Hints to Church-Goers by Hester Wolcott

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 11, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 10.

Hints to Church-Goers.

By Hester Wolcott

"WELL, Hugh, what was the sermon about?" inquired his father, who had been kept from church by a severe headache.

"Really, father, I don't know," replied the young man. "It was so very stupid, I gave up listening and thought of something else."

Mr. Ryegate looked disappointed.

"Did I never tell you, my son," said he, "what a great impression was once made on me by something a distinguished lawyer said to me? It was this, and I want you to remember it: Every time you go to hear a sermon or a lecture, and allow your thoughts to wander, you lose just so much of mental discipline and of the power of concentrating your mind. Why, my boy, you are studying for the law, and do you not know that that gift—the ability to keep your mind on a subject—is one of the greatest helps in your or any other profession? Here is a remark on the same subject which I clipped from a paper not long ago: 'The concentration of the mind on but one thing at a time is the great end of education. If this habit is persisted in, it is surprising what progress can be made.'"

"And Hugh," here interposed the sweet voice of his invalid aunt Eunice, "that is only the lowest, most selfish reason for listening to a sermon. I, too, have a quotation for you here in my scrap-book: 'Consider the sermon, no matter who may be the preacher, as a message to you from God, not as an effort of man.'"

"Papa," said Hugh's sister Dorothy, after a moment's pause, "don't you think it is just as important to concentrate your mind on the singing as on the sermon?"

"Certainly," replied Mr. Ryegate, "and on the prayers as well. No part of God's public worship can be slighted."

"Because," continued Dorothy, "I never can forget a lesson I received last summer. A girl stood next to me at evening service when the hymn,— 'Father, what'er of earthly bliss,' was being sung. As I could not sing on account of a cold, and she was looking over my book, I could not avoid hearing her. She was looking around the church most of the time, hardly resting her eyes on the words at all, and this, as nearly as I can remember it, is the way she sang the first verse:— 'Father, what'er of earthly bliss Thy a—a—will supplies, Accepted at thy a—a—a— Let this position rise.' Of course, she was not thinking of a word she sang. It shocked me so much that, whenever I find my thoughts or eyes wandering during the singing, I am always brought to myself by the recollection of that girl."

"A wholesome lesson," said Mr. Ryegate, as the bell rang for tea; "may we all remember it."—Hester Wolcott, in S. S. Times.