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 LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 University of California. 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. 
 
 Received October, i8g4. 
 Accessions No. y//&%L* Class No. 
 
[U2TI7BR5IT7] 
 
s 
 
 
 J=, 
 
 G=> 
 
THOUGHTS 
 
 ON 
 
 FAMILY-WORSHIP 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES W. ALEXANDER, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE DUANE STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW- YORK. 
 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 NO. 265 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
V© 
 
 Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1847, by 
 
 A. W. Mitchell, M. D. 
 In the office of the Clerk of the District Court of the Eastern 
 
 District of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Stereotyped by 
 
 S. DOUGLAS WYETH. No. 7 Pear St., 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 
TO 
 
 MY FATHER AND MY MOTHER; 
 
 BY WHOSE HANDS I WAS FIRST LED TO 
 
 FAMILY-WORSHIP, 
 
 AND FOR WHOSE CONTINUANCE IN LIFE AND HEALTH AT A rERIOD 
 
 IN WHICH MOST SONS ARE BEREFT OF THIS BLESSING 
 
 I AM BOUND TO GIVE THANKS, 
 
 THIS VOLUME, 
 
 WITH HUMBLE PRAYER FOR EVERY DIVINE FAVOUR 
 
 TO REST ON THEM AND THEIRS 
 
 IS, 
 
 IN LOVE AND DUTY, RESPECTFULLY 
 
 INSCRIBED. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Although this is but a small book, there 
 may be some by whom it will be thought too 
 large for its subject. Such persons must 
 differ in their estimate of domestic religion 
 from the writer, who has been impelled to 
 study the institution by a profound convic- 
 tion of its value. In a period when the 
 world is every day making new inroads on 
 the church, it has especially invaded the 
 household. Our church cannot compare with 
 that of the seventeenth century in this re- 
 gard. Along with Sabbath observance, and 
 the catechizing of children, Family- Worship 
 1* 1 
 
2 PREFACE. 
 
 has lost ground. There are many heads of 
 families, communicants in our churches, and 
 (according to a scarcely credible report) some 
 ruling elders and deacons, who maintain no 
 stated daily service of God in their dwell- 
 ings. It is to awaken such to their duty that 
 this volume has been prepared. 
 
 The richest inheritance which some of us 
 have is the domestic rite, which has been in 
 our houses as far back as record or tradition 
 goes. A venerable parishioner of the author 
 has enjoyed Family-Worship with no less 
 than six generations, including a grandfather 
 and great-grandchildren. Let other heir- 
 looms perish, but let us not deny to our off- 
 spring the worship of that God, who has 
 been "our dwelling-place in all generations." 
 
 While the chapters which ensue are any 
 thing but controversial, they have not been 
 
PREFACE. 3 
 
 written on any scheme of compromise. As 
 issued by the Presbyterian Board of Publi- 
 cation, they need no apology for containing 
 Presbyterian doctrine, and a decided and 
 affectionate allusion to the history and usages 
 of our Church. 
 
 Valuable extracts have been made from 
 several books on the subject of prayer, and 
 from none more largely than from a little 
 tract entitled " The Church in the House/' 
 by the Rev. James Hamilton, of London. 
 
 If it should please the adorable Head of 
 the Church to make this book instrumental 
 in extending the domestic worship of God's 
 people, and especially in arousing the chil- 
 dren of the covenant to honour the God of 
 their fathers, it will be to the writer an un- 
 speakable satisfaction. With earnest desires 
 and prayers for this, he submits it to the 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 members of that venerable and beloved 
 church in which his fathers were reared, and 
 in which he would desire his children to 
 abide. 
 
 New York, June 15, 1847. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Page 
 
 The Nature, Warrant, and History of Family- Worship . 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Influence of Family- Worship on Individual Piety . • 30 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Influence of Family- Worship on Parents 43 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Influence of Family- Worship on Children 58 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Influence of Family- Worship on Domestics .... 70 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Family- Worship as a Means of Intellectual Improvement 82 
 
 5 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 [ily- Worship on Dg 
 and Love „ . 93 
 
 Page 
 
 The Influence of Family-Worship on Domestic Harmony 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Influence of Family- Worship on a Household in 
 
 affliction . • . • 107 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Influence of Family- Worship on Visiters, Guests, 
 
 and Neighbours , 123 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Influence of Family- Worship in perpetuating sound 
 
 doctrine 135 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Influence of Family- Worship on the Church .... 148 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Influence of Family-Worship on the Commonwealth . 162 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Influence of Family- Worship on Posterity . . . .173 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Practical Directions as to the mode of conducting Family- 
 Worship 188 
 
CONTENTS. 7 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Pago 
 
 The Reading of Scripture, as a part of Family- Worship . 202 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Psalmody, as a part of Family-Worship ••....•217 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The Householder exhorted to the duty of Family- Worship 231 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 Difficulties and Objections. — Conclusion 246 
 
ruilT-WSITTl 
 
 FAiniT : WORSHIP. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE NATURE, WARRANT, AND HISTORY OP FAMILY- 
 WORSHIP. 
 
 Family-Worship, as the name imports, is 
 the joint worship rendered to God, by all the 
 members of one household. 
 
 There are some duties so plain, that they 
 are rather assumed, than commanded, in the 
 word of God ; and the number of such is 
 greater than might be supposed on a superfi- 
 cial examination. This is especially true of 
 those duties which belong to the family rela- 
 tion ; as for example those of the mother to 
 her babe. They are subjected to regulation, 
 and are objects of frequent allusion ; but are 
 not incorporated into the law of command- 
 ments. We are not to wonder, therefore, if 
 we find, even in the New Testament, no 
 
10 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 separate and explicit injunction to worship 
 God in the family. As little do we find any 
 command to pray when we preach the word, 
 or when death has visited our dwellings. 
 These are things which it was safe to leave 
 w r ith the pious sentiment of Christians : and 
 yet they are not the less characteristic of 
 good men, nor less universal in the church. 
 
 The new-born soul must pray, even as the 
 new-born child must breathe. And wherever 
 the grace of prayer is shed forth in the soul, 
 it will flow out in certain acts. There is an 
 irresistible impulse to pray for those whom 
 we love ; and not only to pray for them, but 
 with them. There is a natural as well as a 
 gracious prompting, to pray with those who 
 are near to us. Prayer is a social exercise. 
 The prayer which our Lord taught his dis- 
 ciples, bears this stamp on every petition. It 
 is this principle which leads to the united 
 devotions of church-assemblies, and which 
 immediately manifests itself in Christian 
 families. 
 
 If there were but two human beings upon 
 earth, they would be drawn, if they were of 
 sanctified hearts, to pray with one another. 
 Here we have the fountain of domestic wor- 
 
FAMIL Y-WORSHIP. 1 1 
 
 ship. Time was, when there w r ere but two 
 human beings upon earth ; and we may feel 
 assured, that they offered adoration in com- 
 mon. This was the Family- Worship of 
 Paradise. It is, therefore, no profane fiction, 
 but a pious endeavour to shadow forth what 
 undoubtedly took place, when the great poet 
 represents Adam and Eve as addressing their 
 morning thoughts in concert to God : 
 
 ' Soon as they forth were come to open sight 
 Of dayspring and the sun, who, scarce uprisen 
 With wheels yet hovering o'er the ocean brim, 
 That parallel to the earth his dewy ray, 
 Discovering in wide landscape all the east 
 Of Paradise and Eden's happy plains, 
 Lowly they bowed adoring, and began 
 Their orisons, each morning duly paid 
 In various style ; for neither various style 
 Nor holy rapture wanted they to praise 
 Their Maker, in fit strains pronounced or sung 
 Unmeditated, such prompt eloquence 
 Flowed from their lips, in prose or numerous verse, 
 More tunable than needed lute or harp 
 To add more sweetness ; and they thus began."* 
 
 That religion should specially pertain to 
 the domestic relation, is not at all wonderful. 
 The family is the oldest of human societies ; 
 it is as old as the creation of the race. Men 
 were not drawn together into families by a 
 
 * Paradise Lost, Book V. verse 138. 
 
 fZ?' OF THE ^^ 
 
12 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 voluntary determination, or social compact, 
 according to the absurd figment of infidels : 
 they were created in families. This has 
 been recognized in every covenant ; and the 
 gospel, so far from destroying, has bound 
 more closely and sanctified the family. By 
 circumcision, under the Old Testament, and 
 by baptism, under the New, God has per- 
 petually reminded his people of the honour 
 set on this connexion. 
 
 It is not our purpose to make any inge- 
 nious efforts to force into our service the his- 
 tory of the Old Testament, or to search for 
 Family- Worship in every age of the world. 
 That it has existed in every age, we do not 
 doubt ; that the Old Testament was intended 
 to communicate this fact, is not so clear. 
 But, without any indulgence of fancy, we 
 cannot fail to discern the principle of Family- 
 Worship, appearing and re-appearing, as a 
 familiar thing, in the remotest periods. 
 
 While all the church of God was in the 
 ark, the worship was plainly Family- Wor- 
 ship ; and after the subsiding of the waters, 
 when " Noah builded an altar unto the 
 Lord/' it was a family sacrifice which he 
 offered.* The patriarchs seem to have left 
 
 * Gen. viii. 20. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 13 
 
 a record of their social worship at every en- 
 campment. As soon as we find Abraham in 
 the promised land, w r e find him rearing an 
 altar in the plain of Moreh.* The same 
 thing occurs in the vale between Hai and 
 Bethel. Isaac not only renews the fountains 
 which his father had opened, but keeps up 
 his devotions, building an altar at Beer- 
 sheba.f Jacob's altar at Bethel was eminent- 
 ly a family monument, and was signalized 
 by his saying on the way " unto his house- 
 hold, and to all that were with him, Put 
 away the strange gods that are among 
 you. "J The altar was named El-beth-el. 
 This descent of religious rites, in the family 
 line, was in correspondence with that decla- 
 ration of Jehovah respecting the family reli- 
 gion which should prevail in Abraham's 
 housed The service of Job in behalf of 
 his children was a perpetual service; he 
 " sent and sanctified them, and rose up early 
 in the morning, and offered burnt-offerings 
 according to the number of them all ; thus 
 did Job continually ;" or, as it is in the He- 
 brew, " all the days." - The book of Deuter- 
 onomy is full of family religion ; as an ex- 
 
 * Gen. xii. 7. f xxvi. 25. \ xxxv. 1, 2. § xviii, 19. 
 
 2* 
 
14 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 ample of which, we may specially note the 
 sixth chapter. The passover, as we shall 
 observe more fully in the sequel, was a family 
 rite. 
 
 Every where in the Old Testament good 
 men take cognizance of the domestic tie, in 
 their religion. Joshua, even at the risk of 
 being left with none but his family, will ad- 
 here to God : " As for me and my house, we 
 will serve the Lord."* David, after public 
 services at the tabernacle, where " he blessed 
 the people in the name of the Lord," returns 
 "to bless his household."! He had learned 
 to connect God's service with domestic bonds, 
 in the house of his father Jesse, where there 
 was "a yearly sacrifice for all the family. "J 
 And in the predictions of penitential hum- 
 bling, which shall take place when God 
 pours on the house of David and the inhabi- 
 tants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of 
 supplications, the suitableness of such exer- 
 cises to families, as such, is not overlooked : 
 "The land shall mourn, every family apart; 
 the family of David apart, and their wives 
 apart ; the family of Nathan apart, and their 
 wives apart ; the family of Levi apart, and 
 
 * Josh. xxiv. 15. f 2 Sam. vi. 20. J 1 Sam. xx. 6. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 15 
 
 their wives apart; the family of Shimei 
 apart, and their wives apart; all the fam- 
 ilies that remain, -apart, and their wives 
 apart. "* 
 
 The modern Jews, in every part of the 
 world, keep up a domestic service. In their 
 Liturgy, this is provided for, at least as volu- 
 minously as in any Christian ritual. As the 
 subject is seldom treated, a few additional 
 particulars will not be out of place; and 
 though these relate primarily to the German 
 and Polish Jews, they are substantially true 
 of all others. The Hebrew Liturgy fills six 
 or seven volumes. One of these is devoted ' 
 to the Daily Prayers. They are read in the 
 Synagogue, but are also read at home by all 
 who are considered devout. In the morning 
 it is the duty of every Israelite, as soon as he 
 rises, to wash himself, and repeat a blessing. 
 He then puts on the "garment with fringes, " 
 and repeats another blessing. He then pro- 
 ceeds with a service, including prayers, 
 psalms, and other portions of Scripture, to 
 which large additions are made on Sabbaths 
 and festivals. This must all take place be- 
 fore breakfast. The evening Daily Service, 
 
 * Zech. xii. 12—14. 
 
16 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 though shorter, is of the same kind. During 
 the morning prayer, except on Sabbaths, and 
 holidays, the Jews make *ise of the Tephilin, 
 or phylacteries. The extent of these devo- 
 tions may be understood, when we add, that 
 for the Sabbath they occupy more than fifty 
 octavo pages. * 
 
 In the New Testament, the traces of fami- 
 ly religion are not less obvious. We gladly 
 borrow the animated language of Mr. Hamil- 
 ton of London, and ask : " Do you envy Cor- 
 nelius, whose prayers were heard, and to 
 whom the Lord sent a special messenger to 
 teach him the way of salvation ? He was 
 a > devout man, one who feared God with all 
 his house, and prayed to God always;' and 
 who was so anxious for the salvation of his 
 family, that he got together his kinsmen and 
 near friends, that they might be ready to 
 hear the apostle when he arrived, and share 
 with himself the benefit. \ Do you admire 
 
 * This statement is made on the authority of Mr. Henry 
 Goldsmith, a learned Israelite, and professor of the Hebrew 
 language in New York. See also the " Form of Daily 
 Prayers, according to the custom of the German and Polish 
 Jews, as read in their Synagogues, and used in their Fam- 
 ilies." London, A. M. 5596. 
 
 t Acts x. 2, 24, 31. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 17 
 
 Aquila and Priscilla, Paul's 'helpers in 
 Christ Jesus,' and who were so skilful in the 
 Scriptures, that they were able to teach a 
 young minister the way of God more per- 
 fectly ? You will find that one reason for 
 their familiarity with the Scriptures was, 
 that they had a ' church in their house.' "* It 
 was doubtless recognized in regard to spirit- 
 ual as well as in regard to temporal things, 
 that "if any provide not for his own, and 
 especially for those of his own household, he 
 hath denied the faith, and is worse than an 
 infidel, "f That spirit of social prayer which 
 led disciples to join in supplication or 
 praise, in upper chambers, in prisons, in the 
 stocks, and on the sea-beach, J could not but 
 have manifested itself in daily household 
 devotion. 
 
 Our records of primitive Christianity are 
 so much distorted and corrupted by a super- 
 stitious tradition, that we need not be sur- 
 prised to find a simple and spiritual service 
 such as this, thrown into the shade by sacer- 
 dotal rites. Yet we discern enough to teach 
 us, that believers of the first ages were not 
 
 * Acts xviii. 26 ; Rom. xvi. 5. t 1 Tim - v - 3. 
 
 t Acts i. 13. xvi. 25 ; Gal. iv. 12 ; 2 Tim. i. 3. 
 
18 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 neglectful of Family-Worship. Many of the 
 authorities, cited by Bishop Mant, in his 
 work on " Daily Prayer," are quite as cogent 
 in favour of a domestic service, as of a daily 
 office in the church edifice, which some are 
 so zealously reviving. 
 
 " In general," says Neander, in a w T ork 
 not published among us, " they followed the 
 Jews, in observing the three seasons of day, 
 nine, twelve, and three o'clock, as special 
 hours of prayer ; yet they did not use these 
 in a legal manner, such as militated against 
 Christian liberty ; for Tertullian says, in re- 
 gard to times of prayer, ' nothing is prescribed, 
 except that we may pray at every hour, and 
 in every place.' The Christians began and 
 closed the day with prayer. Before meals, 
 before the bath, they prayed ; for, as Tertul- 
 lian says, the ■ refreshment and nourishment 
 of the soul must precede the refreshment 
 and nourishment of the body ; the heavenly 
 before the earthly.' When a Christian from 
 abroad, after brotherly reception and hospi- 
 tality in the house of a brother Christian, 
 took his leave, he was dismissed from the 
 Christian family with prayer ; Because, said 
 they, in thy brother thou hast beheld thy 
 
FAMILY- WORSHIP. 19 
 
 Lord. For every affair of ordinary life they 
 made preparation by prayer."* 
 
 To this we may add the statements of a 
 learned man, who has made Christian An- 
 tiquities his peculiar study. " Instead of 
 consuming their leisure hours in vacant idle- 
 ness, or deriving their chief amusement from 
 boisterous merriment, the recital of tales of 
 superstition, or the chanting of the profane 
 songs of the heathen, they passed their 
 hours of repose in rational and enlivening 
 pursuits; found pleasure in enlarging their 
 religious knowledge, and entertainment in 
 songs that were dedicated to the praise of 
 God. These formed their pastime in pri- 
 vate, and their favourite recreations at their 
 family and friendly meetings. With their 
 minds full of the inspiring influence of these, 
 they returned with fresh ardour to their 
 scenes of toil ; and to gratify their taste for a 
 renewal of these, they longed for release 
 from labour, far more than to appease their 
 appetite with the provisions of the table. 
 Young women sitting at the distaff, and 
 matrons going about the duties of the house- 
 hold, were constantly humming some spirit- 
 i* &txifwuMg>Wxttn, vol. ii. p. 83. 
 
20 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 ual airs. And Jerome relates, of the place 
 where he lived, that one could not go into 
 the field without hearing the ploughman at 
 his hallelujahs, the mower at his hymns, and 
 the vinedresser singing the Psalms of David. 
 It was not merely at noon, and in time of 
 their meals, that the primitive Christians 
 read the word of God, and sang praises to 
 •his name. At an early hour in the morning, 
 the family were assembled, when a portion 
 of Scripture was read from the Old Testa- 
 ment, which was followed by a hymn and a 
 prayer, in which thanks were offered up to 
 the Almighty for preserving them during the 
 silent watches of the night, and for his good- 
 ness in permitting them to meet in health of 
 body, and soundness of mind ; and at the 
 same time his grace was implored to defend 
 them amid the dangers and temptations of 
 the day, to make them faithful to every duty, 
 and enable them in all respects to walk 
 worthy of their Christian vocation. In the 
 evening, before retiring to rest, the family 
 again assembled, when the same form of 
 worship was observed as in the morning, 
 with this difference, that the service was 
 considerably protracted beyond the period 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 21 
 
 which could conveniently be allotted to it in 
 the commencement of the day. Besides all 
 these observances, they were in the habit of 
 rising at midnight, to engage in prayer and 
 the singing of psalms, a practice of venerable 
 antiquity, and which, as Dr. Cave justly sup- 
 poses, took its origin from the first times of 
 persecution, when, not daring to meet to- 
 gether in the day, they were forced to keep 
 their religious assemblies in the night. "* 
 
 When w r e come down to the revival of 
 evangelical piety, at the Reformation, we 
 find ourselves in the midst of such a stream 
 of authority and example, that we must 
 content ourselves with general statements. 
 Whatever may be the practice of their de- 
 generate sons, the early Reformers are uni- 
 versally known to have set great value on 
 family devotion. The prayers of Luther 
 in his house are recorded with w r armth by 
 his coevals and biographers. The churches 
 of Germany, in a better day, were blessed 
 with a wide prevalence of household piety. 
 Similar facts are recorded of Switzerland, 
 France, and Holland. 
 
 * The Antiquities * of the Christian Church, by the Rev. 
 Lyman Coleman, second edition, p. 375. 
 3 
 
22 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 But in no country has the light of the dwel- 
 ling burned more brightly than in Scotland. 
 Family-w T orship, in all its fulness, was coeval 
 with the first reformation period. Probably 
 no land, in proportion to its inhabitants, ever 
 had so many praying families ; probably none 
 has so many now. In 1647, the General As- 
 sembly issued a Directory for Family-Wor- 
 ship, in which they speak as follows : 
 
 " The ordinary duties comprehended under 
 the exercise of piety, which should be in fa- 
 milies, when they are convened to that effect, 
 are these : First, Prayer, and praises per- 
 formed, with a special reference, as well to 
 the condition of the Kirk of God, and this 
 kingdom, as to the present state of the family, 
 and every member thereof. Next, reading 
 of the Scriptures, with catechizing in a plain 
 way, that the understandings of the simpler 
 may be the better enabled to profit under the 
 public ordinances, and they made more capa- 
 ble to understand the Scriptures when they 
 are read : together with godly conferences 
 tending to the edification of all the mem- 
 bers in the most holy faith : as also, admoni- 
 tion and rebuke, upon just reasons, from those 
 who have authority in the family. The head 
 
FAMILY- WORSHIP. 23 
 
 of the family is to take care that none of the 
 family withdraw himself from any part of 
 family- worship ; and seeing the ordinary per- 
 formance of all the parts of family-worship 
 belongeth properly to the head of the family, 
 the minister is to stir up such as are lazy, 
 and train up such as are weak, to a fitness for 
 these exercises." " So many as can conceive 
 prayer, ought to make use of that gift of God ; 
 albeit, those who are rude and weaker may he- 
 gin at a set form of prayer ; but so that they 
 be not sluggish in stirring up in themselves 
 (according to their daily necessities) the spirit 
 of prayer, which is given to all the children 
 of God in some measure : to which effect, 
 they ought to be more fervent and frequent 
 in secret prayer to God, for enabling of their 
 hearts to conceive, and their tongues to ex- 
 press, convenient desires to God, for ineir 
 family." " These exercises ought to be per- 
 formed in great sincerity, without delay, lay- 
 ing aside all exercises of worldly business or 
 hinderances, notwithstanding the mockings 
 of atheists and profane men ; in respect of the 
 great mercies of God to this land, and of his 
 corrections, whereby lately he hath exercised 
 us. And to this effect, persons of eminency, 
 
24 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 and all elders of the kirk, not only ought to 
 stir up themselves and families to diligence 
 herein, but also to concur effectually, that in 
 all other families, where they have power 
 and charge, the said exercises be conscion- 
 ably performed." 
 
 The faithfulness of private Christians, in 
 regard to this duty, was made matter of in- 
 quiry by church-courts. By the Act of As- 
 sembly, 1596, ratified December 17, 18, 1638, 
 among other provisions for the visitation of 
 churches, by presbyteries, the following ques- 
 tions were proposed to the heads of families: 
 " Do the elders visit the families within the 
 quarter and bounds assigned to each of them ? 
 Are they careful to have the worship of God 
 set up in the families of their bounds ?" The 
 minister, also, is directed in his pastoral visits, 
 to ask, ' Whether God be worshipped in the 
 family, by prayers, praises, and reading of 
 the Scriptures ? Concerning the behaviour 
 of servants towards God and towards man ; if 
 they attend family and public worship ? If 
 there be catechizing in the family?"* 
 
 When the Confession of Faith of the West- 
 
 * Recited in * Overtures of General Assembly, A. D. 1705, 
 concerning the method of proceeding in Kirk-Sessions and 
 Presbyteries.' 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 25 
 
 minster Assembly of Divines was adopted by 
 the Church of Scotland, it contained this pro- 
 vision, which is still valid among ourselves : 
 " God is to be worshipped every where, in 
 spirit and in truth ; as in private families 
 daily, and in secret each one by himself. "* 
 In conformity with these principles, the 
 practice of family-worship became universal 
 throughout the Presbyterian body in Scot- 
 land, and among all the Dissenters in Eng- 
 land. In Scotland especially, the humblest 
 persons, in the remotest cottages, honoured 
 God by daily praise ; and nothing is more 
 characteristic of the people at this day. " I 
 have sometimes seen family-worship in great 
 houses," says Mr. Hamilton; "but I have 
 felt that God was quite as near when I knelt 
 with a praying family on the earthen floor 
 of their cottage. I have known of family- 
 worship among the reapers in a barn. It 
 used to be common in the fishing-boats upon 
 the friths and lakes of Scotland. I have 
 heard of its being observed in the depths of 
 a coal-pit." So marked a feature in the cot- 
 tage-life of Scotland could not be overlooked 
 by Burns ; and happy had it been for him, 
 
 * Confession of Faith, chap. xxi. § 6. 
 3* 
 
26 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 if he had lived more in accordance with the 
 practice of his praying father. It has been 
 fitly asked, Where in Italy or Austria shall we 
 meet any thing like the " Cotter's Saturday 
 Night?" 
 
 The cheerfu' supper done, wi' serious face, 
 
 They round the ingle form a circle wide ; 
 The sire turns o'er wi' patriarchal grace 
 
 The big ha 1 Bible, ance his father's pride ; 
 His bonnet reverently is laid aside, 
 
 His lyart haffets wearing thin and bare : 
 Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide, 
 
 He wales a portion with judicious care ; 
 And, Let us worship God ! he says with solemn air. 
 
 They chant their artless notes in simple guise, 
 
 They tune their hearts, by far their noblest aim 
 Perhaps Dundee's wild warbling measures rise, 
 
 Or sainted Martyrs worthy of the name, 
 Or noble Elgin beats the heavenward flame, 
 
 The sweetest far of Scotia* S"ho\y lays. 
 Compared with these Italian trills are tame ; 
 
 The tickled ears no heart-felt raptures raise, 
 Nae unison hae they with our Creator's praise. 
 
 The priest-like father reads the sacred page, 
 
 How Abram was the friend of God on high, 
 Or Moses bade eternal warfare wage 
 
 With Amalek's ungracious progeny ; 
 Or how the royal bard did groaning lie 
 
 Beneath the stroke of Heaven's avenging ire ; 
 Or Job's pathetic plaint and wailing cry ; 
 
 Or rapt Isaiah's wild seraphic fire ; 
 Or other holy seers that tune the sacred lyre. 
 
FAMILY- WORSHIP. 27 
 
 Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme : 
 
 How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed, 
 How He who bore in heaven the second name, 
 
 Had not on earth whereon to lay his head ; 
 How his first followers and servants sped; 
 
 The precept sage they wrote to many a land : 
 How he who lone in Patmos banished 
 
 Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand ; 
 And heard great Babylon's doom pronounced by heaven's 
 command. 
 
 Then kneeling down to heaven's eternal King, 
 
 The saint, the father, and the husband prays, 
 Hope springs exulting on triumphant wing, 
 
 That thus they all shall meet in future days : 
 There ever bask in uncreated rays, 
 
 No more to sigh or shed the bitter tear, 
 Together hymning their Creator's praise, 
 
 In such society, yet still more dear ; 
 While circling time moves round in an eternal sphere. 
 
 Compared with this, how poor religion's pride, 
 
 In all the pomp of method and of art, 
 When men display to congregations wide, 
 
 Devotion's every grace except the heart ; 
 The Power incensed the pageant will desert, 
 
 The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole ; 
 But haply in some cottage far apart, 
 
 May hear well-pleased the language of the soul, 
 And in His book of life the inmates poor enroll. 
 
 The excellency of this picture is, that it 
 contains not a stroke of fiction. Such scenes 
 are presented week after week among the 
 Scottish peasantry. They are such as the 
 Presbyterians of America have known from 
 
28 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 the days of childhood. Nor were they alone 
 in this "unspeakable privilege. The fathers 
 of New England, having drunk into the 
 same spirit, left the same legacy to their 
 sons. 
 
 It is highly honourable to family- worship, 
 as a spiritual service, that it languishes and 
 goes into decay in times when error and 
 worldliness make inroads upon the church. 
 This has been remarkably the case among 
 some of the Protestant communities of the 
 continent of Europe. As a general statement, 
 it must be said, that family- worship is not so 
 extensively practised there, and of course it 
 cannot be so highly prized, as in the churches 
 of Great Britain and America. This is true, 
 even when the comparison is made between 
 those in the respective countries whose at- 
 tachment to the gospel appears to be the 
 same. There are many, especially in France 
 and Switzerland, who as highly value, and as 
 regularly maintain, the daily worship of God, 
 as any of their brethren in England or the 
 United States ; but they constitute exceptions 
 to the above statement, rather than any 
 refutation of it. Christian travellers observe, 
 however, that better views on this subject, as 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 29 
 
 on the observance of the Sabbath, are de- 
 cidedly on the increase in France and Swit- 
 zerland ; and probably to a certain extent in 
 Germany, and other countries on the Con- 
 tinent. This is to be attributed to the trans- 
 lation of many excellent works from the 
 English into French, and their circulation in 
 those countries, within the last few years. * 
 
 From what has been said, it is manifest, 
 that the universal voice of the Church, in its 
 best periods, has been in favour of family- 
 worship. The reason of this has also be- 
 come apparent. It is a service due to God, 
 in regard to his bountiful and gracious rela- 
 tion to families, as such ; rendered necessary 
 by the w^ants, temptations, dangers, and sins 
 of the family state ; and in the highest de- 
 gree fit and right, from the facilities afforded 
 for maintaining it, by the very condition of 
 every household. Of its benefits, it is our 
 purpose to speak, in the ensuing chapters. 
 For the sake of method, we shall consider 
 the influence of this institution, on indivi- 
 dual piety ; on parents, children, anddomes- 
 
 * For valuable testimony on this point, I am indebted to my 
 friend, the Rev. Robert Baird, D. D., than whom no man can 
 be a more competent witness. 
 
30 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 tics ; in regard to intellectual improvement, 
 internal harmony, and the sanctified use of 
 chastisements; and on visiters and neigh- 
 bours. We shall examine its influence on 
 the preservation of sound doctrine; on the 
 church, the commonwealth, and posterity: 
 and, after some practical suggestions towards 
 the due performance of the duty, we shall 
 urge our readers, in the fear of God, to un- 
 dertake it without delay. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 INFLUENCE OP FAMILY-WORSHIP ON INDIVIDUAL 
 PIETY. 
 
 From the moment when we first repeat the 
 Lord's Prayer, saying '* Our Father," we 
 are taught that our religion is social. It not 
 only influences others, but is exercised and 
 enjoyed in common with others. What a 
 monstrous thing it would be, for a man to 
 spend a life-time in the midst of fellow- 
 beings, without ever feeling or acting to- 
 wards them in a religious capacity! We 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 31 
 
 can scarcely conceive of true light as so hid- 
 den under a bushel. Solitary experience 
 like this, would be worse than monkery, for 
 that is social; worse than the seclusion of 
 the anchoret, for that is removed from wit- 
 nesses. Where the Spirit of God really 
 operates on a soul, He brings it into fellow- 
 ship with other renewed souls, and renders it 
 a centre of radiance to all around. 
 
 If this is true of the great body of men, it 
 is more eminently true of the family-group. 
 In religion " it is not good for man to be 
 alone." The experience of the heart is the 
 grand thing, and this is best promoted in the 
 secrecy of the closet : yet it must not, and 
 cannot, abide in the closet or the heart ; but 
 will be like " the ointment of the right-hand, 
 w T hich bewray eth itself;" like the alabaster- 
 box of fragrance, that filleth all the house. 
 Love, which is the great manifestation of 
 grace, is too communicative in its nature to 
 be always pent up. The electric current will 
 pervade all whose hands are joined in the do- 
 mestic circle. They w T ill feel together, read 
 God's word together, sing together, and pray 
 together : and it is indispensable, that there 
 should be some established mode of cherish- 
 
32 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 ing and evincing this fellowship of expe- 
 rience. 
 
 While we should all beware of that species 
 of religion which has no privacy, and which 
 lives only on the excitements and sympathies 
 of social ordinances, we should not, therefore, 
 overlook the legitimate influence of united 
 prayer and praise. Single coals die out; 
 when drawn together, they break into a 
 flame. If the closet-worship is more solemn 
 and lowly, the family-worship may be more 
 elevated and affectionate. Especially where 
 the head of the family is one who grows in 
 grace and Christian knowledge, he will by 
 his very presence lift up the hearts of his 
 household. The child, and the servant, and 
 the guest, will be carried up to higher ad- 
 vances of devout feeling, by one who has sc 
 far outstripped them in the flight. 
 
 Summon a family to the worship of God, 
 at stated hours, and you summon each one to 
 a seriousness of reflection, of which he might 
 have been wholly robbed, by the hurry of 
 the day's business. He who perhaps ne- 
 glects all private perusal of the Scriptures, 
 is constrained to hear a portion read by one 
 whom he reveres. He who prays but for- 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 33 
 
 mally, or prays not at all, in his chamber, 
 finds himself in this sacred hour kneeling 
 among a reverent company, and is prompted 
 by the ardent words of supplication to lift up 
 his heart unto the Lord. 
 
 There is no member of a household whose 
 individual piety is of such importance to all 
 the rest, as the father or head ; and there is 
 no one whose soul is so directly influenced 
 by the exercise of domestic worship. Where 
 the head of a family is lukewarm or worldly, 
 he will send the chill through the whole 
 house; and if any happy exception occur, 
 and one and another surpass him in faithful- 
 ness, it will be in spite of his evil example. 
 He who ought, by his instructions and life, 
 to afford a perpetual incitement to his infe- 
 riors and his juniors, is made to feel, in case 
 of such delinquency, that they must look 
 elsewhere for guidance, even if they do not 
 weep in secret places over his neglects. 
 Where the head of the family is a man of 
 faith, of affection, and of zeal, consecrating 
 all his works and life to Christ, it is very 
 rare to find all his household otherwise- 
 minded. Now one of the chief means of 
 promoting such individual graces in the 
 
34 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 head, is this his daily exercise of devotion 
 with the members. It is more to him, than 
 to others. It is he who presides and directs 
 in it ; who selects and delivers the precious 
 word; and who leads the common supplica- 
 tion, confession, and praise. To him, it is 
 equal to an additional act of personal devo- 
 tion, in the day ; but it is more. It is an act 
 of devotion, in which his affection and duty 
 to his house are particularly brought before 
 his mind ; and in which he stands in the 
 place, and pleads the cause, of all that he 
 holds dearest upon earth. No one need 
 wonder, then, that we place family-prayer 
 among the most important means of reviving 
 and maintaining the piety of him who con- 
 ducts it. We shall revert to this topic, in its 
 more special reference to the parent and the 
 master. 
 
 Observation shows that families which 
 have no household worship, are at a low 
 ebb in spiritual things ; that families where 
 it is performed in a cold, sluggish, negligent, 
 or hurried way, are little affected by it, and 
 little affected by any means of grace ; and 
 that families where God is worshipped, every 
 morning and evening, by all the inmates of 
 the house in a solemn and affectionate ser- 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 35 
 
 vice, are blessed with increase of piety and 
 happiness. Every individual is blessed. 
 Each one receives a portion of the heavenly 
 food. 
 
