The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1893-03-23
our HOME RELIGION
rALMAaE ON FAMILY PRAYERS.
Domestic Devotion Is Not q Thing &C
Hide From Your Company.


Il Absurd. Joshuai You will have no time
4 for family religion; you are a military
character. and yoir time will bs taken up
II with affairs connected with the army: YOU
n are n statesman. and your time will be
taken up with public Affairs; you are the
Washington. the Wellington. the Mcmahon
of the Israeltish host; YOU will have n great
many questions to settle; you will have no
j time Tor religion. But Josbu,, with the
same voice with which he commanded the
sun and moon 70 halt and stack arms OF
light on the parade ground OF ths 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
Il resolution. IL religion is going 10 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 IL in my house. | once gave 81
] 10 hear Jenny Lind warble. | have never
given cent to hear any one groaD. Will
4 this religion spoken OF in my text do any =
thing for the dining hall, for the nursery
4 for the rarior, for the sleeping apartment
10 is a great deal easier TO invite a dis
+ agreeable guest than TO get rid of him. IL
you do not want religion. you had better not
4 ask it 20 come. for after coming it NAV stay
& ~ great while. Isaac Watts went TO visit
& st. Thomas ana Lady Abney at their place
q In Theobald and was TO stay week and staid
thirty.five years. and NJ religion once gets
+ into your household the probability is il will
Il stay there forever.
T Now, the question | want 10 discuss is.
What will religion do for the householdy
n Question the first: What did IL do for your
<.5athei's house IL you were brought up in a
F. @Christian home?
q That whole scene has vanished. but IL
.comss back TO-DAY. The hour for morning
B,raycrs came. You were invited in. Some
Nyhat fidgety, you sat aud listened. Your
- ather made no pretention to rhetorical
3eading, and be just went through the chap
fer in n plain, straightforward way. Then
Non all knelt. 10 was about the same prayer
<5uorning by morning and night by night
- 5or he had the same sins 10 ask pardon Tor.
! bud he had the same blessings, for which To
DC grateful day after day and year after
NEAR.
4 The prayer was longer than you would
)ike TO have mad 1t. for the game at ball was
waiting, or the skates were lying under the
bhed, or the schoolbooks needed one or two
more looking at the lessons. Your parents,
1omewhat rheumatic aud stifrensd with age,
found IL difficult to rise from their kneeling.
HIhe chair at which they knelt is gone. the
Bibe out OF which they read has perhaps
allen TO pieces, the parents are gone the
ehldren scattered north. east. south and
{rest. but that whole scene flashes upon your
memory to-day.
~ Was that morning and evenin exercise in
your fathers house deb,siug or elevatinc?
'ls IL not among the most sacred reminis.
cpncesi You were n II as devotional as some
% the older members of your fathers house
rho were kneeling with you at the time and
You old not bow your head as c,osely as they
do. and you looked around and you saw
nst the posture your father and mother
assumed while they were kneeling on the
opor. The whole scene is so photographer
y your memory that IL you were AN artist
You could draw IL now just as they knelt.
For how much would you have that scene
1bliterated from your meme-y? IL all comes
Rck to-day, and you are : the homestead
gain. Father is there, M aer is there all
~ you children are there. at Is the same old
prayer, opening with the same petition,
losing with the same Thanksgiving. The
mily prayers of 1S40.50 as Fresh in your
pemory as though they were uttered yes .er,
ay. The tear this Stats -sS,ofi your eye
belts all that scene. Gone, is itS Why,
bany q time IL has held you steady in tue
fruggle OF life. You one, started for a
lace, anu that memory jerkel you back,
Ind you could not enter
X The broken prayer OF your father has had
bore effect on You than all you ever read in
1hakespeare aud Milton and Tennyson and
Dante. You have gone over mountains ami
cross seas. You never for n moment got
.ollt OF sight o. that domestic altar Oh, my
8iends, Is 1t your opinion this morning that
ne 10 or II minutes substractsd from
0ch day for family devotion was an econ
opny or a waste OF time in your fathers
npussholdy think some of us are coming
% the conclusion that the religion which
~as in our fathers house would be very
appropriate religion for our homes. Iffam-
w prayers did not damage that hous ,hold.
WI is no probability that they will da mage
GU household.
Is God deady' said a child to her father.
AZ, ne replied why do you ask thaiy'
~ ell, she said, when mother was living
~ used TO have prayers, but since her death
haven't had family prayers, and didn't
9cpw but that 90 / was dead too" A family
tnt is launched IN the morning with family
tayers is well launch 1d. Breakfast over,
FAMILY scatter, some to scnoo', some 10
nsenold duties, some to business. During
daS there VIII be thousand perils
ont tcperlls OF the street car OF the sclf
k4nin2 ~ the ungoverned horse, OF the mis-
D. of the aroused temper, OF multitudin
~ temptations to do wrong,
pmewhere between 1oclock in the morn
aud III O'Clock at night there NAV bs a
onent when you will be in urgent need OF
n Besides that, family prayers will be "A
nlar advantage. A father went into the
NJ TO serve his country. His children
yea ana cultivated the farm. His wife
Syeu' one OF the sons said afterward,
ther is lighting. and we are digging, and |
fher is praying" An" said some one.
laying and digging aud lighting will |
o1S us out OF our national troubles.
~ may pray in the morning, "Give us |
l.. day our daily bread" and SIT down in |
!ness aud starvs to death: bus rrayer |
hard work will give Il livelihood 70 any |
NY. Family religion paws for both |
IDS. Let us have an altar in each one of |
households. You may not be able to |
nuiate prayer. Then there are Philip |
rys prayers aud there are McDuifs |
yers and there are Pnilip Doddridges |
Lers and there are the Episcopal church !
WAsrS ana there are scores OF books with !
.x operations just suited to the domestic |
vn' says some man, ~ don't feel com.
10 lead my household in PRAYER"
% 10 not know that il is your duty 20
sseo. think perhaps It is sometimes better
tor he mother OF the household TO lead. She
snows better the wants OF the household,
ens shh read the Scriptures VITA a more
tsnesr ennnciatlon. She knows more of
So9. VIII put IL plainly and say she prays
osusr, oh' these mothers decide almost
ovefything Nero's mother was a murder
-. Lord Byron's mother was haupbtv aod
ssp.ons; sp s You might have guessed that from
.| w Vulfar Santtia