The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1905-12-15
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON GY
The RSV. C. e. McNALLT.
Subject; Spiritual Worship.

New York City.-Surday morning In
tie Sixth Avenue Baptist Church. the
pastor. the Rev. Charles II. McNally.
preached on the subject. The Spirit
God ana Spiritual Worship" The tex;
was from John iv:23-2i: "rhe hour
cometh and now is when the true
worshipers shall worship the Father
in spirit and i'm truth. for the Father
seeketh such 10 worship Him." God
Is a spirit, ana they that worship Him
must worship Him in spirit and in
truth" Mr.. McNally said:
These words might well 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 ont from these words that the
man of old did not think OF himself
just as man thinks Of himself to-day.
He was Il unit. and thought of nothing
outside of his immediate environment.
and Of that chiefly from the point OF
view OF its relation 10 his bodily needs.
His mind did rot 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 in 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 MS body and
spirit. Deep within the inners OF his
own nature he feels that while they
are doubtless closely associated. his
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. unqueston-
ing 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 II may have been in its begin
nings, the consciousness OF God has
never been absent from the human
mind. When IL first appears it seems
to have been materlallstic, or anthro-
pomorphic i'm the grossest sense. Grad
ually there was the development OF a
tendency to look in upon himself and
with this tendency man came into pos
session OF the idea Of an inner thought
self. Thus mind. or soul. was dis
tinguished from the external or ma
terial. and Il conception of God became
both a possibility and reality. The de-
yelopment OF this distinction may be
clearly traced in the Old Testament.
For many centurieS~the materlalistic
was the dominant one. but alongside
Of 1t 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 its 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. hut the people perslstently
their message.
The conversation OF Jesus with the
woman nt the wellside Is interesting
and instructive In many WAYS. She
was n woman and the strain of human
nature was very marked in her life as
f. shown by the fact that when Jesus
her sin she was like many who have
followed her anxious to divert the con-
versa ton from considerations of such
n 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
the world has all been too slow 10
learn, that Judaism and Samaritanism
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 inciose Him. Immaterlal and
imperceptible 10 the senses. He fills
all things with His being. He knows,
feels, and wills. He seeks those 20
whom He has given nature fash
toned in His own image to be- His
worshipers. Only those who have
learned 10 know Him as the Infinite
Mind or Supreme SPIRIT can have fell
lowship with Him, and this because
such worship alone corresponds with
His nature.
II takes tho world n long time TO
outgrow its mateTlGlism. aud to grow
into the thought OF Christ. The path
OF history has led into deep valleys
and over the mountain peaks. There
have been times when IL seemed that
the race was about to move ont into 4
more spiritual thought Of God. Under
the leadership of Paul. an Augustine,
Calvin, q Luther or a Wesley, the
dawn OF a 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
the miasma OF sordidnesS, worl1liness
and sin. That this is peculiarly true
OF America is not without cause and
exclamation Never I'm the history OF