The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1905-12-07
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. c, r. McNAlLT.
Subject: Spiritual Worship.


God and Spiritual Worship" The text
was from John iv:23 q: "Thc hour
colneth and now is when the true
worShiperS shall worship the Father
in spirit and in truth. for tho Father
seeketh such to worship Him. God
is a spirit. and they that worship Him
must worship Him in spirit and i'll
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 out from these words that the
man of old did not think Of himself
just as man thinks Of himself to-day.
He was a 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 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 ore
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. his
body is one thing and his soul quite
another. This distinction did not ap-
peal to the ancient He knew nothing
of il. His was the simple. unquestion-
ing life of 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 matcrialistic. or anthro-
pomorphic in the grossest sense. Grad
'7aally there was the development or
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
tincuiShed from the external or ma
terial. 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 II grew up religion OF the spi::s.
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 persistentlE
turned away from them, and from
their message.
The conversation Of Jesus with the
woman ut the wellslde is interesting
and instructive in many ways. She
was a woman and the strain of human
nature was very marked in her life as
l. 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-
versa ton from considerations of such
personal nature to q religious ar2u-
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 farma! Samar:-
ta ism. He turned upon her the full
light of divine truth and declares what
the world has all been too slow to
learn, that Judaism ard Samaritanism
are nothing. but that the religion or
the spirit alone is essential religion.
God is spirit, and is not to be Wor-
SHIPPED by mems hands, or any eN-
ternal form whatsoever He is con-
fined to no mountain top, no temple
walls incloSe Him. Immateriol 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 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 1ei-
lowship with Him. and. this because
such worship alone corresponds Win
His nature.
II takes the world long time to
outcrow it's materialism. and 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 it seemed that
the race was about to move out into
more spiritual thought Of God. Under
the leadership of Paul. an Augustine.
Calvin. Luther or Wesley. the
dawn of 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. worldlinesS
and sin. That this is peculiarly true
of America is not without cause and
explanation. Never in the history of
the world has it been given TO 4 ma
ton to enter into the rich heritage that
has been ours. The past hundred
wears has been a period Of discovery
and development. Discovery i'll that
America and the world has become
conscious of the almost ineXhauStible
wealth unfolded within the bosom OF
her lakes and rivers her forests and
her fields and her deep hidden mines.
Wealth is the handmade Of comfort. of
ease. Of luxury and many other things,