The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1893-03-24

CHICAGO. March 19.-Rev DR.. Tai
mage, who is now in this city ON brief
visit, did not preach today. He prepared
for the press, however, the following
discourse ON Religion at Home" the
text selected being Joshua xiv, 10, LAS
for me and my house, we will serve the
Lord.
Absurd, Joshua! You will have no
time for family religion you are mill
, tary character, and your time will be
- 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 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
i, Lord"
R. Before we adopt the resolution of this
old soldier we want to be certain it is
wise resolution. If religion is going to
put my piano out of tune and clog the
fleet of the children racing through the
) hall. and sour the bread, and put Grape
on the doorbell, do not want it in my
4 house. once gave Sc to hear Jenny
Lind MARBLE. have never given cent
ITO hear any one groan. Will this religion
spoken Of in my text do anything for the
dining hall, for the nursery, for the par
n Tor. for the sleeping apartment?
n 1t is 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 if to come, for after coming
it may stay great while. Isaac Watts
went to visit Ut Thomas and Lady Alb
ney at their place i'll 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 | want to discuss is,
What will religion do for the household?
n6Rpestion the first: What did it do for
fathers house if you were brought
niIaristian home?
FATHERS PRAYER.
\scene has vanished, but it
ky. The hour for morn
You were invited in.
~ sat and listened.
Sfatention to rhe-
h he just Wapt through
plain, straightforward
all knelt 1t was about !
Ter morning by morning |
night, for he had the same
pardon for, and he had the |
Rngs for which to be gratefully
after day and year after year.
The prayer was longer than you would |
4 like to have had it, for the game at ball
Twas waiting. or the skates were lying |
,nder the shed, or the schoolbooks need |
a one or two more looking at the les
pms. Your parents, somewhat rheumat-
end stiffened with age, found it diff
to rise from their kneeling. The |
II at which they knelt is gone, the BIZ
out of which they read has perhaps |
len to pieces, the parents are gone, the |
ldren scattered north east, south and |
t, but that whole scene flashes upon |
memory today.
that morning and evening exer-
your fathers house debasing or
hg? Is it not among the most sa-
"reminiscences? You were not as de-
: votional as some of the older members
of your fathers house who were kneel-
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
er is there, all of you children are there
1t is the same old prayer, opening with
the same petition, closing with the same
thanksgiving. The family prayers of
1840-50 as fresh in your memory as {
though they were uttered yesterday. I
The tear that starts from your eye melts /
all that scene. Gone, it? Why, many {
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 c
read in Shakespeare and Milton and Ten G
nyson and Dante. You have gone over 6
mountains and across seas. You never I
for a moment got out of sight of that I
domestic altar. Oh, my friends, is it your
opinion this morning that the 10 or 10 I
minutes subtracted from each day for
family devotion was an economy or 3
waste of time in your fathers house
hold? think some of us are coming to {
the conclusion that the religion which J
was in our fathers house would be very {
appropriate religion for our homes. If j
family prayers did not damage that :
household. there is no probability that !
they will damage our household.
DO NOT LET MOTHERS RELIGION GO.
els God deadY' said child to her fa- e
Their. NO" he replied Why do you
ask thatT' Well" she said, when i
mother was living. we used to have a
prayers, but since her death we haven't n
had family prayers, and | didn't know Il