DIRECTORATE OF ANTHROPOMORPHIC MENOLOGY |
| DIRECTOR Supermaat Kneeasoff |
ABOUT
It will be observed that only those portions of the above enquiries which bear upon the calendar, are noticed in this introduction.
its sabbath occupations, and occasion taken, whenever practicable, to get as well as impart good from the materials of sabbath-labour,) a larger portion of time than usual should, if possible, be set apart upon some week-evening, or other convenient sea- ! son, for the private duties of religion: and in . offering counsel on the whole of them, the use of such a Calendar as the following pages describe, was recommended on the principles and with the object which the succeeding paragraphs will summarily explain.
Much precious time is lost by the christian in his closet for want of object and method. These deficiencies, however, indicate another, previous to both of them in the order of nature, viz.—a very crude and inadequate sense of the relation in which the devotions of the closet stand to the cultivation of piety in the heart and life, and their consequent value and adaptation as means to that most important of all ends. Nor is this waste of time confined to ordinary seasons only, it is even and remarkably the case on special occasions, when religious exercises are protracted beyond their usual length. It is highly necessary, therefore, that every christian (and especially the teacher who is anxious to redeem something of the time generously sacrificed to others on the Sabbath) should address himself to his devotions with a due appreciation of the exercise he is about to engage in, and the consciousness of an intelligent interest in, and preparation for, its several parts. He should remember that he is drawing near to God in Christ, to lay his worship on the divine footstool, in the offering of praise on account of perfections appreciated, and thanksgivings for blessings experienced;—to renew his homage to the Divine Sovereign through the Divine Mediator;—to make, (but not without the renewal of his plea for a gracious acceptance, grounded on the merits of the Redeemer's sacrifice, or of his prayer,—a genuine, earnest prayer, for the cleansing and strengthening grace of the Divine Spirit,) renewed confession of sin;—to implore the continuance of former and the grant of new mercies, and this not only for himself and for his kindred, but for others also, whether members with himself of the church and family of God, or still under the power of an unregenerate mind.