The San Francisco call., 1901-12-26

son, rendered an excellent pro-
gramme.
At the 1890 O'Clock mass the
Rev Charles A. Ramm
preached the sermon. His discourse was
a beautiful one and was of Christmas. In
part he said:
/ God being pure spirit the worship of him
| is the worship of a pure spirit. Since, however
we have never had any experience OF spiritual
/ being and cannot, therefore. even imagine
1 sariIy extremely diffcuit Worsip is a mental
and intellectual act; the will and mind must
produce it or it does not exist; but We can
not think at all without the accompaniment OF
I thought of God involved in his worship must
necessarily be attended by some image Of him
1t is the difficulty of forming this image which
makes our mental grasp upon God commonly
so feeble. You will at once realize what
votion to God the Father or to God the Holy
Ghost. To most people. am sure, the object
| of such devotion will seem tllustve, vanishing
before them they try to fix their mental eyes
upon it. What sort of mental picture can we
form of the Holy Ghost7
This initial difficulty OF worship springing
from the spirituality Of God is increased by
second arising from the character of the wor-
ship which he requires of us Worship, ! have
said is an intellectual act. But it is more
The first and greatest commandment is this.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy
whole soul, with thy whole heart and with thy
whole mind" Not alone our intellect but
our feelings, our emotions and our directions
are to have share in our worship Without
these the purely mental acts which form the
basis of love and alteration are cold and
feeble. 1t is the heart which gives to worship
intensity and color and warmth
When our feelings run along with our will
sent or contrary it takes all our resolution and
courage to remain faithful to cur duty One
half our being seems then to be rebellins
against the other half; and generally, in the
end, if the conflict be long, our mental powers
lose their grasp and we are swept away by
Yet these feelings are a part of our strange
little being. Powerful aids they are for good
spiration; demon furies when perverted to the
cause of sin. They are Gods gifts to US. and
he asks us to bring them to his service, so
that our whole being. spiritual and physical.
may offer him one harmonious homage
But how we bring our hearts to serve
God. who is everywhere and vet nowhere, warm
us with the glow of fervor? Can tmma-
terial being kindle emotions within us? Can
the fingers Of our affections twine around that
which We cannot even imagine?
The kind heart needs the tangible. the vis-
ible the present, the concrete to move It, The
absence Of these from the pure spirituality of
God made the worship of him in the oldsn time
doubly hard. 1t is for this reason that his
chosen people could with the utmost difficulty
be made to cleave to the theism which it
and feel their God, and so fell an easy prey
to the idolatry OF their heather neighbors.
When Moses delayed II; coming down from the
mountain the people forgot the Lord whose
prophet he was, and cried out to Aaron:
Arise, make us gods that may go before US.
1t was but the strong cry Of their sensible
nature drowning the sOmber but weak voice
| of reason.
So it was throughout their history. They
were constantly falling away; and II was only
by the direct punishments that God could hold
them, even to fftful, cold and feeble worship.
But surely a merciful Father will at length
have pity upon this weakness Of human nature.
He will not always remain far away from his
children. He will not always rdle by fear:
he will come to them; ne will win them to
himself. and hold them by the cords Of Adam
by the bonds of love.
Jesus lives to-day on every altar He "a
there. the same gracious Savior who had COM
who brought Mary Magdalen weeping and peni-
tent to his feet; whose touch healed the sick;
who cOmforted the grtef-stricken widow of
Nain who wept at the tomb of Lazarus and
whose look of reproach brought the bitter tears
of repentance to the eyes of Peter.
The doors of his temple are always Open in
viting US to enter and fall down before him
in silent alteration. There. in his presence
our hearts grow warm again. our strength is
renewed and our courage revived. There orr
difficulties of worship solved and the ire
pressible cravings of our nature to feel our
Savior near US find their answer. He has NOT
earth like Cain, with the curse of our sins
upon US. For we know where he is. and We
may arise and go to him and cast our b,irdsn
upon him. as Martha's sister did when her
heart was heavy. ~
Around the altar where Jesus dweIIs there
is life and warmth. There his kneeIinp cbII
dren adore him with the ever-present srai onIl-
In the great cold world outside his very nsls -,
and life are, alas, fast becoming a r,ers ,s .Ii9
the object of it is too far away eOa4ss
Oh, let US, then, whom faith has gathered
fu souls the angels song Of gladness on .LS
the natal day OF the word made flesh SS iS
when. in a few moments, he will be bo1, .r.iC AIu
for US, on the altar by the whispered N-o3 ~ ~
conservation. let US bow down before bGrus b}, OF
ofter him the warm homage of gratefuI ado ana
tion. Tor 1t is the ineffabIe mystery of IA a
manuel-God with us ~ VI EN-