Long ago the great Apostle Paul wrote a letter to his young friend, Timothy, and in that letter he told him something that I wish you would all remember. It was this, "You should to behave yourself in the house of God." Fathers and mothers, these days, have to tell their children to behave when they go to church, and I imagine that the boys of Paul's time were very much as they are today, for Paul here had to tell Timothy to behave himself when he went to church.
There are a few things about the house of God we ought never to forget. The wise man, Solomon, once said, ''Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God." That means to walk softly and be reverent. I once saw a little girl tiptoeing past a house, and when I came to the house I saw that there were black ribbons and a wreath on that door. (A practice used in times of mourning for a death in the Victorian Era) She thought that God had been there, and she ought to go very softly. So we ought to also tread very softly and reverently when we enter the church. It is God's house.
Then when we go inside the church, we ought to offer up a little prayer. When you go to somebody's house and he comes to the door you always speak to him, don't you? It would not be very polite to go into someone's house without speaking to him. So when we come into God's house we must speak to Him in prayer.
Then all the time we are in the church, we must try to think about God and the things that we hear. Sometimes when we are talking to someone, we know he is thinking about something else all the time. This is very rude and we are likely to feel hurt. But it is what many people do when they come into God's house, where He is being worshiped. They spend the whole time thinking about other things than the service. I don't wonder, do you, that God is hurt and angry. God wants us when we come into His house to think about Him.
And there is one other thing that we must do in God's house. We must ask God to forgive our sins.
There is a story about a fairy who went up to the gate of heaven and was not allowed to enter. The angel said, " If you will bring the gift that is dearest to heaven, then you can come in." So the fairy flew back as fast as she could to the earth and found the most lovely and fragrant flower that there was on the earth, and brought it, but the gate was shut. Again she flew back to the earth, and this time she brought a drop of blood from a young hero, who had just died for his country; but the gate was shut still. The third time she went to the earth, and while she was wandering around, she saw a wicked old man stopping at a fountain to give his horse a drink. Just then the man saw a little child kneeling down to say his little evening prayer. When the bad man saw that, all his wicked life arose in his memory and he was sorry, and he, too, knelt and prayed, and as he prayed he wept. And the fairy, who had seen it all, caught one of those tears of repentance and flew up to heaven with it, and the gate was open, and she went in.
There is nothing that is so dear to the Lord as the repentance of His children. That is what makes Jesus, and the Bible, and the church so dear to us. They show us how to repent so that Heaven's gate may open wide for us. S. N. Hutchison
Good Manners for Kids:
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