Punctuality in Attending and Taking Part in Religious Meetings.
By Daniel T. Bourdeau
“AND let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another; and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.” Heb. 10: 24, 25. This language implies that there will be danger on the part of the church of neglecting to assemble for divine worship. It also strongly enjoins punctuality in meeting together to encourage one another in the heavenly direction. It is sufficient to know that the Lord enjoins this duty in order to cheerfully fulfill it; but aside from this, there are reasons in the nature of things why we should obey God in this particular. 1. This duty is promotive of the worship of God, in which it is reasonable and just for us to engage. In worshiping our Creator we only render him that which is due, and engage in that employment which brings into requisition our higher and nobler powers, in a natural and healthful manner, and which, while it glorifies the Author of our existence, and of all our blessings, also affords us the greatest happiness that we are capable of experiencing. We are naturally religious and worshiping beings. If we do not worship our Creator, we shall worship ourselves and other created objects; shall pervert our higher faculties in their use, and consequently our happiness will be incomplete; for no created object can serve as well, as a stimulus to our higher natures, and grant us as much pleasure and as great blessings in the use thereof, as the Being on which they naturally fasten, and to which they are adapted by creation—as the God of Heaven and earth, the creator and supporter of all things. 2. This duty is designed to keep our minds rightly balanced between secular and religious things, and destroy worldly-mindedness. The secular and selfish have been too much cultivated in us. Our selfish propensities and interests have so long taken the lead, that our spiritual natures have in a great measure lost their tone and become dormant, while we are greatly susceptible to, and have a great interest in, worldly things. We act too sluggishly toward God and heavenly things, and there needs to be a breaking away from the world and from self, to engage in the service of God. Our nature demands this, and God mercifully meets our wants by the duty enjoined in our text, and by giving us the Sabbath, prayer and social meetings, etc. We see in the Sabbath and in the cultivation of divine worship more than mere physical rest—we see the Lord drawing us out toward him, and giving exercise to our spiritual faculties. We contend, that aside from the reverence and worship that we owe to God daily, man, even in his state of innocency, needed one day in seven—and that the day fitly marked out by the Creator—to devote to the cultivation of his spiritual nature. Without this, man would have become selfish, and would have withered spiritually. Now if man in the beginning needed the Sabbath and Sabbath privileges to keep him from departing from God, how much more do we not need these now that mankind have so greatly forsaken the living God, and that we live in an age so characterized by selfishness and a lack of reverence for God and divine things—how much more, I say, do we not need these to bring us back to God and restore us to a right state of spirituality? It is on this principle, and because time is short and we have a great work of preparation before us, that we are exhorted to meet together and exhort one another, and so much the more as we see the day approaching. 3. In meeting together and engaging in divine worship, we exert a salutary influence over each other as social beings, and strengthen and encourage each other in overcoming. We also enjoy that happiness derived from the exercise of our social faculties with reference to the highest Object in the universe, that we could not experience if we remained by ourselves. Those greatly err who think there is no pleasure in religion. Those who are truly religious enjoy that pleasure that is of the highest type. Indeed, they are the only ones who can be said to be truly happy; for they alone properly exercise all their powers, and answer to the object for which they were made. They alone are in harmony with themselves, with their God, and with all around them that God has prepared for their felicity; and as they give to every object its just claims and true position, they in return reap the sweetest benefits from all around them, and constantly drink at the cup of joy and happiness, being filled with a sense of God’s unspeakable goodness and boundless love. Says the wise man, “Two are better than one.” This is true in religion, and in the subject before us, as well as in secular matters. If God had designed that his intelligent creatures should lead a hermit life, he would have made but one human being in the beginning, without a “help-meet.” We would have an isolated God in Heaven, and there would be no family of God in Heaven or on earth. No; God knew that we would need each other’s help, that we would exert a mighty influence over each other, and that our example would tell. The devil also knows this from his own experience, and therefore uses the mighty power of example in leading men away from God. And think of the various kinds of social gatherings that are gotten up to carry out his wicked designs. Alas! it is more natural for the carnal heart to follow the multitude in doing evil, to follow a bad example than to follow a good one. And shall we give the devil the whole ground in the use of this mighty weapon? By no means. We should rather “provoke one another unto love and good works,” agreeably to the injunction of our text, and, as our Saviour says, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.” And Paul enforces the same principle on another important subject when he says, “Wherefore show ye to them and before the churches the proof of your love.” 2 Cor. 8: 24. And the Bible everywhere abounds with such testimonies. We here see great advantage derived from exhortation, public prayer, singing, and other public exercises. We should not engage in these exercises to be seen or heard of men, but to lead others by our example in the path of