The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-06
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
A SHORT SERMON WITH THE TRUE
WORSHIP AS ITS ONLY THEME.
BY the Very Rev. Frank HsIey Para
disc, Dean of Christ Church Ca
thedraI, New Orleans, La.

A
The true worshiper shall worship the
Father in spirit and in truth; for such doth
the Father seek to be His worshipers.-John
Nv. &c.
For the first time in Jesus ministry He
steps, in this episode, beyond the boun-
diaries of Jewish life His work was scarce
ly begun He was journeying from Jeru-
salem toward His Galilean home. there to
begin those months of happy and delight
full service about the tradition Of which
still linger the sweet perfumes of early
spring.
Already He had come to know that the
message He was to deliver could no more
be restricted within certain boundaries or
to a certain people than could the free wind
be harnessed or the breaking sunlight con-
fined. He meets in Samaria the same con-
ditions of life as He had left behind in Jeru-
salem-a depraved worship, a fallen moral
nature, hungering soul. He escaped the
trammels of Jewish prejudice and conven-
tionality; His appeal flew straight to the
human heart; He knew of no distinctions
save the human cry of need and the divine
power to help.
The world has loved with peculiar ten
derness this story Of Jesus interview with
the Samaritan woman at Jacobs well. 1t
touches the heart and the imagination. 1t
presents those elements of local life which
arouse personal interest and sympathy.
How often have we seen this pictured in
form and color-the historic well. stepped
in the fierce sunlight of Syrian noon; the
woman with her water jar, look of Won
der and alarm in her eyes; the relaxed fig
ure of the young Teacher in the shade of
the stone arch, and beyond the rustling
xxyha IA rinanpd grain VVhiEnerS
as it bends to the soft breeze.
But art has failed, and must ever fail, to
reproduce the scene. There is dignity,
tenderness and enthusiasm that only words
can express. The woman, coarse, frivolous,
SELFISH the Savior, calm, uplifted eager;
these two immortal figures stand over
against each other The story is told with
exquisite skill. We can almost see the men
tai movements of these antagonists. 1t is
struggle of wills. The shifts, the evasions,
the weak curiosity OF the one, yields, step
by step, to the pure and healing power of
the other, 1t is with a divine enthusiasm
that Christ hastens to say, Every one that
drinketh this water shall thirst again, but
whosoever drinketh of the water that 1
shall give him shall never thirst, but the
water that shall give him shall become to
him we'll OF water springing up into
eternal life"
But her common soul is stirred by these
immortal words only to selfish desire to
rid herself of the daily routine and duty of
her life: "Sir give me this water, that
thirst not: neither come all the way hith-
el. to draw" And then it was that Jesus,
with the cruel kindness of the great ply
stefan, probes her innermost consciousness
He holds her before herself. lie stirs the
rico IN
face some uncertain feelings for holy things
and a faint awakening of religious Curl
osity. At least this is a. prophet and he
can settle the vexed question as to the
claims of Jerusalem and Mount Gerizim
Was 1t right to worship God here or there?
Here was put before Christ question
of intense local and historical interest. On
Mount Gerizim four or five centuries before
had been built a splendid temple, rivaling
in magnificence that of the Jews in Jeru-
salem. The temple was now destroyed, but
the spirit of a,1imosity between Samaritans
and Jews was iii no way diminished. The
real question loses itself IN a flood of his
toric associations. At once the mind is as
sailed by a hundred bittar and jealous
memories. The original native impulse to
know and worship God becomes altogether
secondary to the heated passions for a par
LiSdu NfCloAy. AAC AoCd1 AlcSeiOAL VI Aldii-
ner and place had usurped the throne upon
which love and faith sit in the human soul.
The principle involved did not open for
them into the larger and universal principle
of q spiritual relationship of man TO God.
The sin of their hearts was that they made
the small great, the last first. until the
love Of self became their deity.
Then were uttered those memorable
words, the great confession of faith: God
is a spirit and they that worship Him
must worship in spirit and in truth" Christ
breaks down the barriers which separated
man from man; he tears apart what was
to the Jews the essential garment Of right
eousness that He might lay bare for all
time the heart of righteousness. No longer
shall 1t be Jew and Samaritan that mark
the mechanical divisions of Gods kingdom;
Gerizirn and Jerusalem shall pass away,
but the simple and earnest spirit, untram-
meled by circumstance or accident, that
speaks out to God in truth, shall find a
response from the heart of the loving
Father.
He uttered for the first time" says Re-
nan, "the sentence upon which will repose
the edifice of eternal religion. He founded
a pure worship Of ali ages, of all lands, that
which all elevated souls will embrace until
the end OF time. This sentiment of Jesus
has been bright light amidst gross dark,
ness. But the light viii grow into the full
day. and, after having traversed ali the cir