privilege a duty? And if it is a duty for
individuals and congregations to pray, is it not, for a similar reason, the
duty of the family to establish her altar of devotion? As a family we daily
need and receive mercies, daily sin, are tempted and in danger every day;
why not then as a family daily pray?

But what is family prayer? It is not simply individual prayer, not the
altar of the closet; but the home-altar, around which all the members
gather morning and evening, as a family-unit, with one heart, one faith and
one hope, to commune with God and supplicate his mercy. "In the devotion of
this little assembly," says Dr. Dwight, "parents pray for their children,
and children for their parents; the husband for the wife, and the wife for
the husband; while brothers and sisters send up their requests to the
throne of Infinite Mercy, to call down blessings on each other. Who that
wears the name of a man can be indifferent here? Must not the venerable
character of the parent, the peculiar tenderness of the conjugal union, the
affectionate intimacy of the filial and fraternal relations; must not the
nearest of relations long existing, the interchange of kindness long
continued, and the oneness of interests long cemented,--all warm the heart,
heighten the importance of every petition, and increase the fervor of every
devotional effort?"

What scene can be more lovely on earth, more like the heavenly home, and
more pleasing to God, than that of a pious family kneeling with one accord
around the home-altar, and uniting their supplications to their Father in
heaven! How sublime the act of those parents who thus pray for the blessing
of God upon their household! How lovely the scene of a pious mother
gathering her little ones around her at the bedside, and teaching them the
privilege of prayer! And what a safeguard is this home-devotion, against
all the machinations of Satan!

"Our hearths are altars all;
The prayers of hungry souls and poor,
Like armed angels at the door,
Our unseen foes appal!"

It is this which makes home a type of heaven, the dwelling place of God.
The family altar is heaven's threshold. And happy are those children who at
that altar, have been consecrated by a father's blessing, baptized by a
mother's tears, and borne up to heaven upon their joint petitions, as a
voluntary thank-offering to God. The home that has honored God with an
altar of devotion may well be called blessed.