Our New Edens

The first home there ever was in this world was in the garden of Eden. God the Father made it ready for His first children — made it ready for them before they were created. I can imagine with what loving thought He prepared this home for them. He made it very beautiful. He gathered into it all the loveliest things of all the earth — trees, plants, flowers, and fruits. Streams of water rippled through it and there were birds and animals of all kinds in it.

The first home was a garden. Every home should be a garden spot. An important part of our work in this world is garden-making. We ought to make our homes as beautiful as we can. They may be very plain, perhaps only two or three rooms, but we should put into them all the lovely things we can gather. The first home in this world was in Eden. We should try to make our homes Edens. One writes of a quiet man who had given his life to a service of love: —

In the desert, where he lies entombed, He made a little garden, and left there Some flowers that but for him had never bloomed.

Every home should be such a garden. Whether it is a luxurious place or bare of earthly comforts, it should be sweet with the fragrance of love and beautiful with the beauty of the Lord.

The home has always been dear to the Divine heart. When Jesus sent His disciples out to preach, one of His instructions was, “Into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house.” On Christ’s lips this is more than a salutation: it is a divine benediction as well. Peace means love, heaven’s love, the absence of all strife and bitterness. It means also the absence of care and worry. The New Testament tells us of the home at Bethany where Jesus Himself was welcomed by the sisters. He left peace there. He taught the lesson of quietness and confidence. One of the sisters was disposed to worry — it is not easy to be a housekeeper, to have to provide for the wants of a family, and to manage all the domestic affairs of a home and not sometimes fret a little. Martha was anxious and troubled about many things. But Jesus gently taught her the lesson of peace, and we may be quite sure she never forgot it. We never find her worrying any more.

Jesus comes to the door of each home of ours and says, “Peace be to this house.” We should let the messenger of peace come in. Nothing good ever comes of fretting. We cannot get clear of cares. There are troubles enough in any of our lives to spoil our happiness if we yield to them. But no matter what comes, what burdens press, what things go wrong, what flowers fade, listen to the Master’s word at the door, “Peace be to this house.”

“He who waters meadow lilies

With the dew from out the sky;
He who feeds the flitting sparrows

When in need of food they cry,
Never fails to help His children

In all things, both great and small;
For His ear is ever open

To our faintest far-off call.”

How can we make new Edens of our homes? What are some of the secrets of home happiness? I might gather them all into one word and say — Christ. If we have Christ as our guest, our home will be happy — Christ in the joy and Christ in the sorrow; Christ in the day of plenty and Christ in the day of pinching want; Christ in the business and Christ in the social life; Christ at the marriage altar and Christ as the wedded pair walk together toward the sunset gate. Christ makes a happy home when He is admitted into all the household life.

The other day a young friend who is to be a bride in a little while came to have a quiet talk about her new life. She has never confessed Christ as her Master and Friend, and she said she wanted to do it soon, adding: “We never know what trouble we may have and when we may need Christ. I want to take Him now into my new life and into my home.” She is doing right, but her thought of the possible need for Christ reveals a mistaken conception of His mission to us. Christ is not needed merely in the days of trouble. Religion is not meant to be a lamp for the sick room or for the days when the shutters are bowed and there is crape on the door. It is for the sunny days as well. Christ’s first public act after His baptism was His attendance at a wedding-feast. He would come into all our experiences of gladness as well as into our times of care or trial. Our joy needs heaven in it quite as much as our sorrow docs.

It is more of Christ we need in our homes to make their happiness perfect One of Turner’s pictures was being exhibited in the artist’s studio. It was rich and beautiful. But those who were present that day saw that it lacked something. It seemed all mist and cloud — hazy, vague, illdefined, incomprehensible. The friends who looked at the canvas were perplexed — they could not understand the picture. The artist himself saw the lack, and, taking his brush, added a touch of red to his painting. That took away all the mystery, the vagueness, the mistiness, and made it intelligible.

Some of our homes seem to have in them everything they need to make them perfect. They are filled with beauty. They have all the equipments and conveniences of modern taste and skill. Music and art and refinement and the best things that money can add are present. Health and happiness and the gladness of social life yield their portion to the comfort of these homes. But something is yet wanting to make the picture complete. It is Christ’s “Peace be to this house.” It is a touch of the red of Christ’s cross — His love shed abroad in the home-life. If Christ were admitted as a guest. His coming would add immeasurably to the joy and sweetness of the home-life.

But there is only one way of taking Christ into our homes and getting His blessing on our home-life. In olden days there would be a little chapel in great castles where God was formally honored on Sundays, while He was shut out of all the life of other days. Not thus can we take Christ into our homes. He will not come to be a secluded guest, merely to lodge in lonehness in our best room. He must be welcomed into all our life. He must be in each heart. He must sit at our tables and mingle with us in all our intercourse. Christ can bless our home only through the lives of those who make the home circle.

The husband has a part in making the earthly home a little garden of Eden. He must be a good man. He need not be rich, nor brilliant, nor famous, nor clever, but he must be good. He must always be a lover — even to his old age. Then he must be a man — manly, brave, true, generous, worthy of honor. He must be a man of unblemished life. He must be a man who loves his home and lives for it. The husband has an important part in the home garden-making. Some husbands seem not to know this; at least they fail to take their share of the burden.

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