Chips and chunks for every fireside; wit, wisdom and pathos

Front matter

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X

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Introduction

advice the Commodore spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for beneficent objects.

The qualities which impressed Dr. Deems upon Commodore Vanderbilt, and also upon his son William H., are every-where evident in this book — honesty of purpose, a clear conception of the object in view, lucidity of statement, and wisdom of suggestion. I am sure this work will be found of value in the home circle, both to the old and to the young.

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New York, May, 1890.

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Copyright, 1889, by Hunt & Eaton, New York.

A PRELIMINARY CHIP. &«&-

When all one's repast is set upon the table there is no need of a bill of fare.

If all this book could be seen upon the first page there would be no room for a preface ; but it may be of some interest to the reader to have a history of the different parts of a large volume.

In regard to many portions of this book the reader will find such histories interspersed in appropriate places.

But there may be some reason for telling why the volume came into existence in its present shape. The author cannot plead the act which defends infants in cases of indiscretion. He has been writing for the press for more than half a century. As his books had attained a very respectable circulation, and as one or two of his productions had obtained a more than ordinary sale, he was led, no f matter how, to suppose that a collection of his booklets and magazine articles brought together, with some new and timely matter, might be acceptable to the public.

Every author has his own following of readers, and every new book he prepares for the press, if it be at all worthy, is likely to enlarge this following. All his old friends know what to expect as to his manner of thought and general style of expression ; but even they may be helped by having a summary statement of the contents of the volume.

A PRELIMINARY CHIP.

The intent was to make A BOOK FOR HOMES : a book which should enable busy people to catch up with the run of thought among thinkers, to have a moral stimulus in the discharge of the duties of life, and pleasant reading for those hours in which there were no pressing duties. So the book begins with the consecration of the household.

It should be understood that there is a new altar erected to God whenever a man marries a woman. The reasons for this are given in the opening department called " The Home Altar."

Next to the moral and spiritual culture in the family comes the intellectual development, and that opens the department of the " Library." If the author had been making selections from many writers a very different cast would have been given to this department ; but there is nothing in the volume, except in the quotations, which is not the product of one pen.

Beyond that there is THE FAMILY CIRCLE, where all are gathered ; there is the evening lamp around which all read. There is something for Young Men in which Young Women are not deeply interested, and something for them for which the boys may not care so much. Nevertheless, in collecting for each sex some regard has been had to find the matter which should be interesting to the other.

Manners have been called minor morals. In the department of the " BOUDOIR " have been gathered a number of articles in this line of culture.

Whatever is good to read one day may be good to read any day. Nevertheless, there may be in some articles that which suggests special appropriateness for the SUNDAY AFTERNOON.

We are not always in the house. BUSINESS has its demand, and often the household is dependent for its support upon the shop and the office. Essays that seem to be appropriate to these departments are grouped together. That the book might be a consistent whole, certain articles have been prepared as connecting links.

In correcting the proofs of this volume the author has been

A PRELIMINARY CHIP. j

struck with the difference between his modes of thought and styles of expression in the different periods of his writing life. This may, perhaps, also he perceived by the reader. There are some changes which he would have made in certain articles, but he forbore because it occurred to him that it is better to leave such a record, and to prefer a variety of styles for his reader's sake rather than to make uniformity with regard to his reputation as an author. But nothing has been allowed to go into the volume which does not have the author's approval at the moment of publication.

He sends it forth in the hope that it will go into the families of thousands of his old friends and make for him new friends in many families, and that as A BOOK FOR HOMES it may achieve a large usefulness.

CHARLES F. DEEMS.

Church of the Strangers, New York, December 4, 1889.

