Why I Attend Church on Rainy Sabbaths.
1. Because God has blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it, making no exceptions for rainy Sabbaths. 2. Because I expect my minister to be there: I should be surprised if he were to stay at home for the weather. 3. Because, if his hands fall through weakness, I shall have great reason to blame myself, unless I sustain him by my prayers and my presence. 4. Because, by staying away, I may lose the sermon that would have done me great good, and the prayers which bring God's blessing. 5. Because, my presence is more needed on rainy Sabbaths when there are few, than on those days when the church is crowded. 6. Because, whatever station I hold in the church, my example must influence others: if I stay away, why may not they? 7. Because, on any important business bad weather does not keep me at home; and church attendance is, in God's sight, very important. See Heb. x. 25. 8. Because, among the crowds of pleasure-seekers, I see that no bad weather keeps even the delicate female from the ball, the party, or the concert. 9. Because, among other blessings, such weather will show me on what foundation my faith is built. It will prove how much I love Christ: true love rarely fails to meet an appointment. 10. Because, those who stay from church because it is too warm, or too cold, or too rainy, frequently absent themselves on fair Sabbaths. 11. Because, though my excuses satisfy myself, they still must undergo God's scrutiny; and they must be well-grounded to bear that. Luke xiv. 18. 12. Because there is a special promise, that where two or three meet together in God's name, he will be in the midst of them. 13. Because an avoidable absence from church is an infallible evidence of spiritual decay. Disciples first follow Christ at a distance, and then, like Peter, do not know him. 14. Because my faith is to be known by my self-denying Christian life, and not by the rise or fall of the thermometer. 15. Because such yielding to surmountable difficulties prepares for yielding to those merely imaginary, until thousands never enter a church and yet think they have good reasons for such neglect. 16. Because 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.—Feigned Excuses.