1. We should be regular in availing ourselves of the means of grace
which the Church affords. If it be the home of worship, of teaching,
of fellowship, and of work, it is a home from which we should not make
ourselves strangers. There is a blessing to be found there, and we are
remiss if we do not seek it. Every young man should be a regular
attendant on the ministrations of religion. He should be so (_a_) for
his own sake, and (_b_) for the sake of others. He may perhaps have at
times the feeling, I can get my worship in the fields and my teaching
from my books; I can get along without the Church. But surely he
undervalues the promised blessing to those who "forsake not the
assembling of (themselves) together." Surely he undervalues the power,
and strength, and comfort, that come from association with believers.
But even if he could get on without the Church, is he not bound to
consider others? Has any man in a world like ours, where all are bound
together and are dependent on one another, any right to consider as to
whether he can get on alone? Is he not bound to consider those around
him? We must all feel that it would be a great calamity to a nation
were public worship given up, churches closed, and Sunday made a day of
recreation. But those who absent themselves from public worship are
undoubtedly using their influence in that direction. If it be right
for them to absent themselves, it must be right also for others to
imitate them, and it is easy to see how disastrous generally such
imitation would be.
Especially should every young man become _a communicant_ at the table
of the Lord. Besides the many spiritual benefits of which the
sacrament is the channel to every devout believer, it is an ordinance
which is particularly helpful to the young. It leads them to make a
decision, and decision gives strength. From the moment they
deliberately and solemnly make their choice, there is a power imparted
to their life that it had not before. In the life of the well-known
Scotsman, Adam Black, it is said that shortly after he went up to
London he became a communicant in the Church to which he belonged. "I
found," he says, "this step gave a stability to my character, and
proved a defence from follies and vices, especially as a young man in
London, entirely my own master, with no one to guide or check me."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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