The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-03-22
TALMAGE AT CHICAGO.
He Does Not Preach, But Prepares
a Sermon for the Press
On "Religion at Home'-what Religion
Does for tho Household-when Both
Parents Are Right the Children
Are Sure to be Right

UhhO opcuuihB puuuoy Al NhASueo
recently Dr. Talmage did not preach,
but prepared for the press the follow
ing discourse on Religion at Home"
the text selected being Joshua, XIV,
Is. "As for me and my house we will
serve the Lord"
Absurd, Joshual You will have no
time for family religion; you are mill
itary character, and your time will be
taken up with affairs connected with
the army; you are statesman, and
your time will be taken up with public
affairs; you are the Washington, the
Wellington, the McMahon of the Israel
itish host, you will have good many
questions TO settle, you will have no
time for religion. But Joshua, with the
same voice with which he commanded
the sun and the moon to halt and stack
arms Of light on the parade ground of
the heavens, says: "As for me and my
house, we will serve the Lord"
Before we adopt the resolution of
this old soldier, we want to be certain
IL is wise resolution. If religion is GO
ing 10 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 it in my house. once gave s6 to
hear Jenny Lind warble. have never
given cent to hear anyone groan. Will
this religion spoken OF in my text do
anything for the dining-hall, for the
nursery, for the parlor, for the sleeping
apartmentsP
1t is great deal easier to invite
disagreeable guest than TO get rid Of
him. Ify you do not want religion you
had better not ask it to come, for after
coming it may stay great while.
Isaac Watts went to visit Sir Thomas
and Lady Abney at their place in Theo-
bald, and was to stay a week, and
stayed thirty-fve years; and II religion
once gets into your household the
probability is it will stay there for
ever.
Now the question I want to discuss
h: What will religion do for the house
hold? Question the first What did it
do for your fathers house, II you were
brought up in Christian home?
That whole scene has vanished, but it
comes back to-day. The hour for morn
ing prayers came. You were invited
in Somewhat fidgety, you sat and lis
tened. Your father made no preten-
ton to rhetorical reading, and he just
went through the chapter in q 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
pardon for, and he had the same bless
ings for which to be grateful Jay after
day and year after year. Tie prayer
was longer than you would like TO have
had II, for the game at ball was wait
ing, or the skates were lying under the
shed, or the school books needed one or
or two more looking at the lessons
Your parents, somewhat rheumatic and
stiffened with age, found IL difficult To
rise from their kneeling The chair at
which they knelt is gone, the Bible out
of which they read has perhaps fallen
20 pieces, tho 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 even
ing exercise in your fathers
house debasing or elevating?. Is it not
among the most sacred reminiscencesP
You were not as devotional as some OF
the older members Of your fathers
house who were kneeling with you al
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 photographed on your
memory that II you were an artist you
could draw IL now just as they lknelt.
For how much would you have that
scene obliterated from your memory II
all comes back to-day, 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, open.
ing with the same petition, closing with
the same thanksgiving. The family
prayer Of 1910, 1850, as fresh in your
memory Us though they were uttered
yesterday. The tear that starts from
your eye melts all that scene. Gone, Is
1t? Why, many time 1t has held you
steady in the struggles of life. You
once started for place, and that mem
ory jerled you back, and you could not
enter. .I. n'
The broken prayer OF your father has
had more effect upon you than all you
read In Shakespeare, and Milton and
Tennyson and Dante. You have gone
over mountains and across seas You
never for moment got out Of sight Of
that domestic altar o, my friendsl Ii
1t your opinion this morning that the
ten or fifteen minutes subtracted from
each day for daily devotion was an
economy, or waste OF time in your
fathers household2 think some Of us
are coming TO the conclusion that the
religion which was In our fathers
house would be very appropriate re-
ligion for our homea II family prayers
did not damage that household there Is
no probability that they will damage
our household.
''Is God deadp" said q child to her
father. "No," he replied, "why do you
ask thst?" We'll" she said, when
mother was living we used TO have
prayers, bnt since her death We haven't
had family prayers, and 1 didn't know
but that God was dead, 1ooi" A family
that Is launched In the morning with
family prayers iswell launched Break
fast orar the fafnilu anaftar aorna 70