p. 12 | FAMILY WORSHIP by Mrs. C. D. M. Williams

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 15, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 37.

FAMILY WORSHIP.

By Mrs. C. D. M. Williams

Is it possible that any follower of Christ can doubt the wisdom of calling the family together twice a day to worship the Lord—to read from His Word, to ask pardon for sin, and to thank Him for His goodness and mercy, and to ask Him to guide and direct and care for his household? For ourselves it might be that secret prayer only and private study of His Word will be profitable; but how about the family growing up around us?

Two meals a day of the bread of life are more essential for spiritual growth than the two or three meals that we take daily to nourish our physical bodies; and how much more important is this spiritual advancement than the physical development of bone and muscle!

We sometimes hear lack of time given as the excuse for omitting family prayers; but where is the family so hurried with work that they give up their daily food for lack of time to eat? Yet it would be as consistent to deny ourselves food and expect to have strength to labor, as to deny ourselves this means of grace and then expect the Lord to complete the work of grace in our hearts.

Dear brother, you, as the priest of your house, can not afford to neglect this duty any longer. Perhaps you have often thought of it, and felt you ought to have daily worship, and wished you had commenced years ago. Would to God you had—but neglected duty should not be left longer. We can not have close communion with our heavenly Father while we wilfully commit one sin, and many sins of omission are as grievous in the sight of God as sins of commission.

There is a religious education, a spiritual culture, we give our children through family worship which they can attain in no other way. Few parents can talk daily with all of their children on their hope and trust in the Lord, and impress them with the sacred truth, as the reading of the Word and a few moments spent in simple, earnest prayer will do. Let each child learn to take part while very young. A prayer, if of one or two sentences only, may be lisped by the little ones. Teach them to ask in faith for exactly what they want; and let us with wisdom from on high lead them to desire salvation and the Christian graces. Let us not weary the children with long prayers, but reserve them for our private devotions, that this may be a season of solemn pleasure to them.

Let us teach each child to close its eyes during prayers, always and everywhere, in the family circle of prayer, when the blessing is asked at the table, and at church. If any one doubts the necessity of this, let him listen to a few prayers with eyes open, then with eyes closed. How many children and young people in the house of worship seem to have no idea that they are in the presence of the Lord—on their knees, to be sure, but with irreverent countenances, and wide-open eyes gazing around the room with idle curiosity!

Let me emphasize this point, that it be the habit of our children to reverently close their eyes in prayer.

Dear sister, your husband may not be with you in the Lord. Before God you are the priest of your household. Neglect not your sacred duty. Perhaps your husband is not willing that your children shall be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; he may even seek to annoy and hinder you. Then you have all the more responsibility; for their welfare, their hope for the future, rests heavily on you. Be faithful to the God-given trust. We can never run away from duty. The longer a cross is neglected, the harder it is to take it up and bear it; but the longer carried, the lighter it grows. And this cross, the communion of all with God, becomes our daily strength and pleasure.

Little children have tender, loving hearts, and early learn to trust in the Lord. Let us teach them line upon line and precept upon precept, that as they grow older they shall not wander away, enticed by the pleasures of this world,—lost because left unguarded by daily prayer and watchfulness—lost because a father or mother was too nearly indifferent to their salvation. Our prayers will not avail for our children unless we do our duty by them. The promise is, “Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

We are told of God’s commandments:—

“And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”

MRS. C. D. M. WILLIAMS.

Phœnix, Ariz.