The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-11-19

our errors in the face.
2. Where there are no prayers in the
house, no exemplary leading of the child
heart up to God, the very best opportu-
mites of impressing the idea of a per-
sopal aud reigning God, and so of fixing
the influence of that indispensable idea
upon the whole future character, is ire
parably lost. fnfdelity becomes impos
sible to child trained up from infancy
to pray. I say to pray reverently, and
not to mock God by heartless formality.
The household prayers that are cold and
formal, a package of set phrases ratified
of without feeling, to get that part OF
the household business dispatched; the
prayers that are so long as to weary out
all child patience; the prayers that are
continually contradicted by the sour,
bitter, scoldiDg, tattling, slandering OF
the day the household religion that
feeds the children on cold prayers and
warm breakfasts cannot fail to disgust
the children, and probably makes more
in6dels than the house where there are
no prayers at all. But family worship at
a suitable hour, with all the children
present, not deferred till 10 p. NJ, as if it
were the bitterest pill of the day, and
with half the little ones gone to sleep: q
brief, hearty, holy prayer, with song
il which the infant voices warble III their
sweet cadences prayer that composes
the souls of the household to rest with
the reverent and thankful remembrance
of holy and protecting God. Ah I! this
kind makes in6delity impossible.
3. Notice the relations of family reli.
gion to the Sunday School. The latter
must never relax the former. A little
child outside the circle of the family is
at once thrown into new relations. He
is at once in contact with multitude of
children, each of whom finds himself
stimulated by the novelty of the situa.
ton to indulge his pleasantly, his wit,
his playfulness. Holy feelings yield to
mirthfulness. His ideas Of religion are
at once adulterated with mixture of
opinions. What he needs now is the
presence of his father and mother to
keep around him the remembrance of
home religion. For the Sunday School
in its proper Office is to husband, to con-
serve and to extend home religion to
support and encourage it, not in any de.
gree to take its place. The Sunday
School is the school of all the families
of the Church; the great family of the
faithful without any of its elements left
out, taking charge of orphans, also, who
have no believing fathers and mothers.
It is the Church going to school in the
house of God. a child as much needs
his father in the Sunday School as he
needs to hear him pray and sing in the
family. For the irresistible conclusion
of the boy is, and the actual practice,
too, that if father does not need the Sun
day School, neither will I when Lam
grown. The father needs as much to be
In the Sunday School as the boy, for it
is not all matter of information in the
Scriptures; the fathers heart is under.
going the same tuition of loving and
parental care in the great school as in
the school of his own home. Again, if
you all came with your children to the
Sunday School, you would at once dis.
cover sobriety, quietness, order, rever.
ence. meekness which can not be secured
without you. If the idea is inculcated
that the Sunday School is for the chill.
dren. then the inference is natural that
the sanctuary service is for the parents
and adults; then with mistaken compass
sionateness the children are permitted TO
retire when their service is over. Then
the family is broken in both services and
family religion injured. Whatever sep.
arates the family in its religious interests,
deterioates family religion, aud breaks
the social bonds of religious influences
which binds them. The great congrega-
tion is congregation not of individuals,
but of families. The true integer that
enters into its composition is the family,
for our standard definition of the Church
is: the assembly of the parents and their
children. You need your son John by
your side in your pew as much as your
son John needs you at home. For how
often has the parental heart secretly said
during the service: Oh, that my son
might now be impressed with the inau.
ences of these truths! And how often
have you heard the word so much better
when you heard with the ears of your
children (! o, if you rely upon the Sun.
day School aud relax the duties of the
household, you do an irreparable injury
to yourself, your children, to the Church
and to the world
4. Every family ought to be supplied
with q stock of religious literature to for
tify the household against corrupt read
inc matter. There is more malaria in
the atmosphere o-day than ever before.
The authors of corrupt literature are
endeavoripg to make living. 1t is
easier to throw on the market pictorial
stuff. home and street chat, cheap Incl
dents and tragic stories colored and var
nished, than to elaborate useful thought.
It is also easier to read. The idle intox-
ication it produces comes on without
price, without study. Novelties, won
ders, startling events exhilarate the
mind; even disgusting and unmention.
able crimes, half veiled from view,
though at first arousiug your indignation,
leave their foul foot prints upon your
recollection. But worse, if possible, than
this are those literary periodicals which,
under the disguise of modern taste and
modern improvement, and under the
cloak of purely literary subject, at
tempt to handle theological subjects,
throw them into odious contrast with
modern popular thinking, strangulate
the whole argument with contemptuous
caricaturc that makes the truth seem
dreadful to the youthful mind, poisons
and prejudices the understanding against
the foundation truths of the gospel at
the very moment that the writer is simu.
latina an affectionate concern for gospel
truth. You are trying to teach your
children the truth of God, hard or easy,
cheering or humiliating, and you permit
these glozing and ipsidious papers or
books 10 enter your dwellings and neu:
tralize the parental instruction and
training of ali the earlier years! You
are bound, my brethren, to erect a guar.
antine against the intrusion OF moral and
religious infection. You must see that
the serpent has not crept into your house.
You are to know what stuff, under the
guiso Of family reading, taste etiquette,
hygiene, coming from some irresponsible
publishing company, making large and
generous promises, lies on your .parlor
table or has crept into the chambers of
YOUR children. Provide against it first
by careful and early implantation of
truth, ani then by carefully selected
reading in religion and literature. Pro.
vide for the house bread instead of q diet