J.R. Miller: A Brief Remembrance

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It was said of J.R. Miller, the Presbyterian minister and devotional writer that “he kept a complete record of all the important dates in the lives of his people — birthdays, wedding anniversaries, et cetera — and he marked each of these by sending a short letter of remembrance” (J.T. Faris, The Life of Dr. J. R. Miller: "Jesus and I are Friends” [1912], p. 168).

At Log College Press, we too try to remember the important dates in the lives of “our people,” those men and women from the past whose lives and writings continue to live on and touch our readers today. Today we remember J.R. Miller who was born on this day in history, March 20, 1840.

He was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania and raised in a Presbyterian home where he was taught Scripture, the Shorter Catechism and Matthew Henry’s Bible commentary, while family worship was practiced daily. His profession of faith was made in an Associate Presbyterian church in 1857, which became part of the United Presbyterian Church (UPCNA) a year later.

During the War Between the States he served in the U.S. Christian Commission from 1863 to 1865. He studied at Westminster College and at Allegheny Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania before entering the ministry and becoming ordained in the UPCNA in 1867. He later came to have scruples about the practice of exclusive psalmody to which his family and his church held. And thus he joined the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA), the denomination in which he remained for the rest of his life, just nine days after the Old and New School branches reunited in 1869.

In 1880, he began editorial work for the Presbyterian Board of Publication in Philadelphia, and he also published his first book, Week Day Religion. He would go on to write many more books, and numerous articles. He was extremely popular in his day for his devotional contributions to Christian literature. His biographer wrote in 1912 that copies of his published books had sold over 2 million copies.

Throughout his life and his careers as a pastor and an author, Miller reflected the values that were instilled in him and which were important to him. He loved the Lord Jesus Christ and as a consequence loved others well. A younger minister once asked him the secret of success in the ministry. He replied thus in a letter:

Cultivate love for Christ and then live for your work. It goes without saying that the supreme motive in every minister’s life should be the love of Christ. ‘The love of Christ strengtheneth me,’ was the keynote of St. Paul’s marvellous ministry. But this is not all. If a man is swayed by the love of Christ he must also have in his heart love for his fellow men. If I were to give you what I believe is one of the secrets of my own life, it is, that I have always loved people. I have had an intense desire all of my life to help people in every way; not merely to help them into the church, but to help them in their personal experiences, in their struggles and temptations, their quest for the best things in character. I have loved other people with an absorbing devotion. I have always felt that I should go anywhere, do any personal service, and help any individual, even the lowliest and the highest. The Master taught me this in the washing of His disciples’ feet, which showed His heart in being willing to do anything to serve His friends. If you want to have success as a winner of men, as a helper of people, as a pastor of little children, as the friend of the tempted and imperilled, you must love them and have a sincere desire to do them good (The Life of Dr. J. R. Miller: "Jesus and I are Friends,” pp. 87-88).

And this illustration speaks to the eternal truth of what Dr. Miller lived and practiced:

Love is never lost. Nothing that love does is ever forgotten. Long, long afterwards the poet found his song, from beginning to end, in the heart of a friend. Love shall find some day every song it has ever sung, sweetly treasured and singing yet in the hearts into which it was breathed. It is a pretty legend of the origin of the pearl which says that a star fell into the sea, and a shellfish, opening its mouth, received it, when the star became a pearl in the shell. The words of love’s greeting as we hurry by fall into our hearts, not to be lost, but to become pearls and to stay there forever (The Life of Dr. J. R. Miller: "Jesus and I are Friends,” pp. 204).

In his last days, while he was ill, the General Assembly of the PCUSA sent him a message of sympathy and encouragement. In fact, he himself was still working on The Book of Comfort when the end came and he entered into his eternal rest. J.R. Miller died on July 2, 1912, and was laid to rest at the West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. A simple service was held for the occasion which included prayer, the recitation of the Twenty-Third Psalm, the singing by a soloist of “He Will Lead His Flock Like a Shepherd” from Handel’s Messiah, and the congregational singing of a favorite hymn.

Several of his books were devotionals meant to be read throughout the year. It seems fitting to conclude this brief remembrance of J.R. Miller with an extract from one of them, Dr. Miller's Year Book: A Year's Daily Readings (1895), from the very date of his birthday.

A Guide to Family Worship by Harold M. Robinson

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God is to be worshipped every where in spirit and in truth; as in private families daily, and in secret each one by himself (WCF 21.6; Mal. 1.11; Tim. 2.8, John 4.23-24; Matt. 6.11; Jer. 10.25; Deut. 6.6-7; Job 1.5; 2 Sam. 6.18, 20; 1 Pet. 3.7; Acts 10.2).

In 1923, Harold McAfee Robinson (1881-1939) published a helpful guide to family worship. It summarizes and give practical counsel regarding the three main features of worship in the family circle: the reading and study of the Holy Scriptures, prayer and song.

After providing reasons for the gathering of the family unit specifically to praise God, as well as summarizing leading principles that guide Biblical family worship — including such matters as focusing on the needs of the youngest children as well as older persons present, and what time of day to hold family worship — Robinson, in How to Conduct Family Worship, distinguishes the proper acts that constitute such a service.

The Cotter’s Saturday Night by William Kidd

The Cotter’s Saturday Night by William Kidd

What are the acts of family worship?

The acts of worship most appropriate to the family are the use of Scripture, prayer, and song. There are other acts of social worship, such as the sacraments and the bringing of offerings, which are not appropriate to the family. There are also other acts of worship which may be appropriate to the family, but these three acts are the most common and the most appropriate.

Regarding these three elements of family worship, Robinson devotes a chapter to each, which contains useful material to consider.

In the chapter on song, he encourages music in family worship, meaning hymns (he does not recommend the singing of psalms). Suggested material includes Louis F. Benson’s The Best Church Hymns.

Citing Robert M. M’Cheyne, who said, “You read your Bible regularly, of course; but do try to understand it, and still more to feel it. . . . Turn the Bible into prayer,” Robinson encourages families to read the Bible together in portions suitable to the abilities of the hearers, and to take what is read as seeds for prayer.

Finally, prayer is encouraged on the basis that the Word of God spoken to us should lead to a return of words spoken, sincerely, briefly and according to the needs and capacities of the family, back unto God. The matter of Scripture reading, the particular occasions which might call for particular prayers, and the general tenor of all family prayers are addressed.

