Morning Star

To Somebody,

When I enter the house of God, I endeavor to impress my mind with the solemn and important truth, that "God is here." I think of good Jacob of old, when he lay in the wilderness with only a stone for his pillow; though he thought he was alone, yet when he started from his slumbers, he exclaimed, "Lo the Lord was in this place and I knew it not. How dreadful is this place: it is none other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven."

With the consideration of this affecting incident upon my mind, I feel prepared to meet a blessing—I look around and think of the hundreds of souls who will soon appear at the bar of God. Dreadful day! how many will be condemned! how many will look back upon the present hour! When I think of these things, I must confess I feel an awful chill coming over me; especially, when I see some in the house of God disposed to trifle with sacred things. When I see a young lady, the child of pious parents, behaving with levity and with indecency in the sacred house, I cannot help thinking of her dying hour. How will she there upbraid herself for her folly, and her misimprovement of divine things!

Oh young lady, whoever you are, remember that God's eye is upon you. If I were to call out your name, and you were to see it in flaming capitals in the Herald, how would you blush for thus being publicly exposed as the guilty individual, who sat and trifled away the season of grace, when the man of God was offering pardon and salvation! Yet let me tell you my young friend, that your crime is recorded in a great book, where it will stand against you at the judgment day; and though you be an object of prayer, and "though there be so much the more need for the children of God to pray for you," yet you may there find to your sorrow, that your condemnation is just and your sentence irrevocable.

Look then I beseech you upon the error of your ways, and think not that the prayers of your pious parents can save you, while you go into the Lord's house of a Sabbath evening, with no other intention than to ridicule the people of God, and to laugh, and talk, and play. Remember God sees through every vail.

"Millions are shipwreck'd on life's stormy coast
With all their charts on board, and powerful aid.
Because their lofty pride disdained to learn
The instruction of a pilot, and a God."

An Observer.