Sec. 6.  METHODS OF FAMILY WORSHIP

1. Grace at meals.—­Shall we say grace at meals?  To assent because it is the custom, or because it was so done in our childhood’s home, may make an irreligious mockery of the act.  Perhaps, too, there are some who even hesitate to omit the grace from an unspoken fear that the food might harm them without it.  All have heard grace so muttered, or hurriedly and carelessly spoken, void of all feeling and thought, that the act was almost unconscious, a species of “vain repetition.”

There are two outstanding aspects of the asking of a blessing—­the desire to express gratitude for the common benefits of life, and the expression of a wish, with the recognition of its realization, that at each meal the family group might include the Unseen Guest, the Infinite Spirit of God.  That wish lifts the meal above the dull level of satisfying appetites.  Just as, in good society, we seek to make the meal much more than an eating of food, “a feast of reason and a flow of soul,” so does this act make each meal a social occasion lifted toward the spiritual.  The one thought at the beginning, the thought of the reality of the presence of God, and of the nearness of the divine to us in our daily pleasures, gives a new level to all our thinking.

How shall we say grace, or “ask a blessing”?  First, with simplicity and sincerity.  Avoid long, elaborate, ornate phrases.  It is better to err in rhetoric than in feeling and reality.  The sonorous grace may soon become stilted and offensive.  It is better to say in your own words just what you mean, for that will help all, even to the youngest, to mean what they say with you.

Vary the form of petition.  Sometimes let it be the silent grace of the Quakers; sometimes children will enjoy singing one of the old four-line stanzas, as

    Be present at our table, Lord,
    Be here and everywhere adored;
    These mercies bless and grant that we
    May feast in Paradise with thee.

One might use the first three of the following lines for breakfast and the last three at another meal: 

    For the new morning with its light,
    For rest and shelter of the night,
      We thank the heavenly Father.

    For rest and food, for love and friends,
    For everything his goodness sends,
      We thank the heavenly Father.[26]

or

    When early in the morning the birds lift up their songs,
    We bring our praise to Jesus to whom all praise belongs.

One especially needs to guard against the purely dietetic grace, the one that only asks that the deity will aid digestion, as that form so often heard, “Bless these mercies to our use."[27]