There are several generally recognized elements in complete and orderly prayer. These are: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, petition, intercession, and submission.

There is much that is good in this handy little volume on family worship. Consider this manual as you and your family gather to praise God daily as we are commanded to do.

Sabbath Evenings with the Matthews Family

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W.D. Ralston spent time in his younger days teaching at country schools and one winter during the 1850s resided with a family which was then associated with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (Ralston was then connected to the Associate Presbyterian Church). Both of these groups, which merged to form the United Presbyterian Church of North America in 1858, held to the practice of exclusive psalmody.

Ralston used this time with the Matthews Family to produce a manuscript describing their Sabbath evening discussions on the topic of psalmody which was published “over twenty years” later as Talks on Psalmody in the Matthews Family (1877). Many topics related to the issue of psalmody are covered in this fascinating volume, such as Christ in the Psalms, whether exclusive psalmody is warranted from Scripture, and the place of hymns. Presented in conversational style, the discussions that are recorded are a very close representation of those which actually occurred on Sabbath evenings in the Matthews Family.

However, this post is not so much about psalmody as it is about how Sabbath evenings were spent in general by a godly Christian family.

Family Worship.png

Ralston wrote of how their Sabbath evenings were spent, and how these conversations came about. In so doing, he highlighted an important aspect of Sabbath-keeping, which is the aim to keep the whole day holy (Ex. 20:8; WCF 21:8), including the evening hours after church services were over.

While a student, I taught several terms of public school in country districts. On the last day of October, 18—, I left my father’s house to take charge of a school some twenty miles distant. The family with whom I was to board were entire strangers. My parents were members of the Associate Presbyterian church, or the Seceder Churcher, as it was mostly called, while the family with whom I was to board belonged to the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. In the year 1858, these two bodies were united, and formed the United Presbyterian Church.

The winter I spent with that family was a pleasant and profitable one; and as I shall write of the persons composing the family, I will here describe them. The father, and mother, John, and Mary Matthews, were Americans by birth, and had received a good common education. The wife, before marriage, had taught school for several years. John Matthews had a remarkable memory. He seemed to remember all he read. He was not a great talker, but preferred to read, or listen to others; still when led into conversation, it was a pleasure to listen to him. He had a happy way of illustrating what he said, which was pleasing to the young. He would tell many stories and anecdotes to illustrate, and enforce what he said.

They had three children, — John thirteen, Mary twelve, and Willie nine. For their age, the children were well-informed, both in regard to religious truths, and general knowledge. When I saw how perseveringly the parents labored for their improvement, I felt they could not be otherwise.

They seldom had preaching on Sabbath-night in their church, and therefore they devoted the entire evening to the study of the Scriptures at home. Their evening work was attended to early, and as soon as the candles were lighted, their study of the Scriptures commenced. The teacher was the mother, not because she excelled her husband in knowledge, but because her teaching school had better prepared her for imparting instruction.

The first exercise was the Catechism, which all knew; but still, half of it was asked each Sabbath-evening, to keep it fresh in their memories. After that, they took up some subject previously selected. The first Sabbath-evening I was there, the subject was Zaccheus the publican; on the second, it was the destruction of Jerico. Mr. Matthews sat listening, occasionally adding a word or two, and at the close related one or more interesting stories bearing upon the object for the evening, and then the exercises were closed with the usual evening worship.

Ralston writes that one evening Mr. Matthews was led to engage in a discussion of Psalmody with a neighbor who thought hymns were to be preferred over Psalms in worship. This debate occasioned a series of family discussions related to various aspects of Psalmody which were held over many Sabbath evenings. It was while these conversations were ongoing that Ralston himself took out a notebook and jotted down notes about what was discussed. Later, at Mr. Matthews’ request, and with the childrens’ assistance, entire conversations were written down nearly verbatim, with the intent that their discussions, and Mr. Matthews’ illustrations, which were so profitable to the family, could be shared with others. It was Mr. Matthews’ wish that the manuscript which resulted from those notes be published to aid families and children in better understanding why they believed as they did with respect to Psalmody, which he viewed as a legacy bequeathed to the church at the end of his life.

Many families are weary at the end of the day, even (or especially) a Sabbath day. But there can be great fruit in the time well-spent that makes up a Sabbath evening. There is perhaps no better time to impart Biblical truth to the children, or to encourage one another, then when sweet “market day of the soul” is nearing the end, and the family is together for the purpose of worship and mutual edification. The Matthews Family experience, as recorded by Ralston, is a fascinating testimony to this precious truth.

The Almond Tree in Blossom: A Tribute to the Godly Father of T. De Witt Talmage

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Thomas De Witt Talmage — “the American Spurgeon,” one of the most famous preachers in American history — was the youngest son of David T. and Catherine “Catey” Van Nest Talmage. Born in New Jersey, where his father would serve in the state legislature, the son was raised in the Reformed Church (David served as a deacon in the First Church of Raritan), and that is where Thomas began his ministry before being called to serve in the Presbyterian Church.

Engraving of the 1833 Leonid Meteor Shower by Adolf Vollmy (1889), based on the painting by Karl Jauslin.

Engraving of the 1833 Leonid Meteor Shower by Adolf Vollmy (1889), based on the painting by Karl Jauslin.

Thomas once gave an account of his father’s experience traveling between work and home of an event that astronomers still talk about today. The horse that David Talmage was riding was named “Star.”

My father was on the turnpike road between Trenton and Bound Brook, coming through the night from Trenton, where he was serving the State, to his home, where there was sickness. I have often heard him tell about it. It was the night of the 12th and the morning of the 13th of November, 1833. The sky was cloudless and the air clear. Suddenly the heavens became a scene never to be forgotten. From the constellation Leo meteors began to shoot out in all directions. For the two hours between four and six in the morning it was estimated that a thousand meteors a minute flashed and expired. It grew lighter than noon-day. Through the upper air shot arrows of fire! Balls of fire! Trails of fire! Showers of fire! Some the appearances were larger than the full moon. All around the heavens explosion followed explosion. Sounds as well as sights! The air filled with an uproar. All the luminaries of the sky seemed to have received marching orders. The ether was ribbed and interlaced and garlanded with meteoric display. From horizon to horizon everything was in combustion and conflagration. The spectacle ceased not until the rising sun of the November morning eclipsed it, and the whole American nation sat down exhausted with the agitations of a night to be memorable until the earth itself shall become a falling star. The Bible closes with such a scene of falling lights — not only fidgety meteors, but grave old stars. St. John saw it in prospect and wrote: ‘The stars of heaven fell unto the earth even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind.’ What a time there will be when worlds drop! Rain of planets! Gravitation letting loose her grip on worlds! Constellations falling apart and galaxies dissolved!

