FAMILY WORSHIP

NOT a few Christians who desire above all things that their children should serve the Lord, neglect the best means to secure that result. They pray for them, are careful to have them attend Sabbath school and public worship, and occasionally exhort them to seek the Lord. What more can they do? They can maintain a Christian atmosphere at home. The experience of the Church proves that no influence equals home religion in converting children to Christ. And the most fit and potent expression of family religion is in family worship every day. The reading of the Bible and prayer daily when children are growing up is like the perpetual sunlight, charging and renewing the hearts by gradual, silent progress.

Let parents read and kneel before the Lord, have all the children kneel, from smallest to greatest, and they may acquire a reverence and love for the Savior that will make them feel that a household without prayer is heathen, vulgar, intolerable. They love their parents and revere their superior wisdom, and when, from early child hood, they see them bow and pray, they come to regard prayer as an essential part of daily life.

But in order to do this the worship must be regular and devout, and the whole family engage in it. Some families are not careful to have their children present when they worship. This is very wrong. The children, above all others, are benefited, and should always be present. Some do not teach the children to kneel during prayer, and hence they awkwardly sit in their seats while the parents kneel. This is a sad mistake. If they do not kneel they naturally suppose they have no part or lot in the devotions, and soon feel that it is wrong for them to bow before the Lord. We have seen many cases where grown up sons and daughters have never bent the knee before the Lord, and thought it wrong to kneel till they were Christians. In this way they were made more shy and stubborn, and felt that there was an impassable barrier between them and Christ. This feeling is wrong and unnecessary. If family worship had been rightly observed they would have felt that they were very near the Savior, and would easily be inclined to give their hearts to him. Indeed, children thus trained seldom grow to maturity without becoming practical Christians.