pardoned.net

THE roar of commerce, the click of the telegraph, and the whistle of the engine have well-nigh drowned out the voice of God.

WE little preachers think that we are doing first-rate if we take a text and announce about three propositions, and discuss them for an hour. But do you know that Christ, in his sermon on the mount, announced and discussed one hundred and twenty different propositions in the compass of half an hour?

A MAN who believes only in what he can see, doesn’t believe he has got a backbone. I am not running on understanding. I could not get to my front gate on understanding, but I could get from earth to heaven on believing.

GOING to Church is like going shopping: you generally get what you go for -no more and no less. A woman will go into a store with a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of goods all around her, buy a paper of pins, and walk out; that is all she came for. I have seen the store-house of God’s grace packed from cellar to ceiling, and I have seen men go in and gather up an expression of the preacher and go home.

IF any man doesn’t love God, it is because he doesn’t know him. To know him is to love him, and to love him is to serve him. And if any man on the face of the earth does not love God, it is because he has not seen him in all his characteristics. If any man does not love God at all, it is because he has not seen him at all. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” I have evidence of God’s presence all around me; but when I want to see God I will go and talk with him, and put my arm in his, and walk step by step at his side. Just take the path of Christian duty, and all along the line you will find God at every step.

BLESSEDNESS OR RELIGION.

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” -PSA. i : 1,2.

THE Psalms are an interesting study for any man. I like to read Dickens and Thackeray and Bulwer and Shakspeare, because they evince such a deep insight into human nature. A man may study the pages of such books as these to advantage, but there is more for me in these one hundred and fifty psalms than in the writings of all these masters. The authors I have named give me human nature as we might see it if we were standing on the streets or in your stores. But David gives us human nature as it is acted upon or influenced by the Divine Spirit. I never have much to say against human nature. I have very little abuse for a man in his normal state.

It is perverted human nature I fight. It is the perversion of hand and foot and tongue and mind that I am ready always and forever to denounce. David gives me human nature as it is acted upon and influenced in the best way. I love to read David, because, in the first place, David knew what he was talking about. I love to hear a man talk who seems to know what he is talking about. I’ve heard men trying to explain a great many things they didn’t understand. I love to read David, be cause he experienced what he was talking about. No man before him knew more of God and more of humanity than David, and the best preacher that ever planted his foot in this city is the preacher who knows the most about God and the most about humanity. He stands between the two, and hence he ought to know God, and lay his hands on the shoulder of his living Father in heaven, and then put the other arm around the race, and try to lift humanity up to God. This David could do.

Now this man who had studied life in all its phases, a man who seemed to understand God as no man before him and very few after him, a man who seemed to understand himself and understand human nature -gives us the conclusion he had reached in these words, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,” as much as if to say, “If you want to be a happy man” -and all men want to be happy -”if you really are in search of happiness, listen to this prescription: Blessed and happy you will be, if you walk not in the counsel of the ungodly.” An ungodly man may be a very moral man; an ungodly man need not swear, nor drink, nor violate the Sabbath, nor commit any of the flagrant sins which men are so often guilty of. An ungodly man means simply an ungodlike man. Ungodliness and ungodlikeness are synonymous -they mean the same thing. What does ungodly mean? It signifies not acquainted with God, and God s ways. Every man who knows God loves God, and every man who does not know God, doesn’t love him. It is just as natural for a soul that knows God to love God, as it is for a mother to love her babe, or as it is for a father to love his son. An ungodly man is a man who cares nothing about God. I’ll tell you the distinguishing characteristic of that sort of men. They love to talk. They scoff at the idea that any body ever died for them, but they are all right, and they can give more advice, and practice less of it than any tribe in creation.

