THE TRUE WORSHIPPER. THE history of the divine manifestations is the proof of infinite wisdom. There has been a gradual development of the character of God through successive ages, adapted to the condition and circumstances of men. Light from heaven has been increasing from the earliest ages. The patriarchal dispensation was an advance on the antediluvian; the levitical on the patriarchal; the prophetic on the levitical; the evangelic on the prophetic. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds," Heb. i. 1, 2. This last manifestation of God-the christiansheds more light on his character, and by consequence on the relation in which man stands to him, than any previous manifestation ever did. Things which were kept secret are now revealed. 66 Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which we see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which we hear, and have not heard them," Matt. xiii. 17. This is the noontide of revelation, in which the long-promised Messiah speaks to men of those great truths which involve the deepest interests of the whole race. All previous manifestations pointed to this: all previous rays of divine light converge on this. This is the confluence of pre vious beams of revelation. And the light which now shines so brightly, under the reign of grace, illumines the path to, and loses itself amidst, the regions of celestial glory. It streams on the attractive future, and reveals life and immortality. The world has never been abandoned by its Creator. Through all the ages of the past there are to be found monuments of his power, memorials of his mercy, evidences of his justice, and illustrations of his character. From the time when the voice of God was first heard amid the bowers of Eden, in the cool of the day, by the conscience-smitten progenitors of our race, to the period when the same voice of "God manifest in the flesh," 1 Tim. iii. 16, gave to the perplexed woman of Samaria, at Jacob's well, a definition of the true worshipper, the divine character has been gradually unfolding itself to the sons of men. Never before was it so clearly understood as under the spiritual teaching of Him who said, "He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him," John xiv. 21. This, in the personal absence of our divine Lord, involves the idea of a spiritual manifestation, and well does such a manifestation agree with the definition of acceptable worship, just alluded to: "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth," John iv. 24. It It was with an inhabitant of Sychar, in Samaria, a woman, the epitome of whose history presents her moral character in no favourable aspect, that Jesus held the memorable conversation recorded in the fourth chapter of the gospel by John. His condescension and grace were beautifully illustrated by this interesting conference. To her he declared that he was the possessor and dispenser of living water; to her he announced that the time had arrived for the abolition of sacred places; to her he revealed himself as the promised Messiah; and to her he delivered the momentously important doctrine, that all true worshippers must worship the Father in spirit and in truth. It is impossible to imagine a more momentous averment than this. It brings the mind into immediate contact with the vital realities of spiritual truth. It leaves no room for the idea that mere formalism may invest the externals of worship with attractions, grateful to the holy Being who is the object of worship. impels the mind, as it were, within itself, on the solemn search after devotional and sanctified emotions. It deals at once with the heart, sweeping aside all external circumstances of time, place, relationship, and profession. It recognises no merely adventitious circumstance, no tribe of Levi, no gorgeous fane, no hallowed spot. It listens not to the plea, " Abraham is our father." It knows nothing of mere hereditary claims and tensions. It regards not the broad phylactery. It proclaims, once and for all, that God is not worshipped by art and man's device; and that neither in mount Gerizim, nor yet in Jerusalem, nor indeed anywhere else throughout the wide-spread earth, can a sacred spot be found, as a substitute for the conscience sprinkled with the blood of atonement ;-that the external, the ritual, the ceremonial, are deemed of themselves, henceforth, of no account; for that the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands-but as he is a holy and incomprehensible Being, whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, he looks into the spirits, pre and searches the hearts, and tries the reins of the children of men. It claims the throne of the heart, for Him who is its rightful sovereign; it requires the exercise of the mind and affections in things spiritual and divine; and it demands the expulsion of every tainted influence from the soul, as destructive of its true interests, and offensive to that God, who has a right to an implicit and unswerving loyalty. "Who In spirit and in truth! Spirituality of mind is essential both to a correct apprehension of divine truths and a right approach to God. The love of the pure and the holy must be the governing principle; divine impressions must be felt; access to God by faith in the one Mediator must be desired, and communion with the Holy Spirit must be cherished; the purity of his character, the design of a throne of grace, and the only medium of gracious intercourse, between the creature and the Creator, must be appreciated; and