Attendance on Worship

Set it before you, as a duty for life, to give regular and decorous attendance on the worship of the sanctuary, every Lord’s Day. Let not your place be vacant. Consider punctuality in attendance as one of your duties to Christ. It is not superfluous to say, let your demeanour be reverent. Be not one of those young comm anicants — such alas! there are — who, instead of a holy silence, spend the moments before the actual commencement of the service, in conversation. Even though the words were of spiritual things, this is not the place or occasion for them. What preparative is so seemly, as the solemn stillness and hushed expectation of a whole assembly! It must be for a ramentation that this is wanting, in some of )ur charches. Aid your pastor, by kind words and by prayer, rather than by flattery, )r by attempts to disparage others in his betialf. The best friends of a pastor are not those who visit him with adulation, and fondly suppose that the precious Gospel can ‘do them good from no lips but his. Therefore be not unwilling sometimes to see another in his place. Consent that the gifts which are constantly yours, should now and then be enjoyed by others. Do not pay him the equivocal compliment of choosing the occasions of his absence to leave your oivri church. Hearken to the lessons which he teaches, and do your part to carry out in practice all his scriptural plans. Cultivate his acquaintance, and while you hold his time to be precious, do not doubt his willingness at all seasons to converse with you on the concerns of the soul. In the worship of God’s house, remember that you are more than a listener or a witness. Bear your part, mentally in prayer, and vocally in praise.