SUNDAY MORNING SICKNESS

Spiritual enthusiasm on a Sunday morning is a rare jewel. Some years ago a Detroit newspaper printed the following prayer: "Almighty God, as I lie here on this sofa this Sunday morning, surrounded by the Sunday newspapers and half listening to one of the radio preachers, it has come to me that I have lied to Thee and to myself. I said I did not feel well enough to go to church. That was not true. I was not ambitious enough. I would have gone to the office had it been Monday. I would have played golf had it be been Wednesday afternoon. I would have gone to a picture show had it been Friday night. But it is Sunday morning, and Sunday illness covers a multitude of sins. God have mercy on me. I have lied to Thee. I was only lazy and indifferent!"

When I was a student, my studies often kept me out of my bed until two or even three o'clock in the morning. It became my common practice to study until that late hour, and then to sleep for a short while before going to work in the coal mine. Consequently, when Sunday arrived, I was tired and stayed in bed until lunch time. One day I asked one of the church girls to write something in my autograph album, and undoubtedly desiring to cure my bad habit, she wrote a new verse for "Stand up, stand up for Jesus" -

Get up, get up for Jesus
Ye soldiers of the cross:
A lazy Sunday morning
Means certain harm and loss. The church bells call to worship,
In duty be not slack;
You cannot fight the good fight
By lying on your back!

"Bible Highways"
By Ivor Powell