mitchell-P044_A-10_1_2

VERSO

way of worshiping God in those times,
it was in fact a symbol of praying
to God, and praising Him, through the
propitiation.

The command in Prov. 22:6. Train up a child
in the way he should go, and when he is old he
will not depart from it, is in effect a pre-
cept for family worship, for no one can
suppose, that parents and guardians
would train up a child in the way he
should go, who did not attempt religiously
to cultivate his, and teach him by example
that it is his duty to call on the name of the Lord
We now call your attention to Jeremiah
10:25. Pour out thy fury upon the heathen,
and the families, that call not on the name.
It seems by this that family prayer is
acceptable and well pleasing to God, while
its neglect, exposes the prayerless families
to his fury. It was while Cornelius, a de-
vout man, that feared God, was praying
in his house, at the ninth hour, ( the usual hour
of publick prayer,) that he had a vision
of a heavenly messenger. From Eph. 6:4.
we may draw the same conclusion,
as we did on Prov. 22:6.

Three times in a day, Did good Daniel pray
in his house, with his face toward Jerus-
alem—

RECTO

The exercise of family worship, Brethren,
is important, as its scriptural authority
seems sufficiently clear.

It is calculated to impress on the minds of
children and other members of the family a sence of
the authority of God; they early feel how
the exercises of family worship, that there is a
great Invisible, who has a right over them,
and who claims there love, and services. It is
calculated to bring, every day, a renewed im-
pression of the fact, "thou God seest me".
Family worship is important, for it is
daily instruction of the truth and duties of
religion. It is impossible, that the
scriptures should be read daily, and
attentively, and collectively in families,
that supplications, intercessions, and giving
of thanks should be made by the head
of the family, without their directly imparting a
vast fund of religious knowledge, or inciting to such
enquiries, as shall lead to improvement
in divine things. Indeed it is incalculable,
the amount of religious knowledge, that
may be the result, of fam. Wor. or the igno-^rance
that may be the fruits of its neglect.

The importance of family worship is manifest,
in the influence, which it may in other respects,
exert over the members of the family. He,
who leads in this exercise habutually, will feel
that watchfulness and circumspection become
him, who is soon to be, with seriousness, the mouth
of the family to God. On the younger members of
the fam., it may have a salutary effect. Unwilling,
as many of them are, for want of due consideration,