ON SITTING DURING PRAYER. IN one of our large sea-ports lived two families; the younger sons of which, William and Henry, attended the same school, and there contracted a friendship which continued until death. The basis of this attachment was formed in their boyish games; but as they grew up, the minds of both were influenced by the love of God, which conduced more than any thing else to rivet that friendship which had commenced in their childhood. The parents of William sent their son to an attorney in the metropolis at the age of seventeen; while Henry continued in his native place. Six years passed away, and at length William returned to reside and practise in his own immediate neighbourhood. On the first Sunday after his arrival, the young friends attended a neighbouring church together. Their conversation while going there was such as becometh Christians. They spake of Him who was so abundant in goodness, that he left his heavenly glory to suffer and die for the guilty sons of man; and while they spoke, they hoped that their hearts might be influenced to walk in his steps. But during the service, Henry observed that his young friend sat during the whole of the prayers. At first, he conjectured that this might proceed from some weakness or infirmity which he had not mentioned to his friend; and accordingly, on their return, he embraced an opportunity of speaking to him upon the subject, expressing his surprise and apprehensions on behalf of his friend. "I perceive," replied William, "that in these things, my dear friend, you are too scrupulous. * Principally extracted from, "A Dialogue between two Friends, on the undevout Custom of sitting during Divine Worship." Plymouth. Price 3d. A DIALOGUE*. Do you not think that God is a spirit, and that the mind is every thing? The body matters little whether we kneel or sit. For my part, it appears to me not only formal but pharisaical to kneel, as if we wished to be taken notice of. I assure you, my dear Henry, I do not sit from want of reverence; but I have seen many good people adopt this posture; and their arguments in defence of the practice appeared to me so very plausible, that I have now for some time sat, although my heart has been, I trust, prostrate." 66 "I know," replied Henry," that, my dear William, you are open to conviction, and fully do I believe your statement; but do let me explain to you my views on this important subject. It will be readily acknowledged, by every considerate person, that we cannot approach the Divine Presence too devoutly; and as the mind and body are so closely allied, when the latter is in a devout posture, though I do not say the former will also be devoutly engaged, yet this I will say, that the probability is greater than if the person remained sitting-a posture ever conceived too familiar for the presence of an earthly sovereign. But supposing, William, for a moment, that whilst we this morning were in the act of supplicating the Divine Majesty, one VISIBLE RAY of the excellent glory had shone supernaturally over the people, would not your knee, would not the knee of every one there, spontaneously have bent in the most lowly prostration? This granted, and you grant all; for we should always so act as if the Lord were immediately present, especially as he hath said, Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them*." 'Behold the * Matt. xviii. 20. host of heaven celebrating the blessedness of the Divine Majesty, they fall down prostrate and worship Him who liveth for ever t.' Again, Come with me to the garden of Gethsemane, and there behold the Saviour of sinners; there behold our bright Exemplar, withdrawn from the disciples, a stone cast, and kneeling down and praying.' If he who was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God—if he in his inferior nature, at the time of his deepest humiliation, knelt, how much more does it become us, who are dust and ashes, reverently to approach the Father of mercies! But let us go farther. Look at Solomon, in the public dedication of the temple, surrounded with thousands of worshippers: and Solomon kneeled down on his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands. towards heaven, and said, O Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee in the heaven, nor in the earth. Moreover, the case of Daniel and Abraham kneeling, I question not, is known to you:" At this instant their conversation was interrupted by a young man, with whom they were acquainted, and who had heard part of their discourse. "I perfectly agree with you, Mr. Henry," said this gentleman; "we should do every 'thing to recommend ourselves to God, and no doubt he will accept us for our righteous deeds; for my part I always kneel-I always keep my mind perfectly still-I suffer no worldly thought to intrude there.' "Ah, my dear Sir," said Henry, interrupting his self-gratulation, "I was, indeed, differing with my yonng friend on the subject of not kneeling during the most solemn parts of the Liturgy. But his is, I trust, only an error in judgment; your's, forgive me for saying Rev. x. 14. +2 Chron, vi. 13. so, is one of the heart; and, except that heart is renewed by the Spirit of God, I fear, I exceedingly fear, that, with all your religious and righteous acts, you can never see the face of God in peace. When, this morning, you confessed yourself a miserable and guilty sinner, the lips gave utterance to a sentence to which the heart was a stranger. Vain is our kneeling, vain are all our services, without a sense of our own unworthiness, and a total renunciation of our own righteousness. It is only in that fountain which is open for sin and uncleanness that we can find peace and reconciliation." "This is a subject," said the gentleman, somewhat chagrined, “this is a subject I am not very fond of. By your system, you will reduce man to nothing."