p. 7 | Why I Go to Church on Rainy Sabbaths

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 31, 1914

Why I Go to Church on Rainy Sabbaths

By Frances R. Havergal

I ATTEND church on rainy Sabbaths because,—

1. God has blessed the Lord’s Day and hallowed it, making no exceptions for rainy Sabbaths.

2. I expect my minister to be there. I should be surprised if he were to stay at home for the weather.

3. If his hands fall through weakness, I shall have reason to blame myself, unless I sustain him with my prayers and my presence.

4. By staying away I may lose the prayers which may bring God’s blessing, and the sermon which would have done me great good.

5. My presence is more needful on Sabbaths when there are few than on those days when the church is crowded.

6. Whatever station I may hold in the church, my example may influence others. If I stay away, why may not they?

7. On any important business rainy weather does not keep me at home; and church attendance, in God’s sight, is very important.

8. Among the crowds of pleasure seekers, I see that no weather keeps the delicate woman from the ball or party.

9. Among other blessings, such weather will show me on what foundation my faith is built. It will prove how much I love Jesus. True love rarely fails to keep an appointment.

10. Those who stay away from church because it is too warm, or too cold, or too rainy, will frequently absent themselves on fair Sabbaths.

11. Though my excuses may satisfy myself, they still must undergo the scrutiny of God; and they must be well grounded to bear that. Luke 14:18.

12. There is a special promise that when two or three meet together in God’s name, he will be in the midst of them.

13. An avoidable absence from church is an infallible evidence of spiritual decay. Disciples who first follow Christ at a distance, afterwards, like Peter, do not know him.

14. My faith is to be shown by my self-denying Christian life, and not by the rise and fall of the thermometer.

15. Such yielding to surmountable difficulties prepare for yielding to those merely imaginary, until thousands never enter a church, and yet think they have good reason for such neglect.

16. I know not how many more Sabbaths God may give me, and it would be a poor preparation for my first Sabbath in heaven to have slighted my last Sabbath on earth.—Frances R. Havergal.