SERMON III.

Christian Worship.

HEBREWS xiii. 5.

"By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His Name."

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N a former occasion, my brethren, I spoke to

you on the duty of reverence, as connected with a due regard for those hallowed buildings which have been dedicated to the service of Almighty God. I reminded you of the acts of severity by which our Lord evinced His holy indignation at the heartless disregard of this duty by the buyers and sellers in the Temple; and observed that the warning was intended to be of lasting application, inasmuch as each Christian Church stands not only in the same relation to us, as the Temple of old did to the Jews, viz. as a visible token of the Divine Presence, but also in a special relation, as the appointed place wherein that Presence is vouchsafed to us in acts of Christian worship, in a mode more intimate and more real than that which was revealed to them.

I desire now to direct your attention to the nature of that worship which it is our privilege as Christians to offer, and which we believe to be blessed in so peculiar a manner by the Divine Presence; and to lead you to reflect for a few moments on the principles on which it is based, that so we may be brought to a truer estimate of its importance, and of the responsibilities of all engaged in it.

Of the nature and necessity of worship in general I need not speak. We know that in all ages, and countries, and conditions of mankind, a religious instinct has prompted man to reach forth in the spirit beyond himself; and that his inward feelings have found expression for themselves in acts of worship of various kinds. The most degraded rites of heathen superstition are a testimony to this deepseated consciousness of dependence upon a higher power, and of the need of propitiating its favour; and prove that though man may lose the knowledge of the one true God, yet his imagination will form for itself some object of worship.

But we have now to confine our attention to one aspect only of this great subject, and to consider the nature of that Public Worship in which we engage as baptized Christians, and the grounds on which it rests.

Now, my brethren, if we reflect on the nature and intent of united public worship, what are the ideas opened out to us? To some persons, all acts of worship, whether private or public, will seem to be

individual in their nature, and to serve only for the purpose of personal edification. They regard wor ship simply as a means by which some inward spiritual benefit may be conferred upon themselves, and value the invitation to join in the Church's services only in proportion as they seem likely to be productive of that advantage to themselves. Now it cannot, of course, be denied that one grand object of all our attendance at the sanctuary of God, should be that we may receive spiritual refreshment, that we may drink deep of the supplies of divine grace mercifully accorded to us; that we may ascend on the wings of faith and prayer, to Him who sitteth on the throne, and hold communion with the blessed; and that penitence, faith, hope, and love, may be deepened and strengthened within us. These, brethren, are truths which cannot be gainsaid; and yet they are very far from exhausting the full meaning and intent of Christian worship. The view which they represent, true as far as it goes, is yet imperfect and for this reason, because it is based upon an imperfect view of our position as Christians. regards our acts of worship solely in relation to ourselves as individuals, and loses sight entirely of that higher and truer view which regards it in relation to our membership with Christ. For surely the truth is, that we do not come to join in acts of worship as individuals, but as members of the Body of Christ. It is our very incorporation into His mystical Body, by Holy Baptism, that bestows

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upon us the privilege of access to God, and opens to us the door of grace. A Christian congregation is not an accidental gathering together of any number of men whatever, but a meeting of members of Christ in their collective capacity. We come to claim a share in the merits of Christ our head and representative, to offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving in the strength of His all-sufficient sacrifice, and of His continual and all-prevailing intercession. For He who died for us has not completed His work of love in our behalf; He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world; but He ever liveth to make intercession for those who have been made His brethren: He still lives to plead, He still presents the merits of that sacrifice He offered once for all; He is still the great HighPriest, doing for us in reality in heaven, what the Church on earth does only in figure and repre

sentation.

Through Him then, and through Him alone, have we access to God: He is the one Mediator between God and man; and all our acts of worship can only have any meaning or efficacy in so far as they rest upon this great truth of our Lord's mediation. And, brethren, if this be true, it is clear that worship cannot be regarded correctly in its relation to us as isolated individuals. For we cannot as individuals claim our Lord as our Mediator, for His mediatorial work is not being wrought out for each man in his separate capacity, but for the whole

Church, of which all baptized men are members; and it is only by claiming our position as members of that body, that we can obtain the benefits of His heavenly work of mercy in our behalf. And from this it follows that our worship as Christians must be a "common" worship, our sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving must be offered up by us in our collective capacity as members of Christ. Thus, each separate congregation will represent and intercede for the whole Church: thus, the Holy Church throughout the world will acknowledge Him. Separated though it be by distance, of many nations, and peoples, and tongues, it will still be one,—one in faith, one in hope, one in the same Mediator, the Man Christ Jesus. Nor will this cord of sympathy bind us only to the living, but recognising the fact that without us the blessed departed are not perfected, and realizing the doctrine of the Communion of Saints, we shall pray God shortly to accomplish the number of His elect, and to hasten His kingdom, that we with them may enter into rest.

And this deeper view of the nature of Christian worship, as based upon our Lord's mediation, may enable us to realize more fully the meaning of those words of Scripture, in which, as Christians, we are said to have been made "kings and priests unto God and our Father;" and to have been built up "into a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God." For it is in the performance of acts of religious worship that we offer this