David Talmage also served as sheriff, and worked to promote education in New Jersey. He lived a long and fruitful life (1783-1865). When he died, Thomas delivered a commemorative sermon titled “The Beauty of Old Age,” based on Ecclesiastes 12:5: “The almond tree shall flourish.”

An almond tree in blossom.

An almond tree in blossom.

Thomas spoke of how his father shined so brightly even in old age. Even as the almond tree blossoming is a picture of the same.

Finally, I notice that in my father’s old age was to be seen the beauty of Christian activity.

He had not retired from the field. He had been busy so long, you could not expect him idle now. The faith I have described was not an idle expectation that sits with its hands in its pocket idly waiting, but a feeling which gather up all the resources of the soul, and hurls them upon one grand design. He was among the first who toiled in Sabbath-schools and never failed to speak praise of these institutions. No storm or darkness ever kept him away from prayer-meeting. In the neighbourhood where he lived, for years he held a devotional meeting. Oftentimes the only praying-man present before a handful of attendants, he would give out the hymn, read the lines, conduct the music, and pray. Then read the Scriptures and pray again. Then lead forth in the Doxology with an enthusiasm as if there were a thousand people present, and all the Church members had been doing their duty. He went forth visiting the sick, burying the dead, collecting alms for the poor, inviting the ministers of religion to his household, in which there was, as in the house of Shunem, a little room over the wall, with bed and candlestick for any passing Elisha. He never shuddered at the sight of a subscription-paper, and not a single great cause of benevolence has arisen within the last half-century which he did not bless with his beneficence. Oh! this was not a barren almond-tree that blossomed. His charity was not like the bursting of the bud of a famous tree in the South, that fills the whole forest with its racket, nor was it a clumsy thing, like the fruit in some tropical clime, that crashes down, almost knocking the life out of those who gather it, for in his case the right hand knew not what the left hand did. The churches of God, in whose service he toiled, have arisen as one man to declare his faithfulness and to mourn their loss. He stood in the front of the holy war, and the courage which never trembled or winced in the presence of temporal danger induced him to dare all things for God. In church matters he was not afraid to be shot at. Ordained, not by the laying on of human hands, but by the imposition of a Saviour’s love, he preached by his life, in official position, and legislative hall, and commercial circles, a practical Christianity. He showed that there was a such a thing as honesty in politics. He slandered no party, stuffed no ballot-box, forged no naturalization papers, intoxicated no voters, told no lies, surrendered no principle, countenanced no demagogueism. He called things by their rightful names; and what others styled prevarication, exaggeration, misstatement, or hyperbole, he called a lie. Though he was far from being undecided in his views, and never professed neutrality, or had any consort with those miserable men who boast how well they can walk on both sides of a dividing-line and be on neither, yet even in the excitements of election canvass, when his name was hotly discussed in public journals, I do not think his integrity was ever assaulted. Started every morning with a chapter of the Bible, and his whole family around him on their knees, he forgot not, in the excitement of the world, that he had a God to serve and a heaven to win. The morning prayer came up on one side of the day, and the evening prayer on the other side, and joined each other in an arch above his head, under the shadow of which he walked all the day. The Sabbath worship extended into Monday’s conversation, and Tuesday’s bargain, and Wednesday’s mirthfulness, and Thursday’s controversy, and Friday’s sociality, and Saturday’s calculation.

Through how many thrilling scenes he had passed! He stood, at Morristown, in the choir that chanted when George Washington was buried; talked with young men whose grandfathers he had held on his knee; watched the progress of John Adam’s administration; denounced, at the time, Aaron Burr’s infamy; heard the guns that celebrated the New Orlean’s victory; voted against Jackson, but lived long enough to wish we had one just like him; remembered when the first steamer struck the North River with its wheel buckets; flushed with excitement in the time of National Banks and Sub-Treasury; was startled at the birth of telegraphy; saw the United States grow from a speck on the world’s map, till all nations dip their flag at our passing merchantmen, and our “national airs” have been heard on the steeps of the Himalayas; was born while the revolutionary cannon were coming home from Yorktown, and lived to hear the tramp of troops returning from the war of the great Rebellion; lived to speak the names of eighty children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Nearly all his contemporaries gone! Aged Wilberforce said that sailors drink to “friends astern” until half way over sea, and then drink to “friends ahead.” With him it had for a long time been “friends ahead.” So also with my father. Long and varied pilgrimage! Nothing but sovereign grace could have kept him true, earnest, useful and Christian through so many exciting scenes.

He worked unweariedly from the sunrise of youth to the sunset of old age, and then in the sweet nightfall of death, lighted by the starry promises, went home, taking his sheaves with him. Mounting from earthly to heavenly service, I doubt not there were a great multitude that thronged heaven’s gate to hail him into the skies — those whose sorrows he has appeased, whose burdens he had lifted, whose guilty souls he had pointed to a pardoning God, whose dying moments he had cheered, whose ascending spirits he had helped up on the wings of sacred music. I should like to have heard that long, loud, triumphant shout, of heaven’s welcome. I think that the harps throbbed with another thrill, and the hills quaked with a mightier hallelujah. Hall, ransomed soul! thy race run — thy toil ended. Hail to the coronation!

Like an almond tree in blossom — which does so in winter, as Thomas notes (see “The Almond-Tree in Blossom” in his 1872 Sermons) — David Talmage served God well in old age, and the tribute that his son left for him is an encouragement to others, young and old, that one can hold on the starry promises, and shine all the brighter, not only in the noon-day of life, but also towards the end our days, even in the darkest of nights.

Family Religion in Clarence E.N. Macartney's Boyhood Home

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Clarence Edward Noble Macartney (1879-1957) was an American Presbyterian clergyman and author who played an important role in the PCUSA’s “fundamentalist-modernist” controversy of the 1920s and 1930s. Macartney is known, for example, for his famous 1922 sermon “Shall Unbelief Win?” — a response to Harry Emerson Fosdick’s "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” Both of these significant sermons have recently been added to Log College Press.