-Saying which, he hurried away. "Now, my dear Henry," said William, "do not you see the danger of the posture for which you plead? how it is calculated to engender pride. You perceive that the gentleman who has just left us, because he kneels and does a few other righteous acts, thinks he shall merit heaven." "That this practice may occasion pride in some instances, I allow," said Henry, "in the same manner as every good thing may be perverted to a bad use. Look at the various bounties of Heaven, all good in themselves, but, alas! how often abused! still, surely, you would not blame the giver, or the gift, but the abuser of it. So, in like manner, kneeling is not only the most proper posture of devotion, but likewise a help to it. You will not, surely, refrain from the practice because some make a bad use of it, and pride themselves on their services." The two friends here met an elderly gentleman, with whom they had often taken sweet counsel; and after welcoming each other, William, hesitating, said to him, "Dear Mr. Antony, my friend Henry and myself are discussing the propriety of kneeling during divine service. Pray give us your opinion on the subject. The time was, when we sought your advice even as a father; and surely you will again grant it unto us." 66 Yes, indeed," replied the aged Christian, "I always considered you as my children, and gladly would I spend and be spent to do you service; but how is it that even a doubt could arise in your minds relative to the subject? The most lowly prostration of body blends spontaneously with the very idea of adoration and supplication. I am always shocked when I see the Supreme Being addressed, by worms of the earth, in a posture which the highest archangel would blush to imitate. O my dear children! give not way to such, I must say at the least, profane ideas. Care not in this matter for the opinions or scoffs of others, but act as if the visible eye of Jehovah was shining upon you. Always, always, I repeat it, are we in the presence of God; but when we enter his sanctuary, or meet together for social prayer, or alone in our closets, then especially do we call upon the Almighty to look upón us. Look at Abraham falling on his face before God; look at Moses; look at Daniel, fearlessly before his enraged enemies, opening his windows, and kneeling and praying towards the temple; look at the Apostle Paul on the sea coast, surrounded by the Ephesian church; there, even there, in a place as inconvenient as can well be conceived, did he kneel down and pray aloud; nay, so uniformly was this his practice, that he makes use of the expression, "I bow my knees," as synonymous with, "I pray But tell me, William, to-night, when you return home, and your pious Father, * Eph. iii. 14. NOV. 1823. like Joshua, is surrounded with his family in your regular devotion, tell me, do you sit while all the rest kneel? And again, when retiring to rest, do you not bless God in your own room for his mercies, and do you sit to do this?" "No," said William, "certainly I should kneel." "Then why not at his public worship?" replied the old man. "Observe, the Scriptures which I have quoted bear more particularly on the public worship of God than otherwise. My dear boy, think on the subject. Some, doubtless, have told you that God is a spirit, and the mind is every thing. How fallacious is this reasoning! Why use the lips then? why the speech? both are equally corporeal members as the knees. If, then, the words of our lips are poured forth in the language of adoration, unquestionably the knees should be bent too: but," said the old man, "the practice of sitting is quite indefensible; it is contrary to the voice of Revelation and reason, the custom of the primitive churches, and the express instruction of our own. To me it is a strange anomaly, that so many persons who boast themselves strict members of the Establishment, should choose to sit during those parts of the service where the church in her rubric positively enjoins them to kneel." "Do you then," said William, "think it absolutely unlawful in all cases to sit during prayers, and condemn all without exception who decline kneeling?"