Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1893-03-20

The Prayers ~ Father snd wothet Oufisst
Al Other tafiy Influences The Frazer.
~ IL pious GRANDMOTHER A rected All tie,
Descendants Curious circumstance.
CHICAGO. March ~ Rev. Dr. Tai.
mage, who Is now in this city on brief
visit. did not preach today ffe prepared
for the press. however the following
discourse on Religion at Home" the
text selected being Joshua xiv, IL. "As
for me and my house. we will serve the
Lord.
Absurd Joshua! You will have no
time for family Religions you are mill
tary 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 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 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 a
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 doorbell. | do not want it in my
house. | once gave SO to hear Jenny
Lind warble. have never given cent
to hear any one groan. Will this religion
spoken of in my text do anything for the
dining hall, for the nursery, for the par
lor, for the sleeping apartment?
It is a great deal easier to invite dis
agreeable guest than to get rid of him.
If you do not want religion, you had bet
ter not ask it to 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 35 years, and if
religion once gets into your household
the probability is it will stay there for
ever.
Now, the question l 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 Christian home?
THE FATHERS PRAYER.
That whole scene has vanished, but it
comes back today. The hour for morn
ing prayers came. You were invited in.
Somewhat fdgety, 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. It 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 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 shed, or the schoolbooks need
ed one or two more 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 at which they knelt is gone, the Bi-
BILE 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 today.
Was that morning and evening exer-
else in your fathers house debasing or
elevating? Is it not among the most sa-
cred "reminiscences? You were not as de-
votional as some of the older members
% Go <hav.,u hor1cn xxyhn Iynaa1-
ing 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 as
sumed while they were kneeling on the
floor. The whole scene is so photo
graphed on your memory that If 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? 1t
all comes back today, and you are in the
homestead again. Father is there, moth
or 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
1S4O-5O 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
a time it has held you steady in the strug-
giles of life You once started for place,
and that memory jerked you back, and
you could not 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 moment got out of sight of that
domestic altar. Oh. my friends, is ityour
opinion this morning that the 10 or 10
minutes subtracted from each day for
family devotion was an economy or
waste Of time In your fathers house
hold? think some of us are coming to
the conclusion that the religion which
was in our fathers house would be q very
appropriate religion for our homes. II
family prayers did not damage that
household, there is no probability that
they will damage onr household.
M MOTT = pT MoTvIpp'c PFT JGION CO