The way to tell an ungodly man is that he is always talking about what harm is there in this, that, or the other thing, and the way to tell a godly man is, he is always hunting around for some thing with good in it, and not going about trying to find something that people can see no harm in, as they say. If there is no harm in cards, why I haven’t the time to play cards, and I’m sorry for the man and woman that have time to dance. I tell you, brethren, when I look around me and see a sinking world and humanity drifting off from God, and so many sick-beds to visit, and see so many that are poor and need sympathy and help, I have no time to spare for these things; and you wouldn’t have either if you were of any account. You can put that down!

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.” In other words, if you want to be happy in this life don’t take counsel or advice from ungodly men. Don’t do that! When you are lost as to any moral problem go to the best man or the best woman you know in the world for good advice, for they’re the only ones capable of advising you. I want a man first to practice what he preaches, and show me it is good to do it, and then tell me how he did it, and then I want to do just like him. An ungodly man! As I said before, you can hardly pick a flaw in him; he never goes far enough to be dubbed immoral. What’s the difference between an immoral sinner and a moral sinner? Why, it’s just the difference between the typhoid fever and the small-pox. That’s the only difference at all. One’s internal and the other is external, but both will kill nine times in ten. An ungodly man “can’t see any harm in any thing.” He is like an old Irishman down in our town, who was a devout member of his Church. He was very profane, and a man said to him one day, “Jack, how can you be called a devout member of your Church and swear and curse as you do?” And Jack replied, “Faith, sir, and there’s no harm in cursing unless you make harm out of it.” Do you get the idea, brethren? I am not hunting those things that have no harm in them, but I’m hunting the things that have good in them, and so are all good men under all circumstances. They ain’t inquiring whether there is much or little harm in this, that, and the other thing. If you want to be happy, brethren, don’t take the advice or counsel of the ungodly, or of those men who run on that line of things. They’ll get you into trouble sooner or later, sure.

Take the question of theater-going, and nine-tenths of these ungodly people in the Church and out you’ll find go to the theaters. Let s raise that question a little while here. A preacher in St. Louis told me that during his pastorate in Chicago there was a young lady, teacher in one of the schools, who came to him during a revival. Her conscience was stirred, and she walked up to him and said, “I want to be a Christian. I want to join your Church, but you object to theater-going, and I can’t see any harm in that at all.” The pastor said to her, “Sister, give your heart to God, join the Church, and go to the theater as much as you please.” She joined the Church, and after that went to the theater. Next Summer the revival started again, and the young lady came into the church, and took a class in the Sunday-school, and tried to live right. One day during the revival one of the young lady’s pupils, who had become penitent, came to her and said, “Miss So-and-so, do you go to the theater?” And she answered, “Yes; I go occasionally.” The pupil then asked, “Do you think it is right as a Christian to go to the theater?” “Well,” said the teacher, “I don’t know.” And the pupil asked again, “Miss So-and-So, if you can go as a Christian, can I go as a penitent?” And the young lady told her pastor, “I looked that sweet girl in the face, and said,’Darling, I’ll never put my foot inside another theater, God helping me, as long as I live.’ My liberty as a Christian was costing that girl her soul, and I said to myself, ‘My liberty shall never do that,’ and I gave up the thing that was leading a soul off from God.”

That’s the way a Christian will settle that question every time. My liberty and license in these things shall never cost a human being his soul. Lord cure us of this abominable way of asking, “What harm is there in this?” But nobody has ever asked me, “Is there any harm in family prayer?” They never asked me if I thought there was any harm in reading the Bible! Do you want to know why? Because they knew there was no harm in it! Why did they ask me the other question? Because they knew there was harm in it, and that settles the whole question.

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.” When a man gets to listening to bad advice the next thing he’s going to do is to stand in the way of sinners. That means, keeping the company of sinners; and a man isn’t going to listen to bad advice long before he’ll be with sinners. I don’t care whose boy, or wife, or child you are, you can not stand the pressure of bad company.

We need to inform ourselves in this question of company. There isn’t an angel in heaven that can keep the company some of you do and be pure. Above every thing in the universe, a man ought to be choice about his company and about his books. If you will show me the company you keep, I will write your biography ten years ahead of your death, and I will not miss the mark one time in ten. “Birds of a feather flock together.”

