he
social dinner in the home? The answer depends on the purpose of the
grace. Is it not that in our own group we may have the consciousness of
the presence of God? When the meal is that of our own group with a
friend or two, we bring the friends into the group and the act of family
worship is maintained. Usually this is the case. So it will be when the
group is entirely at one in this desire: the asking of grace will be
perfectly natural. But when the group is a large one, when the sense of
family unity is lost, or when the observance would seem unnatural, it is
better to omit it. Grace in large gatherings often seems an uncovering
of the sacred aspects of the home life.

2. _Bedtime prayers._--What of children's bedtime prayers? Many can
remember them. To many the most natural, helpful time for formal periods
of prayer is in the quiet of the bedroom just before retiring. But there
is a grave danger in establishing a regular custom of bedside prayers
for children, a danger manifest in the very form of certain of these
prayers, as

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

It is as though the child were saying, "The day is ended during which I
have been able to take care of myself, the hours of helpless sleep
begin, and I ask God to take care of me through the terrors of the
night." For some children, at least, the night has been made terrible by
that thought; they have been led to feel that the day was safe and
beautiful, but that the night was so dangerous and fearful that only the
great God could keep them through it, and it was an open question
whether their prayer for that keeping would be heard.

One must avoid also the notion that such prayers are part of a price
paid, a system of daily taxation in return for which heaven furnishes us
police protection.

The best plan seems to be to encourage children to pray, to establish in
them the habit of closing the day with quiet, grateful thoughts, to
watch especially that the prayers learned in early life do not distort
the child's thoughts of God, and to make the evening prayer an
opportunity for the child to express his desires to God his Father and
Friend. Having done this, as the children grow up it is best to leave
them free to pray when and where they will. One may properly encourage
the evening, private prayer; but the child ought to have the feeling
that it is not obligatory, that it must grow out of his desire to talk
with God,