Newspaper Page Text
February 28, 11)12 1 THE!
Church; on the contrary, the Roman Catholic
Hierarchy has emphasized publicly such principles
and ideas that many native American Catholics
have no conception at all of true Romanism
and they themselves will be the hrst to expose it
if Protestants watch and speak plainly and kindly
the truth.
1 read two months ago in the Catholic World
that the English language is so Protestant a language
that a Catholic theologian many times
lacks the right words to express the correct idea.
Public opiii.v.n ^vmerica is yet such that even
Cardinal Gibbons and Archbishop Ireland need
to elntli? Rnrnnnicm in ?1 -
_ ?w? JL lUicomui lUUL'S to let
it pass.
But if tliey have until now failed to make
public opinion advocate true Humanism they
have already succeeded in many other respects,
as we shall see in these articles.
THE FAMILY ALTAR.
EDWIN A. WILSON.
Before Christ's advent in the earth, the Altar
suggested sacrifice; alter he had olfered himself
without spot to Uod, the Altar spoke of
worship.
"For when he had by himself purged our
sins, (he) sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty on High."
By faith we become worshippers.
"For this Man after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forttVPl* snl rlnwn ??
, ?llgui
hand of God."
That?"The worshipers once purged, should
have no more conscience of sins."
"If any man be a worshiper of God and doeth
his will, him he heareth."
The family altar in a peculiar way becomes
the center about which the family gather for
worship, under the leadership of the human
head, normally, the father, as liigh priest.
"In prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,"
bearing all upon the arms of his faith,
from the least to the greatest, into the presence
of God, approaching "The Father of Lights"
through the Son of his love, with holy boldness,
in quest of wisdom, patience and grace, to sustain
all through the day, in the otherwise uneven
conflict of each heavenly pilgrim in his
earthly walk.
The decadence of family worship is the wedge
which separates piety from the Church, which
deadens the sensibilities of the elect, which dissipates
all grave concern for the loss thus sustained
to the Christian fabric in the community,
and which weakens the hold on righteousness
by the state and nation. No one can properly
estimate the personal loss suffered in severing
the bond which has bound the family to that
blissful center in the home, consecrated through
the reverent reading of the most holy Scriptures,
with its consequent meed of praise and prayer.
The family which indifferently permits family
prayer to go by default is sustaining an irrep
arable loss. This lass cannot be atoned for, or
in any way ameliorated through any amount of
so-called Christian activity in or out of the
Christian fabric, called the Church. The daily
gathering of the household for the worship of
God, the Giver of every good and perfect gift,
including the Son of his love, is the time and
place for emphasizing the things of eternity,
otherwise so easily forgotten. This brief respite
from the affairs of a world which crucified the
Son of God, if not provided for in the daily
domestic routine, will serve to hasten the utter
spiritual decay of the family. This periodical
gathering together of the family for the worship
of God, cements the members together, and this
bond t annot be broken without loss her*, and
graat loss hereafUr. ^
PEESBYTEEIAN O V THE SO
Ths children reared under such influences
may grow weary of the daily devotion, but sweet,
wholesome and enduring impressions will be received,
and unconsciously treasured for coming
soberer days, when they shall be led by the
Divine Spirit to institute and maintain just such
a conserver of spiritual life in homes of their
own, surrounded by their own children. You
cannot substitute the Bible school or the public
worship, as valuable as adjuncts as they are,
for the hour of prayer in the home.
Dear father and mother, it means much to
your children that you stand for an institution
which your parents believed in. The unique
place held by the family altar cannot be supplanted
without separating you and your loved
ones from a common, daily source of spiritual
uplifting and upbuilding. That undermining
indifference which results in the decay of thj3
domestic defender not only robs of peace, but
seals the lips of many accustomed to ask even
a formal blessing upon the Qod supplied food
on the family table, and robs the testimony of
the householder without this edifying refuge of
that unction which may have characterized him
An old Portugeese, persecuted for his faith
in God and driven from the Madeira Islands,
havinsr fled to this countrv. in his simnlieit'"
compared "a home without family worship to
a house without a room."
The daily thoughtful, prayerful reading of the
most holy Scriptures in the family helps to set
the guage for the day, in meditation on holy
things, rather than in empty, unprofitable introspection.
The believer that is equipped with
the word of God finds little comfort in self examination.
Memorize the word if you would
intensify and make more real the One of whom
it testifies. The vehicle which the Holy Ghost
adopts and adapts in fastening impressions for
eternity upon the heart, is the word of God.
