Sunday, December 8, 2013
Dying of Dignity
"It is easy enough among Dissenters to find regulations as rigid as could be invented by any bench of bishops; you may not vary the length of the hymn or the order of the service by a hair’s breadth, or you will sin against your own reputation and the feelings of the conservative portion of the congregation. There are few of such places now, but quite enough. and, where the evil rules, the good folks are as tenacious of their established nonsense as ever the Church of England can be of her printed prayers and rubrics; and the preacher must submit to all the regular fudge as if it were Scripture itself, or be pronounced eccentric and wanting in decorum. A man that is a man will yield for peace sake as far as his soul is unhampered, but beyond that he will ask, “Who makes these regulations, and to what end are they made?” Finding them. to be worthless and injurious, he will put his foot through them, and there will be an end of the rubbish. Some congregations are dying of dignity, and must be aroused by real life. People said that Mr. Hill rode on the back of order and decorum, and therefore he called his two horses by those names, so that if he could not ride on the back of them he might make the saying nearly true by being dragged behind them. Order and decorum, in some of our churches, have manifested themselves to be deadly sins; dead and burying the dead. Some congregations are so very orderly that they are like a vault in which the corpses lie, each one in due place, and none dares to move or lift a voice loud enough to be called a chirp. This will not do. Bring the trumpet! Sound a blast and wake the sleepers! Eccentric! Yes, eccentricity, if you like to call life by that name. Heaven knows it is sadly wanted."
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You my dear brother had better be careful when speaking of such things. Such careless conviction will without question lead to mutinous action from the membership. The Apostolic demand of “decency and order” demands that we practice worship the same way, every time. (Wait did I say, practice worship?) And any who would dare suggest otherwise would mix confusion and disharmony among an otherwise reverential state. Doubtless you sir, are strolling a spider’s web over the slippery slope of sewing discord and the crevasse of disorder.
How dare we vary such crucial elements of worship as singing one less hymn? Singing one more hymn? Singing one less verse? Praying before the 1st song instead of after it? Failing to read the entire prayer list at every service? And, of course, as Scripture dictates, we must call out every name of every member who is not there; for “special prayer” of course.
In Isaiah 6 we find where the door posts in the Temple shook when the voice of the angel of God spoke. IF those same pillars shook each and every time one of the Lord’s Church’s varied their song service; IF the door posts trembled every time someone sat in a different seat; IF those columns quivered every time we dismissed without singing the 1st verse, and only the 1st verse of “Just As I Am” (for we certainly don’t want to be Arminian in our practice)…I feel quite sure that the foundation of the Eternal Temple would not quake violently enough nor regularly enough to set off any Heavenly Seismographs.
But then…who’s not a fan of having a regular service?!?!
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