THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY'S PASTORAL LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF SCOTLAND, ON FAMILY WORSHIP.* THE Publishers consider that they cannot more appropriately commence their Work on FAMILY WORSHIP, than by prefixing the GENERAL ASSEMBLY'S PASTORAL LETTER to the PEOPLE OF SCOTLAND, on the same subject, in which the duties and privileges of domestic worship are most strongly recommended and enforced. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, To our dearly beloved People: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord. On your behalf, brethren, we thank God, whom we serve with our spirit in the Gospel of His Son, that your faith and devotion have long been spoken of throughout the world; and we are bound always to have remembrance of you in our prayers night and day, greatly desiring that, like your forefathers in times of clearest light, you may continue steadfastly in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, abounding in the exercises of that unfeigned godliness, which is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. In compliance with the solicitations of many who watch for your souls, and are jealous over you with godly jealousy,, we have resolved to issue this brotherly exhortation on the sacred and indispensable duty of Family Worship,-not as if we had any recent ground for apprehending that it is likely to fall into more extensive neglect, but because we know too well that it is by no means universally practised, and because even the purest minds require to be stirred up, by way of remembrance, that, while they hold fast the profession of their own faith without wavering, they may consider one another to provoke and encourage, by good counsel and good example, to the love of truth and holiness, and to the habitual and serious observance of those offices of piety, whereby, as surely as the body is nourished and refreshed by its daily bread and its nightly rest, the soul of man, through the nurture and admonition of the Lord, is progressively matured in excellence and strength, till it is advanced to the perfection and glory of its immortal existence. In calling your attention to this momentous topic, we think it superfluous to enlarge on the high obli Edinburgh, May 30, 1836.-The General Assembly having considered and approved the Overtures recommending a renewed Admonition for the purpose of stirring up the people of this land to the faithful and regular observance of the Worship of God in their Families, did, and hereby do, require the following Pastoral Letter to be read by all the Ministers of this Church, from their several pulpits, on the first convenient Lord's Day after it shall come into their hands. JOHN LEE, Cl. Eccl. Scot. gations by which the duty is enforced,-obligations which are involved in the very constitution of our frail and dependent being, and impressed on the understanding and the heart by the persuasive voice of Scriptural authority, opening the ears of men, and sealing the instruction, by which God speaketh, not once or twice, but at sundry times, and in divers manners, adding line upon line, precept upon precept, promise upon promise, and threatening upon threatening, so as to bring perpetually to remembrance both the blessings which are multiplied to them that fear the Lord, and the fury which is poured out on the families which call not on his name. The appointment of the reasonable service of bowing down at the domestic altar before the Lord our Maker, that, in waiting for the promised effusion of the Spirit of grace and supplications, we may be filled with the fruits of righteousness, has ever been regarded by all men of sound mind and Christian experience, not as the imposition of an irksome yoke, but as the conveyance of an inestimable privilege; for as often as we mark the tokens of God's power and presence in making the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice, must every enlightened and purified heart, lifting up its affections to the Father of Spirits, acknowledge, with triumphant satisfaction, that it is a good thing to show forth His lovingkindness in the morning, and His faithfulness every night. To those only who have tasted and seen it, can we speak intelligibly of the tranquil delight which is awakened and sustained by such periodical acts of household worship, as are not a mere formal ceremony in which the members join with reluctance or cold compliance, but the fervent utterance of lips. which, out of the abundance of the heart, in which the love of God is shed abroad, are, by the influence of that unquenchable affection, most pleasingly constrained to celebrate the mercies which are new every morning, and to offer up the spiritual incense of prayer with as unceasing regularity, as from the sanctuary of Israel the smoke of the evening sacrifice arose, or as the early dew of Hermon descended on the mountains of Sion, when there the Lord commanded the blessing—even life for evermore. Without all controversy, the benefits produced |
