“Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a
linen ephod.”—1 Samuel ii. 18.
Samuel, viewed in his place in sacred history, that is, in the
course of events which connect Moses with Christ, appears as a great
ruler and teacher of his people; this is his prominent character. He
was the first of the prophets; yet, when we read the sacred narrative
itself, in which his life is set before us, I suppose those passages
are the more striking and impressive which represent him, in the office
which belonged to him by birth, as a Levite, or minister of God. He was
taken into God's special service from the first; he lived in His
Temple; nay, while yet a child, he was honoured with the apparel of a
sacred function, as the text tells us, “he ministered before the Lord,
being a child, girded with a linen ephod.”
His mother had “given him unto the Lord all the days of his
life[1],” by a solemn vow before his birth; and in him, if in any one,
were fulfilled the words of the Psalmist, “Blessed are they that dwell
in Thy house, they will be always praising Thee[2].”
Such a constant abode in God's house would make common minds only
familiar with holy things, and irreverent; but where God's grace is
present in the heart, the effect is the reverse; which we might be sure
would happen in the case of Samuel. “The Lord was with him,” we are
told; and therefore the more the outward signs of that Lord met his
eye, the more reverent he became, not the more presuming. The more he
acquainted himself with God, the greater would be his awe and holy
fear.
Thus the first notice we have of his ministering before the Lord,
reminds us of the decency and gravity necessary at all times, and in
all persons, in approaching Him. “He ministered before the Lord, being
a child, girded with a linen ephod.” His mother had made him yearly a
little coat for his common use, but in Divine Service he wore, not
this, but a garment which would both express, and impress upon him,
reverence.
And, in like manner, in his old age, when Saul sent to seek David at
Naioth, where Samuel was, his messengers found Samuel and the prophets
under him all in decent order. “They saw the company of prophets
prophesying, and Samuel over them.” And this was so impressive a sight,
that it became an instrument of God's supernatural power towards them,
and they prophesied also.
On the other hand, if we would have an example of the want of this
reverence, we have it in Saul himself, the reprobate king, who, when he
was on his way to Naioth, and was visited by God's Holy Spirit, did not
thereupon receive the garment of salvation, nor was clothed in
righteousness, but behaved himself in an unseemly wild way, as one
whose destitution and shame were but detected by the visitation. He
stript off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel, and lay down in
that state all that day and all that night.
This difference we see even at this day:—of persons professing
religion, some are like Samuel, some like Saul; some (as it were) cast
off their garments and prophesy in disorder and extravagance; others
minister before the Lord, “girded with a linen ephod,” with “their
loins girt and their lamps burning,” like men awfully expecting the
coming of their great and glorious Judge. By the latter, I mean the
true children of the Holy Catholic Church, by the former, I mean
heretics and schismatic.
There have ever been from the first these two kinds of
Christians—those who belonged to the Church, and those who did not.
There never was a time since the Apostles' day, when the Church was
not; and there never was a time but men were to be found who preferred
some other way of worship to the Church's way. These two kinds of
professed Christians ever have been—Church Christians, and Christians
not of the Church; and it is remarkable, I say, that while, on the one
hand, reverence for sacred things has been a characteristic of Church
Christians on the whole, so, want of reverence has been the
characteristic on the whole of Christians not of the Church. The one
have prophesied after the figure of Samuel, the other after the figure
of Saul.
Of course there are many exceptions to this remark in the case of
individuals. Of course I am not speaking of inconsistent persons and
exceptional cases, in the Church, or out of it; but of those who act up
to what they profess. I mean that zealous, earnest, and faithful
members of the Church have generally been reverent; and zealous,
earnest, and faithful members of other religious bodies have generally
been irreverent. Again, after all, there will be real exceptions in the
case of individuals which we cannot account for; but I mean that, on,
the whole, it will be found that reverence is one of the marks
or notes of the Church; true though it may be that some particular
individuals, who have kept apart from it, have not been without a
reverential spirit notwithstanding.
Indeed so natural is the connexion between a reverential spirit in
worshipping God, and faith in God, that the wonder only is, how any one
can for a moment imagine he has faith in God, and yet allow himself to
be irreverent towards Him. To believe in God, is to believe the being
and presence of One who is All-holy, and All-powerful, and
All-gracious; how can a man really believe thus of Him, and yet make
free with Him? it is almost a contradiction in terms. Hence even
heathen religions have ever considered faith and reverence identical.