 Half the defects and transgressions of our 
 days arise from want of consideration. Hence 
 the unspeakable value of an exercise, which 
 twice every day calls each member of the 
 household at least to think of God. Even 
 the most careless or impious son, or servant, 
 must now and then be forced to talk a little 
 with conscience, and meditate a little on judg- 
 ment, when the grey-haired father, bowed 
 before God, with trembling voice pours out 
 strong supplication and prayer. How much 
 more mighty must be the influence on that 
 larger number, who in ten. thousand Chris- 
 tian families in the land, are more or less im- 
 pressed with the importance of divine things ! 
 And how peculiar and tender and forming 
 must the same influence be, on those of the 
 domestic group, who worship God in the 
 spirit, and who often wipe the gushing tear, 
 as they rise from their knees, and look around 
 on husband, father, mother, brother, sister, 
 child — all remembered in the same devotion, 
 all clouded with the same incense of inter- 
 cession ! 
 
36 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 Perhaps among our readers, more than one 
 can say: "Times without number have I felt 
 the influence of domestic worship on my own 
 soul. When yet a child, no one means of 
 grace, public or private, so awakened my at- 
 tention, as when the children were prayed 
 for day by day. In wayward youth, I was 
 never so stung by conviction of my sin, as 
 when my honoured father earnestly besought 
 God for our salvation. When at length in 
 infinite mercy I first began to open the ear to 
 instruction, no prayer so reached my heart, or 
 so expressed my deep affections, as those 
 which were uttered by my honoured father.'' 
 
 The Gospel has this great precedence of all 
 other systems, that it is preached to the poor. 
 If mankind in general find good in religion, 
 the poor and wretched find in it peculiar 
 good. This is true of all means and ordi- 
 nances ; and it is eminently true of family- 
 worship. We have often had occasion to ob- 
 serve this in the case of those who earn their 
 bread by labour. The working-man often 
 has little disposal of his own time, and little 
 privacy for religious acts. He rises, it may 
 be, long before day, and in a wintry morning 
 hastily prepares himself to join others in la- 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 37 
 
 hour. He is therefore under a very strong 
 inducement to abridge, if not to omit, the 
 Scriptures and prayer. It is of immense 
 value for one in such circumstances, to be 
 bound by the sweet yet constraining tie of a 
 family-covenant, to redeem time and call his 
 household together for God's praise. Such 
 acts of domestic worship are* among the 
 sweetest enjoyments of the poor man's life. 
 He thus has ensured to him a stock of truth 
 for the reflections of the whole day. The 
 son and daughter who go forth to shop or fac- 
 tory labour, carry with them some remem-. 
 brance of God. And when, after a day of 
 honourable toil, they re-assemble in the even- 
 ing, with the expectation of a similar ser- 
 vice, it is to enjoy a means of grace which 
 furnishes each individual with a new im- 
 pulse towards the goal. 
 
 Those who unite every day in solemn acts 
 of worship, are thus brought to a comparison 
 of themselves with a certain standard. They 
 are made to recognise themselves, and to re- 
 cognise one another, as servants of God. It 
 is not unnatural, therefore, that each one 
 should sometimes be led at such a moment 
 to say to himself, What is this? In what 
 
 4% 
 
38 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 character am I appearing? I am professing 
 to honour God ; but how does this comport 
 with what I have been doing, saying, think- 
 ing, or omitting, this day ? Such an aid to 
 self-culture is not to be despised. True, the 
 same holds good in regard to public worship 
 and ordinances ; but this is a daily ordinance, 
 an oft-repeated influence; and it is by the 
 manna w T hich falls every day at the door of 
 the tent, that our souls are kept alive. 
 
 We all know that there is such a thing as 
 sacramental, sabbath, or periodical religion ; 
 a habit of mind to be put on and off, like the 
 habit of the body. Family- worship has a 
 direct and manifest tendency to make reli- 
 gion a matter of every-day interest. He who 
 appears before God twice a day, with his 
 nearest friends and familiars, cannot easily 
 fail to acknowledge his need of " a real busi- 
 ness-change in the heart, and in the princi- 
 ples of acting.' 7 * Suppose him, during the 
 day, to have slidden into the ways of a most 
 slippery world, to have spoken unadvisedly 
 with his lips, to have broken into wrath, or 
 to have strained a point of integrity in buy- 
 ing or selling : when he comes home to his 
 
 * Chalmers. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 39 
 
 evening-devotion, he must be a seared world- 
 ling, or a double-masked hypocrite, if he does 
 not admit some compunction, and resolve on 
 some amendment. 
 
 Family-worship furnishes a means of mak- 
 ing increased graces in the head of the house- 
 hold available to the benefit of the members. 
 It is not every sincere servant of Christ, who 
 has the gift of free and acceptable and im- 
 pressive discourse on divine subjects ; though 
 the attainment should be sought by all. The 
 hinderances are various : lack of education ; 
 consciousness of small attainment ; slowness 
 of speech; natural diffidence; inexcusable 
 pride or false shame ; and a sense of incon- 
 sistency in the life. These causes may ope- 
 rate to keep the father of a family in a state 
 of inactive insulation. Nothing tends so di- 
 rectly to break a channel for right influences, 
 in this respect, as the regular and faithful ob- 
 servance of domestic worship. A word fitly 
 spoken, at such a time, is an apple of gold. 
 A psalm, rightly chosen, and sung with the 
 spirit and understanding, may bear up all 
 hearts to God. A prayer, "in the Holy 
 Ghost," though issuing from one who has 
 not the lips of the eloquent, may go more 
 
40 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 deeply into the soul of the prodigal son, or 
 the careless neighbour, than all the sermons 
 of the year. These are influences which are 
 undervalued, because they are not singly pow- 
 erful, yet when constant, they are mighty; 
 they drop as the rain, and distil as the dew, 
 "as the small rain upon the tender herb, and 
 as the showers upon the grass/' In the day 
 of judgment and revelation, it will perhaps 
 appear, in the case of many, that they have 
 owed more in regard of individual piety to 
 the operation of family-religion, than to any 
 single class of causes. 
 
 In reckoning the influence of domestic 
 worship, we must reflect, that aside from any 
 thing peculiar, it is just so much added to all 
 the other institutions of religion. It comes 
 day after day, and for a life-time. I have 
 before my mind's eye "an old disciple," the 
 son of an old disciple. This ancient servant 
 of God, now eighty-four years of age, has 
 enjoyed this means of instruction and ele- 
 vation, since he was competent to receive 
 any impression, more than fifty thousand 
 times. Let no one smile at the arithmetic of 
 the statement : it will .come home to all the 
 children of the church, in the day when 
 
FAMILY- WORSHIP. 41 
 
 "after a long time, the Lord of those servants 
 cometh and reckoneth with them."* 
 
 But we have conceded too much. Family- 
 worship has striking peculiarities of influ- 
 ence. Its lessons and devotions begin at the 
 earliest period, when the infant soul is yield- 
 ing as wax. Here the father, or the grand- 
 father, or perhaps the Eunice and the Lois,f 
 reach forth the moulding influence which is 
 to last for life. These means are used in cir- 
 cumstances peculiarly tender, when the heart 
 is above all susceptible ; at the home and fire- 
 side; among objects of reverence; in the circle 
 of love. Here, if any where, the individual 
 soul will feel the word to be "profitable for doc- 
 trine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction 
 in righteousness. "J Here, if any where, the 
 heart will respond to the call of devotion, and 
 be prompted to burst forth in prayer. Here 
 the fainting experience will plume its wings 
 for the attempts of a higher flight ; and the 
 joys of a hidden devotion will mingle with 
 the flames of a common altar. Can our Chris- 
 tian life readily sacrifice or forego the aids 
 and comforts of such an institution ? Or can 
 
 * Matthew xxv. 19. 
 
 f 2 Timothy i. 5. } 2 Timothy iii. 16. 
 
42 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 lie, who has received so great a blessing from 
 the home of his boyhood, willingly deny it 
 to his own offspring ? 
 
 The truth must not be concealed, that in 
 order to realize these advantages from the 
 worship of God in the household, we must 
 see to it, that it is conducted in a due man- 
 ner. It must not be a stated formality, how- 
 ever punctual or decorous. It must not be 
 the empty expression of a life which does not 
 exist. It must be approached as if we were 
 going to the very feet of Christ. Those who 
 have it in charge, w 7 hether fathers, or mothers, 
 or the elder son, or the Levite under the roof, 
 must be in a state of preparation, and must 
 eye the true import and design of the ordi- 
 nance. Where these cautions are observed, 
 it will never fail to be a powerful instrument 
 in awakening, edifying, and comforting the 
 individual soul. 
 
43 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF FAMILY-WORSHIP ON PARENTS. 
 
 In order to educate the children of a land, 
 we must first educate the parents : and if an 
 institution were demanded for this special 
 purpose, it would be impossible to find one 
 comparable to Family- Worship. Some things 
 which were hinted at, in the foregoing chap- 
 ter, may here be laid open more explicitly. 
 
 The maintenance of domestic religion in 
 every house is primarily entrusted to the head 
 of the family, whoever this may be. If he is 
 totally unfitted for the charge, by an unbe- 
 lieving mind, or an ungodly life, the consid- 
 eration is one which should startle and appal 
 him : and it is affectionately submitted to any 
 reader whose conscience may plead guilty to 
 such an imputation. There are instances, 
 where divine grace has so endowed some 
 one of the household, even though not the 
 parent, or the senior, as plainly to devolve 
 on him the performance of this duty. The 
 widowed mother, or the elder sister, or the 
 actual guardian, may stand in the parent's 
 
44 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 place. But inasmuch as in a majority of 
 cases, the service if rendered at all must be 
 rendered by the father, we shall treat the 
 subject under this supposition; premising, 
 that the principles laid down apply in most 
 of their extent to all the other influences. 
 
 No man can approach the duty of leading 
 his household in an act of devotion, without 
 solemn reflection on the place which he oc- 
 cupies in regard to them. He is their head. 
 He is such by a divine and unalterable con- 
 stitution. These are duties and prerogatives 
 which he cannot alienate. There is some- 
 thing more than mere precedence in age, 
 knowledge, or substance. He is the father 
 and the master. No act of his, and nothing 
 in his character, can fail to leave a mark on 
 those around him. This he will be apt to 
 feel when he calls them about him to pray to 
 God; and the more devoutly he addresses 
 himself to the work, the more will he feel it. 
 Though all priesthood, in the proper sense, 
 is now done away on earth, and absorbed in 
 the functions of the great High Priest, there 
 is still something like a priestly intervention 
 in the service of the Christian patriarch. He 
 is now about to go before the little flock in 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 45 
 
 the oblation of a spiritual sacrifice of prayer 
 and adoration. Thus it is said, respecting 
 Christ : " By him, therefore, let us offer the 
 sacrifice of praise to God continually; that is, 
 the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his 
 name."* This perpetual offering, the head 
 of the family is about to make. Until long 
 perseverance in a deadening formality of rou- 
 tine shall have blunted all sensibility, he must 
 yield to the solemn impression. It will some- 
 times lie like a burden at his heart; it will 
 sometimes swell within his affections, like 
 "wine which hath no vent."f These are 
 salutary and elevating emotions, which go to 
 form the grave and lofty character which 
 may be observed in the old peasantry of Scot- 
 land. Though he be but a poor and unlet- 
 tered man, who bows his hoary head amidst 
 a band of sons and daughters, yet is he more 
 sublimely honoured than prayerless kings. 
 His head is encircled with that " crown of 
 glory," which is found "in the way of right- 
 eousness." % The father who, year after year, 
 presides in the sacred domestic assembly, 
 submits himself to an influence which is in- 
 
 Heb. xiii. 15. f Job xxxii. 19. { P rov * xv *- 31. 
 
 5 
 
46 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 calculably strong on his own parental char- 
 acter. 
 
 Where is a parent so likely to admit the 
 impression of his responsibility, as where he 
 gathers his household for worship? It is true, 
 at all times, that he is bound to watch for 
 their souls; but now he is placed where he 
 must feel it to be true. His family are met 
 in a religious capacity, and looking up to him 
 for guidance. His eye cannot light on a sin- 
 gle member of the group who is not commit- 
 ted to his especial charge. Among all these 
 there is not one for w T hom he shall not give 
 account at the judgment-seat of Christ. The 
 wife of his youth ! to w T hom shall she look for 
 spiritual watch, if not to him ? And how un- 
 natural the family-relation, when this guar- 
 dianship is repudiated, and this relation re- 
 versed ! The children ! if ever saved, it will 
 probably be in some degree consequent on his 
 exertions. Domestics, and apprentices, and 
 sojourners, are all committed for a term longer 
 or shorter, to his care. The domestic minister 
 will surely cry, Who is sufficient for these 
 things? and most of all when in the very per- 
 formance of these duties. If his conscience is 
 kept awake, by personal acquaintance with 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 47 
 
 God, lie will never enter upon family- wor- 
 ship without sentiments, which involve this 
 very accountability : and such sentiments 
 cannot but have their impression on the pa- 
 rental character. 
 
 Unspeakable good would ensue, if every 
 father could feel himself to be the earthly, 
 but divinely-appointed, head-spring of religi- 
 ous influence to his household. Is it not 
 true? and is there any means of making him 
 feel it to be true, which can be compared to 
 the institution of Family- Worship ? Now he 
 has assumed his rightful place, as an instruc- 
 ter, a guide, and an exemplar in devotion. 
 Now his mouth, even though he be a silent 
 or a bashful man, is opened. Now he can, 
 at least, rehearse the " words which the Holy 
 Ghost speaketh," and give outlet to the gush 
 of pent-up emotions. Perhaps some word 
 may reach the son, or the servant, long 
 estranged. Perhaps some prayer, more ar- 
 dent, more believing than usual, may find 
 audience for these beloved, immortal souls. 
 He is in the posture for seeing and for feel- 
 ing these things; and that is no despicable 
 instrument in the education of the parent, 
 which puts him into this posture. 
 
48 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 The hour of domestic prayer and praise is 
 also the hour of scriptural instruction. The 
 father has opened God's word, in the pre- 
 sence of his little flock. He thus admits him- 
 self to be its teacher and under-shepherd. 
 Perhaps he is but a plain man, living by his 
 labour, unused to schools or libraries, and, 
 like Moses, "slow of speech, and of a slow 
 tongue." Nevertheless, he stands by the 
 open well of wisdom, and, like the same 
 Moses, may draw water enough and water 
 the flock.* For the time, he sits "in Moses' 
 seat," and no longer "occupieth the room of 
 the unlearned." This is encouraging and 
 ennobling. As the loving mother rejoices to 
 be the fountain of nourishment to the babe 
 which clings to her warm bosom, so the 
 Christian father delights to convey, even by 
 reverent reading, "the pure milk of the 
 word." He has found it good to his own 
 soul ; he rejoices in an appointed means of 
 conveying it to his offspring. As Jonathan, 
 when he said, " See, I pray you, how mine 
 eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted 
 a little of this honey,"f so he desires to dis- 
 
 * Exod. ii. 19. t 1 Sam. xiv. 29. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 49 
 
 pense to his household that word of the Lord, 
 which is "sweeter than honey and the honey- 
 comb."* The humblest master of a house 
 may well feel himself exalted by recognising 
 such a relation to those who are under his 
 care. 
 
 The example of a father is acknowledged 
 to be all-important. The stream must not 
 be expected to rise higher than the fountain. 
 The Christian householder will feel himself 
 constrained to say : I am leading my family 
 in solemn addresses to God ; what manner of 
 man should I be ! how wise, holy, and ex- 
 emplary ! This undoubtedly has been, in 
 cases innumerable, the direct operation of 
 Family- Worship on the father. As we know 
 that worldly men, and inconsistent profes- 
 sors, are deterred from performing this duty 
 by the consciousness of a discrepance be- 
 tween their life and any acts of devotion, so 
 humble Christians are led by the same com- 
 parison to be more circumspect, and to order 
 their ways in such a manner as may edify 
 their dependants. There cannot be too many 
 motives to a holy life, nor too many safe- 
 
 * Psalm xix. 10. 
 
 5* 
 
50 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 guards to parental example. Establish the 
 worship of God in any house, and you erect 
 around it a new barrier against the irruption 
 of the world, the flesh, and the devil. 
 
 The master of the house, in Family- Wor- 
 ship, appears as the intercessor for his house- 
 hold.- The great Intercessor is indeed above, 
 but " supplications, prayers, intercessions, and 
 giving of thanks"* are to be made below; 
 and by whom, if not by the father, for his 
 family? The thought of this must bring 
 solemn reflections. The parent who, with 
 any sincerity, comes daily to implore bless- 
 ings on his wife, children, and domestics, 
 will bethink himself as to what they need. 
 Here will be an urgent motive to inquire into 
 their wants, temptations, weaknesses, errors, 
 and transgressions. The eye of a genuine 
 father will be quick, his heart will be sensi- 
 tive on these points : and the hour of devo- 
 tion will gather these solicitudes together. 
 From such a motive, as we have already seen, 
 holy Job, after the festivities of his children, 
 " sent and sanctified them, and rose up early 
 in the morning, and offered burnt-offerings, 
 
 * 1 Tim. ii. 10. 
 
FAMILY- WORSHIP. 5 1 
 
 according to the number of them all; for Job 
 said, It may be that m)^ sons have sinned, and 
 cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job 
 continually"* Whatever may have been the 
 effect on the sons, the effect on Job himself 
 was, no doubt, an awakening of mind as to 
 his parental responsibility; and such is the 
 effect of Family-Worship on the head of,a 
 household. 
 
 The father of a family is under a whole- 
 some influence, when he is brought every 
 day to take a post of observation, and say to 
 his own heart, " By this single means, in ad- 
 dition to all others, I am exerting some defi- 
 nite influence, good or bad, upon all who 
 surround me. I cannot omit this service, 
 needlessly; perhaps I cannot omit it at all, 
 without detriment to my house. I cannot 
 read the word, I cannot sing, I cannot pray, 
 without leaving some trace on the tender 
 mind. How solemnly, how affectionately, 
 how believingly, should I then approach this 
 ordinance ! with how much godly fear and 
 preparation! My conduct in this worship 
 may save or may kill. Here is my great 
 
 * Job i. 5. 
 
52 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 channel for reaching the case of those who 
 are submitted to my charge." These are 
 wholesome thoughts, naturally engendered 
 by a daily ordinance which too many regard 
 as little better than a form. 
 
 The Christian husband needs to be remind- 
 ed of his obligations ; he cannot be reminded 
 of them too often. The respect, the forbear- 
 ance, the love, which the Scriptures enjoin 
 towards the feebler and more dependent party 
 in the conjugal alliance, and which are the 
 crown and glory of Christian wedlock, are 
 never more brought into action, than when 
 they who have plighted their faith to one 
 another,years ago, are brought day by day to 
 the place of prayer, and lift up a united heart 
 at the feet of infinite mercy. As the head of 
 every man is Christ, so the head of the wo- 
 man is the man.* His post is responsible, 
 and that in spirituals. He can seldom feel it 
 more sensibly than when he falls down with 
 the partner of his burdens at the throne of 
 grace. 
 
 The father sees his children before him. 
 The word which he reads to them, contains 
 
 * 1 Cor. xi. 3. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 53 
 
 his duties to them. Whatsoever there may- 
 be of paternal affection within him, must 
 break forth at such a moment ; and the fre- 
 quent repetition of such sentiments must 
 educate the heart. 
 
 The master — if I may employ a term which 
 is in a fair way to be obsolete, in our day of 
 license and levelling — calls together his ser- 
 vants, and all under his control, for the wor- 
 ship of God. If forgetful of it at other times, 
 he must now acknowledge and feel, at least 
 on some occasions, that the salvation of his 
 dependants is, to a certain extent, consigned 
 to his care. If he can do no more, he can 
 read God's word to them ; he can pray for 
 them. It is not, however, the effect on the 
 servant or child, but the effect on the master 
 and father, that we are now considering. 
 Let any reflective mind contemplate the sub- 
 ject, and he will be persuaded that there must 
 be a marked and increasing difference be- 
 tween the parental feelings and principles of 
 one who habitually worships God in his. 
 family, and one who worships him not, It is 
 no trifle to have religion perpetually brought 
 to bear upon the parental relation. In the 
 shop, the market, the field, the highway, the 
 
54 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 office, the exchange, and even in the pulpit, 
 the father may forget that he is a father : he 
 cannot forget it when the curtain has drop- 
 ped, when the circle draws more closely 
 around the hearth, when the wife of his youth 
 welcomes him to prayer, and when the eyes 
 of his little ones are fixed on him as the min- 
 ister of God to their souls. I no longer mar- 
 vel that Christianity becomes a dying, empty, 
 thing, in the houses of those professors (alas, 
 that there should be such!) w T here there is 
 no joint worship of God. 
 
 In the rage for amassing wealth, which 
 threatens the church among us, and especial- 
 ly in our great commercial cities, there is an 
 estranging •process going on, which we fear 
 is too little observed. Such is the insane 
 precipitation with which the man of business 
 rushes to his morning's task, and such the 
 length of his absence from home, often ex- 
 tending till the hours of darkness, that he 
 gradually loses some of that parental tender- 
 ness which Providence keeps alive by the 
 presence of those whom we love. The long 
 continuance of such habits cannot fail to 
 affect the character. Of all persons in the 
 world, he should be most willing to take time 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 55 
 
 for family-devotion, who is by his very em- 
 ployment shut out from his home most of 
 every day. The paternal heart demands this 
 hour of culture. A deliberate service, in 
 which the voices of infancy and age unite in 
 praising God, amidst the flow of mutual affec- 
 tion, is a blessed means of countervailing the 
 hard and selfish world which surrounds him. 
 But above all does the Christian parent need 
 something to keep him constantly in remem- 
 brance that his children have souls ; that they 
 look to him for more than their earthly sup- 
 port, and that there are means whereby, un- 
 der God, he may be the instrument of their 
 salvation. If, amidst the avocations of this 
 life, he seldom finds time to deal- faithfully 
 with their souls ; if he rarely conveys to them 
 any sign of fear for their safety; if he is 
 dumb in respect to Christ and eternity; here 
 is a daily service, of which the direct ten- 
 dency will be to arouse him to these duties. 
 Can it be possible for a man to pray earnestly 
 for the salvation of his children, in their hear- 
 ing, representing them to God in earnest sup- 
 plication, as dead in trespasses and sins, while 
 at the same time, he leaves them to wonder 
 why no syllable ever falls from his lips, on 
 
56 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 those momentous subjects? The praying pa- 
 rent has a daily remembrancer of these and 
 the like obligations ; and while he asks hea- 
 venly good for his household, he will some- 
 times cry to God for grace to fulfil them. 
 The answer of such prayers will not be with- 
 held. The prayer-hearing God will render 
 him a better parent, will endow him with 
 those peculiar gifts, for which, alas ! profess- 
 ing parents are so slow to seek; and will 
 cause him to discharge the obligations of this 
 fearful station, in a better manner, to say the 
 least, than those who hasten through life 
 without any token of family -religion. 
 
 Prayerless parents have cause to tremble. 
 God's anger may light upon them in their 
 parental relation, as Eli's neglect was visit- 
 ed.* They have no right to expect parental 
 happiness. They place themselves and their 
 household in the defenceless condition of the 
 heathen. " Pour out thy fury upon the hea- 
 then, that know thee not, and upon the 
 families that call not on thy name/'f Fam- 
 ily-prayer invites and bespeaks the blessing 
 of God on all concerned, but chiefly on him 
 
 * 1 Sam. iii. 13. t Jer. x. 25. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 57 
 
 who leads in it. Better a roofless than a 
 prayerless house: better beg one's bread, with 
 prayer, than deny God by a neglect of this 
 chief means of domestic prosperity. One who 
 has any genuine religious faith, and any trust 
 in God's promises, must be assured, that in 
 the rearing of his household, in providing for 
 their support and education, in governing and 
 restraining them, and in labouring for their 
 souls, no good can ensue, but by the blessing 
 of God : and this blessing, in the way of direc- 
 tion and grace, the Christian parent should 
 join with his family in asking, every day 
 So doing he will be not only a better man, 
 but a better father. He will love his children 
 more, and more wisely. He will be doubly 
 a parent to them, by the power and affection 
 of a holy example. He will be better able to 
 bear those reverses and bereavements which 
 may befall him. "But how shocking is the 
 prospect, if you are determined to resist con- 
 viction, and live in the wilful neglect of this 
 duty ! Your families are like to be nurseries 
 for hell ; or if there should be an Abijah in 
 them, 'one in whom some good thing is 
 found toward the Lord God of Israel,'* no 
 
 * 1 Kinofs xiv. 13. 
 
58 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 thanks to you for it ; you must be punished 
 for your neglect of him, as though he had 
 perished by your iniquity."* 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 INFLUENCE OP FAMILY-WORSHIP ON CHILDREN. 
 
 There are many readers of these pages who, 
 like the author, can go back to no period of 
 recollection in which the worship of God 
 was not duly observed under the parental 
 roof; and they will agree in testifying that 
 this is among the chief blessings for which 
 they have to thank an ever-gracious Pro- 
 vidence. If called upon to name the princi- 
 pal benefit of the institution, we should indi- 
 cate its benign operation on the children of 
 the house. 
 
 The simple fact, that parents and offspring 
 meet together every morning and evening, 
 for the word of God and prayer, is a great 
 fact in household annals. It is the inscri- 
 
 * President Da vies. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 59 
 
 bing of God's name over the lintel of the door. 
 It is the setting up of God's altar. The 
 dwelling is marked as a house of prayer. Re- 
 ligion is thus made a substantive and promi- 
 nent part of the domestic plan. The day is 
 opened and closed in the name of the Lord. 
 From the very dawn of reason, each little 
 one grows up with a feeling that God must 
 be honoured in every thing ; that no business 
 of life can proceed without Him ; and that the 
 day's work, or study, would be unsheltered, 
 disorderly, and in a manner profane, but for 
 this consecration. When such a child comes, 
 in later years, to mingle with families where 
 there is no worship, there is an unavoidable 
 shudder, as if among heathen or infidel com- 
 panions. In Greenland, when a stranger 
 knocks at the door, he asks, " Is God in this 
 house?" and if they answer, " Yes," he en- 
 ters. 
 
 As prayer is the main part of all Family- 
 Worship, so the chief benefit to children is 
 that they are the subjects of such prayer. 
 As the great topic of the parent's heart is his 
 offspring, so they will be his great burden at 
 the throne of grace. And what is there, 
 which the father and mother can ever do for 
 
 fniri7BRsirril 
 
60 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 their beloved ones, that may be compared 
 with their bearing them to God in daily sup- 
 plication ? And when are they so likely to 
 do this with melting affection, as when kneel- 
 ing amidst the group of sons and daughters ? 
 And what prayers are more likely to be an- 
 swered, than those which are offered thus? 
 The direct influence of family-prayer is then 
 to bring down the benediction of Almighty 
 God upon the children of the house. In say- 
 ing this, though we should not add another 
 word, we adduce a sufficient and triumphant 
 reason for the custom of our fathers. But 
 there are incidental and collateral advantages 
 which must not be overlooked. 
 
 Daily worship, in common, encourages 
 children to acts of devotion. It reminds 
 them, however giddy or careless they may^ 
 be, that God is to be adored. In many ways 
 it suggests to them the duty and blessedness 
 of praying for themselves. They are here 
 familiarized with what may be called the 
 method of prayer ; and have manifold peti- 
 tions brought before their minds, which may 
 afterwards be made their own. While. the 
 favoured circle is bowed before God, there is 
 scarcely a son or a daughter who will not 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 61 
 
 sometimes be arrested by the voice of the 
 father in supplication, and prompted to ap- 
 propriate the petition. In many instances, 
 we may suppose, the first believing prayers of 
 the Christian youth ascend from the fireside. 
 Slight impressions, otherwise transient, are 
 thus fixed, and infant aspirations are carried 
 up with the volume of domestic incense. Is 
 it too much to say, that in this way, Family- 
 Worship becomes the means of everlasting 
 salvation to multitudes ? 
 
 The confessions, thanksgivings, and peti- 
 tions of a wise householder, will take their 
 form and colour from the circumstances of 
 his house. Unless enslaved to a rigid form, 
 he cannot but vary his requests with the 
 changing condition of his family; and, there- 
 fore, he will naturally suit his words of devo- 
 tion to the state of his children. It must be 
 obvious, that in this way, even when prayer 
 is most singly directed to its proper end, a 
 number of incidental suggestions must occur, 
 w^hich will carry all the solemnity and pun- 
 gency of exhortation, caution, and consola- 
 tion. He who is prayed for, will know and 
 feel that he is prayed for. Paths of duty w T ill 
 be indicated ; dangers will be marked ; sins 
 6* 
 
62 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 will be arrayed before conscience; divine 
 blessings will be set forth as infinitely de- 
 sirable. By the same means, through God's 
 blessing, incentives to piety will be reiterated, 
 convictions deepened, and the object of faith 
 placed in open light. Where all this is done 
 day by day, the heart of the child must ex- 
 perience some affection, until it be steeled by 
 habitual resistance. 
 
 The daily regular and solemn reading of 
 God's holy word, by a parent before his chil- 
 dren, is one of the most powerful agencies of 
 a Christian life. We are prone to undervalue 
 this cause. It is a constant dropping, but it 
 wears its mark into the rock. A family thus 
 trained cannot be ignorant of the Word. The 
 whole Scriptures come repeatedly before the 
 mind. The most heedless child must observe 
 and retain some portion of the sacred oracles : 
 the most forgetful must treasure up some 
 passages for life. No one part of juvenile 
 education is more important. Between fami- 
 lies thus instructed, and those where the 
 Bible is not read, the contrast is striking. 
 To deny such a source of influence to the 
 youthful mind is an injustice, at the thought 
 of which a professor of Christianity may well 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 63 
 
 tremble. The filial affections are moulded 
 by Family- Worship. The child beholds the 
 parent in a peculiar relation. Nowhere is 
 the Christian father so venerable as where he 
 leads his house in prayer. The tenderness 
 of love is hallowed by the sanctity of rever- 
 ence. A chastened awe is thrown about the 
 familiar form, and parental dignity assumes 
 a new and sacred aspect. There is surely 
 nothing unnatural in the supposition that a 
 froward child shall find it less easy to rebel 
 against the rule of one whom he daily con- 
 templates in an act of devotion. The chil- 
 dren look more deeply into the parents' heart 
 by the medium of family-prayer. A single 
 burst of genuine fatherly anxiety in the midst 
 of ardent intercession, may speak to the child 
 a volume of long-hidden and travailing grief 
 and love. Such words, uttered on the knees, 
 though from the plain untutored man, are 
 sometimes as arrows in the heart of uncon- 
 verted youth. The child is forced to say 
 within himself, " How can I offend against 
 the father who daily wrestles with God in 
 my behalf ? How can I be careless about the 
 soul, for which he is thus concerned ?" And 
 often when separated from the domestic cir- 
 
64 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 cle, has the wanderer bethought himself, 
 My father and mother are now praying to 
 God for their boy ! He is little read in the 
 human heart who fails to recognise here a 
 great element of filial piety, or who refuses 
 to believe that the tenderness of a child's 
 attachment is increased by the stated wor- 
 ship of the household. 
 
 There is a kindred influence upon frater- 
 nal affection. Praying together is a certain 
 means of attachment ; those who pray for one 
 another cannot but love. Think of it, and 
 confess how impossible it is for sons and 
 daughters, every day, during all the sunny 
 years of youth, to bow down side by side in 
 common devotions and mutual intercessions, 
 without feeling that their affection is rendered 
 closer and holier by the very act. Brothers 
 and sisters who have thus been led together 
 to the throne of grace from infancy, are linked 
 by ties unknown to the rest of the world. 
 But the topic merits a separate discussion. 
 
 Delightful as is the syllable home, it is 
 made tenfold more so by prayer. The an- 
 cient lares, or gods of the house, were cherish- 
 ed, and their altar was the domestic hearth. 
 They were vanity and a lie : " but our God 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 65 
 
 is in the heavens."* The house of our child- 
 hood is always lovely, but the presence of the 
 Almighty Protector makes it a sanctuary, 
 and his altar causes home to be doubly home. 
 However long we live, or however far we 
 wander, it will ever abide in memory as the 
 place of prayer, the cradle of our childlike 
 devotions, the circle which enclosed father, 
 and mother, and sister, and brother, in its 
 sacred limit. Now that which adds to the 
 charm and the influence of home, affords a 
 mighty incentive to good, and a mighty 
 check to evil. To make a child love his 
 home, is to secure him against a thousand 
 temptations. Families who live without God 
 forego all such advantages and recollec- 
 tions. The domestic fireside no doubt has its 
 charms, but it is shorn of its religious asso- 
 ciations ; it is less revered ; we believe it is 
 less loved. 
 
 In families where there is daily praise of 
 God, in psalms and hymns and spiritual 
 songs, there is an additional influence on the 
 young. At no age are we more impressed 
 by music, and no music is so impressive as 
 that which is the vehicle of devotion. The 
 
 * Psalm cxv. 3. 
 
66 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 little imitative creatures begin to catch the 
 melodies long before they can understand the 
 words. Without any exception they are de- 
 lighted with this part of the service, and their 
 proficiency is easy in proportion. No choir 
 can be compared with that of a goodly house- 
 hold, where old and young, day after day, 
 and year after year, lift up the voice in har- 
 mony. Such strains give a jocund opening 
 to the day, and cheer the harassed mind after 
 labour is done. Sacred song tranquillizes 
 and softens the mind, makes an opening for 
 higher influences, and prepares voice and 
 heart for the public praise of God. The 
 practice is the more important, as it is well 
 known that in order to attain its perfection, 
 the voice should be cultivated from an early 
 age. Nor should we omit to mention the 
 store of psalms and hymns which are thus 
 treasured in the memory. By this it is, even 
 more than by public worship, that the Scot- 
 tish peasantry to so great an extent have the 
 old version of the Psalms by rote, in great 
 part or in whole. But this is a topic which 
 we reserve for another place. 
 
