II. The reverence which it becomes us to maintain whenever we attend such assemblies.

I. Their nature and design. They are described in the text as assemblies of the saints-about the Lord. Let us examine this description.

1. Meetings for public worship are termed assemblies of the saints.

This expression does not mean that a mere attendance on public ordinances is sufficient to prove that we are saints, or holy persons; nor that all are saints who mix in such assemblies. He who searcheth Jerusalem with candles, and whose eyes are as a flame of fire, well knows, alas! that this honorable character does by no means belong to all the members even of Christian Churches. Though the discipline of the Gospel be ever so faithfully and vigilantly enforced, yet, since it is administered only by fallible men, there will be some tares among the wheat, some spots in our feasts of love, some who have only a name to live, and are dead. And, if our Churches contain some of this description, it cannot be doubted that our congregations include many. Nevertheless, such assemblies as the text mentions may be properly called assemblies of the saints, for two reasons:

(1.) To intimate that by saints in all ages the obligation and authority of public worship have been uniformly and practically recognized. The true servants of God have always accounted it a duty and a privilege to frequent such assemblies. Even heathens, however erroneous their notions of the proper object of worship, have seldom been so blind as not to see the fitness of the act of worship. Such as their gods were, they deemed it right to approach them with expressions of homage and adoration. And do not we owe to the true GOD manifestations of regard and reverence as public and solemn as those which they directed to fictitious duties? "All people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever." Micah iv, 5. That divine revelation, moreover, in the light of which we rejoice, explicitly enjoins the exercises of public worship.

Its

language is, "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.” "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts." Our great Master himself, while on earth, confirmed these dictates of reason and of revelation by his authoritative example. "And he came to Nazareth," says the evangelist Luke, "where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day." His primitive disciples, the first Christians, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, trod in his steps. "They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." And from their times, down to our own, those who have excelled in virtue have been foremost to say, with David, "Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honor dwelleth." Such, therefore, as willfully and habitually neglect public ordinances have no legitimate pretensions to the name or character of saints. We need not hesitate to say, indeed, that they who thus absent themselves from the house of God give proof that they belong to the synagogue of Satan. If they mix not in the assemblies of the saints-those assemblies which all holy persons do conscientiously frequent-we are constrained to rank them among profane and careless sinners.

(2.) To intimate that no worship but that which is in some degree holy and spiritual can be ultimately acceptable to God, or profitable to ourselves. The duty is binding upon all, but can be rightly performed only by those who are at least following after holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. "Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever." All ordinances are useless and unavailing to those who are resolved to persist in sin, or to place their supreme affection on any object but God. The devotions of such persons must be insincere; and to them the God who will not be mocked indignantly exclaims, "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? . . . Bring no more vain oblations!" Yes, my brethren, they only are acceptable worshipers whose earnest desire it is to be made to resemble in purity the God whom they adore. And the more our

assemblies become in this sense assemblies of saints, the more of the power and glory of the Lord shall we behold in the sanctuary.

2. But for what purposes do we assemble in public worship? This question will receive a sufficient answer if we closely attend to the import of another phrase which is found in the text. "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him." I consider this last expression as referring to those very assemblies which are mentioned in the former clause ; and as affirming that persons met for public worship are, in fact, about the Lord. This instructive phrase may be variously illustrated, so as to include every religious purpose for which our public assemblies are appointed, and our houses of worship prepared. Some of these purposes I shall here specify:

(1.) Sincere worshipers are about the Lord, as subjects of a certain rank and description are wont to be about their sovereign, at particular seasons appointed for that end, in order to testify their allegiance and respect. "For the Lord is a great God, and a great king above all gods." Now, in holy places, and at the periods of public worship, this august Monarch of the universe keeps his court, and expects his loyal subjects to appear before him, to offer their adorations, to acknowledge and manifest their dependence on him, and to pay their vows unto the Lord in the presence of all his people.

(2.) Sincere worshipers are about the Lord, as pupils are wont to be about their teacher in the hours appointed for tuition. You will assemble here, my brethren, from time to time, in order to sit at the feet of the great Master, and to hear words whereby you may be saved. Here the holy volume of inspiration will be solemnly read, explained, and applied to the purposes of doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. Here the Gospel of Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation, will be steadily proclaimed to listening sinners and to admiring saints. Here will be reported unto you things such as even the angels desire to look into; things which the Spirit of Christ in the ancient prophets did signify,

when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. The character and the rights of God, as set forth in Scripture; the origin, extent, and malignity of sin; the appointed method of deliverance from its guilt, its power, and its defilement, through the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost; the way of obtaining a personal interest in this great salvation; the moral obligations of such as are saved, to God, to each other, to the Church, and to the world; their present privileges and ultimate prospects; and the sublime and solemn discoveries of revelation concerning a future judgment and an everlasting state-such are the transcendent topics which will be unfolded and enforced within these walls. For this purpose wisdom hath builded her house; and blessed is the man that heareth her, watching daily at her gates, and waiting at the posts of her doors.

(3.) Sincere worshipers are about the Lord, as conscious offenders may be supposed to be about their judge, (when by mediation they can obtain access to him,) to deprecate his severity, and to implore his clemency. We are informed, in 2 Chronicles vii, 12-14, that when the temple was finished, "the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." From this passage it clearly appears, that one important part of the work of those assemblies to which the text refers, among the Jews, was the offering of sacrifice. There was the daily burnt-offering, the morning and the evening sacrifice, the charge of which was defrayed out of the public treasury. There were also other occasional sacrifices, in the way of expiation and atonement, by which, when offered in sincerity and in faith, the divine displeasure was appeased, and the divine favor conciliated, by virtue of the typical VOL. I.-2

relation they bore to the great sacrifice of the Son of God, which was to be offered in the fullness of time. It was in express connection with such sacrifices that the people were directed to ask, and encouraged to expect, forgiveness of sins and the removal of wrath. Now this, which was a principal part of Jewish worship, is also a duty never to be forgotten in Christian assemblies. For we have all sinned, and come short of the glory of God. By our sins we are exposed to evils far more to be deprecated than the heaviest of temporal judgments, even to the bitter pains of eternal death. Feeling this to be our awful and accursed condition, we are to come, as with broken hearts and trembling knees, before our righteous Judge; acknowledging our vileness, and the equity of the sentence which his law has pronounced. And then, in obedience to the command of the Gospel, we are to lay hold by faith on the sacrifice of Christ, pleading its all-availing merit, and confidently expecting pardon and salvation for its sake. Let me admonish you, my brethren, that you make as great a mistake as ever men can commit, if you think you have nothing to do in the house of God but to sit and hear, even though what you hear be ever so scriptural and excellent. You come hither to transact a very serious business: you come hither to tender your confessions to Almighty God, to offer up your prayers for his mercy, to put him in mind of his own covenant, and to claim humbly what only through Christ can become yours, the blessings of that covenant. The feelings which should actuate you in this transaction are beautifully described in the following verses:

"With solemn faith we offer up,

And spread before Thy glorious eyes,
That only ground of all our hope,

That precious bleeding sacrifice,

Which brings Thy grace on sinners down,
And perfects all our souls in one.

"Father! behold thy dying Son,

And hear the blood that speaks above;

On us let all thy grace be shown

Peace, righteousness, and joy, and love;

Thy kingdom come to every heart,

And all thou hast, and all thou art."-C. WESLEY.