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conceived tlm thing in thine heart? thou hast
not lied unto men, but unto God." It is this
.solemn fact that discloses the true character ol
their conduct in this matter. In training excuses
which do not cover the real reason tor their
irregular attendance Upon the services of the
sanctuary, they fail to take account of the fact
that they do not deceive God. No true Christian
will absent himself from the sanctuary except
for a reason which with a clean conscience and
an honest heart he can give to God himself. If
one reverences the sanctuary, lie will be in his
place in the house of God on the Sabbath.
Every one should show rever?nr?? t'nr tha
sanctuary by being in bis pew when the service
begins, The babit of coming late to cburch is
not an uncommon one. The person wbo is guilty
of it does not siiow respect, to say nothing of
reverence for the bouse of God. People entering
the church after the service has begun necessarily
attract more or less attention, and, hence,
the minds of many in the congregation are diverted
from the part of the worship in which
the church may at the time be engaged. It is
a habit that ought to be abandoned by everyone
who professes to love Christ and his house.
Don't leave home at the hour for the service to
begin; let every one give himself sullicient time
to reach the church and be in his pew when
the worship begins. Promptness is a virtue
which is held in high esteem in the best regulated
business circles, and it is a virtue of high
degree in the matter of church attendance.
CONDUCT IN GODS HOUSE.
2. Keverence for the sanctuary should characterize
our conduct in the house of God. Jesus
teaches that God must be worshipped in spirit.
Worship in spirit is heart worship. Our whole
hearts are to be engaged in the worship of the
sanctuary; otherwise, our worship will be in appearance
only, and not in fact. Worship in appearance
only is characteristic of those whose
thoughts are wandering hither and thither;
thinking about business, or social matters, or
anything which is not germane to the worship.
The heart should be concentrated upon the service
from beginning to end. The hymns, the
Scripture lesson, the prayers, the ottering, and
the sermon, all constitute integral parts of the
worship, llow often are hymns sung without
any thought of the sentiment expressed in them?
sung without any devotional feeling whatever?
They embody sentiments of adoration and praise;
they express the feelings of the devout heart
with respect to all these subjects which are ordinarily
covered by prayer. In singing them our
whole thought should be lixed upon them, so
that the heart of the worshiper will rise to God
in expression of adoration and praise, in thanksfulness
for mercies received, and in supplication
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lur uiussiugs uesireu. n sucn a spirit controls
the conduct throughout the service, every one
will go from the sanctuary feeling that he has
been spiritually benefited. Every one gets from
the worship of the sanctuary just what he brings
to it. If he comes to church in a prayerless
state of mind; if his thoughts are on his business;
if the heart is busy with matters of a social
nature; then such a person will not ordinarily
derive spiritual benefit from the service.
Such an one comes to church with a pre occupied
heart, and he has left no room in it for Christ
and his truth. No wonder such people regard
the service as dull and uninteresting. Let one
come to the sanctuarv in ft nravprfnl frnm#> nf
mind; let him come "desiring the sincere milk
of the word that he may grow thereby;" let him
come hoping, aye, expecting to get relief from
the cares and perplexities of life; and he will
not be disappointed, for he will realize the truth
' ' of the Scripture declaration that "strength and
beauty are in the sanctuary."
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE S
Every one'a behavior should be in keeping
with the sacredness of the sanctuary. The Roman
Catholic will kneel as he approaches the
threshold of his church; the Episcopalian as he
enters his pew will bow his head in silent prayer.
Such acts indicate the reverential regard in
which the house of God is held. But how different
is the spirit in many congregations! "When
one enters some churches, he would conclude
from the laughing and talking that the people
were engaged in a social functiQn and had not
assembled for public worship. The sanctuary is
distinctively a place for divine worshiD. If we
keep this constantly in mind, our conduct in the
house of God will be in keeping with the sacredness
of the place and the occasion.
It is certainly strange that any one, young or
old, should be so forgetful of the sacred proprieties
of public worship as to misbehave in
the house of God. Minister and people are not
infrequently disturbed by those who talk and
whisper, and such misbehavior is indulged in
sometimes by those from whom we have a right
to expect better things. Such conduct exhibits
bad manners of the coarsest kind. It is the
grossest, most inexcusable breach of propriety
for any one thus to deport himself or herself
in iiod s House. It is more than that; it is
treating him whom we have assembled to worship
with disrespect and irreverence. One remedy
for such disorder is to return to the old and
honored custom of parents and children sitting
together in church. The unit of the Church is
the family; and, hence, there is the highest propriety
in the observance of this custom. It does
not look well for the members of a family to be
scattered over the congregation. Such a habit
is in no small measure responsible for the irreverent
spirit that many exhibit in the church
service.
