The Golden Censer Part 33

WORs.h.i.+P.

Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide, He wales a portion with judicious care; And "Let us wors.h.i.+p G.o.d," he says, with solemn air.--Burns.

The good and holy custom of family prayers is, I fear, dropping into disuse. Our lives are so full of business that a season of G.o.d's service in the morning and in the evening is almost thought to be an excuse of sloth. But what a sad effect do we see on our youth! They have quick eyes for cant and hypocrisy. They follow us to church on Sunday less and less willingly, until finally there is rebellion in their hearts and irreligion in their souls. Family wors.h.i.+p is a fount of piety pure enough for even the young, who are pure themselves. Into its depths they look and see only a chast.i.ty of spirit reflected. The machinery and the ambition that adulterate the true faith at the church have not had their birth at the fireside of a good man. At that fireside the child grows up religious, because he loves religion. It is kind and good to him. His shrine is at home. And where can we ever build

SO HOLY AN ALTAR

as at that sweet spot where life has come in upon us, and love been wrapped around us! Burns sees the humble cotter finish his family service in the presence of his little ones, and then, to show a further duteous regard for the souls intrusted to his care, kneel again with the wife:

The parent-pair their secret homage pay, And proffer up to Heaven the warm request, That he who stills the raven's clamorous nest, And decks the lily fair in flowery pride.

Would in the way his wisdom sees the best, For them and for their little ones provide; But chiefly in their hearts with grace divine preside.

"From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs," sings the sweet poet, and this very poem has touched a chord in the hearts of all humanity, in every clime, and nearly every tongue, that has almost doubled that Scotia's fame. "A house without family wors.h.i.+p," says Mason, "has neither foundation nor covering." "Measure not men by Sundays," says Fuller, "without regarding what they do all the week after." "Educate men without religion," said the Duke of Wellington, "and you make them but clever devils."

THE IRON DUKE

was forced to fight one of the cleverest of this kind, and his victory was earned so hardly that he remembered it. "The dullest observer must be sensible," says Was.h.i.+ngton Irving, "of the order and serenity prevalent in those households where the occasional exercise of a beautiful form of wors.h.i.+p in the morning gives, as it were, the key-note to every temper for the day, and attunes every spirit to harmony." "It is for the sake of man, not of G.o.d," says Blair, "that wors.h.i.+p and prayers are required; not that G.o.d may be rendered more glorious, but that men may be made better--that he may acquire those pious and virtuous dispositions in which his highest improvement consists." How can religion bear fruit so well as by daily instruction from G.o.d? How can the family bear its burdens more easily than with G.o.d's help?

HOW CAN THE BROOD BE GATHERED TOGETHER

at night so surely as when there is an engagement with the Creator at the hearth where life began? In all views, from all sides, this holy custom is seen to be founded in divine wisdom--and divine wisdom includes human wisdom "as the sea her waves."

I have prefaced this subject of wors.h.i.+p with the matter of family services, on account of its vital importance. Without the reading of the Bible and the praise of G.o.d at home, wors.h.i.+p appears to the young like the grinding of the corn, the shoeing of the horses, or the aid of the physician--a matter to be paid for rather than to be done by one's self.

SOME OF THE HAPPIEST AND BEST FAMILIES,

who have turned out into the world the strongest, bravest men, have not limited their wors.h.i.+p to stated hours, even, but upon occasions of unusual peril or unusual gladness have poured out to G.o.d their prayers or their grat.i.tude. Charnock, in his "Attributes," says: "As to private wors.h.i.+p, let us lay hold of the most melting opportunities and frames.

When we find our hearts in a more than ordinary spiritual frame, let us look upon it as a call from G.o.d to attend Him; such impressions and notions are G.o.d's voice, inviting us into communion with Him in some particular act of wors.h.i.+p, and promising us some success in it. When the Psalmist had a secret notion

'TO SEEK G.o.d'S FACE'

and complied with it, the issue is the encouragement of his heart, which breaks out into an exhortation to others to be of good courage, and wait on the Lord: 'Wait on the Lord and be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.' One blow will do more on the iron when it is hot, than a hundred when it is cold; melted metals may be stamped with any impression; but once hardened, will, with difficulty, be brought into the figure we intend."

THE WISEST AND THE BEST.

We have in religion the experience of the wisest and the best minds before us. Their guarantee in all else is of the very highest human standing and degree. We must, therefore, in reason, profit by their knowledge. In this, also, we are aided by our own development. Behold the truth of this from the mouth of Colton: "Philosophy is a bully that talks very loud when the danger is at a distance, but the moment she is hard pressed by the enemy she is not to be found at her post, but leaves the brunt of the battle to be borne by her humbler but steadier comrade Religion, whom, on most other occasions, she effects to despise." There died in Paris, not long ago, a man named Emile Littre, as well known in France for his infidelity as is Colonel Ingersoll in this country. Over there

THEY CALL ATHEISM POSITIVISM,

which is a good name. It signifies that a man is positive he knows more about the future state than G.o.d! Upon his death-bed this Monsieur Littre,--although he had been the means of sending thousands of other souls before their Maker, rebellious and unredeemed--this same Monsieur Littre dared not to meet G.o.d with his Positivism on his soul, and embraced the offices of the Church with great relief. Men, before entering upon a course which flings away the only hope a man has,