CONTENTS,

I. The Home Altar. Pagb

A Little History 17

An Appeal 18

Privilege 18

No Specific Command 18

Why 19

Another View 21

Argument Proves too Much 22

An Important Principle 22

What the Bible Does Teach 23

The Saviour at Family Prayer 24

Scriptural Examples 25

Benefits from Family Worship 28

Excuses 37

"I am too timid," 37; "It is so inconvenient," 38; "I have not time," 39; " My family is too small," 42 ; rt My family is so large," 44 ; " My family will not join me," 47 ; "I am ashamed to begin," 49 ; u I do not know how," 51 ; •' The service will soon become dull," 52 ; " I have not the ability," 53.

Suggestions 54

Parting Words 65

II. The Library.

A Scotch Verdict 75

Part I — The Case Stated, 75 ; Definitions, yj ; Neither a Religious nor Sentimental Question, 78 ; Re-adjustment of Terms, 82 ; Hypothesis, 84 ; Testimony of the Vegetable World, 86 ; Testimony of the Dakota Group, 87; Testimony of Animals, 90; Instinct, 95; Language, 96 ; Genius, 97 ; The Moral Sense, 98 ; Eternity of Matter, 101 ; Relation of Evolution to Science, 102 ; The Atomic Theory, 105; Spontaneous Generation, 106; Is Evolution Scientific ? 1 10.

IO CONTENTS.

Page Part II. — Buddha, Jesus, and Evolution, 114; Natural Selection, 116;

The Weak Point, 117; Important Utterances, 118; A Voice from

the British Museum, 121.

Christian Philosophy 122

First Anniversary Address, 122: Objects and History of American

Institute of Christian Philosophy, 123-134. Second Anniversary Address, 134: Darwin in Westminster Abbey, 134;

Important Document, 137; Allen in Girard College, 140; Pasteur

Among the Immortals, 142 ; President of the British Association, 143 ;

Scientific Dogmatists, 144 ; Victoria Institute, 145 ; Joseph Cook's

Work, 146; The School at Princeton, 147.

Third Amiiversary Address, 149 : Modified Tone of Opponents, 149 ;

Increased Religious Literature, 150; Increased Christian Effort, 151 ;

Outside Christianity, 152; Infidels Desponding, 153; Dissensions in

the Enemy's Camp, 154; Reaction Among Infidels, 156; Treatment

of Opponents, 157 ; A Misrepresentation, 160; Scientists at Prayer,

161 ; How to Reach the People, 162; Liberty of Prophesying, 164;

Philosophical Cant, 165.

Fourth An?ziversary Address, 168: Case of Galileo, 169; Use of

Science to the Preacher, 175.

Paul at Athens 183

A Defense of the Superstitions of Science 195

The Cry of Conflict

Letters to the Popular Science Monthly

" The Conflict of the Ages," 239 ; " What Constitutes Religion ? " 243.

Chunks for the Thoughtful 247

A Plea for Working-Women 247

A Plea for Sailors 260

The American Tract Society 268

An Address on Unveiling a Monument to the Unknown Confederate

Dead 272

Chips from a Lecturer's Workshop 283

Professor Huxley's Lectures . . . , 283

Spontaneous Regeneration 292

Survival of the Fittest 295

Discoveries 296

To the Third and Fourth Generations 298

III. Family Hearth-stone.

For Young Women 303

M What Now ? " 303

Make a Review, 307 ; Future Culture, 309 ; Your Field, 314 ; Home

CONTENTS. II

Pagb

Duties, 315 ; Brothers and Sisters, 318 ; Family Servants, 320; Your Neighbors, 321 ; Teaching, 323 ; Not a Christian, 325 ; A Christian Student, 327 ; Without Social Ties, 327 ; Christian Duties, 331 ; Your Responsibility, 335.

