We Nonconformists, who "have broken away from those great referent prayers that are found in the Prayer Book, must be doubly cautious that we do not break away from reverent prayer altogether. We don't trouble to kneel to pray now, and it may be true that the attitude of the body does not very much matter, but we must, be very careful lest, if we lounge in our seats, we should lounge in spirit before God. God is Holy, and they that worship him must worship in spirit and in truth, If we truly pray, we enter into the presence of God, and we can only enter into His presence in a spirit of reverence and humility. The proud man may pray to the God of his own conception, but it is only the humble man, who is conscious of the greatness of God, who prays to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Much has been written lately about prayer, much that has helped us to understand better this great act of worship, but it seems to me that our chief need is to recover our sense of the greatness and holiness of God, for not until we do that shall we go down to our house justified. "Once we realize the majesty of His Presence, we shall Jose all our pride.
But there is another way in this pride of ours Is shown, This is in the importance we put on our own fhterpretation of our faith, Pharisee so proud that he paid tithes of all he possessed. He seem. ed to think that by paying tithes he was paying his way to Heaven. To him the Law, as observed by the Jews, was the final revelation of the truth of God. His way of life was the only way in which eternal happiness could be found.
Each age has its vision of truth, but unfortunately each age thin! that the part of truth it has grasped is the final revelation.
It is difficult for us to realize that only about 70 years ago, slavery was accepted and upheld by the Church, and it was a new revelation of Truth that came to men when they realized that slavery was unchristian, not s0 very long ago, either, th the vast majority of Christians if a little baby died baptised, it was eternally damned.
The Littleness of Creeds We know that our forefathers were wrong, and yet to-day we are so sure that the truth as we see is the whole truth, that we close our eyes to fuller and richer Yelations that might come to u We limit the greatness of God's Grace to the littleness of our creeds, and would make God as small as our puny conceptions of Him, This is perhaps one of the chief reasons why so many good people—people who are desperately anxious to find and worship the true God—are outside the Church. Because they do not think as we do about some article of our faith, we do not admit them to our company. They are seeking for God as much as we are, but, because we are so sure that our way is right and their's wrong, we do not accept them as fellow seekers after God.
We see through a glass darkly and act as though we saw face to we. We know in part, but live our lives as though we: knew even as we are known. And even inside the Church, we have parties, who fare so sure that they and' they alone have the truth, that they spend their time: and waste their energy in fighting each other, instead of Joining in a united crusade to proclaim the Gospel to those who know it not.
The pride of the Pharisee is very common in the Church to-day, but if, instead of being so proud of what we know and believe, we would humbly realize that God has still things to reveal to. -us—things which, because of the pride of our hearts, we cannot understand—te should not only be- more Christian to our fellow men, but also: would gain a fuller vision of the glories of God.
The more the scientist discovers of the universe, the more' he realizes how much there is still to learn, and the mare humble: he becomes. And the more we come to know of the Creator of! the Universe, the more we shall find that the only Christian.attitade is one of readiness to receive more of Peas and to learn of Hin, proud man will never find God until he loses his pride, for the more we know of God, the more we fee) His Holiness, and to feel the Holiness of God is to become humble.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.