SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 318, 6 July 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING

WOKSHIP. Extract of Sermon preached h\ the KKV. T>. .]. LIDDKLL in the' Que™ St. Primitive Methodist Church ■■<) conic let us worship and full down; let us kneel before file Lord onr Maker."—Psalm xcv.-li. The institution of public worship lias always held a conspicuous place anion" the outward manifestations of religion". The history of mankind shows it to be not a mere custom, not a mere accessory of the organisation of the religious life, but something which man requires ami asks for as soon as the highest affections m Jus nature awaken and make themselves felt. It is something which is so identified" with the very essence of religion as to be almost inseparable from it 'Worship is not a human invention, it sprang from that deeper and diviner nature which is begotten, not made. Jesus Christ came not to destroy the worshipful observances of the world, but to fulfil them—to fill them with a true meaning and diviner spirit. It was His custom to attend the synagogue every j Sabbath Day and to observe the festi-' vals. It was plainly His will that His followers nliouM unite for worship as well as service and find in their worship the best stimulus for their work. The reality and depth of the Church's spiritual life has always been manifested not only in its philanthropic and missionary activities, but in the sustained fervor and dignity of its public worship. \\e reckon a life poor and incomplete which has no appreciation of beauty, no ta>tc for poetry, no love of music, no sympathy with the interpretation of the pathos and tragedy of the world. But infinitely meaner and smaller is the life which has no sense of kinslfip to Cod and from which the worshipful temper and attitude are absent. Form of worshij) may pass away, but not the worship of Cod. which is the most natural and direct expression of the highest and best in human life. The words of the text lie embedded in the midst of a psalm in which the psalmist is appealing to men to praise Cod. calling upon them to recognise His greatness, majesty and power. When the writer thinks on'these ' things he exclaims, "0. come, let us wor- \ ship and bow down; let us kneel before j the Lord our Maker." •

WHAT IS WORSHIP?

( The word is derived from two words, i worth and "ship." and means ascribing I worth to God. it suggests that atti- ? tude winch recognises superiority. It is J ii recognition of man's absolute dependence upon the Divine sufficiency. The I attitude of worship is that of a subject > bonding before his monarch; of a child yielding all its love to the father. There is in the general nature of man something which leads him to worship a Superior Being. Man, being religious, will worship something. The history of religion reveals this truth. The'history of the various races of men show that all. however blindly, are feeling after • God. ° t We speak of the dutv of worship It ! is more than a duty; it is a privilege. It I is because our eyes have been opened to ' see the Divine beautv. the heights and depths of eternal love, that we cannot resist the impulse to worship. We worship, not because it is a dutv. but because we have looked upon the Divine ! loveliness and the revelation has filled us with wonder and adoration. Worship is a means of grace to us. It is not only a service to God but it is of the greatest service to ourselves. What other fellowship or form of association can meet our deepest needs and highest requirenients; can sustain our moral ideals against which our passions are continually warring? What can strengthen us for daily tasks, for hours of critical strain and trial; can hallow, joy arid comfort us in sorrow? What can'transfigure death and guild eternity? Nothing like the true worship of God; nothing short of the assembling of ourselves together. Apart altogether from the profit and pleasure it may yield; apart from the attraction of this or that particular church or ministry, worship' is a privilege which is involved in all our relations to God, a visible act of homage due to Him and binding on all men and women who know God as Creator. Preserver. Redeemer and King. "0. come, let us worship." WHAT IS ALVKI'TABLE WORSHIP?

Our worship, to ho acceptable, must be j humble. '"Bow down, let us kneel," is' the exhortation of the psalmist. Outward acts are the least important parts of our worship. If I have not been worshipping Cod during the week I cannot worship Him acceptably on the Sabbath. The worship of the Sanctuary is wholly meaningless and valueless, save as it is prepared for and preceded by worship in life. I may sing every hymn in the hymn-book and never worship. T may perform all kinds of penance and never worship. [ may kneel in the long, lonely vigils of the night and never worship. But when I bumble myself before my Maker, when I bend my'soul, when in humility of spirit I come to the feet of desus, like llary with the ointment. I enter into the spirit of worship, the rebound of which will be blessing and enrichment of soul. T do not worship Cod by going to China as a missionary if He wants me to stay at home and do the work of a carpenter. I do not worship Cod by aspiring to do some great heroic thing, if the capacity He has given me is for doing the quiet thing, the simple service, the unseen act. Our worship must be reverent. Oh! the woeful lack of reverence in our day for sacred tilings! So many treat Cod's house as if it were a commercial room. We talk ahout the heathen Chinese, hut the reverence of the Chinaman as he bows before his joss shames many so-called Christians. We should come to Cod's house for worship. It is no place for levity or frivolity. Our worship must be in spirit and in truth. Christ, in addressing the woman of Samaria, disillusioned her of many things concerning worship. Time and place, said Jesus, were matters of little consequence. Worship was not 1 confined within geographical limits. "Nei- [ flier in this mountain nor yet at deru- [ salem shall men exclusively worship the Father." He desires it to lie in spirit. It is not a matter of form, but of inward disposition of the heart: not by types and symbols, but by moral and spiritual realities. Our worship must be like the presentation of our bodies. Paul writes about "a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to Cod." Tn truth, worship must lie oll'ered; there must be no sham about it. Cod desires not the shell, but the kernel. So it must be presented to Cod through the medium of Christ, who is (he Truth and the Life. Till-: KI'VKCTXOK WORSHIP. The blessed effect: of worship upon life and character is familiar to us all. Kvery day we reap the harvest that has been sown in the hours of communion and worship. In the hurry and bustle of life Cod is apt to become to us a mere shadow or a far distant, and disinterested Being, but: when in the quietude of the sanctuary we see the King in His beauty. In daily life we are apt to consider our fellow men as means to an cud, bound to us by the cold relationship of cash transactions; but when

we engage in worship -ami look to Christ S we see our fellow-man as he is--a fellow J sinner for whom .Jesus died, a brother/ saint, an heir of Cod, and a joint heir of Jesus Christ. Outside the sanctuary, sin is an inevitable, trille : inside, it is the one tragedy of the world, erueifying Christ and wounding Cod. Outside, Kternify is a guess, a chance, a shadow; inside, it is the great reality of the place of adjustment, reunion ami satisfaction. Worship quickens all the faculties of a mall's . life. The, quality of the individual life, the atmosphere of the hemic, the trend of society, the character of public life and service will all benefit by our possession of a worshipful spirit. As the mighty lly-wheel in a factory gives momentum to the machinery, so worship calls into movement all the multitudinous powers of man's complex being. Worship widens our vision, it is during worsliip that there is a revelation |of the Unseen. The veil is lifted for us ■by an invisible hand, the song, the prayer, the exhortation; the Word enables lis to grip things invisible, we become sensitive to the Divine touch as the flower is to the sun. The soul that never woiships is blind on the heavenward side. ■ Worship will culminate in the transfiguration of self. When Jesus , was on the Mount of Transfiguration in | communion with God, the fashion of His ' countenance was changed. \ow it is a law of science that environment in- . iluences life, and it is a law in the spirit- , nal realm that association colors per- ' sonality, that association produces as- . .similation. The very presence of some | men quickens the moral pulse. The best lonic for a feeble faith is contact \ with a saintly life. If human character , carries so much inlluence, what shall we j say of the Living Cod? Contact, com- r munion with Mini, whole-hearted worship, will wreath the soul with heaven's beauty , and love, for the habit of devout worship still writes its mark upon eye and cheek < and brow. "0, come. Jet us worship and • bow down; let us kneel before the Lord . our Maker."