ALWAYS BE ON TIME by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 1, 1881

"ALWAYS BE ON TIME."

By Editor

WHO wants to hear a slack, dilatory preacher? Diligence is so often and so strongly inculcated in the word of God that we cannot believe that any person can be an accepted minister of Christ who disregards it. Some ministers will let trifling obstacles prevent their keeping their appointments; but after a few such instances their congregations have so far lost confidence in them that any appeal from them in behalf of promptness in the discharge of duty has lost its power. Sometimes there is seen a congregation which is notably slow in assembling—lagging along a half hour late; but the fault is almost always with the minister. We never knew a minister who was early at the place of meeting, and began promptly at the time appointed, and who was earnest in giving his message, who had to complain of a dilatory congregation.

In an article passing through our exchanges, we find the following description of a tardy minister:—

"At length, however, Mr. D— would put in his appearance, and, as is the custom, kneel down for a moment's private devotion, preparatory to public duties. Then he would take his seat and survey the audience, evidently to see if there were enough persons present to warrant him in proceeding with the services. This done, he would reach forward and take down on his lap the great new Bible and proceed to fumble its pages—'searching the Scriptures'—for a long while to find some suitable selection for the lessons of the day. Next, to the disgust and horror of a score or more of young ladies who, by considerable effort, had purchased that beautiful book, with its morocco and gilt, and presented it to the church on the day of its dedication, he would deliberately turn down the leaves, making the worse kind of 'dog's-ears' so as not to lose his place. This portion of divine service over, he would reach forward and grapple with the new and beautiful hymn-book in the same way. He would seemingly search it through and through for his hymns, and, as each one was found, down would go a leaf or two right in the middle, smoothed down with a good pressure with religious care. By this time all would be in readiness, the ecclesiastical cannon would be loaded and primed ready for firing off.

"But once more the audience must be surveyed from one side to the other, as if he were looking for some particular individual. Then he would rise and announce his first hymn. But alas! nearly or quite a half-hour had elapsed since the last stroke of the bell. The precious time had gone; the congregation had grown impatient; the freshness had died out of all who were there; the young ladies were mortified and nervous over the ill-usage to which the new Bible and hymn-book had been subjected, and, in short, everybody was in a non-devotional state of mind."