Divine service

“ Error came in when a man founded a Divine service the sole object of which was to obtain prayers for himself; it was mitigated by the association of family, benefactors, and friends, and the usual addition of all faithful souls. ”

“ The holy service which will fill your heart with joy and give you the unfading crown of eternity, never will be done if you are waiting for some ecclesiastical uniform to do it in. Whatever is done in the spirit of the infinite love, in the spirit of the great Master, that truly is divine and glorious.
It is the good work that is glorious. It is a thing more truly divine to do well your daily duty, to put out good, honest work, than it is to wear a clerical garb or perform professional religious duties. ”

“ Were there no such thing as Divine Service in the true sense of the word, then, indeed it would scarcely be worth while to quarrel with its misapplication. But I assert that true and genuine service may be rendered to the living God; and, for the development of the divine nature in man, it is necessary that he should do something for God. ”

“ But thinking of these as religious and of such service as divine we fall into the habit of thinking that they alone, in all the world of action, are divine. We set on one side of life the religious service limited to these formal acts and on the other side what we call the secular life and service. ”

“ Λατρεία, whenever it occurs in Scripture, is rendered by the word service. But that service which is due to men, and in reference to which the apostle writes that servants must be subject to their own masters, [365] is usually designated by another word in Greek, [366] whereas the service which is paid to God alone by worship, is always, or almost always, called λατρεία in the usage of those who wrote from the divine oracles. ”

“ When faithful to their great Master, they have high encouragements to excite, holy consolations to cheer, and heavenly aid to direct and bless their unremitting exertions in His service, whose weak and “unprofitable,” but still faithful and attached “servants” they are. Let not any such fear but that they will obtain a blessing on their labours, an answer to their prayers, from that gracious Being whose ministers they are, and the advancement of whose kingdom they seek. Never did the Lord fail his servants ”

“ Oh, Harley and Fanning and Barret, they were bloody good mates o’ mine;
Their bodies are empty bottles; Death has guzzled the wine;
What’s left of them’s filth and corruption.... Where is the Fire Divine?
I’ll tell you.... At night in the trenches, as I watch and I do my part,
Three radiant spirits I’m seeing, high heart revealing to heart.
And they’re building a peerless palace to the splendor and triumph of Art.
Yet, alas! for the fame of Barret, the glory he might have trailed! ”

“ The service of God in this life is the school in which we learn obedience; we must learn to serve here, or we will not have the joy of service over there. “He that sitteth on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them.” ”

“ We ought all to be Christ-bearers, by preserving in our hearts faith, hope, and charity, and by receiving Our Lord worthily in holy communion. He alone is worthy of our service. In the service that we owe to men, we ought to serve God by doing His will. ”

“ Consequently those who render the most free and kingly service, which is the result of a pious mind and of knowledge, are servants and attendants of the Divinity. Each place, then, and time, in which we entertain the idea of God, is in reality sacred. ”

“ O God, who dispensest the services of angels and men in a wonderful order, favourably grant that our life may be protected on earth by those who always do thee service in heaven. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. ”

“ Now, we must not miss the point of the Apostle's teaching, which is, that when the law of God is stamped in the heart and mind, the spirit of the law prevailing within us makes us desire to obey and serve, and so we are empowered to sustain the claims of the consecrated life. ”

“ There should be good-will to their masters, good-will to the families they are in; and especially a readiness to do their duty to God. Observe, Service, performed with conscience, and from a regard to God, though it be to unrighteous masters, will be accounted by Christ as service done to himself. ”

“ Note the connection between ‘sanctified’ and ‘meet for the Master’s use.’ True holiness is being possessed of God; true service being used of God. How much service there is in which we are the chief agents, and ask God to help and to bless us. True service is being yielded up to the Master for Him to use. Then the Holy Ghost is the Agent, and we are the Instruments of His will. Such service is Holiness. ”

“ May it please Thee, O God, who hast called us to this ministry, to make us worthy to offer unto Thee this sacrifice for our own sins and for the sins of Thy people. Accept our service and our persons, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. ”

“ What is the result when we compare our worldly promptitude and industry with our preference of the service of God over all other things? Are we in any way on the look out for His greater glory, or our own greater union with Him? Is it plain at first sight that we have no object or pursuit so engrossing and so decidedly paramount as the service of God? ”

“ Yawn, let me ask you this one question,—do you come to Church to do any good to Almighty God, or to me, or to yourself? Is it any profit to the Almighty that you serve Him, if such an imperfect attendance as yours can be called service ”

“ Service—that means acts of beneficence, teaching and preaching and giving material or spiritual helps of various kinds. These things have almost monopolised the word. But Christ enlarges its shrivelled contents once more, and teaches us that, far above all specifically so-called acts of religious worship, and more indispensable than so-called acts of Christian activity and service, lies the self-sacrificing conformity of character to Him. 'If any man serve Me,' let him sing and praise and pray? ”

“ While, then, we accept Christ’s statement in its fullest significance, and maintain that our “reasonable service” is the offering of ourselves as living sacrifices, that spiritual worship is offered not in church only or mainly, but in doing God’s will with a hearty good-will, we all the rather see how needful it is to utter ourselves to God as we do in our social worship ”

“ If they obey and serve him,—if they comply with his design and serve his purpose in these dispensations,—if, when the affliction is removed, they continue in the same good mind that they were in when they were under the smart of it and perform the vows they made then,—if they live in obedience to God's commands, particularly those which relate to his service and worship, and in all instances make conscience of their duty to him,—then they shall spend their days in prosperity again and their years in true pleasures. ”