From his posthumously-published The Making of a Minster: The Autobiography of Clarence E. Macartney (1961), pp. 63-64, we glean some insight into the background of this staunch defender of the faith. What is particularly interesting is the place that family worship held in his home as he grew up in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. His family was members of the RPCNA congregation pastored by Robert James George (whose address on family religion is available to read on Log College Press). In this extract, Macartney speaks of his first religious impressions.

I received my earliest and most abiding religious impressions where they are always first received, in the home. Family worship was universal in the homes of our neighborhood, and we had “worship” every morning before breakfast and at night before going to bed. Father would say to one of the children, “Bring the books,” whereupon the black-bound Bibles were brought from the shelf in the dumbwaiter which now serves as a closet. After we had sung a Psalm we then read around the circle the verses of the chapter for the day, after which we knelt for prayer, by Father when he was at home, or, if he was away, by Mother. My first lessons in religion and in reading I had on those mornings at family worship, sitting on my father’s knee as he, with his long forefinger, pointed out the words to me. The 121st Psalm was a favorite. We always sang that great “Traveler’s Psalm” when any of the family was starting off to college, or on a journey. The benediction of that family altar has, I am sure, followed all of us through life thus far, and will, I hope, follow us up to the gate of heaven. Father was wont to conclude his petitions at the family altar with the prayer, “May we all get home at last!” Still on life’s pilgrimage, the children who remain can hear the music of that grand 121st Psalm as we sang it in the Scottish metrical version:

“I too the hills will lift mine eyes,
From whence doth come mine aid
My safety cometh from the Lord,
Who heaven and earth hath made.”

The most treasured recollection of my mother’s religious training is that of singing by our bedside at night in her clear, sweet voice the words of the hymn,

“There is a happy land,
Far, far away.”

On Sabbath afternoons in the springtime and summer mother took us down to a moss-covered rock under the sassafras trees on the hillside and told us the deathless tales of the Bible. She had a little red-bound hymn book out of which we sang with her some of the hymns. Covenanters were not supposed to sing the hymns; only the Psalms of David, and those Psalms are, indeed, the sweetest music this side of heaven. Yet Mother was always free in her religious life, and did not hesitate, on occasions, to sing the hymns. I am sure that the singing of those hymns on the summer afternoons on that moss-covered rock on the hillside in the long ago did much to introduce us to the warmth and tenderness of personal religion.

Family worship as boy left a deep impression on the man who later devoted his life to the ministry of the gospel, and as a witness to Old School, Biblical religion. Seeds planted early may, in the providence and mercy of God, bear much good fruit.

Out of the closet grows the temple: William Aikman on family religion

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In 1870, the Rev. William Aikman published a volume titled Life at Home: or, The Family and Its Members — with the aim “to bring, if possible, the blessed light of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ into the family circle” — which includes a chapter on “The Altar in the House,” from which today’s post is drawn.

Here Aikman speaks of the trajectory of spiritual life from the inward soul to its outward expression in the social sphere of the family home.

Religion is a matter of the heart and belongs to a man’s unseen existence; it is also a matter of the outward life and belongs to his public walks. If man were simply a spiritual essence, all that relates to God and his own thoughts and feelings might be confined to that realm in which solitary and alone he lives — his own soul. But he has a corporeal being, he lives in a world of seen things, and is in immediate and perpetual contact with persons and things as substantial as himself. His religion, then, like himself and because it belongs to his whole nature, reaches out and touches all around him. It cannot, it must not be confined to the secresy of his own bosom.

Every one who takes a broad or accurate view of man, must acknowledge that there ought to be some public recognition of God by any one who professes to believe in Him. This needs to be stated only, not argued. He who never in any form makes an acknowledgement of God, who does not at times before men take the posture of devotion, or show, by some seen act, that he recognizes the fact of God's existence and his own relations to the Infinite One, can make no claim to the title of a believer.

Since religion is more than a matter of the heart, it demands an outward manifestation. How long, think you, were every form of public religious service to be withdrawn, would it be before all religion would be gone from the earth? Were every church to be not only closed but removed, so that not even crumbling walls or deserted precincts should speak of Him who was once worshipped there; were there to be no assemblings for prayer and praise, no voice heard calling on God; were religion, all over the earth, to be shut up in each man's bosom, a generation would scarcely have gone by before the very idea of God had vanished from the apprehension of men.

The instincts of man, however, make such an inward limitation of religion impossible. The heart within, confined and imprisoned, breaks forth at the door of the lips in prayer and adoration; the man in his complex personality cries out, I must show forth what is within; my soul unseen worships the Unseen God; but this eye looks out upon His works, this body lives among the visible things of His hands ; there are other men who with me live and have their being in Him; before them and with them I must worship God. No command is needed; public worship of God goes hand in hand with the recognition of God.

In this way it comes to pass that all thinking persons acknowledge the importance of outward religion — of public divine worship. To a Christian man it becomes a necessity. He must have his closet, a secret place, in whose retirement he may tell the story of his wants and his cares in the ear of a compassionate and sympathizing Father; but he must also have the goodly assemblings of his brethren, in whose company he may sing the songs of Zion, and with whom he may call upon the name of Zion's King. He has a God whom he acknowledges, and whose favor he seeks when alone; that God he must honor and worship in the presence of other men. He has a private religion; he has also a public religion. He cannot be satisfied to worship Jehovah only where no eye can see him; his heart craves in all humility and sincerity that, abroad and with his fellow-men, he may bring his tribute, lowly though it be, of gratitude and love. So out of the closet grows the temple. The one is as necessary as the other. The one is the place where a lone soul holds intercourse with an unseen God; the other where the man with men looks upward to the Creator, Preserver and Lord of them.

Between these two there is a sphere of thought and of influence, more important, perhaps, than either —The Family. It stands midway between the secret and the public life of a man, and vitally affects them both. Here a man spends a large part of his life; from it he derives the chiefest good of earth; here are his highest joys; here are his profoundest sorrows; here are his hopes and fears; here the fountain whence flow streams which make pleasant or weary his way; here are his loved ones; here those in whom and for whom he lives; here those whom he is set to guard and guide, whose destiny he shapes for the eternal years.

