Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-03-20
TAI1MAGE IN CHICAGO
HE PREPARES A SERMON ON RELIGION
INTHE FAMILY


CHICAGO. March 19.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage, 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 being Joshua xiv, Is, LAS
for me and my house. we viii serve the
Lord
Absurd. Joshua. You will have no
time for family religion; you are mill
tary character. and your time will be
takea.sp with affairs connected with the
army: you are statesman, and your
time will bu taken up with public affairs;
you are the Washington the Yelling
ton. 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 ne 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
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 dCorbell do not want it in my
house once gave S. to hear Jenny
Lind MARBLE. have never given Il cent
to hear any one grOan. VIII this religion
spoken Of in my text do anything for the
dining hall for the nursery for the par
lor. for, the sleeping apartment?
1t is ag1eat deal easier to invite Il dis
agreeable guest than to get rid of him.
If you do. rot want religion, you had bet
ter not ask it 30 come. for after coming
it may stay great while. Isaac Watts
went TO visit ST Thomas and Lady Alb
ney at their place in TheObald and was
to stay week and staid 50 years, and if
religion once gets into your household
the probability is it will stay there for
ever.
Now. theSuestion | 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 a Christian home?
THE FATHERS PRAYER.
That wl.ole scene has vanished. but it
comes back today The hour for morn
ing prayers came. You We're invited IN.
Somewhat fidgety. you sat and listened
Your father. made no pretention to rhe-
torical reading, and he just went through
the chapter in plain, straightforward
way Then YOU all knelt. 1t was about
the same prayer morning by morning
and night by night for he had the same
sins to ask pgYdOn for, and he had the
same blessings Cor which to be grateful
dayaafter day aEG year after year.
The prayer was longer than you would
like to have had 1t. for the game at ball
was waiting or the skates were lying
under the shed. 0s the need
ed one or two mare looking at the les
sons Your parents. somewhat rheumat-
ic and .stiffened with age, found it diff
cult to rise from their kneeling. The
chair ut which they knelt is gone, the Bi-
BILE out,of which they read has perhaps
fallen te pieces. the qarents are gone. the
children scattered north, east. south and
west. btI& that whole scene flashes upon
your memory today.
Was that morning and evening exer-
else in y0s;r fathers house debasing or
elevating: Is it not sInong the most 81
cred "reminiscences? You were not rs &C.
votiOnal as some Of the older members
of your fathers house who We're knecl-
ing with you It the time, and yOu did
not bow your head rs closely as they did,
and you looked around and you saw just
the posture your father and mother as
sumed whileahey We're hneeling on the
floor The whole scene is so photo
graphed on sour memory that if you
were, an artist you could draw it now
just as they kreelt.
For how much would yea have that
sceneobliterataQ from yoIrEoenory? It
all co1aes back today, and you are in the
homestead again Father is there, moth
er is there, ali of< you children are there
1t is the same ola prayer. ope2ing with
the same petiticnnclosing with the same
thanksgiving The family prayers of
$4,000 as fresh IN your 1naEaory as
though they were uttered yesterday.
The tear that startsglrom your eye melts
all that scene. Gone, is it? Why, many
a time it has held youssteady in the strug
giles of life. You once started for gplace,
and that memory jerEed you back. and
YOU could net enter.
The broken prayer Of your father has
had more effect on you than all you ever
read in Shakespeare and Milton and Ten
nyson and Dante. You have gone over
mountains and across seas. You never
for a moment got out of sight of that
domestic altar. oh, my friends, is it your
opinion this morning that the 10 or Is
minutes subtracted from each day for
family devotion was an economy or d
waste,Qf time in your fathers house
hold? ! think some Of us are coming to
the conclusion that the religion which
was in our fathers house wouldilae very
appropriate religion for our homes. If
family prayers did not damage that
household, there is 10 probability that
they will damage our household.
DO NOT LET MOTHERS RELIGION Go.
is God dead?' said a child to her IA