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4 AT THE Where the patriarc builded an altar, and v was established, bonn the daily life, sought covenant-keeping God the American wilderne of logs, they also built name of the Lord. If society, family religi( monf o? >A 'loll.. vivii.viiv, anu ictl j necessary expression and its abiding- power. The importance seei imperative. The daih fore God, in some bi "knowledgement, brinj guidance, help, has va tifies the home and cc the Word as a lamo un young to the recognit It exalts religion alxn lire. It lightens care and weary drudgery, good and wholesome into many far off plac in the temptations an life. Yet. we have set 01 plaint about the neglec pastors and sessions t it be not harsh and ui changed conditions an help and encourageme the conditions of fami sivelv. There are few the father and mother regular hours and wi and strenuous and exa "household, especially country, too, is in vac I Fathers are absent foi and the number inert commercial travellers, {TP t ion linpa onU J-, ""l sionaries. Sons are o dren are hurried oflf tc where the family doe gether at a leisurely 1 that can then gather from the Word of C heavenly Father's blci We devoutly wish i some no doubt it cou parental authority anc But the changed cond gree it is simply inev wish our good ministe living in quiet homes stream of life in the pr tions and be lenient ir the presbyteria: r ? FAMILY ALTAR. lis pitched the tent there they worshipped God. Family religion d the family together, sanctified and found the blessing of the . When our fathers penetrated ss and built their first rude cabins t their altars and called upon the the family is the unit of human >n is tne obvious and essential lily worship in some form is the and tlie means of its cultivation ns so great that the obligation is r gathering of the household be ief and simple way making acting thanks, asking protection, lues beyond estimate. It sancmsecrates the love. It magnifies ito our feet. It brings the old and ion of the highest things in life. :e labor and business and pleasand sweetens even irksome duty It blesses all the clay. It writes memories to go with the young :es, and into new homes, far out id perils of the unknown sea of it to say, that much of the com:t of family worship, coming from ind Presbyteries, seems to us, if nduly censorious,still oblivious o? d unsympathetic, as it is without nt. It must be known to all that ly life have been changed extener homes in which life is normal, and their children in a home with t :r_ ' iuuul nasic. L,iii' is very Dusy cting nowadays, and nearly every in the towns and often in the led by irregularity and haste, r days and sometimes for weeks, ;ases, occasional business travel, employees of railroads and tiaviforgetting evangelists and misff to work at early hours. Chil> school. There arc many homes s not and can not sit down tojreakfast table and there are few about the hearth for a chapter iod, and together kneel for the sssing. t could be so in every home. In iti i>e yet secured where there is 1 a pious and persistent purpose. Irtion is evident and in large deitable and irresttible. And we rs and venerable elders, who are 5 in the eddies of the hurrying esent day, would recognize condij their judgments. N OF THE SOUTH. But it must not follow that the fan neglected. Some thoughtful care v adaptation. Let the Bible be on th< and father or mother or sister read a cntly, and kneeling or standing at t prayer be offered. In some homes v fuller gathering is at the supper table ship of the household. Sometimes the the Scripture passage, and sometime have known a home in which the el less and motherless, leads fhe little forget." And many a widowed motht place and keeps the flame bright upon Suppose a good pastor who never s duty to know conditions in each home some way to build the altar, and iir the daily family remembrance of G< the daily seeking for "the blessing and addeth no sorrow." Suppose the session unite in a definite and loving the Church established in every house and rich the blessing that will follow THE GROWTH OF OUR C A net Prnnrrpcc nf *-V,p Or A circular from the Department c Labor, recently at hand, presents son interest to Christians. The total area of the United States that of the whole of Europe! This s tion, what a power for good in the w vclop if only it can be kept in the se Jesus. Suppose that the whole of Eur and effectively Protestant: what co for Christ? But with the happy init the United States can be made and Protestant. What, then, is its possibi of souls? There is an immense Roman Catl from year to year; does some one a destroy the dominance of Protestant i This document tells us that during t 1820 to the present, the total number c this country amounts to more than t Of these immigrants, considerably m< haps fifteen million or upward, wei Catholic lands. Sihce they have b< have grown up in these Catholic hom fifteen million. And prior to 1820 the here. Yet at this present time the Church claims only twelve million ad baptized infants, in'the United State far from infringing on Protestantism land to hold its own. On the other hand, Presbyterianism population. Our Church reports o members. In the year 1820, out of ; of less than ten million, there were 1 Presbyterian communicants. This is cent, a little over 4hree-quarters of 011 present time, out of an estimated pop 1 June 2, 1909. lily altar shall be /ill find ways of e breakfast table, few verses reverhc chairs a brief re know, where a , then is the wor: school boy reads s his sister. We der sister, fatherflock "lest they :r takes a father's thp nltnr colds -makes it his and kindly finds iitc and persuade od's mercies, and that maketh rich minister and the purpose to liave rhold. How large ! J. P. S. )OUNTRY spel. >f Commerce and le facts of special is about equal to uggests the ques orld this may dervice of the Lord ope were unitedly uld it accomplish iativc of the past, kept dominantly lity for the saving lolic immigration, isk, Will not this nfluence? Reply: he 88 years from )t immigrants into wenty-six million. )re than half, perre from Roman ;en here, families ics, adding fo this rre were Catholics Roman Catholic hercnts, including s. Romanism, so , is failing in this i is gaining on the nly adult church a total population upwards of 72,000 less than one per e per cent. At the mlation of eighty