The Bossier banner., 1893-05-04

ment 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: Father is fight
ing, and we are digging, and mother is
| praying" ''Ah." said some one, ''pray-
ing, and digging, and fighting will
bring us out of our national troubles" "
We may pray in the morning: Give
us this day our daily bread" and sit
down in idleness and starve to death;
but prayer and hard work will give a
livelihood to any family Family reli-
gion pays for both worlds Let us have
an altar in each one of our households.
You may not be able to formulate a
prayer. Then there are Philip IIenry's
prayers, and there are McDuff's pray
ers, and there are Philip Doddridge's
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, Il don't feel
competent to lead my household in
prayer" Well, | do not know that it
is your duty to lead. l think perhaps
the household to lead. She knows bet
ter the wants of the household. She
can read the Scriptures with more
tender enunciation. She knows more
of God. l will put it plainly, and say
she prays better. Oh! these mothers
decide almost everything. Nero's
mother was murderess. Lord Byron's
mother was naughty and impious.
You might have guessed that from
their children. Walter Scott's mother
was fond of poetry. Washingtons
mother was patriotic. Samuel Bud
gets mother was thorough Christian.
st. Bcrnard's mother was noble
minded. So you might have guessed
from their children. Good men al
ways have good mothers. There may,
once in ten or twenty years, been an
exception to the rule, but it is only an
exception. benjamin Vests mother
kissed him after she had seen his first
wonderful sketch with the pencil. Ben
jamin West afterward said: THAT kiss
made me painter"
A young man received furlough to
return from the army to his fathers
house. Afterward he took the furlough
back to the officer, saying: 81 would
like to postpone my visit for two
weeks" At tn, end of the two weeks
he came and got the furlough. lie was
asked why he waited. WELL" he re-
piled, "N hen l left home | told my
mother l would be Christian in the
army, and was resolved not to go
home until l could answer her first
question" Oh the almost omnipotent
power of the mother. But if both the
father and mother be right then the
children are sure to be right The
young people IN Y make a wide curve
from the straight path, but they are
almost sure to come back to the right
road. 1t may not be until the death of
one of the parents How often is it that
we hear some one say: "Oh! he was
wild young man, but since his fathers
death he has been different" The fact is
that the fathers coffin, or the mothers
coffin, is often the altar of repentance
for the child. Oh. that was a stupend-
Gus day, the day of fathers burial. 1t
was not the officiating clergyman who
made the chief impression, nor the
sympathizing mourners; it was the
father asleep in the casket. The hands
that had toiled for that household SO
long, folded. The brain cooled off
after twenty or forty years of anxiety
about how to put that family in right
position. The lips closed after so many
years Of good advice. There are more
tears falling in mothers grave than in
fathers grave; but over the fathers
tomb | think there is kind of awe. 1t
is at that marble pillar many a young
man has been re volutionized
o, young man with cheek flushed
with dissipation! how long is it since
you have been out to your fathers
grave? Perhaps the storm of the last
few days may have bent the headstone
until it leans far over You had better
go out and see whether the lettering
has been defaced. You had better 90
""' ''hN1 DIV w S1iiCi but StGc Ol Cnc IOt
is closed. You had better go and see
If you can find a sermon in the spring
ing grass. o. young man! go out this
week and see your fathers grave. Re-
ligion did so much for our Christian
ancestry, are we not ready this MORN
ing to be willing to receive it into our
own household? If we do receive it,
let it come through the front door, not
through the back door In other
words, do not let us smuggle it in. |
There are great many families who !
want to be religious, but they do not
want anybody outside to know it.
They would be mortified to death if |
you caught them at family prayers. /
they would not sing in the worship |
for fear their neighbors would hear |
them. They do not have prayers when
they have company!
They do not know much about the |
nobility of the western trapper. A trav-
eler going along was overtaken bv |
night and n storm, and he entered a |
cabin. There We're firearms hung up
around the cabin. He was alarmed. He
had a large amount of mopav with H.;