Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-03-31
REV. DR.. TALMAGH.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine'S Sun
day Sermon.
Subject: "ReliEiOn at Home" ISSUED at
Chicago, I.I0

Chicago, I:IJ
TEXT: "As for me and my house, zoe fuiS
serve the Lord."-Joshua xiv, Is.
Absurd. Joshuai You will have no tire
for family religion; YOU are military
character, AMI yo1r tinls will be taken up
with affairs connected with the army; YOU
are a statesman, and your time will be
taken up with public aft iirs; you are the
Washington. the Wellington. the Nc Nahon
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 commanded thu
sun and moon to halt and stack ar MS Of
hgot on the parade ground OF thu heavens
says, "As for me and my house. we will
serve the Lord"
Before we adopt the resolution Of this oil
solder we want to be certain it is wise
resolution. If religion is going to put my
piano our Of tune. an clog the feet OF ths
children racing through the hall, and sour
the bread, and put grape on thu doorbell,
90 not want it in my house. / once gave 10
TO bear Jenny Lind MARBLE. l have never
given cent TO hear any one groan. viii
this religion spoken of in my text do any
thing for the dining hall, for the nursery,
for the FAR or, for the sleeping apartment?
It is a great deal easier to invite dis
I agreeable guest than to get rid of him. IT
you do not want religion, you had better not
ask it to come. for after coming 1t may stay
great " lille. I.aac Watts went to visit
St. Thomas and LADY Abney at their place
in Theohald and was to stay week and Btaif
thrty-fve years, and If religion once gets
into your household the probability is 1t will
stay there forever.
Now, the question / want to discuss is
What will religion do for the household
Question the firsW What did 1t do for your
fathers house il You were brought up in a
Christian home?
Tat whole scene has vanished, but ID
comes back TO-DAY. The hour for morning
prayers came. You were invited III. Some
what fidgetv, you sat and listened. Your
father made no pretention to rhetorical
reading, and he just went through the chap
ter in plain, straightforward way. Then
you all knelt. It was about the same prayer
morning by morning and night by night,
for he had the same sins to ask pardon Tor,
and he had the same blessings for which to
)e graceful day after day and year after
year.
The prayer was longer than you would
like to have had IL, for the game at ball was
waiting, or the skates were lying under the
shed, or the schooh 0ks needed ons or two
more looking at the lessons. Your paceiSS
soTe~I&: frI15unG.'c Snd stiffensd with age,
found 1t difficult to rise from their sneeliny.
The chair at wnich they knelt is gone, the
Bible out of which they read has perhaps
fallen to pieces, the parents are gone, the
CHILDREN scattered north, east south AMI
west, but that whole scene flashes upon your
memory to-day.
Was that morning and evening ex erciss In
your fathers house debssing or elevatin9S
Is it not among the most sacred remnis-
VOfrxxy Anrr Nff loc CO. M
OF tue cider members of your fathers mouse
who were Eneeling with you at the time, and
you cid no. bow your head as loosely as they
old. and you looked around au1 you saw
just the posture your father AMI mother
assumed while they were kneeling on the
floor. The whole scene ID so photographed
on your memory that il you were an artist
you could draw 1t now just as they knelt.
For how much would you have that scene
obliterated from your memorYe 1t AL comes
back to-day, and you are IN the homestead
again. Father is there, mother is there, all
of you children are there. 1t is the sau1s old
PRAYER, open ng with the same petition,
closing with the sam thanksgiving. Tho
family prayers of lS49-50 as fresh in your
memory as though they were uttered yester-
day. The tear that starts from your eye
melts all that scene. Gone, is itf Why,
many time it has held you steady in the
struggle of life. You once started for a
place, an that memory jerkei you back,
and you could not enter.
The broken prayer of your father has hal
more eff. ct on you than all you ever read in
Shakespeare and Milton and TennYson AMI
Dante. You have gone over mountains an /
across seas You never for a moment got
out of sight o, that domestic altar. Oh, my
friends, is it your opinion this morning that
the 10 or Is minutes subetracted from
each cav for family devotion was an econ
omy or q waste OF time in your fathers
houssholl? think some of us are coming
to the conclusion that the religion which
was in our fathers house would be 9 very
appropriate religion for our homes Iffam.
lily prayers did not damage that household,
tRer, 10 10 probability that they will damage
our household.
us God deady' said a child to her father.
"No," he replied ''Why do you ask that@
"Well," she said, when mother was living,
we used to have prayers, but since her death
we haven't had family prayers, AMI didn't
know but that Go was deal too" A family
that is launched in the morning with family
prayers Is we'll launched. Breakfast over,
the family scatter, some to $4,000, some to
household duties, some to BUSINESS. During
the day there will be a thoVsau1 perils
abroad 1erils OF the street car, ct the scat
step, of the aroused temper, OF muititudin
Gus taml tations TO do wroug
Somew nere between O'Clock in the morn
ing ami 10 o'clock at night there may be q
moment wnen you will be 10 urgent need OF
GOD. Besides that, FAMILY prayers will be
secular advantage. A father went into the
war to serve his country. His children
stayed and cultivated the farm. His W fs
prayed. One of the sons said afterward,
''Father is lighting, and we are digging, and
mother is praying" "Ah," said some one,
spraying and digging and lighting will
bring us out of our national troubles.
We may pray in the morning, "Give us
this day cur daily bread" ani SIT down in
idleuess and starve to deat1; but prayer
and hard work will give livelihood to any
family. Family religion pays for both
worlds. Let us nave an altar in eacn one OF
cur households. You may not be able to
formulate prayer. Then there are Pnilip
Henry's prayers, aud there ara McDuffs
PRAYERS, and there are Philip Doddridge's
prayers, and there are the Episcopal church
prayers, and there are scores OF books with
SUP Jlications just suited to the domestic
cree.
"Oh," says some man, II don't feel com.
petenr to lead my household in prayer"
Well, so not know that it is your duty to
ice think 1erhans i. is S.:.,Se..4.as eescof
for the mother of the household to lead. She
knows better the wants of the household.
She can read the Scriptures vita more
tender enunciation. she knows more OF
God. Twill put it plainly and say she pravs
better. Oh, these mothers decide almost
everyUhingl Nero's mother was a murder
ess. Lord Byron's mother was naughty add
impious. You might have guessed that from
their children.
Waiter Scott's mother was fond OF poetry.
Washtngton's mother was patriotic. Samuel
Ru6oat;s mother was a thorough Christian.