Now I think of all achievements 'tis the least To perpetuate the species; it is done By the insect and the serpent, and the beast. But the man who keeps his body, and his thought, Worth bestowing on an offspring love-begot, Then the highest earthly glory he has won, When in pride a grown-up daughter or a son Says " That's Father." ^
2. One of the ways in which we may serve the Lord in the family circle is by setting up His worship in our house, by taking care that we have our whole house join day by day in serving Him with prayer and thanksgiving and praise.
All of us, even the least learned, may offer up some short prayer to God in the name of His blessed Son ; or we may sing or repeat some psalm or godly hymn together ; and some one of the family may read a few verses out of the Gospels to the rest. Let this be done daily. First let us rouse and calm our hearts —
1 Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
JOSHUA XXIV. 15 163
calm all worldly thoughts in them, and rouse them to heavenly thoughts — by reading some of our Saviour's blessed words ; and then, when our hearts have been thus quieted and stirred, let us olBFer up a prayer. It is not many words, or fine words, that Christ cares for, any more now than when He was on earth. The widow's mite, if it be offered up from the heart, is still, as then, more precious in His eyes than all the costly offerings of the rich.
^ Whatever we wish others to practise, we must practise ourselves, and nothing is so well calculated to impress the young with a conviction of the importance of prayer as the being called together, morning and evening, to unite in family worship. Christians who neglect this duty will have a great deal to answer for in the day of final account. I have a boyish recol- lection of the shudder which crept over me on hearing a play- mate say of his father, who was a member of the Church, " My father never prays ! " ^
^ Every Christian family should be a little church. In Scotland this thought blossomed out more abundantly after the bitter experiences of the seventeenth century, during which so many families were obliged to furnish their own religious ordinances. So the Christian father became the pastor or minister, and his family met, either alone or along with others like-minded, for such simple rites as laymen could transact. When the storm had passed, the habit of family worship had become firmly fixed in all pious homes. Especially the houses of the clergy were associated with this daily prayer, and sometimes the parishioners resorted to a godly minister's house to join in these domestic services. This was the survival of that habit of daily public prayers, which soon vanished from the life of the Scottish Church, and is only now being restored here and there in the large towns.^
^ Dr. Paul, in his Past and Present of AherdeensJiire, says : " In my early days family worship was, in this quarter, much neglected, even among the clergy : among the laity it was seldom heard of." In agreement with that statement. Dr. Kidd found that his house, for years after he came to Aberdeen, was a centre of wondering interest to the neighbourhood, when, in the course of family worship, the psalm was sung. People gathered round the door to hear the unfamiliar sounds on a week-day, and in a private
1 J. N. Norton.
2 H. M. B, "Reid, Lost Habits of the Religious Life, 45.
i64 AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE
house. With characteristic hospitality and readiness to seize any opportunity of doing good that came in his way, Dr. Kidd opened the door apd invited them to come in.^
3. What are the difficulties in the way of having family worship ?
(1) The want of time for it. The father is obliged to hurry off to his work in the morning, and he comes home weary at night, and this is often considered a sufficient excuse for allowing his household to grow up without the blessing of family prayer. But the whole exercise, including the reading of a chapter of the Bible, or the Psalter for the day, need not occupy more than fifteen minutes. Will any one venture to declare that he cannot afford this amount of time for attending to so important a duty ?
(2) There is the fear of exciting surprise among family and friends, and of being thought "righteous overmuch." But is it right to give way to such apprehensions ? Ashamed to follow the example of the Patriarchs of old — of David, when seated on the throne of Israel — of Joshua, a general of unequalled courage and success ? Ashamed to do what the greatest and best of all ages have done before us ? The only thing to be ashamed of is that we have neglected this duty so long.
III.
We will serve the Loed.
And who is the Lord whom Joshua and his household are ready to serve? Joshua names two points in His character. They are unexpected. They seem to repel rather than attract the worshipper. They are chosen that the reality and sincerity of the worshipper may be tested,