^ Our worship must conform to our best intellectual concep- tions about God and His will. Our Lord Himself once drew a powerful contrast between the influence of a higher and a lower estimate of God's character on the actions of men. He told His disciples that the time would come when " Whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you," said He, " because they have not known the Father." That is, although they believed in God, they yet ignored the special revelation made by Jesus Christ of the Fatherhood of God. Ignorance of this revelation has been the origin of some of the most terrible crimes against humanity that have ever disgraced the world. Hundreds of men and women have been roasted to death by order of Inquisitors, who, veiling their cruelty under the term auto-da-f6, witnessed that they did it in the name of what they believed to be God. On the throne of the universe they saw nothing but an angry and despotic Tyrant, who so hated heterodoxy, that He had prepared for all heretics a pandemonium
* George Adam Smith, The Life of Henry Drummond, 244.
ST. JOHN IV. 24 257
of everlasting fire, and hence, quite honestly, they sought to deter men by torture from such an awful fate.^
2. We must also have truth in ourselves. Holy character is a kind of worship. All true life is worship : " Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness " ; " Lo, I come to do thy will, 0 God." Before a material God a material knee would have to bow. Before a spiritual God, nothing but the prostration of the spirit can be acceptable.
He prayeth well, who loveth well Both man and bird and beast.
Love is a kind of prayer — the truest lifting up of the soul. God is a real God. The worshipper is to be a real character. The Christian must be a true man — transparent, who can bear to be looked through and through. There must be no pretence; no gilded tinsel — true gold all through.
^ Let us take care that all our relations to God, and all our communications with Him, are honest relations, "in truth." If our body is on its knees, let us be sure that our heart is also on its knees. If we close our eyes, let us see that we close our fancies. If we say words, let us beware that they are the exact representatives of our thoughts. If we ask anything, let it be the thing we want. If we promise, let us be sure that we mean it. If we confess with our lips, let us stop, if our mind is not con- fessing with its inward convictions. If we praise, let us hush our soul, if it is not in tune. Let worship be worship, — a beggar knocking at the door; a sinner prostrate for mercy; a servant looking to his Master's eye; a child speaking to his Father; a pardoned man resting ; a saved man thanking ; a saint rejoicing.^
Thy house hath gracious freedom, like the air Of open fields ; its silence hath a speech Of royal welcome to the friends who reach Its threshold, and its upper chambers bear, Above their doors, such spells that, entering there, And laying off the dusty garments, each Soul whispers to herself : " 'Twere like a breach Of reverence in a temple could I dare
1 G. F. Terry, The Old Theology in the New Age, 52.
2 James Vaughan. ST. JOHN — 17
258 TRUE WORSHIP
Here speak untruth, here wrong my inmost thought. Here 1 grow strong and pure ; here I may yield, Without shamefacedness, the little brought From out my poorer life, and stand revealed. And glad, and trusting, in the sweet and rare And tender presence which hath filled this air."^
* Helen H. Jackson.
Christ's Doctrine of Election.
859
Literature.
Bisseker (H.), in Sunday Evenings in Methodism.^ 153.
Burrell (D. J.), The Golden Passional, 101.
Davies (T.), Serinons, i. 306.
Dods (M.), Footsteps in the Path of Life, 127.
Duncan (J.), Popular Hymns, 148.
Hall (J. v.), The Sinner's Friend, 9.
Hoyt (W.), in The American Pulpit of the Day^ i. 34.
Hutton (R. E.), Tlie Croton of Christ, ii. 543.
McDougall (J.), llie Ascension of Christ, 86.
Power (P. B.), The "I Wills" of Christ, 47.
Roberts (J. E.), The Lord!s Prayer, 73.
Smell ie (A.), In the Hour of Silence, 208.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Taberimcle Pulpit, x. (1864) No. 599 ;
XXX. (1884) No. 1762; xl. (1894) No. 2349; li. (1905) No. 2954 ;
Ivi. (1910) No. 3230. Spurgeon (T.), Down to the Sea, 215. Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit, 1866), No. 551. Christian World Pulpit, liv. 196 (Moule) ; Ixiii. 76 (Mursell). Church of England Magazine, 1. 168 (Dalton). Expositor, 3rd Ser., iii. 146.
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CHRIST'S Doctrine of Election.
All that which the Father giveth me shall come unto me ; and hira that Cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. — John vi. 37.
1. After claiming to be the Bread of Life, and condemning the Jews' attitude towards Himself, Jesus announced His assurance that notwithstanding their unbelief all that the Father gave Him would come to Him, and then immediately uttered the gracious words which have given confidence and courage to all approaching Him through the centuries, " Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." In this twofold declaration the Lord revealed two aspects of one great effect, the heavenly and the earthly. The heavenly takes in the whole result, "All that which the Father giveth me shall come unto me." The earthly declares the individual responsibility, and utters the word creating confidence, " Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."