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unto me ? I will receive the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord in the sight of all his people ; in the courts of the Lord's house, even in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem." And once more, in my text observe the psalmist's joy at the prospect of worshipping in the tabernacle : " I was glad when they said unto me, We will go into the house of the Lord." ^
L
The Call to Worship.
"They said unto me, Let us go."
1. Worship is a necessity of our being. The Greeks called man "anthropos," meaning the upward-looking one. "Man is the creature of religious instincts, and must worship something," is the pronouncement of Kant. If dogmatism be sufferable any- where, surely it is here ; for man, wherever found, is a worshipping creature, capable of appreciating, capable of admiring, capable of extolling. That outburst of the soul, that rapture and rush of the emotions, that exclamation in the presence of the picturesque, that is the natural sentiment of worship. Education and study exalt it into a culture, revelation into a duty.
If there were no God, the human heart must make One, for where there is no vision of the Infinite, the people perish. Wor- ship is a true soul- view of God ; rather is it a soul-view of the true God. It is the highest admiration, because the admiration of the highest. Worship is worthship — a confession of worth. It is a reverential upward look. It is the attitude of the penitent rising and turning his face skyward.
^ One of the most popular legends in Brittany is that relating to an imaginary town called Is, which is supposed to have been swallowed up by the sea at some unknown time. There are several places along the coast which are pointed out as the site of this imaginary city, and the fishermen have many strange tales to tell of it. According to them, the tips of the spires of the churches may be seen in the hollow of the waves when the sea is rough, while during a calm the music of the bells, ringing out a hymn appropriate to the day, rises above the waters. I often fancy that 1 have at the bottom of my heart a city of Is, with its bells
^ R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, ii. 71.
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calling to prayer a recalcitrant congregation. At times I halt to listen to these gentle vibrations, which seem as if they came from immeasurable depths, like voices from another world.^
2. Our social instincts cry out for common worship. " They said unto me, Let us go," There is one thing in the services of the sanctuary that cannot otherwise be obtained. It is the social element in worship. The individual peculiarity is toned down in the general praise and prayer. The individual burden is forgotten in the common thanksgiving. The tempted, overburdened heart finds release in the assembling together with other souls. The solitary stranger, joining in praise and sharing the communal life of the congregation, forgets for the time his solitude. There is something infectious in the spiritual sense of so many wills gathered together with one accord. The social element in wor- ship is not only part of the gregarious instinct, but in the con- vergence of many wills on one undertaking it produces a volume of prayers that is far greater than the sum of individual prayers would be. There is action and reaction of spiritual influences. This is perhaps most noticeable in great evangelistic meetings or spiritual conventions, where deep religious emotions are stirred up, and where waves of spiritual influence may almost be felt. But it is true, more or less, of every congregational group. Different hymns appeal to different minds and stir up different reactions. Different verses of the passages of the Bible which are read touch different natures and appeal to different experi- ences. One sentence in a prayer finds its way into one heart, another into another. The wistful, the weary, the colourless, the jubilant, the successful, the defeated draw from the service their cognate note. Each life-experience seems to attract as by a spiritual magnet its kindred thought.
We may rightly ask people to consider what is likely to be the effect of the neglect or disuse on a large scale of the worship of God. Doubtless it may mean a very little difference to indi- viduals. We may let our worship be so poor and mechanical that the loss of it makes at the moment little difference. It is the way of such things that they mean little to those who use them little. But, even so, in the bulk they are worth a great
^ E. Renan, Recollections of my Youth, p. vii.
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deal. We make each our contribution, or fail to make it, to the nation's worship, and through this to its higher life. This at the least ; but how much more if worship is rightly used, if it brings the sense of God's presence and the touch of eternal things, if conscience is brought weekly to the bar ; if will and purpose receive reminder and encouragement, if worship is allowed to give that which is to be found in it by those who seek.