tirely wrong spirit? The critical or
self-regarding spirit has its uses, but it may be fatal to
'personal consecration' in public worship. How often does an
entire service depend upon our own temper, our own mood, our own
spirit? And how often is it true that a congregation has as much
to do with the making of a minister as the minister has to do
with the making of a congregation?

"'If I neglect public worship, then,' a man should say to
himself, 'the community is injured, the brotherhood is weakened,
the young are confused. It is a grave responsibility.'

"But now we must not shrink from the question: How far or how
long ought these considerations to hold the man who has lost
delight in public worship or faith in that to which it bears
witness? When should doubt make worship impossible, or unbelief
make worship wrong for the honest soul? When should 'personal
consecration' say to a man, not _stay_, but _depart_? It is a
grave question, and every one must shape his answer for himself.
All I would say is: Give worship the benefit of the doubt: ay!
give fellow-worshippers the benefit of the doubt. Continue with
them as long as you can; if not as a full believer, then as a
devout inquirer, a gentle seeker, a sympathetic friend. Why not?
That is possible with us; for the very bond of our union is
sympathetic regard for one another's freedom. It is also
specially possible with us because our teachings do not, at all
events, outrage the reason and shock the moral sense. Even an
agnostic might listen to us and hope that our Gospel is true.

"Special dangers call for special safeguards, special
consideration, special wariness. It is an age of splendid advance
in science, of restless energy in business, of stupendous
activity in politics, of daring questioning everywhere. All that
makes against public worship; and yet all that makes public
worship a greater necessity and demonstrates 'the pressing need
of personal consecration' to it. God only knows what we should
do without it and the blessed Sunday!

"'Dear old commemorative day,
For weary man designed
To help him on life's troubled way,
To give his spirit freer play,
To soothe his harassed mind!

"'A day of worship and of grace,
One calm, sweet day in seven,
To grant