For Him : A short True Story 337

James Brainerd Taylor's " Miss W " 341

Mary Lyon and Lady Colquhoun 345

Phoebe Cary 's Hymn

For Young Men 353

The True Basis of Manhood 353

Success in Life 37 1

The Great Centennial Lesson 377

Ruth and 1 382

Sympathy with Joy 382

" The World Owes Me a Living " 385

" Cui Bono ? " A Letter to Ruth 388

Evil Unselfishness 390

Repression 395

Defense of Worry 398

A Good Old Age 401

Ruth and Dr. Phipps 404

Readings for Sunday Evening 410

David 410

Paul 415

Greater Works ....... 422

Trusting in Riches 424

Christian Philanthropy 426

Causing to offend 427

Looking 430

Successful Failures 432

Hereafter 435

The Golden Rule 437

The Field at Hand ; 441

Instruments /\/\<\

Without Offense 445

About Ships 448

David's Sleep Experience 452

The Large Upper Room 453

Spiritual Dyspepsia 456

" What Would Jesus Do?" 458

The Evening Lamp 463

Indirect Influence of Methodism 463

12 CONTENTS.

Page

Bad New York 468

Street Begging 47 1

Inventions 478

Anonymous Letters 48 1

Perpetuated Felony 483

One's Survivors 485

Blessed St. Ignorance 486

Unpraised Helpers 490

Meekness 492

The Uses of an Enemy 493

Disengaging the Carriage 494

Letting off Steam ; 498

" The Woman in White " 501

IV. The Boudoir.

A Story of a Church Bonnet 505

Elegant Simplicity 510

Censoriousness 512

Church Courtesies 513

How to Cure Gossip 514

" Russian Gossip " 515

Presents 517

Pleasure-Seeking 519

V. Pastor's Study.

Reading the Scripture Lessons in Church 523

Preachers and Reporters : First Paper 530

Preachers and Reporters : Second Paper 534

Unchallenged Speakers 539

Paul's Sleepy Hearer 546

Sleeping in Church 548

Ecclesiastical Changes 551

Church Trials 553

Schism 557

Burning Out a Wasps' Nest 561

Church Notices 562

The Sick Parishioner 566

The Sick Pastor 567

The Church and the Sunday-school 57°

Our Plan of Pastoral Work 572

A " Retreat " 574

Ministers Breaking Down in Health , 579

CONTENTS. 13

Pagb

" Enduring Hardness " as a " Soldier " 582

Independent Thinking 584

Greater Works 586

VI. The Office.

Business and Education 591

Trade Life : Its Poetry and Ethics 607

Faith : In Wall Street. A Letter to a Friend 625

Letters of Introduction 628

The Ex-Convict : An Article for the Yet Unconvicted 631

Justice and Business „ 633

Religion and Business 635

After Business 637

Life's Mystic Volume : A Poem ". 640 f

FAMILY WORSHIP

THE HOME-ALTAR

A LITTLE HISTORY.

[WHEN quite young in the ministry I labored earnestly to quicken into more earnest Christian life a portion of the parish of which I was the assistant minister. I never had a more discouraging undertaking. In striving to find the secret of the apathy of my people I discovered that there was but one family in our whole parish in which domestic worship was daily and regularly offered to Almighty God. This led me to preach on the subject. In the year 1850, while pastor at New Berne, N. C, I enlarged this sermon into a series of discourses, at the close of which I wrote the "Appeal for Family Worship " which follows. To that was added a series of prayers, many of which were actually composed while upon my knees and subsequently used while conducting the worship of my own family. There was also added a small collection of selected hymns, together with a table of lessons from the Holy Scriptures.

The whole was published as a volume by Mr. M. W. Dodd, who at that time had on the title-pages of all his books the address, " Brick Church Chapel." The Brick Church, with its chapel, occupied the whole block on which now (1889) stand the Potter building and the Times building. The chapel occupied the place of the latter, its first floor being a store let to Mr. Dodd, who long did business on the premises, and who is succeeded in the business of publishing by his excellent sons of the firm of Dodd, Mead & Co. In 1850 Dr. Gardiner Spring was pastor of the Brick Church, which was subsequently removed to the corner of Fifth Avenue and Thirty-seventh Street.

