TIME OF MORNING PRAYER.
By R. F. COTTRELL
As a people we are generally agreed that the best time for evening prayer in the family is early in the evening, when “soft twilight steals abroad,” early in the commencement of the twenty-four day. It is well to begin each new day with the worship of God, and all are better prepared then for acceptable worship, than at a later hour, when weariness and drowsiness will affect more or less the different members of the family. But in respect to the best time for morning prayer, there is not so much uniformity. Some have their season of morning prayer before, and others after breakfast. Not wishing to dictate in this matter, I will give some reasons why I prefer the former. 1. It makes the service of God first in the morning, before we serve ourselves with food. 2. It will be admitted, I think, by readers of the Bible and observers of our different states of mind, that we are better prepared for prevailing prayer while fasting, than after eating. 3. A family of children are more naturally and easily collected together before breakfast, than after. 4. If some have to eat at a second table, and prayers be delayed till after breakfast, they must wait for their breakfast till after the season of prayer, else be waited for, or worse than either, the worship must be commenced while they are at table. There is one objection to this, a selfish one, and that is, that the food will be getting cold during the season of worship. The answer is, that it may be kept warm, and placed on the table after the worship is concluded.