The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-03-20
RELIGION IN THE HOME.
TALMAaR D1soCUaSB5 ON A TEXT
FROM JOSHUA.

Serve the Lord-What Religion WIN
do for the Household - The Pace
That Kule.
CHICAGO, March 19.-Rev. Dr. TalmBge,
who is now in this city on brief visit, did
not preach to-day. He prepared for the
press, however, the following discourse on
"Rellgion at Home, - the text selected being
Joshua xiv, IS: "As for me and my house
we will serve the Lord"
Absurd Joshua You will have no tins
for family religion; you are military
character, and your time will be taken up
with affairs connected with the army; you
ara statesman, and your time will be
tnkeu up with public affairs, you are the
Washington, the wellington, the McMahon
OF the lsraelihsh host; You will have "a great
many questions to settle; you will have no
time for religion. But Joshua, with the
same voice with which he commanded the
son and moon to halt and stack arms II
light or 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 il is "A wise
resolution. II religion is going to put my
piano out of tune, and clog tbe feet OF tho
children racing through the hall aud sour
the tread, and put Grape on the door bell, I
Wv AiNe WAAh ~ AtA Ail1 A0uoes bAlN k4FD
six dollars TO hear Jenny Liud warble
have never given cent 30 hear any one
groaD. VIII this religion spoken Of in my
text do anything for the diuing hall, for the
nursery, for the parlor, for the sleeping
Rpartmentl
lisa great deal easier to invite dis
agreeable guest than Co get rid Of him. IL
you do not want religion you had better not
ask 10 to come, for after coming 1t may stay
a great while Isaac Watts went TO visit
Sir Thomas and Lady Abnsy at their place
In Theobald, and was 20 stay a week, and
stayed thlrty-hve years aud il religion
once gets into your household. the proba-
bility is it will stay there forever.
Now tho question / want to discuss is:
What will religion do for our households
Question the flrst. What did it do for your
fathers house. il you we're brought up in a
Cbristion homel
That whole scene has vanished, but it
comes back to-day. The hour for morning
prayers came. You were invited IN. some
what hdgety. you sat and listened. Your
father made no pretention TO rhetorical
reading, aud he just went through the
chapter In a plain Straightforward way.
Then you all knelt. 10 was about the same
prayer morning by morning aud night by
night, for he bad the Same sins to ask par
don 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 Ike to have 1t, for the game
at bali was waiting. or the skates were
lying under ths shed, or tha
school books needed one or two
moro looking at the lessons Your
parents, somewhat rheumatic aud stifFened
with age, found 10 difficult to rise from
their kneeling. The chair at which they
knelt is gone, the Bible out of which they
read has perhaps fallen 90 pieces, the
ngrputa tha rhildran
north, east, south and west but that whole
soene flashes upon your memory to-day.
Was that morning ami evening exercise
in your fathers house debasing or eleVat-
tngi lt Is not among the most sacred rem-
iniscencesf You wero not as devotional as
some OF the older members Of your fathers
house who wero kneeling with you at the
time aud you did not bow your head as
closely 40 they did, and you looked around
and you saw Just the posture
your father and mother assumed
while they were kneeling on ths
floor. The whole scene Is so photographed
on your memory that II you were an artist,
you could draw II now just az they knelt.
For how much would you have that scene
obliterated from your memorys 1t all comes
back to-day, and you are In the homestead
again. Father Is there, mother Is there ala
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 1910, 1850 as fresh IN your
memory as though they we're uttered yes
terdRY The tear that starts from your eye
melts all that scene. Gone, is it, Why,
many a time it has held you steady in the
struggles of life. You once started for o
place, and that memory jerked you back,
and you could not enter.
The broken prayer OF your father has had
more effect upon you than all you ever read
gI.Fr1
and Dante. You have gone over mountains
and across seas. You never for a moment
got out Of sight Of that domestic altar. O,
my friend, is it your opinion this morning
that the ten or fifteen minutes subtracted
from each day for family devotion was an
economy, or waste Of time, in your
fathers houssboldl / think some of us are
coming to the conclusion that the religion
which was in our fathers house would be a
very appropriate religion for our homes.
II family prayers did not damage that
household there is no probability that they
will damage our household.
''ls God deadN said child TO her father.
"No,o be replied; why do you ask thasF'
"Well,n she said, "when mother was living
we used TO have prayers, but since her death
we haven't bad family prayers, and / didn't
know but that God was dend, tooF1 A.
family that Ia launched In the morning with
family prayers is well launched. Breakfast
over, the family scatter, some 10 school,
some to household duties, some to business
During the day there will be thousand
perils abroad-perils Of the street car, of the
scaffUlding. Of the upgovsrned horse, of the
misstep OF the aroused temper, OF multuti-
dnlous temptations to do wrong. Some
where between seven O'clock in the morning
and ten O'Clock at night there may be a mo-
ment when you vii be lin urgent need Of
God. Besides that, family prayers will be
secular advantage A father went
into the war to serve his coun-
try. HIS children stayed and cuIsi-
waited the farm. His wife prayed. One
Of the sons said afterward, Father is fight
ing, aud we are digging, and mother is
praying" "Ahm said some one, "pFayfng
and digging and lighting will bring US out
OF our national troubles" We may pray in
the morning, "Give me this day our daily
bread" and sit down in ldleness and starye
70 death; but prayer and hard work will
give livelihood TO any family. Family re-
ligion pays for both worlds. Let us have an
altar 10 each one Of our households. You
may not be able to formulate a prayer.
Then there are Philip Henry's prayers, and
there are McDuffs prayers, and there sre
Philip Doddridge's prayers, and there are
the Episcopal church prayers, and there are
scores of books with supplioations JUST
suited to the domestic circle.
"OW says some man, Il don't feel come
petent to lead my household in prayer"
Well, do not know that It is your duty 70
lead. think perhaps il is sometimes bet
Fast ttaat - - ntrlA N-,H