These were the brave and faithful words of a brave and faithful man words that were brave as regards men, words that were brave as regards God. Joshua, the great leader of the army and the people of Israel, having won for them secure possession of the Promised Land, just before his approaching end, gathers the people together to tell them what is the only true condition on which they can continue to hold this land. He tells them that national prosperity and national safety depend upon national religion, and then, knowing the feeble nature of the people he is addressing, he tells the assembled multitude that they may make their choice, rejecting the worship of the Lord if it seemed to them evil to serve Him, but that as for him and for his, the choice was made, and made unalterably.
I. These words not only express a great and high purpose, but they express a great and an infinitely precious idea and fact: they express for us the idea of family religion,as distinct on the one hand from personal religion and on the other from national religion. They reveal to us the family as what in truth it is and what God designed it should be the home and citadel of religious faith in the heart of the nation.
II. God has His great work for individuals to do. He places a Moses upon the mount to bring down the law. He sends a Paul out to preach the Gospel. He sends an Augustine to defend it, a Luther to reform it, and a Wesley to revive it. But mightier than all this, deeper than all this, though more hidden than this, is the task God confides to every religious and believing household upon earth. It is the task of taking the seed that these great sowers of the word have sown and cherishing it beneath the tender, and gracious, and mighty influence of home. Such is God's will and God's purpose for the preservation of His faith. The family is its safe hiding-place, its true nursery, that none can invade or desecrate.
Bishop Magee, Sermon Preached in Peterborough Cathedral,July 1st, 1880.
References: Joshua 24:15. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxi., No. 1229; J. Kennedy, Christian World Pulpit,vol. vii., p. 289; W. Anderson, Ibid.,vol. xiv., p. 309; H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons,vol. iii., pp. 423, 439, 456; J. Vaughan, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xviii., p. 219; E. Irving, Collected Writings,vol. iii., pp. 217, 231; Bishop Walsham How, Twenty-four Practical Sermons,p. 250; Sunday Magazine,1877, p. 88; R. Heber, Parish Sermons,pp. 435, 448; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines of Sermons,p. 124; Parker, vol. v., p. 288; J. C. Hare, Sermons in Herstmonceux Church,p. 369; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. viii., p. 354.