July 1

Spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

I PETER ii. 5.

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. — JOHN iv. 23, 24.

ALAS, how sad that the Hebrews had forgotten the God of Israel as he revealed himself to their fathers, and had fallen into formalism! But our Lord had come to bring in a better state of things and to prepare a people over all the earth, diverse from one another in many things, but one in this, that they aim at worship which is true to the truth of things, and which is spiritual. We live in the time contemplated. Let us be profoundly thankful for what we witness, still more for what we have been taught of the Holy Ghost to join in rendering to the Father.

For the Father, combining love which looks to the good of his creatures with law which comes from his own nature, seeks spiritual worshippers. Let us be fellow-workers with him and try to teach men his nature that, forsaking idols and errors, they may worship him in spirit and in truth.

The nature of God determines the kind of worship. He is holy. He calls for holiness in them that come nigh him. He is omniscient. He sees and hates evil in the heart no less than in the life. He requires heart purity in his worshippers. He is not like the gods of the heathen, and he will not accept what blinded men carry to them. He has made known his nature and his attributes to men with clearness enough to show them what they ought to be and to offer.

John Hall

The holy Church throughout the world,

O Lord, confesses thee,

That thou the eternal Father are,

Of boundless majesty.

TATE (Translation).