I will tell you another thing. There is but one safe rule in this line. Don’t you ever go with any body that will say things you won’t, that will do things you won’t do. You won’t run with them long until you will be doing those things and saying those things yourself. Always hunt better company than you are, for when some of us get up to ourselves we are with the biggest rascal in town right then. And that gets things in a bad shape, doesn’t it? I am sorry for a fellow when, every time he goes off by himself, he is in the worst company he was ever in in his life. I will illustrate that for you. There was a very stingy man I once heard of down in our country. His wife was a Methodist, and he would go with his wife to Church, but he never would pay a dime toward the support of the Church. One summer he professed religion and joined the Church himself. Well, shortly after he joined the Church the stewards went over to his house and spoke to him kindly and told him: “Our preacher is now in need of provisions, and I came over to see if I could get some meat from you for him.” He had a smoke house full, and he thought a minute: “Why,” said he, “certainly, I will give the preacher some meat.” He went out to his smoke-house while the steward sat at the window. He walked up to the smoke-house, unlocked the door, took down a big, fine ham, brought it about half-way to the house, stopped and laid it down. He looked at it a while, and turned around and walked back to the smoke house, got another and came and laid it down also. Then he stood and looked at it a minute, turned back to the smoke-house and brought another. The steward was watching him, and he looked down at the three hams. He heard him say: “If you don’t shut your mouth, you old stingy devil, I will go and give him all the meat there is in the smoke house.” The devil was in him, and told him every time: “Are you going to give away that ham?” And the devil kept after him, and he tried to hush his mouth by putting down one ham at a time, but finally he silenced him when he said: “If you don’t hush your mouth I will give him every ham in the smoke-house.” And then the devil hushed. So a man can be in bad company when he is by himself. “Bad company will ruin you.”

Above all things we ought to be careful about the associations of our children. If that neighbor of yours is worth fifty, or seventy-five, or a hundred thousand dollars, he may have the worst children in the town, and yet you will let those children of his come over there and ruin yours because he has got a little money. Did you ever notice that streak of human nature? If that neighbor’s son of yours drives a fine horse and buggy in the streets of this city and belongs to one of the fashionable clubs, that is all I want to know about him or any other man. It is only a question of time when he will be drowned in debauchery and ruin if he is a member of a city club. I don’t care if you are as pious as Job, if you will join one of those clubs and begin to run with them I would swap your chances of heaven for those of Judas Iscariot.

I am determined to be understood, you see, and you all can disagree with me if you want to; but you shan’t run away from here and say: ” I declare, I didn’t understand that fellow.” You shan’t say that. I want to make you see what I am talking about.

“Nor standeth in the way of sinners.” O, mothers, look to the company of your children. Fathers, look to the company of your sons. And I say to you to-night, whenever it becomes a known fact that my daughters keep company with dissipated young men and my sons have gone out into bad company, I shall lose all hope for the future of my children. O, stand by your children and protect them.

Boys, listen to me. You never can get higher than the company you keep. If you would be noble and true, seek the best atmosphere of earth, and live in it forever. Stand not in the way of sinners.

In this verse, David adds, “Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” Now, brethren, we notice first he is walking along, in the counsel of the ungodly. Well, when a man is walking in this way he can turn to the right or turn to the left by the movements of one set of muscles; but you let him stand right still and he has got to move every muscle in his body to get off; and then let him sit down, and nine times in ten he is there to stay. While walking along in your youthful days, God’s minister used to come and impress you and move you and turn you, but by and by you got to standing, and then the thunders of worlds could not shake you or turn you. Some of you have reached the last stage, the ante-room to hell, and that is sitting in the seat of the scornful. God pity a poor wretch that has gone through bad counsel into bad company until finally he is sitting down in the seat of the scornful, where he can laugh at the preacher and make fun of God and scorn the Bible.

“Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” A man never gets over the fact that he has taken such an attitude toward God.” But his delight is in the law of the Lord.” I tell you, brother, when you get to where you will like this Book, and read this Book, you are laying a foundation then. Young boys, take this Book; let your delight be in the counsel, in the law of the Lord. I never think of what this Bible is to a man but I think of a little boy. He was the good boy in the town, and all the boys recognized him as a good, upright boy. And they laid their traps to get him drunk. They sent one of the shrewdest of the bad boys to him, and he met him on the street, and he said, “Johnny, come into the grocery and let us have a mint julep.” Johnny says, “O, no, I can’t go in there.” “Well, why?” “Well, my Book says, ‘Look not upon the wine when it is red,’ much less drink it.” “O,” he says, “I know the Book says that, but come in and take one drink.” “Well,” he says, “I can’t do it.” “Well, why?” “Because my Book says, ‘At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder.’” “O,” he says, “I know the Bible says that, but come in and take one drink.” “No,” he says, “my Bible says, ‘When sinners entice thee, consent thou not.’” And the bad boy turned off and left him, and went over to his companions, and they said, “Did you see him?” “Yes.” “Did you get him to drink?” “No, I couldn’t get him in the grocery.” “Well, why?” He said, “That boy was just as chuck full of Bible as he could be, and I couldn’t do a thing with him.” Ah, brother, “his delight is in the law of the Lord.”

Now, let me give you the germ of happiness that may spring up and be a tree under which you can sit in its shade and eat its fruits. Listen: these texts, these two verses, furnish the secret of a happy life. I beg you, don’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly! Don’t stand in the way of sinners! Don’t sit in the seat of the scornful, but take the Book of God, make it your counsel, give yourself to the right, and live and die for God.

I USED to think when a man mistreated me, Why doesn’t the Lord let me jump on him and beat him? The reason is the Lord doesn’t want to protect that rascal; he wants to protect me.

You will hear people say: “Let us Christianize America, and then let us go across the waters. I don’t believe in sending the Gospel to China while we have so many heathen at home.” But the Christianity of Jesus Christ makes the heathen Chinese my next door neighbor. A Christianity that sweeps around the world -that is the sort of Christianity we want; a Christianity that locks its arms around the world.

INFIDELITY. -The infidelity that is hurting the Church in this nineteenth century is not theoretical infidelity; the infidelity that is demoralizing the Church and the world is practical infidelity: the fellow that believes the Bible and won’t do one thing. Now you have got a fool and a rascal mixed in one compound. It is the most awful compound that Christ ever tackled. He believes in prayer-meetings, but he has not been to one this year; he believes in the missionary cause, but he gets out with the least he can give. He believes in family prayer, but you can’t prove it by his wife and children. He goes on the principle that he that believeth not shall be damned, and he believes in every thing.

THE GERMAN AND THE BALL. -If there is a thing in this world that I have a contempt for and can’t express it, it is the german*. I suppose some of you people through the country don’t have germans. It is about all this city can do to rig out enough spiderlegs for a german. To see any average little town try to put on airs! If I were you, sister, I would call it a ball; and a ball-room is so indecent that I would not let my cook go into one of them. This is enough to hurt your feelings, isn’t it? Your feelings! The less sense a girl has the more feeling she has. The checks and balances must operate. What you lack in sense you make up in feeling. I wish some of you ball-room girls could hear the boys talk after the thing is over. Did you ever hear of a ball in the day-time? Did you ever hear of a lot of men getting together and having a man’s german ? There isn’t a boy in this town who would cross the street to hug another boy. As sure as you are born, these things are based upon the consciousness of sex.

*Mr. Jones was referring to a specific type of ball-room style dance party that were being held quite frequently at that time. A modern equivalent in our culture would be clubbing. Most likely, these dances stopped being referred to as ‘Germans’ around the time of the first World War.

PERSONAL CONSECRATION: “QUIT YOUR MEANNESS.”