SHOULD LOOK WELL TO IT

that they know what they are doing. I wandered in the terror-stricken streets of burned Chicago. The mult.i.tudes--nearly two hundred thousand--were eating in grat.i.tude; the mothers with babes were under shelter. Was the unburned temple of the atheist open? Oh, no! He had none. Who was cutting the meats and breaking the bread? The wives and daughters of the parishes which had been spared from the hot flames. It was a solemn lesson. I said: "I will not, Colonel Ingersoll, throw away the hope I have." By their works shall ye know them! 'Tis as true upon the field of blood as in the track of fire, but we must pa.s.s on. "When I was young," said

THE GREAT NEWTON,

the ornament of his race, "I was sure of many things; there are only two things of which I am sure now: one is that I am a miserable sinner; and the other, that Jesus Christ is an all-sufficient savior." The closing pages of Dr. Johnson's works are filled with simple little prayers to his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. "I have lived long enough to know what I did not at one time believe--that no society can be upheld in happiness and honor without the sentiment of religion." This is the language of La Place, the author of "La Mecanique Celeste," one of the greatest books of the world. He spoke from real experience. He had seen religion "abolished by law." He had seen the "wors.h.i.+p of Reason"

established with the decapitation of seven thousand innocent citizens of France. He had heard one of the apostles of Reason arise in the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly and demand two hundred and ninety thousand corpses instead of seven thousand. Then this man who had grasped the machinery of the heavens, who had shown the absolute accuracy of Newton's great discovery, wrote, in the same spirit of absolute knowledge: "I have lived long enough to know what I did not once believe." Magnificent testimony! Almost as valuable as the teachings of our own hearts! The same statement comes from

THE ROCK OF ST. HELENA.

Victor Hugo, with a mind like that of Shakspeare, says: "I believe in the sublimity of prayer." "If we traverse the world," says Plutarch, "it is possible to find cities without walls, without letters, without Kings, without wealth, without coin, without schools, without theatres; but a city without a temple, or that practiceth not wors.h.i.+p, prayers, and the like, no one ever saw." "Wonderful!" cries Montesquieu, "that the Christian religion, which seems to have no other object than the felicity of another life, should also const.i.tute the happiness of this!"

SAYS GEORGE WAs.h.i.+NGTON:

"Religion is as necessary to reason as reason is to religion." "Religion is a necessary, an indispensable element in any great human character,"

says Daniel Webster. "Nothing," says Gladstone, "can be hostile to religion which is agreeable to justice." "It is the property of the religious spirit," admits Emerson, "to be the most refining of all influences. The writers against religion," says Edmund Burke, "whilst they oppose every system, are wisely careful never to set up any of their own." "I fear G.o.d," says Saadi, "and next to G.o.d, I chiefly fear him who fears him not." "s.p.a.ce is the statue of G.o.d," cries Joubert.

"Truth is his body and light his shadow," says Plato.

There is almost a revelation of G.o.d in the cries upward to Him, of some of his human souls. Says Wordsworth:

Thou who didst wrap the cloud Of infancy around us, that Thyself, Therein with our simplicity awhile Mightst hold on earth communion undisturbed; Who from the anarchy of dreaming sleep, Or from its deathlike void, with punctual care, And touch as gentle as the morning light, Restor'st us daily-- Thou, Thou alone.

Art everlasting!

The poet Young, driven by sorrow to G.o.d's foot-stool, addresses his Creator in the same n.o.bility of language:

Thou, who didst put to flight Primeval silence, when the morning stars, Exulting, shouted o'er the rising ball; O Thou! whose word from solid darkness struck That spark the sun, strike wisdom from my soul; My soul which flies to Thee, her trust, her treasure, As misers to their gold, while others rest.

"Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Therefore, accept this boon. Take your own child by the hand, and pray, and pray:

The way is long, my Father! and my soul Longs for the rest and quiet of the goal; While yet I journey through this weary land, Keep me from wandering, Father, take my hand.

THE ATHEIST

Forth from his dark and lonely hiding-place, (Portentous sight!) the owlet Atheism, Sailing on obscene wings, athwart the noon, Drops his blue-fringed lids and holds them close, And hooting at the glorious Sun in heaven, Cries out: "Where is it?"--Coleridge.

The laugh of the foolish infidel and the sneer of the solemn atheist are abroad in the land. The awful draught they hold to the lips of humanity is well honeyed with some of the adjuncts of religion itself, else the perilous cup would be rejected. Let us see how the atheist secures his victim, for he is never content to enjoy alone the extravagances of his folly. I have noticed that when a Democratic editor receives dispatches containing news of a Republican victory, he is frequently expert enough in the guile pertaining to his profession to put a displayed heading on those same dispatches which clearly saves the day for the Democrats--or _vice versa_. And I have also noticed that it takes true mental pluck to rightly scan, first, that rooster of roosters (invented during the last few years), then the ten lines of Democratic Io Paians which follow, and lastly, the small type containing the real facts.

MAN IS SO MUCH LIKE A FISH