as ever written.
Rich music, striking combinations of colour and of architectural forms,
are nothing to God so far as worship goes, except in so far as they
bring the human spirit into fellowship with Him. Persons are differently
constituted, and what is natural to one will be formal and artificial to
another. Some worshippers will always feel that they get closer to God
in private, in their own silent room, and with nothing but their own
circumstances and wants to stimulate them; they feel that a service
carefully arranged and abounding in musical effects does indeed move
them, but does not make it easier for them to address themselves to God.
Others, again, feel differently; they feel that they can best worship
God in spirit when the forms of worship are expressive and significant.
But in two points all will agree: first, that in external worship, while
we strive to keep it simple we should also strive to make it good--the
best possible of its kind. If we are to sing God's praise at all, then
let the singing be the best possible, the best music a congregation can
join in, and executed with the utmost skill that care can develop. Music
which cannot be sung save by persons of exceptional musical talent is
unsuitable for congregational worship; but music which requires no
consideration, and admits of no excellence, is hardly suitable for the
worship of God. I do not know what idea of God's worship is held by
persons who never put themselves to the least trouble to improve it so
far as they are concerned.

The other point in which all will agree, is that where the spirit is not
engaged there is no worship at all. This goes without saying. And yet,
subtract from our worship all that is merely formal, and how much do you
leave? Worse still, there are those who do not even strive after the fit
and decorous form, who do not bow their heads in prayer, who are not
ashamed to be seen looking about them during the most solemn acts of
worship, who show that they are indevout, thoughtless, profane.

The true worshippers shall worship the Father not only "in spirit," but
also "in truth." The word "truth" here probably covers two ideas--the
ideas of reality and of accuracy. It is opposed to symbolic worship and
to ignorant worship. It does not mean that worship was now to be
sincere, for that it had already been both among Samaritans and Jews.
But among the Jews the worship of God had been symbolical, and among the
Samaritans it had