The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-03-24
TALMAGE IN CHICAGO
HE PREPARES A SERMON ON RELIGION
IN THE FAMILY.

of a Pious Grandmo other Affected All Her
Observation-Disclosures Circumstance.
CHICAGO, March l9.-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, CAS-
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 statesman, and your
time will be taken up with public affairs;
you are the Washington, the Yelling
ton, the Mcmahon of the lsraelitish 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, las
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, ana put Grape
on the doorbell, do not want it in my
house. once gave SO to hear Jenny
Lind MARBLE. 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?
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 it to come, for after coming
it may stay a 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 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 a 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 fidgety, 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. 1t 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 BIZ
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
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? II
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
$4,000 as fresh in your memory 81
though they were uttered yesterday.
The tear that starts from your eye melts
all that scene. Gone, isit? 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 it your
opinion this morning that the 10 OF Il
/ minutes subtracted from each day fol-
family devotion was an economy or 6
waste of time in your fathers house
hold? l think some of us are coming tt
the conclusion that the religion which
was in our fathers house would be very
appropriate religion for our homes. i
! family prayers did not damage that
household. there is no probability that
they viii damage our household.
DO NOT LET MOTHERS RELIGION GO.
rs God deadF' said a child to her ia
Their. NO" he replied. why do yor
I ask thatY' WELL" she said. "wher
mother was living, we used to hav,
prayers. but since her death we haven
had family prayers, and l didn't know
but that God was dead too" A family
that Is launched in the morning will
family prayers is well launched. Break
fast over, the family scatter, some Il
school, some to household duties, SOM
TO business. During the day there vii
be a thousand perils abroad-perils of tn
.street car, of the scaffolding, of the un
governed horse. of the misstep, of tn
aroused temper, of multitudinous temp
/ tations to do wrong.
Somewhere between Z o'clock in tn,
morning and 10 o'clock at night Their
may De moment when you will be il
urgent need of God. Besides that, famil,
| prayers will be secular advantage. 4
| father went into the war to serve hi
country. His children stayed and cul
tivated the farm. His wife prayed. On