Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-03-27
HOME RELIGION.
What It Will Do for the Family and
Fireside Circle.
Old Time Prayers-Gathering Around the
Homestead Altar-ls God Dead-A
Western Incident-The Talmage
FamiIy-The Beauty OF
Family Religion.
APPEAL FOR DAILY FAMILY PRAYERS
Specidl to the Register.

Spectdt 20 t1e heQLaeT.
RRooEyS. March 26.-The Tabernacle was
crowded this morning long before DR.. Tai
mage arrived, and he at once announced
his text: Joshua xiv, 15-"As for me and
nv house, we will serve the Lord" and
then proceeded as follows:
Absurd Joshua! You will have no time
for family religion. You are a military
character and your time will be taken
up with affairs connected with the army
You are a statesman and your time will be
taken up with public affairs. You are the
,Eashington, s-thssweiiington, the Mac
Mahon of the Israelitish host. You will
have great many questions to settle, you
will have no time for religion. But Joshua,
with the same voice with which he com
manded the sun and moon to halt and
stack their arms of light on the parade
ground of the heavens, says: "As Tor me
and my house, we will serve the Lord
Before we adopt the resolution OF this old
soldier, we want TO be certain it is wise
resolution. If religion Is going tc
put my piano out OF tune, ano
clog the feet Of the children racing through
the hall, and sour the bread and put Grape
on the door-bell, do not want it in my
house. l once gave So to hear Jenny Limo
warble. ! have not given a cent to heal
any one groan. Will this religion spoken
of in my text do anything for the dining
Al,
sleeping apartment? 1t is great deal eas
ier to invite disagreeable gnest than u
get rid of him. If you do not want religion
YOU had better not ask it TO come, for afte
coming it may stay a great while. lsaa
Watts went to visit Sir Thomas and Lady
Abney at their place in Theobald, and wa
to stay a week and stayed thirty-five years
and if religion once gets into your house
hold the probability is it will stay ther
forever. Now the question | want thi
morning to discuss is: What will
Religion Do for the Household:
Question the first-What did it do 70
your fathers house if you were brough
up in christian home? That whole seen
The hour for morning prayers came. 70,
were invited in. Somewhat tidgety, yo'
sat and listened. Your father made n
pretension to rhetorical reading, and h
| lust went through the chapter in a PLAIN
| straightforward way. Then you all knelt
| 1t was about the same prayer morning b.
morning and night by night, for he had th
same sins to ask pardon for and he had tn
same blessings for which to be grateful da.
| after day and year after year The praye
was longer than you would like to hav
| had 1t, for the game at ball was waiting o
| the skates were lying under the shed o
| the school books needed one or two NOR
| looking at the lessons. Your parents
somewhat rheumatic and stiffened with age
| found il difficult to rise from their kneel
| ing. The chair at which they knelt is gone
| the Bible out OF which they read has pei
haps fallen to pieces The parents are gone
the children scattered north, east, SoutI
| and west; but that whole scene tlashc
upon your memory to-day. Was tina
morning and evening exercise in you
| fathers house dcbaSing or elevating? Is
| not among the most sacred rcminisCen
| ces? You were not as devotional Il
some Of the older members of your father
| house who were kneeling with you at tn
| time, and YOU did not bow you heal a
| closely us they did, and you looked aroun
and you saw just the posture your fathe
and mother assumed while they were knee
| ing on the floor The whole scene is 50 pho
| tOgraphed on your memory that If yo
were an artist you could draw it now
Just a. They KneIt.
For how much would you have that seen
| obllterated from you memory, 1t all come
back to-day and you are in the homestea
| again. Father is there, mother is there, al
of you children are there. 1t is the sam
| old prayer, opening with the same petition
| closing with the same thanksgiving. Tn
family prayers OF 1880, lSiO 1850, as freS
in your memory as though they were vi
tered yesterday. The tear that starts from
your eye melts all that scene. Gone, is it
Why, many n time ii has held you stead
| in the struggles OF life. You once Starte
| for place and that memory jerked yo,
| back and you could not enter. The broker
prayer of your father has had more etieC
| upon YOU than all you ever read in Shakes
peare and Milton and TCnnysOn and Dante
You have gone over mountains and acrOS
seas. You never for moment got out q
| sight of that domestic altar. o. my friends
| is il your opinion this morning that the tel
| or fifteen minutes suhS.raCte1 from eaA
day for family devotion was an econ
| omy or waste of time in You
| fathers household? l think some of u
| are coming 10 the conclusion that the re
| ligiUn which was in our fathers hOuS
would be very appropriate religion 70
our homes. Ii family prayers did not dam
| agc that household, there is no probabilit,
that they will damage our household. IL
God dead said child to her father. NO,
he replied; why do you ask that?
well, she said, when mother was livin
| We used TO have prayers, but since he
death We haven't had family prayers an
didn't know but that
God Was Dead, Too
4 family that is launched in the morn
ing with family players is well launched
Breakfast over, the family scatter, some t,
school, some to household duties, some t,
| business. During the day there will be
thousand perilS abroad-perils of tn
street cars, OF the scatfolding, OF the un
governed horse, of the misstep, OF tn
| aroused temper, of multitudinous tempta
tioRs TO do wrong somewhere between
o'clock in the morning and 10 o'clock q
night, there may be a moment when vol
will be in urgent need of God. Beside tina
family prayers will be a secular adyantag
A father went into the war to serve hi:
country. His children stayed and cultivat
ed the farm. His wife prayed One of tht
sons said afterward: Father i
fighting and We are digging and mothe
is praying" "Oh," said some one, pray
ing and digging and fighting will bring u!
out of our national troubles We may
pray in the morning give me this day my
daily bread and sit down in idleness am
starve to death; but prayer and hard worl
will give livelihood TO any family. Family
religion pays for both worlds. Let us hav,
an altar in each one of our households
You may not be able to formulate PRAYER
Then there are Philip Henry's prayers anC
there are McDuff's prayers and there ar,
Philip Doddridge'S prayers and there ar,
the Episcopal Churches prayers and ther,
are scores of books with supplications Jus
suited 10 the domestic circle.
Oh says some men, Il don't feel com
petent TO lead my household in PRAYER.
Well, do not know that it is your duty Z
lead. think perhaps it is sometimes bet
ter for the mother of the household to lead
She knows better the wants of the house
hold. She can read the Scriptures with
mere tender enunciation. She knows more
of God. will put it plainly and say
She Prays Better.
Oh, these mothers decide almost every
thing! Nero's mother was a murderess
Lord Byron's mother was naughty and i'm