CAN A BELIEVER WORSHIP IN PRIVATE? (2)

^[p. 267] CAN A BELIEVER WORSHIP IN PRIVATE? (2)

There is a great difference between worship in one’s own room, by oneself, and worship in the assembly, or in company. It has been said that there is the individual, the collective and the corporate. Well, accepting these, then, I consider the first can enjoy God adoringly, but, if he confines himself to this, he never could enjoy the presence of the Lord in the midst of the “two or three”. Hence the Hebrews are warned not to neglect the assembling of themselves together. Under Moses they were congregated as a nation to the house of God, most strictly insisted on, from one end of Palestine to the other. Surely the congregating together now in the house, or rather as the house of God, must be not less binding on us this day, seeing that, as it is morally greater, the obligation to avail oneself of it must be correspondingly greater. The Lord is in the midst, and the gifts are there too, to succour and minister to the company. I am not now speaking of the body. I confine myself to the book of Hebrews. They were to exhort one another when they congregated together; but they doubtless knew, or had to learn, that though they no longer had the Urim and Thummim of the old dispensation, they now had the presence of the Lord in their midst. A meeting of two or three must always surpass the individual worship, if the Lord be in the midst. At the same time there is a great deal of truth in the remark, that as you are in your own private worship, so will you be very much in the congregation. If a man cannot enjoy the Lord in private, he will not in the company.

The effect of going to a meeting may be to lead to healthy exercise, but you could hardly call that enjoyment in worship. If a man is unfit for worship privately, he is also unfit for it in the company; and I believe any one who knows the blessing and grace of the Lord’s presence in the midst of His gathered people, would ^[p. 268] never plead for private worship only. In any meeting in which He is present, there is a greater blessing than there could be in any private way; though the Lord may place one alone, or in prison, in order to fit and use one for some particular end or service.