I am not sure but what the pulpit is in some
measure responsible for the decline in reverence
for the sanctuary. The disposition to indulge in
Hippant remarks; the effort to entertain or to
amuse; the resort to various exDedients more or
less questionable, to draw a crowd; the attempt
to convert the pulpit into a rostrum for the exploiting
of opinions outside the recognized range
of gospel preaching; these things have had much
to do with the lowering of the pulpit in public
estimation, and the consequent diminishing regard
for the church and the house of God. The
pulpit from time immemorial and with great
propriety has been designated by Christian people
as "the sacred desk." That is the character
which the Lord Jesus Christ has impressed upon
it, and that is the aspect which it ought always
to present. The minister should devoutly realize
the dignity of his calling; he should make it
manifest to the congregation by his spirit, his
manner, and his message that he has a solemn
sense of the sacred and lofty responsibility resting
upon him; he should have the bearing of a
man who profoundly feels that he has a message
from God, that in fact he is an ambassador for
Christ; and if he so conducts himself he will
materially aid in diffusing a feeling and spirit
of reverence for the sanctuary in the minds and
hearts of the members of his congregation. It
was thus that the Lord Jesus conducted himself:
it was after this manner that Paul discharged
the duties of his high and holy calling. He even
held under restraint his natural and cultivated
powers in order that he might not appear to
attract human applause. He rigidly and devoutly
discarded that which in a worldly sense
was considered "excellency of speech or of wisdom,"
and proclaimed the gospel "not in the
words which man's wisdom teacheth," his suppreme
motive in so doing being that the faith
of his hearers "should not stand in the wisdom
of men, but in the power of God."
0 U T H [January 10, 1912
"Ye shall reverence my sanctuary." The
earthly sanctuary is the type and symbol of the
heavenly sanctuary. Appropriately, then, does
the Psalmist declare. "Holiness becometli thine
house, O Lord, forever." As nothing unclean
and impure will be permitted to enter the sanctuary
above, so nothing of this character?nothing
that is not in keeping with the holiness of
Hod's house?should be permitted to enter the
sanctuary below. Our spiritual health and development
are vitally associated with the worship
of the sanctuary. They go "from strength
to Strength " wlin fflit.llfllllv ni-awnl-Cnlltr
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pious thoughtfulness attend upon its services.
They will, indeed, have the experience described
by God's prophet, "They that wait upon the
Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount
up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not
be weary; they shall walk, and not faint."
Greenville, Ky.
INFINITY.
BY PROFESSOR ADDISON HOGUE.
How the finite mind loves at times to play
around the exhaustless idea. The very fact that
we have such a subject to think of is an indic i
tion of the source from which our minds wei j
derived. There is one sense in which it is truly
said that we can not understand the infinite;
in another sense, however, we can, because we
know that as soon as our imaginations, strain
and stretch them as we may, reach a stopping
place, there is still an endless extent beyond;
and no matter how often we might multiDlv
these stopping places, beginning each time
where we left off before, whenever we stop at
last, we have come to a boundary, a limit, a
finis. But there is no finis for Infinity.
Some of my young readers may not know that
what we call Time and Space have been great
puzzles to many profound thinkers, though the
words seem simple enough in our ordinary
usage. The endlessness of Time we call Eternity;
and the boundlessness of Space we call
Immensity; that is, unmeasureableness; and
these two are inseparably linked together, and
we are caught in their measureless meshes,
whether we wish it or no.
Suppose God should at the same moment
launch two worlds into space. To one he gives
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in one second light could wrap seven shining
strands around our equator and then leave some
10,000 miles of loose end to tie a knot with.
The other world, we will suppose, moves at first
only one inch during the first year, but travels
two inches the second year, four inches the
third, eight in the fourth year, an so on, by geometrical
progression, going twice as far each
year as it has gone the preceding year. Meantime
the other world is hashing forward into
God's great space with those terrific leaps,
isn't it plain, however, that the second one will
inevitably overtake the first one and pass it with
a triumphant rush, because it has time enough
and space enough? Now try to think of the
appalling length of time that has elapsed and
the staggering stretch of space that has been
covered between the starting point and the place
where the one sped past the other. But what
is that to Eternity in time or to Infinity in
space? A needle's point would be perfectly huge
on a line connecting the earth and the sun, when
compared* with the boundlessness "of space; because
it would be easy to compute the number
of needle points in an inch, and then multiply
by the number of inches in 95,000,000 miles;
but space is absolutely limitless. Just see how
true this is. Suppose our first world had been
hurled forth with a speed a million times greater
than that of light, and that the second one moved
only one millionth of an inch in a millennium,