Attendance on Week-Day Services 2

Next Part Attendance on Week-Day Services 3

1. It will be an indication of the depth, and indeed of the reality of your piety; and furnish delightful evidence of the sincerity of your faith. To go with the multitude that keep holy the sabbath, and enter with joy into the courts of the Lord, is far less conclusive on these points, than the practice I now recommend. Many who are totally destitute of spiritual religion, do this. Even they would not incur the reproach of profaning the day of God, by devoting it to worldly business or pleasure. What proof then is it that you love the habitation of God's house, and take pleasure in his service, if you are there on those days only, which you could not, with the smallest regard to reputation, spend any where else?

Where can you go on the sabbath, but to the sanctuary? What can you do with your time on that day, but employ it in this manner? This is but a weak proof of love either to God, his worship, or his saints, to give to them only those hours which could not be otherwise engaged. But to feel such a love as makes you willing and pleased to take a portion of time from business, recreation, and self-indulgence—to hear the word of life, to breathe the air of devotion, and enjoy the communion of saints, seems one evidence, at least, of a heart renewed by grace.

2. What a sweet and tranquilizing occupation is it to the Christian pilgrim, weary of the cares and perplexities of life, tired with the heat and burden of the day, and harassed by the sins and follies of his fellow creatures, thus to refresh himself in the cool of the evening, with the calm of the house of prayer, the hallowed fellowship of his companions in travel to eternity, and the communion of his God. How composing to his ruffled spirit, and how cheering to his jaded soul, to wander along the banks of that river whose streams make glad the city of God, and lose in its soft murmurs the toils of the day. How agreeable to close the ledger and open the Bible; to lose the hum and jargon of commerce in the songs of devotion; to exchange the society of the worldly and the wicked for that of the righteous; and after having all day looked at seen and temporal things, then to look beyond the narrow and cloudy horizon at unseen and eternal things! Is not such a duty a rich privilege also?

3. It helps to perpetuate the impressions, and to preserve the benefits of the sabbath. How many, at the close of the day of rest, think with a sigh on the coming morning, when the short and sacred respite from toil and labor will be over, the world with all its thorny cares return, and the solemn musings, the devout aspirations, and the deep impressions of the holy day be ended and dissipated. How desirable is it, then, to keep alive the feeling, and purposes, and plans of spiritual improvement which were called up by the sermon and the sanctuary. "Alas," says the Christian, "that when raised by the solemnities of public worship on the Lord's day to an unusual height of devotional feeling, and enrapt into something like a joy unspeakable and full of glory, by the exhibition of the truth as it is in Jesus; alas, that all this is to be followed, disturbed, and destroyed, by the secular pursuits, cares, and anxieties of the next morning! Oh that it were always sabbath!"

So it will be in heaven—and even upon earth, the sabbath day views and feelings may be rendered more abiding and influential than they are, by a spiritual attendance on the week-day services. Some ministers recapitulate the leading thoughts of one or two of the discourses delivered on the preceding Sunday, a practice calculated not only to instruct the mind, but to call up the emotions and revive the enjoyment which the first and full delivery of them awakened.

4. It checks the growth of worldly-mindedness, and tends to keep down the engrossing power of seen and temporal things.Necessarily occupied through the day, and from day to day, in attention to earthly things; with not only the hands full of worldly business, but the heart also; with the mind kept on the full stretch on the subject of profit and loss; and thus led, almost without choice or design, to form an over estimate of the importance of such matters, until the soul of the professor resembles his shop, and is full of the din, and solicitude, and eagerness of trade—how salutary, and how admonitory it is to quit for an hour in the evening this busy scene, to look at other objects, to engage in other pursuits, and to call up other feelings—and those all of a holy, heavenly, and eternal nature. How calculated is such an exercise, by checking the otherwise ceaseless tread of worldly thoughts and feelings in the soul, to prevent the heart from being beaten into that hard, cold, still, and barren worldly-mindedness, which characterizes the devoted follower of mammon.

