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The Ministry of Healing
Parents may lay for their children the foundation for a healthy,
happy life. They may send them forth from their homes with moral
stamina to resist temptation, and courage and strength to wrestle
successfully with life’s problems. They may inspire in them the
purpose and develop the power to make their lives an honor to God
and a blessing to the world. They may make straight paths for their
feet, through sunshine and shadow, to the glorious heights above.
The mission of the home extends beyond its own members. The
Christian home is to be an object lesson, illustrating the excellence
of the true principles of life. Such an illustration will be a power for
good in the world. Far more powerful than any sermon that can be
preached is the influence of a true home upon human hearts and lives.
As the youth go out from such a home, the lessons they have learned
are imparted. Nobler principles of life are introduced into other
households, and an uplifting influence works in the community.
There are many others to whom we might make our homes
a blessing. Our social entertainments should not be governed by
the dictates of worldly custom, but by the Spirit of Christ and the
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teaching of His word. The Israelites, in all their festivities, included
the poor, the stranger, and the Levite, who was both the assistant of
the priest in the sanctuary, and a religious teacher and missionary.
These were regarded as the guests of the people, to share their
hospitality on all occasions of social and religious rejoicing, and
to be tenderly cared for in sickness or in need. It is such as these
whom we should make welcome to our homes. How much such a
welcome might do to cheer and encourage the missionary nurse or
the teacher, the care-burdened, hard-working mother, or the feeble
and aged, so often without a home, and struggling with poverty and
many discouragements.
“When thou makest a dinner or a supper,” Christ says, “call
not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich
neighbors; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made
thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed,
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the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot
recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection
of the just.”
Luke 14:12-14
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These are guests whom it will lay on you no great burden to
receive. You will not need to provide for them elaborate or expensive