The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-04-05
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINES SUN.
DAY DISCOURSE.
Subject: "Religion at Home" Qs-
sued at Chicago, ILL

6uUJeCt. ncllSiOu III hOthC. NhS
sued at Chicago, ILL
gTExr: "As for me and my house, ,ce 1oil
tserue the Lord."-Joshua xiv, Is.
Absurd. Joshual You will have no time
for family religion, you are military
character, and your time will be taken up
with affairs connected with the army; YOU
taken up with public affairs; you are the
Washington. the wellington. the Mcmahon
Of the Israelitish host; you will have great
many questions to settle; you will have no
time tor religion. But Joshua, with the
same voice with which he commanded the
sun and moon to halt and stack arms OF
Hight 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. II religion is going to put my
piano out Of tune. and clog the feet OF tbs
children racing through the ball, and sour
the bread, and put Grape on the dooroeil, l
do not want it in my house. I once gave Is
to hear Jenny Lind warble. 1 have never
given a cent to hear any ono grosn. VIII
fhis religion spoken Of in my text do any
thing for the dining hall, for the nursery.
for the parlor, for the sleeping apartment:
It is a great deal easier to invite dis.
agreeable guest than to get rid of him. 1t
YOU do not want religion, you had better not
ask it to come. for after coming 1t may stay
q great while. Isaac Watts went to visit
St Thomas and Lady Abney at their place
In Theobald and was to stay week and stald
thirty-five years, and If religion once gets
into your household the probability Is it WILL
stay there forever.
Now, the question want to discuss is,
What viii religion do for the household?
Question the first: What did it do for your
fathers house il you were brought up in
Christian home?
That whole scene has vanished, but it
comes back TO-DAY. The hour for morning
prayers came. You were. invited in. Some
wist fidgety, you sat and listened. Your
father made no pretention to rhetorical
reading, and he just went through the chap
ter in a plain, straightforward way. Then
YOU all knelr. It was about the same prayer
morning by morning and night by night,
for he had the same sins to ask pardon Tor,
and he had the same blessings, for which to
be grateful day after day and year after
year.
The prayer was longer than You would
like to have had it, for the game at ball was
waiting, or the skates were lying under the
Su.
more looking at the lessons. Your parents.
somewhat rheumatic and ssiffened 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 exercise in
your fathers house debasing or elevatin2f
Is it not among the most sacred remlnls-
cencess You were not as devotional as some
of the older members Of your fathers house
who were kneeling with you at the time and
you did not bow your head as closely as they
did. and you looked around and you So"
just the posture your father and mother
assumed while they were kneeling on the
floor. The whole scene is 50 photographed
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 It all comes
back to-day, and you are in the homestead
again. Father is there, mother is there, all
OF you children are there. It is the same old
prayer, opening with the same petition.
closing with the same 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 it! Why.
many a time it has held you steady in she
struggle Of life. You once started for a
place, and that memory jerked you back,
and you coald not enter. .
The broken prayer Of your father has had
more effect on you than all you ever read in
Shakespeare and Milton and Tenuyson and
Dante. You have gone over mountains and
across seas. You never for q moment got
out Of sight o; that domestic altar Oh, my
frIands. is it your opinion this morning that
the 10 or Is minutes substracted from
each day for family devotion was an econ
omy 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 religion for our homes. Itfam-
lily prayers did not damage that household,
thers is no probability that they will damage
our household.
ssIs God dead?' said child to her father.
ssNo," he replied. ''Why do you ask that?'
"Wel," she said, ''when mother was living,
we used to have prayers, but sincs her death
we haven't had family prayers, and didn't
know but that Goa 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 to
household duties, some to business. During
the day there will be q thousand peclls
abroad-perils Of the street car, OF the scaf
folding. Of the ungoverned horse, OF the mis-
step. Of the aroused temper, OF multitudln
GUS temptations to do wrong.
Somewhere between 7o'clock in the morn
ing and 10 o'clock at night there may be q
moment when you will be in urgent need OF
God. Besides that, family prayers will be a
secular advantage. A father went into the
war to serve his country. His children
stayed and cultivated the farm. His wife
prayed. One Of the sons said afterward,
t.Father Is fighting, and we are digging, and
mother is praying" "Ah," said some one,
''praying and digging and lighting will
bring US out Of our national troubles.
We may pray in thu morning, "Give us
this day our daily bread" aud slr down in
idleness and starve to death; but prayer
family. Family religion pays for both
worlds Let US nave an altar in each one OF
our households. You may not be able to
formulate prayer. Then there are Philip
.Henry's prayera and there are McDuFs 8
prayers and there are Philip Doddridgss
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, II don't feel com.
petent to lead my household in prayer
Well, do not know that 1t is your duty to
lead. 7 think perhaps it is sometimes better
for the mother OF the household to lead. She
knows better the waits of the household
She can read the Scriptures with mor'
tender enuuciation. She knows more
God. I will put it plainly and say she pray
better. Oh, these mothers decide almost
everythingl Nero's mother was q murder
ass. Lord Byron's mother was naughty ant
impious. You might have guessed that from
their children
Walter Scott's mother was fond Of poetry
Wash,ngton's mother was patriotic. Saufne
Budgets mother was a thorough Christian.