第02章 齐家之本
§1
第02章 齐家之本
§2
Chap. 02 - Fundamentals of True Homemaking
§3
世上最可爱的地方——父母肩上负有重大的责任,要谨慎地维护儿女们将来的幸福与权利,同时也有义务要尽可能使家庭成为最可爱的地方。这事较比获致地产和钱财更重要得多。家庭中决不可缺少阳光。当使家庭的观念活生生地保存在儿女的心中,以便他们回顾童年的家庭时,就会视之为一个仅次于天国的平安与幸福的所在。这样当他们成年之后,就会努力使自己成为父母的慰藉和福惠,以报答他们。[1]
§4
The Most Attractive Place in the World.--While there are weighty responsibilities devolving upon the parents to guard carefully the future happiness and interests of their children, it is also their duty to make home as attractive as possible. This is of far greater consequence than to acquire estates and money. Home must not lack sunshine. The home feeling should be kept alive in the hearts of the children, that they may look back upon the home of their childhood as a place of peace and happiness next to heaven. Then as they come to maturity, they should in their turn try to be a comfort and blessing to their parents. {AH 21.1}[1]
§5
家庭对于儿童应该是世界上最有吸引力的地方,而母亲的存在更应成为家庭中最大的吸引力之一。儿童们都具有敏感而仁爱的天性。他们很容易快乐,也很容易不快乐。借着温和的教导,通过慈爱的言行,母亲们就可以把儿女维系在自己的心坎上了。[2]
§6
The home should be to the children the most attractive place in the world, and the mothers presence should be its greatest attraction. Children have sensitive, loving natures. They are easily pleased, and easily made unhappy. By gentle discipline, in loving words and acts, mothers may bind their children to their hearts. {AH 21.2}[2]
§7
整饬有序——清洁、整齐和秩序,乃是正确适宜的治家所不可或缺的。但是当母亲以此为她毕生最重要的本分,而专心致力于这些事务上,却忽略了她儿女体力的发展,以及智能和道德的训练时,那么她就犯下可悲的错误了。[3]
§8
Clean, Neat, Orderly.--Cleanliness, neatness, and order are indispensable to the proper management of the household. But when the mother makes these the all-important duties of her life, and devotes herself to them, to the neglect of the physical development and the mental and moral training of her children, she makes a sad mistake. {AH 21.3}[3]
§9
当教导信徒们明白即使家境贫寒,他们本身及家庭仍力求整洁。必须去帮助那些似乎不明白清洁的意义和重要性的人。要教他们知道凡代表至高至圣之上帝的人,务须保持他们的心灵纯净清洁,而这一种纯洁乃包括他们的衣服以及家中的一切事物在内,俾使服役的天使获得凭据,可以证明真理已作了改善生活,洁净心灵,并使志趣高尚的工夫,凡接受了真理之后,在言语或行为以及服饰或环境方面仍无改变的人,他们便是为自己,而不是为基督而生活。他们并未在基督耶稣里成为新造的人,而得以纯净,成为圣洁。[4]
§10
Believers should be taught that even though they may be poor, they need not be uncleanly or untidy in their persons or in their homes. Help must be given in this line to those who seem to have no sense of the meaning and importance of cleanliness. They are to be taught that those who are to represent the high and holy God must keep their souls pure and clean, and that this purity must extend to their dress and to everything in the home, so that the ministering angels will have evidence that the truth has wrought a change in the life, purifying the soul and refining the tastes. Those who, after receiving the truth, make no change in word or deportment, in dress or surroundings, are living to themselves, not to Christ. They have not been created anew in Christ Jesus, unto purification and holiness. . . . {AH 21.4}[4]
§11
我们虽要慎防不必要的装饰和炫耀,然而在外观上任何一方面我们都不可疏忽大意。凡与我们个人或家庭有关的事物,必须保持整洁而动人。青年们都当受教,明白保持一种不受抨击之仪表,就是那种能尊荣上帝和真理的仪表的重要性。[5]
§12
While we are to guard against needless adornment and display, we are in no case to be careless and indifferent in regard to outward appearance. All about our persons and our homes is to be neat and attractive. The youth are to be taught the importance of presenting an appearance above criticism, an appearance that honors God and the truth. {AH 22.1}[5]
§13
忽视清洁必招致疾病。疾病并不是无缘无故来侵袭的。有时剧烈的热病流行于一向认为卫生条件完备的乡镇与城市中,而结果便是死亡或体质的败坏。在许多的场合中,那些为流行的疾病所毒害的人,他们的住屋中就隐伏着败坏的因素,将致命的毒素散布在空气中,使家人和邻居都吸入体内了。目睹一般人对于疏忽不顾健康所必招致的后果仍盲然无知,实在令人不胜骇异。[6]
§14
A neglect of cleanliness will induce disease. Sickness does not come without a cause. Violent epidemics of fevers have occurred in villages and cities that were considered perfectly healthful, and these have resulted in death or broken constitutions. In many instances the premises of the very ones who fell victims to these epidemics contained the agents of destruction which sent forth deadly poison into the atmosphere, to be inhaled by the family and the neighborhood. It is astonishing to witness the prevailing ignorance relative to the effects which slackness and recklessness produce upon health. {AH 22.2}[6]
§15