Some copies of the book have been sold every year since its first publication. One day in the capital city of one of our States I met a colporteur near the Capitol Square. The excellent and useful man pointed to the smoke curling up from four several chimneys into the crisp air of the clear October morning. He said : " Doctor, previous to about three weeks ago no family worship had been conducted in those houses. I left your book in each, and probably while we are standing here each of those families is worshiping God at its home- altar as the result of reading your appeal." Was not that the best kind of royalty on the book? A distinguished bishop said that The Home-Altar was a familiar volume which he had seen in many a family library, and was once surprised at finding a copy in a plain household in a small and remote village in Texas. Some time ago I was tiie guest of a cultivated family in a university town. When the time for family worship came my own book was handed me. It was a well-worn copy. Upon my expression of gratification I was told that it was the third in the series, the family having worn out its two predecessors.

It is still published, and may be procured by those who wish to obtain the appeal, with the prayers and hymns in a small separate volume.]

AN APPEAL.

In as short a space as so important a subject will allow we propose to call the attention of heads of families generally to the duty of conducting Domestic Worship.

PRIVILEGE.

If it were known that all who are members of the Church rightly regarded the things of Christianity, that all who name the name of Christ had his love constantly shed abroad in their hearts, perhaps speakers and writers would cease to present this subject in the light of duty, and would, instead, unite with all good people, especially with all Christian parents, in rejoicing in the great privilege which the Head of the Church has granted to us and to our children. It would really seem strange that an exercise so consonant with all the voice of the Bible, so consistent with all the professions of Christians, so marked with lovely and holy results, should be neglected by any father who has love for his God or love for his children. And yet the fact that there are thousands of families in this land, whose heads are members of the Christian Church, and by whom no act of domestic worship has ever been performed, impresses us with the necessity of calling immediate and close attention to a matter affecting so vastly the interests of the Church of Christ.

NO SPECIFIC COMMAND.

We admit, first of all, that there is no specific command in the Bible enjoining the duty of family prayer. This has been urged

FOR EVERY FIRESIDE.

against its observance. That it should be by those whose morality is measured by the precise statements of the statute-book is not to us a matter of surprise. But that it should ever proceed from one who has read the Scriptures with any degree of devout attention, from one who has tasted the good things of God, from one who has had the promises at any time and in any measure fulfilled in his soul, is, we confess, a very remarkable if not unaccountable thing. To all such persons we kindly submit the following considerations :

WHY.

The Christian religion is manifestly suited to man as man, intended to be adopted by every rational human creature, in every age and under every circumstance. As far as practicable, therefore, Christianity is stripped of ceremonies. It aims to produce a reformed life from a reformed heart. And when the New Testament shows man the way of salvation by faith, and lays down certain general principles for the government of the Church, and certain general principles for the government of man in all his social and spiritual connections, it leaves to this renewed heart and this instructed mind the work — the blessed, improving work — of deducing rules for special occasions. There is one trait of human character which seems to have escaped the observation of many. It may be gathered from this statement : The man who requires a specific command to do that which comports with all his obligations, which corresponds with all the revelation God has made, and which would be naturally prompted by a good heart, is a man who would be the slowest and the last to obey such a command. Let us appeal to the heart of the Christian. Are you accustomed to expect your child to do only those things which you specifically command ? Would you consider him an obedient son who watched the letter of your direction but paid no attention to its spirit ? Do you not daily expect your children to do many things which they are to gather from the well-known principles which govern you in the management of your family ? And when they have done all these they are merely obedient. Love outstrips commands. Love flies to do what is most indistinctly intimated as the will and pleasure of its object.

