The Family Altar

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Feb 12, 1914

AMONG the virtues of the past was the erection and maintenance of the family altar. The Christian father or mother of early days would as soon have thought of omitting the public, as the family, worship of God. Each day’s work was hallowed by the invocation of the divine care and guidance, and each night’s sleep made the more sweet because commended to the care of him who neither slumbers nor sleeps. Family life was built up around the conviction that the God of the father and mother was a God at hand, not a God afar off. Childhood knowledge of and reverence for religion were systematically and continually fostered.

The Bible was a familiar work, and an everyday companion. It lay upon the table in close contact with the daily paper and the schoolbook, and imparted something of its sacredness to them. The songs of Zion did not have to be rendered by a cultured and well-paid choir; they were sung by parents and the children at home, and were therefore not unknown in words or tune when announced in the sanctuary.

Prayer was not an exercise to be reserved for the church service or to be voiced only in the retirement of private devotions; it was the common language of hope and faith, wherein were expressed to the attentive ear of the Heavenly Father all the little cares and ills, all the common mercies and causes of thanksgiving, which must ever knit the family together in their fellowship and affections.—Christian Advocate.