That made a woman cry.

—George MacDonald.

The Soul Wherein God Dwells

The Soul wherein God dwells,—
What church could holier be?—
Becomes a walking tent
Of heavenly majesty.

How far from here to Heaven?
Not very far, my friend,
A single, hearty step
Will all the journey end.

Though Christ a thousand times
In Bethlehem be born,
If He’s not born in thee,
Thy soul is still forlorn.

The cross on Golgotha
Will never save thy soul,
The cross in thine own heart
Alone can make thee whole.

Wait thou! where runnest thou?
Know heaven is in thee—
Seekest thou for God elsewhere,
His face thou’lt never see.

O, would thy heart but be
A manger for His birth;
God would once more become
A child upon the earth.

Go out, God will go in,
Die thou—and let Him live,
Be not—and He will be.
Wait and He’ll all things give.

O, shame a silk-worm works
And spins till it can fly,
And thou, my soul, wilt still
On thine own earth-clod lie.

—Anonymous

Alternate Reading: Romans 8:12-28.