“Rejoice evermore; pray without ceasing; in every thing give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” -1 THESS. v. 16-18.

A MAN who understands practically what those three verses teach is not only a Christian, but a philosopher. There is a great deal of philosophy in Christianity, and the best philosophers make the best Christians. This term “rejoice” is a very different word from “happy,” or “happiness.” Our word “happy ” comes from the same word that “happening” comes from, and my happiness depends largely on my happenings; but joy is very different in its meaning, and different in its effects on the human heart. Joy, when we analyze it, is a sort of trinity in unity: 1. I am satisfied with the past. 2. I am contented with the present. 3. I am hopeful for the future. If you will combine these three elements in a human life, I will show you a man who rejoices evermore.

“I am satisfied, first, with the past.” How many persons can look back over the past and say: “I have done my best since the day I started in on a religious life?” Let me say right here, brethren, that heaven is just the other side of where a man has done his best; and sanctification, when you bring it down to where you can get hold of it, is nothing more nor less than doing the best you can under the circumstances. (Mr. Jones would insist that divine grace is a circumstance not to be left out.) That’s practical sanctification, and, really, I don’t care much about any other sort. I want a practical religion.

“I am satisfied with the past,” That’s the grandest thing a man ever said -”I have done my best.” I was talking some time ago with a grand old man in our State -one of the noblest men I ever knew -and he said, ” Jones, I don’t know what people talk so much about a second blessing for. I got all that was necessary in the first place.” “Well,” said I, “what do you mean?” The old man replied, “Jones, when I got religion I told the truth, and I have stuck to it ever since. When I told God I was going to quit my meanness, I quit it; I meant what I said.” I asked him, “Do you mean to say you never repeated a sin you repented of?” and he said to me, “Certainly not, sir; never.” Right here, brethren, I bring in this point: I have said that if we would only quit our lying we would get nine-tenths of our difficulties out of the road. Mr. Finney relates an incident that occurred at one of his revival services. One of the elders in the Presbyterian Church received an overwhelming baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that day there came in from an adjoining town an elder from another Church. At the dinner-table this elder discovered the traces and movements of divine power in the very face of his host. Finney says he himself was sitting at the table. This visiting elder looked at his host and said: “Tell me how you have received such heavenly baptism? How did you get it?” The host looked at him and answered: “I fell down on rny knees and said to God, I have told my last lie. I will never tell thee another while I live;” and the Holy Ghost descended on me, and I have been so gloriously filled since that time I scarcely know whether I am in the body or out.” This elder to whom the host was speaking then jumped up from the table, and ran into a sitting-room near by, and fell down on his knees and prayed: “My God, I have told my last lie. I will never tell another on my knees or off my knees in my life,” and when they arose and walked from the dinner-table the holy blessing fairly beamed. He had received the baptism, and went on his way rejoicing.

Brethren, that’s our trouble. We have been promising God all our life that we would quit our meanness and get to doing right, but we never have done it. If I were to stop at this point and ask every Christian in the house who never told God a lie to stand up, how many do you suppose could stand up and say: ” I told God the truth at the beginning, and have stuck to it to this hour. I said I would quit my meanness, and I did it. I said I would do right, and I have done it.”

I want to tell you that every man s condemnation is bottomed on this one word, neglect. Take the best citizen in this town, and let him be everything else you want him to be, and yet let him neglect to pay his debts, and there isn’t a tramp on your streets who would have any respect for him. Isn’t that a fact? My duty is my debt to God, and if I neglect to pay my debts to God, there isn’t an angel in heaven who would respect me, even if I had sneaked in there unnoticed.

