Gathering here today, we have come without dread of enemies or fear for our lives; we have come in some great measure of security and of comfort. It was not always so.

Less than half a century ago in central Europe the Nazi storm troopers could invade any sanctuary on any Sunday and carry off to prison or to death whomever they would, and this they often did. Yet the people came.

Eighteen hundred years ago the Christian Faith was outlawed; the Christians were hunted like animals almost; it was a crime for them to assemble and the penalties were severe. Yet the people came.

Over much of our nation still stand a good number of little old meeting houses built by the pioneers at the same time they laid up their log cabins and their sod huts. In these they worshiped: they carried their rifles for protection as they made their way to church; in winter as they came they gathered and carried wood to provide the fires to keep themselves warm; and during the services one or two stood guard while the others sang and prayed and preached. It was hard in those days. Yet the people came.

And why did they come - those people forty years ago, or 1,800 years ago, or 200 years ago? What did they do in those assemblies that were so vital to them? What was it that was worth the risk of their very lives? Answer: they sang, they prayed, they shared fellowship, they heard the Scriptures read and the Word expounded. In other words, they did nothing then that we do not do when we gather in our churches in our land today. We need to understand this: that what was so very important to those people then is equally important to us now.