ower and glory, _so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary_." "_I
went into the sanctuary_ of God; then understood I their end." "Lord, _I
have loved the habitation of thy house_, and the place where thine honor
dwelleth." "_I went with them to the house of God_, with the voice of
joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day." "We took sweet
counsel together, _and walked to the house of God in company_." "_I will
dwell in the house of_ the Lord forever." "One thing have I desired of
the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may _dwell in the house of the
Lord all the days of my life_, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to
inquire in his temple." Such were the feelings of the man who has
expressed, in strains of sweetest melody, the experience of Christians
in all ages. Delight in the worship of God's house may be regarded as
one of the tokens of the new birth. If you are destitute of this
feeling, you have reason to form sad conclusions respecting the
foundation of your hopes. But, the example of Jesus is very clear on
this point. "And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and,
_as his custom was_, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and
stood up for to read." From this it appears that Jesus, even before
entering upon his ministry, was in the habit of attending regularly upon
the public worship of God in the synagogue of Nazareth, where he had
been brought up. This was the first time he had been there, after the
commencement of his ministry; yet he went into the synagogue on the
Sabbath day, _as his custom was_; evidently showing that he had always
been in the habit of doing so. Again; after the crucifixion of our Lord,
we find the disciples regularly assembling together upon the _first day
of the week_, which is the Christian Sabbath. And Jesus himself honored
these assemblies by his presence, after his resurrection. That this
practice continued to be observed by the churches founded by the
apostles, is evident, from the frequent allusions to it in the Acts, and
in the writings of Paul. Paul preached at Macedonia upon the first day
of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread. In the
sixteenth chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians, he gives
directions for taking up collections for the poor saints _on the first
day of the week_; which evidently means the time when they were in the
habit of meeting for public worship. And in the eleventh chapter of the
same epistle,