Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-03-23
A FAMILY RELIGION.
MAT CHRISTIANITY DOES FOR THE
Home CIRCLE.


Dr. TaImage at Chicago Prepares a Sermon
For the Press-The Mothers Of Great
ness-The Resolve Of Joshua--No One
Too Busy For Prayers.
CHICAGO, March l0.-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, 10, "As for me and my
house, we will serve the Lord"
Absurd, Joshuai 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 Statesman, and your time will betaken
up with public affairs. You are the WASH
ington,. the Wellington. the Mcmahon 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 the
sun and moon to halt and stack arms Of
light on the parade ground Of the heavens,
says. "As for me and my house, we viii
serve the Lord"
Before we adopt the resolution of this old
soldier we want to be certain 1t Is a wise
resolution. II 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
% to hear Jenny Lind warble. have never
given cent to hear any one groan. Will
this religion spoken of In my text do any
thing for the dining hall, for the nursery,
for the parlor, for the sleeping apartment?
1t Is q great deal easier to invite dis
agreeable guest than to get rid Of him. II
you do not want religion you had better rot
ask it to come, rafter coming it may stay
q great while. Isaac Watts went to visit
Sir Thomas and Lady Abney at their place
in Theobald and was to stay a week and
staid 35 years, and II religion once gets into
your household the probability is it will
stay there forever
TEE 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 il you were brought up In a
Christian homer
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 pretention of rhetorical
reading, and he just went through the chap
ter in II 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 he 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 at ball
was waiting, or the skateswere lying under
the shed, or the schoolbooks needed one OF
two more looking at the lessons. Your
parents, somewhat rheumatic and stiffened
with age, found it difficult to rise from
their kneeling. The chair at which they
knelt IL 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-
ingP Is IL not among the most sacred rem
iniscencesf You were not as devotional as
some of the older members of your fathers
house who were 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 Il
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 II
all comes back today, and you are in the
homestead again. Father is there, mother
is there, all of you children are there. It ID
the same old prayer, opening with the same
petition. closing with the same thanksgiv
| ing. The family prayers Of 1910, 1850 az
fresh in your memory as though they wert
uttered yesterday. The tear that starts
| from your eye melts all that scene. Gone
is itf Why, many time it has held yor
steady in the struggle OF life. You onc'
started for place, and that memory jerket
you back. and you could not enter.
FARREACHING PRAYERS.
The broken prayer of your father has hat
more effect upon you than all you ever reat
in Shakespeare and Milton and Tennysol
and Dante. You have gone over mountains
and across seas. You never for momen
got out of sight of that domestic altar. Oh
my friends, is ii your opinion this morning
that the 10 or Is minutes subtracted from
each day for family devotion was an econo
my or waste of time in your fathers house
hold2 / think some of us are coming t,
the conclusion that the religion which wa
In our fathers house would be a very ap
propriate religion for our homes. II faTnil.
prayers did not damage that household
there is no probability that they will dam
age our household.
SIS God deadf" said child to her father
"No," he replied; why do you ask thatf'
"Well,n she said, when mother was livinl
we used to have prayers, but since he
death we haven't had family prayers, and
didn't know but that God was dead tool
A family that is launched in the morning
with family prayers 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 the stree
car, of the scaffolding, Of the ungoverne
horse, OF the misstep, of the aroused ten
Iper, Of multitudinous temptations to
wrong.
Some time between z o clock in the morr
J ing and 10 o'clock at night there may be,
moment when you will be in urgent need c
God. Besides that, family prayers will be
secular advantage. A father went into th
war to serve his country. His childre
staid and cultivated the farm, His vii
prayed. One of the sons said afterwart
Father is fighting, and we are digging
and motheris prayingp' All p said som
J one, praying and digging and fightin
will bring us out Of our national troubles.
We may pray in the morning, Give U
, this day our daily bread, and sit down i
idleness and starve to death, but prayer an
hard work will give q livelihood to an
family. Family religion pays for bot
worlds. Let us have an altar in each one
our households. You may not be able
formulate prayer Then there are Phil
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