99 / 652
SEAM.
VI.]
THE LORD'S-DAY,
OR
CHRISTIAN
SABBATH.
89
sores
of
this
life,
the hours and minutes
of
worship
will
for the most
part
be
but
poorly improved, and
become
much
less
profitable
to
our spiritual interest.
It
is
hardly
possible to
attain
the best ends
of preaching
and hearing,
praying and praising,
administering and receiving
of
the
Lord's-supper,
if
we
come
into
the
sanctuary
with
our
heads and
hearts
full
of
the
affairs
of
this life,
and
all
our earthly
cares
buzzing
about
our
souls.
And
how
much
less
good
will
a
sermon do
us, if
as
soon as
the
hour of
worship
is
ended,
we
run
immediately
from
God
and plunge ourselves
hito
worldly
affairs,
without
giving
our
thoughts leisure and
leave to
reflect
on
*hat
we
have
heard
?
And much
worse would it
be
still
for religion
if
we
spent
the
rest
of
the day in
recreations
and sports,
for
these
carnalize the
spirit
and
estrange
it from God
and
things heavenly
much more
than
the common la-
bours
of
life.
.
Alas
!
how difficult a
matter
do
we
find
it to disengage
our
thoughts from
this world when
we
come
into the pre-
sence
of
God,
even though
we
have a day
appointed for
this
purpose
?
How
hard
it
is
to shake off all
the dust
of
this
earth
when
we
would arise to
God
in
devotion?
And though
we
have bid farewell to
our
secular concerns
the
night
before, and
have had
a
long interval
of
sleep
to divide
our thoughts from
this
vain and
busy
life,
yet
how do
the weighty cares
of
it
hang
continually upon
our
spirits,
or
the
trifles
and amusements
of
it hover
and
play
about our
souls,
and divert our hearts
from
the
ex-
ercise
of
godliness
?
And let
us
think
with ourselves,
how
much
harder
it would
be
to
fulfil
the
duties
of
the
sanctuary
with any good success, to
improve public
«nor
-,,
ship,to our further acquaintance
with
God
and things
heavenly, to
our
greater
delight
in
him,
our mortifica-
tion
of
sin
and
our
growth in holiness,
if
there
were no
time
devoted
to
religion
but
only
that
hour or
two while
we
are
at church
?
How
would the words
of
the
preacher
run
off
from
our
souls,
like
a stream
of
oil
gliding
over
marble,
if
there
were no
recollection
to
fix
it
in
our
me-
mory
?
How easily would Satan pluck up the good seed
that
was sown in
the
heart,
if
we
join
to assist
him by
giving
a
loose
immediately to the cares or delights
of
this
life,
and
call
them
to
break
in
upon
us
when the
sermon
is
ended
?
We
may
reasonably conclude,
if
Christ ap-