How often, as the believer, after a day's worldly occupation, during which he has been much excited by alternate hopes and fears, has sat listening to a sermon on the vanity of earthly things, and the glory of heavenly ones—has he felt grieved, astonished, and humbled, that he should allow his mind to think so much of terrestrial objects, and so little of celestial things. How often has he there seen and felt the unsoundness and sinfulness of some customs and maxims, which have been admitted into the commercial ethics of modern times, and has determined to abandon them. How often has he been stopped from making a bargain, and fulfilling a purpose, which, had they been completed, would have brought guilt upon his conscience, whatever property they would have placed in his pocket.

"No snare like the world—for catching away human hearts from the concerns of their eternity. How soon do we get entangled in its works, and become the easy prey of the devil! But to frequent the house of God—to break in upon worldly avocations by oft repeated visits there—is the sure method of disentangling the perplexed spirit. Go to the summit of a lofty mountain, and looking round on the spectacle of sublimity which the landscape presents, will it be possible at that moment to feel the burden of cares which lies in the almost invisible locality below? Will not all be forgotten in the contemplation of grand and magnificent objects? So here—'the hill of God is a high hill, as the hill of Bashan,' and the spirit that places itself but a little while on its summit, throws off its burden, and prepares for flight. Thus is the mind refreshed, and returns to the duties of life every way better prepared to discharge them than before."

5. It tends to elevate the tone, and invigorate the strength of our piety. What we want, is not only morality, though there can be no piety without this, and the morality of a Christian should be far above that of the worldling, for it should be rigid, unbending, minute, generous, self-denying. But this is not all he should do, and be, and exhibit. He should not only be the man of honor towards his fellow men—but the man of devotion, of spirituality, of piety, towards God. He should have the religion of the closet, in association with that of the shop. His heart should point God-ward and heaven-ward; and the way to this is to be much in devotional exercises. We cannot ascend into the higher, and purer, and less cloudy regions of our holy religion; we cannot live by faith; we cannot see the glory of the Lord; we cannot enter into the cleft rock, and see Jehovah pass by; we cannot thus find heaven begun upon earth—without taking pains, and making sacrifices, and giving ourselves to this matter, as of vast importance to us.

We must not content ourselves with just as much time devoted to religious exercises, and just as much attention given to public worship, as will quiet conscience, and satisfy the demand of others as worldly as ourselves; but we must give ourselves to these things; we must sow beside all waters; we must be content to give up a little more of the minding of the flesh than some do, who are professors notwithstanding, in order that we may be more devoted in minding the things of the Spirit. It is the diligent soul that is made fat; the soul that feeds well, with keen appetite, and at regular intervals—on the provision of God's house, even of his holy temple.

6. It is an encouragement and a stimulus to others. What is beneficial to us, is equally so to them. They can no more neglect the week-day opportunities without suffering loss, than we can. If we are faithful to ourselves, and are diligent in the ways of the Lord, we shall probably be the means of drawing them with us and after us. While, on the other hand, as evil example is still more contagious than good, our negligence will make them negligent. Often times one careless professor going home to enjoy himself, or going to take his walk in the country, or continuing unnecessarily long at his business—has been met, and has felt reproved, by the example and the words of another, on his way to the house of God—the reproof in some cases has had its desired effect, and the carelessness of one has been removed by the earnestness of the other. On the other hand, how ready have younger Christians been to plead the example of older ones.

Christians are not sufficiently aware of the importance of example, and of their responsibility for their influence. How would piety flourish in churches, and all the glowing beauties of holiness spread over them, and shine out from them, if all their members were to give themselves up to a diligent, constant, and spiritual attendance on week-day services of religion!

7. How it encourages the heart of the faithful pastor to see his flock then gathered around him, valuing his instructions so highly as to sacrifice a portion of that time which they could otherwise spend in business or pleasure—in order to attend these week-day services.

8. What a proof is it to the world of a Christian's earnestness in the pursuit of salvation; and what an admonition to the multitude who are so intent upon the pursuit of wealth and nothing more, as to grudge even the sabbath to the service of religion, and are ever exclaiming, when will it be over, that we may buy, and sell, and get gain? What an impressive voice does a large congregation, assembled on a week-day evening for religious instruction, send forth to the neighborhood in which it is found, saying, "Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you."

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