for His
great goodness to me, and to all men. I have come also to ask for
certain things, the forgiveness of my sins if I am truly penitent, the
help and strength of the Holy Spirit to renew my life; I have come to
ask for those things, which are requisite and necessary as well for the
body as the soul, and I seek instruction in the lessons, the Gospel and
Epistle, and the sermon. But the chief object of my presence here is
the worship, the glory, the honour of God. And so I will give Him the
best I have. If you once grasped that fact, my brothers, we should
have no silent lips, no sleepy eyes, no lounging bodies, no irreverent
conduct in God's Holy Church. Remember God is present in His Church,
therefore we must behave with the greatest humility and reverence. In
some Churches you will see the people obstinately sitting throughout
the service, but if one of the Royal Family enters, they all rise up.
Now, if we remember that the King of kings, and Lord of lords, the only
Ruler of princes, is present, we shall stand up to do Him honour. It
is defrauding God of the honour due to Him when we refuse to show Him
marks of reverence. Do you know that in the House of Lords it is
always the rule for members to bow to the throne, although it is empty,
as being the seat of the Majesty of England. We bow to the Altar as
being the throne of the Most High God, the place where He visits His
people in the Blessed Sacrament. There we should honour and reverence
God, in whose presence we are, with the best members that we have. Our
heads should bow in humility before the God of Heaven and earth. Our
knees should bend in adoration before Him who is worshipped by the
Heavenly Host. Our eyes should be fixed upon our Prayer Books that
they may not wander. Our thoughts should be centred on the fact that
God is there with us, that we are in the presence-chamber of the great
King. Our voices should be used to praise God in chant, and psalm, and
hymn, and to offer prayer or thanksgiving. If we are silent we are
defrauding God. God's Priest does not say, "let _me_ pray for you," he
says, "let _us_ pray." We cannot worship God by proxy, we cannot give
God what He asks by means of a choir, whilst the congregation is
silent. Let us, each one of us, for the future, remember why we have
come to Church, and that it is our individual business to worship God
with reverence and holy fear. And in all you sing or say here, be in
earnest,