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What I Have Found
My introduction to "brethren" assemblies.*
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The Lord's Supper is often called the "Worship Meeting," and so it is. Some visitors might think the mood rather solemn, for there is little outward demonstration. There are often extended periods of silence, but these are not awkward times of "waiting for someone to say something," but times of rich reflection and meditation. "What a sight!" writes John Ritchie, the dear, old Scottish saint. "Every eye fixed on Christ; every heart is satisfied." The hymns sung at a measured pace to enable full appreciation of the words. And such hymns they are! While the Church at large is abandoning the old hymns of the faith for a more trendy musical style and the singing of snappy choruses (many of which are the musical and spiritual equivalent of "junk food"), the assemblies still delight to sing such songs as:
A debtor to mercy alone,
Of covenant mercy I sing,
Nor fear, with God's righteousness on,
My person and offerings to bring.
The terrors of law and of God
With me can have nothing to do;
My Savior's obedience and blood
Hid all my transgressions from view.
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Recently, at the invitation of a friend, I spent a Saturday evening at a Christian gathering in the local convention hall. By the time I arrived, the crowd of perhaps four or five hundred was well into the "praise and worship" time of the meeting, swaying to the driving pulse of the music and expressing their praise in very demonstrative, sometimes frantic, ways. The speaker for the evening, a very well known, almost idolized, Christian leader, took the platform to speak. He delivered what amounted to a shallow motivational talk, consisting largely of a string of anecdotes, laced with humor that at times bordered on irreverence. I left with a deep concern about what I had just witnessed.
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