The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1905-12-07
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. c. r. MeNAlLY.
Subject: Spiritual Worship.

Tew York City.-Sunday morning, in
the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church. the
pastor, the Rev. Charles r. McNally,
preached on the subject, "The Spirit
God and Spiritual Worship" The text
was from John iv:23-24: 1.-The hour
cometh and now is when the true
worshipers shall worship the Father
In spirit and in truth, for the Father
seeketh such to worship Him." God
is spirit, and they that worship Him
must worship Him in spirit and in
truth" Mr.. McNally said:
These words might we'll lead into
the byways of philosophy. That. how
ever, is an enjoyment which we do
not now intend to permit ourselves to
indulge in. We might with profit
point out from these words that the
man Of old did not think Of himself
Just as man thinks Of himself to-day.
He was unit, and thought Of nothing
outside of his immediate environment.
and of that chiefly from the point OF
view Of it's relation to his bodily needs.
His mind did not grasp the thought of
the beyond or the hereafter. His dead
companion was not thought Of as be-
ing essentially different from that
which he was in life. His horse, his
tools, etc, were buried with him,
with the belief that+sin some unseen
but material paradise: or hunting
ground he would live as he had lived,
needing and using the same things.
Man does not now so view himself.
He no longer thinks Of himself as a
unit. He Is divided. His body is one
thing and his mind or soul is another.
Man still views himself as body and
spirit. Deep within the inners OF his
own nature he feels that while they
are doubtless closely associated, MS
body is one thing and his soul quite
another. This distinction did not ap-
peal to the ancient. He knew nothing
OF It. His was the simple, unquestrcn-
inc life. of a child.
The religious impulse. however, has
always been an integral part of human
life, and has ever, in one form or an
other, sought to express ITSELF Crude
though it may have been in its begin
nings, the consciousness of God has
never been absent from the human
mind. When it first appears It seems
to have been materialiStic, or anthr0-
pomrph1c In the grossest sense. Grad
uaIly there was the development OF a
tendency to look in upon himself and
with fais tendencysman came into pos
session of the ideasef an inner thought
self. Thus mind, or soul. was dis
tfn9uished from the external or ma
terfal, and conception OF God became
both possibility and reality. The de-
velopment of this distinction may be
clearly traced in the Old Testament.
For many centuries the materialistic
was the dominant one, but ALONGSIDE
OF It grew up religion OF the spirit.
The former finds Its highest expression
in the ornate formal worship OF Juda-
ism. The religion Of the law with
all It's material accompaniment was
the effort of the human mind to grasp
the thought Of God In the terms OF
the material Within Judaism there
was the development of the religion
Of the spirit. The prophets were its
messengers, but the people persistently
turned away from them, aRd from
their message.
The conversation Of Jesus with the
woman at the wellside is interesting
and instructive in many ways. She
was a woman and the strain of human
nature was very Marked in her HE as
is shown by the fact that when Jesus
had her cornered and face to face with
her sin she was like many who have
followed her, anxious to divert the con-
yersation from considerations Of such
a personal nature to a religious argu-
ment. Jesus using her own thought
imparts to her the deepest lesson that
has ever been uttered in the realm
of religion. When the woman would
have Him discuss the relative merits
of formal Judaism. or formal Samari-
tanism. He turned upon her the full
light of divine truth and declares what
fhe world has all been, too slow to
learn, that Judaism and Samar1tan1sm
are nothing, but that the religion OF
the spirit alone is essential religion.
God is spirit, and is not to be wor-
shipped by mems hands, or any ex-
ternal form whatsoever. He is con-
fined to no mountain top, no temple
walls inclose Him. Immaterial and
imperceptible to the senses, he fills
all things With His being. He knows,
feels, and wills. He seeks those to
whom He has given, q nature fash
toned in His own image to be His
worshipers. Only. those who have
learned to know. Him. as the Infinite
Mind or Supreme Spirit can have fel-
-lowship with Him, and this because
such worship alone corresponds with
His nature.
It takes the world long time to
outgrow its materiaIism, and to grow
into the thought8of Christ. The path
of history has led into deep valleys
and over the mountain peaks. There
have been times when 1t seemed that
the race was about to move out into a
more spiritual thought Of God. Under
the leadership Of q Paul, an Augustine,
a Calvin, q Luther or Wesley, the
dawn Of q brighter day seemed at
hand, but from these mountain peaks
the pathway has invariably led down
into the low wales Of the material and
sordidly earthly.
We have been. indeed, We now are,
for the dawn Of the brighter day has
hardly appeared, in one Of those ma
terialistic swamps from which arise