This is aremarkable command, given by God to Moses. Not for the matter of it, for it is the same in substance with the fifth in the Decalogue. But as differing from that and other parallel passages, it is remarkable on two accounts. In those the father is always put first. It is, “Honour thy father and thy mother.” “He that smiteth his father and his mother, shall surely be put to death.” “My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.” “Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.” “Honour thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with promise.” But here, mother is put first--“Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father.” Then again, the word “fear”--“Thou shalt fear thy mother and thy father,” occurs in no other passage. There must be a meaning, both in the word “fear,” and the singular collocation of the sentence. And what is it? Fathers are in general wont togovern their children more by authority, and mothers by love. Hence they are more afraid of offending their fathers than their mothers. This is especially the case with boys, about the time when they enter their teens. For three or four years they are more impatient of restraint than ever before or after. They are then apt to think they know much more than their mothers, and are quite capable of governing themselves. To guard against this undervaluing of their mother’s authority seems to have been the special design of the command in question. “Ye shall fear every man his mother”--detracting nothing from the father’s authority; hut putting the mother’s in the foreground, because there is danger of its being despised or overlooked. The word “fear,” in this case, is not quite synonymous with “honour,” in the fifth commandment. It has rather more intensity of meaning, if it is not more imperative. There is more of awe in fear, if not more of reverence. God intended to put both parents on the same level. Both are to be feared alike. And this purity of governmental control carries along with it corresponding obligations. Mothers must not shrink from exercising the authority with which God has clothed them, to “train Up their children in the way in which they should go,” however crossing it may sometimes be to their parental yearning. Let them rule by love as much as they can. The more the better. But restraint, by coercion, where nothing else will do, is one of the highest forms in which parental love is manifested. It would be wrong, it would be cruel to withhold it from the wayward child. Thousands upon thousands have been greatly wronged, if not ruined, by overweening motherly indulgence. The surest way ultimately to win that undying filial love, “which casteth out fear,” is to restrain and govern the boy just at theage when he is most restive under parental control. Woe to the child that breaks away from the authority which God has ordained. Evil is as surely before him as the going down of the sun (Pro_30:17). (Dr. Humphrey.)
Ungrateful children rebuked by birds
The birds can teach ungrateful children their duty towards aged parents. It is an old tradition with regard to storks, says Mr. Morris in his “British Birds,” that they take care of and nourish their parents when they are too old to take care of themselves, from whence the Greek word “pelargicos,” signifying the duty of children to take care of their parents; and “pelargicoi nomoi,” signifying the laws relating to that duty, both derived from the Greek word for a stork; “Pelargos,” from pelas, black; and “argos,” white, alluding to the prevailing colours of the stork. (Scientific Illustrations.)
A son’s devotion to his mother
I remember just now a young man whom the Lord has blessed on account of thelove he has shown his mother. Many years ago when her husband died, she was walking the streets of Glasgow in sore distress, her heart being, as it were, in the grave with her husband. She was utterly heedless of the great crowd, and almost forgetful of the kindly little boy, then only three and a half years old, who was walking by her side. He reminded her that he was there by pulling her hand earnestly, and when she looked down to him, he said, “Mother, don’t cry!”--for he saw the tears were stealing down her cheeks--“I will be the father,” and the whole soul of the child was in his face. As he spoke those words the warmth of summer and the life of the spring-time of joy came again into the mother’s heart. God spared him to fulfil his promise, and to receive the blessing that is annexed to the fifth commandment, and I am glad he is living to-day a prosperous and honourable merchant. It is some years-since I joined him in laying his mother’s honoured head in the grave. Shortly before she died she was able, beautifully and lovingly, to testify that her son had amply redeemed the promise of his childhood, that what his father would have been, had he been spared, her son had successfully tried to be to her. (J. G. Cunningham.)
Respect for a mother
Men who have risen from humble life to wealth and high social rank have often been ashamed of their parents, and shown them little attention or respect. Such treatment indicates a vulgar mind. True nobility follows a different method. Richard Hurd, an eminent bishop of the Church of England at the close of the last century, was a man of courtly manners, of great learning, who moved with distinction in the best society in the kingdom. George III. pronounced him “the most naturally polite man he had ever known.” He, however, never failed to show the utmost respect for his mother, a farmer’s wife, of no education, but of sterling character. When he entertained large companies at the Episcopal Palace, he led her with a stately courtesy to the head of the table, and paid her the greatest deference. The high-born families who sat at his table reverenced his conduct, so becoming to a son and a gentleman. (New Orleans Democrat.)
Sacred to the memory of a mother
“I want,” said the late Emperor of Germany, the last but one, the great William, “I want a lamp such as Such-and-so has,” naming some distinguished member of the Court. The lamp was provided according to the very pattern, but his Majesty complained, on returning to his study after withdrawment, that he could not bear the savour of the room; the lamp was emitting smoke, and it was altogether intolerable, One of the secondary servants knew the reason, but dare not name it to his Majesty. One of the higher servants learned the cause and brought it under his Majesty’s attention. “It is because your Majesty turns down the light when you leave the study that occasions the emission of smoke and vapours, and if you will cease to do that all will be well.” “Ah,” said the sweet old patriarchof his nation, “I know how that is. I learned that in the days of our poverty. After the battle of Jena we were very poor, and my mother never allowed us to leave the room at night without turning down the light, and I continue to turn down the light in memory of my mother.” A beautiful example, a tender domestic story that. Here is a man who could have had a thousand lamps, yet in memory of the days of his poverty, when his mother taught him the uses of money, he kept turning down the light, saying, “Sacred to the memory of my mother.” (J. Parker, D. D.)
And keep My Sabbaths.--
The Sabbath kept
During the latter part of his life General Jackson was in the habit of coming down to New Orleans to see his old friends and comrades in arms and participate in the celebration of the glorious 8th of January. It happened on one of these visits that the 8th occurred on Sunday. General Plauche called upon the old hero and requested him to accompany the military tothe battle-ground on the anniversary of the great day. “I am going to church to-morrow,” mildly observed the General. The military preparations for the celebration went on, and on Sunday morning at ten o’clock General Plauche called at the St. Charles and informed General Jackson that the military and civic processions were ready to accompany him to the scene of his glory. “General Plauche,” responded old Hickory, turning upon him the glance of his kindling eye, “I told you I was going to church to-day.” General Plauche withdrew, muttering to himself, “I might have known better.” The celebration was postponed till the next day.
