No Time for Family Prayers by Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 7, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 14.

No Time for Family Prayers

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

We have fallen upon an age of hurry and rush,—of uneasiness, of bustle, of haste, and of worry.

“There goes the whistle, mother! Harry and I will have to run now all the way to the factory. I’m really sorry, wife, but we must omit family prayers this morning.”

“Too bad, husband,” rejoins the wife and mother, with a sad look in her gentle eyes. “This is the third time already this week that we have begun the work of the day without a word of prayer.”

“Well, my dear, you know how it is yourself,” replies the husband a little impatiently, “the foreman is very particular, and,—well—I don’t see how I can help it.”

That very day young Harry remarked to one of the workmen: “I don’t know whether it pays to be a Christian or not; we don’t have time at our house; I don’t believe father thinks it pays.”

Now it happened, providentially, I am sure, that Brother Grant overheard this expression of his son’s, and it was bitterness to his spirit; for he remembered, with an added pang, that Harry had been thinking seriously of baptism and of uniting with the church. All day long the convicting Spirit of the Lord strove in the heart of Brother Grant, and the command of the Master: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you,” rang in his ears.

It had always been hard for him to acknowledge that he had been in the wrong, but to his credit be it said that that very evening when the family assembled for prayers, he humbly confessed his faults.

“Look here, father,” said Harry a few weeks thereafter, “I told Mr. Brown a while ago that I didn’t believe you thought it paid to be a Christian,—that I supposed you didn’t have time. But I’m going to say to him, to-day, that I was mistaken, and that I’m very sorry I spoke so ill of my father.”

Not long afterward, Harry Grant publicly espoused the cause of Christ, and his mother smiled through her tears of grateful joy as she whispered in her husband’s ear: “It always pays to take time to wait upon the Lord.”

And Sister Grant was right. The Master pays His true servants in the best of coin, and their reward is as sure and as certain as His word. His promises are yea and amen. “They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.” So then, if we as Christians are in real want of anything, either spiritual or temporal blessings,—for surely the promise includes both,—one of two things must be true: either the thing we want is not good for us to have, or else we do not seek the Lord as earnestly as we should.

How strange that we can spare time for almost everything else!

“Well,” protests Mrs. Worldly, “I have a great many callers, and they must be entertained,—surely it will not do to be discourteous; the work of the morning must be attended to, letters must be written, the latest book must be read, the sewing must not be neglected, the daily papers must,—well I don’t see how a whole half hour can be spared for worship every single morning,—to say nothing of Mr. Worldly’s business,” and Mrs. Worldly’s face assumes a weary expression as she awaits my reply.

But I have nothing to say to Mrs. Worldly to dictate to her as to the manner in which she shall spend her time; to her own Master she standeth or falleth. But I am reminded of the words of a certain good old Book which Mrs. Worldly professes to obey as the living word of God: “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” “Pray without ceasing.” “In everything give thanks.” How can we reconcile these words to prayerless lives?

Still, tho I do not like to be conscience for any one, I may be able to suggest some way by which a little precious time may be saved. In the first place, I do not find it necessary to subscribe for any daily paper at all. I think it quite possible to glean all the local news of importance from a weekly. Then, besides, there is the considerable item of economy to think about. One is able to supply the home with several good books besides a magazine or two, with the price of a single daily; but still more to be considered is the valuable time which is wasted every day in reading the disgusting details of some horrible crime,—time for which we must one day give an account.

O the sweet hour of family prayer! The life in which the precious memory of father’s and mother’s prayers does not form a part, must suffer an irreparable loss. Better one less ruffle on Susie’s frock, and a fewer pies and tarts in the larder; better let the kitchen floor go without its customary scrubbing,—but O, as you value everlasting life, as you value the eternal welfare of your children, neglect not to present them often before the throne of Grace around the family altar. Other things may be—will be—forgotten; but the sound of mother’s voice in earnest prayer for her children, will never be drowned by the seductive voice of sin or the siren song of pleasure.

No time for family prayer?—Plenty of time for business, for recreation, for reading the newspapers, for preparing unhealthful dishes to minister to the appetite; time for everything else, but no time for prayer!

Sad indeed that this should be said of any who have named the name of Christ. Better send the children out into the cold world with less money, less clothing, less schooling, even; but send them not out to wander among the bleak mountains of sin and temptation, with no sweet memory of father’s and mother’s prayers.