"
Perhaps the effects of grace were nowhere more conspicuous than in
the effects it produced in those great households already described.
Let us first look in on the hinderances they occasioned to a life of
piety. Yonan writes, in his journal of March 7, 1858, "Widow Hatoon
is a devout woman, and tries to erect the family altar in her house;
but it is very difficult. She often collects the readers in the
neighborhood on Sabbath morning, to read the Bible with her family.
I asked her, 'Do you pray with your children? They have no father;
they are left in your hands, and God will require them of you
again.' 'I do; but I find it very hard in our house: we are all in
one room, our beds very near each other, and there is no separate
chamber: when about to retire, I gather them together behind a
quilt, and talk and pray with them.'"
Again he writes, "Hatoon, the wife of Sarhoosh, is a member of a
large family. Three of the women in the house, and one of their
husbands, fear God; but the older members of the household are very
wicked, and even violent in their opposition. She is much troubled
about family prayer.
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