Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1893-04-05
REV, DR., TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DININE's SUM
DAY SERMON.
SUBJECT: "RELIGION AT HOME
Qssucd at Chicago, lll')

| w luIlnl itiibiuni you hro Hl'Idl y
character, and your time will bs taken up
with affairs connected with the army, YOU
are statesman, and your time will b.
taken up with public affairs; You are the
Washington, the Wellington. the McMahol
of the Israelitish host; you will have great
many questions to settle; you will have nc
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 will
serve the Lord"
Before we adopt the resolution OF this old
soldier we want to be certain it is wise
resolution. IL 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 |
donot want 1t in my house. ] once gave ST
to hear Jenny Lind MARBLE. | 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 apE. nent'
1t is great deal easier to invite a dis
agreeable guest than to get rid of him. II
you do not want religion, you had better mol
ask it to come, for after coming 1t may stay
great while. Isaac Watts went to visit
ST. Thomas and Lady Abney at their place
| in Theobald and was to stay week and staid
thirty-fve years, and If religion once gets
into your household the probability is 1t will
stay there forever.
Now, the question | want to discuss is
| What will religion do for the household
Question the first: What did IL do for your
fathers house il you were brought up in a
| Christian home?
That whole scene has vanished, but it
comes back TODAY. The hour for morning
prayers came You were invited In. Some
what iidgety, you sat and listened. YOU
father made no pretention to rhetorical
reading, and he just went through the chap
ter in plain, straightforward way. Then
| you all knelt II 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 L
be grateful day after day and year aftel
year.
! like to have had it, for the game at ball was
shed, or the schoolbooks needed ons or 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 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 ex arcise in
your fathers house debnsing or elevatins!
Is it not among the most sacred reminis.
cences? You were MT as devotional as some
of the older members Of your fathers house
who were kneelng 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 kneeling on the
floor. The whole scene is so photographs!
on your memory that il you were an artist
you could draw il now just as they knelt.
For how much would you have that scene
oblterated from your memory 1t 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, opening with the same petition
closing with the sams thanksgiving. The
family prayers Of 1S40.50 as fresh in your
memory as though they were uttered yester.
day. The tear that, starts from your eye
melts all that scene. Gone, is itS Why,
many time it has held you steady in the
struggle of life. You once started for a
place. and that memory jerked you back,
and you could not enter.
The broken prayer OF your father has ha |
more effect on You than all YOU ever read 10
Shakespeare and Milton and Tennyson and
Dante. You have gone over mountains and
across seas. You never for moment got
out of sight o. that domestic altar. Oh, my
friends, is it your opinion this morning that
the 10 or Ii minutes substracted from
each day for family devotion was an econ
omy or u waste of time In your fathers
hcus. hold? think some Of us are coming
to the conclusion that the religion which
WIS in our fathers house would be very
appropriate religion for our homes. Iffam
lily prayers did not damage that household
there is no probability that they will damage
our household.
as God deadg sail child to her father.
"No," he replied 'Why do you ask thatg'
"Weln she said, when mother was living,
we used to have prayers, but sine, her death
we haven't had family prayers, and didn't
know but that Go / was dead too" A family
that is launched in the morning with family
prayers is well launch 3D. Breakfast over,
the family scatter, some to school, some Ia
household duties, some to business. During
the day there will be thousanl perils
abroad-perils Of the street Car, of the scat
folding, of the ungoverned horse, OF the mis-
step, of the aroused temper, of multltudin
Gus temptations TO do wrong.
Somewhere between 7o'clock in the morn
ing ana ~ O'Clock at night there nav bs a
moment when you will be in urgent neel oil
GOD, Besides that, family prayers will be 6
secular advantage, A father went into thu
war to serve his country. His children
stayed and cultivated the farm. His wife
prayed. One of the sons sail afterwari
Rather is lighting, aud we ara digging, anc
mother is praying" "Ah," said some one
'''praying and digging and fighting viii
bring us out OF our national troubles.
We may pray in the morning, "Give u
this day our daily bread" and SIT down in
idleness and starve to death: but PRAYER
and hard work will give livelihood to any
family. Family religion pays for both
worlds. Let us nave an altar in each one OF
our households. You may not be able tc
formulate prayer. Then there are Phiiiu
Henrys prayers, and there are McDuffs
prayers, and there are Philip Doddridse's
prayers, and there are the Episcopal church
prayers, and there are scores of books with
supplications just suited to the domestic
circle.
"Oh,' says some man, 81 don't feel com.
petent to lead my household in prayer"
Well do not know that it is your duty TO
lead. think perhaps it is sometimes better
for the mother of the household to lead. She
knows better the wants Of the household.
She can read the Scriptures with more
tender enunciation. She knows more OF
God. will put it plainly and say she prav,
better Oh, these mothers decide almost
everything. Nero's mother was murder.
ess. Lord Byrons mother was naughty and
impious, Youmight have guessed that from
their children.
Walter ScottS mother was fond of poetry.
" asn'nguon"s mother was patriotic. Samuel
Budgets mother was thorough Christian,
st. Bernard's mother was noble minded
so you might have guessed from their shil.
dren. Good men always have good mothers.
There may once in 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 Inc O
painter"
A young man received a furlolgh to re.
turn from the army to his fathers house.
Afterward he took the furlough back to the
officer saying, II would like to POSTPONE nv
visit for two weeks" At the end Of the
two weeks he came and got the furlough.
He was asked why he waited. swell, he
replied, when left home told my mother
would be a Christian in the army. and
was resolved not to go home until could
answer her first question" Oh, the almost
omnipotent power OF the mother! But II
both the father and the mother be right
then the children are almost sure to b,
right. rhe Young people may make wide
curve from the straight path. but they are
almost 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 wa heir some one
say. Job. he was wild Young man but
since his fathers death he has been differ
ent" The fact is that the fathers coffin or
or the mothers coffin is often the altar Of
repentance for the child. o., that was a
Stunenlnns day tho dny Of fathorls burial