The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-06-08
CHURCH ATTENDANCE.
BY REV. s. G. HAYFoRD.

The one great need OF humanity is
spiritual life. What we usually call
life is mere existence, surface con-
sciousness, not real life. To live we
must become conscious of good.
How shall this be accomplished?
How shall we rise above a merely
physical sense of existence into the
spiritual sense of Being7 We must
look away from ourselves; or rather,
we must look away from the usual
manifestations of our natures to the
higher expression of Eternal Good
ness. We must become conscious of
God, the Infinite and Eternal. Know
him by spiritual trust and obedience.
God comes into our life by destroying
our self-dependence. Sin grows hate
full to us when we see it as the per-
verted, unreal expression of our being.
We must see in the allurements of
sin only that which is deceptive and
Disappointing. 1t is easy to state
this as an abstract truth. A few per-
sons may, through the mere accep-
tance of the statement, rise into the
blessedness of the truth. But the
vast majority of us need other helps.
There are avenues by which we may
be led into the higher consciousness.
We have faculties which might be
called semi-spiritual. OF themselves
alone they would not suffice, but they
are wonderful aids to transform us
from unreality to reality; from sell
fishness to love.
There are two avenues of approach
to our real being; the sense of beauty,
and the sense of security. The Chris
tian Church appeals to each. The
service of worship addresses us as
ideal beings. Nowhere else can we
find such beauty as in the expression
of our homage and gratitude to the
Source and Giver of all good. The
service in which all join, responding
in appropriate language to the utter
ance of sdevout desire, awakens a
deeper sense of divine realities.
Music, both by organ and voice, are
marvellous helps to religious senti-
ment. The appeal to the eye, by
architecture and decoration, pictures,
flowers, and children in the temple of
worship, all combine to speed our
faculties along new and purer chan
nels. Then, the sense of security
comes to us in the house of God.
Where congregations regularly as
semble to pray and sing, we feel the
protection of peaceful home. We
come to know God as our Almighty
Friend and Christ as our all-sufficient
Saviour. Do not people, who con-
stantly absent themselves from the
place of worship, miss mighty aids to
their deepest life'
Some may say it is enough to COM
mune with God in the open air, in
the green fields amid bowers of
beauty, listening to the music of
birds and brooks, bus they who thus
commune most effectually, are those
who have first found God in the di-
vinely appointed way of church SER
vice. The church has first cultured
their senae of beauty and trust. The
spoken word, with the accompanying
service, and the presence Of other
worshipers, has put them in mood
to best enjoy communion with nature.
Would it not conduce to the best
good of the community if all would
attend at least one service a week in
the place appointed for worship7
Would there not come of it higher
ideality, and more constant trust in
God9 Let those who rarely, or never,
attend church, give church atten-
dance fair trial, for the space of one
year, and we are confident they will
then be ready to admit its inestima-
BILE value. And when we come to
those sadder experiences, which
sooner or later, overtake us all; when
sorrow, disappointment, the fading
away of earthly hopes, the crumbling
of the foundations of our worldly
trust, what can supply the place of
Religion? They who have prepared
themselves through the culture and
discipline of dutiful service, find their