Page:The Life and Works of Christopher Dock.djvu/140

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
128
THE WORKS OF CHRISTOPHER DOCK

blessing, help and assistance, for He must be begged to add growth to planting and watering.

In God's grace and tender blessing
All is safe and of much avail;
But without His help and succor
The efforts of all men must fail.

The murderer of souls seeks constantly to combat true love with his false Delilah, world-love, that in its lust is dead to the good, so that it seeks to extinguish the natural spark of love left after the fall, and has succeeded in many cases. Then follows all ungodly conduct, piling up the wrath of God upon the day of wrath. It may be seen in the first world, and also in Sodom and Gomorrah, in Dathan and Abiram, as also in the destruction of Jerusalem and other places. What works of darkness have been done in times gone by! Holy Writ tells us in many places. For brevity I shall mention only: Romans i, 18 to end; II Peter ii, 4-6; Jude 7. And what works of this kind are done in our own time, experience tells us.

When we weigh a Christian's duty, his matrimonial duties as well, we find that love must always be the standard, and where it is wanting there will be much wanting in order, in education and admonition in the Lord, in the management of children, in parents and teachers. It is a true passage in Scripture that man is woman's head. But on the part of man it is well to consider what St. Paul tells to Christian husbands: (I Cor. xi, 3) “But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ,