By J.R. Miller
Besides the help received in private devotion (prayer and Scripture reading,) every young Christian needs the aid which the public services of the church are designed to afford. We were not made to live alone. We lean upon and cling to each other "like trailing flowers which grow by interlacing." The necessities of our being require companionship. The mind grows and develops best--in contact with other minds. One log will not burn--if it is by itself. In a sense--God himself is all we need, and in communion with him, every need of our soul is met. Yet his glory is so great, and his splendor is so dazzling--that we need human hands to bring the divine blessing down to us. Besides, the heart does not rise to its highest fervor, in the solitude of the closet. Our warmest feelings of devotion are drawn out--when we unite with others in associated service. The consciousness that a whole congregation of worshipers around us, is moved by the same emotion that we experience, whether it is gratitude, confession of sin, or prayer for mercy--deepens the emotion in us!
Then there are special promises to those who unite in the services of God's worship. In times of great spiritual defection, particular mention was made by the prophet, of those "who feared the Lord and spoke often one to another." It was said that "the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written in his presence, concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name." Jesus gave a special promise of answer to prayer--when his people shall agree in asking; implying that, as added strands make the cable stronger, so added hearts make the supplication more availing. He also gave a definite promise of his own presence--where even two or three of his disciples shall meet together in his name!
There is no doubt, that there are blessings which we can obtain in the public worship, where many hearts mingle their homage and their prayers--which we cannot find in secret. Private devotion is indispensable and cannot be replaced by the public services; yet, in addition to all the aid we can get in our pious life in secret prayer and Bible reading--we need, and cannot afford to neglect, public worship. To do so is to deprive ourselves of one of the greatest helps in Christian life.
We can better understand the nature of the help we may receive from the church services--if we have definite conceptions of the objects of public worship.
One object, is to honor God--by bringing to him our heart's homage. This element of worship is one that needs to be strongly emphasized. Many people have the impression that the sermon is the most important--even the all important--feature of the service. Too little is made of the devotional part. The error is a grave one. In the divine intention, the primary object in the public service--is to worship God--to bring to him our heart's love and adoration, our gratitude and our confession, and to renew before him our personal consecration.
Another object in the public service is instruction. The minister has been trained to be an expounder of the Word of God. He has spent years in preparation for his work. He devotes the golden hours of every day to special study and thought, so as to be able each week to bring to his people, and clearly and impressively put before them--some important truth of Holy Scriptures. The people come to the church to be instructed in things concerning God's character and will-- and concerning their own needs and duties.
A third object in the public service is spiritual growth and nourishment. We learn about God's character--that we may adore and worship him more fervently. We learn about God's will--that we may obey him more implicitly. We learn about God's promises--that we may trust him more confidently. We learn about our duty--that we may practice it more faithfully. The object of worship, also, so far as its influence upon ourselves is concerned--is the spiritual blessing and strength which come from communion with God and the opening of the heart, in the warmth of his presence.
These public services are designed, therefore, and are adapted--to impart help to the sincere worshiper. No one can spend an hour in God's presence, looking up into his face and occupied with thoughts of him to the exclusion of worldly thoughts--and not experience a cleansing of heart and a kindling of soul which will prove a great enriching of the life! All that is holy in us--receives quickening and new impulse, in such an atmosphere. All that is evil in us--is checked and repressed.
The influence of fellowship in worship with other Christians--is also of great profit. We are lifted up on the tide of spiritual emotion. Our affections are purified. The bonds of Christian love are strengthened.
There is the benefit, also, derived from the instruction in God's Word which we receive. Now we are warned against some danger; now some sin in us is rebuked; now it is a word of comfort which comes to cheer us in sorrow; now it is a new thought about God, the unveiling to us of an attribute in his character, which draws out in us fresh adoration and love; now it is a call to some neglected duty.
Besides all these benefits, there is the renewal of spiritual strength which we find in the house of God, "Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." Life consumes our vigor. Its duties and struggles exhaust us. The weekly services bring us again into communion with God--and our emptied pitchers are refilled. No one can spend an hour in God's house in true and sincere worship--and not be better and stronger for it for many days.
How to get from the church services, the help they have to give to us--is one of the most important practical questions in Christian life.
It is quite possible to attend these services, even with regularity--and yet receive but little spiritual profit. There is no holy atmosphere in the house of God--which is necessarily medicinal or nutritious to our soul. There is no automatic implantation of grace into our lives--which goes on while we sit with hard hearts in our soft pew in the sanctuary, and dream through a service. Forms of worship, whether plain or elaborate, are empty and worthless--without the sincere homage and faith of a loving heart. They carry up to God--just what we put into them! They bring to us from God--just what with prayer and faith, we draw out of them.
