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Sweetest Hour of the Day, September 23
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning
will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
Psalm 5:3
.
If ever there was a time when every house should be a house of
prayer, it is now.
In every Christian home God should be honored by the morning
and evening sacrifices of prayer and praise. Children should be taught
to respect and reverence the hour of prayer. It is the duty of Christian
parents, morning and evening, by earnest prayer and persevering faith,
to make a hedge about their children.
The hours of morning and evening worship should be sweetest and
most helpful of the day. Let it be understood that into these hours
no troubled, unkind thoughts are to intrude; that parents and children
assemble to meet with Jesus, and to invite into the home the presence
of holy angels. Let the services be brief and full of life, adapted to the
occasion, and varied from time to time. Let all join in the Bible reading,
and learn and often repeat God’s law.
In the church at home the children are to learn to pray and to trust
in God.... Come in humility, with a heart full of tenderness, and with
a sense of the temptations and dangers before yourselves and your
children; by faith bind them to the altar, entreating for them the care of
the Lord. Train the children to offer their simple words of prayer. Tell
them that God delights to have them call upon Him.
Will the Lord of heaven pass by such homes, and leave no blessing
there? Nay, verily. Ministering angels will guard the children who are
thus dedicated to God. They hear the offering of praise and the prayer of
faith, and they bear the petitions to Him who ministers in the sanctuary
for His people, and offers His merits in their behalf.
The beautiful lessons of the Bible stories and parables, the pure,
simple instruction of God’s Holy Word, is the spiritual food for you and
your children. Oh, what a work is before you! Will you take hold of it
in the love and fear of God?
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