Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-09-20
(OrIginal,
HOME RELIGION,


The last thirty or forty years has produced
some marvellous changes both in Church and
State. In no department have these chan
ges been more marked than in the revc-
luton which has taken place in home relig-
ion. Prior to the period mentioned nothing
was more common than for fathers and
mothers to instruct their children, on all
proper occasions, in the doctrines of the
Christian religion, and a portion Of every
Sabbath was spent in this work. Now a
number of things have come in and drove
out that time-honored and God-blessed prac-
tice. Parents send their children to the
Sunday-school and regard that as all that
God requires of them in the way OF family
instruction. They allow them to read the
trashy Sunday-school books on the Sabbath
and that leaves no time for catechetical in
struction. The result is, the children of our
country are growing up in profound ignU-
rance of the doctrines of the Bible and fam
lily religion is rare thing in the EARTH
There are many congregations that are NOM
inally Christian congregations, in which not
q tenth of the heads of families ever made
a prayer in the presence of their household.
This is surely a bad state Of things, but it is
the truth stated with great charity. DO Wa
not need an outpouring of the Spirit? How
long will God permit this state of things To
exist? Is it not to be feared that he will
say "because you are neither cold nor hot, |
will spew you out of my mouth"
In the Church as we'll as in the State, the
family is everything. The family is the
nursery of the Church. God orders all pa
rents to train their children for him. This
duty they cannot delegate to their pastor, to
the Sunday-school, nor to any one. They
must perform it themselves. 1t is very diff
ficult for the Church to train those who have
not been trained at home. Those whose
family training has been neglected rarely
make more than half scholars in the Chnrch.
They seldom ever become familiar with the
rudiments of the Christian religion.
TRIAL BY PROspERITY.-We may be
tried by riches as well as by poverty; by
health and strength prolonged through many
years as well as by sickness by public hon.
sure by appointment to an office of high re-
sponsibility and carrying with it public dis
tinction as we'll as by unmerited dismissal
from it; by the fulfllment of our brightest
hopes as we'll as by the catastrOphes which
quench them by the ease of our life as well
as it's hardships by it's unbroken peace and
untroubled security as well as by the perils
which shake the heart with fear. Many a
man who has nobly stood the test of sorrow
and loss has failed when the dark and evil
days have passed by and his life is bright
with Joy. We are not accustomed to de-
scribe our successes, our prosperous fortunes,
the sources of our flowing happiness, as tri-
ais; but by these, too, God may "prove
thee, to know what is in thine heart" and
whether thou wilt keep his commandments
or no. These, too, may bring us discoveries
of moral weakness and defect with which
we had never charged ourselves. These,
may be necessary to provoke into activity
elements of righteousness which are want
ing in alertness and vigor. They are among
the manifold" trials which contribute to
Christian perfection. That we never think
of them as trials may suggest to us the eN-
ceptional danger to which they expose Us.
They do not alarm us, and therefore do not
excite us to vigilance and compel us to in
woke that divine defence and support which,
even in times apparently most free from
peril, can alone give us perfect safety:
Happy are those who can see the eternal
stars in the sunlight as well as in the dark
ness to whom all that is fairest in this Wis.,
ible world is the revelation of the glory of
divine and eternal things; to whom the
common gifts Of Gods providence are the
symbols and sacrameuts of the better gifts
of his grace to whom a life unveXed by
care and Illuminated with gladness is the
discipline for an endless life in God.-By
Rer. r.. w. Dale, ID. d., in Erpositor.