14 Sermon Illustrations on Family Prayer

Keep us, O Lord, from pettiness. Let us be thoughtful in word and deed. Help us to put away pretense and face each other in deep trust without fear or self-pity. Help us to guard against fault-finding, and be quick to discover the best in each other and in every situation. Guard us from ill temper and hasty judgment; encourage us to take time for all things, to grow calm, serene and gentle. Help us to be generous with kind words and compliments. Teach us never to ignore, never to hurt, never to take each other for granted. Engrave charity and compassion on our hearts.

Bishop Pierce tells of an old brother who was greatly devoted to prayer-meetings, thought them an instrument of incalculable good, and always kept them up. If he could not get the members to meet him at the church for the purpose, he held family prayer-meetings. The way he conducted his family prayer-meetings was, he prayed, and wife prayed, and daughter prayed, and son prayed; and, by the time they all prayed, the season of rejoicing came on. He closed his remarks by recommending the practice to his brethren if they would keep up a perpetual prayer-meeting, — one that would never fail.

Says the venerable Dr. Spring, "The first affecting thought to me on the death of my parents was, that I had lost their prayers."

Every one who has thought on the subject, must know how great is the influence of the female character, especially in the sacred relations of wife and mother. I have a vivid recollection, says the Rev. R. Knill, in his MEMOIR or MRS. LOVELESS, of the effects of maternal influence. My honored mother was a religious woman, and she watched over and instructed me as pious mothers are accustomed to do. Alas! I often forgot her admonitions; but, in my most thoughtless days I never lost the impressions which her holy example had made on my mind. After spending a large portion of my life in foreign lands, I returned again to visit my native village. Both my parents died while I was in Russia, and their house is now occupied by my brother. The furniture remains just the same as when I was a boy, and at night I was accommodated with the same bed in which I had often slept before, but my busy thoughts would not let me sleep. I was thinking how God had led me through the journey of life. At last, the light of the morning darted through the little window, and then my eye caught a sight of the spot where my sainted mother, forty years before, took my hand and said, "Come, my dear, kneel down with me, and I will go to prayer." This completely overcame me. I seemed to hear the very tones of her voice. I recollected some of her expressions, and I burst into tears, and arose from my bed, and fell upon my knees just on the spot where my mother kneeled, and thanked God that I had once a praying mother. And oh! if every parent could feel what I felt then, I am sure they would pray with their children as well as pray for them.

Dr. Milne, a laborious and useful Missionary in China, in his early years attended a Sabbath evening school, which was taught in the neighborhood of his residence. Here his knowledge of evangelical truth increased, and considerable impressions of its importance were made upon his mind. Sometimes he used to walk home from the school alone, about a mile over the brow of a hill, praying all the way. At this time he began the worship of God in his mother's family; and also held some meetings for prayer, with his sisters and other children, in a barn that belonged to the premises.

When removed from the immediate care of his mother, the providence of God placed him near to the spot where one of those persons lived, who, though poor in this world, are rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom. He used sometimes to go to his house, at the hour of prayer, when he and his family bowed the knee and worshiped God, at the foot of their domestic altar. After reading a chapter in the Bible, he was accustomed to make some remarks upon it, both for the instruction of his children, and as a preparation for the solemn exercise of prayer; these remarks interested young Milne very much, and showed him a beauty in the word of God, which he never saw before. From this time, more particularly, he began to discover an excellence in religion, which led him to choose it as the only object deserving the supreme attention of an immortal creature. As the family in which he lived were strangers to religion themselves, and derided all others who made it their concern, he was very unpleasantly situated. The only place he found for retirement, where he could be quiet and unnoticed, was a sheepcat in which the sheep were kept in winter. Here, surrounded with his fleecy companions, he often bowed the knee on a piece of turf, which he carried with him for the purpose. Many hours did he spend there, in the winter evenings, with a pleasure to which before he was a stranger; and, while some of the members of the family were plotting how to put him to shame, he was eating in secret of that bread "which the world knoweth not of."

At the annual meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in 1826, the Rev. W. B. Fox, a Missionary from Ceylon, said, that as he was traveling in a jungle, in the dead of the night, which is the usual time for journeying, he heard a voice reading. He drew near to the cottage, and found that the party was reading the word of God. He put aside the leaves, of which the cottage was composed, and saw the whole group, consisting of three or four generations, sitting on the ground, while a youth was reading the 14th of St. John. He waited in silence, to see the result: and, at the conclusion, the boy began to invoke the Divine blessing on what he had read; and one of the petitions was very remarkable: he prayed that God would make larger the ears of his grandmother. Mr. F. supposed, from this circumstance, that his poor · 828

PRAYER relative was so deaf that she could not hear those truths which he admired himself. He added, that these instances were formerly rare, but they were now spreading over the whole land; and though he was no prophet, yet he would venture to predict, that nothing like half a century would pass, ere it would be said, that there were no heathen temples, and no idols remaining in Ceylon.

A pious tradesman, conversing with a minister on family worship, related the following instructive circumstances respecting himself:

When I first began business for myself, I was determined, through grace, to be particularly conscientious with respect to family prayer. Accordingly, I persevered for many years in the delightful practice of domestic worship. Morning and evening, every individual of my family was ordered to be present; nor would I allow my apprentices to be absent on any account. In a few years, the advantages of these engagements manifestly appeared; the blessings of the upper and nether springs followed me; health and happiness attended my family, and prosperity my business. At length, such was the rapid increase of trade, and the importance of devoting every possible moment to my customers, that I began to think whether family prayer did not occupy too much of our time in the morning. Pious scruples arose respecting my intentions of relinquishing this part of my duty; but, at length, worldly interests prevailed so far as to induce me to excuse the attendance of my apprentices, and, not long after, it was deemed advisable, for the more eager prosecution of business, to make the prayer with my wife, when we rose in the morning, suffice for the day.

Notwithstanding the repeated checks of conscience that followed this base omission, the calls of a flourishing concern, and the prospect of an increasing family, appeared so imperious and commanding, that I found an easy excuse for this fatal evil, especially as I did not omit prayer altogether. My conscience was now almost seared with a hot iron; when it pleased the Lord to awaken me by a singular providence.

One day I received a letter from a young man who had formerly been my apprentice, previous to my omitting family prayer. Not doubting but I continued domestic worship, his letter was chiefly on this subject; it was couched in the most affectionate and respectful terms; but judge of my surprise and confusion, when I read these words: "O, my dear master, never, never shall I be able sufficiently thank you for the precious privilege with which you indulged me in your family devotions! O, sir, eternity will be too short to praise my God for what I learned there. It was there I first beheld my lost and wretched state as a sinner; it was there that I first knew the way of salvation; and there that I first experienced the preciousness of 'Christ in me, the hope of glory.' O, sir, permit me to say, never, never neglect those precious engagements: you have yet a family, and more apprentices, may your house be the birth-place of their souls!" I could read no further; every line flashed condemnation in my face. I trembled, I shuddered, I was alarmed lest the blood of my children and apprentices should be demanded at my soul-murdering hands.

Filled with confusion, and bathed in tears, I fled for refuge in secret. I spread the letter before God. I agonized, and—but you can better conceive than I can describe my feelings; suffice it to say, that light broke in upon my disconsolate soul, and a sense of blood-bought pardon was obtained. I immediately flew to my family, presented them before the Lord, and from that day to the present I have been faithful, and am determined, through grace, that whenever my business becomes so large as to interrupt family prayer, I will give up the superfluous part of my business, and retain my devotion: better to lose a few shillings, than become the deliberate murderer of my family, and the instrument of ruin to my own soul.