Milford chronicle., 1893-03-24
A FAMILY RELIGION.
WHAT CHRISTIANITY DOES FOR THE
HOME CIRCLE.

DR.. Talnage at Chicago Prepares Sermon
For the Press-The Mothers of Great
ness-The Resolve of JOshua-No One
Too Busy For Prayers.
CHICAGO, March 19.-Rev. Dr. Talmage,
who is now in this city on a brief visit, did
not preach today He prepared for the
press, however, the following discourse on
"Religion at Home" the text selected be-
ing Joshua xiv, Is, "As for me and my
house, we will serve the Lord"
Absurd, Joshual You viii have no time
for family religion. You are military
character, and your time will be taken up
with affairs connected with the army. You
are a statesman, and your time will betaken
up with public affairs. You are the Wash
ington, the Wellington, the McMahon Of
the Israelitish hosts 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 the
sun and moon to halt and stack arms Of
light Oh the parade ground Of the heavens,
says, LAS for 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 to put my
piano out Of tune and clog the feet of the
children racing through the hall, and sour
the bread and put Grape on the doorbell, /
do not want it in my house. / once gave
S6 to hear Jenny Lind warble. 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 parlor, for the sleeping apartment?
It is a great deal easier to invite dis
agreeable guest than to get rid Of him. If
you do not want religion you had better not
ask it to come, for after coming it may stay
a great while. Isaac Watts went to visit
Sir Thomas and Lady Abney at their place
in Theobald and was to stay week and
staid 35 years, and if religion once gets into
your household the probability is it will
stay there forever.
THE FAMILY ALTAR.
Now, the question | want to discuss is:
What will religion do for the household?
Question the first: What did it do for your
fathers house if you were brought up in
Christian hOmcg
That whole scene has vanished, but it
comes back today. The hour for morning
prayers came. You were invited in. Some
what fidgety, you sat and listened. Your
father made no preteDtiOn of rhetorical
reading, and he Just went through the chap
ter in plain straightforward way. Then
you knelt. It was about the same prayer
morning by morning and night by night,
for he had the same sins TO ask pardon for,
and be had the same blessings for which to
be grateful day after day and year after
year
The prayer was longer than you would
like to have had it, for the game ut ball
was waiting, or the skat es were lying under
the shed, or the schoolbooks needed one or
two more looking at the lessons. Your
parents, somewhat rheumatic and stitfened
with age, found it difficult to rise from
their kneeling The chair at which they
knelt is gone, the Bible out of which they
read has perhaps fallen to pieces, the par
ents are gone, the children scattered north,
east, south and west, but that whole scene
flashes upon your memory today.
Was that morning and evening exercise
in your fathers house debasing or elevat-
ing? Is it not among the most sacred rem
iniscences? You were not as devotional as
some of the older members of your fathers
house who We're kneeling with you at the
time, and you did not bow your head as
closely as they did, and you looked around,
and you saw just the posture your father
and mother assumed while they were
kneeling on the floor. The whole scene is
so photographed on your memory that if
you were an artist you could draw it now
just as they knelt.
For how much would you have that
scene Obliterated from your memory? 1t
all comes back today, and you are in the
homestead again. Father is there, mother
is there, all of you children are there. 1t is
the same old prayer, opening with the same
petition, closing with the same thanksgiv-
Ing. The family prayers Of 1s40, 1850 as
fresh in your memory as though they were
uttered yesterday. The tear that starts
from your eye melts all that scene. Gone,
is it? Why, many time it has held you
steady in the struggle of life. You once
started for place, and that memory jerked
you back, and you could not enter.
FAnREACHING PRAYERS.
The broken prayer Of your father has had
more effect upon you than all you ever read
in Shakespeare and Milton and TennysOn
and Dante. You have gone over mountains
and across seas. You never for q moment
got out Of sight of that domestic altar. Oh,
my friends, is it your opinion this morning
that the 10 or 10 minutes subtracted from
each day for family devotion was an econo-
my ora waste Of time in your fathers house
holdg / think some of us are coming to
the conclusion that the religion which was
in our fathers house would be a very Gp-
pro,,,ists rrIisrioD foi. Oflr homes If family