the awful solemnity involved in the idea of drawing nigh to Him who looketh into the heart, must be realized. He is a great King. The hosts of heaven bend before him. Its mightiest principalities, high in authority, high in intelligence, high in moral perfectibility, fall down with veiled faces at his feet. His power is absolute; his rule eternal; his presence universal; his holiness transcendent; his purpose unchanging. "He looketh down upon the earth, and it trembleth; he toucheth the hills, and they smoke." measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him? Behold the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing," Isa. xl. 12, 13, 15; and again, "The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart," 1 Sam. xvi. 7. It is therefore a solemn thing for man, burdened with guilt and sunk in corruption as he is, to venture near to the Holy One of Israel. How can he, how dare he, without the intervention of a Mediator? It is to come into the presence of a Being, the grandeur of whose attributes overwhelms the highest intelligences with awe, and whose sole prerogative it is to read the secrets of the human heart. Every thought, and feeling, and desire, and purpose are clearly known to him. Those transient emotions of the soul, of which we ourselves are scarcely conscious, which come and go, we know neither whence nor whither, and which, from their ephemeral character, we deem unworthy of moral analysis, are distinctly traced by him. Though we may fail to recognise the fact, those brief mental passengers, which flit across the spirit like the shadow of a flying bird, belong to the vast multitude of influences, that are gradually moulding the character for the season of future retribution. It is possible that each one of these slight impressions may in itself have a moral affinity to some other influence, whose importance it is difficult to overstate. It blends and combines itself with the multitude of thoughts within us, which constitute us what we really are-spiritual worshippers, or cold formalists, or positive rejecters of Christ. And as the great God with whom we have to do, determines the character of the man by the state of his mind, and the volitions of his will, and the desires and aspirations of his heart, so it is quite obvious that He is not adored at all, if the spirit of the professed worshipper be not engaged in the act of devotion. If there be no believing recognition of God in Christ, as reconciling the world to himself, and no grateful appropriation of the blessings thus offered, there is no real prayer, there is no genuine praise, there is no true devotion ! What a marvellous piece of divine mechanism is the human thrust Paul and Silas into the inner prison, and make their feet THE ENGLISH MONTHLY TRACT SOCIETY, 27, RED LION SQUARE. aloft into the regions of eternity," its powers of endurance, and susceptibility of enjoyment are also in the highest degree wonderful. The wringing of the hands, the gushing tears, the audible groan, the emaciated look, and the prematurely whitened hair, are but poor interpreters of what the mind is capable of suffering. There are mental woes for which language has no voice, thought no symbol, conception no hieroglyphic. It feels at times, as if the three days of Egyptian palpable darkness. were brooding over it, and its heavings are as though the four apocalyptic angels had commanded the winds of heaven to blow upon it, a pitiless and pelting blast from every quarter. Times without number, in the history of mankind, has an individual mind been the den of throngs of pestiferous demons, whose united name was legion. The terrors of hell have been realized in all their intensity, before the sinful sufferer is actually summoned to appear before his Judge. But, we repeat it, language has no terms wherewith to depict the powers of endurance, characteristic of the human mind, or conception wherewith to estimate the capability of its enjoyment. It has often been found the scene of hallowed joy, such as heaven itself can alone transcend. It has called God, "Father," and felt that it spake in the spirit of adoption. It has been "exceeding joyful," and had unutterable foretastes of a glorious immortality, and an abundant entrance into the heavenly kingdom. It has had joys unspeakable and full of glory. The triune Jehovah has taken up his dwelling in it, ministering angels have encircled it with a halo of celestial blessedness, and heaven itself has been actually realized, ere the honoured and happy spirit has quitted its earthly tenement. The argument we wish to found on these considerations, and to prepare for which they have been introduced, is the reasonableness of consecrating this great power to the service of Him who formed it. As to the reasonableness of this selfsurrender to God, the apostle Paul repeatedly speaks; and he was himself an illustrious example of the duty which he enjoined on others. With the exception of the stupendous work of redemption, the formation of mind, in which word we would include the intellectual powers and affections of the soul, must be considered the brightest achievement of the wonder-working power of God. Is it not reasonable, therefore, that He should require the supreme homage of the soul? that He should demand the service of the rational mind? Shall he be satisfied with the service of the hands, the intonation of the lips, the bending of the knee, the prostration of the body, or even the pecuniary offering, while the heart is far from him? Reason |