SEREZ. XTII.1 HERE AND HEREAFTER, 235 be not a pleasure to you, heaven itself cannot aflòrdyou pleasure ; for that is but one great religious family, of which Jesus Christ is the head : And if the business of that place be not your delight, you shall never have a, place there. Shall I ask the servants of this house, when you are called in to morning and evening prayer, what is your end ? Do ye cone with hope and desire to appear be- fore God ? Or is it merely to obey the orders of the house, and comply with the custom of the family, for the sake of your temporal interest? Ask yourselves, my friends, what is it that brings you in constantly at the seasons of reading and praying? Is it a design to get near to God. Shall I ask the children, when you come in at the hour of worship, do you set yourselves as before God ! Do your thoughts go alongwith the words of himwho prays? Do ye attend to the word read, as the word of God, whereby you must be judged? Or do you satisfy your- selves to wear out the quarter of an hour, in sitting still, f in kneeling as others do, without thoughts of God 3*-., S .each of us ask our own hearts, how do we pass the time of daily worship ? Are we careful to lay aside all our thoughts of the world, that we may be at leisure for God ? Remember, that not only in the morning and evening devotion, but at every meal we appear before God : Now do we join in prayer for a blessing on our food'and in giving thanks? Or do we think the word of -otie who speaks sufficiently sanctifiesand blesses themeat for all who taste it ? Let us further ask our consciences this one question, do we remember God all the day, as those who have ap- peared before him at worship in the morning? Do we walk among men, as those who dwell in a house of God ? Do we eat, and drink, and speak, and live, as those who profess so much religion and worship. Let us think on these things, and consider who there is among us that ventures to trifle with the great and dreadful God in such appearances before him? Or pro- voke him with a conversation unsuitable to such profes- sions? Blessed be God, there is more than the form of god-
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