April 26

The Bible—the light of the home

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psa. 119:105).
“And there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days . . . but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings” (Exod. 10:22-23).

In parlors all aflash with gaslight, and gleaming mirror, and blazing chandelier, and candelabra, there may be Egyptian darkness, while in some plain room, which a frugal hand has spread with hospitality and refinement, this one Lamp may cast a glow that makes it a fit place for heavenly coronations. We invoke no shadows to fall upon the hilarities of life. We would not have every song a dirge, and every picture a martyrdom, and every step a funeral pace. God’s lamp hung in the parlor would chill no joy, would rend no harmony, would check no innocent laughter. On the contrary, it would bring out brighter colors in the picture. It would expose new gracefulness in the curtains. It would unroll new wreaths from the carpet. It would strike new music from the harp. It would throw new polish into the manners. It would kindle with light borrowed from the very throne of God all the refinements of society.


O, that the Christ Who was born in a barn would come to our parlor! We need His hand to sift the parlor music. We need His taste to assort the parlor literature. We need His voice to conduct the parlor conversation. We are apt to think of religion as being a rude, blundering thing, not fit to put its foot upon Axminster, or its clownish hands on beautiful adornments, or lift its voice amid the artistic and refined; so, while we have Jesus in the nursery when we teach our children to pray, and Jesus in the dining-hall when we ask His blessing upon our food, and Jesus in the sitting-room when we have family prayers, it is a simple fact that from ten thousand Christian homes in this country Christ is from one end of the year to the other shut out of the parlor.
—De Witt Talmage.

“So far as I can remember, my mother never sat down and delivered to me a lecture on the subject of the Bible,” writes a minister. “She did not need to. She inspired in me a feeling of reverence for the Book by the way she handled it, in turning to it in the hours of crisis, and by enthroning it in solitary splendor on the little center table.” If your child never sees you read or reverence it, you may be sure that he is not likely to do differently, or to think it very important. What place does the Bible occupy in your home?

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