To believe, and not to revere, to worship familiarly, and at one's
ease, is an anomaly and a prodigy unknown even to false religions, to
say nothing of the true one. Not only the Jewish and Christian
religions, which are directly from God, inculcate the spirit of
“reverence and godly fear,” but those other religions which have
existed, or exist, whether in the East or the South, inculcate the
same. Worship, forms of worship—such as bowing the knee, taking off
the shoes, keeping silence, a prescribed dress, and the like—are
considered as necessary for a due approach to God. The whole world,
differing about so many things differing in creed and rule of life, yet
agree in this—that God being our Creator, a certain self-abasement of
the whole man is the duty of the creature; that He is in heaven, we
upon earth; that He is All-glorious, and we worms of the earth and
insects of a day.
But those who have separated from the Church of Christ have in this
respect fallen into greater than pagan error. They may be said to form
an exception to the concordant voice of a whole world, always and every
where; they break in upon the unanimous suffrage of mankind, and
determine, at least by their conduct, that reverence and awe are not
primary religious duties. They have considered that in some way or
other, either by God's favour or by their own illumination, they are
brought so near to God that they have no need to fear at all, or to put
any restraint upon their words or thoughts when addressing Him. They
have considered awe to be superstition, and reverence to be slavery.
They have learnt to be familiar and free with sacred things, as it
were, on principle. I think this is really borne out by facts, and will
approve itself to inquirers as true in substance, however one man will
differ from another in the words in which he would express the fact
itself.
Samuel was a little child who had never fallen away from God, but by
His grace had ever served Him. Let us take a very different instance,
the instance of a penitent sinner as set before us in the parable of
the Publican and Pharisee. I need hardly say which of the two was the
most pleasing to God—the Publican; whereas the Pharisee was not
accepted by Him. Now what did the Pharisee do? He did not even go so
far as to behave in an unseemly, extravagant way: he was grave and
solemn, and yet what he did was enough to displease God, because he
took too much upon himself, and made too much of himself. Though grave
and solemn, he was not reverent; he spoke in a haughty, proud way, and
made a long sentence, thanking God that he was not as other men are,
and despising the Publican. Such was the behaviour of the Pharisee; but
the Publican behaved very differently. Observe how he came to worship
God; “he stood afar off; he lift not up so much as his eyes unto
heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a
sinner[3].” You see his words were few, and almost broken, and his
whole conduct humble and reverent; he felt that God was in heaven, he
upon earth, God All-holy and Almighty, and he a poor sinner.
Now all of us are sinners, all of us have need to come to God as the
Publican did; every one, if he does but search his heart, and watch his
conduct, and try to do his duty, will find himself to be full of sins
which provoke God's wrath. I do not mean to say that all men are
equally sinners; some are wilful sinners, and of them there is no hope,
till they repent; others sin, but they try to avoid sinning, pray to
God to make them better, and come to Church to be made better; but all
men are quite sinners enough to make it their duty to behave as the
Publican. Every one ought to come into Church as the Publican did, to
say in his heart, “Lord, I am not worthy to enter this sacred place; my
only plea for coming is the merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour.” When,
then, a man enters Church, as many do, carelessly and familiarly,
thinking of himself, not of God, sits down coldly and at his ease,
either does not say a prayer at all, or merely hides his face for
form's sake, sitting all the while, not standing or kneeling; then
looks about to see who is in the Church, and who is not, and makes
himself easy and comfortable in his seat, and uses the kneeler for no
other purpose than to put his feet upon; in short, comes to Church as a
place, not of meeting God and His holy Angels, but of seeing what is to
be seen with the bodily eyes, and hearing what is to be heard with the
bodily ears, and then goes and gives his judgment about the sermon
freely, and says, “I do not like this or that,” or “This is a good
argument, but that is a bad one,” or “I do not like this person so much
as that,” and so on; I mean when a man acts in all respects as if he
was at home, and not in God's House,—all I can say is, that he
ventures to do in God's presence what neither Cherubim nor Seraphim
venture to do, for they veil their faces, and, as if not daring to
address God, praise Him to each other, in few words, and those
continually repeated, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.