duty and life. As we hear others exhort, and relate their experience, we are encouraged, and are stirred up to emulation, if we are deficient; and if we have a similar experience, if our conflicts, trials, victories, hope, joys, and resolutions, are the same, there is strength in the happy concurrence. As we also see each other’s wants, we are prepared to help one another. And the variety in the different leadings of mind and testimonies greatly adds to the interest; and so of public prayer. And, oh! the power of prayer when two, three, or more, are agreed on earth as touching one thing! The promise seems to be doubly sure to them, provided the works of Christ dwell in them and they ask according to the will of God, the thing they ask shall certainly be granted them of their Father in Heaven. Matt. 18: 19, etc. And how their faith is strengthened as they realize the verification of the promises. In this exercise we are in a special manner drawn near to the Lord and to each other. And none of my brethren and sisters will deny the cheering, elevating, and enlivening influence of appropriate, harmonious, and well-conducted singing.95It is not only important to the church, but it is interesting and attractive to all lovers of music and refinement, so much so that it has often been remarked that the singing makes up one half of the meeting. It has formed an important part of public worship in every age, and is enjoined in the New Testament, as follows: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Col. 3: 16. And in another place Paul adds, “Making melody in your heart to the Lord.” Eph. 5: 19, etc. In all these social, religious duties, “we bear our mutual woes, our mutual comforts share;” and in so doing we die to self. The manner in which God dispenses the gifts of his Spirit to his people in church capacity, giving one manifestation to one member, and another to another member, according to the natural ability of each, and so that each member will depend upon every other member, shows in the strongest possible manner the importance of worshiping together as social beings, and has a tendency to strongly unite the church in brotherly love. For how can we help drawing near to those whom God honors and makes a blessing to us? If every member enjoyed all the gifts and manifestations of the Spirit of God, then might we have a plausible excuse in living by ourselves. Though God does not depend upon numbers, yet when his people are together and all united, their strength in overcoming their foes is even beyond the proportionate increase of their numbers, as illustrated by the following scriptures: “And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight.” Lev. 26: 8. “How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up.” Deut. 32: 30. Now if their strength increased only according to the increase of their numbers, in the first of these texts one hundred would put only two thousand to flight instead of ten thousand, and in the second the power would increase only in a tenfold ratio; whereas the increase of strength, as seen in its results, is in a tenfold ratio; two put ten thousand to flight. Now we have many foes to contend with, and though we must at times fight single-handed, yet when we can get more help let us not refuse it, but let us secure it by rallying together against our common foes. In the light of these benefits, we can see the force of these words of Solomon: “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” Prov. 27: 17. If this is true in common things, it is much more so as Christian friends meet for worship. 4. But we are not simply cheered and strengthened by meeting with each other; the promise is that the Lord will also meet with us. For the Saviour says, “Where two or three are met together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matt. 18: 20. This, of course, is by his Spirit, the great agent by which he and the Father work for the salvation of men. And the good angels who existed from the beginning—not the spirits of the dead—are ever where the Spirit is manifested. No doctrine is plainer than that each child of God has at least one accompanying angel, and when the church meet, these meet with them, to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation. Heb. 1: 14. And when the Saviour says he will meet with his children, it means more than a common blessing of the Spirit of God, else there would be no special force to the promise; for the people of God always have more or less of the presence and aid of the Holy Spirit. No; Christ and God are present by the Spirit to work with power, guiding in the truth, comforting, convincing of sin, of righteousness, and of an impending judgment, showing of things to come, and powerfully helping those who are earnestly striving to overcome. What a scene! Men and angels meet together, and God and Christ meet with them by the Spirit; for whenever the Spirit is manifested, it comes directly from the throne, by the direct authority of those (the Father and the Son) who sit on it, and in connection with some of the millions upon millions of the heavenly host who wait around the throne, and are ever ready to go at God’s bidding on errands of mercy to fallen men; and so near is the Lord made by these agencies, that it is accounted as if he were present. Thus Heaven and earth are connected and brought near each other, and thus we may have a foretaste of heavenly bliss, as it were a Heaven on earth. What a privilege for poor, sinful mortals to enjoy. Can we disregard it without sustaining a great loss? Can we do it without evincing worldly-mindedness, a distance from God, and that we are so destitute of the sweets of true religion and of the rich blessings of the Spirit of God that we cannot appreciate them? Anciently, God chose to dwell in the temple at Jerusalem, and well might Israel look toward, and be strongly attached to, Jerusalem. Well might David in a prophetic strain say for the pious Jews at Babylon: “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.” Ps. 137: 5, 6. And may we have the same attachment for those places where God manifests his presence, glory, power, and mercy, to those who meet to wait upon him in truth.