In this way, Aikman helps the reader to understand that in the trajectory of spiritual life, the family stands between the individual soul and the public, social and corporate expression of religion. Between the private and the public is the home, where spiritual life is cultivated, as in a nursery, building roots, before it comes into open view. “So out of the closet grows the temple.” And thus God is to be glorified in all spheres — private, family and public.

A reminder from John H. Agnew about the importance and blessing of family worship

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In times when many churches are closed, the temptation exists to neglect other duties of worship beyond corporate, such as family and private worship. John Holmes Agnew’s words about the blessings of family worship on the Lord’s Day serve as a good reminder that we ought not to neglect family worship on the Christian Sabbath, especially when families themselves may not be able to assemble in public.

In his 1842 volume A Manual on the Christian Sabbath, he paints a picture evocative of The Cotters’ Saturday Night, which highlights just how important and how special family worship is - especially on the first day of the week.

The Sabbath is the poor man's friend. It scatters joy and gladness over his path. To him it is the bursting of a bubbling fountain in the scorching desert—the green spot on earth's wilderness where his eye rests with pleasure, the rising of a star like that of Bethlehem, to point him to the place of peace!

On other days he may be cheerless, and perhaps alone; but on this, his eye sparkles with delight while he gazes on the little family circle, and his heart glows with new pleasure as he looks around upon the children whom God hath given him, and enjoys a day's communion with the wife of his bosom (p. 119).

The Cotter's Saturday Night 1850s William Kidd.jpg

He continues his sketch of family worship on the Sabbath day as it ought to be for all:

But leaving the pulpit, go into the domestic sanctuary, and witness there a scene which has sent gladness into many a heart, and has done more for the morality of this nation, than all her public schools, or legal enactments. See the father of a family, the paternal shepherd, gathering his little flock around him, making them to lie down in green pastures, and beside the still waters. See him in the midst of those whom his heart loves, open the sacred pages, and call their attention to the story of Joseph, and the goodness of Joseph's God — then point them to the babe of Bethlehem, the man of sorrows, the persecuted and dying, yet meek, submissive and benevolent Jesus ; and while he tells them that their sins were the nails and the spear, which fastened him to the cross, and opened the veins of his body; that he left heaven to die thus for them, you may see one and another catching his words with listening ear, and weeping tears of sympathy. Yes; and you may follow them out into the shadows and realities of life, and you will find that an impression has been made by the familiar instruction of the fireside, which has restrained them from the haunts of wickedness, and probably led them into the church of God (p. 126).

Agnew’s Manual is a wonderful book to read on the Lord’s Day, and his reminder about the value of family worship is very timely. Take time to peruse this delightful work, and to profit from his words of wisdom.

The Family Altar

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As chairman of the Executive Committee of Publication of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS), James Power Smith wrote the preface to a valuable work on family worship titled The Family Altar (1915). This has recently been added to Log College Press.

The Family Altar contains Scripture readings, hymn selections and suggested prayers for each day of the week, over a period of four weeks, as well as special occasional prayers from men such as Edward Reynolds of the Westminster Assembly, Henry Van Dyke, Jr., James Isaac Vance, Russell Cecil, Richard Clark Reed, William Marcellus McPheeters, and James Russell Miller.

Smith writes:

The daily worship of the household is of early origin. The Hebrew patriarchs builded their altars where they pitched their tents, and there called on the name of the Lord. The disciples of Jesus in earliest Christian times had "the church in the home." It has a natural foundation and reason, in the unity of the family, the close and tender relations of the household, and the sanctity and love of the Christian home; suggesting and inviting the family acknowledgment of mercies and petitions for Divine presence and blessing. Upon the family altar, continued through the ages, has rested the blessing of God.

It honors God, the giver of all our good, the source of all our happiness. It makes the home a sanctuary for God's dwelling. It binds the household together in a more hallowed love. It pleads the grace of Covenant promise. It instructs and unites all hearts in the truth and grace of Christ. It builds a wall of defense against the error and evil of the world around us. It bears witness for God, our Saviour, to the stranger within our gates. It devotes the day to the highest service and sweetens all the hours. It plants in every heart sacred memories to be profitable and happy in all the following years. It brings down from Heaven that blessing of God which maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it.

Be encouraged to take up the duty and privilege of family worship by this valuable aid published over a century ago. Daily family mercies received should lead to daily family prayers and thanksgivings. To God be the glory!

W.A. Scott asks "Do you pray in your family?"

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William Anderson Scott (1813-1885) served as moderator of the Old School General Assembly (PCUSA); ministered to congregations in New York City, New Orleans, San Francisco and other locations; edited several periodicals; and helped to found the San Francisco Theological Seminary. He was also a father of nine children.

In the second volume (1861) of The Pacific Expositor, which he edited, Scott included a brief article on family worship, which shows the priority he (obviously a busy man) placed on this particular ordinance of God. It may serve as an encouragement to others today. It comes from the September 1860 issue, p. 140..

DO YOU PRAY IN YOUR FAMILY? If you do not, you are not like the good people of old times. Wherever the patriarchs had a tent, God had an altar. They called upon the name of the Lord in the valleys and upon the hills. Joshua resolved, that, as for him and his family, they would serve the Lord; that is, worship Him.

Job practised family worship. “He sent and sanctified his children, and rose early in the morning and offered burnt-offerings, according to the number of them all. Thus did Job continually.”

David, having spent one day in bringing the ark from the house of Obed-edom to the place he had prepared for it, and in presenting peace-offerings before the Lord, returned at night to bless his household — that is, to pray for blessings upon his family, or to attend upon family devotion. Cornelius, the centurion, it is said, “feared God with his whole house” — meaning worshipped him with his family.

In the Lord’s Prayer we have a command for family devotion. “After this manner, therefore, pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven.” The form of prayer is plural. It must, therefore, mean social prayer, and if social, then family prayer; for a family is the most proper place to engage in this devotion. Paul, in his Epistle to the Colossians, having pointed out the duty of husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, adds: “Continue in prayer; watch in the same with thanksgiving.” The subject upon which he was speaking leads us to conclude he meant family prayer. In his Epistle to the Ephesians, he enjoins it as a duty to “pray always with all prayer;” — that is to offer prayer of every kind, and in every form, and at every proper season. Family prayer must, therefore, be included in the injunction.