 In the rearing of youth, nothing can be 
 thought insignificant which goes to train the 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 67 
 
 thoughts, or give strength and direction to 
 the habits. It is by a repetition of perpetual, 
 patient touches, small in themselves, that the 
 straggling branches of the vine are led by 
 the gardener to grow and spread aright. It 
 is by ten thousand inappreciable dots and 
 scratches, that the plate of the engraver is 
 made to represent the portrait or the land- 
 scape. So it is by an ever-renewed applica- 
 tion of right principles, that parental care, in 
 the hand of sovereign grace, gives Christian 
 habit to the infant mind. In so precious a 
 work nothing is unimportant : we must give 
 heed to the minutest influences, as we save 
 the filings of gold, and the dust of diamonds. 
 For this reason we ascribe to domestic wor- 
 ship a large share in creating useful hab- 
 its in the young. We scruple not to say 
 that a child receives advantage by being led 
 to do any thing, provided it be innocent, at 
 stated times, with frequent repetition, and 
 with proper care. The daily assembling of 
 a household., at regular periods, for a religi- 
 ous purpose, directly tends to promote good 
 habits. It is a useful lesson for the speech- 
 less babe, to acquire the patient stillness of 
 the hour of prayer. It is good for a family 
 
68 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 to have a religious motive to early rising-, 
 and timely attention to personal neatness. It 
 is something to have punctuality in the ob- 
 servance of two hours each day, enforced 
 from the very dawn of life. Those who may 
 be tempted to put this aside with a smile, 
 should first institute a comparison in regard 
 to these particulars, between any two fami- 
 lies, of which one worships, and the other 
 worships not. We are willing to abide by 
 the result of the examination, for we are sure 
 that in the latter will be found a great loose- 
 ness of domestic arrangement, tardy rising, 
 a slovenly toilet, a long, irregular, time- 
 wasting breakfast, more conformable to the 
 modern fashion than to Christian usage; even- 
 ings without an affectionate rally of the 
 house ; and late hours of retiring, or no fixed 
 hours at all. 
 
 Parents who may read this book are re- 
 spectfully invited to consider whether they 
 do not owe it to their children to give them 
 the daily worship of God. Especially are 
 the sons and daughters of the church, whose 
 own youth was hallowed by this constant 
 observance, charged to recall their impres- 
 sions of the past, and to reckon up the advan- 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 69 
 
 tages which they are denying to their off 
 spring. 
 
 Christian children must give account at 
 the last day, for the privilege of family-prayer. 
 It becomes them to be asking whether they 
 are making use of the instrumentality. Cus- 
 tomary means of this kind, we know, are apt 
 to become formalities. When the family is 
 gathered, the careless or drowsy child may 
 hear as though he heard not, and kneel as 
 though he knelt not ; may attend to no sylla- 
 ble of God's word, and join in no single peti- 
 tion. But let him remember that every in- 
 stance of Family-Worship affords a means of 
 direct approach to the Most High, and thus 
 a means of saving his soul. Blessed are those 
 children, who, early in their youthful days, 
 remember the God of their fathers, and be- 
 gin life by choosing him as the guide of their 
 youth! To such, every act of worship is a 
 solemnity and a delight, gradually ripening 
 the soul for faithful service on earth, and for 
 the praises of heaven. Most earnestly is it 
 .to be desired, that those who have been bap- 
 tized, who have been catechized, who have 
 been, during all their youth, embraced in the 
 circle of domestic prayer, should now, when 
 
 7 
 
70 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 themselves placed at the head of families, 
 carry forward the blessed institutions in 
 which they have been reared, and convey 
 the words of life to coming generations. 
 " We will not hide them from their chil- 
 dren, showing to the generation to come the 
 praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his 
 wonderful works that he hath done.* 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF FAMILY-WORSHIP ON DOMESTICS. 
 
 The religion of the family extends to every 
 inmate, and embraces not only children, but 
 servants. Just before the ruin of Sodom, 
 God said of Abraham, " I know him, that he 
 will command his children and his household 
 after him."f On which that most delightful 
 old commentator, Matthew Henry, remarks : 
 " Abraham not only took care of his children, 
 but of his household; his servants were cate- 
 chized servants. Masters of families should 
 
 * Psalm lxxviii. 4. t Gen - xviii - 19 - 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 71 
 
 instruct and inspect the manners of all un- 
 der their roof. The poorest servants have 
 precious souls that must be looked after." It 
 is for this reason that we include domestics 
 in the circle of family-devotion. 
 
 Few topics have been more largely or more 
 angrily discussed in our day, than the rela- 
 tion of master and servant. We have had 
 abundance of abstractions, and of unscrip- 
 tural lamentations, but so far as we can ob- 
 serve, no real profit has accrued to the infe- 
 rior persons. If the present current of opinion 
 goes on, we shall soon arrive at the point at 
 which there will be no such thing as a ser- 
 vant. Out of a false delicacy, an irreligious 
 spirit of levelling, a yielding to pride, and a 
 mistaken view of the character of labour, 
 even good people have been willing to banish 
 the very word from their diction, corrupting 
 at once their language and their morals. The 
 generation which is now growing up among 
 us, is exceedingly slow to recognise any pro- 
 per authority in the master, or any obligation 
 to obedience in the servant. Those, how- 
 ever, for whom these remarks are intended, 
 have been bred in a different and more old- 
 fashioned school. They have learned that 
 
72 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 "by father and mother in the fifth command- 
 ment, are meant not only natural parents,'' 
 but " such as by God's ordinance are over 
 us in place of authority, whether in famihj, 
 church, or commonwealth." They have fur- 
 ther learned, that " it is required of superiors, 
 according to that power they receive from 
 God, and that relation wherein they stand, 
 to love, pray for, and bless their inferiors ; to 
 instruct, counsel, and admonish them ; pro- 
 tecting, and providing for them all things 
 necessary for soul and body ; and by grave, 
 wise, holy, and exemplary carriage, to pro- 
 cure glory to God, honour to themselves, and 
 so to preserve that authority which God hath 
 put upon them." 
 
 To exclude servants from Family- Worship 
 is a tyrannical and unchristian act, which we 
 have never known to be directly attempted. 
 But so far as possible, the affairs of a Chris- 
 tian household should be so arranged that 
 every domestic may unite in this service. In 
 some houses, it is customary to make attend- 
 ance on family-prayer a condition of ser- 
 vice. This is often difficult in parts of the 
 country where popish servants are employed. 
 Nor should we be willing to press this rule 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 73 
 
 too far, as the instances are numerous and 
 increasing, in which the foreign domestic, 
 though as yet unwilling to join in Protestant 
 prayers, has been willing to receive instruc- 
 tion. In one case well known to us, Romish 
 domestics have been attracted to the family- 
 prayers, in spite of confessor and penance, 
 solely by the charms of the psalmody ; and 
 in another, a servant-woman, who entered as 
 a superstitious zealot, has been brought to the 
 liberty which is in Christ Jesus. One thing, 
 however, is to be maintained : the Christian 
 householder is bound to use all lawful means 
 to cause every servant in his house to be a 
 regular attendant on the daily worship. 
 
 Every thing that was said in the foregoing 
 chapter concerning children, may here be 
 repeated, with slight change, concerning ser- 
 vants. The latter have, however, some spe- 
 cial and peculiar interests in this institu- 
 tion. They are often ignorant and irreligious. 
 They are often unable to read the Bible. 
 Their necessities are, therefore, greater than 
 those of children. They have more to learn ; 
 and this is the more seriously to be regarded 
 in cases where they are inmates of a religious 
 family for a short time only. It may be their 
 
74 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 only opportunity in life of gaining the know- 
 ledge of Jesus Christ. Again, the labours of 
 domestic service afford less time for the w r ord 
 of God and prayer, than the usual occupa- 
 tions of children. To many a servant the 
 Family- Worship is the only means of grace. 
 This, we are persuaded, is too much disre- 
 garded by us, in our ordinary mode of con- 
 ducting the service. 
 
 To reside, even as a servant, in a family 
 where the worship of God is duly observed, is 
 an unspeakable privilege. This is one of the 
 collateral methods of diffusing Christianity, 
 which is silent, but operative. If our whole 
 duty were performed in this respect, no do- 
 mestic would ever leave our dwelling with- 
 out some benefit derived from the daily ser- 
 vice of God. 
 
 In a large portion of America, a portion 
 also over w T hich our church is widely extend- 
 ed, all labour is performed by bondmen. This 
 opens to us an aspect of the subject too im- 
 portant to be overlooked ; indeed by far the 
 most important in this chapter. Having been 
 born among these institutions, having lived 
 among them, and having spent a portion of 
 life in labouring among slaves, we feel im- 
 
FAMILY- WORSHIP. 75 
 
 pelled to utter our thoughts on the subject ; 
 thoughts which, we are assured, will meet 
 with response in the hearts of brethren at 
 the south. For however the ignorant and 
 unjust clamours of some may reiterate the 
 contrary, we speak what we do know, and 
 testify what we have seen, in asserting that 
 pious householders at the south are accus- 
 tomed to exert a direct religious influence 
 on their servants. The master of numerous 
 slaves has an access to them, and an influence 
 over them, in regard to divine truth, such as 
 no other man on earth has over an equal 
 number of persons. That this influence is 
 always exerted to the extent of the obligation, 
 we no more assert, than we assert the same 
 of teachers, shipmasters, and owners of fac- 
 tories, in New England, or in Europe. But 
 that the way is open to an extraordinary ex- 
 tent, and that the effort is conscientiously 
 made in a large number of blessed instances, 
 we not only believe, but do testify. 
 
 In no instance have we ever been so much 
 impressed with the value of Family- Worship 
 to the servant, as when we have seen a large 
 household of negro slaves, sometimes filling 
 rooms and passages, gathered for this service, 
 
76 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 and filling the air with their peculiar melody. 
 On one of these occasions, being struck with 
 the intelligence, gravity, and decorum of the 
 servants thus assembled, we learned, on in- 
 quiry, that no less than fifty, of that planta- 
 tion alone, were communicants in the Pres- 
 byterian church. 
 
 No enlargement is necessary, in order to 
 show the immense value of such oral services 
 to those who cannot read. Hearing, as many 
 of them do, but small portions of the Scrip- 
 ture on the Sabbath, they are the more de- 
 pendent upon what they receive in the house. 
 It merits the consideration of all benevolent 
 householders in the south, whether this is not 
 of itself a strong argument for the necessity 
 of Family-Worship. Pious masters might 
 well take counsel, as to the best method and 
 order of reading, and even explaining, the 
 Scriptures to their servants. 
 
 The fondness of the black race for music 
 is proverbial. It is rare to meet with a negro 
 who does not sing ; and there are many whose 
 organ is susceptible of extraordinary training. 
 It is not uncommon to hear the negro, on 
 some nightly walk through the forest, waking 
 the echoes w 7 ith a sacred song, and perhaps, 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 77 
 
 (odd as it may seem) giving out the lines to 
 himself. We have listened to a great variety 
 of sacred music, vocal and instrumental, 
 Popish and Protestant, in choirs and congre- 
 gations, in concerts and oratorios ; but if we 
 were summoned to declare which of all seem- 
 ed most like the praise of God, we should 
 reply, The united voices of a thousand slaves, 
 ascending to heaven in a volume of harmony. 
 For this reason, divine praise should, if pos- 
 sible, always form a part of domestic wor- 
 ship, where black servants are present. No 
 better vehicle of truth to these minds could 
 be sought than an appropriate hymn, well 
 suited to a pleasing tune. The writer begs 
 the forbearance of the reader for a seem- 
 ing digression, prompted by the earnestness 
 of his desires on this topic, when he adds 
 another suggestion. As the southern ser- 
 vants can seldom read, and therefore have no 
 use of hymn books, the memory must be the 
 sole depository of their sacred song. It is 
 known that they largely frequent the assem- 
 blies of illiterate and enthusiastic persons, 
 and catch up snatches of hymns, which are 
 full of error, if not of absurd irreverence. 
 Might not Christian householders show to 
 
78 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 their servants a more excellent way ? and 
 might not the daily worship be the means of 
 doing so ? Twenty good hymns, with as many 
 simple melodies, would he a treasure to the 
 black servant. These should be carefully 
 selected, so as to contain nothing beyond 
 their capacity, and so as to include the chief 
 exercises of an evangelical mind. They 
 should be thus few, in order to be often 
 repeated, and thoroughly committed to the 
 memory. Each hymn should have its ap- 
 propriate tune. From time to time, the 
 hymns should be explained, until they should 
 be fully comprehended by every mind. Such 
 a method, unless we are deceived, would 
 draw to the Family- Worship many a servant 
 who now stands aloof. 
 
 Providence has placed the master of Afri- 
 can servants in a position where he can reach 
 a great number of immortal souls ; more 
 accessible, we think, to religious impression, 
 than any persons in the world. The first 
 great duty is to give them the gospel, and to 
 seek their salvation. Towards this end much 
 may be done by the ordinary means of Family- 
 Worship. But we most respectfully sug- 
 gest the inquiry, whether the principle of 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 79 
 
 this ordinance does not admit of an extension 
 to a much wider circle. As the dependents 
 and labourers of a wealthy proprietor are pro- 
 videntially increased to an unusual extent, 
 so, it might seem, should his parental influ- 
 ence, as a Christian householder, be expanded 
 in the same proportion. The carrying out of 
 this principle, in its details, must be confided 
 to the discretion and zeal of individual mas- 
 ters; but that in some way or other, the 
 opportunity of worshipping God should be 
 extended to the entire circle of inferiors, is 
 too clear to need an argument. Among other 
 methods, some plan might be adopted by 
 which not only house-servants, but planta- 
 tion-labourers should, at least from time to 
 time, be brought to share in the worship of 
 the family. And where estates are large, 
 special provision might be made for some 
 communication of stated instruction to every 
 soul within their bounds. That something 
 of this nature has already been effected, in a 
 number of places, is known to many of our 
 readers. In the great day of reckoning, we 
 doubt not that the silent, unobtrusive, self- 
 denying labours of Dr. C. C. Jones, and 
 his faithful coadjutors, will shine forth in 
 
80 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 colours of a brighter philanthropy, and will 
 be acknowledged as more full of love for the 
 slave, than all the inflammatory harangues 
 of a hundred misguided and disorganizing 
 zealots. 
 
 Returning from a digression, which never- 
 theless is nearly connected with our topic, to 
 the direct influences of Family- Worship on 
 the household, we find new sources of bene- 
 fit in this regard. As a common approach to 
 God, in whose august presence earthly dis- 
 tinctions are obliterated, it tends to make the 
 whole company coalesce into one body. The 
 family-state, as a unity of organization, found- 
 ed by God, as truly as church or common- 
 wealth, was more distinctly apprehended by 
 our fathers than it is by us. We have lost 
 both truth and advantage by forsaking their 
 ground. So far as domestics are concerned, 
 the family has become a scene of vicissitude. 
 Persons at service wander from house to 
 house. Rarely do we find among hired do- 
 mestics, one who has grown grey in the em- 
 ployment of the same family. In the same 
 proportion the bond between the two parties 
 has become less and less powerful and affec- 
 tionate. The domestic servant has come to 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 8 1 
 
 be regarded more in the light of a transient 
 labourer, than in times when he was next to 
 a child in respect and attachment. Hence 
 the obligations on either side have been re- 
 laxed, and among the rest it has become too 
 rare for the head of a family to feel any re- 
 sponsibility for the intelligence of his ser- 
 vants, or even for their morals, except in 
 reference to his selfish interests. We should, 
 therefore, welcome every means of rebuild- 
 ing these stones which have fallen from the 
 household wall; and as chief among these, 
 the ordinance of family-prayer. 
 
 It must be evident that where domestics 
 are brought in together with sons and daugh- 
 ters, to take an equal part in the daily wor- 
 ship of God, they will necessarily feel them- 
 selves to be more openly recognised as a part 
 of the family. They will acknowledge the 
 common interest. They will grow into sen- 
 timents, not only of respect, but of tender- 
 ness, for their superiors. The relation which 
 may at times seem galling to pride, will par- 
 take of friendly and sacred regard. In a 
 word, the happiness of the servant will be 
 promoted. Thus the way w T ill be cleared for 
 other and higher impressions. The truths of 
 
 8 
 
82 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 heavenly wisdom w^ill flow more readily into 
 hearts prepared by the softening influences 
 of kindly emotion. Daily access to the throne 
 of grace, on errands of earnest entreaty, will 
 scarcely fail to issue in the conviction, con- 
 version, and salvation, of a multitude of souls. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FAMILY-WORSHIP, AS A MEANS OF INTELLECTUAL 
 IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 Some there are to whom it will appear far- 
 fetched, to argue for this observance on the 
 ground of intellectual improvement. Such, 
 however, can have paid little attention to one 
 of the great effects of grace. The influence 
 of Family-Worship on mental culture is only 
 a part of the general influence of religion on 
 the mind. True piety improves the under- 
 standing. The worship of God is a means 
 of disciplining the faculties. The domestic 
 worship of God is a means of family cultiva- 
 tion, in respect to the intellectual powers. 
 When we consider that all sanctification 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 83 
 
 is by means of truth, this is no longer won- 
 derful. " The entrance of thy words giveth 
 light : it giveth understanding unto the sim- 
 ple."* " The fear of the Lord is the begin- 
 ning of wisdom."! No man becomes a true 
 Christian without becoming more instructed 
 and more wise. 
 
 It has been held by some, that the depra- 
 vity of man, by reason of the fall, does not 
 extend to the intellectual powers : but this is 
 an error, against which genuine reformed 
 theology has firmly protested. The change 
 in regeneration is a change of the whole man. 
 There is no aspect under which this renova- 
 tion is more frequently set forth in Scripture 
 than that of an illumination of the mind. J 
 Unless we err, this point has been too much 
 neglected. • The very acts and exercises of 
 a Christian life conduct directly to mental 
 improvement, and are in themselves an intel- 
 lectual discipline. And among these, Fam- 
 ily-Worship has a prominent share. 
 
 Family-Worship includes the reading of 
 the Scriptures; and this in itself is one of the 
 
 * Psalm cxix. 130. t Pr° v - i- ?• 
 
 X 2 Cor. iv. 4. 6. Ephes. i. 18 ; v. 14. Coloss. i. 9. 
 Heb. x. 32. 1 Pet. ii. 9. 1 John v. 20. 
 
84 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 most valuable instruments of cultivating the 
 powers. It is a world of knowledge in itself. 
 The truths which it presents are the great- 
 est and the most awakening w^hich can be 
 subjected to human attention. It is the voice 
 of God. He is Light, and in him is no dark- 
 ness at all ; the original, uncreated, eternal, 
 causative Light; the only source of all know- 
 ledge in creatures. He is primeval and essen- 
 tial Truth. Hence the subjects treated in the 
 Bible are eminently fitted to stimulate and 
 impress the soul. It treats of those things, 
 concerning many of w^hich we could not even 
 frame an imagination, or venture a guess; 
 the things of eternity before creation, and the 
 things of eternity after judgment; the fall, 
 the redemption, and the destiny of man. 
 Surely we need not prove to Christians that 
 the perusal of the Scriptures is good for the 
 understanding. 
 
 By means of family-reading, the Bible be- 
 comes in a manner the sole manual of the 
 house. The ancients used to say, " Take 
 heed of a man of one book;" meaning that 
 such a man, by perpetual repetition and 
 meditation of the same topics, and perpe- 
 tual whetting of his mind on the same argu 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 85 
 
 ments, must needs become one whom for 
 acumen, and use of his powers, it were dan- 
 gerous to encounter in argument. Family- 
 Worship includes in a sort the daily study of 
 one volume, which thus becomes the domestic 
 text-book. 
 
 The history of reformed Christianity would 
 furnish abundant instances of the discipline 
 and information which may be attained by 
 means of the Bible alone, especially w T here 
 proper pains are taken to compare scripture 
 with scripture. Here we gladly avail our- 
 selves of the judgment of a learned prelate 
 of the Anglican church. " It is incredible," 
 says the late Bishop Horsley, "to any one 
 who has not made the experiment, what a 
 proficiency may be made in that knowledge 
 which maketh wise unto salvation, by study- 
 ing the Scriptures in this manner, without 
 any other commentary, or exposition, than 
 what the different parts of the sacred volume 
 mutually furnish for each other. Let the 
 most illiterate Christian study them in this 
 manner, and let him never cease to pray for 
 the illumination of that Spirit by which these 
 books were dictated, and the whole compass 
 of abstruse philosophy, and recondite history, 
 
 8* 
 
86 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 shall furnish no argument with which the 
 perverse will of man shall be able to shake 
 this learned Christian's faith."* 
 
 There have been Scottish mechanics, hus- 
 bandmen and shepherds, who have known 
 no book but the word of God, and who have 
 nevertheless become able theologians, and 
 instructed men. Indeed it may be considered 
 whether the characteristic and proverbial 
 quickness of the Scottish peasantry may not 
 in a great measure be ascribed to this very 
 source. As a triumphant example of the 
 formative influence of the simple scriptures 
 on even an unlettered mind, we need only 
 mention the immortal name of John Bunyan. 
 
 Let it not be thought, because the Bible 
 is simply hear d, by the majority of a house- 
 hold, that it falls without effect. Hearing is 
 study, and of the most ancient kind. Before 
 copies of the word of God were multiplied, 
 as in our happy day, it was by the ear, and 
 not by the eye, that its contents were mostly 
 received. When the manner of reading is 
 good, it is still the most impressive method, 
 for the ignorant and the young. By such 
 means the Family- Worship becomes a house- 
 
 * Horsley's Nine Sermons, p. 224. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 87 
 
 hold school, and the tuition goes on for a life- 
 time. All this holds good, even when there 
 is not a syllable of comment. But, where 
 there are even moderate gifts, there will some- 
 times be thrown in a word of remark, the ex- 
 planation of a hard phrase, the reference to a 
 parallel place, the summons to special atten- 
 tion, the seasonable advice, or the warm en- 
 treaty. Sometimes, where time is more at 
 command, parts of a useful commentary will 
 be read in connexion with the word. Some- 
 times portions of evangelical works will be 
 added, and sometimes the catechetical exer- 
 cise, according to a venerable Presbyterian 
 custom, will find its place by the side of the 
 domestic worship of the Lord's day. 
 
 In a word, we cannot think it possible for 
 any family to enjoy, twice every day for all 
 their lives, the privilege of hearing the Scrip- 
 tures read at domestic worship, without, by 
 that very means, rising perceptibly and great- 
 ly in knowledge and intellectual force. 
 
 The reading of the Bible, invaluable as we 
 own it to be, is, however, but a part, and not 
 the most essential part of Family-Worship. 
 It remains, therefore to consider the influ- 
 ence of devotion. Although the subject has 
 
88 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 not been as frequently discussed as its im- 
 portance deserves, we undertake to maintain 
 that prayer itself is an intellectual discipline. 
 No man can pray habitually without thereby 
 gaining control over his thoughts, and culti- 
 vation of his faculties. 
 
 Nothing is more generally acknowledged 
 by all who have treated of the conduct- of the 
 understanding, than that an indispensable 
 condition of all right thinking and learning, 
 is the power of fixing the attention. In no- 
 thing is there a greater difference between 
 the civilized man and the savage, between 
 the adult and the infant, between the philo- 
 sopher and the boor. There is nothing, there- 
 fore, which is more earnestly sought in every 
 method of judicious education. This habit 
 of mental concentration is the result of innu- 
 merable acts, and is secured by repeatedly 
 summoning the mind to such acts. An ex- 
 ercise which brings the understanding to 
 converse w T ith great objects, in a state of in- 
 terest, under strong motives to be attentive, 
 and with frequent repetition, is directly pro- 
 motive of this habit. Such an exercise is 
 prayer. 
 
 If prayer were a sheer formality, like the 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 89 
 
 recital of unintelligible Aves and Credos, the 
 stringing of beads on a rosary, or the revolu- 
 tion of the Tartar's praying-machine, it might 
 fail of any such effect. But it is an exercise 
 in which the understanding is immediately 
 and most actively employed. As one of the 
 first hinderances to prayer is felt to be the 
 wandering of the thoughts, so the very first 
 effort of the mind which addresses itself to 
 devotion, is the calling in of the thoughts 
 and fixing of the attention. 
 
 Every act of prayer directs the mind to- 
 wards the greatest of all possible objects. 
 This is plainly a posture in which the facul- 
 ties cannot be dormant. The connexion of 
 thought with thought in prayer is a reason- 
 able connexion, and so furnishes exercise to 
 the powers. The accompanying play of 
 strong emotions, such as are evolved in acts 
 of supplication and praise, so far from being 
 detrimental, is highly helpful to the intellec- 
 tual process ; for never does the mind make 
 truer progress than when the moral powers 
 are in high exercise. 
 
 Let us compare two men of equal capacity, 
 and otherwise in like circumstances. One 
 of these has passed a lifetime without prayer. 
 
90 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 The other has, at stated hours, ten thousand 
 times solemnly addressed himself to the wor- 
 ship of God. Is it possible to believe that 
 such a difference in habit can be without a 
 corresponding difference in intellectual de- 
 velopment? Apply this to the domestic 
 ordinance. From the moment of budding 
 thought, all along the way of years, until the 
 last day of life, the household have been ga- 
 thered, morning and evening, for attendance 
 on the Scriptures and prayer ; to contemplate 
 the great God, to meditate on the best of 
 books, to mingle in the most sacred emotions. 
 Such an aggregate of influence, even on the 
 intellect, can never be estimated in the pre- 
 sent world; but we surely should violate 
 every principle of the mental constitution, 
 were we to deny its greatness. And this is 
 an influence, diffused not merely among theo- 
 logians and scholars, but over the common 
 mind of a country. We all know how little 
 there is among the mass of men, that deserves 
 the name of thought. The minds of the mul- 
 titude are diverted by company, dissipated 
 by frivolous pursuits, or worn by daily labour. 
 For such it is greatly useful to be called to a 
 daily exercise which composes the feelings, 
 
FAMILY- WORSHIP. 91 
 
 breaks the worldly thread, opens connexions 
 with eternity, and constrains to the thought 
 of God. Such influences are ennobling. 
 Souls cannot yield themselves so unreserved- 
 ly to the flesh, nor sink so low in the scale 
 of intelligence and morals, with these as with- 
 out them. It is something gained to have, 
 twice a day, pauses for thought. Texts and 
 principles poured into the most careless, or 
 w r e might even say, the most unwilling mind, 
 and prayers uttered even before the unde- 
 vout, will now and then recur, as sugges- 
 tions, and be ow T ned with saving effect ; and 
 what is this, but so much additional thought, 
 reflection, and wisdom ? 
 
 If, as we maintain, Family- Worship tends 
 directly and powerfully to the promotion of 
 piety, we might here rest our proof of its 
 intellectual benefits. All true piety is en- 
 larging and elevating. It spreads its efficacy 
 over the whole soul. It renders its subject 
 necessarily a meditative and serious person. 
 Evangelical doctrine, such as runs through 
 all sound Family-Worship, is connected with 
 chains of high argument, and embodies the 
 most systematic truth. No where is this bet- 
 ter exemplified than among our Calvinistic 
 
92 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 forefathers. Beside the loom, or following 
 the plough, they nevertheless pondered on, 
 those high points which looser systems deem 
 too abstruse for man, but which are revealed 
 in the Word, and are rendered matter of nou- 
 rishment and exultation to many a man who 
 earns his bread. We have in memory a 
 Scottish working-man, an humble dyer in a 
 factory, whose conversation was a feast of 
 intellectual stores. He was not only the dread 
 of infidel sciolists, in his own circle, but was 
 abundantly able to converse and to argue on 
 even the minuter divisions of theological 
 science; and he was well versed in the annals 
 of the church. Such cases are not rare, and 
 such men are reared among the institutions 
 of family-religion. 
 
 A clear addition to the annual means of 
 grace, amounting to seven hundred distinct 
 religious exercises, is an element which we 
 cannot exclude from just calculation. A town, 
 a province, a country, under such influences, 
 would be "a field w r hich the Lord hath 
 blessed." It would contain a population 
 mighty in the Scriptures, and trained to mas- 
 culine thought. Such a laud we should pray 
 that ours may be. Jt would then be " the 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 93 
 
 glory of all lands." These are among the 
 reasons why we desire the observance of 
 Family-Worship to be universal. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FAMILY-WORSHIP PROMOTIVE OF DOMESTIC HAR- 
 MONY AND LOVE. 
 
 " Behold, how good and how pleasant it is 
 for brethren to dwell together in unity. It 
 is like the precious ointment upon the head, 
 that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's 
 beard, that went down to the skirts of his 
 garments. As the dew of Hermon, and as 
 the dew that descended upon the mountains 
 of Zion ; for there the Lord commanded the 
 blessing, even life for evermore."* 
 
 Family peace is a blessing which cannot 
 be overrated. We desire to show that it is 
 directly promoted by Family- Worship. 
 
 The stated and punctual assembly of a 
 whole household for the service of God, has 
 
 * Psalm cxxxiii. 
 9 
 
94 FAMILY-WOKSHIP. 
 
 this tendency, if considered merely as a 
 means of bringing the several members toge- 
 ther. There are striking differences among 
 families in regard to the simple quality of 
 cohesion. While some are a bare collec- 
 tion of so many particles, without mutual 
 attraction, others are consolidated into a unity 
 of love. Many scattering influences are at 
 work. Some of these may be referred to 
 w r ant of system and regularity ; some to late 
 hours; some to peculiarities of business; some 
 to fashion; and some-to the dissipations of 
 vice. From one or several of these influences 
 we see domestic harmony impaired. Parents 
 and children meet only at their meals, and 
 not even at all of these. The tardy inmates 
 of the house descend in the morning at any 
 hour, and at long intervals, and the evening 
 is often despoiled of the charm of home. In 
 such circumstances we are persuaded the 
 links of affection are tarnished, if not worn 
 away. In proportion as the subjects of mu- 
 tual obligation live apart, they will cease to 
 care for one another. No customs of society 
 are laudable or safe which tend, in any con- 
 siderable degree, to separate parents from chil- 
 dren, and brothers from sisters. It is good 
 
FAMILY- WORSHIP. 95 
 
 to bring together the coals on the domestic 
 hearth. Hence we have always looked with 
 unqualified satisfaction on the New England 
 custom of gathering a]l the members of a 
 family, however remote, under the paternal 
 roof on the day of annual thanksgiving. 
 There is a sacred virtue in even beholding 
 the face of an aged father and a gentle be- 
 loved mother. On this very principle, the 
 president of one of our colleges, justly cele- 
 brated for his influence on young men, was 
 accustomed, when he saw the first tokens of 
 aberration in a boy, to call him to his study, 
 and kindly propose to him a simple visit to 
 his parents. We do not wonder that the 
 effect was often magical. 
 
 Family-Worship assembles the household 
 twice every day, and that in a deliberate and 
 solemn manner. No individual is missing. 
 This is the law of the house from childhood 
 to old age. The observance is as stated as 
 the daily meals. Other employments and 
 engagements are made to bow to this, until 
 it becomes the irreversible rule of the little 
 commonwealth. They look upon one an- 
 other's faces. They exchange the saluta- 
 tions of affection. Now, if ever, kind words 
 
96 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 and gentle wishes will be breathed; plans for 
 mutual benefit or entertainment will be laid ; 
 and the glow will be not the less because they 
 are met to offer the sacrifice of praise. Taken 
 singly, such influences are not to be despised, 
 but they rise to inestimable magnitude, when 
 diffused through all the days of long years, 
 that is, over the entire progress of family life. 
 By those who have enjoyed them they can 
 never be forgotten. Such households stand 
 in open contrast to those where parents and 
 children, in haste * and disorder, and with 
 many interruptions, snatch their daily bread, 
 without so much as a word of thanks or 
 prayer. 
 
 Some good results, in respect of harmony, 
 ensue, w T hen a household statedly assembles 
 for the common pursuit of any lawful object 
 whatever. Union, and the sentiment of union, 
 are promoted by joint participation, and the 
 effect is appreciable where the gathering is 
 frequent and stated. Though it were only 
 for exercise or recreation, for the practice of 
 music, for an evening perusal of useful books, 
 still there would be a contribution to mutual 
 acquaintance and regard. But how much 
 stronger is the operation of this principle 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 97 
 
 when the avowed object of thus meeting is 
 to seek the face of God, and to invoke his 
 blessing ! 
 
 There is no way in which we can more 
 surely increase mutual love than by praying 
 for one another. If you would retain warmth 
 of affection for an absent friend, pray for him. 
 If you would live in the regards of another, 
 beseech him to pray for you. If you would 
 conquer enmity in your own soul towards 
 one who has wronged you, pray for him. 
 Dissension or coldness cannot abide between 
 those who bear each other to God's throne in 
 supplication. It is what we meet to do at 
 Family- Worship. Often has the tenderness 
 of a half-dying attachment been renewed and 
 made young again, when the parties have 
 found themselves kneeling before the mercy- 
 seat. Every thing connected with such 
 utterance of mutual good-will in the domes- 
 tic worship tends to foster it, and thus the 
 daily prayers are as the dews of Hermon. 
 
 The devotions of the household are com- 
 monly conducted by the parent, and parental 
 affection often needs such an outlet. The 
 son or the daughter might otherwise remain 
 ignorant of the anxieties of the father. There 
 
OS FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 are yearnings which the parent cannot ex- 
 press to man, not even to a child, but which 
 must be poured forth to God, and which 
 have their appropriate channel in the daily 
 prayer. The hearing of such petitions, gush- 
 ing warm from the heart, and the participa- 
 tion of such emotions, cannot but sometimes 
 reach the hitherto obdurate mind, and tend 
 to a strong and reigning affection. Both pa- 
 rent and child, if they are ever touched with 
 genuine love, must experience it when they 
 come together before their God and Saviour. 
 
 That revelation of divine truth which is 
 perpetually expressed or implied in Family- 
 Worship, in Scripture, in psalms, and in 
 prayers, enjoins this very peace and affection. 
 The New Testament presents it in every 
 page. The word of God and prayer are, 
 from day to day, bringing the duty constant- 
 ly before the conscience. The household 
 which is subjected to this forming influence, 
 may be expected, more than others, to be a 
 household of peace. 
 
 Some notice must here be taken of a pain- 
 ful but common case. Human depravity 
 sometimes breaks forth in jars and aliena- 
 tions and strifes, among members of the same 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 99 
 
 brotherhood, and, alas, even within the sacred 
 limits of a Christian house. Harsh tem- 
 pers, sour looks, moody silence, moroseness, 
 grudges, bitter words, and alienations, mar 
 the beauty of the circle. Hence we find 
 slights, angry rebukes, suspicions, and re- 
 criminations. Happy, indeed, is that house- 
 hold over which these black clouds do not 
 sometimes hover. But what means shall we 
 seek to dispel them, more efficacious than a 
 common devotion ? That must be an obsti- 
 nate ill-will which not only lets the sun go 
 down on its wrath, but carries it to the altar, 
 and to the evening sacrifice. It is hard to 
 listen long to the word of God without hear- 
 ing the rebuke of all such dispositions. Per- 
 adventure the very portion read, may say to 
 the unrelenting one, "If thou bring thy gift 
 to the altar, and there rememberest that thy 
 brother hath aught against thee, leave there 
 thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; 
 first be reconciled to thy brother, and then 
 come and offer thy gift."* At all events, the 
 whole spirit of the exercise breathes such an 
 admonition; and it is most difficult to pray 
 with malice on the heart. Forgiveness comes 
 often to us while we are upon our knees. 
 
