THE QUIET HOUR

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 15, 5 October 1929, Page 3

THE QUIET HOUR

SUNDAY READING. IS CHURCH ATTENDANCE ESSENTIAL. Address delivered to the combined Bible Classes at the Methodist Sunday School, Stratford, Sept. 29th, 1»29, by the Rev. J. Boothroyd.

When I was asked to deal with the above subject I did not like the title. It seemed to me to express a doubt as to the desirability and benefit of Tegular church attendance. But we have to take into consideration the fact that in the Dominion there are people of various classes, some who have been brought up in homes where they have not been taken regularly to the house of God, or who have lived for years in country settlements where there have not been regulai Sunday services, who naturally want to know the reason why church attendance is considered by many to be of primary importance. In the first place it is well to remember the value of association with those who are interested in the same things as ourselves. A stamp collector for example loves to meet with others with the same hobby, to show bis collection, point out his rare specimens, and to see the stamps of other collectors and discuss their value.

A person, who is fond of music likes to talk with others with the same interests; or to join a choir or a musical society. There is both pleasure and profit to those who wish to live a Godly life in meeting with others in Christian worship; and often one receives comfort, encouragement and inspiration in the services of the church which ai e a real help h* time s of difficulty and need, and which one is not likely to get elsewhere.

C J'. . Xl - *■' <• ~ £ SPIRITUAL GLOW. Association with other Christians helps us to retain the “spintua glow,” and absenting ourselves from the place of worship we are like a burning coal taken from a bright fire and put to itself on the hohwe los*e our warmth, the fire goes out, and we are in danger of becoming like the resultant cinder, cold and dead.

A gentleman in England conversing with his neice was asked this big question as they were walking over the commoq, belonging to a small village. The grass was closely cropped by the cows, horses and donkeys, and by the fowls and ducks. Here and there were bunches of coarse weeds, and in places the grass was covered with mud and slime. And in reply the gentleman, pointed to a neat little thatched cottage nearby, securely fenced m with a well kept live fence. Here the ground had been well dug, ana seeds of flowers and vegetables had been sown, trees and shrubs planted and cared for, and the animal s and fowls kept on the outside. The result was it had become transformed. Honeysuckle and rambler roses were climbing up the fences, plum and apricot trees were being trained up the sides of the cottage, the flowers were sending out their perfume, and the vegetables were ready to cut. “See what a difference it makes,” said he “when a pertijon of the common is enclosed and cared for.”

No wonder that the Waldenses and Piedmontese in the south of France and the Cantons of Switzerland in the 15th and IQth centuries risked both liberty and life for the privilege of Christian communion. And in the isolated farm houses faa, the lonely glens the voices of prayer and praise were heard, and yet often disturbed by the attack g of the soldiers of the reigning Duke. The Lollards in England had similar experiences, and in spite of the Conventicle Act amji fierce persecution they found ways and means of meeting together for the worship of God.

The Covenanters in Scotland, in their terrible experiences when hunted and slaughtered by Claverhouse . and his bands of soldiers, still found opportunities to meet together to worship and to partake of the Holy Communion. Two boys at school became close friends, they had much in common and were always to be found together, but on leaving school th/ey were separated and did not meet again for years. One became a successful engineer and inventor, and the other a celebrated violinist. After many years the violinist had an engagement in the city where his friend the engineer lived, and they met and had .a long talk about old times. As he was leaving, the violinist offered his friend some tickets for his recitals, but he replied that he had op interest in music whatever, and would not come. “Well,”

said the violinist, ‘-if you will not come to hear me I will come to your workshop and play.” “Oh, you, had better not do that,” said the engineer, “I might smash your violin.” •‘No, you won’t do that,” was the reply. One dhy the violinist walked into his friend's workshop with his violin under his arm, aqd taking his instrument to pieces showed his friend the mechanism and described tine various kinds of wood of which it was made and explained their resonant properties. He then started a discussion on the theory of sound waves, and his violin together, drew his how over [the strings to illustrate his subject. And then almost before his friend was aware, he began to play one of his materpieces, and his friend stood spell bound and listened openmouthed. The workmen took off their caps as if they Avere in church and listened entranced. And when at last the violinist stopped, his friend said; “Go on, go on, don’t stop, I have only just discovered what Avas lacking in my life.” And many by attendance at Church have found peace Avith God, learned to trust in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, ain.d gained an experience that has made life now to them and Avhich is fitting them for the citizenship of Heaven. HehrcAvs 10 chap. 25 verse; “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another: and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.”