These direct and indirect examples, and commands, from Scripture show how important family worship was to the people of God of old, and how Christ enjoins his people a duty and a blessing to assemble in families to magnify the Lord. Let us take heart from this Scriptural precept and example, as given by Rev. Scott, to enter into that blessing.

J.W. Alexander on Sabbath Evenings in Former Days

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James Waddel Alexander, writing in 1851 under the pen name “C.Q.,” has given us a description of how evenings were spent on the Lord’s Day, after public worship was over. It is valuable to note the place given to family worship, Scripture, the Psalms, the Westminster Shorter Catechism and the reading of classic religious books.

Among our Presbyterian forefathers it was not customary to have public service on Sabbath evenings. That time was usually devoted, in England, and especially in Scotland, to the instruction of the household. In addition to the family worship, which at these seasons was more solemn and more extended, the domestic ordinance of catechizing was observed with great punctuality and zeal….

After the evening meal of the Sabbath, the whole family was gathered, not excepting the domestics, some of whom were grey headed servants of Christ, who had grown up under the roof. In our day of restlessness it is thought enough to despatch a few questions and answers; but the Scottish method was to go through the whole Shorter Catechism, without omission or abridgment. The presiding person, in this exercise, was the master of the house; and we know families, in which, even now, this service is constantly performed without book. We were lately told by a lady, that, after her father's death, the catechetical examination was faithfully carried on by the mother; and no doubt, this has happened in thousands of instances. Though the Larger Catechism was extensively taught, as was the case in a family from which the writer is descended, it was the Shorter Catechism which every youth, without exception, was expected to know. Any one who chooses to try the experiment, may easily satisfy himself how deeply this form of sound words is impressed on the memory of all who have enjoyed a regular Presbyterian training. After attaining a perfect knowledge of the text, children were made to learn a sufficient number of Scripture proofs. This was in itself a theological education. By weekly repetition, it was not merely taught, but inculcated, in the proper sense of that term; so that scarcely any lapse of years could entirely eradicate it from the mind. Whatever may be said about the tediousness of such a discipline, we believe all who have passed through it agree in looking back to those evening exercises as serenely delightful; and in regretting the seeming necessity of denying the same to their own children.

In the Presbyterian houses to which reference is now had, Holy Scripture had its place, in the looking out of passages quoted by the preacher, and in repeating psalms and paraphrases. Expositions of a familiar kind were not unfrequently given, which left their impression on the youthful mind. In days when books were scarcer than at present, many an hour was spent in reading aloud from such works as Rutherford's Letters, Boston's Fourfold State and Crook in the Lot, Erskine's Gospel Sonnets, Guthrie's Interest, and the Sermons of Binning and Andrew Gray. Does not the heart of some reader bless God for these golden opportunities?

There are many congregations among ourselves, in which the evenings of the Lord's days are vacant. It is a very serious question for parents and householders, how far they may employ this sacred season, statedly, for the benefit of their families. Thorough and effectual catechising demands at least a weekly exercise; and where there is no other engagement, the best time for these is the Sabbath evening. Religious instruction, at such a season, is sanctified by the hallowed day, and sweetened by the flow of home- feelings. The service need be neither tedious nor burdensome. A little management may render it delightful. Next to the house of God, there is no place so favourable for the conversion of children as the happy fireside. Let not the subject be laid aside, without some careful recurrence to the past, some candid self-examination, some deliberate planning, some resolved purpose, some self-denying and courageous endeavour, and some prayer to God for his blessing.

Alexander’s snapshot of Sabbath evenings past was meant to encourage readers of his own day to redeem those hours with family exercises of worship, catechetical instruction, and devotional reading. How much more do we need — “in our day of restlessness” — such encouragement in the early part of the 21st century?

The Sitting-Room by J.W. Alexander

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In most eloquent fashion, James Waddel Alexander reminds us why families need a place to come together, as well as a routine where the heart of family life is nourished. This piece was originally published in The Presbyterian Magazine (Jan. 1851) under the pseudonym “C.Q.” (for “Charles Quill,” a favorite nom de plume of Alexander), and later republished posthumously with the author’s true name. Though he wrote in the 19th century, the need expressed here is no less greater, perhaps much more so, in the 21st.

The Sitting-Room

There is, or there ought to be, in every house, a room where all the household come together every day; a dear, well-remembered chamber, hung round by memory with the portraits of father, mother, brothers, sisters, servants, kinsfolk, friends, neighbours, guests, strangers, and Christ's poor. O, my reader, do you not remember such a room? In your wanderings, in your voyages, in the group of your own family, and among your own children, does not your thought go back to the days when you gathered around that ruddy, crackling fire, and when the heads, which are now laid low, were as a crown of glory to their offspring?

In some houses, this common-room, or “living-room,” as our Puritan neighbours call it, is the only room in the house; it is parlour, bed-room, kitchen, all in one. Blessed compensation of Providence to the poor man and his offspring; they can be always together. Wealth multiplies apartments and separates families. Go to the western clearing, and before you reach the cabin, you descry through the chinks the glow of a fire, which would serve a city mechanic for a week; entering, you behold the illumination of a whole circle sitting around the blaze, perhaps singing their evening hymn. Are they less happy than the dwellers in ceiled houses? Change the scene to the uptown seats of wealth, where the merchant prince abides in greater conveniences than Nebuchadnezzar or Charlemagne; for he has baths, hot and cold water on every floor, furnace-heat, and gas-lights. You can scarcely number the apartments. You think it a paradise. Hold! reconsider the social, the domestic part. It is three o'clock. What a solitude: The father is slaving at his counting-house. The mother is dropping cards at fifty doors, or stiffly receiving fifty visits. The boys are sparring or walking Broadway or Chestnut-street. The girls are with masters in Italian, dancing, and philosophy. The babies are airing with French nurses. Do these ever come together? Not in the true family sense. Some Christian merchants have few home joys, and are content to pray with their families once a day. The very name of a sitting-room, living-room, or common-room sounds plebeian, and savours of “the country.” Yet I know men, rich believers, who make conscience of gathering their family, all their family; and to effect this requires a place. God's blessing is on the room, whether covered with Axminster carpets or unplaned plank, whether hung with damask or with hunting-shirts and bear-skins, where that little kingdom, a Christian household, daily meets for prayer, for praise, for kind words, for joint labours, for loving looks, for rational entertainment, for reading aloud, for music, for neighbourly exchanges, for entertaining angels unawares. Thanks be to God for our Presbyterian sitting-rooms!

