It has been the boast of some that high churchmen go to their churches to pray and worship God, but that low churchmen merely assemble to hear sermons.

Our reply is this: that albeit there may be some professing Christians who are guilty of this evil, it is not true of the people of God among us, and these are the only persons who ever will, in any church, really enjoy devotion.

Moreover, if the observation be meant to imply that the hearing of sermons is not worshiping God, it is founded on a gross mistake, for rightly to listen to the gospel is one of the noblest parts of the adoration of the Most High. It is a mental exercise, when rightly performed, in which all the faculties of the spiritual man are called into devotional action.

Reverently hearing the Word exercises our humility, instructs our faith, irradiates us with joy, inflames us with love, inspires us with zeal, and lifts us up towards heaven.

Many a time a sermon has been a kind of Jacob's ladder upon which we have seen angels ...