 * Matt. v. 23. 
 
100 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 Suppose even, what we are reluctant to 
 suppose, that mutual reproaches, perverse 
 separation, and open quarrel, should enter a 
 religious family. To offenders, in such a 
 case, the season of prayer must be an hour 
 of keen rebuke. Avowedly, they are bowed 
 down to pray for one another. The hypo- 
 crisy and impiety of so doing out of a mind 
 of hatred, will stare the sinner in the face, 
 and may bring him to repentance. Recon- 
 ciliation, begun in the heart, during moments 
 of devotion, may lead to the restoration of 
 peace. 
 
 Sad as is the thought, even husband and 
 wife may be drawn asunder, and may give 
 place to the devil. Shyness, severity, distrust, 
 and unkindness, may spring up between 
 those who have vowed to live together as 
 heirs of the grace of life. But it is hard to be- 
 lieve that such persons, if they possess a spark 
 of grace, can come to the posture and the 
 words of prayer, in which they have been 
 united so many times before in happier days, 
 or can feel themselves encircled by their 
 kneeling little ones, without surrendering the 
 selfish spite, and making a faithful effort to 
 crush the head of the viper. Conjugal ten- 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 101 
 
 derness, forbearance and love, are guarded 
 by the exercises of family-devotion. 
 
 Contrast all this with the condition of a 
 domestic circle subject to the same malign 
 influences, but without these checks and 
 this sacred balm, and you will no longer mar- 
 vel that where there is no worship, there is 
 room for discord. The stream of unkindly 
 temper runs on. Brooding silence is the best 
 that can be expected. The day closes with- 
 out reference to God. The griefs of the day 
 are carried over into the morrow. Infant mis- 
 conceptions and dislikes have full time to 
 grow to stubborn maturity, and all this for 
 want of that religious influence which would 
 be secured by the hour of prayer. 
 
 In speaking of Family- Worship as a means 
 of concord, we might dwell on its influence 
 upon absent members of the household. As 
 children grow up, there are few families 
 which do not send forth from their bosom 
 some to distant places. These are not for- 
 gotten at the hearth which they have left. 
 Day by day, the venerable father, joined in 
 silent love by the more melting mother, cries 
 to God for him who is afar upon the sea, or 
 in foreign lands. These are moments which 
 
102 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 bring the cherished object full before the 
 mind, and make the absent one present to 
 the heart. Not to say that such prayers are 
 answered — they enkindle and maintain the 
 fire of affection. Most unthinking or most 
 base must be the son or daughter who should 
 fail to prize these parental intercessions, or 
 disregard the supplications of the brother or 
 the sister left at home. Often, we are sure, 
 the recollection of the domestic worship 
 comes up before the distant youth, on the 
 high seas, or in remote wanderings. Often is 
 the secret tear shed over these privileges of 
 his childhood. In the perpetual fire of the 
 Family- Worship, he knows he has a remem- 
 brancer in his father's house. 
 
 "When, after years of absence, and it may 
 be of sin, the son revisits the home of his 
 childhood, and when, at the close of day, the 
 circle draws around the fireside, and that 
 worship is renewed which he remembers so 
 well — what a torrent of ancient reminiscence 
 pours into the heart ! Such associations have 
 their influence on even hardened natures, 
 and they go to prove the blessedness of this 
 familiar institution. ' 
 
 But after all that we may urge, the great 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 103 
 
 and crowning reason why domestic worship 
 promotes harmony, is, that it promotes true 
 religion, and religion is love. Its mission is 
 peace on earth and good will to men. Un- 
 like the empirical schemes of Godwin, St. 
 Simon, Fourier, and Owen, which tear the 
 household elements asunder, Christianity 
 compacts the structure, and strengthens 
 every wall. It adds a new cement, and 
 makes the father more a father— the husband 
 more a husband — the son more a son ; so that 
 there is not a social tie which does not be- 
 come more strong and endearing by means 
 of grace. If even enemies are reduced to 
 amity by the gospel, how much greater must 
 be its influence on the ties of blood and affi- 
 nity ! It consecrates every natural relation, 
 and exalts human affections by expanding 
 them into eternity. Its daily lessons, con- 
 stantly recurring in Family-Worship, bear 
 directly on this point. " Husbands, love your 
 wives, even as Christ also loved the Church. 
 Let the wife see that she reverence her hus- 
 band. Fathers, provoke not your children to 
 wrath. Children, obey your parents in all 
 things, for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. 
 Servants, be obedient to them that are your 
 
1 04 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 masters according to the flesh, with fear and 
 trembling, in singleness of your heart, as 
 unto Christ. And ye masters, do the same 
 things unto them, forbearing threatening, 
 knowing that your Master also is in heaven. 
 Love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. 
 Honour all men. Be not forgetful to enter- 
 tain strangers. Be kindly affectioned one to 
 another, with brotherly love, in honour pre- 
 ferring one another. Let all bitterness, and 
 wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil- 
 speaking, be put away from you, with all 
 malice : and be ye kind one to another, ten- 
 der-hearted, forgiving one another, even as 
 God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." 
 Such are the touching accents of the gospel 
 in general, and of this institution in particu- 
 lar, familiarized to every inmate of a Chris- 
 tian house, from the earliest infancy. And 
 what the w T ord of God enjoins, the Spirit of 
 grace produces in the heart, where true reli- 
 gion finds entrance. Under the daily influ- 
 ence of such motives, which drop as the rain 
 and distil as the dew, the youthful heart may 
 be expected, in many cases, to receive the 
 noblest charities of a renewed nature. 
 
 Amidst all the imperfections of the Chris- 
 
FAMILY- WORSHIP. 105 
 
 tian state, there have been thousands of fami- 
 lies, since the founding of the Church, which 
 have realized this ideal ; and what spectacle 
 on earth is more lovely ? From the very cra- 
 dle, the infant lips are taught to lisp the name 
 of God, and the soft voices of childhood join 
 in the daily praise. Brothers and sisters, 
 already brought by baptism within the pale 
 of the visible church, grow up with all the 
 additional reasons for mutual attachment, 
 which spring from dedication to God. No 
 day passes in which parents and children do 
 not compass God's altars. When the father 
 and mother begin to descend into the autumn 
 of life, they behold their offspring prepared 
 to walk in their steps. There is a church in 
 the house. When death enters, it is to make 
 but a brief separation ; and eternity sees the 
 whole family in heaven, without exception or 
 omission. 
 
 " The happiest family will not be always 
 so. The most smiling circle will be in tears 
 some day. All that I ask is, that you would 
 secure for yourselves and your children, a 
 friend in that blessed Redeemer, who will 
 wipe all tears from your faces. Your fami- 
 10 
 
106 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 lies may soon be scattered, and familiar voices 
 may cease to echo within your walls. They 
 may go each to his own, and some of them 
 may go far away. O see to it, that the God 
 of Bethel goes with them, that they set up an 
 altar even on a distant shore, and sing the 
 Lord's song in that foreign land. They may 
 be taken from this earth altogether, and leave 
 you alone. O see to it, that as one after an- 
 other goes, it may be to their Father's house 
 above, and to sing with heavenly voices, and 
 to a heavenly harp, the song which they first 
 learned from you, and which you often sang 
 together here — the song of Moses and the 
 Lamb. And if you be taken, and some of 
 them be left, see to it, that you leave them 
 the thankful assurance that you are gone to 
 their Father and your Father, their God and 
 your God. And, in the meanwhile, let your 
 united worship be so frequent and so fervent, 
 that when you are taken from their head, the 
 one whose sad office it is to supply your 
 place, as priest of that household, shall not 
 be able to select a chapter or a psalm with 
 which your living image and voice are not 
 associated, and in which you, though dead, 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 107 
 
 are not yet speaking to them. And thus my 
 heart's wish for you all is, 
 
 4 When soon or late you reach that coast, 
 
 O'er life's rough ocean driven ; 
 May you rejoice, no wanderer lost, 
 
 A family in heaven.' "* 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF FAMILY-WORSHIP ON A HOUSE- 
 HOLD IN AFFLICTION. 
 
 In hours of trial the members of a household 
 gather together, as if by a natural instinct, 
 and the tendency is more marked where the 
 Christian sympathies are active. But it is 
 an unsatisfactory and cheerless assembling, 
 when chastisement falls on a house where 
 there is no religion. The countenances, even 
 of friends, mutually reflect despondency. 
 Words of comfort may be uttered, but they 
 are such as cannot reach the depth of suffer- 
 ing; for what, but the promise of the gospel, 
 can bind up the broken-hearted ? There is a 
 hollowness and conscious insufficiency in the 
 language of condolence which ungodly men 
 
 * The Rev. James Hamilton. 
 
108 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 address to one another under misfortune. 
 There is no reference to God, there are no 
 allusions to heaven, nor applications by- 
 prayer to the great source of comfort. 
 
 In contrast with this, consider the case of 
 a sorrowing believer. The very first impulse, 
 w r hen he is smitten, is to go to his Father in 
 heaven, whom he recognises as the Disposer 
 of the event, and whom he leans upon for 
 support. It is the universal experience of 
 disciples ; when surprised by trial they flee 
 to the throne of grace, as the affrighted bird 
 to its covert and nest. " Is any afflicted, let 
 him pray" The operation of this principle 
 is observed in the family. A common visi- 
 tation has reached every member, but only 
 to drive them more near together. They 
 have learned to bear one another's burdens, 
 and to lean on one another's Christian love. 
 They need no prompter to draw them in con- 
 cert to the place of prayer; all hearts tend in 
 that very direction, and the sentiments of all 
 find expression in the privilege of family- 
 prayer. 
 
 Among God's people on earth, there are 
 thousands who smart under the daily afflic- 
 tion of poverty. It is still true that God hath 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 109 
 
 chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, 
 and heirs of the kingdom which he hath pro- 
 mised to them that love him. Though we 
 have not seen the righteous forsaken, yet we 
 have often seen him in such straits that the 
 morning could give no promise of the even- 
 ing's bread. It is a heavy trial for the father 
 to come home to his household at night, with 
 scarcely enough of earnings to keep them 
 from being famished, and for him to behold 
 the wife and little ones shivering for lack of 
 fuel and raiment. Yet such fathers and such 
 households there are, w T here, nevertheless, 
 this very evening, the word of God is read, 
 and the blessing which maketh rich is in- 
 voked in the never-forgotten family-prayer. 
 And such families are unspeakably distin- 
 guished from the vulgar poor, if it were only 
 by this single service. They have a solace 
 which the world does not understand. That 
 father and mother can lie down, resting on 
 promises of relief which have never been dis- 
 appointed. And those children, from their 
 earliest years, are learning the lesson of de- 
 pendence on God, and offering the petition, 
 " Give us this day our daily bread," with an 
 accent unknown in the houses of the rich. 
 10* 
 
110 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 True piety may be left without worldly 
 goods, but it will not be left without the 
 domestic worship. 
 
 Sudden losses are accounted great trials, 
 and they sometimes fall on such as have 
 rolled in wealth. From the vicissitudes of 
 trade, and the wildness of speculation, and 
 the prodigality of wealth, and the growing 
 treachery of associates, it has come to pass, 
 that we hear wdthout surprise of instantane- 
 ous ruin and bankruptcy. Knit together as 
 society is, this may befall even a righteous 
 man; or unexpected poverty may come 
 in at some other door. Riches have many 
 wings, with which they fly away as an eagle 
 toward heaven. In such a case it is not for 
 one of God's children to say, " Ye have taken 
 away my gods, and what have I more? 7 '* 
 Rather will he call together his household, 
 and humbly declare, w r ith one in worse con- 
 dition, " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath 
 taken away; blessed be the name of the 
 Lord."f A domestic usage, which makes 
 this not only easy, but expected, is a means 
 of relief. Here the father may pour out his 
 soul freely, and here the children may learn 
 
 * Judges xviii. 24. t Job i. 21. 
 
FAMILY- WORSHIP. Ill 
 
 that their parent has a treasure laid up where 
 thieves do not break through nor steal. If 
 the family devotions have been held precious 
 during the time of prosperity, they will seem 
 doubly precious now, and it will be delight- 
 ful to consider that earthly reverses cannot 
 touch this possession. The equipage and 
 livery and plate may vanish ; the paintings 
 and gorgeous furniture may fly under the 
 hammer ; the library may be scattered ; the 
 very mansion may be forsaken. Yet, in a 
 cottage or a garret, within bare cold walls, 
 shunned by the parasites of other days, the 
 Christian family may rejoice that the daily 
 worship of God is still untouched; and 
 here, though with tearful eyes, they can still, 
 from the bottom of their hearts, give thanks. 
 There is, to my mind, something peculiarly 
 sacred in the worship of the house, perpe- 
 tuated, unchanged, through every vicissitude 
 of fortune. 
 
 "I was once told,'' says Mr. Hamilton, "of 
 a cottage patriarch, who was born in those 
 days when Scotland had a church in almost 
 every house. There was one in his father's 
 dwelling, and when he pitched a tent for 
 himself, he builded an altar. Round that 
 
112 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 altar a goodly number of olive-plants grew 
 up, but, one by one, they were either planted 
 out in families of their own, or God took 
 them, till he and his old partner found them- 
 selves, just as at their outset in life, alone. 
 But their family-worship continued as of old. 
 At last his fellow-traveller left him. Still he 
 carried on the worship by himself. So sweet 
 was the memory of it in his father's house, 
 and so pleasant had he found it in his own, 
 that he could not give it up. But as he sat 
 in his silent habitation, morning and even- 
 ing, his quivering voice was overheard sing- 
 ing the old psalm-tune, reading aloud the 
 chapter, and praying as if others still wor- 
 shipped by his side." 
 
 When evil tidings come to the heathen, 
 they rend their garments, tear out their hair, 
 cast dust and ashes on their heads, and fill 
 the air with lamentation. Ungodly persons 
 in Christian lands, in a like case, do not in- 
 deed give w T ay to the same outward demon- 
 strations, but are not the less affected within. 
 It is the property of the true Christian, to 
 hear such messages with calmness and re- 
 signation. u He shall not be afraid of evil 
 tidings : his heart is fixed, trusting in the 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 113 
 
 Lord."* And when the black seal is broken, 
 and the faces of all who hover around gather 
 paleness, it is true religion which lifts the 
 eyes and says, " The will of the Lord be 
 done." Blessed is the privilege, in such an 
 hour, of meeting as a smitten, but unforsaken 
 flock, at the feet of the heavenly Shepherd, 
 and of pouring out the soul in supplication. 
 Sometimes disease makes fearful inroads 
 in the Christian house. There is then a spe- 
 cial message to the throne of grace. Happy 
 is the case in which we can go to Christ, 
 saying, " He whom thou lovest is sick." But 
 we may bring all our afflicted ones to him, 
 as to the great Physician, pleading with him 
 by his name, jEHOVAH-RoPHi.f The daily 
 visits of the medical adviser are less indis- 
 pensable than daily resort to the Most High. 
 It is not safe to lie ill in a prayerless house ; 
 but it is better to be a Lazarus in the midst 
 of true prayers, than to be full of health in a 
 house which knows no worship. In a faith- 
 ful household, the case of the languishing 
 sufferer is never forgotten before God ; and 
 the prayer of faith does still often heal the 
 sick. The very thought of this is a cordial 
 
 * Psalm cxii. 7. f Exodus xv. 26. 
 
1 14 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 to the fainting spirits, especially in those 
 cases where the malady is lingering, and 
 stretches its saddening influence through 
 many years. The sons of gaiety may look 
 with indifference on the daily exercise of 
 devotion; not so the pining invalid, whose 
 life is a long disease ; who seldom ventures 
 across the threshold, and who counts the 
 hours until the voice of prayer and praise is 
 heard again. When disease takes a more 
 threatening form, and life is in danger, we 
 have observed an unusual solemnity steal 
 over even the more careless members of the 
 household, as they obey the summons to 
 evening prayer. The feeling is natural, that, 
 after all, this is the most rational instrumen- 
 tality: for God only can help. The ordinary 
 exercise is transformed into a special inter- 
 cession for one who is on a bed of peril. Be- 
 fore the morrow, that soul may be in eternity. 
 Can w r e think, with composure, of such dan- 
 gers, or of the death struggle going on, in 
 houses where not one syllable of oral prayer 
 is uttered, not one group of kneeling suppli- 
 ants gathered about the death bed ? We may 
 surely be forgiven, if we pray, May I die the 
 death of the righteous, and may my last end 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 115 
 
 be among the prayers of the righteous. Yet 
 what numbers are even this moment dying, 
 without one word of supplication, and with- 
 out so much as a token of Christianity ! 
 
 There is a sentiment in every true disci- 
 ple's breast, which makes him glory in the 
 faith of the gospel pre-eminently in a moment 
 of tribulation. Now, he feels, is the juncture 
 in which to show that the confidence in God 
 is unshaken. Hence the quiet and seemly 
 attendance of a Christian household on divine 
 offices, even amidst extreme trials, is strongly 
 opposed to the heathenish confusion of a pray- 
 erless family. 
 
 Every house must, sooner or later, become 
 a house of mourning. The blessedness of 
 worshipping God in our family capacity, is 
 never more evinced, than when death has 
 struck his blow. Though we pray not for 
 the dead, we feel within us an impulse to 
 kneel and pray beside the dead. When the 
 corpse is still in the house, Family-Worship 
 has a singular awe. A link has been broken. 
 A voice is missed from the harmony. A 
 shadowy form, that as long as strength en- 
 dured, lingered about these places of prayer, 
 has at length ceased to appear. " One is 
 
116 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 not."* Amidst such unavoidable reflections, 
 the common resort to the throne of grace be- 
 comes peculiarly tender and awful. The ele- 
 vations of prayer and praise befit the soul 
 which has felt a mighty grief, and which 
 sickens at the presentation of minor and 
 earthly considerations. We have seen the 
 heart-broken widow led in to the accustomed 
 place of prayer, shrinking to hear a stranger's 
 voice in the place of his — yet calmed and 
 buoyed up by the fellowship of devotion. O 
 how many could rise and testify, that in sea- 
 sons of deep affliction they have found unut- 
 terable solace, not only in prayer in general, 
 but in the domestic prayer in particular ! 
 "Wounded hearts need fellowship, even in 
 their devotions, and feel their griefs assuaged, 
 when others, whom they love, gather around 
 them in the use of words which make their 
 sorrows the sorrows of all. Such devotions 
 soften and hallow grief, and make the sor- 
 rows of a Christian house altogether different 
 from those of the world. To enter such a 
 circle is good, There we are taught, that 
 " it is better to go to the house of mourning, 
 than to go to the house of feasting."! Tears 
 
 * Gen. xlii. 13. t Eccl. vii. 2. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 117 
 
 will no doubt gush freely and interrupt the 
 service, where sudden bereavement has oc- 
 curred, but the whole influence of the devo- 
 tion, even on the chief sufferers, has been 
 uniformly observed to be consolatory in no 
 common degree. There are other afflictions, 
 however, besides the loss of property, health, 
 or friends ; sometimes less tolerable, more 
 poignant than these. When such tempests 
 break over a house, whither can they resort 
 but to God, in prayer ? If they have already 
 instituted this daily exercise, they need no 
 new arrangements ; their access is direct to 
 the heart of a Father. Let them, as a family, 
 bowing before him, unbosom themselves of 
 that burden, which perhaps they have no 
 freedom to tell to a fellow-man. It is good to 
 draw near to God with peculiar sorrows. 
 
 There are houses in our world of suffering, 
 where the wonderful dealing of Providence 
 presses with long-continued chastisement ; 
 sorrows which abide for years, and from 
 which nothing promises an outlet but death, 
 which brings with it the cure of all evils to 
 the righteous, and the answer of all prayers. 
 There are thorns in the flesh which God does 
 not see good to extract ; domestic crosses, 
 11 
 
118 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 constitutional infirmities, vexations left like 
 the Canaanites in the land, incurable pains 
 and diseases. In these it is a blessed thino 
 to pray, and to pray in fellowship. To these 
 the daily worship is a moaning and an even- 
 ing balm, indispensable as the "necessary 
 food." Remove this agency, and you strike 
 out the light of the dwelling. Aged and soli- 
 tary persons, and victims of mental depres- 
 sion, crave the social flow of affection, which 
 is afforded by Family-Worship. Having 
 ceased to look for the pity of the world, they 
 need the more those communications which 
 are made in the hour of prayer, and here 
 they sometimes learn to " glory in tribulation 
 also." Forlorn, indeed, are such sufferers in 
 prayerless households. It is no common trial, 
 for a solitary believer to spend a lifetime in a 
 family where there is no other voice to cry 
 to God. And blessed is that institution, 
 handed down to us from our forefathers, by 
 means of w T hich a refreshing stream is daily 
 conducted through the habitation. 
 
 A single mourner is, perhaps, found in a 
 household : " stricken deer," that left the 
 herd "long since, with many an arrow deep 
 infixed." Common sympathy does not reach 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 1 19 
 
 such a case ; but it is reached by devotion. 
 Secret balsams of Christian love often distil 
 on the wounded heart, in the season of do- 
 mestic worship, though not a syllable be 
 uttered, which, by rude allusion, could shock 
 the sensitive mind. Prayers offered in the 
 presence of such a one take a form which 
 soothes, instructs, and elevates. There is 
 society in worship, even for the most secluded 
 mourner. The daily sanctuary of the house- 
 hold would be worth all it can ever cost, if it 
 did no more than minister to this "mind dis- 
 eased. " In a long night of pilgrimage, with- 
 out the lights of earthly hope, prayer opens 
 views of the better country, for we are never 
 nearer to heaven than when we are upon our 
 knees. 
 
 But, reverting to those afflictions which 
 are felt by a whole family, we may observe, 
 that they offer remarkable occasions for ex- 
 periencing the benefits of household devotion 
 The soul is mollified by grief; every w T ord 
 spoken at such times sinks deeply. Sup- 
 posing the head of the family to be suitably 
 exercised, his experience will diffuse itself to 
 the members. The youngest and the most 
 worldly wdll be called to join in lively ex- 
 
120 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 pressions, which may awaken them to reflec- 
 tion, and lead them to turn the dispensations 
 of Providence to spiritual account. The pro- 
 found humiliation of a heart-stricken father, 
 his penitent confessions of sin, his unreserved 
 submission to the stroke of God's hand, his 
 moving entreaties for deliverance, comfort, 
 and grace ; and his irrepressible intercessions 
 with God for his unconverted children ; these 
 are appeals more likely to go to the heart of 
 the impenitent, in a time of sorrow, than all 
 the amplifications of eloquence. And as afflic- 
 tions are sure to be remembered, this means 
 will cause them to be remembered as asso- 
 ciated with the most affecting truths of reli- 
 gion. 
 
 Let us not forget, that God doth not always 
 chide, neither doth he keep his anger for ever. 
 Though weeping may endure for a night, 
 joy cometh in the morning. Prayers are an- 
 swered. They cry unto the Lord in their 
 trouble, and he delivereth them out of their 
 distresses. Then comes the time for thanks- 
 giving ; to praise the Lord for his goodness, 
 and for his wonderful works to the children 
 of men. A w 7 hole family engaged in render- 
 ing thanks is a delightful spectacle. The 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 121 
 
 place to behold it, is the chamber of family- 
 prayer. The psalms and praises of such a 
 service are better than mountains of sacrifice. 
 The house from which they ascend is a 
 Bethel. Where God's worship has been 
 maintained for years, one may look back upon 
 the successive seasons of deliverance and gra- 
 titude, and see each one marked with its 
 separate Ebenezer. Can religious profes- 
 sors willingly spend their lives in the recep- 
 tion of divine benefits, and yet withhold from 
 themselves and their children the appro- 
 priate solemnity for such tribute of thanks- 
 giving! Shame on the degeneracy of our 
 day, which has made household irreligion a 
 common thing, even within the pale of the 
 visible Church ! 
 
 We have enlarged upon the topic of afflic- 
 tion, as connected with Family -Worship, be- 
 cause afflictions are the common lot of all, 
 and because they remarkably show the value 
 of this institution. We know no sight more 
 touching than that of a Christian family, 
 under some humbling, piercing dispensation, 
 all gathered in the accustomed place of prayer, 
 like fearful birds overtaken by a storm, and 
 seeking the Lord God of Israel, under whose 
 ll* 
 
1 22 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 wings they come to trust* Rising from 
 prayer, and separating for the night, they 
 find their agitations calmed by the presence 
 of the Comforter, and can say with hope : 
 "O Lord, be gracious unto us; w r e have 
 waited for thee : be thou their arm every 
 morning, our salvation also in the time of 
 trouble."* The ungodly are not so. These 
 softening and consoling influences are un- 
 known to them. Their griefs are sullen. 
 No fellowship in waiting upon God lifts 
 them above the cold, barren prospect of earth- 
 ly consolations. Their dwellings are dark 
 and wintry, in respect to any stated service 
 of God. And, alas, they are imitated by 
 many in the Church, who endure the strokes 
 of chastisement again and again, and even 
 sustain the arrows of death, without having 
 ever known what it was to come together as 
 a family, for prayer. Would it be credited 
 by a Jew, a Mohammedan, or a heathen, that 
 men who profess the religion of Jesus, and 
 sit down at his table, die, and are carried out 
 to burial, from houses in which their voices 
 have never been heard in prayer ? 
 
 * Ruth ii. 12. t Isaiah xxxiii. 2. 
 
123 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF FAMILY-WORSHIP ON VISITERS, 
 GUESTS, AND NEIGHBOURS. 
 
 As "none of us liveth to himself, and no man 
 dieth to himself," it is right and seemly that 
 this principle of devotion to the Lord should 
 be impressed on the domestic organization. 
 The Christian household is not for itself; by 
 grace it may be as a city set on a hill. 
 Family-Worship is a means of carrying out 
 this influence. 
 
 Good and evil are constantly and rapidly 
 propagated from house to house. What we 
 denominate public opinion and public char- 
 acter, are very much dependent on this 
 agency, which is not less certain than the 
 silent but mighty transmission of the electric 
 fluid in the material world. The dialect of 
 towns and provinces is thus originated and 
 fixed; modes of dress, and furniture, and liv- 
 ing, are carried from circle to circle ; extra- 
 vagance and vice circulate by the same 
 channels; as do likewise political opinions, 
 and even religious sentiments. Such are the 
 
1 24 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 action and reaction between man and man, 
 that we never go into a neighbour's house, 
 or receive a neighbour into our own, without 
 giving or receiving some imperceptible im- 
 pression ; and by the sum of these are our 
 character and manners formed. 
 
 Families differ very widely in respect to 
 their freedom of intercourse. While some 
 are shut up within themselves, others keep 
 open doors, and are frequented by numbers 
 of visiters and guests. When the friend 
 whom we cherish is under our roof, he should 
 be made to discern the reigning principle 
 of the place. In a dwelling where there is 
 no worship he may be pardoned if he say 
 " Surely the fear of God is not in this place.' '* 
 But in a religious household, even the casual 
 visiter must sometimes be made sensible, 
 that there is a perpetual reference to another 
 world. Suppose him to be under the Chris- 
 tian roof, at the appointed hour of prayer. 
 It is well in every such case, if the service is 
 not omitted or postponed. He may be a 
 stranger to such solemnities : he may be even 
 careless or profane. Yet when he sees the 
 whole family gathered, with stillness and de- 
 
 * Gen. xx. 11. 
 
FAMILY- WORSHIP. 125 
 
 coram ; when he hears the word of God read, 
 and joins in the psalm of praise, and kneels 
 with the rest in an act of worship, it will not 
 be marvellous if he be drawn to some new 
 and serious reflection. The impression may- 
 be greater than w T e suppose, from the very 
 influence of novelty. These acts of divine 
 service will have a tendency to show him, 
 that here, at least, is a circle in which God 
 is continually recognized. If a householder 
 himself, he will necessarily be led to contrast 
 with this the' condition of his own domestic 
 affairs ; and if he is a professing Christian, 
 living in neglect of this duty, he will doubt- 
 less experience a pang of conscience. Ex- 
 ample is powerful : he may see his way more 
 clear, to make his own habitation a house of 
 prayer. 
 
 " Some years ago," says Mr. Hamilton, of 
 London, "an Irish wanderer, his wife, and 
 his sister, asked a night's shelter in the cabin 
 of a pious schoolmaster. With the character- 
 istic hospitality of his nation, the schoolmas- 
 ter made them welcome. It w T as the hour 
 for evening-worship, and when the strangers 
 were seated, he began by reading slowly and 
 solemnly the second chapter of the Epistle to 
 
126 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 the Ephesians. The young man sat aston- 
 ished. The expressions, 'dead in trespasses 
 and sins/ ' children of wrath,' ' walking- after 
 the course of this world,' w r ere new to him. 
 He sought an explanation. He was told that 
 this is God's account of the state of man by 
 nature. He felt that it was exactly his own 
 state. ' In this way I have walked from my 
 childhood. In the service of the God of this 
 world we have come to your house.' He was 
 on the way to a fair, where he intended to 
 pass a quantity of counterfeit money. But 
 God's word had found him. out. He pro- 
 duced his store of coin, and begged his host 
 to cast it into the fire, and asked anxiously 
 if he could not obtain the word of God for 
 himself. His request was complied with, 
 and next morning, with the new treasure, 
 the party, who had now no errand to the fair, 
 returned to their own home. Perhaps by 
 this time the pious schoolmaster has met his 
 guest within the gates of the city, outside of 
 which are thieves, and whatsoever maketh a 
 lie. But I cannot enumerate all the conver- 
 sions which have occurred at the Church in 
 the house." 
 
 " A few years ago," says the same writer, 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 127 
 
 " an English gentleman visited America, and 
 spent some days with a pious friend. He 
 was a man of talent and accomplishments, 
 but an infidel. Four j^ears afterwards he 
 returned to the same house, a Christian. 
 They wondered at the change, but little sus- 
 pected when and where it had originated. 
 He told them that when he was present at 
 their Family-Worship, on the first evening 
 of his former visit, and when after the chap- 
 ter was read, they all knelt down to pray, 
 the recollection of such scenes in his father's 
 house, long years ago, rushed on his memory, 
 so that he did not hear a single word. But 
 the occurrence made him think, and his 
 thoughtfulness ended in his leaving the howl- 
 ing wilderness of infidelity, and finding a 
 quiet rest in the salvation wrought out by 
 Jesus Christ.' ' 
 
 By this pleasing incident we are led to ob- 
 serve that the influence of Family-Worship 
 is peculiarly great upon guests who abide for 
 some days or weeks in a Christian house, 
 even if they have been brought up at home 
 without such privileges. All that has just 
 been pointed out here operates more freely 
 and for a longer time. The beauty of holi- 
 
, 128 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 ness, and the pleasantness of the ways of 
 God, are silently brought before their con- 
 templations. We could name instances in 
 which such a sojourn in a pious family has 
 made deep impressions on worldly minds, in 
 favour of evangelical religion. This ought 
 surely to rest on the thoughts of Christian 
 householders, in the way of duty. "We are, 
 perhaps, ready enough to make our guests 
 welcome, to provide for their lodging and 
 refreshment, to show them the wonders of 
 our environs, and to invite friends for their 
 entertainment; but besides this, we owe a 
 duty to their souls. It ought not for a mo- 
 ment to be thought possible, that a dear 
 friend or relative should stay weeks, or even 
 days, in our house, without receiving some 
 spiritual advantage. How often have the 
 visits of careless young persons to godly fami- 
 lies been made instrumental of their salva- 
 tion. Among the means tending in this direc- 
 tion, we know none more fruitful than that 
 which forms the subject of this volume. 
 
 But we must by no means narrow down 
 the efficacy of daily worship, to that which 
 takes place within a particular house. The 
 whole neighbourhood feels the influence. Let 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 129 
 
 us not undervalue the power of Christianity. 
 No single believer can abide long in a place 
 without making it in some degree better ; the 
 true leaven will work; the true light will 
 shine. Nor can any consistent God-fearing 
 household fail of diffusing a hallowed force, 
 in every direction. Bad influences fly thus, 
 why shall not good ones ? It is true, from 
 the depravity of our nature, men follow evil 
 rather than good ; but it is also true, blessed 
 be God ! that divine grace uses the very same 
 channels of connexion for the conveyance of 
 truth and holiness. 
 
 Suppose only a single pious family, ob- 
 serving the worship of God, without shame 
 or concealment, in the midst of a wicked 
 society. Their peculiar ways, and this ser- 
 vice in particular, will attract notice and 
 beget remark. The visiter, or the passer by, 
 will hear the voice of praise or prayer. The 
 observation will be natural, That house is 
 a house of prayer ; God is honoured in that 
 house. Neighbours will learn that here is 
 a man who arranges all his business, and 
 fixes all his hours, with reference to the daily 
 household devotion, which nothing is allowed 
 to interrupt. There are occasions in which 
 
 12 
 
1 30 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 ibis peculiarity of the dwelling is brought 
 into full light. In cases of sudden illness, 
 calamity, or soul trouble, every one will know 
 whither to go for a praying man, to kneel 
 by the bed of death, or to speak peace to the 
 troubled conscience. Where such house- 
 holds are multiplied in any town or neigh- 
 bourhood, by means of counsel and example, 
 there is a mighty increase given to the ex- 
 pansive Christian principle, such as often 
 changes the whole face of society. How 
 earnestly ought we to pray that this particu- 
 lar means of social and national improve- 
 ment, may receive an immediate extension, 
 throughout our beloved land ; and that un- 
 faithful professors, living in neglect of this 
 plain duty, may awake to repentance and 
 reformation ! What a change might we ex- 
 pect soon to see in regions where now the 
 feeble piety which exists is like a half-expir- 
 ing taper, which scarcely reaches beyond its 
 little home-circle ! 
 
 We are under the humbling impression 
 that this is one of the points, in regard to 
 which, with all our boast of superior privi- 
 leges, we have not improved on the exam- 
 ple of our pious forefathers. Among the 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 131 
 
 Presbyterians of Scotland, and the English 
 Nonconformists of the seventeenth century, 
 there was probably a far smaller proportion 
 of Christian professors living in prayerless 
 houses than among ourselves. The perform- 
 ance of this duty was made matter of special 
 investigation, by pastors and elders, and even 
 by superior judicatories of the church. And 
 the effect was a diffusion of piety, more un- 
 obtrusive perhaps, but not less rapid, and 
 certainly not less sound, than that which, in 
 our day, we are fond of seeking by periodi- 
 cal excitements and doubtful measures. The 
 sacred treasure of one house became the por- 
 tion of many, and w T hole communities caught 
 the fire which may have been enkindled in 
 a corner. Such was the case in the town of 
 Kidderminster, which was blessed with the 
 labours of that eminent servant of God, 
 Richard Baxter; and his testimony, how- 
 ever familiar, is too valuable to be omitted in 
 this place. 
 
