The Influence of Family Worship on Visitors, Guests, and Neighbors (1)

As “none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself,” it is right and seemly that this principle of devotion to the Lord should be impressed on the domestic organization. The Christian household is not for itself; by grace it may be as a city set on a hill. Family worship is a means of carrying out this influence.

Good and evil are constantly and rapidly propagated from house to house. What we denominate public opinion and public character are very much dependent on this agency. The dialect of towns and provinces is thus originated and fixed; modes of dress, and furniture, and living are carried from circle to circle; extravagance and vice circulate by the same channels; as do likewise political opinions, and even religious sentiments. Such are the action and reaction between man and man, that we never go into a neighbor’s house, or receive a neighbor into our own, without giving or receiving some imperceptible impression; and by the sum of these are our character and manners formed.

Families differ very widely in respect to their freedom of intercourse. While some are shut up within themselves, others keep open doors, and are frequented by numbers of visitors and guests. When the friend whom we cherish is under our roof, he should be made to discern the reigning principle of the place. In a dwelling where there is no worship he may be pardoned if he say, “Surely, the fear of God is not in this place”(Gen. 20:11). But in a religious household, even the casual visitor must sometimes be made sensible that there is a perpetual reference to another world. Suppose him to be under the Christian roof at the appointed hour of prayer. It is well in every such case if the service is not omitted or postponed. He may be a stranger to such solemnities; he may be even careless or profane. Yet when he sees the whole family gathered, with stillness and decorum; when he hears the Word of God read, and joins in the psalm of praise, and kneels with the rest in an act of worship, it will not be surprising if he be drawn to some new and serious reflection. The impression may be greater than we suppose, from the very influence of novelty. These acts of divine service will have a tendency to show him, that here, at least, is a circle in which God is continually recognized. If a householder himself, he will necessarily be led to contrast with this the condition of his own domestic affairs; and if he is a professing Christian living in neglect of this duty, he will doubtless experience a pang of conscience. Example is powerful: he may see his way more clear to make his own habitation a house of prayer.

“Some years ago,” says Mr. Hamilton of London, “an Irish wanderer, his wife, and his sister, asked a night’s shelter in the cabin of a pious schoolmaster. With the characteristic hospitality of his nation, the schoolmaster made them welcome. It was the hour for evening worship, and when the strangers were seated, he began by reading slowly and solemnly the second chapter of the Epistle to Ephesians. The young man sat astonished. The expressions, ‘dead in trespasses and sins,’ ‘children of wrath,’ ‘walking after the course of this world,’ were new to him. He sought an explanation. He was told that this is God’s account of the state of man by nature. He felt that it was exactly his own state. ‘In this way I have walked from my childhood. In the service of the god of this world we have come to your house.’ He was on the way to a fair where he intended to use a quantity of counterfeit money. But God’s Word had found him out. He produced his store of coin and begged his host to cast it into the fire, and asked anxiously if he could not obtain the Word of God for himself. His request was complied with and next morning with the new treasure, he who had now no errand to the fair, returned to his own home. Perhaps by this time the pious schoolmaster has met his guest within the gates of the heavenly city, outside of which are thieves, and whatsoever maketh a lie. But I cannot enumerate all the conversions which have occurred at the church in the house.”

“A few years ago,” says the same writer, “an English gentleman visited America, and spent some days with a pious friend. He was a man of talent and accomplishments, but an infidel. Four years afterward he returned to the same house, a Christian. They wondered at the change, but little suspected when and where it had originated. He told them that when he was present at their family worship, on the first evening of his former visit, and when after the chapter was read, they all knelt down to pray, the recollection of such scenes in his father’s house long years ago rushed on his memory, so that he did not hear a single word. But the occurrence made him think, and his thoughtfulness ended in his leaving the howling wilderness of infidelity and finding a quiet rest in the salvation wrought out by Jesus Christ.”

By this pleasing incident we are led to observe that the influence of family worship is peculiarly great upon guests who abide for some days or weeks in a Christian house, even if they have been brought up at home without such privileges. The beauty of holiness and the pleasantness of the ways of God are silently brought before their contemplations. We could name instances, in which such a sojourn in a pious family has made deep impressions on worldly minds. This ought surely to rest on the thoughts of Christian householders, in the way of duty. We are, perhaps, ready enough to make our guests welcome, to provide for their lodging and refreshment, and to invite friends for their entertainment; but besides this, we owe a duty to their souls. It ought not for a moment to be thought possible, that a dear friend or relative should stay weeks, or even days, in our house, without receiving some spiritual advantage. How often have the visits of careless young persons to godly families been made instrumental to their salvation!

Dr. James W. Alexander (1804–1859), eldest son of the renowned Archibald Alexander, wrote many volumes on practical Christian themes, including Plain Words to a Young Communicant (1854) and Thoughts on Preaching (1864). This article is drawn from his Thoughts on Family Worship (1847).

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