Two people may sit side by side, and take part outwardly in the exercises of devotion--yet from one there will rise to God pure incense and an acceptable offering; and from the other the empty mockery of a heartless and formal service! The one worshiper goes away, spiritually strengthened and blessed; and the other carries away nothing but an empty hand, and a cold, unblessed heart. Whatever the forms of public service may be, the heart must be truly engaged--or the worship will be vain and unprofitable!
To make this chapter as helpful as possible to young Christians, a few definite practical suggestions are offered.
To begin with, thoughtful preparation for church services, will greatly increase their profitableness. The very best ordinary preparation, is a season of private devotion before going to the house of God. The heart is thus cleansed of its worldly thoughts; is opened and warmed toward God; and is in a suitable condition to enter earnestly and reverently into the acts of public worship.
A reverent approach towards our Christian meetings, further aids to blessing in the services. We should at least remember--that we are going to meet God! We should also know and consider well--the purpose on which we are going--to worship God, and receive help and sustenance for our own spiritual life. We should also have our expectations aroused in anticipation of communion with God and his people, and our heart eager with desire for the holy meeting.
Many people enter God's house with as little thoughtfulness and seriousness--as if it were a concert or a literary entertainment which they had come to hear. Such people are not prepared either to render acceptable worship--or to receive needed help in the service. We shall find in God's house and in his ordinances--just what we are spiritually prepared to find. God must be in the heart--or we shall not see God in the exercises of worship. We shall never find in the sanctuary, that which we do not earnestly seek. If we enter careless and indifferent, with no spirit of devotion--we shall carry away no blessing. If we come with longing and earnest desire to meet God and lay our burdens at his feet--to rest and refresh ourselves in his presence--and to receive new strength from him for duty--we shall find that all we wish for!
Another condition of help--is earnest personal interest in each part of the service. There is no automatic blessing, in our merely being among true worshipers, and in the presence of God. A throng was close about Jesus one day--but only one of them was healed; she was healed because she reached out her trembling finger, and in faith touched the hem of Christ's garment. The multitude thronged Jesus--but only one touched him in faith. This situation is repeated every Sunday, in every congregation. While many crowd close around Christ, only those will receive blessing, who by faith, touch the hem of his robe.
Even in public services, we do not worship in companies--but as individuals. One sitting close beside us may hold delightful communion with God and receive rich spiritual refreshment, while our heart remains like a dry, parched field; in the midst of the showers, yet receiving not one drop of rain from the full, overhanging clouds. No matter what others may or may not do or receive, our business in God's house is personal. There is blessing there for us if we will take it. Suppose the minister is a little dull and the service a little wearisome; yet is not God present? The blessing is not in the minister nor in the service--but in God himself, who is ready always to dispense to the tired and the hungry the rest and the bread they crave.
Then, after the service, we should go away as thoughtfully and reverently as we came. The custom which prevails in some churches, of lingering a moment in silent prayer after the benediction, is very beautiful and impressive. Let the last minute be spent looking into God's face, for a parting benediction.
Church aisle sociability, so often commended, no doubt has its disadvantages and its grave dangers. We may without spiritual harm greet one another cordially and affectionately in quiet tones as we pass out--but too often the conversation runs either into criticism of the preacher and the sermon--or off on trivial and worldly themes. The consequence is, that the good seed sown--is picked up and devoured by the birds, before it has had time to take root. It would be better if we would go away, quietly pondering the great thoughts which the church service has suggested to us, seeking to deepen in our heart the impressions made, and to assimilate in our life the truths of God's Word which have fallen upon our ears.
From the church gate back again to the closet whence we set out is the best walk to take after the service has closed. A few moments of secret prayer will carry the blessings of the sanctuary so deep into our hearts that thereafter they will be part of our very life.
A special word may fitly be spoken of the Lord's Supper and of the way in which we can get spiritual help from it. In the minds of many people, a great deal of unnecessary mystery hangs about this ordinance. That which sets it apart from other services, is that it is a memorial feast appointed by Christ himself, in which our thoughts and faith are helped by visible elements which represent to us the great spiritual facts of our redemption.
The help which this service gives, is not different from that received from other ordinances, unless it be that the use of the visible symbols brings Christ and his sacrificial work more vividly before our dull eyes, than where words alone are used to picture the same truths. In this sense it is a greater aid to faith than a sermon or a hymn; but, as in all worship, so in the Lord's Supper, the blessing comes, not from the ordinance itself--but from Christ.
