Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-03-25
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
Tho Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun.
day Sermon.
Subject. "R.,,rion a. H.me.' qssued

Subject: "RrIigion at Hsme.' Ussued ~
Chicago, Ii
TEXT: AS for me and my house, tue tgiu
serue the Lord.n-Joshua xiv, Is.
Absurd. Joshuai You will have no tine
| for family religion; you are q military
character, and yo1r time will bs 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 Wellington. the Nc Nahon
OF the Israalitiss 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 ar ms OF
iignt on the parade ground OF tia 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. Ii religion is going to put my
| piano out OF tune. AMI clog the feet of this
children racing through the hall, and sour
che bread, and put GRAPE on the dooroel,
do not want it in my house. | once gave SO
| to hear Jenny LIND MARBLE. l have never
| given cent to hear any one groau. Will
this religion spoken OF in my text do any
thing for the dining hall, for the nurserg,
for the raror, for thu sleeping apartment?
| 1t is great deal easier to invite dis
agreeable guest than to get rid OF him. II
| You do not want religion, you had better not
ask ii to come. for after coming 1t may stay
great while. I-aac Watts went to visit
! ST. Thomas and Lady Abney at their place
in Theohald and was to stay week and stai1
! thrty-five years, and II religion once gets
into your household the probability is it will
| stay there forever.
| Now, the question l want to discuss is.
/ What will religion do for TIE household?
| Question the first; What did it do for your
| fathers house If you were brought up in
| Christian homer
Ttat whole scene has VANISHED, but it
comes back TO-DAY. The hour for morning
| prayers came. You were invited in. Some
what fidgety, you sat and listensd. Your
| father made no pretention to rhetorical
reading, and be just went through the chap
ter in plain. straightforward way. Then
| you all knelt. 1t was about the same prayer
| morning by morning and night by night.
| for be had the same sins to asz PARTON tor,
| and he had the same blessings for which TO
be grateful day after day and year after
| year.
| Theprayer 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 schooibooks neeie1 ons or two
more looking at the lessons. Your pareiis,
| sore wSat rieu.no.'c end stiffsn id WITH age,
| found It difficult to rise from their .saeeiiny.
The chair at watch they knelt is gone. the
Bible out OF which they read has perhaps
fallen 70 pieces, the parents a"e goue, the
| children scattered north, east, south and
west, but that whole scene flashes upon your
memory to-day.
| Was that morning and evening ex srciss In
| your fathers house debasing or elevatingt
| Is it not among the most slcred raminis-
cences2 You were n t as devotional as some
| OF the older members of your fathers house
who were kneeling with you at the tims AMI
| you Old not bow your head a osely as they
did, and you looked around AMI you saw
| just the posture your father an motn?r
assumed while Jhey were kneeling on the
floor. The whole scene is so photographer
on your memory that il you were an artist
You could draw it now just as they knet.
For bow mucl would you have that sceus
! obliteratei from your memory? 1t all comes
back to-day, and you are in the honestsal
again Father is there, mother Is there, all
of you children are there. IL is the sam, old
prayer, opening with the sane petition,
| closing with the sams Thanksgiving. The
| family prayers of 1S41-51 as fre;n in your
memory as though they were uttsrei yester-
day. The tear that starts iro your eye
melts all that scene, Gone, is it2 Why,
many time it has held you steady in tae
u3gle OF lie. You once started for
! place, ami that memory jerked you back,
and you could not enter.
The hro;en prayer OF your father has ha
| more eff &C on you tnan all you ever read III
Shakespeare and Milton anil Tenngson an
Dante. You nave gone over mountains an
across seas. You never TOR moment got
out of sight o that domestic altar. Ga, my
freDds, is it your oninion this morning that
the 10 or 10 minutes suostractsi from
each day for family devotion was an econ
on1y or a waste OF time in your fathers
hous hallf | think some OF us are coming
to the conclusion that the religion wnich
was in our fathers house would be a very
appropriate religion for our homes. iffan-
lily prayers did not damage that household,
| thcr. is 10 Probability tnat they viii damage
our household.
as God deady' sail child to her father.
"No," hs repisl why do you ask thatp
! "Well" she said, when mother was living
we used to have prayers, but since her death
We haven't had family prayers, AMI didn't
| know but that CO. was dea too" famtiy
| that is launched in the morning with family
| prayers is well launched. BreAKfast over,
| the family scatter. some to $4,000, some to
| household duties, soma to business. During
| the day there will be a thoussul peris
abroad-perils of the street car, OF the sclf-
| fo,6iug, of the ulgovernad horse, o, the mis-
step, OF the aroused temper, OF muitiCuiin
Gus t-mI tations TO do wronE,
Somewhere between Io'elock in the morn
| IN I'o c,'c< at ntgdt ia 7r- m " % 4
! moment wuen you will be in urI Ant neal OF
| GoI. Besides mat, .amliy prayers viii be
secuisr aivanta &c. A father went into the
]
| STAYED ana Gu tlvate1 ths farm. His W fs
| Irayed. Ole Of the sons silt atrerwarj,
| Father is tgaung ami we are dig iny and
| mother is praying" An" sail so ne one,
'''preyiug ami digging and fighting viii
bring Us cut of our national troubles.
| We may pray in thu morning, 'dive us
this day ouf daily bread" AMI sit down in
/ idlenesS and starvo TO lie ia: but prayer
ana hard work will give a i've aiaood to any
family. Family religion pays for both
worlds. Let us nave al altar in eacl one of
/ Cur households You may not be able to
formulate prayer. Tnen there are Philip
HeDry's prayers, and thsre ara McDuFs
prayers, anu there are Philip Doddri1gs's
| prayers, and there are the Episcopal church
prayers. and there are scores of books with
Eup ications Just suited to the domestic
! cree.
"Oh," says some man, II don't fesl CON-
petent to .ead my HOUSEHOLD III prayer"
! Well, &c not know that it Is your duty to
les' think ,ssrhans l. = sNa,sc.....ss .,..ear
Tor the mcther OF the household to lead. Shs
knows better the wants Of this household.
She can read tho Scriptures vita a more
tender enunciation. Sns knows mora OF
God. will put it plainly and say she pravs
better. Oh, these mothers decide almost
sverythingi Nero's mother was s MURDER
ess. Lord Byron's mother was naughty and
impious. You might have guessed that from
their children.
Walter Scotts mother was fond Of poetry.
Washtngton'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 chii.
0ren. Good men always have good mothers.
There may once In ten or twenty years be
an exception to the rule but it Is only an
exception. Ben amin Vests m ither kissed
him after she had seen his first won ierful
sketch with the pencil. Benjamin West
afterward said, That kiss made me
PAINTER"
A young man received fur,o igh to re-
turn from the army to his fathers house.
Afterward he took the Through back TO the
officer, saying, 81 would like to postpone my
visit for two weexs.n At the end of the
two weeks he came AMI got the furiough.
He was asket why he watsi. "Nell, he
replied. "When left home toll my mother
| woul he Chri-tian in thu army, AMI
was resolved not to 60 hona until could
answer her first question: On, the almost
omuipotent mower o. the motherl But ie
both the father and the mother be right.
then the children are almost sure to ne
right. The Young peoole may MAKE a wide
curve from the straight path but thew ara
almost sure to come back to the right roai
1t NAV not be until the death of one ef the
parents.
How often 1t Is that we herr some one
say, "Oh, he was wild young man, but
since his fathers death he has been differ.
emit" The fact is that the fathers coffin or
or the mothers coffi1 is oftsn the altar of
repentance for the child. Or that was a
stupendous dav, the dav OF fathers burial.