“ And so the Prayer-Book says, "Devout and holy men, as well under the Law as under the Gospel, moved either by the express command of God, or by the secret inspiration of the blessed Spirit, and acting agreeably to their own reason and sense of the natural decency of things, have erected houses for the public worship of God, and separated them from all unhallowed, worldly, and common uses, in order to fill men's minds with greater reverence for His glorious Majesty, and affect their hearts with more devotion and humility in His service ”

“ In singleness of heart; not pretending obedience when they design disobedience, but serving them with faithfulness. 3. They should have an eye to Jesus Christ in all the service that they perform to their masters (v. 5-7) , doing service as to the Lord, and not to men; that is, not to men only or principally. When servants, in the discharge of the duty of their places, have an eye to Christ, this puts an honour upon their obedience, and an acceptableness into it. Service done to their earthly masters, with an eye to him, becomes acceptable service to him also. ”

“ Apostolic simplicity of worship, evangelical teaching, evangelistic work, separation from the world, systematic giving, and dependence on prayer. They desired to give great prominence to the simple testimony of the Word, to support every department of the work by free-will offerings, to recognize the Holy Spirit as the one presiding and governing Power in all church assemblies, and to secure liberty for all believers in the exercise of spiritual gifts as distributed by that Spirit to all members of the Body of Christ for service. ”

“ And so, all along the consecrated way and line of service, it is when the law of faith is written in the mind, and becomes a settled perception or conviction, that the sanctified heart is able to find rest. 'By grace are ye saved through faith', is true at the beginning; but equally true is the word, 'Kept by the power of God through faith'; and the principle is that the law in the mind and heart constantly operates as we tread the appointed path of life and service. ”

“ With solicitude, as is the duty of our pastoral office, for the health of the Lord's flock entrusted by divine arrangement to our unworthy care, we willingly invite the faithful of that flock, all and singular, to visit churches and perform pious and meritorious works, in order that with the aid of divine grace, through spiritual largesses, indulgences (namely) , and the pardoning of sins, they may the more easily reach the joys of everlasting happiness. ”

“ For Christian service—that is to say, service based upon faith and rendered in love—does minister delight to our Father in heaven, and He Himself has called it an 'odour of a sweet smell, acceptable unto God.' And if our service on earth has been thus elevated and transformed from the compulsory obedience of a slave to the joyful service of a son, then our reception when at sundown the plough is left in the furrow and we come into the house will be all changed too. ”

“ Yes, we willingly admit, such human service is “religion pure and undefiled, before our God and Father.” If service is rendered to our kind as worship to the Father of men; if we reverence in each man the image of God and the shrine of His Spirit; if we are seeking to cleanse and adorn in men the temple where the Most High shall dwell, the humblest work done for our fellows’ good is done for Him. The best human charity is rendered for the love of God. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength. This,” said Jesus, “is the first and great commandment. ”

“ The service of God, the accomplishment of His holy will, is not confined to the observance of His 16Commandments and those of His Church; but, by adding the rules of the Order, the will of God is made known and accomplished in all the details of life. ”

“ We can only serve as we are holy.
Holiness is essential to effectual service. In the Old Testament we see degrees of holiness, not only in the holy places, but as much in the holy persons. In the nation, the Levites, the priests, and then the High Priest, there is an advance from step to step: as in each succeeding stage the circle narrows, and the service is more direct and entire, so the holiness required is higher and more distinct. It is even so in this more spiritual dispensation: the more of holiness, the greater the fitness for service ”

“ In the thick of the crowd, in the solitude of one's duties, with hands full of work, the heart talks with Him and listens, and sometimes the tongue talks out too. Our common word for it is prayer. Prayer precedes true service, and produces it, and sweetens it. Only the service that grows up naturally out of this personal contact with Jesus counts and tells and weighs for the most. ”

“ Can there be a nobler service than to serve God, the highest Lord, to serve the highest King, who has bought and won us out of the hands of our enemies, of sin and Satan? Gladly and joyfully will we serve Him, our Savior and our Lord. ”

“ There was a book published several years since which made a great noise in its little day, and called itself The Service of Man, which service it proposed to substitute for the effete conception of worship as the service of God. The service of man is, then, best done when it is the service of God. I suppose nowadays it is 'old-fashioned' and 'narrow,' which is the sin of sins at present, but I for my part have very little faith in the persistence and wide operation of any philanthropic motives except the highest—namely, compassion caught from Jesus Christ. ”

“ Through the humbling Dispensations of divine Providence, Men are sometimes fitted for his Service. ”

“ When men substitute obedience to a code for service of the living God, it is no wonder that the truth—the central truth of religion—fades rapidly from their minds, that the service of God is identical with the highest service rendered to our fellow-men. ”

“ The duties required in the second commandment are the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath instituted in his word, particularly prayer and thanksgiving in the name of Christ, the reading, preaching, and hearing of the word, the administration and receiving of the sacraments, church-government, and discipline, the ministry and maintenance thereof, religious fasting, swearing by the name of God, and vowing unto him. ”

“ The words of eternal life, the holy Priesthood of the Son of God, with its keys, powers, and blessings, are committed to us. If they and the God who gave them are honoured by this people, great peace and joy are ours, through the Holy Spirit of this Gospel. Great peace have they who love the law of the Lord and abide in his commandments. ”