Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-03-20
RELIGION AT HOME
REV. DR.. TALMA6E IN CHICAGO, BUT NOT
PREACH.
Els Sermon Given 10 tha PrsSs-Joshua's Courage
the Sabjsct Of an Eloquent
Discourse.

CHICAGO. March 1Q.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage, who is now in this city on a brief
visit, did not preach to-day. He pre-
pared for the press, however, the follow
ing discourse on Religion at Home.
the text selected being Joshua 2i;l5.
''As for me and my house, we will serve
the Lord"
Absurd, Joshua! You VIII have no
time for family religion; you are a mill
tary character, and your time Will De
taken up with affairs connected with the
army; you are a statesman, and your
time will be taken up With public affairs
YOU are the Washington, the Yelling
ton, the Mcmahon of the IsraelitiSh
host, you will have q great many Ques-
tions TO settle, you will have no time for
religion. But Joshua, with the same
voice with which he commanded the sun
and moon 10 halt and stack arms ofllght
on the parade ground Of the heavens,
says, "As for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord.
Before we adopt the resolution OK
this old soldier, we want 20 be certain
ft lisa wise resolution. III 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 doOr-bell, ] do not
want 10 90 my house. / once gave six
dollars 20 hear Jenny Lind MARBLE. /
have never given q cent 70 hear anyone
groan. VIII this religion spoken Of in
ny text DO anything for the dining
hall, for the nursery, for the parlor,
sI, sfo,rfr,rr nnorfrnauro
II is a great deal easier 20 Invite
disagreeable guest than TO get rid Of
him. III you do not want religion you
had better not ask 10 20 come, Tor after
coming 10 may stay 8 great while.
Isaac Watts went 20 visit Sir Thomas
and Lady Abbey 40 their place In Tneo-
bald, and was 20 stay @ week, and
stayed thirty-ive years; and if religion
once gets into your household the prob
ability is 10 will stay there forever
THIS QUESTION WANT TO DISCUSS
IS: What will religion DO Cor the house
hold? Question the first. What did it
do for your fathers house, II you were
brought up in a Christian home?
That whole scene has vanished, but
Il cones back to-day. The hour for
morning prayers came. You were In
vited in. Somewhat ddgety, you sat
and listened Your father made no pre-
tontion 10 rhetorical reading, and he
Just went through the chapter IN a
plain, straightforward way. Then you
AN kuelt. It was about the same pray
er morning by morning and night by
night, for he had the same sins 10 ask
pardon for, and he had the same bless
ings for which 90 De grateful day after
day and year after year The prayer
was longer than you would like TO have
had il, for the game az ball was walt
ing, or the skates was lying under the
shed, or the school books needed one or
TWO more looking az the lessons. Your
parents, somewhat rheumatic and stiff
fened with age, find 10 difficult 20 rise
fEsm their kneeling. The chair at
(which 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
and west, but that whole scene flashes
upon your memory to-day. Was that
morning and evening exercise in your
fathers house debasing or eleyating?
Is II not among the most sacred rem
iniscenceS? You were not as deyO-
tioRal as some OF the older members Of
your fathers house who were kneeliRg
with you 81 the time, and you did not
bow your head as closely as they did,
and you looked around aud you saw
just the posture your father and mother
assumed while they were kneeling on
the floor The whole scene is so pho
tographed on your memory that II 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?
Il all comes back to-day, and you are in
the homestead again. Father is there,
mother is there, all OF you children are
there. 10 is the same old prayer, open
Ing with the same petition, closing with
the same thanksgiving. The family
prayers Of 1910. 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 il has held you
steady in the struggles OK life. You
once started for place, and that mem
Org ierked you back, and you could not
enter.
The broken prayer OF your father has
had more effect upon you than all you
ever read In Shakespeare, and Milton,
aad TenuysOn, and Dante. You have
gone over mountains and across seas.
You never for q moment got out OF sight
OF that domestic altar o my friends.
Is 10 your opinion this morning that the
inn
each day for family devotion was an
economy, or q waste Of time in your
fathers household? l thiUk some of us
are coming TO the conclusion that the
religion which was in our fathers house
would be a very appropriate religion
for our homes. III family prayers did
not damage that household there is no
probability that they will damage our
household.
as God dead?" said a child TO her
father. "No," he replied; ''why 90 you
ask that?" "Wen," she said, when
mother was living we used 20 have
prayers, but since her death we haven't
had family prayers, and l didn't know
but that
GOD WAS DEAD, TOO"
A family that is launched in the
morning with family prayers is well
launched. Breakfast over, the family
scatter, some TO school, some 10 house
hold duties, some 20 business. During
the day there will be thousand perilS
a0rOad-perils Of the street car. OF the
scafOlding, Of the uugoverned horse, Of
the misstep, Of the aroused temper, Of
multtudinouS temptations 20 do wrong.
Il IL l. L.