Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1864-03-31
Evening Prayer.
BIZ T.S. ARTHUR.

s'Our Father" On two sweet voices.
the tones were borne upward. 1t was
the sweet voices Of reyerent children
that gave them utterance.
s'W no art in heaven"
"Who art in Heaven" repeated the
children, one with her eyes bentmeekly
down, and the other looking upward, as
if she would penetrate the heavens into
which her heart aspired. ~ IS. "
"Hallowed be thy name"
Lower fell the voices of the little ones.
In gentle murmur they said, "Hallowed
be thy name"
"Thy kingdom come"
And the burden Of the prayer was
still taken up by the children-"Thy
kingdom come" ESP S-t f
THY will be done on earth, as it is
in Heaven filled the chamber. i krg
And the mother continued, "GiFe us
I, this day our daily bread"
I "our daily bread fingered on the
air as the mothers voice was thushed in
silence.
Sand forgive us our debts as we also
forgive our debtors, n ia
t.tste
L".And lead US not into, temptation; but
deliver us from evil. For thine is the
kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
forever. Amen" II .-5.
All these holy words were said piously
and fervently by the little ones, as they
| knelt with clasped hands beside their
mother. Then, as their thoughts up
lifted, on the wings of prayer, to their
heavenly Father, came back again and
rested on their earthly parents, warm
er love came gushing into their hearts.
Pure kisses-tender emoraces-th
fond "good night" What sweet agita-
ton peryaded alFtheir feelings Then
two dear heads were placed side by
side on the snowy pillow, the mothers
last kiss given, and the shadowy cur
tains drawn. d
Whatpulseless stillnessreigns through
out the chamber! Inwardly the parents
ears are bent. They have givenrthese
innocent ones into the keeping Of God's
angels, and they can almost hear the
rustic of their garments as they gather
around their sleeping babes. A sigh,
deep and .tumultuous, breaks on the car
Quickly the mother turns to the father
of her children with look of earnest
inquiry on her 'countenance. And he
answers thus her silent question:
} ear back through many years have
my thoughts been wandering At my
mothers knee thus said nightly my
childhood's evening prayer. 1t was the
best and hottest of my prayers, Our
Father that she taught me. Childhood
and my mother passed away. | went
forth as a man into the world, strong,
confdant and self seeking. Once I came
into great temptation; I would have
fallen never to rise again. The struggle
in mind went on for hours. i I was
about yielding. All the barriers I could
oppose to the inrushing food seemed
just about to give way, when, as 1 sat
in my room one evening, there came
from an adjoining chamber, now first
occupied for many weeks, the murmur
of low voices. [ listened. At first no
articulate sound was heard, and yet
something in the tones stirred my heart
with new and strange emotions. At
length there came to my ears, in the
earnest, loving voice of woman, de
liver us from evil For an instant it
seemed to me as if that was my moth
er's voice. Back, with sudden bound,
through all the intervening years, went
my thoughts; and, child in heart,
again was kneeling at my mother s
knee. Humbly and revently ! said the
words of the holy prayer she had taught
me, heart and eyes uplifted to heaven.
The hour and the power of the darkness
had passed. Twas no longer standing
in slippery places, with foodof waters
ready to sweep me to destruction; but
my feet were on rock. My pious
mothers care had saved her son. In
the holy words she taught me in child
hood was a living power to'resist evil
through all my after life. All! that IN
known mother, as she taught her child
to repeat this evening prayer, how little
she dreamed that the holy words were
to reach the ears of stranger, and save
him, through the memory of his own
childhood, and his own mother! And
yet it was so. What power there is
in Gods word, as it flows into and rests
in the minds of innocent childhood"
Tears were in the eyes of the wife
and mother, as she lifted her face and
gazed with subdued tenderness upon
the eountenance of her husband. Her
heart was too full for utterance A little