El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-03-08
BAPTIST CHURCH.
Obligations of Family and Domes-
tic Life.


At the First Baptist church yester-
day morning REV. w. o. Millican
preached the last of q series of SER
tion in family and domestic life: Text
Eph. VI:9-And ye masters, do the
same things unto them, forbearing
threatening: knowing that your mast
er also is in heaven; neither is there
respect of persons with him."
The great universe of God is made
up OF u marvellous order of varieties
and grades of existence. From the
lower to the higher, we have the in
organic and the organic: the inanimate
and the animate; the vegetable and
the animal: the lower animals and man,
and finally God. OF all these, not q
grain of sand that lies dormant on the
sea beach, nor q sprig of grass looking
heavenward, nor q flower that blooms
nor bird that sings but has constantly
the gaze of Gods allseeing eye and
feels the beat of his paternal heart.
But of these, man is the greatest and
has the greatest interest of the heart
of God. Here too, we find this mar
velous order and variety; sex, size,
age, temperament, ability and posi-
ton.
Vast as Ia this variety, and despotic
as this order sometimes seems to be,
they are verify ''the spice of life" and
constitute the basis for the greatest
glory to God and the greatest good to
man. Hence we have in the great
organic structure of social life, not on
ly the mud-sills, but the minarets and
domes; not only the servants, but the !
masters as we'll. But for this variety,
life would be failure both to God and
man. On account of it life will be II
failure and intolerable to many of |
God 3 creation, if those who are high
est in life's attachments fail to observe
some fundamental principles that bind
them to the less fortunate among men.
First: All men are made of the
same clay. Says Paul. "God hath
made of one blood all nations of men,"
1t is true that just as there may be
variety in the same species; just as one
son in q family purifes ana enriches (
his family blood in his march through |
paths of righteousness and culture to
wards God and heaven. while another
member of the same family corrupts |
and impoverishes the family blood
until finally it becomes coagulated
s Trsh pit poison of rii heil is ssG&
so among the nations and the indivi-
duals of men there has come to be q
great variety of grades and develop
much higher in the scale of life than
others. But this fact still remains, we
are all of one kith and kin; we are of
the same blood; brethren of the same
great family; sons of the same great
Father-God. Not only is this the
teaching of Inspiration, but our very
natures cry out in holy accord.
The disposition to hold fellow as
serf; to retard his happiness and cause
him pain by word or act. is sbuormal.
The golden rule was known to the
hearts of men long before the day of
Jesus or Confucius. They merely
ira nslated the cardinal sentiment of
human beings into the. language of the
human tongue: they interpreted that
sentiment of the human heart that tells
TODD to others as we would have them
do to US.
Second-We all have the same mas
ter. KNOWING that both your.and their
master is in heaven; neither is there
respect of persons with him. says &,
our text. This master is God. And if I
he has made it obligatory on the part
of the slave to render conscientious 4.
heart-service to his earthly master, he 1
has made it likewise obligatory on the !
earthly master to render conscientious {
heart-service to the servant, "And l
ye masters, do the same thing unto {
them" This service includes. in de-
tail, two divine obligations:-1, That the
be kind in his bearing towards {
the servant, forbearing much threaten -,
ing" says Paul. And in Leviticus we I
read concerning the hired servant,
'Thou shalt not rule over him with
vigor, but shalt fear thy God" That
is to say, the conduct of the master to-
wards the servant must be such as God I
would commend. Oh, how many mas
tiers there are who need to observe this
precept! How many the servants
whose hearts are made to bleed. and
who throw away the opportunities of