Man asks, \u201cHow am I to worship God?\u201d and<\/p>\n
he has answered it also in his own way. In the
\ngorgeous temple, in the pillared cathedral, with
\nincense, and vestments, and forms, and ceremonies,
\nand processions, and postures, he says.
\nBut these performances are the \u2018will worship\u2019 of
\nself righteousness, not the obedient service of
\nmen worshiping God in ways of His own choosing.
\nMan cannot teach man how to worship God. When
\nhe tries it he utterly fails. He distorts worship; he
\nmisrepresents God, and he indulges his own sensuous
\nor self righteous tastes. His \u201cdim religious light\u201d is
\nbut a reflection of his own gloomy spirit, and an
\nignorant misrepresentation of Him \u201cwho is light.\u201d
\nGod\u2019s answer to man\u2019s question is given in the
\nLord\u2019s words, \u201cthose who worship Him must worship
\nHim in spirit and in truth.\u201d
\nThe vestments may or may not be lovely; that matters not.
\nThe music may or may not be beautiful.
\nThe knees may or may not be bent.
\nThe hands may or may not be clasped.
\nThe place of worship may or may not be
\na cathedral, or a consecrated building.
\nThese are immaterial things; mere
\nadjuncts of religion, not its essence.
\nThe true worship is that of the inner man; and all
\nthese other exterior things are of little importance.
\nAs it is with love, so it is with worship.
\nThe heart is everything!
\nGod can do without the bended knee,
\nbut not without the broken heart!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Man asks, \u201cHow am I to worship God?\u201d and he has answered it also in his own way. In the gorgeous temple, in the pillared cathedral, with incense, and vestments, and forms, and ceremonies, and processions, and postures, he says. But these performances are the \u2018will worship\u2019 of self righteousness, not the obedient service of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,22,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-horatius-bonar","category-regeneration","category-false-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=790"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":792,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions\/792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}