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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 9, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 15.

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By F. W. Spies

F. W. SPIES
What encouraging, inspiring emotions fill the heart of the traveler as he turns his steps toward home—home, where he will meet his loved one, and enjoy the society of those whom he loves: more than all else on earth.
Another period of almost three months of labor away from home being finished, the writer once more turns his face toward home. But what is it that gives to the prospect of going home an added charm? ’Tis true that one’s own home is of all earthly homes the sweetest. But in taking a retrospective glance at the things met with during the last three months, I find that notwithstanding I have been in many houses and dwellings, I have been in but very few homes.
It is said by some that the Portuguese language is rich in expression. However this may be, it has no equivalent for our English word “home.” When the Brazilian wishes to go to his home, he will tell you, “Eu vou á casa,” which means, I go to the house; or if he wants to tell you that his wife is at home, he will say, “Ella está na casa,” meaning, She is in the house. He may also talk about his “morada,” dwelling, but the word “home” is not in his vocabulary. And, although there are exceptions, the real home idea is almost as unknown to him in practical life as is the word in the dictionary.
One is often taken into a building, which one would almost regard too inferior for animals, but it is the casa—house. Or one may approach a building which from without looks inviting; but as he enters it, his good impression may be at once dispelled by the general disorder and unlikeness to a home on the inside.
But as the truth that there are but few real homes is so apparent everywhere, we involuntarily look back to the first home, which God founded. That was a home indeed. In it the sunshine of God’s love was shed abroad by each member in the home. In this home the Spirit of God ruled; and under the rule of this Spirit, each desire, with the appetites and passions, was exercised to glorify God; they were servants to this end, and hence “love, joy, peace, temperance,” the natural fruits of such a home-life, gladdened the heart of each member of the home, and very existence in such an atmosphere was heavenly bliss.
That was God’s idea of the home. But as we contemplate that picture, it seems to vanish from our sight, and another, a dark and dreary one, looms up in its place. Instead of the Spirit of God being the ruler, another spirit has been allowed to govern in the family. But this change of rulers has turned freedom into slavery, joy into sorrow, and has given a cup of bitterness for one of blessing. Through sin, selfishness—glorifying self instead of God—has entered, and the very faculties once used as servants to glorify God, now have the mastery, and dishonor Him, while at the same time they ruin the life and happiness of those whom God created to live and be happy. Instead of love, joy, and peace, hatred, sorrow, strife, pain, suffering, and death are seen. Oh, the untold suffering in these perverted homes!
How is it in our homes? Is the divine ideal reached there? Let us once more consider how that original home was destroyed. We have said that it was destroyed through sin. Yes, so it was. Disobedience is sin; and when Eve had sinned, Satan used her to destroy her husband. See her approach him, holding in her hand the fruit of the forbidden tree, and with a smile inviting Adam to partake of it. Yes, that very smile of Eve’s, which God intended should always fill Adam’s heart with gladness, now works his ruin. O Eve, how could you thus with a smile hand death to the one whom you loved as yourself? Sin deceived her. And sin is the same to-day; hence we are warned not to let our hearts be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Sin destroyed the first home, and has ever since destroyed the true home idea, wherever it was suffered to rule.
But, thank the Lord, our Saviour came to destroy the works of the devil, and sin is Satan’s work. Then let us receive into our hearts and homes Christ and His principles of righteousness, and the world will once more, ere the Lord comes, have an illustration of true homes. We can also prepare for the eternal home by getting its principles into our hearts.