Part 33 (1/2)

WORs.h.i.+P.

Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide, He wales a portion with judicious care; And ”Let us wors.h.i.+p G.o.d,” he says, with solemn air.--Burns.

The good and holy custom of family prayers is, I fear, dropping into disuse. Our lives are so full of business that a season of G.o.d's service in the morning and in the evening is almost thought to be an excuse of sloth. But what a sad effect do we see on our youth! They have quick eyes for cant and hypocrisy. They follow us to church on Sunday less and less willingly, until finally there is rebellion in their hearts and irreligion in their souls. Family wors.h.i.+p is a fount of piety pure enough for even the young, who are pure themselves. Into its depths they look and see only a chast.i.ty of spirit reflected. The machinery and the ambition that adulterate the true faith at the church have not had their birth at the fireside of a good man. At that fireside the child grows up religious, because he loves religion. It is kind and good to him. His shrine is at home. And where can we ever build

SO HOLY AN ALTAR

as at that sweet spot where life has come in upon us, and love been wrapped around us! Burns sees the humble cotter finish his family service in the presence of his little ones, and then, to show a further duteous regard for the souls intrusted to his care, kneel again with the wife:

The parent-pair their secret homage pay, And proffer up to Heaven the warm request, That he who stills the raven's clamorous nest, And decks the lily fair in flowery pride.

Would in the way his wisdom sees the best, For them and for their little ones provide; But chiefly in their hearts with grace divine preside.

”From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs,” sings the sweet poet, and this very poem has touched a chord in the hearts of all humanity, in every clime, and nearly every tongue, that has almost doubled that Scotia's fame. ”A house without family wors.h.i.+p,” says Mason, ”has neither foundation nor covering.” ”Measure not men by Sundays,” says Fuller, ”without regarding what they do all the week after.” ”Educate men without religion,” said the Duke of Wellington, ”and you make them but clever devils.”

THE IRON DUKE

was forced to fight one of the cleverest of this kind, and his victory was earned so hardly that he remembered it. ”The dullest observer must be sensible,” says Was.h.i.+ngton Irving, ”of the order and serenity prevalent in those households where the occasional exercise of a beautiful form of wors.h.i.+p in the morning gives, as it were, the key-note to every temper for the day, and attunes every spirit to harmony.” ”It is for the sake of man, not of G.o.d,” says Blair, ”that wors.h.i.+p and prayers are required; not that G.o.d may be rendered more glorious, but that men may be made better--that he may acquire those pious and virtuous dispositions in which his highest improvement consists.” How can religion bear fruit so well as by daily instruction from G.o.d? How can the family bear its burdens more easily than with G.o.d's help?

HOW CAN THE BROOD BE GATHERED TOGETHER

at night so surely as when there is an engagement with the Creator at the hearth where life began? In all views, from all sides, this holy custom is seen to be founded in divine wisdom--and divine wisdom includes human wisdom ”as the sea her waves.”

I have prefaced this subject of wors.h.i.+p with the matter of family services, on account of its vital importance. Without the reading of the Bible and the praise of G.o.d at home, wors.h.i.+p appears to the young like the grinding of the corn, the shoeing of the horses, or the aid of the physician--a matter to be paid for rather than to be done by one's self.

SOME OF THE HAPPIEST AND BEST FAMILIES,

who have turned out into the world the strongest, bravest men, have not limited their wors.h.i.+p to stated hours, even, but upon occasions of unusual peril or unusual gladness have poured out to G.o.d their prayers or their grat.i.tude. Charnock, in his ”Attributes,” says: ”As to private wors.h.i.+p, let us lay hold of the most melting opportunities and frames.

When we find our hearts in a more than ordinary spiritual frame, let us look upon it as a call from G.o.d to attend Him; such impressions and notions are G.o.d's voice, inviting us into communion with Him in some particular act of wors.h.i.+p, and promising us some success in it. When the Psalmist had a secret notion

'TO SEEK G.o.d'S FACE'

and complied with it, the issue is the encouragement of his heart, which breaks out into an exhortation to others to be of good courage, and wait on the Lord: 'Wait on the Lord and be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.' One blow will do more on the iron when it is hot, than a hundred when it is cold; melted metals may be stamped with any impression; but once hardened, will, with difficulty, be brought into the figure we intend.”

THE WISEST AND THE BEST.

We have in religion the experience of the wisest and the best minds before us. Their guarantee in all else is of the very highest human standing and degree. We must, therefore, in reason, profit by their knowledge. In this, also, we are aided by our own development. Behold the truth of this from the mouth of Colton: ”Philosophy is a bully that talks very loud when the danger is at a distance, but the moment she is hard pressed by the enemy she is not to be found at her post, but leaves the brunt of the battle to be borne by her humbler but steadier comrade Religion, whom, on most other occasions, she effects to despise.” There died in Paris, not long ago, a man named Emile Littre, as well known in France for his infidelity as is Colonel Ingersoll in this country. Over there

THEY CALL ATHEISM POSITIVISM,

which is a good name. It signifies that a man is positive he knows more about the future state than G.o.d! Upon his death-bed this Monsieur Littre,--although he had been the means of sending thousands of other souls before their Maker, rebellious and unredeemed--this same Monsieur Littre dared not to meet G.o.d with his Positivism on his soul, and embraced the offices of the Church with great relief. Men, before entering upon a course which flings away the only hope a man has,

SHOULD LOOK WELL TO IT