SERMON I.

A CONSIDERATION OF THE REASONS COMMONLY ALLEGED FOR THE NEGLECT OF

PUBLIC WORSHIP.

NEHEMIAH xiii. 11.

"WHY IS THE HOUSE OF GOD FORSAKEN ?”

MAN was originally formed in the image of God. God dwelt in him as in a temple. He lived in the full and unclouded enjoyment of His presence with whom "there is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore ;" and held direct and sweet converse with his Heavenly Father. There was then no need of temples made with hands, for the whole universe proclaimed its Maker's praise, and obeyed its Maker's will. But no sooner had man sinned, than he lost the moral image of God. Sin defiled, and God forsook, His temple; and man, cast down from his high original, lost the knowledge of God, became degraded in his nature, depraved in his habits, and impaired in his faculties. Thus fallen from that holy state in which he was created, and changed as to the circumstances in which he

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was placed, he needed the means of instruction in order to know his Maker's will, as well as an atoning sacrifice to restore him to His favour, and renewing grace to fit him for His service.

And though man could never have anticipated that such gracious provision would have been provided, by Him against whom he had sinned, from whose presence he had fled, and of whose judgments he was afraid; and might have reasonably expected that he would abandon our guilty and apostate race; His mercy shone forth in the brightest colours, compassionating our wretched condition, and He graciously devised the means whereby the "banished might be restored." His Son willingly offered himself as a sacrifice for our sins, and undertook to work out an everlasting righteousness for man. The Holy Spirit interposed His gracious aid to render that work effectual to man's salvation, by revealing it, carrying it home, and applying it to the sinner's heart. That man, thus rescued from ignorance, guilt, and misery, might be restored to the knowledge, love, and service of his God, a revelation was given to him, informing him of the sad state to which sin had reduced him here, and the misery to which it exposed him hereafter; and while this revelation distinctly states, and clearly marks, God's abhorrence of sin, and indignation against the sinner, it unfolds and exhibits to man the goodwill and merciful intention of his Heavenly Father in the provision He has made for his recovery from sin, and restoration to His favour.

In order that the glorious truths of revelation might be more fully known, and the end for which it was designed might be accomplished, the ordinances of public worship were instituted; and, under the gospel dispensation, all people are invited to come up to worship in God's holy temple, to hear all the words of eternal life, and freely to participate in the blessings of salvation. And when we reflect how dependent man is, and how dependent God has made him upon the ordinances of His house for spiritual instruction and spiritual blessings, well may we ask, "Why is the house of God forsaken?" And finding that so many carelessly regard, and openly neglect its ordinances, we may justly adopt the emphatic language of Jeremiah, (ii. 12, 13) “Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; be ye very desolate, saith the Lord; for my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken. me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." For it is from the sanctuary that the healing, life-giving, and life-sustaining waters of salvation are described as flowing. See Ezek. xlvii. 1. 8, 9. 12. And few subjects more strikingly exhibit the awful alienation of man's heart from his God, and afford juster ground of complaint, or deeper cause of regret, than the wilful neglect of the public means of grace. For, by such conduct, men not only deprive themselves of their richest blessings, but plunge themselves in guilt here, and expose themselves to ruin hereafter.

The inquiry in our text, therefore, is one of deep and vital importance; nor does it merely concern such of us as are in the habit of neglecting, or are in danger of becoming neglectful of public worship; but, remembering the extent and binding obligation of that command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;" among the details of which we find, "Thou shalt in anywise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him;" (Lev. xix. 17,) it surely becomes all who feel a concern for the glory of God, and the salvation of man, not merely to ascertain, and lament, the naked and melancholy fact, that the house of God is forsaken by numbers, but to warn and guard others against this evil, as well as watch against the first appearance of it in themselves.

In the humble and prayerful hope of leading some to a more diligent and profitable attendance upon the sanctuary, and inducing such as feel an interest in its services to seek, in some measure, to correct the errors, and inform the minds, of those who will not come to hear for themselves, I feel desirous of directing your attention to the following subjects:

I. A CONSIDERATION OF THE REASONS COMMONLY ALLEGED FOR THE NEGLECT OF PUBLIC WORSHIP.

II. AN ENQUIRY INTO THE REAL CAUSES OF THE NEGLECT OF PUBLIC WORSHIP.

III. THE CONSEQUENCES OF

PUBLIC WORSHIP.

NEGLECTING

IV. A VIEW OF THE ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC

WORSHIP, THE MOTIVES WHICH SHOULD LEAD TO ITS OBSERVANCE, AND THE SPIRIT IN WHICH ITS SERVICES OUGHT TO BE ATTENDED.

V. THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH RENDER AN ATTENDANCE UPON THE SERVICES OF THE SANCTUARY UNPROFITABLE.

We must confine our consideration, on the present occasion, to the REASONS ALLEGED for the neglect complained of in our text. That the house of God is, to a fearful extent, forsaken, requires no argument to prove: we need but look around us, and we shall be furnished with abundant evidence of the fact. And surely it is matter of surprise, as well as regret, that so many, professing a belief in the inspired word of God, should live in the habitual neglect of an acknowledged ordinance of God. For, observe, we are not addressing ourselves to those who deny the authority of God's holy word; or enquiring why the infidel forsakes the house of God? He has avowedly rejected the counsel of God, and openly turned his back upon his ordinances. But, we ask, why multitudes of a professing Christian community, should neglect what is admitted to be a divine appointment—an appointment the most reasonable, wise, and gracious; designed for the highest, and holiest, and happiest purposes-the means of planting and building up the church of Christ-essential to preserve the fear of God in our land-essential, we might say, to maintain the very profession of christianity itself