The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1873-07-16
BRING THEM TO CHURCH.
|. BRING qour brains

no place for mental lounging. The pews are
not cushioned to facilitate easy doing, vague
rhusing, semi-stupid dreaming. Nor is the
object of your visit there to pass so much
time away, to comply with comely custom,
nor even to satisfy the claims of conscience.
The house of God is, among other things, a
place for Thoughts place where the mind
is comforted with grand, soul-stirring ideas.
We love, hate, aspire, resolve, only in view
of some object present to the mind. And
where else in our going, tarrying, li8tenings,
peruSings, do we come into the presence of
conceptions so stupendous as those of God,
Christ, the atonement, death, the resurrec-
*ion, the judgment, the measurelesS felicitieS
of heaven, the measureless woes of hell?
2. Bring your heart
If you have oDe Intellect there must be,
but from intellect without heart, from cold,
unteeling, critical acumen, may the good
Lord deliver US There is style of spirit
that, if visible, would resemble little crooked
interrogation point. 1t engrosses itself with
questioning. 1t questions the preaching,
the reading, the singing, the praying. 1t so
fills up the time with questioning and criti-
cism, that no time is left for devotion, and
no room for feeling. Do not leave your in
tellect at home, but do not let it monopolize
you. Look with both eyes, else the unused
one will go blind. Let your heart play
Hold it ever in readiness to give back emo
tion for emotion, sigh for sigh, tear for tear.
Be SO glad to find love beaming, Joy spark
ling, penitence sobbing, enthusiasm rising,
as to forget flaw in the sentence, the mis-
pronunciation of word, the confusion of a
metaphor or the awkwardness of a. gesture.
Let not the intellect be SO engrosSed with the
spots on the SUP that the heart cannot feel
its warmth. Be not coldly proud to let it
be known that you have tear for your eye,
and heart In your bosom. Jesus wept.
Our religion, while it employs the brain, is
fitted also to kindle and engrosS the afec-
tions. Bring, then, your heart with you.
3. Bring yOur Children
If you have any. The young mind is wax
to receive, and marble to retain Impressions,
especially of religious character. Know
ing so well what it is to throw the arms
around loving fathers neck, to sit on a
loving mothers lap. it can fully take in the
simple, touching idea of Father in heaven.
And what parent, whether as yet with or
without place at Christ's communion board,
does not wish that the holy thoughts and
pure truths Of the gospel may be woven like
threads of silver and gold into the warp and
.woof Of the rapidly forming character p
What parent will dare to send out that little
one upon life's, it may be for it, wild and
tempestuous voyage, over the seas whose
shores are lined with wrecks, wrecked hopes,
wrecked characters, wrecked souls, unfair
nished with the chart that Christ has drawn ?
A church-going habit in the child is a
silken cord that often keeps it from straying
when the world opens upon it its glitter of
alluring temptations Many time in after
years, in some hour of moral peril, in some
moment of penitence, the associations that
cluster about the pulpit and communion
scenes, woven into the young experience,
may break like breezes from Paradise upon
the soul, and move it to spread the sails for
voyage back towards the puritieS of earlier
life.