Job 1:4-5 - Homilies By R. Green

The sanctification of the home; or, parental priesthood.

Parentage involves authority, responsibility, power, and honour. It imposes special spiritual or religious duties; it demands right personal conduct, as an example; prudent discipline and careful instruction. It is the duty of a father to protect his family, not from temporal evils only, but from spiritual; to provide for their temporal and spiritual needs.

The religious duties of parents embrace—

I. RELIGIOUS EXAMPLE .

II. RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION .

III. RELIGIOUS GOVERNMENT OR DISCIPLINE .

IV. RELIGIOUS WORSHIP .

The Christian father, standing as the priest or representative of his family before God, has not to offer a sacrifice for the sins of his family, but may and should p/cad the one Sacrifice on behalf of all committed to his care. These the first conditions of a happy home. In Job's case the spiritual instincts of the father are excited on behalf of his family exposed to the evils of surrounding idolatry. The Christian father has equal cause to be watchful. Consider