 " On the Lord's day," says Mr. Baxter, 
 " there was no disorder to be seen in the 
 streets, but you might hear a hundred fami- 
 lies singing psalms, and repeating sermons, 
 as you passed through the streets. When I 
 
1 32 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 came thither first, there was about one family 
 in a street that worshipped God and called 
 on his name ; and when I came away, there 
 were some streets where there was not above 
 one family in the side of a street that did 
 not so, and that did not, by professing seri- 
 ous godliness, give us some hopes of their 
 sincerity; and those families which were the 
 w T orst, being inns and ale-houses, usually 
 some persons in each did seem to be reli- 
 gious. Some of the poor men did compe- 
 tently understand the body of divinity, and 
 were able to judge in difficult controversies. 
 Some of them were so able in prayer, that 
 very few ministers did match them in order 
 and fulness and apt expressions, and holy 
 oratory with fervency. Abundance of them 
 were able to pray very laudably with their 
 families, or with others. The temper of their 
 minds, and the innocency of their lives, was 
 much more laudable than their parts." 
 
 It may sometimes be the case, that a man 
 of humble station, and defective culture of 
 mind, may be called upon to perform this 
 duty in the presence of guests, or strangers, 
 whom he regards as much superior to him 
 self, and this will doubtless be a trial to his 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 133 
 
 faith. But let him not shrink from the ser- 
 vice of God. In a majority of instances, 
 those very persons will go away with a 
 higher estimate of his character, for this very 
 act of duty. Each of us should remember 
 the words of David, when he said, " I will 
 speak of thy testimonies also before kings, 
 and will not be ashamed."* When George 
 the Fourth was in Ireland, as we find record- 
 ed by the Rev. Dr. Sprague, he told Lord 
 Roden, that, on a particular morning, he 
 w r ould breakfast with him. He accordingly 
 came, bringing with him two or three of the 
 nobility, and happened to arrive just as his 
 lordship and family were assembled for do- 
 mestic worship. Lord Roden, being inform- 
 ed that his royal guest had arrived, went to 
 the door, and with every token of respect, 
 conducted him into the house. Then, turn- 
 ing to the king, he said, " Your majesty will 
 not doubt that I feel highly honoured by this 
 visit, but there is a duty which I have not 
 yet discharged this morning, which I owe to 
 the King of kings — that of performing do- 
 mestic worship; and your majesty will be 
 kind enough to excuse me while I retire 
 
 * Psalm cxix. 46. 
 12* 
 
134 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 with my household, and attend to it." " Cer- 
 tainly," replied the king, " but I am going 
 with you;" and he immediately rose and fol- 
 lowed him into the hall, where the family 
 were assembled, and taking his seat in an 
 old arm-chair, remained during the family 
 devotion. 
 
 In reading accounts of the persecuted Non- 
 conformists, it is remarkable how often we 
 find that they were arrested by pursuivants 
 and other officers, at the time of Family- 
 Worship : this was an hour when they were 
 sure to be taken together. Besides, at a time 
 when the public gifts of Christ's ministers 
 were restrained by the Act of Uniformity, it 
 was not unusual for neighbours to come in 
 at the season of domestic prayer, and thus 
 the household assembly would often become 
 an unlawful conventicle. Even in our own 
 day, ministers of the gospel, and other pious 
 persons, have opened their doors to neigh- 
 bours who thirsted for truth and devotion; 
 and in this way the religion of the family 
 may extend itself with blessings to the vici- 
 nity. The household-prayer-meeting cannot 
 have a more auspicious origin. when shall 
 we behold the day, when every professing 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIF. 135 
 
 Christian in our Church shall be duly awake 
 to the power of the instrumentality which is 
 lodged in his hands ! 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OP FAMILY-WORSHIP IN PERPE- 
 TUATING SOUND DOCTRINE. 
 
 Those for whom these gages are chiefly in 
 tended are in nothing more fully agreed 
 than in this, that every portion of divine truth 
 is precious, and that every deviation, how- 
 ever small, from the faith once delivered to 
 the saints, is most earnestly to be deprecated. 
 Hence unusual care was taken by our pious 
 forefathers, in so framing compendious forms 
 of doctrine, and so inculcating them upon the 
 infant mind, and so exacting adherence to 
 them from church-officers, as might best pre- 
 clude departures from the original, covenant- 
 ed, testimony. This has not been unobserved 
 by our adversaries, and we are familiar, as a 
 church, with the charge of being stiff, oppo- 
 
136 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 sed to innovations, and tenacious of the tra- 
 ditions of the elders. 
 
 Though no human guards can maintain 
 sound doctrine, we must, nevertheless, avail 
 ourselves of every lawful means. There is a 
 constant tendency to deflect from the line of 
 true direction. It arises from the depraved 
 nature, and has manifested itself in every 
 successive age, from that of the Apostles 
 downwards. Hence the necessity for God's 
 frequent and gracious interposition, in the 
 way of reformation and revival. Thus the 
 great work which was wrought by the in- 
 strumentality of Luther, was a clearing away 
 of wood, hay, and stubble, errors and abuses 
 w r hich had been built on the primitive foun- 
 dation. The early Lutheran church was, 
 comparatively, pure. But even before the 
 death of that mighty man of God, tares be- 
 gan to be visible among the wheat, and those 
 who succeeded him allowed serious errors to 
 creep in, especially in regard to the decrees 
 of God. In the eighteenth century this de- 
 reliction of the old faith became more and 
 more striking, until, in the present day, 
 not only Arminianism and Pelagianism, but 
 Arianism, Sabellianism, Socinianism, and 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 137 
 
 that form of Atheism which is called Pan- 
 theism,* are known to prevail among preach- 
 ers and professors. And though we rejoice 
 in manifest tokens that God is arising to 
 have mercy on that land, we have still to 
 lament the wide departures of multitudes 
 from the truth. In Geneva, the very place 
 of Calvin's teaching, and of his death, the 
 growth of heresy has been so rapid, that un- 
 til the late gracious awakenings which have 
 raised up witnesses for the doctrines of the 
 gospel, the whole body of the ministry had 
 gone astray. The case of Boston and of Har- 
 vard College is well known to all our readers. 
 In England, a large number of the churches 
 called Presbyterian have become Unitarian. 
 The piety of ancestors conveys no hereditary 
 blessing to their children. Nor do we be- 
 lieve it to be the purpose of God to connect 
 perpetuity of faith with any form of exter- 
 nal service, however excellent. Yet we are 
 deeply persuaded, that among the means 
 which he is pleased to use for this end, one 
 of the most prominent is Family-Worship. 
 If any thing has been attained by our inves- 
 tigations thus far, it has been shown, that 
 Family- Worship is promotive of piety. It 
 
138 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 is in this very way thai it is promotive of 
 soundness in the faith. Truth and holiness 
 act and react on one another. The first in- 
 strumentality is doubtless that of the truth, 
 by which, in the hand of the Spirit, the work 
 of sanctification is effected. But not less un- 
 deniable is that further influence, by which 
 the graces of the soul foster the doctrines of 
 the w r ord. All defection from the faith be- 
 gins in decay of piety. Sound doctrine is a 
 plant that will not flourish in a soil which 
 has lost the warmth of gracious affection. 
 There may be scriptural creeds, in the very 
 words of the venerable reformers ; such are 
 the Confessions of Germany, Holland, and 
 the Swiss churches; but the body of the 
 people, and especially the clergy, will go off 
 into the most destructive errors. There was 
 a period of " dead orthodoxy," as it was called 
 in Germany, which preceded the grand apos- 
 tasy. For a time there was fiery conten- 
 tion for the symbols, resulting in the unre- 
 lenting persecution of such men as Spener, 
 Francke, and Canstein ; but shortly the door 
 was opened for the irruption of a rational- 
 istic deism. Decay of vital godliness leads 
 rapidly to heterodox teaching. Times of out- 
 
Family-worship. 139 
 
 ward prosperity are seized by the adversary 
 for carrying on this disastrous work. "Wealth 
 flows into the church, and Christian profes- 
 sors, forgetting their vocation as a " peculiar 
 people," emulate the world, in their expen- 
 diture, their equipage, and their entertain- 
 ments. The question which is common 
 among us, as to the lawfulness of certain 
 frivolous amusements, is a question which 
 could not be so much as agitated in a flou- 
 rishing and spiritual church. No man can 
 think of it as mooted among the Apostles 
 or early martyrs, among the reformers or 
 covenanters. But at a certain stage in the 
 declension, we find members of the church 
 opening their houses for the midnight dance ; 
 then going freely to the theatre, and to games 
 of hazard ; and finally, making shipwreck of 
 the faith. As piety decays, there are great 
 tenderness for error, and great latitude in the 
 exposition of doctrine. A spurious charity 
 forbids every word of harshness towards even 
 gross error. Indifferentism is the mother of 
 heresy ; as we may read in the annals of 
 Wittenberg, Geneva, and Cambridge ; and 
 both have their descent from worldliness in 
 the church. Whatever, therefore, promotes 
 
140 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 piety, in the same degree promotes the belief 
 of truth. 
 
 Family- Worship is one of those obser- 
 vances which it is difficult to maintain for 
 any length of time, without at least some 
 sentiment of reverence for evangelical truth 
 More public and ceremonious ordinances 
 may continue to be rendered necessary and 
 decorous by the customs of society ; but the 
 prayer of the household is apt to fall into 
 desuetude, when the spirit in which it origi- 
 nated has altogether fled. 
 
 It is worthy of observation, that there is 
 something in the very temper engendered by 
 Family-Worship, which favours persistency 
 in the faith. It is a temper of mingled love 
 and veneration. We entertain no respect for 
 that youthful independence which exhibits 
 itself in the division of Christian households, 
 and in the going off of sons and daughters to 
 this or that religious community, while, per- 
 haps, the aged pair are left to totter on, un- 
 supported, to the ancient church. Our esti- 
 mate of a young man does not rise, when 
 he takes a pride in showing that he does 
 not care what may have been the opinion 
 of his father. Such is not the disposition 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 141 
 
 which is nurtured by the daily worship of 
 a godly house. The body of associations, 
 which is formed by repeatedly engaging, for 
 long years, in acts of common devotion, with 
 honoured parents, is very strong and lasting, 
 and manifestly leads, unless there are power- 
 ful and conscientious reasons on the other 
 part, to the maintenance of the tenets which 
 those parents, loved. The recollection of a 
 departed father or mother, as employed in 
 the patriarchal conduct of domestic worship, 
 has often, we doubt not, been an operative 
 bond to restrain the wayward youth from 
 false teachings. And though some may be 
 disposed, without ceremony, to tear asunder, 
 and cast away, such cords, as hostile to inde- 
 pendence of thought, we have always ob- 
 served them to be strongest in the most in- 
 genuous and noble natures. Family religion 
 is therefore eminently conservative, and stands 
 among the barriers on which w T e most rely" 
 against an inundation of errors. 
 
 But there is something more than an ap- 
 peal to blind affection, in the pow r er of do- 
 mestic piety to perpetuate sound doctrine. 
 Family-Worship, from its very nature, keeps 
 the mind attentive to truth, and familiar with 
 
 13 
 
142 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 its smallest ramifications. The way in which 
 great truths fall into discredit, be it observed, 
 is not by being refuted, but by being kept 
 out of view. Hence you may hear even a 
 whole series of Socinian discourses, from a 
 smooth, wily teacher, without a single word 
 against the Trinity, or the way of salvation. 
 All is negative ; but the result, as in the 
 churches of Boston, is positive and ruinous 
 heresy. Who can fail to perceive the advan- 
 tage of a daily exercise, which holds before 
 the minds of youth, in a natural and unob- 
 trusive, yet satisfactory manner, the leading 
 doctrines of religion ? 
 
 Where the Scriptures are fully and stated- 
 ly read in a household day by day, there is 
 the greatest possible safeguard against error. 
 We desire no other orthodoxy than that 
 w r hich is contained in this Rule of Faith. 
 We leave it to Rome, to be afraid of the 
 " volume. Our venerated formulas of faith 
 w T ere drawn up by men, w r ho, though for the 
 most part educated under other influences, 
 derived their tenets from the naked word. 
 By this we are ready to abide ; and we main- 
 tain with earnestness, that the best of all 
 methods for preventing latitudinarian declen- 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. . 143 
 
 sion, is a perpetual inculcation of the Scrip- 
 tures, such as is continually taking place in 
 Family- Worship. Though there may be 
 some marked exceptions in times of contro- 
 versy, and among disputants, it is a general 
 truth, that errorists are seldom great textua- 
 ries. Heterodoxy becomes weary of a record 
 which must be garbled and tortured before 
 it can speak the new language; while, on 
 the other hand, we venture the assertion, 
 that no race of men ever existed, to whom 
 the very words of Scripture have been so 
 familiar as those who, among our ancestors, 
 have professed the strictest doctrines of the 
 Reformation. A Christian family is brought 
 daily to the fountain of all truth. Prayer it- 
 self inculcates truth. All acceptable prayer 
 is fouwided on distinct views of doctrine. The 
 posture of the soul in prayer, moreover, is 
 favourable to the reception of those very doc- 
 trines which are commonly the first to be 
 impugned. Hence it is a trite and true say- 
 ing, that errorists are more sound in their 
 prayers than in their preaching. This is na- 
 tural. One of the most common deviations 
 into error regards human ability to keep 
 God's law\ But he who is upon his knees 
 
144 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 will falter before he can address the Almighty 
 with any boast of such ability. Many, we 
 are sure, have bewailed their original de- 
 pravity, and confessed their natural corrup- 
 tion, in prayer, who have denied it in books 
 and sermons; and many, we would fain 
 believe, have pleaded the righteousness of 
 Christ, imputed to the believing soul, as 
 their only meritorious ground of justification, 
 who have stoutly denied the possibility of 
 such an imputation. These remarks are 
 made for the purpose of showing that prayer 
 itself is a vehicle for the conveyance of sound 
 doctrine, and that he who, in a Christian 
 house, listens from year to year, to the voice 
 of humble, ardent supplication, especially 
 from parental lips, and who, by the very na- 
 ture of the exercise, is called to mafe the 
 sentiments his own, is already in a school of 
 theology, whose instructions tend to main- 
 tain his adherence to the faith of his church. 
 In old Presbyterian families, it has been a 
 usage to connect the catechetical instruction 
 of children and servants w T ith the domestic 
 worship of the Lord's-day evening. It is a 
 beautiful and blessed remnant of Reforma- 
 tion-customs, and we have gained nothing 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 1 45 
 
 by allowing it, in any degree, to pass away. 
 There is a propriety in having at least one 
 hour of the week in which the Christian pa- 
 rent may take the place of a solemn instruc- 
 ter in divine things, and there is seemliness 
 in connecting these lessons with the season 
 of devotion. There have never been better 
 theologians, nor have there been any more 
 disposed to abide by what they had learned, 
 than those catechumens of the Scottish Sab- 
 bath evening. Professors, and even minis- 
 ters, bearing the Presbyterian name, have 
 been known, not merely to disuse our vene- 
 rable catechism, but to sneer at it. Such are 
 the families, the sons of which we shall see, 
 without surprise, flying to other commu- 
 nions, and looking down with contempt on 
 the faith of their fathers. 
 
 In our first chapter, we found occasion to 
 lament the decay of Family- Worship in the 
 original seats of the Reformation, and we 
 have now observed the decay of sound doc- 
 trine in the same countries. The former 
 neglect may be fairly considered as one of 
 the causes which have wrought the present 
 evils in the Protestant churches' of the conti- 
 nent. It is remarkable, that where Family- 
 
 13* 
 
146 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 Worship, and the due observance of the Sab- 
 bath, have fallen into disuse, error and world- 
 liness prevail : and it is equally remarkable, 
 that one of the prominent symptoms of reco- 
 very, wherever the gospel resumes its power, 
 is a return to these ordinances. For we 
 would not be understood as charging upon 
 the whole body of believers on the European 
 continent, a disregard of household devotion. 
 In cases where men have been brought to 
 the true light, from rationalism and neology, 
 they have exhibited the family-likeness which 
 prevails in all "the household of faith." We 
 have been struck with this in the biography 
 of Sybel, a lovely German preacher, who was 
 signally blessed in the training of youth, and 
 whose domestic life is worthy of universal 
 imitation. 
 
 "Sybel's domestic life," saysafriend, "was 
 very orderly and methodical. He arose 
 very early, between three and four o'clock, 
 awakened his scholars, and, in the same 
 room with them, worked hard till about 
 seven. Then he called the whole family to- 
 gether, and .they sung, with the accompani- 
 ment of a piano-forte, a few verses from the 
 hymn-book. Sybel read a short portion of 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 147 
 
 Scripture, making a brief application to our 
 necessities, always in a very devout and 
 hearty manner, yet very simple, so that even 
 children and servants could understand. He 
 then prayed, making a similar reference to 
 what was read, and to domestic circum- 
 stances, and closed with a short singing. 
 Then followed breakfast, which we took in 
 common, after, which he went with the boys 
 to school, where he remained till twelve. 
 At noon he offered a short extemporaneous 
 prayer. In the afternoon, the time was in 
 like manner devoted to his calling. On holi- 
 days, there w T as a longer walk than usual. 
 He was fond of taking some of the boys with 
 him on these occasions, and had a faculty of 
 instructing them by means of plays, songs, 
 and conversation. The day was closed with 
 divine service, like that of the morning."* 
 
 Now that which affects us in the history 
 of this blessed young man, is the fact, that 
 his attachment to these pious observances of 
 the household, advanced at equal pace with 
 his progress in evangelical truth. 
 
 * "Arnold August Sybel: nach seinem Leben und 
 Wirken. Von Dr. F. Liebetrut. Berlin, 1841." 
 
 (0HI7BEEIT7) 
 
 i 
 
148 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 INFLUENCE OF FAMILY-WORSHIP ON THE CHURCH. 
 
 In a certain sense, all the advantages of 
 Family-Worship which are indicated in this 
 volume, may be said to redound to the good 
 of the Church; but this is true also of influ- 
 ences w T hich are more special and immediate. 
 "Whatever may be the reflex and inciden- 
 tal consequences of prayer, these are second 
 to its grand consequence, to wit, its answer 
 in heaven. " For every one that asketh, re- 
 ceiveth ; and he that seeketh, findeth ; and 
 to him that knocketh, it shall be opened."* 
 The primary advantage of family-prayer to 
 the church, is that it is answered. It is no 
 small thing for any congregation to have 
 daily cries for God's blessing on it ascending 
 from a hundred firesides. What a spring of 
 refreshment to a pastor ! The family-devo- 
 tions of praying Kidderminster, no doubt, 
 made Baxter a better minister, and a happier 
 man ; and it is possible that we are reaping 
 the fruits of them, in his " Saints' Rest," and 
 
 * Matt. vi. 8. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 149 
 
 " Dying Thoughts." We have all heard of 
 the preacher who told his flock that he 
 had "lost his prayer-book," meaning their 
 prayers ; as also* that good quaint saying of 
 the last age, " A praying people makes a 
 preaching minister. " Such aid has been 
 well compared to that of Aaron and Hur.* 
 Faithful and affectionate Christians never 
 fail to remember their spiritual guide in their 
 household supplications. Though we can- 
 not trace the connexion, such prayers are 
 often answered in the house of God. Amidst 
 the peculiar trials and discouragements of a 
 laborious pastor, it is one of his chief restora- 
 tives to know that he is thought of by the 
 family groups of worship in every part of his 
 parish. This stimulates him to give all pos- 
 sible diffusion to the observance ; and as his 
 praying households increase, the strength of 
 his arm is increased of God. Every consi- 
 derate minister will rejoice in a stated ser- 
 vice of so much simplicity, and susceptible 
 of so easy enlargement, for keeping him and 
 his wants, and his sacred work, every day 
 before some portion, if not the whole, of his 
 charge. 
 
 ♦Exod. xvii. 12. 
 
1 50 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 But the pastor is not the church, though 
 he is an important member of it, and though 
 his spiritual prosperity is an index of the 
 prosperity of the church. "\&ithin the parish 
 bounds there are other objects to be prayed 
 for, and these cannot but arise before the 
 praying household. Let us not be thought 
 to give them undue prominence, when, 
 among these we specify the poor and the 
 afflicted. God has chosen them for separate 
 regard ; " he thsft honoureth Him hath mercy 
 on the poor."* And it is very remarkable, 
 that when Peter, James, and John, came to 
 an agreement with Paul and Barnabas about 
 their respective fields of labour, the one addi- 
 tional point, which had a distinct memoran- 
 dum, was, (in the language of Paul,) "only 
 they would that we should remember the 
 poor ; the same which I also was forward to 
 do."f The indigent members of a church 
 are, in a special manner, committed to the 
 love and prayers of Christian families, who, 
 while they have enough and to spare, will 
 perhaps cause their prayers and their alms 
 together to " come up for a memorial before 
 God." J There are other trials of the fellow- 
 
 * Prov. xiv. 31. t Gal. ii. 10. \ Acts x. 4. 
 
FAMILY- WOUSHIP. 151 
 
 heirs, which are to be borne in mind. Such 
 is the unity of the catholic body, that we 
 ought, at some seasons, to remember before 
 God every brother and sister in Christ Jesus, 
 throughout all the earth. It is a delightful 
 part of fraternal intercession, which brings to 
 our hearts more sensibly than any thing else 
 can do, the oneness of the body of Christ. 
 There are scattered cases, in different parts 
 of the world, of brethren who are so insulated, 
 and so remote from any help, that they would 
 have none to pray for them, unless this spirit 
 of expansive love prevailed in the church. 
 Among the revelations of the last day, we 
 shall possibly discover that some of the rich- 
 est blessings we ever received, have descend- 
 ed on us in answer to the prayers of brethren 
 whose faces we shall first behold on " that 
 day." 
 
 If there is any case of extraordinary afflic- 
 tion in a particular church, it will be brought 
 to remembrance in the hour of family-prayer. 
 Such references touch the heart. They edu- 
 cate youthful sensibility, and train up the 
 Christian child to " rejoice with them that do 
 rejoice, and weep with them that weep."* 
 
 * Rom. xii. 15. 
 
1 52 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 Intercessory prayer is a part of devotion 
 which is much neglected. The late excel- 
 lent William Romaine, of London, has a 
 treatise on this subject, which is deserving of 
 perusal. His own practice was most exem- 
 plary. He kept a list of friends, ministers, 
 afflicted persons, and others, whom he made 
 the subjects of special intercession by name, 
 At first he devoted to this work of love, a 
 single afternoon in each week, but his cata 
 logue increased so much that he was at length 
 constrained to devote to it an additional even- 
 ing. In our letters, and our partings, we are 
 accustomed, often too formally, to ask the 
 prayers of our friends. Such requests are 
 apt to be forgotten. Family- Worship brings 
 them to mind. Here we can relieve beloved 
 brethren, whom we may be unable to help 
 in any other way. And what can be more 
 beautiful than a whole church, with all its 
 members, daily praying for one another ! 
 The judgment day will bring to light un- 
 numbered benefits conferred in answer to the 
 requests of devout families. 
 
 Besides the direct consequences of family- 
 prayer, in blessings on the church, there are 
 others which must not be overlooked. Not 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 153 
 
 to repeat that the whole tone of piety in a 
 congregation is elevated by household devo- 
 tion, the interests of the religious commu- 
 nity, as such, are kept continually before the 
 mind. Those who pray for a blessing on the 
 word, will be most apt to expect a blessing, 
 most ready to mourn over barren ordinances, 
 most earnest in longing for revival, most 
 compassionate to the souls of impenitent 
 hearers, and most active in admonition, and 
 other efforts, for the saving of souls. Fam- 
 ily-prayer is prayer for more than the family; 
 it is prayer for the church : thus it seconds 
 the preaching, and cultivates the spirit of 
 love for the whole society. Now that the 
 ancient Puritan usage, of repeating in the 
 house the sermon which was heard in the 
 church, has fallen into neglect, it is useful to 
 have such prayers offered on the Lord's day 
 evening, as may keep up the impression of 
 divine ordinances. On the eve of sacramen- 
 tal services, the daily request of many fami- 
 lies for the special presence of Christ is a 
 means of edification to all concerned. In 
 times of awakening, when multitudes are un- 
 der the pangs of conviction for sin, there is 
 unspeakable preciousness in a daily exercise 
 
 14 
 
154 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 which presents their case before God, anc 
 which tends to diffuse the healthful influence 
 on every side. 
 
 All these incidental advantages derived by 
 the clmrch from Family-Worship, may be 
 referred to a single principle : the interests of 
 the body are brought home to the house. 
 11 Now are they many members, yet but one 
 body."* The views of the humble private 
 Christian are enlarged, to take in, first the 
 particular church of which he is a member, 
 and then the whole assemblage of Christ's 
 people. Surely this is no unimportant con- 
 tribution to catholic unity. 
 
 We live in an age when, through divine 
 grace, evangelical Christians all over the 
 earth are awakened to a new zeal for the pro- 
 pagation of the gospel, and for general charity, 
 by means of associated effort. Towards this 
 grand result millions of gold and silver are 
 bestowed ; but no gift of the church is equal 
 to her prayers. It is not enough that these 
 enterprises should have a place in the sanc- 
 tuary, they must have a place at the fireside. 
 As the spirit of missions, and the desire of 
 Christ's appearing, increase among us, a 
 
 * 1 Cor. xii. 20. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 155 
 
 change will be recognised in our family de- 
 votions. The diffusion of God's word will 
 form a theme of daily supplication. The 
 missionary, the Sabbath-school teacher, and 
 the agent of public benevolence, will be 
 solemnly and affectionately commended to 
 God by praying households. Now this can- 
 not be continued for any length of time with- 
 out a manifest influence on all who are thus 
 employed. The most experienced of the cir- 
 cle will find their public spirit, their philan- 
 thropy, and their zeal for Christ's house, 
 augmented by this repeated utterance of be- 
 nevolent desires. The children, youth, and 
 sojourners, of the house, will learn to view 
 these works of charity as an essential part of 
 religion, never to be out of sight even for so 
 much as a day. No agency will do more to 
 extend, and render universal, the participa- 
 tion of all our church-members in the great 
 aggressive work of the church. A due appli- 
 cation of these truths to the prayers of our 
 families, would put an end to those mortify- 
 ing and fearful revelations, made from time 
 to time, of whole congregations, and even 
 whole presb}^teries, which contribute nothing 
 to the spread of the gospel in foreign lands. 
 
1 56 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 Prayer would lead to action, and new energy- 
 would be infused into our missions, foreign 
 and domestic, our education of pious youth, 
 and our circulation of Christian books, 
 through the length and breadth of the land. 
 It is respectfully suggested, that pastors and 
 elders may conduce to this end, by timely 
 counsels, as to the mode of conducting fam- 
 ily-prayer, and by their own example, when 
 called upon to lead in the prayers of a house- 
 hold. The people at large need to be en- 
 couraged to enlarge their petitions for these 
 great objects, and to bring them constantly 
 within the circle of their household devo- 
 tions. 
 
 "We have reserved for this place a point 
 which appears to us to be second to no other 
 in its bearing on this branch of our subject; 
 we mean family-prayer for the outpouring of 
 the Holy Spirit on the church. The duty 
 and privilege of such prayer, in general, are 
 acknowledged by every pious heart. We 
 desire to call attention to the necessity of 
 such prayer, as a part of daily household 
 worship. A church is already in a state of 
 revival when all its praying families are 
 thus engaged in sincerity. But in the cold- 
 
FAMIL Y-WORSHir. 1 57 
 
 est times, those that fear the Lord should 
 make conscience of bearing this matter on 
 their hearts before God, amidst their families. 
 Immense power is thus added to the public 
 ministry of the word. It is lamentable, that 
 so many live as if the whole weight of re- 
 sponsibility was with the preacher, and as if 
 they had no sort of concern in the success of 
 his work. Periods of great awakening, ever 
 since the day of Pentecost, have been com- 
 monly preceded by united and earnest prayer 
 for this particular blessing, on the part of 
 " the multitude of them that believed." That 
 professing Christian who truly longs for such 
 an awakening as shall bring into the church 
 his children, his neighbours, and all that are 
 afar off, can in no way more directly contri- 
 bute towards the blessed result, than by de- 
 liberately and uninterruptedly making it 
 enter into the prayers in which he leads his 
 household. Where this is forgotten, it is no 
 marvel if religion declines, and if the uncon- 
 verted members of the family draw the natu- 
 ral conclusion, that, after all, their impenitent 
 condition is an evil too unimportant to be 
 presented before God. 
 
 Why should there not be a union of f ami- 
 
 14* 
 
158 F AMIL Y-WORSHIP. 
 
 lies in such prayers, by an agreement, one 
 day in the week, to regard this with especial 
 earnestness in their domestic worship ? This 
 would at once be a concert in prayer. The 
 history of those measures which led to our 
 existing Monthly Concert of Prayer, (as it is 
 called) is full of instruction and encourage- 
 ment. In October, 1744, a number of Scot- 
 tish ministers adopted a method, for a limited 
 period of two years, namely, to set apart 
 some time on Saturday evening, and on the 
 Lord's day morning, and more solemnly the 
 first Tuesday of each quarter. Great num- 
 bers in Scotland and England fell in with the 
 proposal, and some in America. In Edin- 
 burgh alone there were as many as thirty 
 praying societies, some of which consisted of 
 upwards of thirty members. The details are 
 not here given, because our intention is only 
 to recommend the principle, as applicable to 
 domestic prayer. But there are some judi- 
 cious remarks of Edwards, on the Scottish 
 memorial respecting this subject, which are 
 worthy of insertion, as intimately connected 
 wdth the very topic in hand. 
 
 " Union is one of the most amiable things 
 that appertain to human society, yea, it is 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 159 
 
 one of the most beautiful and happy things 
 on earth, which indeed makes earth most 
 like heaven. God has made of one blood all 
 nations of men, to dwell on all the face of the 
 earth, hereby teaching us this moral lesson, 
 that it becomes mankind all to be united as 
 one family. And this is agreeable to the 
 nature that God has given men, disposing 
 them to society ; and the circumstances God 
 has placed them in, so many ways obliging 
 and necessitating them to it." — " As it is the 
 glory of the church of Christ that she, in all 
 her members, however dispersed, is thus one 
 holy society, one city, one family, one body ; 
 so it is very desirable that this union should 
 be manifested and become visible, and so, 
 that her distant members should act as one, 
 in those things that concern the common in- 
 terest of the whole body, and in those duties 
 and exercises wherein they have to do with 
 their common Lord and Head, as seeking of 
 him the common prosperity. It becomes all 
 the members of a particular family, w r ho are 
 so strictly united, and have in so many re- 
 spects, one common interest, to unite in prayer 
 to God for the things they need ; it becomes 
 a nation, in days of prayer appointed by 
 
160 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 national authority, at certain seasons visibly 
 to unite in prayer for those public mercies 
 which concern the interest of the whole 
 nation ; so it becomes the church of Christ, 
 which is one holy nation, a peculiar people, 
 one heavenly family, more strictly united in 
 many respects, and having infinitely greater 
 interests, that are common to the w T hole, than 
 any other society, I say, it especially becomes 
 this society visibly to unite, and expressly to 
 agree together in prayer to God, for the com- 
 mon prosperity.' ' 
 
 There is nothing in such a proposal which 
 may not be carried out in its principle, by an 
 agreement among Christian brethren in re- 
 gard to their Family- Worship. Thus, mind- 
 ing the same things, they would be drawn 
 together by a tie of peculiar tenderness, and 
 would feel all the binding influences of Chris- 
 tian friendship increased in strength. 
 
 In regard to the education of children who 
 have already been dedicated to God in their 
 baptism, no salutary influence can be con- 
 sidered small. Such children ought to grow 
 up in the midst of prayers which may teach 
 them how to pray. They should learn, from 
 the beginning, to look, not on their own 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 161 
 
 things only, but every one " also on the things 
 of others ;" and to regard the church of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ as the great object of their 
 affection, even from their earliest years. All 
 the sentiments which, as we have said 
 above, are cultivated by Family-Worship, are 
 brought into the warm and ductile affections 
 of the youthful heart, among the most favour- 
 able circumstances: So that we are justified 
 in expecting a marked difference, in respect 
 to largeness of soul, and expansive benevo- 
 lence, and attachment to the church, between 
 one who has passed his childhood in a house 
 of prayer, and one who has lived through 
 that period of momentous interest among 
 neglecters of God. 
 
 Can the church willingly forego an instru- 
 mentality which promises these results ? Can 
 professors of faith in Christ deny themselves 
 and their little ones a means of grace which 
 God so blesses, or remain among the dangers 
 of the "heathen, and the families that call 
 not on his name?" 
 
162 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF FAMILY-WORSHIP ON THE COM- 
 MONWEALTH. 
 
 To the earthly politician nothing can seem 
 more absurd than to ascribe to the devotions 
 of private Christians, any power in regard to 
 states and empires. Religion is an element 
 in political changes not recognised by the 
 wisdom of this world. Yet it cannot be a 
 matter of indifference, even in respect to civil 
 government and national wealth, that hun- 
 dreds of thousands of families, dispersed 
 abroad in the earth, are daily addressing 
 themselves to God in prayer. And it may 
 turn out to be true, that a nation in which 
 all the families shall be thus employed, will 
 derive from this very peculiarity a character 
 conducive to public strength. 
 
 Before treating of the direct influence of 
 prayer on nations, we ask attention to some 
 particulars which are too much neglected. 
 The indispensable material of a happy State, 
 is a body of good citizens. It is not territory, 
 fertile soil, mines, cities, arts, navies, armies, 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 1 63 
 
 monuments, laws, constitutions, or even lib- 
 erty, which sustain and ennoble a people : 
 but good citizens. That which makes good 
 citizens, tends directly to the felicity and 
 glory of a State. This will not be denied, 
 in an age and country of which it is the ge- 
 nius to flatter, and almost deify the people. 
 Viewing the matter even from the low point 
 of temporal things, all admit that the power 
 and stability of government reside in the vir- 
 tue of the citizens. 
 
 This grand desideratum is to be secured, 
 not by wholesale enactment, but in detail. 
 No general arrangements, however good, can 
 reach the mind of the people. Legislation 
 and polity presuppose good citizenship. Na- 
 tional virtue is the virtue of collected indivi- 
 duals. The power to be applied, for this 
 result, will therefore operate to most advan- 
 tage when brought to bear on the primary 
 and constituent portions, especially on each 
 family and each individual. 
 