How, then, can we get from the Lord's Supper--the help which it has to give? Only by finding the way to Christ--and submitting our heart to the tender influences of his love.
The Lord's Supper is a memorial; we should remember Christ--as we come to his table. It is a memorial especially of Christ's sufferings and death. We should recall his humiliation, his obedience, his agony, his crucifixion, and think of the love which led him voluntarily to make himself an offering for our sin. But memories alone will not bless us--there must be appropriating faith. "Broken for you," said the Master; "Broken for me" should be faith's answer.
There should be in the heart of the sincere Christian no more dread in going to the Lord's Supper than in going to any other service. Paul's word "unworthily"--which has been misunderstood by so many--has reference entirely to the manner in which people observe the ordinance, not to the people themselves.
The Corinthians to whom Paul was writing made the Lord's Supper into a common feast, with reveling--even with drunkenness. Of course, anyone who would observe it in such a way, or anyone who would sit at the table without really loving Christ, without believing on him, without truly worshiping him and submitting to him, or who would act irreverently or with levity--would be "guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." But in the apostle's word, there is not the slightest allusion to those who feel themselves to be unworthy, yet who are sincere and true Disciples of Christ. A sense of personal unworthiness, is part of all true faith in Christ.
If the heart is sincere; if the trust in Christ is true though trembling; and the obedience loyal though imperfect--we have the same right to come boldly to the Lord's Table--as to prayer or Scripture reading. We can sin in any act of worship--by formality, by insincerity, by levity, by cold-heartedness; and we can sin in the same ways in receiving the Lord's Supper. In partaking of this sacred memorial feast; we need to only be sure, that we are truly in living union with Christ, that we are trusting him alone as our Savior, and following him faithfully as our Lord, and that we come to his table with a sincere desire to meet him and to seek blessing from him.
The young Christian should never stay away from the Lord's Supper, when it is celebrated in the church. If he is conscious of sin and failure--let him make humble confession, and start anew. The Lord's Supper will help him to do this. We cannot afford to miss this ordinance. The weaker we are, and the more unworthy--the more do we need it! Besides, it is in a peculiar sense--a Christ confessing ordinance--we take our place at his table, and thus witness to the world that we are his. His honor therefore demands, that we should never absent ourselves when his people thus confess him.
There are other church services which have their large possibilities of help for young Christians. Among these are weekly meetings for prayer. From Sunday to Sunday is a long stretch--when the way is hard, when distractions are many, and when the battles are sore! The prayer meeting is a little oasis, midway between Sundays. It is a place specially for the refreshment of Christians. Every disciple should put it down among his necessary weekly engagements. We cannot afford to miss it--if we are at all earnest in our desire to be strong and noble Christians.
The Sunday school is another of the church services which no young Christian should miss. It is not for children only--it out to be a Bible school for the whole church, with its classes of young men and young women, and of old people with dim eyes and gray heads. It is on God's Word--that we all need to feed more and more. It will make us strong. It will lead us in right paths. It will beautify our character. It will put into our hand, the sword of the Spirit for battle with temptation. It will prepare a pillow for our head in sickness and sorrow. It will at the last, guide us through the valley of the shadow of death.
In most churches there is a training school for young Christians. They have an opportunity of learning to take part in church services. They can begin here in a very humble and easy way and in a sympathetic atmosphere, and by practice can overcome their natural timidity, until at last they can rise and speak with freedom in any meeting. It is well for many young Christians, to unite with a young people's society for the sake of the training they will receive, not only in the prayer meetings--but also in the work of the society.
We need the church services. We cannot neglect them--and not suffer harm and loss. Whenever the church bell summons us to the house of God--we should gladly respond. We should become church goers by habit. We should reverently enter the gates of the sanctuary. We should worship God in sincerity and in truth. We should come away thoughtfully and with prayer.
Then in the busy days which follow, will come the proofs of the helpfulness and blessing that our lives have found in the services. The food which is eaten today--is the strength of the laborer, the eloquence of the orator, the skill of the artisan, tomorrow. The spring sunshine and rain which fall upon the dry, briery rose-bush reappear in due time--in fragrant, lovely roses. And sincere and true worship in the quiet of the sanctuary--will show itself in the beautiful character; the sweetened spirit; the brightened hope; the truer, more spiritual living; and the holier consecration of the days of toil and struggle which come after.
