The Life of Duty, v. 2: A year's plain sermons on the Gospels or EpistlesWilmot-Buxton, H. J. (Harry John)
Religion
The Life of Duty, v. 2: A year's plain sermons on the Gospels or Epistles
Wilmot-Buxton, H. J. (Harry John)
Bible. Epistles -- Commentaries; Bible. Gospels -- Commentaries; Sermons, English
Again, we show our thankfulness to God by giving Him a hearty worship
in His Church. I wonder how many people know exactly why they come to
Church at all. Some say they come to get good. That is mere
selfishness. Some say they come because it is respectable. Yes, but
worthless, unless it means something more. Others would tell us, if
they were quite honest, that they come to Church because they want to
stand well in the good opinion of the Clergyman, or with the Squire.
This is sheer hypocrisy. There is only one true reason for coming to
Church,--the fact that we love God, and are grateful to Him for all His
mercies, and want to show it. We should come to Church to _worship_
God with the best member that we have; we should come with the
feeling--"I was glad when they said unto me we will go into the House
of the Lord;" "I love the place, O Lord, wherein Thine honour dwells."
All slovenliness in the performance of the service, all irreverence, or
signs of inattention, and indifference, are tokens of a want of
thankfulness. We should get this thought fixed in our minds when we
enter Church,--I have come here to-day mainly to thank God for His
great goodness to me, and to all men. I have come also to ask for
certain things, the forgiveness of my sins if I am truly penitent, the
help and strength of the Holy Spirit to renew my life; I have come to
ask for those things, which are requisite and necessary as well for the
body as the soul, and I seek instruction in the lessons, the Gospel and
Epistle, and the sermon. But the chief object of my presence here is
the worship, the glory, the honour of God. And so I will give Him the
best I have. If you once grasped that fact, my brothers, we should
have no silent lips, no sleepy eyes, no lounging bodies, no irreverent
conduct in God's Holy Church. Remember God is present in His Church,
therefore we must behave with the greatest humility and reverence. In
some Churches you will see the people obstinately sitting throughout
the service, but if one of the Royal Family enters, they all rise up.
Now, if we remember that the King of kings, and Lord of lords, the only
Ruler of princes, is present, we shall stand up to do Him honour. It
is defrauding God of the honour due to Him when we refuse to show Him
marks of reverence. Do you know that in the House of Lords it is
always the rule for members to bow to the throne, although it is empty,
as being the seat of the Majesty of England. We bow to the Altar as
being the throne of the Most High God, the place where He visits His
people in the Blessed Sacrament. There we should honour and reverence
God, in whose presence we are, with the best members that we have. Our
heads should bow in humility before the God of Heaven and earth. Our
knees should bend in adoration before Him who is worshipped by the
Heavenly Host. Our eyes should be fixed upon our Prayer Books that
they may not wander. Our thoughts should be centred on the fact that
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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