 To make good citizens we must begin 
 early. It is too late when the adult charac- 
 ter is attained. Hence the acknowledged im- 
 portance of universal education in a free 
 country. But this early training may be 
 
164 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 complete in respect of intellectual discipline, 
 and may yet be inadequate. We need moral 
 qualities in the good citizen. If we could so 
 descend to the elements of society, as to make 
 every family a school of sound principles 
 and virtuous habits, we should plainly be 
 dealing with the very factors and constitu- 
 ents of a prosperous State ; and the method 
 which should accomplish this would be a 
 national blessing. Such a method is domes- 
 tic religion ; including, as one of its principal 
 parts, Family-Worship. We are prepared to 
 maintain that this institution cannot flourish 
 in any country without directly contributing 
 to those habits which are favourable to law, 
 order, and peace. 
 
 It is not more true that the infant brood 
 grows to the power of caring for themselves, 
 in the nest, than that men are formed into 
 the habits of life, in the family. It is the 
 earliest, cheapest, safest, and mightiest insti- 
 tution for this purpose. Hence it is the espe- 
 cial object of assault from the gathering 
 hordes of disorganizing reformers in our day. 
 On every side, under the guidance of the St. 
 Simons, Fouriers, and Owens, we hear the 
 outcry against the domestic temple; — "Rase 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 165 
 
 it, rase it, even to the foundations thereof."* 
 Ignorant of the true sources of pauperism 
 and oppression, our puling pseudo-philan- 
 thropists are in perpetual agitation about the 
 wrongs of labor, the rights of women, and 
 the reconstruction of society. " Association," 
 such as they propose, would pluck away the 
 hearth-stone, and break the marriage-ring. 
 Forgetful of the homely sentence, that the 
 largest house is not large enough for two 
 families, they would take down all partitions, 
 throw a whole community into one, cashier 
 the natural guardians of infancy, and subject 
 masses of youth, in phalanxes, to the regi- 
 mental drill of a newly-invented education. 
 As bubble after bubble explodes, and succes- 
 sive prophets of Socialism fall into deserved 
 contempt, it is hoped that the world will be- 
 come satisfied with the constitution which 
 dates back as far as Paradise. 
 
 Every Christian household is a school of 
 good citizenship. This might be safely rest- 
 ed on reasons already given. But one or 
 two particulars merit separate consideration. 
 Family-Worship, as we have seen, promotes 
 habits of order. It brings a stated regulation 
 
 * Psalm cxxxvii 7. 
 15 
 
166 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 into the house, and gathers the inmates by 
 a fixed law. It sets up a wholesome bar- 
 rier against wanton irregularity, sloth, and 
 night-wandering. It encourages early hours, 
 thoughtfulness, and affection ; and above all, 
 it adds strength to the principle of sub- 
 ordination and obedience; a point which we 
 dare not pass lightly. 
 
 Good citizens are such as abide by the law, 
 and submit themselves to authority. The 
 habit of so doing must be formed under the 
 parental roof. All the duties of subjects and 
 citizens range themselves under the fifth 
 commandment; and he who is not a good 
 son cannot be a good citizen. Here we may 
 refer to a passage already cited, in which 
 God says of Abraham: "I know him, that 
 he will command his children and his house- 
 hold after him."* Domestic discipline is an 
 ordinance of God. As the family was the 
 earliest community, so this is the earliest 
 form of government; and, notwithstanding 
 the dreams of Rousseau and his disciples, 
 about a social contract, which never existed, 
 here is the true origin of States. Observe 
 the connexion: "Abram shall surely become 
 
 * Gen. xviii. 19. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 167 
 
 a great and mighty nation : for I know him, 
 that he will command his children." Here 
 is the influence of family-religion on the com- 
 monwealth. We have already said enough 
 to show the bearing of domestic worship on 
 parental control and filial obedience : our pre- 
 sent inquiry is in regard to the tendency of 
 this to public safety and peace. 
 
 The popular evils which threaten our 
 country, arise in great measure from a spirit 
 of insubordination; and this is caused by 
 neglect of parental authority. He who has 
 never learned to obey and honour his father 
 and his mother, will never yield himself to 
 magistracy and law. The evil is bold and 
 increasing. Children become men with a 
 frightful precocity. Travellers from abroad 
 complain that there are no boys among us, 
 but only infants and men : the period of sub- 
 ordination is overleaped. In our cities the 
 streets are filled with hordes of urchins, who 
 appear to acknowledge no loyalty to any 
 household. These are the materials for mobs 
 and insurrections, the candidates for gaols 
 and gibbets, and alms-houses, and vessels of 
 piracy. It is needless to say, that the houses 
 from which such youth proceed, enjoy no 
 
168 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 worship of God ; but w r e conceive it to be im- 
 portant to add, that the conscientious obser- 
 vance of family-devotion will go far to pre- 
 vent such enormities. A nation of families 
 worshipping God will ever be a nation of 
 law and order. 
 
 No municipal police can make up for the 
 absence of domestic authority. The weaken- 
 ing of this principle over a whole land, is no- 
 thing but the rupture of each several link in 
 the chain. As the evil advances, we lose the 
 very material of magistracy, and the capacity 
 for firm and gentle command. The scriptu- 
 ral maxim is, that he who cannot rule at 
 home, cannot rule abroad. The bishop, or 
 minister, must be "one that ruleth well his 
 own house, having his children in subjection 
 with all gravity ; for if a man know not how 
 to rule his own house, how shall he take care 
 of the Church of God ?"* The principle ad- 
 mits of an equal application to civil govern- 
 ment. The discipline of the family cannot 
 be invaded without a corresponding disor- 
 ganization of society. And the great end is 
 to be attained, not by adding strength to go- 
 vernment, or stringency to laws, or terror to 
 
 * 1 Tim. iii. 5. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 169 
 
 punishments, but by training in every house 
 in the land a group of Christian citizens, 
 habituated to manly obedience. 
 
 We have still to consider the great and 
 crowning favour which Family-Worship con- 
 fers on the commonwealth : it brings down 
 heavenly blessings from the prayer-hearing 
 God. 
 
 Take out of a nation its praying souls, and 
 you leave it defenceless and accursed. Cities 
 and kingdoms have been spared for the sake 
 of Christ's people who were in them. Jeho- 
 vah would have withheld his destroying ven- 
 geance from Sodom and the cities of the 
 plain, "for ten's sake."* The cries of the 
 poor, who fear God, " enter into the ears of 
 the Lord of Sabaoth."f Politicians attri- 
 bute no potency to the prayers of believers, 
 but they are heard in heaven. They have, 
 before now, averted great evils, and procured 
 great deliverances. Israel w T as about to be 
 utterly consumed at Taherah, but " when 
 Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire w^as 
 quenched." J The agonizing prayer of Daniel 
 for his people, w T as mighty before God.§ 
 
 * Gen. xviii. 32. f James v. 4. 
 
 \ Numb. xi. 2. $ Dan. x. 14. 
 
 15* 
 
170 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 When the Most High is about to return to a 
 guilty people, he does it in answer to prayer, 
 and summons those who fear him to humi- 
 liation : " Let the bridegroom go forth of his 
 chamber, and the bride out of her closet : let 
 the priests, the Lord's ministers, weep be- 
 tween the porch and the altar, and let them 
 say, Spare thy people, O Lord."* The 
 angel who stands with a drawn sword over a 
 country, is no doubt often recalled by reason 
 of those prayers which are forgotten by sin- 
 ful rulers and a profane people. 
 
 True Christians feel it to be their bounden 
 duty to pray for the government. Though 
 we have no prescribed liturgical form for 
 this, in our public service, we hold it to be 
 an important part of intercession. We have 
 known ministers to be charged with partizan- 
 ship in politics, because they publicly prayed 
 for the chief magistrate. No patriot and 
 no Christian can consistently refuse so to 
 pray, with fulness and earnestness. It would 
 be dreadful, indeed, if the devotions of God's 
 house were to take their direction from the 
 gusts of political opinion. It is no human 
 rubric, but an inspired oracle, which enjoins 
 
 * Joel ii. 16, 17. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. - 171 
 
 that " supplications, prayers, intercessions, 
 and giving of thanks be made for all men ; 
 for kings, and for all that are in authority ; 
 that we may lead a peaceable life, in all godli- 
 ness and honesty."* Such prayers go up 
 from the devout household also, and the more 
 they are multiplied, the more reason is there 
 to hope for national prosperity. 
 
 Men who love their country will delight 
 to take their households with them to the 
 throne of grace, in beseeching God's favour 
 in any great national emergency. When 
 questions of vast moment are in suspense, 
 when divisions are threatened, especially 
 when the country is at war, the prayers of 
 Christian families in every church through- 
 out the land, are exerting an unseen agency, 
 outweighing, perhaps, the deliberations of 
 senates, and cabinets, and councils of war. 
 And the youth who are trained to such pray- 
 ers, are growing up in the best school of 
 patriotism. No man will be less likely to 
 love his country, for having been taught to 
 pray for it every day. 
 
 A land covered by praying families may 
 be well called a Christian land. That it 
 
 * 1 Timothy ii. 1, 2. 
 
172 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 would be happy in proportion, even in civil 
 affairs, can be denied only by those who re- 
 ject all religion. Were every town in Ame- 
 rica, in this respect, what Kidderminster was, 
 in the days of Baxter, we should, indeed, be 
 the glory of all lands. It is all that we need 
 for our exaltation, and the method by which 
 it is to be sought is not remote or recondite, 
 not the method of association or agitation, or 
 waiting for others to concur ; it is simply for 
 every man in his place to set up the worship 
 of God. The true way to bring health to a 
 diseased nation, is to carry the cure to every 
 house. The aggregate energy of a multitude 
 of zealous families, united in prayer for the 
 country,- is beyond all computation : it is this 
 which " exalteth a nation." Patriotism could 
 confer nothing better on the land she loves, 
 than to kindle this fire on every hearth. The 
 voice of thanksgiving and joy would burst 
 over the domestic and national walls, and 
 reach the most distant lands. Who will not 
 pray for such a consummation ? " Let the 
 people praise thee, O God ; let all the people 
 praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her 
 increase; and God, even our own God, shall 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 173 
 
 bless us. God shall bless us; and all the 
 ends of the earth shall fear him."* 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF FAMILY- WORSHIP ON POSTERITY. 
 
 He was a churl who said, " Why should I 
 care for posterity ? What has posterity done 
 for me ?" Only a mean and selfish mind can 
 be indifferent as to what is coming on the 
 earth. If any such meaning was involved 
 in the obscure words of king Hezekiah, he 
 was certainly not generous in his thoughts, 
 when, on hearing the sentence of God, he 
 exclaimed, " Is it not good, if peace and truth 
 be in my days?"| We take pleasure in re- 
 ceiving the words in a nobler sense. There 
 are men, however, whose maxim is, " Let us 
 eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." J They 
 close their eyes to every thing which may 
 happen after they are gone, content to live in 
 self-indulgence, and to let their children take 
 
 * Psa. lxvii. 5, 6, 7. \2 Kings xx. 19. f 1 Cor. xv. 32. 
 
1 74 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 their chance. The religion of the Bible sets 
 itself in stern opposition to such a temper. 
 It constantly directs our view to children, 
 and children's children ; teaching us that all 
 the good which we have is to be transmitted. 
 The Church, the Bible, and the Sacraments, 
 are made a part of this chain. Our children 
 are brought to baptism, as the sons of ancient 
 believers were brought to circumcision, that 
 they may be introduced into this series, and 
 the blessings of the Church are a sacred trust 
 for remote ages. True patriotism speaks the 
 same language. The fathers of our Consti- 
 tution provided for contingencies yet in re- 
 serve, and far distant, and wise legislation is 
 perpetually endeavouring to pierce the fu- 
 ture, and to secure the welfare of the coun- 
 try when the present generation shall be no 
 more. Institutions which hold out a pro- 
 mise of good to those who shall come after 
 us, cannot but be dear to the patriot and the 
 parent. Natural affection and parental piety 
 are far-sighted, and look down the misty 
 prospect with an anxious gaze. No man who 
 is worthy of the name of a father, can be un- 
 concerned in regard to the destiny of his 
 children, or even his remote descendants. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 175 
 
 This consideration has entered largely into 
 the legal usages and statutes of all nations, 
 and especially colours the common law of 
 our ancestors. We observe it in the primo- 
 geniture and entails of England, and in all 
 that relates to the tenure of. lands. It is re- 
 markably operative in all testamentary dis- 
 position of estates. Those who accumulate 
 property are chiefly influenced by a regard 
 for their offspring, and when they can no 
 longer enjoy it themselves, leave no cautions 
 unobserved in order to secure it to their 
 families. Rising to a level of higher benevo- 
 lence, we observe the principle operating in 
 charitable bequests, and endowments, and in 
 the founding of institutions which are known 
 to be capable of only a partial influence in 
 the present day. It is the chief function of 
 governments to provide for this very result, 
 to be realized long after those who make and 
 administer the laws have passed from hu- 
 man things. 
 
 It cannot have escaped the observation of 
 any reflective mind, .that, among the links 
 which connect the existing race with poste- 
 rity, the most essential is the Family. It is, 
 indeed, the very point of connexion. The 
 
1 76 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 whole series is resolvable into the natural 
 sequence of father and son. For which rea 
 son Divine Providence has seized upon this 
 relation as the channel for conveying down 
 the blessings of religion, as we may observe 
 in numerous rites and institutions. We re- 
 gard Family- Worship as one of the most im- 
 portant of these. 
 
 While it is true that all religious institu- 
 tions affect posterity, it is more eminently 
 true that those institutions have this ten- 
 dency, which bear primarily and directly on 
 the family-connexion. If the piety of any 
 man is likely to carry its impulse into com- 
 ing years, more signally will that piety do 
 so, which, through sovereign grace, flows 
 from the father to the child, and above all in 
 those particular acts which concern the edu- 
 cation of the child. We never aim so imme- 
 diately at the next generation, as when we 
 govern the parental influence : it is directing 
 and purifying the spring, before it widens 
 into the stream. The geometrical ratio of 
 human increase adds force to this considera- 
 tion, and shows that in the economy of means 
 we work at a great advantage, when we se- 
 cure any good to the prolific source of mul- 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 177 
 
 titudes of men. It is, therefore, far more 
 hopeful to pour truth and holiness on a sin- 
 gle household, now, than to found a system 
 which shall address its influence to hundreds 
 half a century hence. Family-religion ga- 
 thers fresh importance when we extend our 
 views a little into the future. 
 
 It has pleased God to have special regard 
 to the transmission of religion by domestic 
 means. His covenant is from father to son. 
 He is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of 
 Jacob. Circumcision was the " token of the 
 covenant,'' between Jehovah and his peo- 
 ple.* The Passover was a family-rite. It 
 had regard to posterity. " Ye shall observe 
 this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy 
 sons for ever"-{ It was part of the annual 
 family- worship of Israel. It was a means of 
 instruction for the perpetuation of the truth. 
 " It shall come to pass, when your children 
 shall say unto you, What mean ye by this 
 service ? that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice 
 of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the 
 houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, 
 when he smote the Egyptians and delivered 
 our houses. "J Infant baptism, which has 
 
 * Gen. xvii. 11, f Exod. xii. 24. J Exod. xii. 26, 27. 
 
 16 
 
1 78 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 come in the place of the ancient initiation, 
 under the enlarged privileges of the Chris- 
 tian church, has not abandoned the princi- 
 ple, but involves the obligation of parents to 
 pray with and for their children, and to 
 bring them up in the nurture and admoni- 
 tion of the Lord. 
 
 The gracious promises of God to his 
 Church, while they do not necessarily trans- 
 mit salvation in the line of natural descent, 
 perpetually recognise the relation of parent 
 and child. God determines that his great 
 favours shall descend from age to age. The 
 promise is to you and to your children. 
 From the beginning of the world, he has 
 dealt with mankind on the family-principle. 
 Every covenant has comprised succeeding 
 generations. The federal and representative 
 element, variously modified, is in every sys- 
 tem, from Eden to Pentecost. It is breathed 
 in the first promise — it beams in the bow of 
 Ararat — it fills the starry page of Abraham* 
 — it is uttered through the fires of Sinai — it 
 is inscribed on the blood) r lintel of Egypt — 
 it flows in the household-baptism of the New 
 Testament. God, in his sovereign pleasure, 
 
 * Gen. xv. 5. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 179 
 
 makes the parental and filial relation the 
 means of great blessing in natural things; 
 he is further pleased to sanctify it, and use it 
 as a vehicle for heavenly things. He might 
 have saved us singly, in insulation, pluck- 
 ing one and another from the corrupt, perish- 
 ing mass. It would have been infinite grace ! 
 But, blessed be his name, he has decreed 
 otherwise. The " word of this life " is not a 
 cistern, but a fountain; and it flows from 
 father to child. Not that by natural descent, 
 or inheritance, we can convey this deposite. 
 Not that the succession is always unbroken. 
 Even here Jehovah reserves a place for the 
 display of his sovereignty, and a motive for 
 the diligence of the parent. Ah ! we cannot 
 forget the names of Hophni and Phinehas, 
 of Amnon and Absalom. Yet the principle 
 abides. Branches may die, but the tree still 
 flourishes. Families may die out, but the 
 race is not extinct. Nay, more, it is remarks- 
 able how generally and how widely religion 
 descends in the line of father and son. There 
 is every thing to encourage prayer and faith- 
 ful training, and living hope, even while we 
 are not allowed to look for the salvation of 
 our children as a matter of course. 
 
1 80 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 Here is our chief hope for posterity. This 
 kindles an altar of perpetual fire in the house. 
 This lightens our faces when we hold our 
 little ones for the affusion of baptism. This 
 revives our souls when we fold their hands 
 in ours, as they kneel beside us. This con- 
 secrates the delightful moment, when their 
 lisping words first echo to us the name of 
 Jesus. This spreads a canopy of promise 
 over the morning and the evening group in 
 the tabernacle of prayer. And this lifts us 
 above ourselves when we catch a Sabbath 
 glimpse of the towers of the sanctuary, and 
 lead our chief treasures along the way; when 
 the little hand throbs in ours, and we say, 
 " Come, let us go up to the house of the 
 Lord." 
 
 It is by the salvation of the children of the 
 Church, more than from all other means, that 
 we hope for the salvation of the world. It is 
 by this very method, as we observe in his- 
 tory, that the word of grace has been carried 
 abroad from land to land, and brought down 
 to us. Amidst many seeming failures, the 
 holy seed is kept up. Take the darkest 
 view, there is scarcely a Christian family in 
 a thousand, of those who daily worship God, 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 181 
 
 in which one member does not maintain the 
 succession, while there are thousands, of 
 which every member is a visible believer. 
 The stream often runs under ground. The 
 descendants of the first converts are possibly 
 on earth now. Within a very few years 
 the descendants of Luther, whose life was 
 thought extinct, have been picked up in 
 Germany, poor and squalid, to be embraced 
 by Christian charity. There are clergymen 
 now in the Scottish church, who have de- 
 scended- from an unbroken line, not only of 
 believers, but of ministers : and there is a 
 blessed instance in our own communion, of 
 six living preachers of the gospel, all "sons 
 of one man," himself a servant of the sanc- 
 tuary. He who preserves the seed of Abra- 
 ham, though sifted among all nations, will 
 find it easy to preserve his spiritual seed. 
 When the terms of .this covenant are, by 
 divine power, made to take effect by means 
 of Christian education, holy example, and 
 family prayer, the increase is often manifold, 
 in that astonishing, redoubling proportion, 
 which is a law of human growth. Th\is the 
 tree spreads its boughs, and scatters its fruit; 
 the original blessing does not die in the hands 
 
 16* 
 
182 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 of those who receive it, but is widely com- 
 municated. And the latter glory shall be a 
 period when, as we think, the promise shall 
 be accomplished universally. " As the days 
 of a tree are the days of my people, and they 
 shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 
 They shall not labour in vain, nor bring 
 forth for trouble, for they are the seed of the 
 blessed of the Lord, and their children with 
 them."* 
 
 A few years ago there met upon the plat- 
 form of one of our great benevolent societies, 
 on an anniversary, a. grandson of Isabella 
 Graham, and a grandson of John Brown of 
 Haddington, both warm in aid of the blessed 
 cause, and both eminent ministers of the 
 gospel, though in different hemispheres. A 
 Christian lady, whose " works praise her in 
 the gates," and whom the author is thankful 
 to number among his flock, sent up to the 
 treasurer a billet enclosing her contribution, 
 and marked with these words : " As for me, 
 this is my covenant with them, saith the 
 Lord ; My Spirit that is upon thee, and my 
 words* which I have put in thy mouth, shall 
 not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the 
 
 * Isaiah lxv. 22. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 183 
 
 mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of 
 thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from hence- 
 forth and forever.' '* 
 
 In our visions of good for our beloved land, 
 we look upon vast tracts of yet uninhabited 
 country, stretching over the mountains to 
 the Western Ocean, as to be peopled by a 
 mighty nation, such as the world has never 
 seen comprehended in one polity. The tri- 
 bute of many kingdoms is pouring its tide 
 of population. But shall it be Christian or 
 unchristian ? This is the forming period ; and 
 these new societies are taking their mould 
 and direction. Public means of instruction 
 can by no effort keep pace with the colossal 
 strides of population. Yet among those who 
 migrate to these unbroken wastes, there are 
 some who have been bred in the school of 
 domestic piety, in Europe or America. What 
 can they do better* for their children, or 
 better for their country, than to found the 
 " church in the house ?" In the absence of 
 other means, they will thus be leaving the 
 best inheritance to their children — one that 
 is infinitely better than gold or silver. Five 
 years ago, the writer of these lines procured, 
 
 * Isaiah lix. 21. 
 
184 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 at the clerk's office of Charlotte county in 
 Virginia, a certified extract from the last 
 will of the great orator and patriot, Patrick 
 Henry. It is in these words : " This is all the 
 inheritance I can give to my dear family : 
 the religion of Christ can give them one 
 which will make them rich indeed." This 
 is the provision which we recommend to our 
 brethren in new countries to make for pos- 
 terity. Colonies and settlements founded in 
 prayer will have a blessing. Those who emi- 
 grate are sometimes more concerned about 
 the richness of the soil and the salubrity of 
 the climate, than about the spiritual advance- 
 ment of their house. Their error is like that 
 of Lot.* The young race grow up without 
 a sanctuary. How invaluable, in such situa- 
 tions, is the domestic worship ! It may go 
 far to supply the public ministration of the 
 word ; it will certainly draw down family 
 blessings from«the Hearer of prayer ; it will 
 make itself felt in coming generations. The 
 God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, answers 
 the prayers of departed saints, who still " live 
 unto him."f Posterity reaps harvests from 
 seed sown in the tears of former ages. We 
 
 * Gen. xiii. 10. t Luke xx. 38. 
 
' FAMILY-WORSHIP. 185 
 
 are, perhaps, this day receiving blessings in 
 .answer to the prayers of our forefathers, 
 offered in the glens and moors of the old 
 world. There is encouragement to extend 
 as widely as possible the daily supplications 
 of Christian families. 
 
 No pious heart can fail to be transported 
 at the prospect of a whole nation of praying 
 houses. It is possible with God. It is a con- 
 summation worth striving for, and worth a 
 more distinct, energetic, and united effort, 
 than the church has yet put forth. Every 
 approximation towards it should be hailed 
 with delight. Every church court, every 
 pastor, missionary, and ruling elder, every 
 Sabbath-school teacher, and colporteur, out 
 of love for the generation to come, should 
 make the establishment of Family- Worship 
 an object of separate and earnest endeavour. 
 Every father of a family should consider 
 himself as charged with the souls of those 
 whom he hopes to leave behind him, and as 
 contributing to the future propagation of the 
 truth, by every act of devotion performed in 
 his house. "Wherever he has a tent, God 
 should have an altar. Every professing 
 Christian, who has hitherto lived in neglect 
 
186 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 of this great duty of a householder, should 
 repent, and humble himself, and establish 
 God's service at his fireside, before he sleeps 
 another night in a prayerless dwelling. Such 
 resolutions, efforts, and devotions, will do 
 more for the happiness of that exceeding 
 great multitude of future Americans, whom 
 some compute at a hundred millions of souls, 
 than all the accumulations of family wealth, 
 all the internal improvements, all the legisla- 
 tion of States and of the Union, and all the 
 schemes of general education. We cannot 
 close our eyes to the dangers which threaten 
 our country, from an augmentation of the 
 people, without a corresponding grow T th of 
 piety. The church must lose its vital warmth 
 and power, unless some new impulse be given 
 from within, and among the means for en- 
 kindling this central fire, w r e reckon Family- 
 Worship to be not the least. In the conflict 
 of our hopes and fears, we think we descry 
 a ray of brightness in the expectation that 
 Christ's people will awake to consider the 
 power of an instrumentality which is within 
 their very doors ; which operates directly on 
 the objects of their most tender love; which 
 will be carried down the stream of time by 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 187 
 
 their increasing progeny ; which will bless 
 the race which is unborn ; and which w T ill 
 still subsist in its triumphant vigour when 
 the Lord shall come. The treasure in our 
 hands has been conveyed to us from those 
 who were our fathers according to the flesh. 
 It was coeval with the Reformation ; it was 
 held dear by our suffering ancestors, in the 
 British isles; it was delivered over by con- 
 fessors and martyrs to their children ; it is in 
 its very nature fit for transmission; it must 
 not perish in our charge. No ! with the help 
 of the Lord, we w 7 ill convey his testimonies, 
 and the record of his mighty deeds, to our 
 offspring. " We will not hide them from 
 their children, showing to the generation to 
 come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, 
 and his wonderful works that he hath done ; 
 that the generation to come might know 
 them, even the children which should be 
 born, who should arise and declare them to 
 their children, that they might set their hope 
 in God, and not forget the works of God, but 
 keep his commandments."* 
 
 A new dignity shines around the simple 
 daily worship of the lowliest Christian cot- 
 
 * Psalm lxxviii. 4, 6, 7. 
 
1 88 FAMTL Y-WORSHIP. 
 
 tage, when we regard it as one of the most 
 direct means for perpetuating the love and 
 service of God, through our descendants, to 
 the whole land, and the universal race of 
 man. Afflicted and tempest-tossed Zion has 
 this word of reviving promise : "All thy chil- 
 dren shall be taught of the Lord, and great 
 shall be the peace of thy children."* 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS AS TO THE MODE OP CON- 
 DUCTING FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 To one who is conscientiously resolved to 
 honour God in his household, a clear concep- 
 tion of the duty itself, and some method in 
 the observance of it, are indispensable. 
 
 The very first question which offers itself, 
 is, By whom is this service to be rendered ? 
 To this the name is a reply : It is Family- 
 Worship. All the dwellers in one house. 
 More particularly the parents, the children, 
 or such as occupy the children's place, as 
 
 * Isaiah liv. 13. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 1 89 
 
 wards, pupils, apprentices ; the lodgers, and 
 other inmates; the guests and sojourners; and 
 the servants. 
 
 The duty of masters has been already ex- 
 plained. Let it suffice here to say, that every 
 Christian householder should acknowledge 
 his solemn obligation to extend the blessings 
 of domestic religion to his servants, as much 
 as to his children. All proper means should 
 be used to secure the attendance of every 
 individual engaged in the labour of the fam- 
 ily, even if this should render it needful to 
 sacrifice some momentary convenience in 
 regard to meals and other arrangements. 
 The beauty of this service depends, in no 
 small degree, on the presence of the whole 
 family. The reverse of this is too common, 
 and there are houses, where, from sloth or 
 irreligion, some members habitually absent 
 themselves from the prayers. Even in board- 
 ing-houses and inns, we have known the 
 most happy effects to flow from the practice 
 of gathering all who were under the roof at 
 the time of worship. It is also a good usage, 
 to proceed with the accustomed devotion, 
 even though casual visiters may be present, 
 17 
 
1 00 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 Providence may thus be opening a door for 
 unexpected influence. 
 
 The time for Family- Worship demands 
 our consideration. By common consent the 
 Christian world has allotted to it the two 
 seasons of morning and evening; not that 
 there is any virtue in this number, or in 
 these seasons, but because it seems just and 
 fit to place our acknowledgment of God at 
 these natural terms of our working day. 
 There have been those who have found edi- 
 fication in three hours of prayer : " Evening 
 and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and 
 cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice."* 
 
 That which is most important in regard to 
 the time of Family-Worship, is, that it should 
 be fixed. We ascribe great value to this par- 
 ticular. It adds dignity to the service, by 
 showing that it is not to give w r ay to the 
 changes or caprice of business or amuse- 
 ment. It saves the time of the household ; 
 and it tends to that method and punctuality 
 in domestic affairs, which is a chief orna- 
 ment of a Christian house. 
 
 Morning Prayer should, in our humble 
 judgment, be early in the morning. Here 
 
 * Psalm lv. 17. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 191 
 
 there is diversity of usage, and we are not of 
 those who w T ould impose our own preferences 
 on others, or invent any ceremonial yoke. 
 But we have noted striking advantages, in 
 observing family devotion at as earhj an 
 hour as the whole household can be assembled. 
 There is a Christian decorum in resorting to 
 God before we gather around the table of his 
 bounty. The refreshment of food seems to 
 acquire a blessing; "for it is sanctified by 
 the word of God, and prayer/'* It appears 
 right to seek food for the soul, before we seek 
 food for the body. Otherwise w r e lose the 
 delightful feeling of having begun the day 
 with God. The moment of repletion from 
 a meal is of all others the least comely for a 
 solemn approach to heaven. Moreover, by 
 seizing an early hour, we avoid numerous 
 interruptions, and that sense of hurry and 
 impatience which attend the time imme- 
 diately preceding the forenoon's business. 
 All these reasons may, however, be control- 
 led by considerations of health and business, 
 and every man must be left to his own judg- 
 ment. 
 
 Evening Prayer is, of course, the closing 
 
 * 1 Tim. iv. 5. 
 
1 92 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 domestic service. Hence it has been the pre- 
 valent custom to make it the last thing before 
 retiring for the night, and there is certainly 
 something beautiful in the arrangement. In 
 many houses it is the only time which can 
 be secured. Yet it must be acknowledged 
 that there is a practical difficulty connected 
 with this ; and Family-Worship may be too 
 late for those who, agreeably to our view of 
 the subject, are principally concerned, to 
 wit, servants, and especially children. The 
 younger members of a family are apt to be 
 unfit for the service, as being overcome with 
 sleep; and it is scarcely just that they should 
 be robbed of one half of domestic prayer, as 
 they must be, if they retire at an early hour. 
 Even adults are often disqualified for enjoy- 
 ing the work of praise, by the weariness and 
 stupor consequent on a long day of toil. 
 Hence some have thought they found an ad- 
 vantage in calling together the family imme- 
 diately before, or immediately after the even- 
 ing-meal. It is a laudable method ; but, here, 
 as in all things connected with form, we would 
 ask and give the largest liberty, only " let all 
 *hings be done decently, and in order."* 
 
 * 1 Cor. xiv. 40. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 193 
 
 The person, whose office it is to lead in 
 Family-Worship, is undoubtedly the head of m 
 the household. The father is here in his 
 proper place, as the prophet and patriarch of 
 his little State. In the occasional absence of 
 the father, or in the lamented event of his 
 removal, Providence has devolved this, with 
 all other parental trusts, on the solitary, or 
 the widowed mother. And though it brings 
 with it a keen trial to diffidence and femi- 
 nine reserve, it is also eminently amiable and 
 touching ; and dutiful sons will make every 
 sacrifice in order to lessen the burdens of the 
 maternal heart, when engaged in such a 
 duty. The parent may sometimes see cause 
 to depute this office to a son or brother, when 
 the latter, from education, gifts, or graces, is 
 qualified to take his part with edification. 
 In a house which is so happy as to comprise 
 several such persons, rotation in the service 
 may be allowed ; always reserving to the 
 father, or head, his prerogative and responsi- 
 bility of direction. 
 
 The constituent parts of Family- Worship, 
 when fully observed, are, first, the reading 
 of the Scriptures ; secondly, the singing of 
 praise to God; "and, thirdly, prayer; and 
 
 17* 
 
1 94 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 these may very properly follow each other in 
 this order. But we propose to enlarge on 
 these particulars below. 
 
 The length of the domestic service is wor- 
 thy of attention. It was the fault of our fore- 
 fathers to make it insufferably long. This 
 goes far to destroy all good influence on the 
 young, by creating weariness and disgust. 
 " It is difficult," says Cecil, " to fix and quiet 
 your family. The servants are eager to be 
 gone, to do something in hand. There has 
 been some disagreement, perhaps, between 
 them and their mistress. We must seize op- 
 portunities. We must not drive hard at such 
 times as these. Religion should be prudent- 
 ly brought before a family. The old Dis- 
 senters wearied their families. Jacob rea- 
 soned well with Esau, about the tenderness 
 of his children, and his flocks, and herds. 
 Something gentle, quiet, moderate, should 
 be our aim."* 
 
 The manner and spirit of the service 
 should never be neglected. In every part it 
 should be solemn, and fitted to repress all 
 levity. Of course, every secular task or 
 amusement will be suspended, and absolute 
 
 * Cecil's Remains. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 195 
 
 silence and quiet will be enforced, even in 
 the case of the youngest children, who there- 
 by gain a most important lesson. The great- 
 est simplicity should characterize every word, 
 and every petition. Those who have the great- 
 est interest in the worship, are often little 
 more than babes. But we would especially 
 recommend a holy animation, as that w T hich 
 will arrest attention, and make way for plea- 
 sant memories. Here again we avail our- 
 selves of the language of the Rev. Richard 
 Cecil. Speaking of children and servants, 
 he says : " Tediousness will weary them. 
 Fine language will shoot above them. For- 
 mality of connexion, or composition in prayer, 
 they will not comprehend. Gloominess, or 
 austerity of devotion, w r ill make them think 
 it a hard service. Let them be met with 
 smiles. Let them be met as friends. Let 
 them be met as for the most delightful ser- 
 vice in which they can be engaged. Let 
 them find it short, savoury, simple, plain, 
 tender, heavenly. I find it easy to keep the 
 attention of a congregation, compared with 
 that of my family. " 
 
 Prayer is the essential part of Family- 
 Worship, and therefore merits the first place 
 
196 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 in our consideration. It is not necessary to 
 enlarge on those things which are common 
 to all acts of prayer ; these belong to another 
 subject. That which concerns us is family 
 prayer. This, its distinguishing character, 
 ought never to be out of sight. It is the 
 worship of those w T ho are joined together by 
 Providence as dwellers in the same house, 
 and w T ho now come to the throne of grace in 
 their family capacity. This will give a tinge 
 to the whole service, where it is conducted 
 with life and discrimination. Many things 
 may be proper here, which would be out of 
 place in a promiscuous, assembly, or even a 
 small meeting. There is no domestic want, 
 danger, sorrow, or dispensation, which may 
 not be remembered. Special cases in the 
 household, will be faithfully and affectionate- 
 ly commended to God, but without that 
 rudeness and irreverence with w T hich we 
 have known vulgar minds to drag forward 
 the circumstances, and even names of shrink- 
 ing individuals. But our Heavenly Father 
 permits us to spread before him our minutest 
 trials, and this is one of the principal bless- 
 ings of domestic religion. 
 
