p. 98 | Family Prayer by Arthur E. Main

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 12, 1871

Family Prayer.

By Arthur E. Main

An Essay read before the Sabbath-school of the Adams Seventh-day Baptist church, by Arthur E. Main. Published by request of the school.

FROM reflection, observation, and indirect evidence found in the word of God, we believe that in every Christian household there ought to be erected a family altar, around which should daily gather those whose hearts are united in friendship and love, to mingle their thoughts and voices in supplication and praise to their Father in Heaven. Family prayer may not be enjoined in the Bible; neither are we commanded to have Sabbath-schools, nor to maintain many other institutions and causes which are acknowledged to be great powers for good. But as we support the Sabbath-school, considering it an indispensable means of grace, and use other means given us in the providence of God, for our own good, and the good of our fellow-men; so should we also engage in family worship, if we feel that this worship would increase our own spiritual strength, and advance the interests of our Redeemer’s kingdom.

That we ought to pray often, no Christian will deny. Indeed, we cannot pray too often, since the Saviour said that “we ought always to pray, and not to faint.” And there seems to be a need of the Christian’s approaching the mercy-seat in different ways; for, to engage in public prayer, greater spiritual strength is needed than elsewhere, and hence acquired by those who do engage in it; because “they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;” and as the people of God unite in making known their wants to the Father of mercies, their hearts unite in closer bonds of fellowship. In secret prayer, the Christian holds communion alone with his Maker, and therefore can, with greater confidence, pour forth heartfelt desires; and by frequent silent prayer, thoughts of our dependence upon Him who is the source of all strength and blessings, are kept before our minds. And where is there a better place than around the family altar, to ask for grace to assist in the discharge of the common, but none the less important, duties of life; to implore the divine blessing to rest upon neighbors and friends around us; to cultivate in ourselves a spirit of prayer; and to turn the thoughts of the young toward Heaven and holy things? There is no more appropriate place. Therefore, though we do not find in the Bible a command for family prayer, yet, being there told so many times to pray, finding abundant evidence that prayer is of the greatest importance to a growth in grace, and estimating the blessings that must ever attend a right kind of family prayer, we believe that we have a right to infer, indeed, that it is the duty of the head of every family to feel that it is the duty of the head of every family to engage in this exercise.

In patriarchal times, it is evident that fathers were the priests of their families. For we read that Job continually offered burnt-offerings for his children, lest they should have sinned against God; and after Noah and his family had come forth from the ark, it is said that he built an altar to the Lord, and he offered burnt-offerings on the altar; and when Abram and his wife, and Lot, with their kindred and substance, had come into the land of Canaan, Abram built an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. Now, if the patriarch fathers were accustomed to offer sacrifices in behalf of their families, does it not become the fathers of to-day to present before the throne of grace those sacrifices which are now pleasing in the sight of God?

In the 29th chapter of Exodus, beginning at the 38th verse, we read as follows: “Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year, day by day continually. The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even; and with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of a hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of a hin of wine for a drink-offering. And the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and shalt do thereto according to the meat-offering of the morning, and according to the drink-offering thereof, for a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto the Lord.” This ceremony is again spoken of in the 28th of Numbers, and referred to in the 18th of 1 Kings, and the 9th of Ezra. In the first chapter of Luke, we read that while the priest was burning incense, “the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense;” and in Acts 3:1, that at the hour of prayer Peter and John went together into the temple.

Thus it appears, that under the Jewish dispensation, there were offered morning and evening sacrifices; and that there was an hour in the morning, and one at evening, which were called hours for prayer, when the pious Jew offered prayer to God, while the priests were, through sacrifice and incense, interceding for the people. But the days of such rites and ceremonies have now gone by. Were we to present burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin, the Lord would take no pleasure in them; “for by one offering he [Christ] hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” Neither have the people of God a holy temple, where, morning and evening, they can go up to worship. But if from beneath the roof of every Christian family throughout the land, there should, at the morning and evening hour, ascend the voice of grateful praise and earnest supplication, as husband and wife, father and mother, son and daughter, the whole household, assemble around the family altar, would not this voice go up before the throne of mercy, far sweeter than any offering of the sweetest savor made by fire unto the Lord? And would not the Lord meet his children there, even as he met the children of Israel before the door of the tabernacle?

In the 6th chapter of Ephesians, from the 13th to the 17th verse inclusive, Paul describes the spiritual armor of the Christian soldier; and in the 18th verse he seems to show the necessity of prayer, in order that the “soldier of the cross” may contend successfully against principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places. In this verse we find these words, “Praying with all prayer”—a phrase evidently referring to the different kinds of prayer. But as to what these different kinds are, all may not agree; yet, being taught the necessity of frequent prayer, and in view of the hallowed influences that must cluster around a family altar, upon which there burns, each day, the incense, not of long, formal prayers, cold and heartless, but of short, earnest, heartfelt ones, may we not justly infer that there is to be included this kind of prayer, along with public prayer, private devotion, prayer that is but the breathing forth to God of the soul’s desires, and that which is uttered with the voice from the heart?

My brother, the Saviour bids you enter the closet, and pray to your Father in secret; you believe, also, that Christians ought to regularly assemble where prayer is wont to be made; and that in your daily avocations it is good to frequently turn your thoughts from earthly to divine things. But does not the Spirit sometimes tell you, when your heart is warmest with love to God, to erect a family altar, that you may daily present a tribute of thanksgiving for life and its manifold attendant blessings given to you and yours, and ask for needed strength and wisdom? Obey the still, small voice when thus it speaks to you; and your own soul will each day enjoy the blessings of the Holy Spirit; they who gather with you will be brought under the sacred influences of family worship; and if there be any of the circle far away, they can feel that the loved ones at home remember them, as they offer before the Lord the sacrifice, not of a lamb, without spot or blemish, neither of flour for a burnt-offering, nor of beaten oil; but of a broken and contrite heart—a sacrifice the Lord will not despise, for “the prayer of the upright is his delight.”

May the language of your heart then be, “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee;” and, “Let my prayer be set before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.”—Sabbath Recorder.