He takes the things of Christ as written on the
sacred page which we have gathered possibly
about a godly fireside, where the Bible is honored
and praised, and prayer prized, and brings
them to our remembrance. Thus we have,
through the Spirit's aid, a fathomless reservoir
from which, from time to time, he furnishes food
for meditation, for edification, for assurance,
for communion, for service. No one but the
tempted and tried can so fully appreciate the
infinite value of such a source of heavenly wisdom
as that which such daily, domestic devotion
develops. "Wonderful examples of prevail
ing prayer are recorded m.tne most noly word
for our learning. The eternal God thus emphasizes
his approving estimate of the saint's successful,
prayerful approach into his presence.
He would thus have the world know something
of the facility of access of, as well as the power
of the saint in prayer. How much more would
he incline his ear to the pitiful plea of the
broken-hearted father, the high priest of the
home, as he gathers his family about him at the
invisible, intangible, though no less real altar,
erected by faith as a basis of approved approach
into the divine presence.
O believer! prize this heaven born privilege.
This is your inalienable birthright; would you,
like profane Esau, sell it, neglect it, despise it,
for a bauble of time 1 If so, you had better not
clog tne unurcn s progress witn your presence.
Be your best at home if you would be an edifying
witness abroad. Our heavenly Father, the
God of heaven has constituted the family of
which in his economy the father is the responsible
head. He has furnished you the opportunity,
has plated upon you the responsibility.
Have you by virtue of this heaven conferred
authority entered upon the full measure of your
obligation t Are you ruling your house for him
from this heaven born centerf Many a wife
U T H (293) 3
bu stepped into the breach made conspicuous
by the husband's dereliction. Ood's blessing
bus followed the noble devotion of many a faithful
woman where men were recreant. A godly
man rescued from the domain of diffidence by
his beloved wife, loved to tell how the family
altar started in his home. There w as no chiding
or criticism, but night after night for many
weeks she quietly placed the open Bible on the
table by the lamp and left it to do its own work,
and she was amply rewarded when with brokenness
of heart he learned his lesson and taking
up the neglected Bible, he erected an altar about
which the family happily learned to gather.
We often profit by the experiences of others.
One who had maintained such a celestial center
in his home for forty-five years, amidst the disturbing,
distressing demoralization of the outside
world, sums up some of the advantages in
Bible reading alone. Reckoning two chapters
daily, in three hundred and sixty-five days a
total of seven hundred and thirty chapters were
read by the family during the year. In fortyfive
years this charmed domestic circle read a
total of thirty-two thousand, eight hundred
chapters, or allowing for absence from home and
other interruptions, counting eleven hundred
and eighty-two chapters to the Bible, the family
had read the Old Bible through more than twen
ty-seven times. This did not embrace the private
devotional reading of the Bible by the family
nor did it interfere with the father's reading
the whole Bible during this same period,
in course, not less than twenty times. In addition
to this the head of the house, who was
an active business man, found time to write
out in long hand almost the whole book.
What shall the harvest be? Will the reader
profit by the experiences of others? Or encrusted
with the cares of this world and the deceitfulness
of riches, will he go on unmoved? While
increasing years add to the responsibility of the
believer, they do not of necessity always induce
susceptibility. The confession of your faith and
your introduction into church membership is
but laying the foundation for an orderly associated
service with those with whom you have
united, and family worship will fit you because
of its personal relation to the whole family,
young and old, better than any other method
of preparation for your church work that you
could adopt. If your testimony has not left its
impress upon those of your own household who
know you, the impression you seek to make on
the congregation with which you worship will
not be measurable.
WHY LICENSE THE SALOON?
BY DAVID JAMES BURRELL, D. D.
The newspapers say that application has been
made by a rum-seller to conduct a saloon in the
new Municipal Building. That application is
now under consideration. What do the people
think about it? Is that what our building, owned
oy us taxpayers, was intended for? I think not.
But there is a question away back of this:
Should a saloon be licensed anywhere? "Why any
license at all?
If the traffic in intoxicating liquors is a legitimate
form of traffic it ought to be carried on,
like other branches of industry, without let or
hindrance.
If it be a bad business, however it ought not to
be carried on at all. Where is the flaw in that
logic t
There are those who say that the saloon ruins
happy homes, debauches the community, rob3
men of health and character and self-respect and
sends them headlong down to hell. If that be so
(Continued on page 5.)
'