The house of God has special charms for the Christian in his old age. There is a calm, quiet, soul-refreshing atmosphere there, which is peculiarly sweet to one who longs for rest. You can leave the noise and turmoil of the world, with all its vanities and sins, and there meet your God, and hold sweet communion with Him.

The Lord is everywhere. He is about our path, and about our bed. But He is especially with us in His own house. There we feel His nearness, and we are sometimes ready to exclaim, as Jacob did at Bethel, “Surely the LORD is in this place ... this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Gen. 28:15-16).

Good old Eli loved the Lord’s house. Many a happy and blessed hour he spent in those sacred courts. David too rejoiced to be there; “A day in thy courts is better than a thousand (spent elsewhere). I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Ps. 84:10). Simeon enjoyed his visits to the temple. There it was that he saw the Savior, whom he so greatly longed to behold. And this made him quite willing to die; “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation” (Luke 2:29-30). We read also in the gospels of Anna, who was of a “great age,” “a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day” (Luke 2:36-37). The house of God was her delight. It seemed like a little heaven below. The voice of prayer and praise was music in her ears.

Well, dear brother or sister, I hope you can say of the courts of the Lord, “I love to be there. There I have spent my happiest moments. There I have found a peace of which the world can never rob me. There I have often had my heart warmed with love to Christ and to His people. There I have often­times gone with a heavy burden; but I have left it behind me, and come away lightened.”

Dear is to me the Sabbath morn,
The village bells, the pastor’s voice,
These oft have found my heart forlorn,

And these have bid my heart rejoice.
And dear to me the winged hour,
Spent in Thy hallowed courts, O Lord;
To feel devotion’s soothing power,

And catch the manna of Thy Word.
And dear to me the loud Amen,
Which echoes through the blest abode,
Which swells and sinks, and swells again,
Dies on the walls, but lives to God.

Oh, when the world, with iron hand,
Would bind me in its six days’ chain,
Thus burst, O Lord, the strong man’s band,
And let my spirit loose again.

But it is not every kind of church atten­dance that does us good. Many a young per­son, and many an old one, too, goes without getting much profit. Let me offer you then a few friendly directions.

Always go to God’s house expecting a blessing. Look for it, and especially ask for it. Go in a devout spirit. Before you leave your home, kneel down for a moment or two and beg of the Lord to prepare your heart by His Holy Spirit and enable you to worship Him as you ought.

When there, enter with all your heart into the service. During the prayers, join earnestly with your fellow-worshippers. It is not enough to sit quietly while your minis­ter sends up his petitions to heaven; but pray the prayers yourself. Yes, pray them with all your soul.

When the lessons are read out of God’s Word, listen with your whole attention. It may be you have often heard those chapters before, or read them yourself; but they con­tain precious truths, which are always new to the hearing ear and the understanding heart.

During the sermon, be a humble listener. You should be as a little child, feeling that your knowledge is but small, and that you have much to learn. You should be like a hun­gry man who comes to be fed, seeking to get your soul nourished by the bread of life. You should be like the thirsty soil, which waits to drink in the falling shower. If we all heard in this way, who can tell what blessings would flow from every service, and how many would come away from this ordinance of God filled and refreshed?

Perhaps you are growing deaf, and can only pick up a part of what is said by the preacher. Perhaps, too, your memory fails you, when you try to gather up what you have heard. Still, you can carry away something, and you will be thankful for that something, if you feel that it is a part of God’s own message.

Another direction I will give you. When you come home from church, do not forget the service in which you have been engaging. Converse about it, if you have an opportu­nity. Get out your Bible, and find the text; and then talk over any part of the sermon which you can remember. This is the way to refresh your memory, and to lay up a store of spiritual knowledge.

When Holy Communion is administered, do not fail to receive it. Be thankful when your Communion Sundays come around, and rejoice in the opportunity of feeding on the body and blood of Christ.

Some old persons “take the Sacrament,” as they call it, as a mere matter of form. They come to the Lord’s Table because there is something respectable in doing so, or because their minister expects to see them there. But if they only come for this reason, it is to them but a poor, cold, dry, unmeaning service, and, instead of pleasing God, they only offend Him.

But I trust that you, my dear friend, are not one of these formal communicants. I trust that you come to this blessed ordinance under a deep feeling of your own sinfulness and unworthiness, and desire to draw near to Christ with humble and living faith. You come, not because you are worthy to come, but because you feel your need for strength and grace. You come to Jesus to be pardoned and healed, and to receive fresh life from Him.

I have said that David and Simeon and Eli and Anna loved God’s house. But you have reason to love it even more than they did, for they lived only in Jewish days. The light was but very dim then. But now it shines brightly and clearly upon us. Christ is come, and He is plainly set before us as “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

Then love the house of God. Go there as often as the bells of the sanctuary call you. And remember your Savior’s gracious promise: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20).

May your Sabbaths be more and more happy as you draw nearer to that endless Sabbath which you hope to spend above! May your love for God’s day, for God’s house, for God’s Word, and for God’s people be ever increasing, until you are called away to join the one family in heaven, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God!

Thine earthly Sabbaths, Lord, I love,
But there’s a nobler rest above.
Oh that I might that rest attain,
From sin, from sorrow, and from pain!