 What has been said of brevity, applies 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 197 
 
 especially to prayer, as a part of Family- 
 Worship. Few things are more hardening 
 and deadening in their influence, than the 
 daily recurrence of long and unawakening 
 prayers. For these there is no necessity. 
 For, while family-prayer includes petitions 
 for blessings far more wide than those of the 
 family alone, it may be comprised within 
 easy limits ; and nothing will so much tend 
 to this as earnestness and directness in sup- 
 plication. The prayer should be by all means 
 simple and intelligible ; free from hard words 
 and involved periods ; because he who leads 
 is putting words into the mouths of children. 
 The best model is found in the brief and 
 childlike petitions which we find in the 
 Psalms, and other parts of Scripture. 
 
 Family-prayer should be varied, other- 
 wise the inevitable result will be formalism 
 and tediousness. Indeed the snare into which 
 we are most prone to fall, in this service, is 
 that of sameness and routine. Daily changes 
 in the condition of a family will infallibly 
 work a corresponding change in the prayers, 
 if they be sincere. Nothing will really se- 
 cure this needful quality, but the " spirit of 
 grace and of supplications," shed down from 
 
198 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 on high, which should, therefore, be most 
 earnestly sought by every head of a house- 
 hold, with reference to this daily service ; for 
 which purpose no preparation can be so valu- 
 able, as attendance on the previous devotions 
 of the closet. 
 
 The question has been much agitated, 
 whether any forms of prayer should be re- 
 commended as a help to family-devotion. 
 The spirit of our church institutions, and our 
 perpetual testimony, has been against the 
 imposition of any prescribed form, and in 
 favour of entire liberty in prayer. We are 
 fully persuaded that the best of all prayers 
 in the family, as every where else, are those 
 which proceed, without book, from hearts 
 which " God hath touched.'' And our un- 
 hesitating counsel to every one who essays 
 this duty, is, that he cast himself upon the 
 help of the Spirit, without any written form. 
 Nevertheless, we are so earnestly desirous to 
 remove every hinderance out of the way 
 even of halting believers, that we would in- 
 finitely rather they should pray with a form, 
 than that they should not pray at all. There 
 are also persons of such diffidence, especially 
 of the female sex, or in so peculiar a con- 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 199 
 
 dition of society, that they feel themselves 
 utterly unable to proceed without such assist- 
 ance. Let such go forward, in the name of 
 the Lord.* Let them provide themselves 
 with some suitable volume of Family-Prayers. 
 Such have been furnished by Jenks, Thorn- 
 ton, Hardman, and others. The work of Mr. 
 Jenks is by far superior to any thing known 
 to us of this sort, being warm, orthodox, and 
 scriptural, and imbued from beginning to 
 end with evangelical sentiments.! But, in 
 the use of this, or any other form, the great- 
 est caution is necessary, in order to guard 
 against that ritual coldness and emptiness 
 which come from the abuse of the best devo- 
 tional compositions. 
 
 If we had not known cases where such a 
 
 * " The Book of Common Order," often called "John Knox's 
 Liturgy," contains a " Form of Prayers, to be used in private 
 houses every morning and evening." 
 
 f "Prayers and Offices of Devotion for Families, and for par- 
 ticular persons, upon most occasions. By Benjamin Jenks, 
 late rector of Harley, &c. Altered and improved by the Rev. 
 Charles Simeon, late Fellow of King's College, Cambridge." 
 About forty editions of this work have been published ; and 
 Mr. Simeon well says : " Its distinguishing excellency is, that 
 far the greater part of the prayers appear to have been prayed 
 and not written." 
 
 [WIFHRSITrl 
 
200 FAMILY- WORSHIP. 
 
 counsel was needful, we should scarcely add, 
 that the true posture for family-prayer is that 
 of kneeling. 
 
 It only remains to be observed, that if the 
 father of a family would make this service 
 one of the greatest advantage, he must deem 
 it worthy of being in his thoughts at mo- 
 ments when he is not actually engaged in it. 
 He will seek to keep his mind in such a 
 frame as not to unfit him for leading his 
 children to God. He will look to his steps, 
 lest his example should be in disastrous con- 
 trast with his devotional acts. And he will 
 not consider it unimportant, to seek from 
 God special direction and strength for the 
 discharge of a duty so nearly connected with 
 the everlasting interests of his house. 
 
 Where any one feels himself called of God 
 to establish daily worship in his house, he 
 should act with solemn decision. In this, as 
 in a thousand other affairs of life, the shortest 
 method is the best. Instead of parleying 
 with objections, or waiting for some happy 
 conjuncture, or seeking to prepare the way 
 by gradual approaches, or timorously sound- 
 ing the opinions of those whose place it is to 
 submit, let him, in reliance on God, without 
 
FAMILY-WOHSIIIP. 201 
 
 other preliminary, and without allowing an- 
 other sun to set, call his family together, 
 state his purpose in the very fewest terms, 
 and carry it into immediate accomplishment. 
 The burden of months, or years, will have 
 rolled away ! That day will be remembered 
 as one of the brightest in his calendar, and 
 will probably open a new era of domestic 
 profit and joy. 
 
 If this book should fall into the hands of 
 young persons and others, who live in fami- 
 lies where God is daily worshipped, let them 
 be affectionately exhorted to yield all possi- 
 ble encouragement to the service, by punc- 
 tual attendance, by the most reverent atten- 
 tion and devout silence, and above all by 
 heartily joining in the devotions, so that the 
 words spoken or sung may convey the sen- 
 timents of their own hearts. This is espe- 
 cially to be urged on. the children of the 
 church, who ought to remember that in this 
 service, their honoured parents are endea- 
 vouring, often with a deep sense of unwor- 
 thiness, to discharge a part of the obligations 
 which were recognized at the baptism of 
 their children. Many, however, are the in- 
 stances, in which a father, advanced in years, 
 
202 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 needing repose, and trembling in voice and 
 every limb, is left to wait till a late hour of 
 night, for froward and profane sons, who, if 
 the truth were known, would gladly come in 
 at midnight, rather than be constrained to 
 join in prayer. Let it be added, in conclu- 
 sion, that filial affection will certainly lead the 
 ingenuous son or daughter to repress every 
 feeling of weariness or dissatisfaction, in re- 
 gard to the manner in which a parent con- 
 ducts the worship of the house. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE READING OF SCRIPTURE AS A PART OF FAMILY* 
 WORSHIP. 
 
 The reading of the w T ord of God in the daily 
 service of the house seems entitled to a brief 
 separate consideration. But after having 
 already given such extent to our discussion, 
 we may be allowed to omit many of those 
 remarks, however important, which relate to 
 Bible-reading in general, and which should 
 be sought in other books. The daily read- 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 203 
 
 ing of Scripture is a solemn and indispensa- 
 ble part of Family-Worship ; one which we 
 cannot consent to see omitted in any case. 
 To do so, under pretext of saving time, or 
 for any other reason, except in extreme occa- 
 sions, is a wrong done to the household. The 
 greatest misapprehensions prevail in regard 
 to the extent of knowledge thus communi- 
 cated. If a man had no other information of 
 God's will than that which was conveyed by 
 hearing a portion read, twice a day, all his 
 life, he might nevertheless acquire, not mere- 
 ly the sum of saving truth, for his own soul's 
 welfare, but a body of invaluable Christian 
 instruction. But when we consider it as so 
 much added to all other means of knowledge, 
 we ought to admit that the agency is one 
 too potent to be neglected. In every family, 
 there are those who daily hear, who yet have 
 no ability, or no willingness to read. To 
 some, this is the only means of acquaintance 
 with God's word. To all, it brings that 
 word before the mind under the most favour- 
 able circumstances. Truth is thus gently 
 pressed upon the heart of infancy and youth, 
 at a time when that heart is most ductile, 
 and w T hen it takes its most lasting mould. If 
 
204 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 we ask ourselves what are our earliest recol- 
 lections in regard to the Scriptures, some of 
 us will have to answer, that they are of inci* 
 dents, or expressions, heard at Family- Wor- 
 ship. Much more than is commonly thought 
 is actually understood by children, though 
 not, perhaps, in that precise order which 
 might be prescribed by pragmatical reformers 
 in education. There is an absurd rage in 
 some for making juvenile training a school 
 of perpetual lexicography. Children may 
 comprehend many a paragraph, without be- 
 ing able to "define" every word. There is 
 such a thing as outline-knowledge, which 
 precedes the filling-up of details : it is the 
 method of nature; it is the way in which 
 constant hearing of the word informs the 
 infant mind. Even the high points of the 
 range of Christian truth may cast their sha- 
 dows over the child. A little one may gain 
 life-long impressions from a great physical 
 object, as from Niagara, or the Natural 
 Bridge, though utterly incompetent to de- 
 scribe it; but not less truly may he derive 
 truth from a great event, or a great argu- 
 ment of Scripture, though unprepared to 
 stand an examination on it. Besides, there 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 205 
 
 are a thousand things in the Bible, which 
 are just as level to the babe as to the philo- 
 sopher. 
 
 No trifling advantage is gained, when the 
 mind is, from infancy, made familiar with 
 the phraseology of Scripture. Persons who 
 have been religiously educated often do not 
 know how much there is in these venerated 
 expressions, which carries no meaning, or 
 conveys strange associations, to such as have 
 not learned them in youth. Such an evil is 
 effectually prevented by family reading of 
 the word. The acquaintance of Scottish pea- 
 sants with the text of inspiration is prover- 
 bial, and it is a noble foundation for that 
 structure which is to be carried up by sub- 
 sequent labours. The word of God is quite 
 a different book to him who can recall no 
 day in which he did not heai it read; as 
 each of us may assure himselt, by. reflecting 
 on the emotions raised within him by that 
 single term, the family-bible. 
 
 When it is asked, how much of the Scrip- 
 ture is to be read in Family-Worship, we 
 reply, the whole Bible. Not that any Judaic 
 superstition should be allowed to creep in, as 
 though we were bound to refuse all selection, 
 
 18* 
 
206 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 or to persevere through whole chapters of 
 proper names and genealogies. Still, in ge- 
 neral terms, we would say, the whole Bible. 
 And we prefer a leaning to the side of those 
 who make no omissions, rather than to the 
 fastidiousness which would exclude large 
 portions of the record. 
 
 The order in which Scripture should be 
 read in Family-Worship, may safely be left 
 to that wisdom which "is profitable to direct." 
 It is a wholesome rule which prescribes the 
 New Testament for the morning, and the 
 Old Testament for the evening, and which 
 goes through these in regular order, with 
 such variations as circumstances and provi- 
 dential tokens may indicate. At least one 
 chapter may be read at one time, carefully 
 observing, that the existing division of chap- 
 ters is a human arrangement, and that it 
 often breaks the current .of discourse. We 
 are not ignorant of the numerous plans, such 
 as that of the late Mr. McCheyne, for com- 
 pleting the whole Bible in a single twelve- 
 month. But after trial and reflection, we are 
 disposed to regard them all as attributing an 
 undue importance to the compassing of this 
 work in the exact term of a calendar year; 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 207 
 
 and we choose rather to leave this, with 
 many similar details, to the discretion of the 
 " wise householder."* 
 
 The judgment of such a man as Philip 
 Henry, in regard to the order of reading, is 
 worthy of record. " He advised the reading 
 of the Scripture in order; for though one 
 star in the firmament of the Scripture differ 
 from another star in glory, yet wherever God 
 hath a mouth to speak, we should have an 
 ear to hear; and the diligent searcher may 
 find much excellent matter in those parts of 
 Scripture which we are sometimes tempted 
 to think might have been spared. How affec- 
 tionately would he sometimes bless God for 
 every book, and chapter, and verse, and line 
 in the Bible. "f To this we may add the 
 testimony of Mr. Cecil : " I read the Scrip- 
 tures to my family in some regular order, 
 and am pleased to have thus a lesson found 
 for me. I look on the chapter of the day as 
 a lesson sent for that day ; and so I regard it 
 as coming from God for the use of that day, 
 and not of my own seeking.' 7 J 
 
 * Luke xii. 42. 
 
 f Life of Philip Henry, p. 87, edition of the Presby- 
 terian Board of Publication. 
 | Cecil's Works, vol. iii. p. 337. 
 
208 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 How far the portion of Scripture which is 
 read shall be expounded, must depend on 
 the gifts of the officiating person, and the cir- 
 cumstances and character of his family. The 
 all-important thing undoubtedly is the word 
 of revelation. Yet it is good to have every 
 thing which may render this more plain, or 
 carry it to the heart. Situated as most fami- 
 lies are, the continuous reading of an entire 
 commentary is scarcely to be thought of. 
 Great profit has, however, been derived from 
 skilful selections from such works as Scott's 
 Notes, Matthew Henry's Exposition, the 
 humbler works of Burkitt, Ostervald, and 
 Brown, Doddridge's Expositor, and Home 
 on the Psalms. The author of " Line upon 
 Line," has produced a convenient manual of 
 select passages, with comments, for this very 
 purpose, entitled, " Light in the Dwelling." 
 Other books, not commentaries, may be occa- 
 sionally used in short portions, such as Jay's 
 " Morning and Evening Exercises," Ma- 
 son's " Spiritual Treasury," and Hawker's 
 "Poor Man's Morning Portion." On the 
 Lord's-day, where there is no public wor- 
 ship, it is exceedingly to be desired that 
 Christian families should add to their usual 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP, 209 
 
 * 
 
 service the reading of a good sermon : it 
 would, above all things else, make up for the 
 lack of more stated ordinances. 
 
 Oral exposition, by the father of the fam- 
 ily, is a more difficult work, and should not 
 be attempted without due consideration. It 
 is certainly desirable, that a passing remark 
 should now and then be thrown in, to explain 
 a hard word, prevent a misconception, or 
 apply a divine sentence to the heart. " I 
 make no formal comment on the Scripture,' 7 
 says Mr. Cecil, " but when any striking event 
 or sentiment arises, I say, Mark that ! see 
 how God judges of that thing ! Sometimes 
 I ask what they think of the matter, and 
 how such a thing strikes them." A suitable 
 pause, after some remarkable passage, is often 
 itself a comment. The father may often 
 with profit select a verse or more, from the 
 morning lesson, to be meditated on, or com- 
 mitted to memory during the day.* 
 
 There are certain persons, who, by their 
 
 * From the notes taken on domestic expositions, the pious 
 daughters of a living- minister have found materials for a pub- 
 lished volume. We allude to "Family Expositions on the 
 Epistles of St. John and St. Jude. By the Rev. E. Bickersteth, 
 rector of Wotton, Herts. London, 1846. 
 
210 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 station, or their gifts, may seem called upon 
 to enter more freely than others upon the 
 work of exposition : and here we would again 
 cite Philip Henry. " What he read in his 
 family he always expounded, and exhorted 
 all ministers to do so, as an excellent means 
 of increasing their acquaintance with the 
 Scriptures. His expositions were not so 
 much critical as plain, and practical, and use- 
 ful, and such as tended to edification, and to 
 answer the end for which the Scriptures 
 were written, w^hich is to make us wise unto 
 salvation. And herein he had a peculiar ex- 
 cellence, performing that daily exercise with 
 so much judgment, and at the same time 
 with such facility and clearness, as if every 
 exposition had been premeditated ; and very 
 instructive they were, as well as affecting to 
 the auditors. He often admired that saying 
 of Tertullian's, ' I adore the fulness of the 
 Scriptures ;' and sometimes that, ' Scriptura 
 semper habet aliquid relegentihus' When 
 sometimes he had hit upon some useful ob- 
 servation that w T as new to him, he would say 
 afterwards to those about him, How often 
 have I read this chapter, and never before 
 now took notice of such a thing in it ! He 
 
FAMILY- WORSHIP. 211 
 
 put his children, while they were w T ith him, 
 to write these expositions ; and when they 
 w r ere gone from him, the strangers that so- 
 journed with him did the same."* 
 
 This is a branch of the subject on which 
 we do not use any urgency, because few 
 have the gifts of Philip Henry, or of Cecil. 
 There are, no doubt, many men who would 
 find themselves less at home in the colloquial 
 exposition of a chapter, than in a laboured 
 discourse. While few things are better than 
 a timely, judicious exposition, nothing can 
 be worse than the opposite abuse. We durst 
 not give an indiscriminate exhortation to the 
 duty, lest we should subject some poor family 
 to the infliction of tedious, ignorant, erro- 
 neous, or overheated harangues, under the 
 name of expounding Scripture, at family- 
 prayer. But where a Christian parent feels 
 himself called to engage in this service, with 
 due preparation, and reliance on God, he may 
 look for blessed results. 
 
 The manner of reading the Bible in the 
 family is of great importance Our judg- 
 ment is, that too much care cannot be be- 
 stowed on this point. If any thing should 
 
 * Life, pp. 87, 88. 
 
'212 F AMTL Y-W0RSHTP. 
 
 be well read, it is God's message. Half its 
 meaning, and almost all its effect, are some- 
 times suffocated and lost, by a sleepy, mono- 
 tonous, stupid, careless, inarticulate, drawl- 
 ing, or what is worse, an affected delivery. 
 
 For this reason, we are altogether con- 
 vinced that the portion of Scripture should, 
 in general, be wholly read by the head of the 
 family. We often complain, with justice, of 
 the interruption of the sense, occasioned by 
 the breaking up of the passage into verses ; 
 but this evil is made tenfold worse, when 
 each verse is pronounced by a different per- 
 son. However the mode of reading in rota- 
 tion may seem to awaken attention, it is clear- 
 ly injurious to the effect. No one would ever 
 think of reading any secular paragraph of 
 lively interest, such as a letter, or news from 
 Europe, in this manner. It gives the solemn 
 service too much the air of a school-lesson, 
 with all the worst annoyances of the school, 
 such as the spelling out of words, mispro- 
 nunciation, and mistakes, losing the place, 
 and divers mishaps tending to the ludicrous. 
 The solemn service of God should not be 
 made a school-lesson. Let each have his 
 book, but let it be felt that the Scriptures 
 
FAMILY- WORSHIP. 213 
 
 cannot be read too well, by the best reader in 
 the house ; and there is a propriety in having 
 it pronounced with all solemnity and expres- 
 sion, and without interruption, by him who 
 has the reverence of all present. Such is 
 our decided opinion, which, however, we 
 would not for a moment seek to impose as a 
 yoke on that liberty which we dearly prize 
 in all divine service. 
 
 It is so far from being a matter of indiffer- 
 ence, how, or by whom, the Scriptures shall 
 be read in Family-Worship, that particular 
 care should be bestowed on a due preparation 
 for this work by every head of a family. 
 Supposing him to be a man not familiar with 
 every part of the Bible, there would be 
 nothing amiss in his reading over with great 
 attention, in private, the chapter to which he 
 is about to attend with his family. No one 
 need consider it beneath his dignity to make 
 good reading his special study, not in the 
 way of rhetorical rule and elocutionary trick, 
 (far be it from us to recommend the emptiest 
 of all pretences!) but by fully understanding 
 the language, and deeply entering into the 
 spirit of the passage. At the fireside, or in 
 the pulpit, this will do more than all the 
 
 19 
 
214 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 orotund mouthing, and " start theatric, prac 
 tised at the glass." It has often been assert 
 ed, that the reading of a chapter, by the late 
 Dr. John M. Mason, was as good as another 
 man's exposition ; and we have heard a cler- 
 gyman say, that he would walk ten miles 
 to hear Dean Kirwan repeat the Lord's 
 Prayer. We have seldom felt the power of 
 delivery more, than in hearing Summer- 
 field rehearse a passage of Scripture, with- 
 out comment* It is true, we cannot, with 
 all our study, hope to be Kirwans, Masons, 
 or Summerfields, but we may keep ourselves 
 from being intolerably bad. From the acme 
 of their elocution, there is an unbroken de- 
 scent, down to the halting, humdrum, list- 
 less, careless, and therefore profane manner, 
 in which the sacred oracles are sometimes 
 read at Family- Worship. 
 
 Bible-distribution, now in so happy a pro- 
 gress, should lead to family Bible-reading. 
 Happy would be our nation, if every house 
 possessed, not only the volume, but this use 
 of it. It is not enough that we lay the volume 
 at every man's door. We do not claim for it 
 the virtue of a charm, or a talisman, which 
 
 * It was 2 Corinthians vi. 1 — 12. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 215 
 
 shall save him who lies asleep. Though we 
 strive to furnish the book, it is not the mere 
 furnishing of the book which is to save the 
 world. Yet the storehouse of medicine is 
 not the less necessary, because some will not 
 use it. It is the book in which all have a 
 common interest: it is the only such book." 
 Since the great efforts made during our 
 century for this object, certain high-church 
 mockers have sneered at an alleged supersti- 
 tious adoration of the Bible, which the objec- 
 tors have been pleased to name Bibliolatry. 
 They have declared, that the word of God 
 was more venerated, and sought more eager- 
 ly, w T hen it was hard to reach, and when the 
 massive folio of the sixteenth century used 
 to be chained fast to a pillar in some English 
 church. Now, while we acknowledge that 
 a loaf of bread is more valued in a ship on 
 short allowance, or in the famine of a siege, 
 than on the tables of plenty, we are not the 
 less desirous that every man should have his 
 loaf. 
 
 We bless God for handing dow^n his pre- 
 cious w^ord, not only by the church, but by 
 the family. We have received it from our 
 fathers, and we w r ould transmit it to our latest 
 
216 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 posterity. Family-instruction in the Scrip- 
 tures goes very far back: "Thou shalt teach 
 them diligently unto thy children, and shalt 
 talk of them, when thou sittest down, and 
 when thou walkest by the way, and when 
 thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 
 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon 
 thy hand, and they shall be as frontlets be- 
 tween thine eyes. And thou shalt write them 
 upon the posts of thy house, and on thy 
 gates."* The modern Jews resemble the 
 Papists in some things, but they have never 
 become idolaters, and they have never with- 
 held the word of God from the laity. It has 
 been read in every synagogue for centuries, 
 and is so read to this hour : it is read in every 
 Hebrew house every day. It is our hope, 
 that the day will come when at least as 
 much as this may be said of Christians all 
 over the world. Let us send down the word 
 of God to our descendants. When I look at 
 the folio Bible which was my grandfather's, 
 I cannot bear the thought that it should stop 
 with me. Human generations change, but 
 God's truth abides. " For all flesh is grass, 
 and all the glory of man is like the flower of 
 
 * Deuteronomy vi. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 217 
 
 grass: the grass withereth, and the flower 
 thereof falleth away ; but the word of the 
 Lord endureth for ever."* This is the word 
 which we desire may be read in the houses 
 of our offspring, when Christ shall appear. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PSALMODY, AS A PART OP FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 Good Mr. Philip Henry used to say, that 
 the singing of God's people, at Family- 
 Worship, was a way to hold forth godliness 
 to such as pass by their windows, like Ra- 
 hab's scarlet thread.f Sacred song is an 
 instituted means of giving expression to 
 every high religious emotion. It has been 
 adopted for this purpose in every form of 
 religion known among men. Concerning its 
 fitness for this end, in the great assembly, 
 there has been no controversy in the church. 
 Never was the glory of divine song more ex- 
 alted, than in the ancient temple service. It 
 
 * 1 Peter i. 25. t Josh. ii. 17. 
 
 10* 
 
218 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 was at once admitted into the primitive as- 
 semblies, and has prevailed in all Christian 
 churches. " In singing the praises of God," 
 says the Directory for Worship, " we are to 
 sing with the spirit, and with the under- 
 standing also ; making melody in our hearts 
 unto the Lord. It is also proper that we 
 cultivate some knowledge of the rules of mu- 
 sic, that we may praise God in a becoming 
 manner with our voices, as well as with our 
 hearts."* There has been no difference of 
 judgment on this point, in any of the reform- 
 ed churches. But we ask attention to the 
 assertion, that there is no argument for sa- 
 cred music in the church, which does not 
 hold equally good in the family. Though 
 this part of the service has fallen out of the 
 practice of many households, and (strangely 
 enough) extensively in those regions where 
 scientific music has been most boastfully cul- 
 tivated, the judgment of our church on this 
 subject is explicit : " It is the duty of Chris- 
 tians to praise God, by singing psalms or 
 hymns, publicly in the church, as also pri- 
 vately in the family "\ There is no reason 
 
 * Chapter iv. \ 2. 
 
 f Directory for Worship, chap. iv. \ 1. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 219 
 
 for one which is not a reason for the other. 
 If a congregation has its joys and other ele- 
 vated emotions, so has a family. If a con- 
 gregation has cause to give utterance to these 
 with " the voice of melody/' so has a family. 
 If a congregation has voices which are fitted 
 for this work, so has a family. In truth, 
 'what is a family but a domestic congregation, 
 or " church in the house ?" 
 
 Domestic psalmody is promotive of devo- 
 tion. It is an exercise in which the voices 
 of all join in the expression of sentiments 
 which should be experienced by all. We 
 trust we shall not be called upon to prove 
 that the singing of God's praise is eminently 
 conducive to the awakening and mainten- 
 ance of holy affections, and that it has been 
 in every age employed by the Holy Spirit, 
 for this purpose. But we beg consideration 
 of the statement, that this is as true of the 
 family as of the church. The peculiar exer- 
 cises of soul which belong to families, as 
 such, find expression in sacred song, no less 
 than those which belong to public assemblies. 
 The godly sorrow, the trust, the adoration, 
 the thanks, of a household, seem to require 
 this channel for their flow. 
 
220 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 Psalmody is a means of Christian instruc- 
 tion. In the early church, many of the 
 hymns were compendious formulas of doc- 
 trine ; and such has been the case in every 
 succeeding age. " Let the word of Christ 
 dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching 
 and admonishing one another, in psalms and 
 hymns and spiritual songs, singing w T ith 
 grace in your hearts to the Lord."* In this 
 view, it is wise to seize upon sacred poetry 
 as a means of fastening truth on the infant 
 mind ; and the daily practice of the family 
 will, beyond any thing else, familiarize the 
 young with the choicest spiritual songs. In 
 order that this may take place most fully, 
 the selection should be careful, and the num- 
 ber of hymns so used should not be too large. 
 Where so much depends on repetition, there 
 may be an inordinate passion for variety. 
 A small circle of well adapted psalms and 
 hymns is better than a great multitude, and 
 the suggestion derives new importance from 
 the extraordinary augmentation of our stock 
 of religious compositions in verse. 
 
 The happy influence of spiritual songs is 
 illustrated in the early churches of Ger- 
 
 * Col. iii. 16. 
 
FAMILY- WOR SHIP. 22 1 
 
 many. Luther was himself a poet and a 
 musician, and he bestowed on his country 
 many of her noblest hymns, and some of her 
 finest melodies. In his writings he often 
 alludes to this as one of the chosen agencies 
 in the work of Reformation; and this not 
 merely in the church, but by the wayside, 
 and at home. He relates that, in the earlier 
 part of his labours, he was moved to tears by 
 hearing a wandering beggar, under his win- 
 dow, sing a hymn, which has since become 
 famous, but which Luther had never before 
 heard.* The remarkable cultivation of mu- 
 sic among the United Brethren, is only the 
 extension, by Zinzendorf, of this attachment 
 to sacred song, which was encouraged by 
 Luther. The impress still remains. Wher- 
 ever you meet the German Christian, you 
 find him charged with those noble and evan- 
 gelical compositions. Even the emigrant, 
 in his blouse, is sure, if a disciple, to carry 
 across the sea in his wallet, the black-covered 
 hymn-book. 
 
 The same thing is observable among our 
 Presbyterian forefathers, and their descend- 
 
 * Paul Speratus's hymn, " (g$ iff ba£ £cU un$ femmcn." 
 
222 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 ants in Scotland and Ireland. They praised 
 God in their families. Usually having the 
 metrical psalms at the end of their pocket- 
 bibles, they were familiar with them from 
 youth ; and they held them in more reve- 
 rence as conceiving them to be a literal ver- 
 sion of the word of God. While we con- 
 demn the narrowness of that prejudice which 
 would debar the Church of God from naming 
 the name of Christ in public praise, and 
 which would reject all New Testament 
 hymns, we cannot shut our eyes to the singu- 
 lar influence of that ancient version; though 
 written by an Englishman, Francis Rouse or 
 Rous, it has become almost the peculiar trea- 
 sure of the Scots, and is still used in the 
 Kirk of Scotland, and the Secession bodies 
 of Britain and America. 
 
 The use of psalmody in Family-Worship 
 we believe to have been almost universal in 
 the old Presbyterian church of Scotland, as 
 it has been laudably kept up till this day. 
 That it tended, in a high degree, to increase 
 "the interest of all concerned in the service, 
 and to promote Christian knowledge, and 
 sound piety, we cannot for a moment doubt. 
 The homely old version, with a small num- 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 223 
 
 ber of ancient airs, of great plainness, seve- 
 rity, and sweetness, some of which still lin- 
 ger in our churches, was familiar to every 
 man, woman, and child. The favourite poet 
 of Scotland has not failed to seize on this 
 trait in the family picture, to which, there- 
 fore, we once more call attention : 
 
 " They chant their artless notes in simple guise, 
 
 They tune their hearts, by far their noblest aim, 
 
 Perhaps Dundee's wild warbling measures rise, 
 Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name, 
 
 Or noble Elgin beats the heavenward flame, 
 The sweetest far of Scotia's holy lays. 
 
 Compared with these Italian trills are tame ; 
 The tickled ears no heartfelt raptures raise, 
 Nae unison hae they with our Creator's praise." 
 
 The Wesleyans in Great Britain, and their 
 Methodist brethren in America, have be- 
 yond all others done justice to the animating 
 power of sacred song, in public and in the 
 house, and we may learn a lesson from them. 
 Differing from them as we do, in several 
 important points, we shall, nevertheless, al- 
 ways hold ourselves ready to give them just 
 praise for the Christian vivacity of their ser- 
 vices ; and we hazard whatever may be at 
 stake of reputation for taste, when we say, 
 that, after some opportunities of listening to 
 
224 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 what is regarded as the choicest music which 
 has come to us from abroad, we have felt 
 more of the genuine power of harmonious 
 sounds, when the voices of "the great con- 
 gregation " have united in sending up a 
 volume of song, than from orchestral clan- 
 gour, or the artistic combinations of " stringed 
 instruments and organs." 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, that in those cir- 
 cles of the religious world which consider 
 themselves the most accomplished, there are 
 many families where sacred music receives 
 no separate attention. We enter the saloons 
 of wealth, professedly consecrated to God, 
 and our eyes are greeted by the piano-forte, 
 the guitar, the organ, or the harp, and by 
 piles of complicated and fashionable music. 
 But when the hour t of Family- Worship 
 arrives, no hymn of praise ascends to God. 
 Those cultivated voices, so cunning in sol- 
 feggio and " Italian trills," are dumb for all 
 but this world's song. Our Christian daugh- 
 ters, practising for hours a day under great 
 masters of singing, are sometimes unwilling 
 to lend their aid even in the house of God. 
 We solemnly commend this subject to those 
 who preside over the education of youth. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 225 
 
 Some are ready to say that psalmody can- 
 not be maintained with ease in domestic 
 worship, because in many instances a majo- 
 rity of those present are children. It is 
 strange that this objection should arise at the 
 very period in which, above all that have 
 preceded, juvenile instruction in music has 
 been pursued with success. The concurrent 
 testimony of all who have most largely ex- 
 amined and experimented on the matter, is, 
 that no child has been found, (unless in case 
 of organic defect,) which could not be taught 
 to sing. No school, of the higher class, ven- 
 tures to exclude vocal music from its course 
 of study. Not a word need be said, concern- 
 ing this, to such as are familiar with the ex- 
 traordinary labours of Mr. Hastings, or have 
 attended the public exhibitions of Mr. Brad- 
 bury and others, in some of which no less 
 than five hundred children have appeared at 
 once, in the admirable performance of the 
 most celebrated compositions of the great 
 masters. A much simpler cultivation would 
 suffice for all that we require. 
 
 Family-Worship affords the most happy 
 means of bringing forward infant voices in 
 the praise of God. We have known children 
 
 20 
 
22G FAMILY-WORSHIP 
 
 who joined, without false intonation, in the 
 family psalm, before they could distinctly 
 articulate a word. It is almost always an 
 attractive and delightful part of the worship, 
 to youthful minds, and hence contributes to 
 endear the household-meeting, and the circle 
 of home. Above all, it makes this early im- 
 pression, that the voice is to be trained for 
 the glory of God, as its best and happiest 
 office. 
 
 The use of psalmody in domestic worship, 
 tends to the improvement of this part of di- 
 vine service in public. We may push the 
 art and exquisite harmony of choirs, or select 
 companies, to any degree of advancement, 
 however high, yet the great end will not be 
 attained, until we secure the united voices 
 of the whole congregation. Every method 
 which discourages or postpones this, how r - 
 ever agreeable to human taste, is a snare, 
 which should be deprecated. So long as 
 great numbers, in the body of a church, feel 
 at liberty to depute this part of religion to 
 others, the worship of God is abridged of its 
 rightful claim. We believe that the revival 
 of psalmody in the house, would contribute 
 to train voices for the sanctuary. In order 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 227 
 
 to have this effect, it should not be left to 
 take care of itself, or be executed in a care- 
 less, random way. Some pains should be 
 taken to select suitable tunes, and to make 
 every member of the household familiar with 
 them. This might be done by means of an 
 occasional hour of musical instruction, such 
 as is implied in the injunction which we 
 have already cited from our Directory. But 
 the daily exercise itself is a school of music ; 
 and we have never known a family in which 
 it was common, that did not attain to some 
 excellence in this department. 
 
