_From a Sermon by Swift._
(It may be somewhat derogatory to the genius of so great a writer
as SWIFT, to allow this extract to occupy its present place in our
arrangement--usually allotted to minor pieces. Our "Notes" are, for
the most part, from new books, and a similar object is explained in our
"Selector." We could hardly place "Sleeping in Church" under "Manners
and Customs," and sleep altogether is rather prospective, (in dreaming,)
than "Retrospective."--Yet reader, here it is--a still subject--but
fresh, vigorous, and written for all time.)
There is one moral disadvantage to which all preaching is subject; that
those who, by the wickedness of their lives, stand in greatest need,
have usually the smallest share; for either they are absent upon the
account of idleness, or spleen, or hatred to religion, or in order to
doze away the intemperance of the week; or, if they do come, they are
sure to employ their minds rather any other way, than regarding or
attending to the business of the place.
There is no excuse so trivial, that will not pass upon some men's
consciences to excuse their attendance at the public worship of God.
Some are so unfortunate as to be always indisposed on the Lord's day,
and think nothing so unwholesome as the air of a church. Others have
their affairs so oddly contrived, as to be always unluckily prevented by
business. With some it is a great mark of wit, and deep understanding,
to stay at home on _Sundays_. Others again discover strange fits
of laziness, that seize them, particularly on that day, and confine
them to their beds. Others are absent out of mere contempt of religion.
And, lastly, there are not a few who look upon it as a day of rest, and
therefore claim the privilege of their castle, to keep the Sabbath by
eating, drinking, and sleeping, after the toil and labour of the week.
Now in all this the worst circumstance is, that these persons are such
whose companies are most required, and who stand most in need of a
physician.
But of all misbehaviour, none is comparable to that of those who come
here to sleep; opium is not so stupifying to many persons as an
afternoon sermon. Perpetual custom hath so brought it about, that the
words, of whatever preacher, become only a sort of uniform sound at
a distance, than which nothing is more effectual to lull the senses.
For, that it is the very sound of the sermon which bindeth up their
faculties, is manifest from hence, because they all awake so very
regularly as soon as it ceaseth, and with much devotion receive the
blessing, dozed and besotted with indecencies I am ashamed to repeat.
One cause of this neglect is, a heart set upon worldly things. Men
whose minds are much enslaved to earthly affairs all the week, cannot
disengage or break the chain of their thoughts so suddenly, as to apply
to a discourse that is wholly foreign to what they have most at heart.
Tell an usurer of charity, and mercy, and restitution, you talk to the
deaf; his heart and soul, with all his senses, are got among his bags,
or he is gravely asleep, and dreaming of a mortgage. Tell a man of
business, that the cares of the world choke the good seed; that we must
not encumber ourselves with much serving; that the salvation of his
soul is the one thing necessary. You see, indeed, the shape of a man
before you, but his faculties are all gone off among clients and papers,
thinking how to defend a bad cause, or find flaws in a good one; or, he
weareth out the time in drowsy nods.
There are many who place abundance of merit in going to church, although
it be with no other prospect but that of being well entertained, wherein
if they happen to fail, they return wholly disappointed. Hence it is
become an impertinent vein among people of all sorts to hunt after what
they call a good sermon, as if it were a matter of pastime and diversion.
This indecent sloth is very much owing to that luxury and excess men
usually practise upon this day, by which half the service thereof is
turned to sin; men dividing the time between God and their bellies,
when, after a gluttonous meal, their senses dozed and stupified, they
retire to God's house to sleep out the afternoon. Surely, brethren,
these things ought not so to be.
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