Page:Two Sermons on the Duty and Joy of Frequent Public Worship.djvu/18

6 not attending services on common days, if necessary business does not hinder it.

Now of course we cannot expect that ungodly persons, or those who are in the habit of judging for themselves as to what is right and good, merely by the light of their own reason, and what is called "common sense," or the ordinary judgment of the world, will attend much to any arguments drawn from the Word of God, so as to change their opinions or practice in such matters. There are, I fear, very many professing Christians who seldom come before God deliberately saying, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" asking for guidance as to what is right. It is the few whose whole heart really wishes above all things to learn His will from His written Word, the laws of His Church, and the voice of an enlightened conscience, and then to live by it. And it will, I fear, always be the few in the world, not the many, who have any deep dissatisfaction with their present state,—any restless wish to become better, and to draw nearer to God, than now they are,—any real "hunger and thirst after" a higher righteousness than they have yet reached. They are the few, not the many, in the world, who sing from the very depths of their heart the beautiful words of the hymn:—

The common run of mankind seem to think their souls near enough to God already. They think that in spiritual matters they are "rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." That real love of God that makes a soul delight itself in Him, to long for fellowship with Him more than for much treasure,—the real {{hws|contri|contrition}