Deuteronomy 22:8 When you build a new house, then you shall make a battlement for your roof, that you bring not blood on your house… To understand the primary significance of these words, you have simply to remember two things. First, that the houses referred to were covered with flat roofs, and, secondly, that on these roofs amusements, business, conversation, and worship were frequently carried on. There is the suggestion of great principles — principles which abide. I. WHAT ARE THESE PRINCIPLES? 1. One is, the sacredness of human life. The great reason assigned in the text for the building of the balustrade round the roof was this: "that thou bring not blood upon thine house." If human life were a thing of no account, no battlement would be necessary — let a man or a child fall over, what matters it? Now, that is a principle which in a general way we all recognise, but which in our commercial life is continually violated by that which calls itself "the trade" preeminently. 2. But another principle underlying the text is this, the inhumanity of selfishness. Observe, the builder of a house might have reasoned thus with himself: "Why should I make a parapet about the roof of my house? I am in no danger of falling over, and when my friends and neighbours come to see me, let them take care of themselves." Every man for himself! Is that the principle on which society can hold together? If I am a man, nothing that is human will be alien to me. If I consult only my own safety and comfort and well-being, I am worse than a brute! 3. For another principle suggested here, closely allied to that of which I have just spoken, is, our responsibility in relation to others. If any man fell, the blood was upon the owner's house. They could not say — "It was the man's fault who met with the accident. He should have been more careful. He ought to have kept away from the edge of the roof." Yes, perhaps so, but that was no excuse for him who had failed to set up the balustrade. II. Now, having set before you, in a general way, the principles underlying this text, I want to look at its TEACHING AS IT APPLIES MORE PARTICULARLY TO THE BOYS AND GIRLS OF OUR HOMES AND OF THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE. The making of the battlement is not to be an after consideration; it must be part of the original plan. The house is not complete without it. There is to be no waiting until someone has fallen over. The building of the battlement is intended to be preventive of harm from the very beginning. And is not that the line on which we work when we seek to train our boys and girls in the principles of total abstinence? 1. And will you allow me to say that one of these protections — a battlement for their safety — is the protection of the law. 2. Then another battlement to be reared about the young life of our country may perhaps be summed up in the word education. 3. But I come back to the home again, and I say that around your own household, you, father, mother, must rear the balustrade of your own example. (Josiah Flew.) Parallel Verses KJV: When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence. |
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