What I have said has been enough to suggest what it is to serve God
acceptably, viz. “with reverence and godly fear,” as St. Paul says. We
must not aim at forms for their own sake, but we must keep in mind
where we are, and then forms will come into our service naturally. We
must in all respects act as if we saw God; that is, if we believe that
God is here, we shall keep silence; we shall not laugh, or talk, or
whisper during the Service, as many young persons do; we shall not gaze
about us. We shall follow the example set us by the Church itself. I
mean, as the words in which we pray in Church are not our own, neither
will our looks, or our postures, or our thoughts, be our own. We shall,
in the prophet's words, not “do our own ways” there, nor “find our own
pleasure,” nor “speak our own words;” in imitation of all Saints before
us, including the Holy Apostles, who never spoke their own words in
solemn worship, but either those which Christ taught them, or which the
Holy Ghost taught them, or which the Old Testament taught them. This is
the reason why we always pray from a book in Church; the Apostles said
to Christ, “Lord, teach us to pray,” and our Lord graciously gave them
the prayer called the Lord's Prayer. For the same reason we too use the
Lord's Prayer, and we use the Psalms of David and of other holy men,
and hymns which are given us in Scripture, thinking it better to use
the words of inspired Prophets than our own. And for the same reason we
use a number of short petitions, such as “Lord, have mercy upon us,” “O
Lord, save the Queen,” “O Lord, open Thou our lips,” and the like, not
using many words, or rounding our sentences, or allowing ourselves to
enlarge in prayer.
Thus all we do in Church is done on a principle of reverence;
it is done with the thought that we are in God's presence. But
irreverent persons, not understanding this, when they come into Church,
and find nothing there of a striking kind, when they find every thing
is read from a book, and in a calm, quiet way, and still more, when
they come a second and a third time, and find every thing just the
same, over and over again, they are offended and tired. “There is
nothing,” they say, “to rouse or interest them.” They think God's
service dull and tiresome, if I may use such words; for they do not
come to Church to honour God, but to please themselves. They want
something new. They think the prayers are long, and wish that there was
more preaching, and that in a striking oratorical way, with loud voice
and florid style. And when they observe that the worshippers in Church
are serious and subdued in their manner, and will not look, and speak,
and move as much at their ease as out of doors, or in their own houses,
then (if they are very profane) they ridicule them, as weak and
superstitious. Now is it not plain that those who are thus tired, and
wearied, and made impatient by our sacred services below, would most
certainly get tired and wearied with heaven above? because there the
Cherubim and Seraphim “rest not day and night,” saying, “Holy, holy,
holy, Lord God Almighty.” Such as this, too, will be the way of the
Saints in glory, for we are told that there will be a great voice of
much people saying, Alleluia; and again they said Alleluia, and the
four-and-twenty elders said Alleluia, and a voice of many waters and of
mighty thunderings said Alleluia. Such, too, was our Lord's way, when
in His agony He three times repeated the same words, “Thy will, not
Mine, be done.” It is the delight of all holy beings, who stand around
the Throne, to use one and the same form of worship; they are not
tired, it is ever new pleasure to them to say the words anew. They are
never tired; but surely all those persons would be soon tired of
hearing them, instead of taking part in their glorious chant, who are
weaned of Church now, and seek for something more attractive and
rousing.
Let all persons, then, know for certain, and be assured beforehand,
that if they come to Church to have their hearts put into strange and
new forms, and their feelings moved and agitated, they come for what
they will not find. We wish them to join Saints and Angels in
worshipping God; to say with the Seraphim, “Holy Lord God of Sabaoth,”
to say with the Angels, “Glory to God in the highest, and in earth
peace, good-will towards men,” to say after our Lord and Saviour, “Our
Father, which art in heaven,” and what follows; to say with St. Mary,
“My soul doth magnify the Lord;” with St. Simeon, “Lord, now lettest
Thou Thy servant depart in peace;” with the Three Children who were
cast into the fiery furnace, “O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the
Lord, praise Him, and magnify Him for ever,” with the Apostles, “I
believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in
Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord; and in the Holy Ghost.” We wish to
read to them words of inspired Scripture, and to explain its doctrine
to them soberly after its pattern. This is what we wish them to say,
again and again: “Lord, have mercy;” “We beseech Thee to hear us, O
Lord;” “Good Lord, deliver us;” “Glory be to the Father, and to the
Son, and to the Holy Ghost.” All holy creatures are praising God
continually—we hear them not, still they are praising Him and praying
to Him. All the Angels, the glorious company of the Apostles, the
goodly fellowship of the Prophets, the noble army of Martyrs, the Holy
Church universal, all good men all over the earth, all the spirits and
souls of the righteous, all our friends who have died in God's faith
and fear, all are praising and praying to God: we come to Church to
join them; our voices are very feeble, our hearts are very earthly, our
faith is very weak. We do not deserve to come, surely not;—consider
what a great favour it is to be allowed to join in the praises and
prayers of the City of the Living God, we being such sinners;—we
should not be allowed to come at all but for the merits of our Lord and
Saviour. Let us firmly look at the Cross, that is the token of our
salvation. Let us ever remember the sacred Name of Jesus, in which
devils were cast out of old time. These are the thoughts with which we
should come to Church, and if we come a little before the Service
begins, and want something to think about, we may look, not at who are
coming in and when, but at the building itself, which will remind us of
many good things; or we may look into the Prayer Book for such passages
as the 84th Psalm, which runs thus: “O how amiable are Thy dwellings,
Thou Lord of hosts! my soul hath a desire and longing to enter into the
Courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh rejoice in the Living God.”
