Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. PRAYER BEFORE DIVINE SERVICE.
Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Exod. iii. 5. There is a custom so prevalent in English Churches as to be almost universal, and a very excellent custom too, namely, that of offering up a private prayer immediately upon assuming a place in the Church. I believe that in almost all Churches a person who should take his seat without first appearing at least to offer a prayer would be regarded as ignorant and rude, if not something worse. Nevertheless, as in many other cases, there would sometimes appear to be too much of custom and too little of reality in the practice; and not unfrequently a man seems as if he were reading in the crown of his hat, which he holds before his face, rather than as if he were engaged in prayer. But the practice itself is a most wise and holy one, and commends itself to our judgment as appropriate and decent, not to say necessary. For the success of public worship depending (as it does) upon the present help of God’s Holy Spirit, we cannot too soon after our entrance into God’s House ask His blessing upon the work, which we are about to take in hand; soon we shall have to join with others in the public expression of prayer and praise, and in order that we may not be left behind in zeal and spirit by our fellow-worshippers, it is well to seek God’s preventing grace, and that right early. Moreover, if we could fully realize the character of a Church as being the presence-chamber of the Most High, the place where His honour dwelleth, the house where He has been - pleased to put His name, the guest-chamber where Christ meets His disciples and sups with them, we should also feel that a posture of reverence befitted a suitor in this presence-…