ars after their first child was born; then
gradually the father became so engrossed in business that the family
altar, Bible reading and prayer were gradually neglected and finally
altogether dispensed with. One day, on coming home from the office, the
deacon found his nine-year-old girl very ill with a fever. For weeks
they watched over her, but finally the angel of death took her home. As
the deacon told me this story, the tears filling his eyes, he said,
"Then I knew that my daughter had been taken for my sake and that God
was _making_ me to 'lie down.' From that day until this, which is over a
quarter of a century, the family altar has been maintained in our home."

Mother, in that sweetest of all hours to a mother, the last hour of the
day when the child is being put to sleep, when the last thing its eyes
rest upon is the face of the mother, does its last vision rest on a
mother who has taught it to pray, to love Jesus? It would be infinitely
better that the heavenly Father take that little child to be with
Himself than that it should go out into the world from a godless,
Christless, prayerless home.

Fathers and mothers, are we taking time to "lie down," to be alone with
God in prayer and the reading of His Word? Has the family altar in your
home been neglected? What are you waiting for? Do you want God to come
and lay His hand upon some precious one in your family circle to take to
be with Himself? Would you then take time to "lie down"?

It is said that when a sheep is wayward and will not cross the brook,
the shepherd finds that by taking the little lamb from it and carrying
it across, the mother sheep will at once follow, rushing over the
stream. Fathers and mothers, are you waiting for God to do this? Our
fathers and mothers used to have the family altar. They took time to
read the Bible and pray with their children. What kind of age will the
next be if we neglect these religious privileges? It may be that our
parents were not the scholars that some of their children are, but I
think we may safely say that they were the saints that we never will be
until we "lie down" in the green pastures and quiet waters of God's Word
and prayer as they did.

Christian workers especially need to learn the lesson of "lying down,"
We are restless; we fume and worry and fret because we are tired and
hungry. We do not take time to "lie down." Strange, is it not, that we
will do almost anything but lie down? We will walk, run