A BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF FURNITURE.
By Albert Wike
You may talk of your fine furniture and your finely furnished houses, mahogany-finished chairs, soft-cushioned sofas, and beautiful pictures with gilded frames, but we have one piece of furniture more valuable than they all. It is different from any other furniture we have been able to get. It seems never to grow old. It has been in use for sixteen years, and we think it better than when we first commenced using it. We should feel lost without it, both night and morning. Some only use it at night; they do not take time in the morning. I know it is not because they are afraid of wearing it out; and every family can have this piece of furniture, without money and without price. Would you know its name? We call it the family altar. It makes home dearer and our sleep sweeter to gather our little ones around this altar, and ask our Father in Heaven to take care of us and our loved ones. And then in the morning, when all the cares of the day, with the temptations and trials, await us, how sweet to resort to the altar of prayer for a fresh supply of grace. I often think of the family altar at a neighbor's when I was quite young. I have many times resorted to his home, to meet with the family around the altar, my father being a non-professor. Fathers and mothers, lovers of Christ, if you have not already done so, will you not furnish your homes with this beautiful altar of prayer?