nd they that worship Him must worship Him _in
spirit_ and truth.' The first thought suggested here by the
Master is that there must be harmony between God and His
worshippers; such as God is, must His worship be. This is
according to a principle which prevails throughout the universe:
we look for correspondence between an object and the organ to
which it reveals or yields itself. The eye has an inner fitness
for the light, the ear for sound. The man who would truly worship
God, would find and know and possess and enjoy God, must be in
harmony with Him, must have a capacity for receiving Him. Because
God _is Spirit_, we must worship _in spirit_. As God is, so His
worshipper.

And what does this mean? The woman had asked our Lord whether
Samaria or Jerusalem was the true place of worship. He answers
that henceforth worship is no longer to be limited to a certain
place: 'Woman, believe Me, _the hour cometh_ when neither in
this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father.' As
God is Spirit, not bound by space or time, but in His infinite
perfection always and everywhere the same, so His worship would
henceforth no longer be confined by place or form, but spiritual
as God Himself is spiritual. A lesson of deep importance. How
much our Christianity suffers from this, that it is confined to
certain times and places. A man who seeks to pray earnestly in
the church or in the closet, spends the greater part of the week
or the day in a spirit entirely at variance with that in which he
prayed. His worship was the work of a fixed place or hour, not of
his whole being. God is a spirit: He is the Everlasting and
Unchangeable One; what He is, He is always and in truth. Our
worship must even so be in spirit and truth: His worship must be
the spirit of our life; our life must be worship in spirit as God
is Spirit.

'God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in
spirit and truth.' The second thought that comes to us is that
this worship in the spirit must come from God Himself. God is
Spirit: He alone has Spirit to give. It was for this He sent His
Son, to fit us for such spiritual worship, by giving us the Holy
Spirit. It is of His own work that Jesus speaks when He says
twice, 'The hour cometh,' and then adds, 'and is now.' He came to
baptize with the Holy Spirit; the Spirit could not stream forth
till He was glorified (_John i. 33, vii. 37, 38, xvi. 7_). It was
when He had made an end of sin, and ente