And if the house be worthy.
The happy family
Illustrate the transcendent importance of religion by presenting some of the leading characteristics of the family which is governed by its influence.
I. The general aim of its arrangements.
II. Its department of education.
III. Its every-day pursuits-its ordinary habits and dispositions.
IV. Amid the sacred employment of the sabbath,
V. In its seasons of prosperity and adversity.
VI. In its final union in heaven. (J. Nilson, A. M.)
The peaceful salutation
1. The clergyman is to be the minister of peace.
2. But it all depends upon adaptation-the peace is to the house, but the question whether “ the house “ or any one in it can say, the “peace” turns upon the point of adaptation. “If the house is worthy” i.e., if there be fitness in the house to receive it. What that peace means:
1. It is peace with God.
2. It is peace through the blood of Jesus Christ.
3. It is a peace within.
4. It is peace with the whole world. (J. Vaughan M. A.)
Spiritual adaptation
It is a principle which pervades everything. To select the congenial soil, or by art to make it congenial to the seed, is the secret of husbandry. The man of physical science is certain of the properties and powers of natural substances; but his difficulty is to secure that the state of the recipient match with its virtues. In the most exquisite and delicate of modern inventions, the capability of the ray of light to leave its impression, is invariable and undoubted; the science lies in procuring a material which is capable to take and to retain it. Nothing lives, nothing really exercises its being, but in that to which it stands in a certain sympathy and proportion. So grace is to the gracious, and “ peace to the men of peace.” (J. Vaughan M. A.)
Saluting a house
When a Persian enters an assembly, after having left his shoes without, he makes the usual salutation of “ Peace be unto you,” which is addressed to the whole assembly-as it were, saluting the house. (Morier.)