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ACCEPTABLE WORSHIP

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 15, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 49.

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ACCEPTABLE WORSHIP.

By H. A. St. John

BY H. A. ST. JOHN.
SAID our blessed Lord, "God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." John 4:24. Man is naturally constituted a worshiping being. Satan, the great enemy of God and the human race, knows right well this fact, hence he rarely succeeds in destroying this inherent principle altogether, but he is alarmingly successful in perverting it. This is seen in the innumerable things worshiped in place of the true God. But there is a small minority of the race who insist that the only Being worthy of worship is the true and living God. Satan endeavors to destroy the validity of their worship by divorcing the two elements necessary to acceptable divine service. Man must not only worship the true God, but he must worship him in spirit and in truth. Neither taken alone is sufficient. To worship God in spirit can mean nothing less than a willing, cheerful, and loving service. To worship him in truth must mean to worship him according to his word, which is truth. John 17:17. Beware of that spirit of ecstatic joy and profession of great love, which belittles any part of the revealed word of God. They that worship God acceptably must worship him in truth, that is, according to his word. He only has the divine right to say in what way he will be worshiped; and this he has clearly done in the Bible. In vain do they worship him who teach for doctrines the commandments of men. Thus taught the divine Son of God.
Again, we should beware of that worship which makes first and last and everything of a strict conformity to the letter of the divine word. The letter is all right so far as it goes, but, as it is lacking in love, in spirit, it cannot be acceptable to God. They that worship him must worship in spirit as well as in truth. The apostle Paul expressed it exactly when he thanked God that his brethren had obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine delivered unto them. Rom. 6:17.