“I have in my congregation, “said a venerable minister of the gospel, “a worthy, aged woman, who has for many years been so deaf as not to distinguish the loudest sound, and yet she is always one of the first in the meeting. On asking the reason of her constant attendance (as it was impossible for her to hear my voice), she answered, `Though I cannot hear you, I come to God’s house because I love it, and would be found in his ways; and he gives me many a sweet thought upon the text when it is pointed out to me: another reason is, because there I am in the best company, in the more immediate presence of God, and among his saints, the honorable of the earth. I am not satisfied with serving God in private; it is my duty and privilege to honor him regularly in public.'” What a reproof this is to those who have their hearing, and yet always come to a place of worship late, or not at all!”

-K. Arvine