Duty! “I am satisfied with the past, with my self as a father. I have set a good example, and have led a Christian life before my children.” “I am satisfied with myself as a mother; I have done my duty to my children.” ” I am satisfied with myself as a member of the Church. I have kept my vows to it.” Brethren, here’s a source of joy -”I have done my best from the time I started until this hour.” Can you say that? Brethren, did you ever, when your innocent children played about in your lap, say: “I am the purest father God ever blessed with children?” Did you ever say that? Mother, have you looked at your innocent children, as they threw their soft, white arms around your neck, and said: “I am the purest mother God ever blessed with children?” What is your home life? ” I am satisfied. I have done my duty.” Sister, you may be satisfied with some things in your home to-night, but you’ll be be very much dissatisfied later along. You card-playing fathers and mothers! Playing cards with your children! You may think that’s very nice now, but when you turn out on the streets of this city three more gamblers from your so-called Christian home, you are going to get very much dissatisfied with the way you have made things at your house.

I think statistics will bear me out when I assert that nine out of every ten gamblers in this country were raised in Christian -so-called Christian -homes. They are refined, educated, and well raised men -many of them -and they come from the homes where mother and father have dedicated them to God, and, it may be, had them baptized in the name of the Trinity.

I want to say another thing. People say, ” Jones, you hit a little thing as hard as you hit a big thing.” Yes, I do, brethren. The Church is paralyzed in this country. It hasn’t the power, and we may just as well acknowledge it. Hear me! It is not lying that is hurting the Church, nor stealing, nor drink. It is not this kind of meanness that is hurting the Church. Every body knows that Church members who do these things are vagabonds, and pays no attention to them. Hear me. If you want to know what is demoralizing the Church, and paralyzing the Church, I’ll tell you. It is this tide of worldliness that is sweeping over the Christian homes of this country. That’s it! O, my, sister, the day you entered society you laid down your piety, and you know it as well as I do, and you have learned that when a woman gives up her consecrated life to enter society, she begins a life of misery that hardly a damned spirit can exceed in bitterness.

Now, when you can say, “I am satisfied with the past, with the way I have lived before my family, my Church, my community, satisfied with my example in all respects,” you are laying the foundation for Scriptural joy.

Then the next point is, “I am contented with the present.” When a man looks back with the consciousness that he has done his best, and is contented with the present, he is rich, and rich enough. St. Paul said: “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” He said another thing on that line: “Godliness with contentment is a great gain.” Brother, contentment is one of the elements of real Scriptural joy in this life. When a man builds on God’s pattern, and is contented with his lot, and is hopeful for the future, that man is happy anywhere and everywhere.

Hear me, brethren. Hope, as it shines out of a consecrated past and a contented present, is like the mile-posts on the way to God, telling us how far we have come, and how much further we have to go. Thank God for hope in the Christian life, and we sing:

“O, what a blessed hope is ours
While here on earth we stay!”

Satisfied with the past, contented with the present, hopeful for the future -a joyous Christian -you will find the secret right along in there.

Now, brethren, what are you going to do? Thank God, you can do something; thank God, there is only one thing necessary to be done. Quit your meanness. Go to God in honest penitence and tell him: “My Lord, this night I burn up the cards; this night I turn out the wines and entertainments; this night I draw the line, and I come over to God’s side. Good Lord, forgive me for the way I have lived as a professor of religion.” Then comes in the pardon.

O, mothers, fathers, let’s call a halt; let us bring those matters to an understanding at our homes, and say, “We are done.” Let us call a halt, and, on our knees before God, repent of these things.

I want to live before God and my family, so that when I come to die I can say to my children, “Go and live just as your father has lived, and do just as he has done, and as certain as Christ died for sinners, some of these days we will all meet in heaven.”

Satisfied with the past, content with the present, and hopeful for the future ! This gives me the attitude and the attitude where I can rejoice evermore.

