“Like warp and woof, all interests
  Are woven fast;
  Locked in sympathy like the keys
  Of an organ vast.”

“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  Who, then, is that faithful and wise steward whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?  Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find so doing.  Of a truth I say unto you, that He will make him ruler over all he hath.  But and if that servant say in his heart, my Lord delayeth His coming, and shall begin to beat the men-servants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.  And that servant which knew his Lord’s will and prepared not himself, neither did according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes.”

Here, then, we have the character and duties of the steward in the Christian home, the rewards of their faithfulness, and the penalties of their unfaithfulness.  As the stewards of God, we must be faithful, giving the souls as well as the bodies of our children “their meat in due season;” we must not “waste the goods” of our Lord, but be “blameless, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast the faithful word as we have been taught.”  As the faithful stewards of God, we should dedicate our household in all respects to Him, and make it tributary to His glory.  “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things shall be added unto you.”  The unjust steward will first seek the world and the things of the world, its gold, its pleasures and its honors; and after that seek the kingdom of heaven.  But this is reversing the order of procedure as prescribed by the Master; it is running counter to His will, and, consequently, wasting His goods.

But the greatest trust committed to parents is, the souls of their children; and hence their most responsible duty, as the stewards of God, is to attend to their salvation.  You should “give them the bread of life in due season.”  It will be of no avail for you to inquire, “What shall they eat, and what shall they drink, and wherewithal shall they be clothed;” if you neglect this their highest interest and your greatest trust?  “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” It is not the wealth, nor the magnificence of life which will make your home happy; these are but the outward and fleeting ornaments of the world, and are too often the gaudy drapery in which demon guilt and misery are clothed.

  “The cobwebbed cottage, with its ragged wall
  Of mouldering mud, is royalty to me,”