21 NOVEMBER (UNDATED SERMON)

The story of a runaway slave

‘Perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him forever.’ Philemon 15
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Colossians 3:18–4:1

Rowland Hill used to say that he would not give a halfpenny for a man’s piety if his dog and his cat were not better off after he was converted. There was much weight in that remark. Everything in the house goes better when grace oils the wheels. The mistress is, perhaps, rather sharp and quick; well she gets a little sugar into her constitution when she receives the grace of God. The servant may be apt to loiter, be late up of a morning, very slovenly and fond of a gossip at the door, but, if she is truly converted, all that kind of thing ends. She is conscientious and attends to her duty as she ought. The master—well, he is the master, and you know it. But when he is a truly Christian man, he has a gentleness, a suavity, a considerateness about him. The husband is the head of the wife, but when renewed by grace he is not at all the head of the wife as some husbands are. The wife also keeps her place and seeks by all gentleness and wisdom to make the house as happy as she can.

I do not believe in your religion, dear friend, if it belongs to the Tabernacle and the prayer-meeting, but not to your home. The best religion in the world is that which smiles at the table, works at the sewing machine, and is amiable in the drawing-room. Give me the religion which blacks boots and does them well, which cooks the food and cooks it so that it can be eaten, which measures out yards of cloth and does not make them half-an-inch short, and which sells a hundred yards of an article and does not label ninety a hundred, as many tradespeople do. That is the true Christianity which affects the whole of life. If we are truly Christians we shall be changed in all our relationships to our fellow men.

FOR MEDITATION: It is right and proper that ‘all things be done decently and in order’ at church (1 Corinthians 14:40), but this should be equally true of the Christian’s life at home, whether as husband (Ephesians 5:25, 28, 33; 1 Peter 3:7), wife (Ephesians 5:22–24; Titus 2:4–5; 1 Peter 3:1–6), parent (Ephesians 6:4; Titus 2:4) or child (Ephesians 6:1–3; 1 Timothy 5:4).


C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 4), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2007), 336.
21 NOVEMBER (UNDATED SERMON) The story of a runaway slave ‘Perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him forever.’ Philemon 15 SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Colossians 3:18–4:1 Rowland Hill used to say that he would not give a halfpenny for a man’s piety if his dog and his cat were not better off after he was converted. There was much weight in that remark. Everything in the house goes better when grace oils the wheels. The mistress is, perhaps, rather sharp and quick; well she gets a little sugar into her constitution when she receives the grace of God. The servant may be apt to loiter, be late up of a morning, very slovenly and fond of a gossip at the door, but, if she is truly converted, all that kind of thing ends. She is conscientious and attends to her duty as she ought. The master—well, he is the master, and you know it. But when he is a truly Christian man, he has a gentleness, a suavity, a considerateness about him. The husband is the head of the wife, but when renewed by grace he is not at all the head of the wife as some husbands are. The wife also keeps her place and seeks by all gentleness and wisdom to make the house as happy as she can. I do not believe in your religion, dear friend, if it belongs to the Tabernacle and the prayer-meeting, but not to your home. The best religion in the world is that which smiles at the table, works at the sewing machine, and is amiable in the drawing-room. Give me the religion which blacks boots and does them well, which cooks the food and cooks it so that it can be eaten, which measures out yards of cloth and does not make them half-an-inch short, and which sells a hundred yards of an article and does not label ninety a hundred, as many tradespeople do. That is the true Christianity which affects the whole of life. If we are truly Christians we shall be changed in all our relationships to our fellow men. FOR MEDITATION: It is right and proper that ‘all things be done decently and in order’ at church (1 Corinthians 14:40), but this should be equally true of the Christian’s life at home, whether as husband (Ephesians 5:25, 28, 33; 1 Peter 3:7), wife (Ephesians 5:22–24; Titus 2:4–5; 1 Peter 3:1–6), parent (Ephesians 6:4; Titus 2:4) or child (Ephesians 6:1–3; 1 Timothy 5:4). C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 4), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2007), 336.
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