Then we take the next verse, “Pray without ceasing.” You say,” I can see how a fellow can act when he can rejoice evermore, but to talk about praying without ceasing -that is all foolishness. A man has got to work; he has got to do other things. A man can’t pray all the time. That won’t do at all.” I heard of a fellow once who had so much work to do on a certain day that he had to lay all down and stop and pray three hours in order to get through with it. Well, you say, “That is the big gest foolishness I ever heard of in my life.” Do you see that engine stopping yonder? The schedule of that passenger train is forty-five miles an hour, and that train has stopped still. I look at it and I say: “What does this all mean? The engineer has stopped, and he is on schedule time. Why doesn’t he go on? What has he stopped for? He has stopped one minute, two minutes, three minutes, five minutes. O, why doesn’t he go on ?” I look a little closer, and I see he is taking on coal and letting water into the tender. He has spent six minutes at the station, and has secured a supply of coal and water, and now he says to himself: “I have lost six minutes, but I have got steam power enough to carry me along sixty miles an hour if I want to go that fast; but if I had run by that coal station I would have got stalled on the first grade. But now I have power enough to carry me through.” I will tell you, brethren, when you run up to God Almighty’s coal and water station, you must take on enough for your needs. That is it. That is the way to get steam to make the trip. That is the meaning of prayer.

I will say a thing now, and I would say it loud enough for all the earth to hear me. We have got men that won’t pray in public and won’t pray in their families. Do you want to know why that is? It is because they don’t pray anywhere. Hear me. I want to be understood now, if you don’t under stand any thing else to-night. The man who really prays anywhere, will pray everywhere. The man who maintains secret prayer will pray everywhere in God’s world that you call on him. You say the reason you don’t pray in your family is just because you are timid. That is a lie. It is because you are mean, and you know it. Talk about a great big fellow, with whiskers six inches long, who will go down town on Change and talk bigger than any man in the pit, and he won’t go home and pray with his children. “You know I would do it,” he says, “if I were not so timid.” Look here. If a man doesn’t pray in his family there is but one reason for it, and that is because he doesn’t live right before his family. I know what I am talking about. I recollect once since I was converted I got up one morning out of humor, and I said some things I had no business to say. I had the dyspepsia they said. It was meanness. Every time a fellow gets his meanness off, it is dyspepsia. Do you hear that, wife? As I said, I was talking right smart around that morning, and directly, just before the breakfast bell rang, wife got down the Bible. I looked at it, and I would have given fifty dollars that morning if I had had some preacher there to have prayer in the family for me. O, how I hated to get down after talking that way. Brother, when you get to living right before your family, it is just as easy to pray before them as it is to sit down and eat before them. If I didn’t have sense enough to pray in my family, I’ll tell you what I would do. I would go and hire me an old colored man that wife and children had confidence in, and I would pay him by the month to come and hold family prayer for me. I would.

Talk about a man being religious who does not pray in his family ! Ridiculous ! I found out long ago that religion is a good thing to have, and a father who becomes religious wants his wife and children to have all the good things in the world; and the next thing you hear from him he will be leading in prayer and demonstrating his religion in his family, and they will fall into line with him. Brother, if you don’t pray in your family, go home and begin to-night. Do you hear that? Begin to-night.

“Pray without ceasing.” How many people in this house hold family prayer and go to the theater? How many people in this house that pray in their families, play cards in their families? How many people in this house who give wine suppers pray at night and morning with the children? Ah, brother, those things won’t mix, and you needn’t tell me they will. They won’t. Pray in your families. I like family prayer, and I can’t get along without it at my house.

I want to get God’s old family prayer elevator down into my house every night, and let wife and children get into it and all go to heaven for a few minutes, and then come back and go to bed. And then in the morning before the breakfast bell rings, down comes God’s old family prayer elevator, and we will all get into it for a few minutes and go to heaven, and come back and get our breakfast and go to work. If I can just get wife and children to heaven that way a few years, they will be such children that when they come to die, they will go to heaven as naturally as they breathe. The Lord save my home. If there is one thought that my mind dwells upon in restful, peaceful moments, it is when I am looking ahead to that happy time when I shall dwell with my wife and loved ones in heaven. Mother, children, all of us at home in heaven forever! Then will I have received pay for every lick I have ever struck for God and right on this side of the grave. God bless and save you, brethren.