The Connecticut Observer, And New York Congregationalist

HOW TO CONDUCT FAMILY PRAYER.

Study the characters of your children and servants, get acquainted with their trials (for who has not some trouble at heart?) and learn what are their chief failings; you can then judge what are those points upon which they most need instruction or comfort, and suiting your exposition to their circumstances, much good might follow. On the contrary, if you enter upon family worship wholly unprepared, and go through it as a form, no interest is created; and you may expect to see your family seated round you, with a vacant look, which proves the mind regardless of what is going on. Do you ask, how you can manage matters differently? I answer, as love begets love, so seriousness and devotion beget seriousness and devotion. If the members of a family receive that the head is deeply impressed with the solemnity of the occasion, their minds will be influenced by his feelings, and thus drawn into a participation of his spirit.

Let your endeavor be to render the service of family prayer a means of grace; let it be conducted in a serious, solemn, devotional manner, and look upwards for the spirit of prayer and praise to be poured out upon your little company in such a measure that your "sacrifice" may not be "that of fools," but a profitable service both to yourself and to your fellow-worshippers.

How rich a blessing might families expect, if their sacred services were performed in a sacred manner. If the flame on the family altar burns bright and clear, the Lord would be honored with one breath of praise—would be implored with one breath of prayer; and he who declares himself "the God of the families of all the earth," would own such a family as "His peculiar treasure." Lond. Chr. Obs.