Such will be our conduct and our thoughts in Church, if we be true
Christians; and I have been giving this description of them, not only
for the sake of those who are not reverent, but for the sake of those
who try to be so,—for the sake of all of us who try to come to Church
soberly and quietly, that we may know why we do so, and may have an
answer if any one asks us. Such will be our conduct even when we are
out of Church. I mean, those who come to Church again and again, in
this humble and heavenly way, will find the effect of it, through God's
mercy, in their daily walk. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai,
where he had been forty days and forty nights, his face quite shone and
dazzled the people, so that he was obliged to put a veil over it. Such
is the effect of God's grace on those who come to Church in faith and
love; their mode of acting and talking, their very manner and
behaviour, show they have been in God's presence. They are ever sober,
cheerful, modest, serious, and earnest. They do not disgrace their
profession, they do not take God's Name in vain, they do not use
passionate language, they do not lie, they do not jest in an unseemly
way, they do not use shameful words, they keep their mouth; they have
kept their mouth in Church, and avoided rashness, so they are enabled
to keep it at home. They have bright, smiling, pleasant faces. They do
not wear a mock gravity, and, like the hypocrites whom Christ speaks
of, make themselves sad countenances, but they are easy and natural,
and without meaning it cannot help showing in their look, and voice,
and manner, that they are God's dear children, and have His grace
within them. They are civil and obliging, kind and friendly; not
envious or jealous, not quarrelsome, not spiteful or resentful, not
selfish, not covetous, not niggardly, not lovers of the world, not
afraid of the world, not afraid of what man can do against them.
Such are they who worship God in spirit and in truth in Church; they
love Him and they fear Him. And, besides those who profess to love
without fearing, there are two sorts of persons who fall short; first,
and worst, those who neither fear nor love God; and, secondly, those
who fear Him, but do not love Him. There are, every where, alas! some
bold, proud, discontented persons, who, as far as they dare, speak
against religion altogether; they do not come to Church, or if they
come, come to see about what is going on, not to worship. These are
those who neither love nor fear; but the more common sort of persons
are they who have a sort of fear of God without the love of Him, who
feel and know that some things are right, and others wrong, yet do not
adhere to the right; who are conscious they sin from time to time, and
that wilfully, who have an uneasy conscience, who fear to die; who
have, indeed, a sort of serious feeling about sacred things, who
reverence the Church and its Ordinances, who would be shocked at open
impiety, who do not make a mock at Baptism, much less at the Holy
Communion, but, still, who have not the heart to love and obey God.
This, I fear, my brethren, may be the state of some of you. See to it,
that you are clear from the sin of knowing and confessing what is your
duty, and yet not doing it. If you be such, and make no effort to
become better; if you do not come to Church honestly, for God's grace
to make you better, and seriously strive to be better and to do your
duty more thoroughly, it will profit you nothing to be ever so reverent
in your manner, and ever so regular in coming to Church. God hates the
worship of the mere lips; He requires the worship of the heart. A
person may bow, and kneel, and look religious, but he is not at all the
nearer heaven, unless he tries to obey God in all things, and to do his
duty. But if he does honestly strive to obey God, then his outward
manner will be reverent also; decent forms will become natural to him;
holy ordinances, though coming to him from the Church, will at the same
time come (as it were) from his heart; they will be part of himself,
and he will as little think of dispensing with them as he would
dispense with his ordinary apparel, nay, as he could dispense with
tongue or hand in speaking or doing. This is the true way of doing
devotional service; not to have feelings without acts, or acts without
feelings; but both to do and to feel;—to see that our hearts and
bodies are both sanctified together, and become one; the heart ruling
our limbs, and making the whole man serve Him, who has redeemed the
whole man, body as well as soul.
[1] Sam. i. 11.
[2] Ps. lxxxiv. 4.
[3] Luke xviii. 13.