Worship

of the congregation is of far more importance in His sight — than the
number of the worshipers, or the outward and visible signs of devotion
which they exhibit. Children and fools, who admire poppies more than
corn, may think all is right when there is a great external show of
religion. But it is not so with God. His all-seeing eye looks at the inner man!
III. I proceed, in the third-place, to show the ESSENTIAL PARTS of
Christian public worship.
I will suppose the case of a man who has never given the subject of
religion any sincere attention, and has never gone regularly to any place
of worship at all. I will suppose such a man to be awakened to a sense of
the value of his soul, and to be desirous of information about things in
religion. He is puzzled by finding that all Christians do not worship God
in the same way, and that one neighbor worships God in one fashion,
and another in another. He hears one man saying that there is no road
to Heaven excepting through his church — and another replying that all
will go to Hell who do not join his chapel. Now what is he to think? Are
there not certain things which are essential parts of Christian worship?
I answer without hesitation that there are. It shall be my next business
to exhibit them in order.
I freely grant that there is little said on the nature of public worship in the New
Testament. There is a wide difference in this respect between the law of
Moses — and the law of Christ.
The Jew's religion was full of strict and minute directions about
worship. The Christian's religion contains very few directions, and
those of the simplest and most general description.
The Jew's religion was full of types, emblems, and figures. The
Christian's religion only contains two: Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
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