p. 7 | Neglect of Family Prayer by G. B. Thompson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 28, 1910

Neglect of Family Prayer

By G. B. Thompson

G. B. THOMPSON

A LITTLE girl whose mother was dead, and whose father had married again, said to him one day, “Father, is God dead?” “No, my child,” he said, “what makes you ask that question?” “Why,” she said, “you used to pray to him night and morning when my mother was alive, but you don’t now. I did not know but God was dead, too.”

I wonder how many families there are among us in which a similar question might be raised by a child,— members of the church, perchance, but have never set up the family altar, around which the family might be gathered night and morning. Or perhaps the family altar was once reared, and morning and evening the voice of praise and thanksgiving was heard, but it is not so now. The cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, pleasures of the world, and the lust of other things have entered in, and the heart has grown cold. Our business presses us in the morning, and at night we are weary, so prayer is neglected, and the children are left to wonder if God is dead.

But God is not dead. It is ourselves who are either dead or dying spiritually.

Surely God’s people who are looking for the Lord should not neglect family prayer. What excuse can you give the Master for this omission of duty? “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.” Ps. 55:17. “Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.” Jer. 10:25.

Takoma Park, D. C.