? "Believe me, my young friend," replied Mr. Antony, "I do no such thing. It appears to me the duty of all who are able, to kneel in the worship of God. I consider this practice as expressive of humility, as conducive to devotion, as calculated to exclude wandering thoughts and vain imaginations, which often enter by the eye while persons are sitting or standing; but I should be acting very wrong 3 H were I to censure all who do not comply with my views; and it would be a very rash and unlawful judgment were I to pronounce, that all those of our fellow-worshippers who sat this morning while others kneeled had done amiss. Many persons come from a distance, and are glad to sit, that they may worship God with less distraction; others are old and infirm, and are therefore justly entitled to copy the example of David, who went in and sat before the Lord; though most persons suppose the expression only means that he continued some time in worship. And there are some young persons, especially females, who from weakness and various other causes find it ex 2 Sam. vii. 18. pedient to sit, and are unquestionably blameless in His sight who desireth mercy and not sacrifice. But even such persons, while justified in sitting when others kneel, will do well by bowing down their heads, closing their eyes, or in any way most convenient to themselves, to avoid looking round, so as either to attract the attention of others, or be themselves disturbed by any of those little occurrences which necessarily take place in large congregations*? A CONSTANT READER. * In some places, the pews are so narrow as to render kneeling somewhat inconvenient; and in others, persons excuse them selves for want of hassocks, cushions, &c. but a very few shillings would in most instances remedy the defect complained of. LETTER FROM THE LATE REV. HENRY VENN TO THE REV. MR. T. THE love, my dear friend, which sprung up in my heart towards you when first we met at Ledbury, has not waxed cold. No sooner, therefore, did I hear of your providential removal to another and a larger flock, than my heart was engaged in prayer. Whether I shall, notwithstanding my purpose, be able to see you, is still uncertain; for I am so much enfeebled, that bad weather is more than I can bear in travelling. I sit down now, therefore, on purpose to send you some account of the things which I ask of my God in your behalf. In the first place, I beg of him to enable you to preach Jesus Christ in the glory of his person, in the fulness of his grace, and in the length, breadth, height, and depth of his love; to preach him as a free, present, almighty Saviour of the sinful sons of men; to preach him with increasing clearness and to this end I pray, that you may have more precious discoveries of your own salvation in Him, so as : to speak as the Apostles, from a rich, inestimable experience of the reality of the blessedness of believing in Jesus. Secondly, I beg of God, that in the discharge of your office you may exert yourself, not injure your valuable health, but as far as your strength will hold, to go on imitating the great Shepherd himself, who was taken for fifty when little more than thirty; for from his incessant labours his very countenance was aged. Thirdly, I pray you may be filled with bowels of mercies; that not only the counsels you give, and the consolations you administer to the faithful, but even all your denunciations of wrath to come, may breathe a tender love to the souls of men. Fourthly, I pray that you may be bold as a lion to encounter reproach and bear all reviling, and be willing to be as a monster unto many, for His sake whom the nations abhorred. Fifthly, I pray that you may serve God with all humility and many tears, feeling the plague of your own heart, and yourself to be the chief of sinners; for then the spirit of God rests upon us, and our fellow-sinners are melted down. Sixthly, I pray that all the discouragements you may meet with, all the opposition from your own people speaking perverse things, and all the various trials which occur in your new situation, may be more than counterbalanced by finding the word of the Lord in your mouth, mighty to convince and to convert; by seeing seals added to your ministry, and precious souls your epistle of commendation known and read of all nien. Lastly, My prayer to God for you and for myself is, that our death may crown our ministry; that we may with our latest breath so testify of Christ as to add fresh weight to every discourse we have ever made to our people in defence of the Gospel. These petitions I have, and I trust I shall often, put up for my dear friend. Having almost lost my voice, and retiring from the rank of a standard-bearer in the camp of Israel to that of a private soldier, I have, abundantly more time to pray for my dear companions, with whom I was once a fellow-labourer in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. And though his all-wise appointment hath fixed us in such distant parts of his vineyard, that probably we shall seldom meet here; it is in this case no small gratification to Christian love, that our meeting never to part cannot be far off. We shall both appear amongst the brands plucked out of the fireboth be numbered amongst those who have turned sinners from the error of their way, and been witnesses for a crucified God in a day of rebuke and blasphemy. That meeting I reckon much upon. I want to have it vastly more realized to my mind; I want to shout for joy, uttering the heathen's celebrated saying, with the faith of assurance, "O præclaram illam diem!" I beg my Christian love to dear Mrs. T. I trust there are some ladies at Reading that will find, that as Miriam sung with Moses, and led the solemn concert of praise, so your lady can preach, though not an ordained pastor. You receive with this two of my dearest friends, a brother and a daughter in the Lord. Him you well know and love; his other self is too reserved and diffident to discover the treasure she possesses. Perhaps Mrs. T. may encourage her to speak, and they may exhort and comfort one another. Wishing you every blessing, I conclude self your affectionate friend and brother in Christ Jesus, Oct. 17, 1768. my H. V. |