The Report of the 1849 Committee on Congregational Singing

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The June 30, 1849, edition of The Presbyterian, published in New York and Philadelphia, records the report of the Committee on Congregational Singing to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, Old School (Dr. William Swan Plumer was on this committee). It is a fascinating read, particularly on what it has to say about the topic of choirs in relation to congregational singing. We quote the section in full:

While, in some places, as yet, singing in public worship is conducted by a precentor, or a choir, and the congregation generally join their voices in other places, a select choir performs the singing, with little or no assistance from the great body of the congregation. We are free to say that we consider the latter practice as very undesirable, at the least. It results, in some cases, from the too frequent introduction of new tunes, which are repeated so seldom, and at such long intervals, that the congregation has no sufficient opportunity to become familiar with them and this is one important reason of the dislike which is occasionally felt toward new tunes, otherwise unexceptionable. But the disuse of congregational singing arises, also, from the fact that as the more cultivated and skilful singers are apt to be collected in the choir, there is not only a corresponding diminution of the number of singers in the body of the congregations, by the transfer of voices which formerly rose from various points in the assembly, but an increased diminution is effected, because other persons, who now miss the leading voices, by whose vicinity they were encouraged to sing, have now ceased to sing at all; and at length, if the singing of the choir happens to be very excellent, the pleasure of listening to it supersedes what ought to be the pleasure, and is the duty, of following it and uniting with it; and in the end, the mass of the worshippers sit completely silent.

We do not object to choirs. They are eminently useful as leaders. The evil alluded to is not necessarily to be remedied by disbanding them. There is a more excellent way of supplying the defect. We do not insist that it is the duty of all to sing. We think rather that it is the duty of some persons not to attempt to sing in public worship. Such are the incurables in voice and ear. But, at the same time, far more persons than now attempt to sing, may, can, and ought to qualify themselves for an edifying use of their voices in praising God in his courts. And, before we too soon conclude against choirs, as the cause of the disuse of congregational singing, a little inquiry into the habits of the people, in regard to this matter, may disclose a reason or two, which make greatly against some of those who complain of the evil. In the first place, is it not a fact that people generally do not pay sufficient regard to the excellent recommendation in the Directory, (chap. 4, Sec. 2,) to "cultivate some knowledge of the rules of music, that we may praise God in a becoming manner, with our voices, as well as our hearts?" What can be expected from indolence on this point, but the dissonant marring of "becoming praise," which no man has a right to produce, or an unseemly silence, which no man has a right to relapse into, until he has made a fair, but fruitless effort to learn to sing. Secondly, let us inquire how much of this evil is to be attributed to another evil probably lying back of it: is there not reason to believe that singing in family worship has fallen into general desuetude? Where this exercise is neglected, not only does family worship lose one of its sweetest elements and attractions, with all its soothing and elevating influences, but the young are deprived of one of the most likely and important means and aids for acquiring the taste, the practice, and the skill, which fit them to join in the praises of the Lord's house, with advantage to themselves and others. The operation of these two causes appears to us to be so obvious, that they need only to be indicated in order to suggest the remedy. On this point, proper care must be exercised by pastors, elders, and heads of families. Let them co-operate in promoting the cultivation of sacred music in families, in singing schools, in Sunday schools, in singing meetings, and even in the week-day schools: and let the officers of the church take the supervision both of the instruction of their people, and especially the youth, and of the whole department of the singing in public worship. Thus much will be done to correct any undue innovations by precentors and choirs, and to secure that co-operation of choir and people which is most desirable and practicable. This combination is attainable in entire consistency with a style of church-music, such as is demanded by the dignity of the service and approved by good taste, and with the edification of the people and the greater glory of God. Otherwise, it may well be feared that the work of " praising God in his sanctuary" will be monopolized by a very few persons; and it will be no sufficient apology for the indolent worshiper, that he is ready to objurgate "singing by Committee," and "praising God by proxy," while, in contrast with his own remissness, the zeal and pains which strive to rescue the singing of God's praise from utter neglect and contempt, are worthy of all commendation.

The committee’s report can be read in full here (1849 Old School General Assembly Minutes, starting at page 390).

Moses D. Hoge on "The Cotter's Saturday Night"

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One of Robert Burns’ most beloved poems is the word picture of family worship that constitutes his 1785 “The Cotter’s Saturday Night” (the full text can be read here). The scene was portrayed as a painting by William Kidd (c. 1850). This portrayal also served as inspiration for Moses Dury Hoge in an “unpremeditated address delivered before the Conference of the Evangelical Alliance” in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1884. Philip Schaff asked Hoge to deliver this address (which is also reproduced in the appendix to Peyton Harrison Hoge’s Moses Dury Hoge: Life and Letters) at the very last possible minute, but it proved to be a memorable and profitable deliverance on the subject of “Family Religion.”

After quoting lines from William Cowper, Hoge moved on to discuss Burns’ memorable poem:

And as one quotation suggests another, you, my friends from another land, will allow me to remind you of the hallowed scene depicted by one of the greatest bards, not only of Scotland but of the world — the picture of "The Cotter's Saturday Night," when the family, gathered for the evening worship, formed a circle around the fireside, and when the old patriarch, having read a portion from "the big ha' Bible," and all together having sung a psalm, borne upward by "Dundee's wild warbling notes," or "plaintive Martyrs" or "noble Elgin" —

"Then kneeling down to Heaven's eternal King,
The saint, the husband and the father prays.
Hope springs exulting on triumphant wing.
That thus they all shall meet in future days,
No more to sigh or shed the bitter tear.
Together hymning their Creator's praise,
In such society, yet still more dear,
While circling time moves round in an eternal sphere."

There is a picture of family worship whose outlines will never grow dim, and whose colors will not fade.

Well was it said, "From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs," and as long as piety in the household continues to be the characteristic of the life of the people of any land, it will never be with out the patriot soldier to defend its rights, or the patriot bard to sing its glories. Then let family worship open the gates of the morning with praise, and close the portals of the day with peace; let the children grow up under the hallowing influences of household piety, and these salutary impressions will never be effaced.

Words to consider on a weekend over a century later. “…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).

