Family worship should be conducted reverently, earnestly, and simply. It is then that the little ones will receive their first impressions and form their initial conceptions of the Lord God. Great care needs to be taken lest a false idea be given them of the divine character, and for this the balance must be preserved between dwelling upon His transcendency11 and immanency,12 His holiness and His mercy, His might and His tenderness, His justice and His grace. Worship should begin with a few words of prayer invoking God’s presence and blessing. A short passage from His Word should follow, with brief comments thereon. Two or three verses of a Psalm may be sung. Close with a prayer of committal into the hands of God. Though we may not be able to pray eloquently, we should earnestly. Prevailing prayers are usually brief ones. Beware of wearying the young ones.
The advantages and blessings of family worship are incalculable. First, 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. Personal piety in the home is a most influential means, under God, of conveying piety on the little ones. Children are largely creatures of imitation, loving to copy what they see in others.
“He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments” (Ps. 78:5-7). How much of the dreadful moral and spiritual conditions of the masses today may be traced back to the neglect of their fathers in this duty? How can those who neglect the worship of God in their families look for peace and comfort therein? Daily prayer in the home is a blessed means of grace for allaying those unhappy passions to which our common nature is subject. Finally, family prayer gains for us the presence and blessing of the Lord. There is a promise of His presence that is peculiarly applicable to this duty (see Matt. 18:19-20). Many have found in family worship that help and communion with God that they sought for with less effect in private prayer.
From Family Worship, available from Chapel Library.
7 means of grace – Any activities within the fellowship of the church that God uses to give more grace to Christians: teaching of the Word, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, prayer for one another, godly fellowship, and others. (Grudem, Systematic Theology, 951)
8 piety – godliness.
9 imprecation – curse.
10 This quote has been attributed to Thomas Brooks (1608-1680) in Joel R. Beeke and Mark Jones, A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012), 876; William Jay (1769-1853), Morning Exercises for the Closet for Every Day of the Year (Baltimore: Plaskitt & Co. and Armstrong & Plaskitt, 1833), 14; William Burns (1769-1859) in “A Pastoral Letter to Heads of Families on Family Worship” in The Scottish Christian Herald, Vol. 3, No. 116, 305; and, Augustus Toplady (1740-1778) in “Excellent Passages from Eminent Persons,” The Works of Augustus M. Toplady, Vol. 4 (London; Edinburgh: William Baynes and Son; H. S. Baynes, 1825), 418.
11 transcendency – God’s distinction from His creation and His sovereign exaltation over it. He is not part of the universe, but is self-contained and self-existent.
12 immanency – God’s indwelling His creation and its processes; in balance with His transcendency, God is very near to all of us.
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