秩序是幸福家庭所不可或缺的——无论是谁,倘若散漫无序松弛懈怠,作事也不贯彻始终,都为上帝所不悦。这些缺点都是严重的恶习,而且假使丈夫爱好整洁,喜欢循规蹈矩的子女,希望家庭井然有序的话,这就很可能因而使丈夫对妻子的感情日趋疏远。作妻子和母亲的人,若非喜爱秩序,端庄自重,好好持家,就决不能使家庭安乐幸福;因此,凡在这方面失败的人,应当立即着手训练自己,在那些属于自己最大缺欠的事上力谋补救。[7]
§16
Order Necessary for a Happy Home.--God is displeased with disorder, slackness, and a lack of thoroughness in anyone. These deficiencies are serious evils, and tend to wean the affections of the husband from the wife when the husband loves order, well-disciplined children, and a well-regulated house. A wife and mother cannot make home agreeable and happy unless she possesses a love for order, preserves her dignity, and has good government; therefore all who fail on these points should begin at once to educate themselves in this direction, and cultivate the very things wherein is their greatest lack. {AH 22.3}[7]
§17
警醒与勤勉并重——当我们将自己毫无保留地献给主时,家庭生活中一切琐细平凡的事务,就必显出品格真实的重要性来,而且我们也必遵照上帝的旨意去一一履行了。我们要警醒,守候人子的荣临;我们也当勤勉。工作与等待两者都是必需的;两者必须互相配合。这样便能使基督化的品格均衡发展,使之完美而匀称。我们不应当将自己全然献于默想、研究、或祈祷上面,而置其他各事于不顾;我们也不可张惶、躁急、碌碌终日,以至忽略了个人的虔修。警醒,等待与工作都应等量齐观。“殷勤不可懒惰,要心里火热,常常服侍主。”[8]
§18
Vigilance and Diligence to Be Blended.--When we give ourselves unreservedly to the Lord, the simple, commonplace duties of home life will be seen in their true importance, and we shall perform them in accordance with the will of God. We are to be vigilant, watching for the coming of the Son of man; and we must also be diligent; working as well as waiting is required; there must be a union of the two. This will balance the Christian character, making it well developed, symmetrical. We should not feel that we are to neglect everything else, and give ourselves up to meditation, study, or prayer; neither are we to be full of bustle and hurry and work, to the neglect of personal piety. Waiting and watching and working are to be blended. Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord. {AH 23.1}[8]
§19
购置节省劳力的设备——在许多家庭中,身为妻子和母亲的人没有余暇阅读书报,以保持自己的知识与时俱进,没有时间作她丈夫的伴侣,也没有时间与她儿女正在发展中的思想相接触,更没有时间和地方与可爱的救主作亲切的交通。渐渐地,她便沦为家务的奴役,以至她的精力、光阴和志趣完全放在那些无关紧要的事物上了。等到一旦醒悟过来,发现她在自己家中已几乎成了一个局外人,那时就悔之晚矣。那一度为她所有的感化自己亲人向往高尚人生的宝贵机会,已一去而永不复返了。[9]
§20
Provide Laborsaving Facilities.--In many a home the wife and mother has no time to read, to keep herself well informed, no time to be a companion to her husband, no time to keep in touch with the developing minds of her children. There is no time or place for the precious Saviour to be a close, dear companion. Little by little she sinks into a mere household drudge, her strength and time and interest absorbed in the things that perish with the using. Too late she awakes to find herself almost a stranger in her own home. The precious opportunities once hers to influence her dear ones for the higher life, unimproved, have passed away forever. {AH 23.2}[9]
§21
但愿一切成家立室的人,决意遵循一种更聪明的计划而生活。务要以建立一个快乐家庭为你们的首要目的。设法购置凡足以减轻劳力且能增进健康的设备,你们都当设置。[10]
§22
Let the homemakers resolve to live on a wiser plan. Let it be your first aim to make a pleasant home. Be sure to provide the facilities that will lighten labor and promote health. {AH 24.1}[10]
§23
虽至贱之役,亦上帝之工——一切必需作的工作,我们都要去作,就如洗碗碟,摆饭桌,伺候病人,以至烹饪或洗濯,实际上各有其重要性。这些眼前的微贱家务,必须有人承担,而从事这些工作的人,务要感觉他们所作的乃是一项必需而光荣的工作,并且就工作本身所负的使命而言,他们所从事的不论是多么微贱的工作,也就是在作上帝的工作,正如加百列奉差遣到先知那里去一样。人人都要各尽其分,在职责范围内各从其事。妇女在自己家中,从事生活中必需作的一切琐务,她能够而且也应该表现忠诚、顺从和爱心,犹如天使在其范围内一样的诚笃。只要顺从上帝的旨意,就必使任何当作之工显为高贵。[11]
§24
Even the Humblest Tasks Are the Work of God.-- All the work we do that is necessary to be done, be it washing dishes, setting tables, waiting upon the sick, cooking, or washing, is of moral importance. . . . The humble tasks before us are to be taken up by someone; and those who do them should feel that they are doing a necessary and honorable work, and that in their mission, humble though it may be, they are doing the work of God just as surely as was Gabriel when sent to the prophets. All are working in their order in their respective spheres. Woman in her home, doing the simple duties of life that must be done, can and should exhibit faithfulness, obedience, and love, as sincere as angels in their sphere. Conformity to the will of God makes any work honorable that must be done. {AH 24.2}[11]