Let the Christian man now apply these plain principles to the examination of his heart and life. Does he consider that man as fully devoted to the cause of Christ who does only what is distinctly commanded in the Bible? Is not every truly pious man with whom the reader of this page is acquainted engaged in many things which the spirit of the New Testament suggests, but which are not commanded ? If the neglect of any act or exercise is denounced in the sacred Scriptures, if the observance thereof is recorded with approbation, if the regard thereof is always followed by profit and blessing, if it be impossible to fulfill the obligations and duties created by the distinct precepts of the Bible while this exercise is neglected, who is so dull of understanding as not to perceive that it takes rank with all that the Bible considers duty ?

The Scriptures do not always direct us in those things in which instinct, reason, and the general impulses of our nature will be ready and sufficient guides. If any head of a family urges as a reason why he does not conduct domestic worship that the Bible does not command it, it may be readily asked him why he clothes and feeds his children, why he sends for a physician and for medicine when his wife and servants are sick. If he stares at one asking such a question his own statement may be repeated — " the Bible does not command it." The Christian professes to believe that as an individual receives personal blessings at the hand of God, has many personal spiritual wants, has these wants recurring daily, and can have them supplied only by the Lord, it is right and proper and necessary that he should maintain habits of prayer ; and the more so since he has sins to be forgiven, and may from time to time be betrayed into transgression. He professes also to believe that as the whole body of the Church of Christ has received favors, and has spiritual wants, it is necessary that the Church should worship as a church, and that this should be done in addition to the worship which each individual member of the Church is supposed to offer to God. Now, do not the same things hold good in regard to the family f Are there no domestic blessings for which to thank God ? no domestic wants, temporal and spiritual, to drive us to the Saviour? no domestic short-comings and transgressions for which forgiveness is to be implored ? Is it not reasonable to think that if the Lord saw that men would be able to gather the propriety of personal and church worship from the Scriptures it was unnecessary to enjoin by special command what would promptly suggest itself as being so eminently accordant with what is by all acknowledged to be plainly taught ? If the natural man prompts the head of a family to make a full and ready provision for the natural wants of his wife and servants and children, might it not be supposed that the spiritual man, quicker and more sympathetic, would fly to provide for all the spiritual wants of his family? Or is it supposed by the Christian that these are the less important ? But if a man provide breakfast and no prayers for his children must they not be driven to the conclusion that their father thinks the body more important than the soul ? It would seem as though the voice of a renewed heart would instruct a man if there were no intimations in the Scripture on this subject.

ANOTHER VIEW.

It may not be amiss to add that those who throw themselves back on the proposition that the Bible does not command it not only imply that they do nothing which is not distinctly enjoined in the Holy Book, but also that they regard it as the rule of faith and practice, and that consequently they hold themselves bound to do all that it does enjoin. The question very naturally comes, Do they? Is it possible to obey every command of the Scripture while one is living in neglect of family prayer? Let any head of a family read his Bible through, marking the passages which distinctly enjoin a duty to his children or his servants, let him consider them carefully and devoutly, and then ask himself how it is possible that these commands can be kept in that house where there is no stated domestic worship. If he is an impartial man, and will do this thing calmly, we think the conviction will be full and clear that those who set up this general argument against family prayer have no enlightened view of the whole body of their duties, or are wanting in that religious principle which refines all the sentiments of the heart and leads a man to do not only what is demanded by the bodies but also what is needful for the souls of those connected with him.

ARGUMENT PROVES TOO MUCH.

We have considered this argument with respectful attention, because, if there is any force in it, it will modify our views of several important matters. If we are to adopt this principle rigidly, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all the patriarchs and good men who lived in the first three thousand years of the world's history, are to be regarded as doing works of supererogation, for they prayed ; and so far as it can be discovered in the Bible the first explicit injunction to prayer was written not much more than a thousand years before Christ. But we put it in a stronger light. Will the person who is using this argument maintain that all the good men who lived before the times of David were not bound to pray; that no obligation was upon them until the explicit injunction came from the mouth of an inspired man? He will not pretend that they did not pray ; and he is left to answer the question, Why did they? Will not the position we are combating be found as powerful against secret prayer and public worship as against Family- Prayer? We are not commanded to pray in private or to worship in public. The direction how to do both is given; but it is in the first place assumed that they will be done without an explicit command.

