Snapshots of Family Worship

Hughes Oliphant Old, "Matthew Henry and the Puritan Discipline of Family Prayer," in John H. Leith, ed., Calvin Studies VII: Papers Presented at a Colloquium on Calvin Studies (1994, Davidson College, Davidson College Presbyterian Church, Davidson, North Carolina), p. 69:

What the liturgy of the hours was for monks of the Middle Ages, the discipline of family prayer was for the Puritans. The typical Puritan home of seventeenth-century England may not have looked much like the splendid cloisters of Cluny, but there was something in common. The daily life of both Catholic monk and Puritan family man was ordered by a rhythm of prayer and praise. With Cistercian solemnity, the Puritan household would gather around the dinner table, father, mother, children, a maiden aunt, perhaps servants or an apprentice. A metrical psalm was sung. Then the head of the house would open up a great leather bound family Bible and read a chapter. This finished, the father would lead in prayer. The Puritans, whether on the Connecticut frontier or in the heart of London, whether they were Cambridge scholars or Shropshire cotters, gave great importance to maintaining a daily discipline of family prayer.

Robert Burns, The Cotter's Saturday Night:

The chearfu' supper done, wi serious face,
They, round the ingle, form a circle wide;
The sire turns o'er, wi patriarchal grace,
The big ha'-Bible, ance his father's pride.
His bonnet rev'rently is laid aside,
His lyart haffets wearing thin and bare;
Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide,
He wales a portion with judicious care;
And 'Let us worship God!' he says with solemn air.

They chant their artless notes in simple guise,
They tune their hearts, by far the noblest aim;
Perhaps Dundee's wild-warbling measures rise,
Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name;
Or noble Elgin beets the heavenward flame,
The sweetest far of Scotia's holy lays:
Compar'd with these, Italian trills are tame;
The tickl'd ears no heart-felt raptures raise;
Nae unison hae they, with our Creator's praise.

The priest-like father reads the sacred page,
How Abram was the friend of God on high;
Or, Moses bade eternal warfare wage
With Amalek's ungracious progeny;
Or, how the royal Bard did groaning lie
Beneath the stroke of Heaven's avenging ire;
Or Job's pathetic plaint, and wailing cry;
Or rapt Isaiah's wild, seraphic fire;
Or other holy Seers that tune the sacred lyre.

Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme:
How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed;
How He, who bore in Heaven the second name,
Had not on earth whereon to lay His head;
How His first followers and servants sped;
The precepts sage they wrote to many a land:
How he, who lone in Patmos banished,
Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand,
And heard great Bab'lon's doom pronounc'd by Heaven's command.

Then kneeling down to Heaven's Eternal King,
The saint, the father, and the husband prays:
Hope 'springs exulting on triumphant wing.'
That thus they all shall meet in future days,
There, ever bask in uncreated rays,
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.

The Family Altar: Or, The Duty, Benefits, and Mode of Conducting Family Worship (1844), pp. 65-67:

Another, and perhaps better way, is to make the members of the family supply the commentary themselves. This evening, before it is so late that you are all sleepy, you sit round the table, each with his Bible open before him; and the passage selected is Isa 45.

'Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut.'

Father. The prophet has been foretelling the fall of Babylon, and here he names its conqueror. Mary, what is his name?

Mary. Cyrus.

Father. Does any one know how long after this it was before Cyrus made his appearance? Can no one tell? George, your Bible has got the date on its margin. Can you tell when Isaiah uttered this prophecy?

George. About 712 years before Christ.

Father. Now if you will look to the beginning of Ezra, you will see the first year of Cyrus set down there.

George. Before Christ 536.

Father. Then how long before had the Lord called Cyrus by his name?

George. Nearly 200 years.

Father. It is not very long since John and Henry finished the Life of Cyrus. Do you remember any facts which illustrate this prophecy?

Henry. The Lord says, 'I have holden his right hand to subdue nations before him.' Cyrus subdued the Lydians with their rich King Croesus, the Phrygians, the Phoenicians, and many more, as well as the Babylonians.

John. Yes; and when he took Babylon, 'the gates were not shut.' For the people were all drinking and diverting themselves, when he dried up the river; and had forgot to shut the gates at the end of the streets which open into the river—so that Cyrus had nothing to do but march down the dry channel, and then climb up the banks into the city.

Father. Very true—but do you remember nothing more about 'opening the two-leaved gates?'

Henry. O, yes! When the King of Babylon heard the uproar in the city, he sent to find out what was the matter, and when they were opening the palace gates, to let out the king's messenger, the Persians rushed in and killed the king.

Try to bring out some lesson that may be needed that very day. You read at morning worship that verse, 1 Cor 10:31.

'Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.'

Father. What does that mean?

John. That every thing, however little, we are to do it so as to please God.

Father. Quite so. It means that you children, when learning your lessons, or at play—that Sarah down stairs, and your father in his counting-room, should all remember that we have a Father in heaven, and should do every thing, the little things and the great things, in the way that pleases Him.

The passage which you mean to read with your family, read carefully over beforehand; and consider what are its most striking points and most useful lessons; and a little practice will make you a good family expositor.