Family Religion Recommended by William Arthur

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A notable sermon on family worship has recently been added to Log College Press. Preached by William Arthur (1769-1827), who came to America from Scotland in 1793, it is titled “Family Religion Recommended,” and it is based on Joshua 24:15: “As for me, and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Rev. Arthur preached this sermon on two occasions in 1794 — once in the congregation of Robert Annan in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and once in the congregation of Arthur’s cousin, John Mitchell Mason, in New York City. Published later the same year, Arthur’s sermon still serves his stated goal of “doing good” to many.

Reminding us that God sovereignly makes families, and that he deals with families as families, Arthur teaches that families have a duty to serve God. Thus, family worship is both the return of a debt of gratitude for mercies received and a duty owed to the God who has ordained the institution, and seeks such to worship him in spirit and in truth.

He bemoans the families who neglect this duty, and sit down to eat without so much as giving thanks to God for their daily bread. Without dismissing the importance of personal and private religious duties, Arthur emphasizes the Scriptural examples of families who worship together and mourn their family sins together, and teaches that this is a regular, not an occasional, duty. Family worship, he says, is recommended to us by the practice in Scripture of many faithful and godly witnesses.

Also, Arthur commends to us the promises of the God who says that will manifest himself through his covenant to families.

How animating is the following promise; which has, I suppose, a primary view to the return of the Jews from their Babylonian captivity; but has a running applicability, and a continued accomplishment, especially in the New Testament times! At the same time saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Says he, in another part of scripture, In all places, where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee; and is not his name recorded in our habitations?

Arthur went on to serve the congregation of the Pequea Presbyterian Church in Gap, Pennsylvania for 22 years. He died in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1827, but he is remembered as a faithful and godly minister who encouraged family, as well as corporate and private, worship.

J.W. Alexander: Remember to pray for your pastor

James Waddel Alexander reminds us what a privilege it is to lift our pastors before the heavenly throne to receive grace and blessing from above upon the ministry of Christ’s word:

The primary advantage of family-prayer to the church, is that it is answered. It is no small thing for any congregation to have daily cries for God's blessings on it ascending from a hundred firesides. What a spring of refreshment to a pastor! The family-devotions of praying Kidderminster, no doubt, made [Richard] Baxter a better minister, and a happier man; and it is possible that we are reaping the fruits of them, in his "Saints' Rest," and "Dying Thoughts." We have all heard of the preacher who told his flock that he had "lost his prayer-book," meaning their prayers; as also that good quaint saying of the last age, "A praying people makes a preaching minister." Such aid has been well compared to that of Aaron and Hur. Faithful and affectionate Christians never fail to remember their spiritual guide in their household supplications. (Thoughts on Family Worship, pp. 148-149)

Alexander MacWhorter on Family Worship

Alexander MacWhorter (1734-1807) was an important leader in the early American Presbyterian Church. He served as a chaplain during the American War of Independence; served as President of Liberty Hall Academy in Charlotte, North Carolina; ministered to the First Presbyterian Church of Newark, New Jersey for many years; was a founder of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA); and served as a trustee of Princeton for 35 years.

Many of his sermons were collected into two volumes and published in 1803 under the title A Series of Sermons, Upon the Most Important Principles of Our Holy Religion, each volume contained 42 sermons.

The second volume contains sermons on prayer in general, on private prayer and on family worship. We draw your attention to his sermon on family worship because it is a duty just as important in our day as in his, and even more prone to be neglected in our day than his.

MacWhorter’s text is Joshua 24:15: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” He begins by reinforcing the Scriptural basis for this duty: “If it be the duty of Christians to pray everywhere proper and convenient, to continue in prayer, be instant therein, and to pray always with all prayer, and that without ceasing, these things clearly show, that at all times we should possess a praying frame of heart, and be ready on all fit occasions to perform devotional service. Then it evidently follows that they ought to worship God in their families.” Many examples from both the Old and New Testaments are given of this practice. And the warning from Jeremiah 10:25 that God will pour out his fury upon the nations and families that call not upon his name is highlighted.

The reader is reminded of both of the benefits of family worship and the unhappy consequences that proceed from failure to do so. He quotes Richard Baxter, “A holy, well-governed family is the preparative to a holy and well-governed church” and adds that “When we begin the day with God, there is ground to hope we will ‘be in his fear all the day long.’” Encouragement is given to the heads of households charged with this duty. MacWhorter reminds us again and again that great blessings are in store for the families that do call upon his name.

Take time to read this sermon by Alexander MacWhorter (Sermon IV, “The Duty of Family Prayer,” in Vol. 2 of A Series of Sermons). It will remind you why you undertake this daily devotional practice or else it will encourage you to take up this daily devotional practice. It is never too late to begin. God seeks families to worship and praise him, as this remarkable colonial Presbyterian minister teaches us.

The Monitory Letters

Although published anonymously, the author of Monitory Letters to Church Members (1855) was William Buell Sprague. These are the letters of a watchman for the souls of his flock, and they address challenging issues that were prevalent in the 19th century, and no less so today. 

Contained in this volume are a series of 22 letters written to address subjects that reflect a declination in serious religion. Among those persons and topics addressed are:

  • Those who undervalue divine truth;
  • Those who willfully skip the second worship service on the Lord's Day;
  • Those who would send their children to dancing school (Sprague does not argue that dancing is sinful);
  • Those who neglect family worship;
  • Those who travel excessively on the Lord's Day;
  • Those who neglect mid-week services;
  • Those who are stingy and censorious (overly-critical); 
  • Those who are impatient, complaining, fickle, bigoted, neglectful, and irreverent;
  • Those who lack parental involvement and oversight; and 
  • Those who would send their children to a Roman Catholic school. 

Sprague means here to uphold the sanctity of the Lord's Day, the virtue and importance of family worship, the graces of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life, the appreciation of true religion, and the wholesomeness of the home. Not all in our day will agree with his position on all issues. But these letters remind us of the seriousness of the issues which are pastorally addressed. They are not to be lightly dismissed. 

Three of the letters speak to the subject of family worship. The second letter, in particular, addresses the Scriptural warrant for its duty and practice. All of them are valuable incentives to experimental piety, which Sprague aimed at in all of his writings. 

Take time to read over these monitory letters. You may not be the addressee, but they may still convict the 21st century reader and stir him or her unto a serious apprehension of our duties before God and man.