AN IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE.

As any discourse on this subject is supposed to be addressed to Christians, many things are taken for granted as believed by them. For instance : we certainly are not in error in supposing that every Christian allows that, as far as he is able, he is bound to bring glory to God from his family. Upon such an admission how can he answer this question: Do you sincerely believe that God is as much glorified by your family when no domestic worship is performed as when, night and morning, you and your wife, your children, and your servants, come together and bow down and kneel before God your Maker? He cannot deny that he is to do all that he can to promote the glory of God in his family, for that would make him appear " worse than an infidel ; " nor can he assert that God is as much glorified by a prayerless as he is by a praying family, for that would prove him to be brutishly stupid.

WHAT THE BIBLE DOES TEACH.

This single fact binds it as a duty : it is implied in Holy Scripture. If under obligation to do the will of God at all we are under obligation to do it however or whenever we learn what it is. No man of correct thought and feeling will deny that what is intimated anywhere in a revelation from God is as binding upon men as what is distinctly and explicitly taught. Look at what is said concerning prayer : " I will that men pray every -where," 1 Tim. ii, 8. " Jesus spake a parable that men ought always to pray." Luke xi. ''Praying always (or at all times) with all prayer and supplication." Eph. vi. " In every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." Phil, iv, 6. Now these precepts are supposed to be plain enough. " Every-where," " at all times," " all prayer," and, " every thing," are very comprehensive phrases ; so comprehensive that we maintain that they include stated family prayer. Of no man can it be said that he prays every-where, at all times, with all prayer, in every thing, if he notoriously omits family prayer in that house over which he has control. Now, if these expressions do not imply family prayer, how are we to know that they imply private or public prayer ? For the reason which would exclude the one would exclude the other ; and to exclude all would be to assert that the passages of Scripture in which they occur are empty nonsense. Then there is that verse in 1 Tim., " If any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house (kindred), he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." Let it be granted that the connection of this text refers to temporal rather than to spiritual things ; let it be understood to mean that he who does not provide suitable food and raiment for his family denies the faith of his lips by the deeds of his life, and is worse than the unbelieving heathen, whose natural feelings prompt him to do this much ; and then how forcible does the argument become ! For a still stronger reason the member of Christ's Church who fails to make provision for the spiritual necessities of his family is a man who, every day of his life, sets his practice to war with his profession

2 4 and is worse than the unbelieving pagans, who have their household gods, and who take care that their families daily perform the rites of a darkened superstition. And has that man made suitable provision for the spiritual wants of his family who has not yet erected an altar at his hearth-stone and formally constituted the " Church in the House ? ''

Here, then, it appears that the Bible argument on this subject is not so vague as many imagine ; nor is it true, as many more seem to think, that there is no Bible argument to enforce this obligation. In Jer. x it is written : " Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name." Now we have no disposition to take liberties with Scripture in order to prove a point ; its plain meaning will answer every good purpose of Christian thought and argumentation. We call attention to the fact that the families who call not upon the name of the Lord are classed with heathen.* Of every family where there is no domestic altar it may be said that it does not call upon the name of the Lord ; as a family it renders him no homage and no service ; however refined and well-bred, so far as religion is concerned it is a heathen family in God's account. The terrors of this passage are sufficient to drive us to the discharge of this duty, if we were not sweetly drawn by the teachings of our beloved Master.

THE SAVIOUR AT FAMILY PRAYER.

The inspired biographer tells us that on one occasion, when the Lord Jesus Christ had been praying, and ceased, his disciples asked to be taught how to pray. It is manifest that they did not ask instruction in private prayer. The Saviour did not so understand them. He gave them a form of social prayer. They constituted Christ's family. Christ had been conducting family