no Christian head of a family, whether father or mother, can be excused
from performing. They are duties which all who take upon themselves the
responsibilities of the family should feel it a privilege to observe.

The duty of family prayer, especially by the one or the other head of
the household, as the leading exercise of the family religion, should be
performed with seriousness, order and punctuality. John Angell James
very properly asks if the dwellings of the righteous ought not to be
filled with the very element of piety, the atmosphere of true religion.
"Yet, how few are the habitations, even of professors, upon entering
which the stranger would be compelled to say, Surely this _is_ the house
of God, this _is_ the gate of heaven! It may be that family prayer is
gone through with, such as it is, though with little seriousness and no
unction. But even this, in many cases, is wholly omitted, and scarcely
anything remains to indicate that God has found a dwelling in that
house. There may be no actual dissipation, no drunkenness, no
card-playing, but, oh! how little of true devotion is there! How few
families are there so conducted as to make it a matter of surprise that
any of the children of such households should turn out otherwise than
pious! How many that lead us greatly to wonder that any of the children
should turn out otherwise than irreligious! On the other hand, how
subduing and how melting are the fervent supplications of a godly and
consistent father, when his voice, tremulous with emotion, is giving
utterance to the desires of his heart to the God of heaven for the
children bending around him! Is there, out of heaven, a sight more
deeply interesting than a family, gathered at morning or evening prayer,
where the worship is what it ought to be?"

It is hardly to be supposed that any pious heads, or pious members, of
American households, are in doubt whether family worship be a duty. We