Family Worship (19)
As the loving mother rejoices to be the fountain of nourishment to the babe which clings to her warm bosom, so the Christian father delights to convey, even by reverent reading, "the sincere milk of the word" (1 Peter 2:2). He has found it good to his own soul; he rejoices in an appointed means of conveying it to his offspring.
J.W. Alexander
A Theology of the Family3.5K
The reason why the reformation succeeded so well in Germany was because the peoples catechizing went along with Luther's preaching. It was laid as a charge upon masters of families, that they should catechize their children
A family without prayer is like a house without a roof, open and exposed to all the storms of heaven.
The way of family worship is a good old way, no new thing, but the ancient usage of the saints.Commentary Gen 12:6
Lead Family Worship with a firm, fatherly hand and a soft, penitent heart: Even when you're bone-weary after a day's work, pray for strength to carry out your fatherly duty. Remember that Christ Jesus went to the cross for you bone-weary and exhausted but never shrunk from His mission. As you deny yourself, you will see how He strengthens you during Family Worship, so that by the time you finish, your exhaustion is overcome.Theology of the Family, 96
Observation shows that families which have no household worship are at a low ebb in spiritual things; that families where it is performed in a cold, slugglish, negligent, or hurried way, are little affected by it and little affected by any means of grace; and that families where God is worshipped, every morning and evening, by all the inmates of the house in a solemn and affectionate service are blessed with increase of piety and happiness. Every individual is blessed. Each one receives a portion of the heavenly food.Thoughts on Family Worship
if God be the Founder, Owner, Governor, and Benefactor of families, then families are jointly to worship God and pray unto Him.How May the Duty of Family Prayer Be Best Managed for the Spiritual Benefit of Every One in the Family?
I hope you will never be averse to it or weary of it. God forbid you should: you are not weary of meal times, if you be healthy. Know and keep these appointed times of coming to God. If you promise to meet a person of quality at such an hour when the clock strikes, you rise up, crave pardon, and tell the company [that someone] tarries for you, you must be gone. Oh, take not more liberty with God than you would do with men, and keep your hearts continually in a frame for duty.A Remedy for Decaying Religion
Family prayer and the pulpit are the bulwarks of Protestantism! Depend upon it, when family piety goes down, the life of godliness will become very low. In Europe, at any rate, seeing that the Christian faith began with a converted household, we ought to seek after the conversion of all our families and to maintain within our houses the good and holy practice of family worship.
family worship will prevent much sin. It awes the soul, conveys a sense of God's majesty and authority, sets solemn truths before the mind, and brings down benefits from God on the home.
the whole household should be gathered together to bow before the Lord--parents and children, master and servant--to confess their sins, to give thanks for God's mercies, to seek His help and blessing. Nothing must be allowed to interfere with this duty: all other domestic arrangements are to bend to it.
we may observe what fearful threatenings are pronounced against those who disregard this duty. We wonder how many of our readers have seriously pondered these awe-inspiring words: "Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name" (Jer 10:25)!
And verily there is one spring and cause of the decay of religion in our day, which we cannot but touch upon and earnestly urge a redress of; and that is the neglect of the worship of God in families by those to whom the charge and conduct of them is committed.Second London Baptist Confession
People often try to fix their families by making surface changes in important areas, but until they deal with worship, they will find themselves like the men of Judah--healing "the hurt of [the] people slightly" (Jer. 6:14). So many maladies in family life can be traced to the abandonment of family worship.A Theology of the Family, 45
[Chrysostom] urged that every house should be church, and every head of a family a spiritual shepherd, remembering the account he must give even for his children.Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity Vol 3 , 545
They pray together, they worship together, they fast together; instructing one another, encouraging one another, strengthening one another... Psalms and hymans they sing to one another, striving to see which one of them will chant more beautifully the praises of their Lord. Hearing and seeing this, Christ rejoices.Ad uxorem, bk2 ch8
Brethren, ye are ordained of God to rule your own houses in his true fear, and according to his word... And therefore, I say, ye must make them partakers in reading, exhorting, and in making common prayers, which I would in every house were used once a day at least.Works of John Knox, Banner of Truth, 2014, 4:137
I am persuaded from my own ministry experience in hundreds of churches that so little family worship regularly exists in Christian homes today, that even in most of our best
churches, most of our best men do not even pray with their
wives (and children if they have them) much less lead them in
ten minutes or so of worship as a family.Family Worship, 13
Brethren, I wish it were more common, I wish it were universal, with all [Christians] to have family
prayer.
We sometimes hear of children of Christian parents
who do not grow up in the fear of God, and we are asked how it is that they turn out so badly. In many, very many cases, I fear there is such a neglect of family
worship that it's not probable that the children are at all impressed by any piety supposed to be possessed by
their parents. A Pastoral visit, pulpit v 54, 362-63
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