Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-03-31
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIyINE's SUM-
DAY SERMON.
SUBJECT: "RELIGIoN AT HOME"
Issued at Chicago, Ill.,

TExr: "As for me and my house, zee ,Oiu
serre the Lord. Joshua xiv, Is.
Absurd Joshua You will have no time
for family religion; you are a military
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
W 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
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. 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,
do not want 1t in my house. | once gave So
to hear Jenny Lind warbls. | have never
given cent TO hear any one groan. viii
this religion spoken OF in my text do any,
thing for the dining hall, for the nursery,
for the paror, for the sleeping apartment
1t is great deal easier to invite dis
agreeable guest than to get rid OF him. II
1Ou w uOb Nuut IcilSlOl, Ou udu OtLteT not
ask it to come, for after coming It may stay
a great while. Isaac Watts went to visit
st. Thomas and Lady Abney at their place
in Theobald and was to stay a week and staid
thrty-fiye years and II 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 it do for your
fathers house il you were brought up in a
| Christian homet
That whole scene has vanished, but ii
comes back to dav. The hour for morning
prayers came You were invited in. Some
what fidgety, you sat and listened. Your
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 TO
be grateful day after day and year after
| year.
The prayer was longer than you would
! like to have had 1t, for the game at ball was
waiting or the skates were lying under the
shed, or the schoolbooks needed one or two
more looking at the lessons. Your parents
somewhat rheumatic and stffened 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 elevatingf
| Is II not among the most sicred remiuis-
| cencest 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 osely as they
did, and you looked around and you saw
| Just the posture your father and mother
assumed while they were kneeling on the
foor The whole scene is so photographed
on ycur memory that ii you were an artist
| you could draw it now just as they knelt.
For how much would you have that scene
ohliterated from your memory7 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 same thanksgiving. The
family prayers Of ls+0-50 as fresh in your
memory as though they were uttered yester.
| day. lhe tear that starts from your eye
melts all that scene. Gone, is III Why,
many time 1t has held you steady In the
struggle Of life. You once started for q
place, and that memory jerked you back,
and you could not enter.
The broken prayer OF your father has hat
more { II ct on you than all you ever read In
Shakespeare and Milton and Tennyson and
Dante. You have gone over mountains and
across seas. You never for a moment got
| out of sight OF that domestic altar Oh, my
friends, Is it your opinion this morning that
! the 10 or l5 minutes substracted from
each day for family devotion was an econ
omy or a waste OF time in your fathers
household 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. Iffam.
lily prayers did not damage that household,
there is no probability that they will damage
our household.
as God deadly said child to her father.
"No, he replied why do You ask thatf'
"Well, " she said, when mother was living
we used to have prayers, but since 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 launched. Breakfast over
the family scatter, some to school, some to
| household duties, some to business During
the day there will be thousand perils
abroad-perils Of the street car, OF the sclf.
folding. of the uugoverned horse, OF the mis-.
STEP OF the aroused temper, of multitudin
Gus temptations to do wrong.
Somewhere between 7o'clock In the morn
ing and 10 o'clock at night there may be
moment when you will be In urgent need OF
God. Besides that, family prayers will be n
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,
"Father is fighting, and We are digging, and
mother is praying" "Ah," said some one,
.prsyng aud digging and fighting will
bring us out Of our national troubles.
We may pray in ths morning, "Give us
this day our daily bread" and sit down in
idlenes' and starve to deata; but prayer
and hard work will give a livelihood TO any
family. Family religion pays for both
worlds. Let us have an altar in each one OF
our households. You may not be able to
formulate prayer. Then there are Philip
Henry's prayers and there are McDuifs
prayers, and there are Philip Doddridges
prayers, and there are the Episcopal church
prayers, and there are scores Of books with
suoplications 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. l think perhaps IL 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 pravs
better. Oh. these mothers decide almost
everythingI Nero's mother was a murder
ess. Lord Byron's mother was naughty and
impious. You might have guessed that from
their children.
Walter Scott's mother was fond OF poetry.
Wash,ngton's mother was patriotic. Samuel
Budgets mother was a thorough Christian.
St. Bernard's mother was noble minded.
So you might have guessed from their chill
dren. Good men always have good mothers.
There may once in ten or twenty years be
an exception to the rule but 1t 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 me o
Iainter."
A young man received furlough to re-
turn from the army TO his fathers house.
Afterward he took the furlough back to the