Late Attendance at Public Worship

A want of punctual attention to the hour of commencing divine service, is a fault but too prevalent in worshipping assemblies. A worthy clergy man whose congregation had given him much vexation in this respect, began his discourse one Sunday in these terms: "When I came here to begin to worship last Sabbath morning, I believe there were not twenty people in the chapel; at the weekly lecture it was the same; and again this morning; my heart is pained. What can you mean by this conduct? Do you mean to worship God? then I must tell you plainly, and with the authority of a Christian minister, that this is no worship; deceive not yourselves, God will not accept it at your hands." He proceeded to enforce this point with great earnestness and feeling, and produced such an impression on the minds of his hearers, that next Sabbath, almost every person had assembled by the time he ascended the pulpit.