Marble Hill press., 1893-03-30

you will be in urgent need of God.
Beside that, family prayers VIII De a
secular advantage. A father went IN
to the war to serve his country His
children STAYED and cultivated the
farm. His wife prayed One of the
sons said after,vard, Father is fight
ing. and we are digging. and mother is
pravinp." "Ah!" said some one ''pray-
ing ana digging and fighting will bring
ms out of our national troubles" We
may pray in the morning. Give me
this day our daily bread" and sit down
in idleness and starve to death; but
prayer and hard work will give a live
Hhood to any family. Family religion
pays for both worlds. Let us have an
altar in each one of our households.
You may not be able to formulate a
prayer. Then there are Philip Henry S
prayers. and there are McDuf's pray
ers, and there are Philip Doddridge's
prayers, and there are the Episcopal
Church prayers, and there are scores
of books with supplications just suited
to the domestic circle.
''0h!" says some man. II don't feel
competent to lead my household in
prayer" Well, do not know that it
is your duty tolead. l think perhaps
It is sometimes better for the mother
of the tablishment to lead. She
knows better the wants of the house
hold. She can read the scriptures with
a more tender enunciation. She knows
more of God, ! will put ii plainly,
and say she prays better. Oh! these
mothers decide almost everything.
Nero's mother was murderess. Lord
Byron's mother was hauty and i'm
pious. You might have guessed that
from their children. Walter Scott S
mother was fond of poetry. Washing
tons mother was patriotic. Samuel
Budgets mother was thorough Chris
tian. St. Bernard's mother was noble
minded. You might have guessed from
their children. Good men always have
good mothers. There may, once il ten
or twenty years, be an exception to the
rule; but it is only an exception.
Benjamin Vests mother kissed him
after she had seen his first wonderful
sketch with the pencil. Benjamin
West afterward said, That kiss made
me painter"
young man received furlough to
return from the army to his father
house. Afterward he took the furlough
back to the officer, saying, Il would
like to postpone my visit for two
weeks" At the end of the two weeks
he came and got the furlough. He was
asked why he waited. Well" he re-
piled, ''when l left home l told my
mother would be a Christian in the
army, and | resolved not to go home
until l could answer her first question. ="
Oh, the almost omnipotent power of
the mother! But if both the father
and the mother be right, then the chill
dren are almost sure to be right. The
young people may make wide curve
from the straight path, but they are al
most sure to come back to the right
road. 1t may not be until the death of
one of the parents. How often it is
that we hear some one say: ''Oh, he
was wild young man. but since his
fathers death he has been different"
The fact is that the fathers coffin or
the mothers coffin is often the altar of
repentance of the child. Oh! that was
stupendous day, the day of the faith
er's burial. 1t was not the officiating
clergyman who made the chief
impression, nor the sympathizing
mourners: but it was the father
asleep in the casket. The hands that
had toiled for that household so long,
folded. The brain cooled off after
twenty or forty years of anxiety about
how to put that family in right posi-
ton. The lips closed after so many
years of good advice. There are more
tears falling in mothers grave than in
fathers grave; but over the fathers
tomb / think there is kind of awe. 1t
is at that marble pillar many young
man has been revolutionized.
o young man with cheek flushed
with dissipation! how long is it since
you have been out to your fathers
grave? Will you not go this week?
Perhaps the storms of the last few days
may have bent the headstone until it
leans far over. You had better go out
and see whether the lettering has been
defaced. You had better GO out and
see whether the gate of the lot is
closed. You had better go and see if
you cannot find sermon in the spring
ing grass. Oyoung man! go out this
week and see your fathers grave Re-
ligion did so much for our Christian
ancestry. are we not ready this morn
ing to be willing to receive it into our
own households? If we do receive
it let it come through the front door,
not through the back door. In other
words, do not let us smuggle it in.
There are great many families who
want to be religious, but they do not
want anybody outside to know it.
They would be mortified to death if
you caught them at family prayers
They would not sing in the worship
for fear their neighbors would hear
them. They do not have prayers when
they have company!
They do not know much about the
nobility of the Western trapper. A
traveller going along was overtaken by
night and storm, and he entered a
cabin. There were firearms hung up
around the cabin. He was alarmed.
He had large amount of money with
him, but he did not dare to venture
out into the night in the storm. He
did not like the looks of the household.
After while the father, the Western
t.,Na,. naY,,a Ia sr,,.