nd how little it is believed. Take, for example,
the appearances and voices by which intimations were made to godly men
in Old Testament times. Why are many people reluctant to allow that
these manifestations were inward and to conscience, that they came as
convictions wrought by an unseen power, rather than as outward
appearances or audible voices? Is it not because the truth that God is a
Spirit is not adequately apprehended? Or why again do we so crave for
signs, for clearer demonstrations of God's being and of His presence?
Ought we not to be satisfied if He responds to spiritual aspirations,
and if we find that our craving for holiness is met and gratified?

The inference drawn by our Lord from the truth that God is a Spirit is
one which needs still to be pressed. God seeks to be worshipped not by
outward forms or elaborate ritual but in spirit. Ordinary teachers
would have put in a saving clause to preserve some forms of worship;
Christ puts in none. Let men worship God in spirit, and let forms take
their chance. To worship God in spirit is to yield the unseen but motive
powers within us to the unseen but Almighty influences which we
recognise as Divine. It is to prostrate our spirit before the Divine
Spirit. It is in our deepest being, in will and intention, to offer
ourselves up to Him in whom goodness is personified. When a man is doing
that, what does it matter what he says to God, or with what forms of
worship he comes before Him? That alone is acceptable worship which
consists in the devout approach of the human spirit to the Divine; and
that is accomplished often as effectually in our business intercourse
with men when tempted to injustice, or in our homes when tempted to
anger or to laxity, as when we are in the house of God. Worship in the
spirit needs no words, no appointed place, but only a human soul that
bows inwardly before the goodness of God, and submits itself cordially
to His sovereign and loving will.

This certainly is a strong argument for simplicity of worship. Why, it
may indeed be said, why have any outward worship at all? Why have
churches and why have Divine service? Well, it would have been better
for the Church if there had been far less outward worship than there
commonly has been. For by its elaborate services the Church has far too
much identified religion with that worship which can only be rendered in
church. No one can be surprised that in utter disgust at the
disproportion betwe