 Conscientious regard to the spiritual as- 
 pect of divine praise, will lead him who pre- 
 sides in Family-Worship, to look upon the 
 selection of appropriate psalms and hymns, 
 as a matter of great importance. He will not 
 leave it to accident, but from the ample stores 
 which we possess, will endeavour to choose 
 such as may both be level to the capacity of 
 his little flock, and suited to carry up their 
 hearts directly to God. These sacred com- 
 positions, we hope, will rest in the memory 
 of our children when we shall be no more 
 with them. No evil can arise from often 
 recurring to the same hymns, if these are in 
 
228 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 themselves excellent. The best hymns are 
 those which are oftenest sung, and w T hich 
 every one knows by heart; and those will 
 have the largest stock in remembrance who 
 have praised God all their lives at home. 
 We do not understand the feelings of that 
 man, who can ever weary of such composi- 
 tions as those which begin thus : " My God, 
 my life, my love," — " Alas ! and did my Sa- 
 viour bleed," — " Not all the blood of beasts," 
 — " Come we, who love the Lord," — " My 
 God, the spring of all my joys," — " When I 
 can read my title clear," — " There is a land 
 of pure delight," — " Plunged in a gulf of 
 dark despair," — " The Lord my Shepherd 
 is," — " Teach me the measure of my days," — 
 " When overwhelmed with grief," — " Lord 
 of the worlds above," — " Sweet is the work, 
 my God, my King." Such psalms and 
 hymns, so far from losing by repetition, gain 
 new associations day by day : and we ven- 
 ture to assert, that they are sung by none in 
 the house of God, with so much real delight, 
 as by the aged man w T ho lays aside his spec- 
 tacles, because the psalm has been known to 
 him for forty years. 
 
 No religious duty can be conducted aright 
 
FAMILY- WORSHIP. 229 
 
 unless the heart be in it; and there are spe- 
 cial reasons why the thoughts and affections 
 should be tempted to wander in the singing 
 of God's praise. How few, even in the 
 largest worshipping assemblies, show, by 
 their demeanour, that the words which ar£ 
 on their lips, or on the lips of their substi- 
 tutes in the work of praise, are addressed to 
 the present, and heart-searching Jehovah ! 
 The soul may be entirely taken up in the 
 secular and musical part of the psalmody. 
 No pains can be too great, which may result 
 in the awakening of solemn consideration in 
 the minds of those who join in singing praise. 
 Every symptom of levity should be repress- 
 ed. An occasional remark, if solemnly and 
 appropriately thrown in, before engaging in 
 this duty, might often have a good effect. It 
 is an offence against God, to address him in 
 words of high moment, while, perhaps, we 
 have no thought of their meaning, still less 
 any sympathy with their sentiment. Each 
 of us should learn to say with sincerity, " I 
 will sing with the spirit, I will sing with the 
 understanding also."* 
 
 It w r ould be a peculiar pleasure to the 
 
 * 1 Cor. xiv. 15. 
 20* 
 
230 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 writer of these lines, if he could know that 
 he had succeeded in bringing the vocal praise 
 of God into the daily worship of even a sin- 
 gle household. Those who make the expe- 
 riment, will find a new spring of delight 
 gushing out under the domestic vine and 
 fig-tree. They will rejoice in a fresh sweet- 
 ener of their toils and anxieties, and a power- 
 ful instrument for quieting and training the 
 souls of their children. It is mournful to 
 think, that a service which was so precious 
 to our ancestors, and which they made sacri- 
 fices to enjoy, even when under the sword of 
 persecution, should die out of many Chris- 
 tian families in these days of peace, when 
 there is no lack of worldly rejoicings, " and 
 the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, 
 and wine, are in their feasts."* There may 
 be days in which we have scarcely the heart 
 to sing, by reason of deep anguish, but such 
 are not the days of most. " Is any merry ? 
 let him sing psalms."f Before we totally 
 hush the voice of thanksgiving in our taber- 
 nacle, let us break or banish the instruments 
 of worldly music. No law can be laid down 
 for those who have not the control of their 
 
 * Isaiah v. 12. t James v. 13. 
 
FAMILY- WORSHIP. 231 
 
 own time, or those who, after every effort, 
 are convinced that it is impossible for them 
 to sing ; but we would advise a shortening 
 of the other services, rather than the total 
 omission of this. Such as have abundance 
 of leisure should honour God by the psalm, 
 and "make the voice of his praise to be 
 heard."* 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE HOUSEHOLDER EXHORTED TO THE DUTY OF 
 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 Every portion of what has preceded has 
 tended to the single point of inducing the 
 reader to maintain the worship of God in his 
 house ; but it is desirable to make the appeal 
 even more closely, and as it were, personally, 
 to the heart and conscience. Laying aside, 
 therefore, all more ceremonious modes of 
 approach, I would respectfully and affection- 
 
 * Psalm lxvi. 8. 
 
232 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 ately address myself to the individual pro- 
 fessor of religion. 
 
 You are, by Providence, set at the head of 
 a family, to support it, instruct it, guard it. 
 and in every way care for its temporal and 
 eternal good. We offer to you a simple 
 means of contributing to the greatest of these 
 objects; and we have, at some length, dwelt 
 upon its excellencies and fruits. Our plea 
 is for those whom you love the best, for your 
 own flesh and blood. No human language 
 can w T ell go beyond the importance of the 
 domestic relation. On this point you require 
 no prompting. When you return from the 
 toils and distractions of the day, and sit at 
 home, amidst the little quiet circle, you feel 
 that you are among your chief wealth. This 
 is your treasure. The law makes it your 
 castle, and religion may make it your sanc- 
 tuary. As your eye rests on the wife of 
 your bosom, and the pledges of your mutual 
 love, you silently give thanks to God, and 
 sometimes your heart overflows in earnest 
 wishes for the good of each beloved object. 
 Withhold not a single defence or ornament 
 from that Christian home, which is already 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 233 
 
 the source of so many virtues and enjoy- 
 ments. 
 
 u Domestic happiness, thou only bliss 
 Of Paradise that has survived the fall ! 
 Though few now taste thee unimpaired and pure, 
 Or tasting, long enjoy thee ! too infirm, 
 Or too incautious to preserve thy sweets 
 Unmixed with drops of bitter, which neglect 
 Or temper sheds into thy crystal cup ; 
 Thou art the nurse of Virtue, in thine arms 
 She smiles, appearing, as in truth she is, 
 Heaven-born, and destined to the skies again."* 
 
 If you would " preserve these sweets," 
 connect them with heaven. Have you no 
 desire to honour God, in the midst of these 
 his favours. Or do you see no seemliness in 
 recognising the religion of Christ in your 
 family capacity ? Even supposing that there 
 were no injunction of such a service as this, 
 one might expect it to grow up spontane- 
 ously in Christian households. Prayer is a 
 duty of natural religion. The Mohamme- 
 dan, wherever he journeys, prays to God 
 five times a day, at his stated hours. The 
 very heathen, in their families, call on their 
 gods, " which are yet no gods."f Shall a 
 Christian house be void of all tokens of its 
 
 Cowper. | Jeremiah ii. 11. 
 
234 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 relation to God ? One might claim of you, 
 as a follower of the Redeemer, to hold forth 
 some such sign, that as for you and your 
 house, you fear the Lord.* If God had given 
 no indications of his good pleasure in this 
 ordinance, it is one of so great value and 
 blessedness, that we might all reasonably 
 join in asking it at his hands as a special 
 boon. But he gives it to us freely : and yet 
 the heavenly gift is spurned by thousands ! 
 Suppose it were revealed to us that we were 
 forbidden to worship God in our families. 
 Though all other means should remain un- 
 diminished, it would be a fearful interdict; 
 a portentous curfew to our domestic fires. 
 The parent and the child could no longer 
 press around the feet of divine mercy, cling- 
 ing the more closely because the rest of the 
 world is shut out. Yet multitudes deny 
 themselves all this blessing, of their own free 
 choice; and parents and children grow up 
 and live and separate and appear in judg- 
 ment, without having ever met, even once, 
 in an act of common household supplication. 
 It is amazing, and all but incredible, that 
 any man who loves Christ, should be willing 
 
 * Joshua xxiv. 15. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 235 
 
 to preside over a family in which, from year 
 to year, there is nothing to signalize it as be- 
 longing to the Lord. 
 
 O Christian parent! " suffer the word of 
 exhortation." Be persuaded not to deny 
 yourself a service which will heighten all 
 your comforts. The principle is undoubted, 
 that we have tenfold pleasure in that which 
 we enjoy in company with those whom we 
 love. That is not a father's heart, which 
 does not experience it every day. We realize 
 it in our common meals, our recreations, our 
 readings, our excursions, our visits; why 
 should you not realize it in your religion ? 
 Family-Worship is a coming to God, not 
 singly, but hand-in-hand with your children 
 and family ; and from this, its peculiar aspect, 
 it has delights and advantages which are all 
 its own. 
 
 The family, as such, has its wants and 
 dangers, and sorrows, and sins, which it is, 
 therefore, reasonable to lay before God in 
 a special devotion. No human community 
 stands out from the mass in such substan- 
 tive and prominent individuality ; the circle 
 which bounds it is clear, and sharply mark- 
 ed, and has been described by the hand of 
 
236 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 God himself. There is a community of in- 
 terest: no persons on earth are so much 
 bound together. Nothing can befall any one, 
 without reaching the whole circle. You are 
 invited to present your household, as a house- 
 hold, before the Infinite Giver of all good. 
 Be assured he w T ill make a difference be- 
 tween those who fear him, and those who 
 fear him not. It was with a dreadful refer- 
 ence to this very family-tie, that God said, 
 " Them that honour me I will honour, and 
 they that despise me shall be lightly esteem- 
 ed."* Your habitation will be more safe ; 
 and its inmates more prosperous, by reason 
 of God's answer to the petitions which you 
 put up together. 
 
 By a faithful observance of Family- Wor- 
 ship, you will be employing a daily means 
 towards the eternal salvation of your house- 
 hold. It is scarcely possible to think of this 
 without some impression. The everlasting 
 damnation of your own offspring is a catas- 
 trophe so awful, that no single instrumenta- 
 lity, which promises to avert it, should be 
 omitted. No prayers, indeed, considered as 
 so much work wrought, will effectually save 
 
 * 1 Samuel ii. 30. 
 
FAMILY- WORSHIP. 237 
 
 these souls ; but we know no means which 
 tend more directly to this end, than domes- 
 tic worship, and the duties to which it leads. 
 Are you willing to hazard so great a neglect? 
 Dare you live any longer, withholding your- 
 self from an agency which adds even a hair's 
 weight of probability to the eventual rescue 
 of these beloved, perishing souls ? There are 
 other means, indeed, but they are seldom 
 used by the neglecters of family-prayer. 
 Think how hard you already find the per- 
 formance of these duties; how your mouth 
 is closed, in regard to the personal admoni- 
 tion of your children and servants ; how little 
 you have spoken to them of their sin and 
 danger, and of the way of salvation by Christ ; 
 how defective your example is; how few 
 tokens you give them of such a power and 
 loveliness in religion as may draw them to 
 it. You assuredly are not so rich in spiritual 
 agency on your little flock as to be able to 
 do without this. If humbly attempted, and 
 devoutly pursued, there is good reason to 
 believe that it will result in their eternal 
 good; and we put it to your conscience, in 
 the sight of God, whether you can despise it 
 without exceeding guilt. 
 
 21 
 
238 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 You need the aid of Family- Worship in 
 the rearing of your children : this has been 
 discussed at large. Your duty is now to act 
 upon the truth. At present, while your chil- 
 dren, perhaps, are small, you find govern- 
 ment an easy task. They reverently hear 
 your w T ords, and pray by your side, and weep 
 at the name of Jesus; you are sometimes 
 tempted to think their hearts renewed. But 
 a few years will make a strange difference. 
 Let them enter upon adolescence, and all 
 your cords will prove like the spider's web, 
 unless you shall have maintained your influ- 
 ence upon them by the daily-growing bond 
 of family-religion. Look around you, among 
 families professing faith in Christ, and ob- 
 serve the difference between those which 
 worship God and those w^hich worship him 
 not; and then, as you love your offspring, 
 and as you would save them from the rebel- 
 lion of Hophni and Phinehas, set up the 
 w r orship of God in your house. 
 
 Family- Worship has been shown to be a 
 happy instrument for the promotion of piety 
 in a household. A true Christian will desire 
 that his children and dependents should be 
 not merely safe, but eminently holy. Are 
 
FAMILY- WORSHIP. 239 
 
 you conscious of any such desires ? In the 
 absence of them can you persuade yourself 
 that you are a child of God? Or, feeling 
 them, can you possibly endure a life without 
 so much as one common prayer as a family ? 
 Have you no call for domestic thanksgiving? 
 no daily mercies? no special deliverances? 
 no long-continued exemptions from evil? It 
 is monstrous, that a Christian household 
 should, on these points, be absolutely dumb : 
 we scarcely know how it can be so. Some 
 tribute of gratitude will surely burst forth, 
 unawares, and ascend to heaven from a sanc- 
 tified dwelling. u The voice of rejoicing and 
 salvation is in the tabernacles of the right- 
 eous."* 
 
 God has, we will suppose, given you a 
 number of children. They are " an heritage 
 of the Lord ;" and " the fruit of the womb is 
 his reward." " As arrows are in the hand 
 of a mighty man, so are children of the 
 youth; happy is the man that hath his quiver 
 full of them. They shall not be ashamed, 
 but they shall speak w T ith the enemies in the 
 gate."! But that you may enjoy such bless- 
 ings, it is indispensable that you should be 
 
 * Psalm cxviii. 15. f Psalm cxxvii. 3, 4, 5. 
 
240 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 living in the performance of parental duty, 
 and especially that you should be engaged 
 in prayer with your little ones. In a prayer- 
 less dwelling, children seem to stretch out 
 their little hands to the professing father for 
 this needful protection and benediction, as 
 really as the helpless brood regards the pa- 
 rent-bird for natural supplies. 
 
 It is dreadful to consider the neglect of 
 Family-Worship, as connected with the en- 
 gagements implied in infant baptism. In 
 that sacrament, the parents solemnly dedi- 
 cate their little one to God, the Father, the 
 Son, and the Holy Ghost, and do as solemnly 
 incur an obligation to use all methods for 
 the accomplishment of that which is set forth 
 in the rite. The officiating minister is direct- 
 ed to exhort parents to the careful perform- 
 ance of their duty, requiring of them that 
 they instruct their child, "that they pray 
 with and for it ; that they set an example 
 of piety and godliness before it ; and endea- 
 vour, by all the means of God's appointment, 
 to bring up their child in the nurture and 
 admonition of the Lord."* It is matter of 
 very general usage, though not expressly 
 
 * Directory for Worship, chap. vii. § 4. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 241 
 
 enjoined by our church, to exact from pa- 
 rents a solemn vow in regard to this parti- 
 cular duty. We must remain in wonder, by 
 what means so many professing parents 
 absolve themselves from this affecting obli- 
 gation. 
 
 You are, it may be, the head of a family 
 comprising numerous domestics and other 
 dependents, whose souls are entrusted to 
 your care. Here is a means of daily appear- 
 ing before them in a religious character, and 
 daily drawing their thoughts to divine things. 
 Little as it may have burdened your con- 
 science, it will enter into that judgment 
 which awaits you. And unless you have 
 arrived at some better way of inculcating 
 truth, and promoting piety, and unless you 
 are in the active observance of this better 
 method, you cannot, without sin, neglect the 
 domestic worship of God. 
 
 With particular and affectionate earnest- 
 ness, would we commend this subject to 
 young householders, who are just entering 
 on domestic life for themselves. The mar- 
 riage-bond is too often contracted with a 
 predominance of worldly and dissipating 
 thoughts, if not with great levity. But there 
 
 21* 
 
242 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 are serious associations, to a reflecting mind, 
 hovering around the union of two young per- 
 sons for life. And here, as in other things, 
 first steps are momentous. Begin aright, 
 and you escape some of the most formidable 
 difficulties in the way of this observance. 
 Sanctify the union of your hearts by the 
 institution of God's service. Resolve that 
 as soon as you have a house, you will have 
 your Lord acknowledged under its roof. 
 This will sweeten every solace of your days. 
 The time is near when you shall feel your 
 need of it. It will give a colour to your 
 whole life. Especially in days of affliction, 
 (and they will come,) you will have at hand 
 a spring of divine comforts. Honour God 
 in the beginning of your course, and when 
 you approach its close, you will bless his 
 holy name, that he ever put the thought into 
 your heart. 
 
 You are, perhaps, a new professor, but 
 just admitted to the table of the Lord. You 
 are at the best juncture, for amending what 
 is evil in your life. Let no delays prevent 
 your immediate enjoyment of this ordinance. 
 Break through every restraint, and let the 
 time of your public avouching of God as 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 243 
 
 your God, be marked by your solemn and 
 deliberate establishment of God's worship in 
 your dwelling. Such is your obvious duty, 
 if you have failed up to the time of a profes- 
 sion of faith. But let not these remarks be 
 interpreted as if the duty of family-prayer 
 were dependent on the sacramental commu- 
 nion. So far from it, that even if you have 
 never united yourself in the fall enjoyment 
 of church-fellowship, you are no less bound 
 to honour God in your own house, this very 
 day. But he who, after struggles of mind, 
 in regard to other duties, can deliberately 
 approach the Lord's table, and then go home 
 and resume a course of heathenish forgetful- 
 ness of domestic worship, must be regarded 
 as diseased in conscience, if not altogether 
 misled as to his personal acceptance. 
 
 It is a delicate question, which is often 
 proposed to ministers of the gospel, whether 
 those who make no public profession of their 
 faith should be encouraged in the mainten- 
 ance of Family-Worship. In replying to 
 it, we desire to speak with modesty and yet 
 with decision. The tw r o duties are not de- 
 pendent on one another. Family-prayer is 
 a duty of every householder, binding on him 
 
244 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 every day of his life. The believing remem- 
 brance of Christ at his table is another duty. 
 "Where a man who is grave and sober, and 
 who has been trained in the ways of God, is 
 prompted to honour his Creator and Bene- 
 factor in his dwelling, w T e dare not forbid 
 him, any more than we would forbid him to 
 pray in his closet. We would employ the 
 occasion to urge upon him the grand, para- 
 mount duty of faith in the Lord Jesus, and 
 the duty of publicly professing such faith ; 
 but we would likewise rejoice to see him, 
 without delay, assembling his household for 
 the worship of the Lord. Let him be warned 
 of the danger of resting in such means, or 
 in any means ; let him not hope by such per- 
 formance to propitiate that Divine favour 
 which comes only on the believing ; let him 
 not delay an instant to fly to the mercy of 
 God in Jesus Christ ; but let him, neverthe- 
 less, conduct his children and servants to 
 that throne of grace where sovereign grace 
 may vouchsafe to him an undeserved benefit. 
 Nay, while we would sedulously avoid seem- 
 ing to compound for a greater duty by the 
 performance of a lesser, we hesitate not to 
 say, that, where more cannot be secured, it 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 245 
 
 is an act of Christian mercy to households, 
 to prevail on their head even to read a chap- 
 ter in the Bible, morning and evening. 
 
 Thus far, it may be said to some, you have 
 pursued the tenor of your way, in the utter 
 neglect of Family- Worship. To you, the 
 message is simple — fly at once, with your 
 household, to the throne of grace ! Cease to 
 consider it as a matter of indifference, or an 
 affair of variable custom. The neglect is 
 most serious. It is your loss, and the loss of 
 your offspring. It is your sin. It calls for 
 repentance, and for reformation, which is 
 the criterion of repentance. Instead of a 
 lingering meditation on the expediency of 
 the work, you should begin now. " To him 
 that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to 
 him it is sin."* 
 
 * James iv. 17. 
 
246 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS. CONCLUSION. 
 
 The fact that an observance so important 
 and fruitful should be widely disregarded, 
 even in Protestant churches, may well give 
 rise to serious inquiry into the causes of such 
 neglect. Misapprehensions, objections, and 
 difficulties, must certainly exist, or we should 
 find it as universal as Sabbath-worship. 
 
 Laying aside all flattering words, we may 
 say plainly, that we regard the neglect of 
 Family-Worship as springing from luke- 
 warmness and worldliness in religion, and 
 as a portentous evil of our day. Where 
 piety is ardent and operative, it cannot but 
 diffuse itself through the domestic structure. 
 Where a man has the spirit of prayer, he 
 will naturally be led to give vent to his devo- 
 tion in fellowship with those whom he loves 
 most of all on earth. We are ready to make 
 allowance for the force of long habit, and the 
 religious usages of particular countries, and 
 will not hastily condemn those, who, in the 
 midst of popery and neology, are governed 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 247 
 
 by the customs of their vicinity. But even 
 there, we have already observed, that as vital 
 godliness advances, this service, or something 
 equivalent, comes in, by a natural suggestion, 
 or rather by a suggestion of grace. And 
 where the custom of Protestant churches 
 abroad, in any region, authorizes the disuse 
 of domestic prayer, we scruple not to refer 
 the origin of this disuse to the decay of piety 
 in a former age. We have good reason to 
 believe that all the Reformation churches 
 were acquainted with family-prayer. 
 
 A great accession to the piety of a Christian 
 house will manifest itself in nothing more 
 speedily, than in the necessity under which 
 they will feel themselves laid, to come toge- 
 ther in acts of worship. There may be per- 
 sons who know not what it is. For one 
 large class, however, no such apology can be 
 made. They are sons of the church, intro- 
 duced within its guardian care by baptism, 
 and familiarized to the daily sanctuary, of 
 which they can even now scarcely hear, or 
 think, without recalling the image of a saint- 
 ed father, whose voice in their early years 
 conducted them to the praise of God. When 
 such persons, so instructed, establish house- 
 
248 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 holds of their own, with a daily memento of 
 their youthful privilege, and their present 
 neglect, in every hour at which God was 
 wont to be worshipped under the paternal 
 roof, and still deny the faith of their child- 
 hood, they hot only sin, but sin knowingly 
 and inexcusably. Nothing but the absence 
 of devout affections can account for such a 
 life. 
 
 So great is our desire, however, to meet 
 the neglecters of this service on any ground, 
 that we will yield a ready attention to all 
 their doubts, scruples, and objections ; and 
 for this purpose no better way suggests itself 
 than that of supposing the replies which may 
 be made to our preceding urgent beseeching, 
 that the reader would enter upon Family- 
 Worship forthwith. What arguments can 
 we imagine, from his lips? " The service, as 
 I have seen it, is a dull formality ; and my 
 house is as well without it." Then you have 
 seen it under great neglect or perversion. 
 Like all religious services, it may be so con- 
 ducted as to be both dull and formal. But 
 no Christian observance, known among men, 
 admits of more life, and none is connected 
 with more sources of tender affection. Very 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 249 
 
 ignorant,^ very stupid, or very irreligious peo- 
 ple, jriay transform it into a tedious and bur- 
 densome routine, but this is no fault of the 
 ordinance : they do the like with every 
 sacred thing that they touch. We do not 
 invite you to such a service, or to any dead 
 formality, but to that which, under the influ- 
 ence of elevated emotion, may be made, and 
 is daily made, a delightful and animating 
 means of grace. True, it is simple, and lacks 
 all the paraphernalia, and posture, and gri- 
 mace of anti-christian rites, but in the house- 
 holds of the righteous it shines with a pure 
 and hallowed attraction ; and we appeal to 
 those who have enjoyed it from their infancy, 
 whether they do not regard it in retrospect 
 with every feeling rather than that of weari- 
 ness. Nay, the very reason why we would 
 introduce the means under every roof, is that 
 it possesses in so remarkable a degree the 
 quality of inspiring the liveliest emotion. 
 
 " Family-Worship may be well enough in 
 itself, but it does not fall in with the customs 
 of my house and my guests." This is with 
 some a valid argument, and it must be ad- 
 mitted that there are customs of households 
 and of society, with which Family-Worship 
 
 22 
 
250 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 will assuredly interfere. Such is the custom 
 of late and irregular rising, agreeably to 
 which the yawning inmates of a house strag- 
 gle down to a breakfast-table, which stands 
 for hours, awaiting the successive approaches 
 of the solitary and moody participant; and 
 that other custom, of passing a long evening, 
 as it is called by the courtesy of fashion, at 
 the theatre, the card-party, the ball, or the 
 not less unseasonable supper, or assembly. 
 It is not the least of the advantages of do- 
 mestic prayer, that it stands in open daily 
 protest against these growing observances of 
 the mode. 
 
 "I have not time for Family-Worship." 
 In the hurry of our great cities, it is painful 
 to observe the preference given to Mammon 
 over God. Look at the living tide which 
 rolls every morning down such a thorough- 
 fare as Broadway ! A stranger might be for- 
 given if he supposed that the life of each 
 oreathless banker, merchant, or clerk, de- 
 pended on his reaching the commercial lati- 
 tudes within a certain minute. But how 
 many of these have prayed w r ith their fami- 
 lies ? Some, we rejoice to believe ; but the 
 mass have no time for any thing but the 
 
^ FAMILY-WORSHIP* 251 
 
 world. Unless men will lose their own souls, 
 and jeopard the souls of their children, they 
 must take time for God. And the more busy, 
 exhausting, and absorbing, any man's days 
 are, the more does he need the deliberate 
 abstraction of a quiet devotional hour, such 
 as that of Family-Worship. " Were you 
 formed for this world only, there would be 
 some force in the objection, but how strange 
 does such an objection sound in the heir of 
 an eternity ! Pray, what is your time given 
 to you for ? Is it not principally that you 
 may prepare for eternity ? And have you no 
 time for what is the great business of your 
 lives ? Again, why do you not plead too, 
 that you have no time for your daily meals? 
 Is food more necessary to your bodies, than 
 religion to your souls ? If you think so, what 
 is become of your understandings ? Further, 
 what employment do you follow ? Is it law- 
 ful or unlawful ? If unlawful, then renounce 
 it immediately; if lawful, then it will admit 
 of the exercise of family-religion, for God 
 cannot command contradictions, and since 
 he has commanded you to maintain his wor- 
 ship in your houses, that is demonstration 
 that every calling which he allows you to 
 
252 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 follow will afford time for it. Finally, may 
 you not redeem as much time from idle con- 
 versation, from trifling, [from the morning 
 papers,] or even from your sleep, as may be 
 sufficient for family-religion ? May you not 
 order your family devotion so that your 
 domestics may attend upon it, either before 
 they go out to their work, or when they come 
 to their meals ?"* 
 
 " Our family is so small." How many 
 are there of you? Are there two? Then, 
 " Wheresoever two'' (see Matt, xviii. 19, 20.) 
 John Howard and his valet, as they journeyed 
 from place to place, used to have Family- 
 Worship by themselves, if they could get no 
 one else to join them. " Wherever I have a 
 tent," he would say, " there God shall have an 
 altar." If there be two of you, though it be 
 but a Ruth and a Naomi, a mother and her 
 daughter, your family is large enough to wor- 
 ship God, an£ to get the blessing of those 
 who worship him. 
 
 " ■ My family is so large ; there are so 
 many servants, and so many visiters, that I 
 have not courage to begin.' If your family 
 be large, the obligation to begin is all the 
 
 * Davies's Sermons, Sermon xxix. 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 253 
 
 greater. Many suffer by your neglect. And 
 if your congregation be numerous, the like- 
 lihood that some good will be done is the 
 greater, for there are more to share the bene- 
 fit. And why want courage ? Should not 
 the very fact that you are acknowledging God 
 encourage you ? " Them that honour me, I 
 w T ill honour.' Begin it believingly, and in 
 the very attempt courage wall come."* 
 
 " There are persons present in my house, 
 whose superior age or intelligence deters me 
 from the duty." To this it must be replied, 
 that if such persons are sober, wise, and 
 generous, they will look not only with allow- 
 ance, but w r ith kindly regard on the endea- 
 vour ; and if they are otherwise, it is too 
 much to demand of an independent and a 
 Christian man, that he should for an instant 
 be governed by their caprices or their cen- 
 sure. The head of a family should assert his 
 authority in his own house. 
 
 "I am unlearned, and destitute of gifts.' ! 
 Either misapprehension or pride suggests 
 this objection. It is not a service which de- 
 mands genius, erudition, or eloquence. You 
 have education enough to read a portion of 
 
 * Hamilton's " Church in the House." 
 
 22* 
 
254 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 the Scriptures with propriety and solemnity. 
 And you can so far gather your thoughts, 
 by suitable premeditation, as to pour out a 
 prayer to God for those whom you love, 
 which w T ill be all the better for its simplicity 
 of expression. The families are few, in which 
 the father need to tremble before his own 
 dependents. Then consider that the gift of 
 prayer is from above, and that He who aids 
 in the closet, will aid in the family group. 
 Unless, indeed, you labour under the evil 
 consciousness that you are living in the ne- 
 glect even of secret prayer, and then, as you 
 have an additional sin to repent of, so you 
 have an additional duty to perform. "What," 
 says President Davies, " have you enjoyed 
 preaching, Bibles, and good books so long, 
 and yet do not know what to ask of God? 
 Alas ! what have you been doing?" 
 
 " My family are unwilling to unite in the 
 service." This is one of the w r orst things 
 which can be testified of a family. Grace- 
 less, indeed, must those sons or daughters be, 
 who could for an instant hesitate to accom- 
 pany their father to the throne of grace, or 
 who could throw any obstacle in the way of 
 such an observance. You have strangely 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 255 
 
 neglected the maintenance of parental autho- 
 rity, if any such temper really exists. The 
 objection speaks loudly in favour of an early 
 institution of family-prayer, that children 
 may be accustomed to it from their earliest 
 years, and not need to be reconciled to the 
 holy custom after a long career of wayward 
 folly. But granting that the mortifying case 
 is as you have alleged, it is only anew proof 
 that you should vindicate your claim, as a 
 Christian householder, to rule in your own 
 house. 
 
 " The truth is, I am ashamed to begin/' 
 We seriously believe that this single reason 
 operates with more force than all the others 
 put together ; and it is one with which we 
 are constrained to deal honestly and solemn- 
 ly. Men who have allowed their households 
 to increase around them without any visible 
 service of God, awake to some sense of their 
 duty, and would attempt the performance of 
 it, but for a secret dread of the sneer, even of 
 a child or a servant. Religion frequently 
 brings men to such a dilemma, and it is a 
 test of sincerity. If the scorn of the world 
 is to decide our conduct, we might as well 
 abandon all service of God at once ; but we 
 
256 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 know the lot of those who are ashamed of 
 Christ. We choose to place the question on 
 this ground, because true piety will lead a 
 man to serve God, in spite of shame. But, 
 in reality, the danger is, for the most part, 
 one of the imagination. No such ridicule 
 will commonly ensue, but rather inward ap- 
 proval and increased respect. And that feel- 
 ing of strangeness, which accompanies the 
 entrance on an unaccustomed work, will 
 w r ear off, perhaps after the very first trial. 
 
 Among these and similar objections which 
 might be stated, we have not found one 
 which really goes against the duty itself, or 
 which contravenes the reasons heretofore 
 given in this book. We are, therefore, bound 
 to press the immediate performance of the 
 duty, upon every sincere reader, in the assur- 
 ance that so doing he will bless God for 
 having enabled him to enter upon so delight- 
 ful a service. The days of life are few. 
 Children are rapidly growing into their 
 habits for life. Some of them will soon be 
 beyond your reach. Death will, before long, 
 work strange separations. The night cometh. 
 In prospect of that judgment which is nearly 
 impending, be persuaded to lay aside all 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 257 
 
 frivolous excuses, to take up the cross, and 
 to be in your family, as well as elsewhere, a 
 devout and unflinching servant of Christ. 
 
 Before removing our hand from these hum- 
 ble labours, we must be allowed to add, that 
 there are duties to be performed by those also 
 who have never neglected the outward obser- 
 vance. To be what we have represented, 
 Family-Worship must be something more 
 than a form of recurring service, however 
 grave, punctual, or decorous. It may dege- 
 nerate into a rite as empty as the sprinkling 
 of holy water, the recounting of beads, or 
 the putting on of phylacteries. Under the 
 agency of Infinite Grace, it is a mighty in- 
 strument for- good ; but we must concentrate 
 every power, to bring out all its strength. 
 No care can be too great, which shall make 
 this daily service more seemly, more solemn, 
 more instructive, more interesting, and more 
 affectionate. We should prepare for it by 
 preparing the heart. We should earnestly, 
 and every day, make a deliberate and dis- 
 tinct effort to free ourselves from that apathy 
 and that formality, which attach themselves 
 to a customary service. We should come to 
 it with eagerness and love, and should endea- 
 
258 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 vour, by God's help, so to conduct it as to 
 show to all in the house, that it is a delight, 
 and that our heart's desire is, that all may 
 find it a delight. We should regard it as a 
 daily avenue to the very feet of our God and 
 Saviour, and in this light as a privilege be- 
 3'ond all price. Like the kindred observance 
 of the Sabbath, (with which it commonly 
 stands or falls,) Family-Worship is observed 
 to be most delightful to those who bestow 
 the most pains upon it. 
 
 We are too much disposed to rest satisfied 
 with our avoiding the sin of those who alto- 
 gether neglect domestic prayer. But how 
 do we render it ? Are we in earnest ? Are 
 we full of faith ? Do our affections flow forth 
 in it? Do we shun all undue haste? Is our 
 deportment such, when engaged in this ser- 
 vice, that all around us may bear testimony 
 that it is a sincere tribute of our affections to 
 God ? Questions such as these may carry a 
 rebuke to many householders. Perhaps one 
 great cause of that declension of piety which 
 we so generally lament in our country, is 
 connected with the non-performance, or the 
 ill performance, of this household duty. 
 While we content ourselves with vague com- 
 
FAMILY-WORSHIP. 259 
 
 plaints, and wait for some reviving measures 
 from abroad, here is a home-measure, which 
 is at every man's door. So long as every 
 family spies out the sins of every other, and 
 bewails the coldness of the body at large, the 
 evil only grows ; but if each family, in reli- 
 ance on God, were to awake to the duties of 
 domestic piety, household discipline and in- 
 struction, and daily prayer, we should behold 
 a gracious revival in all our churches. By 
 the 'former method, no one house is benefit- 
 ed ; by the latter, every house would become 
 a Bethel. When shall we see among us that 
 deeply-pervading national interest in divine 
 things, w r hich animated all classes in Scot- 
 land, at the second Reformation ? Mingled, 
 as it doubtless was, with much misappre- 
 hension in regard to the connexion of Christ's 
 kingdom with the civil polity, it was, never- 
 theless, a genuine fire, infinitely to be pre- 
 ferred to the tepid languors of our American 
 condition in divine things. Nor can we hope 
 for a restitution of this, until religion, and 
 the service of God, be made the great busi- 
 ness of every house. " Turn us, O God of 
 our salvation, and cause thine anger toward 
 us to cease. Wilt thou be angry with us 
 
260 FAMILY-WORSHIP. 
 
 for ever ? "Wilt thou draw out thine anger to 
 all generations ? Wilt thou not revive us 
 
 AGAIN, THAT THY PEOPLE MAY REJOICE IN 
 THEE?"* 
 
 * Psalm lxxxv. 4, 5. 6. 
 
 THE END. 
 
- lN XT TO **° 
 
S7 /£"£ 
 
 4 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY