Christian worship

“ The sermon on the 'Worship of Faith' sets forth that 'To worship Christ is to bow down with love and wonder and thankfulness, before the most perfect goodness that the world has ever seen, and to believe that that goodness was the express image of God the Father.' All aims and all ideals that are not the aims and ideals of Christ, are distinctly opposed to such worship, and the man who entertains these alien ideals may not call himself a Christian. ”

“ Finally, we say, that we agree amongst ourselves touching the whole judgment and chief substance of Christian religion, and with one mouth, and with one spirit, do worship God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ”

“ Just as reasonably would a pagan justify his worship of the sun, the moon, and the stars, by this passage of Scripture, as our Roman Catholic brethren would justify themselves by the former passage in their ascription of praise and glory to the holy angels, and saints, and the blessed Virgin. We honour the holy angels, we praise God for the glory which He has imparted to them, and for the share which He has been pleased to assign to them in executing his decrees of mercy in the heavenly work of our salvation ”

“ But we address no invocation to them; we ascribe no glory to them as an act of religious worship. By offering thanks and praise to God He declares that we honour HIM; by offering thanks and praise, and by ascribing glory and honour to angel, saint, or virgin, we make them gods. ”

“ The Church still preaches the gospel of the Grace of God, the obligation and blessing of worship, the meaning and virtue of the Christian Sacraments." Also "My brethren, we shall not be content to criticize and find fault with our own age and time, but rather we shall pray for the power to see within its questionings, unrest and discontent—aye, its recklessness and apparent failures—the strivings of the Spirit of God. But each man has to voice for himself the conviction of the reality of the spiritual order and the spiritual life. ”

“ Nothing short of an enactment, rescinding in terms the former prohibitory law, and positively sanctioning supplications and prayers to saints and angels, seems capable of satisfying any Christian bent on discovering the will of God, and resolved to worship Him agreeably to the spirit of that will as it has been revealed. ”

“ Jesus Christ to be Worshipped, Hence God: Jesus Christ is to be worshipped by men and angels; and worship is an honor to be paid only to true Deity. The angels of heaven refuse the adoration we call worship. ”

“ But true worship would begin—the worship of a Deity who is all and only good; while in every worshipper would be kindled an enthusiasm for righteousness, a passionate resolve to “work together with God” for the elevation and amelioration of the race. ”

“ For, since Jesus Christ de- livered Himself up for the salvation of the human race, and to this end directed all His teaching and commands, so He_ ordered the Church to strive, by the truth of its doctrine,
"To sanctify and to save mankind. But faith alone cannot compass so great, excellent, and important an end. There must needs be also the fitting and devout worship of God, which is to be found chiefly in the divine sacrifice and in the dispensation of the sacraments, as well as salutary laws and discipline. ”

“ All the little distinctions of modes, forms, and particular expressions of devotion and worship will be swallowed up and lost in the unlimited effusions of heavenly love, charity, and benevolence with which the hearts of every member of this glorious New Church and Body of Jesus Christ will overflow one toward another. ”

“ Remember the multitudes who have been created in your image but have not known the redeeming work of our Savior Jesus Christ; and grant that, by the prayers and labors of your holy Church, they may be brought to know and worship you as you have been revealed in your Son; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. ”

“ It is the church's business to insist that men must live in the world of the sacred, the uncommon, the particular, in order to be able to surmount and endure the secular, the common and the universal. It is her business to insist that through worship all this can be accomplished. But can worship be taught? Is not the devotee, like the poet or the lover or any other genius, born and not made? ”

“ What more biblical, as far as the Old Testament is concerned, than the idea that worship and prayer are more acceptable to the Almighty when offered on certain spots, holy ground, remote, perhaps, from the usual haunts of the worshipper! ”

“ Theology will no longer be tyrannical and proscriptive, from lack of love, — straining out gnats and swallowing camels.
We worship spiritually, only as we cease to worship materially. Spiritual devoutness is the soul of The true worship. Christianity. Worshipping through the medium of matter is Paganism. ”

“ That Christ will reign personally upon the earth, and that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.
We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may. ”

“ We give ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the word of his grace, for the teaching, ruling, and sanctifying of us in matters of worship and conversation, resolving to cleave unto him alone for life and glory, and to reject all contrary ways, canons, and constitutions of men, in his worship. ”

“ A mere form of worship avails nothing; we must obey the commandments. "Not every one that sayeth to me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven." This Gospel is restored to the earth, and everybody may know it for themselves. ”

“ What is there so precious to the Christian as the faith, the holy and divine religion into which he has been baptized; the Church, which is his ark of safety; the adorable Sacrament of the Altar, which is the link between heaven and earth; the Communion of Saints, through which he remains still united to the faithful departed whom he once loved on earth; the hope of future glory and blessedness in the kingdom of God? Health, wealth, pleasure, honor, science, art, home, country, the whole wide world itself, are of no value in comparison. ”

“ Such have been the ways in which men have tried to express their devotion to God, but all have been either insufficient or vain. Man's thoughts about God have found no fitting expression. A fire has burned in his heart which no words can utter. Now here, as in so many other ways, Christianity comes to our aid, and places within our reach a perfect and all-sufficient mode of expressing our devotion, a perfect worship. Do you ask me to what I allude? I answer, to the Sacrifice of the Mass. ”

“ And so the Prayer-Book says, "Devout and holy men, as well under the Law as under the Gospel, moved either by the express command of God, or by the secret inspiration of the blessed Spirit, and acting agreeably to their own reason and sense of the natural decency of things, have erected houses for the public worship of God, and separated them from all unhallowed, worldly, and common uses, in order to fill men's minds with greater reverence for His glorious Majesty, and affect their hearts with more devotion and humility in His service ”

“ Let the workingman be urged and led to the worship of God, to the earnest practice of religion, and, among other things, to the keeping holy of Sundays and holydays. Let him learn to reverence and love Holy Church, the common Mother of us all ”

“ The greater the public mercies are which we have a share in the more we are obliged to bear a part in the public homage paid to God: the setting up of the kingdom of Christ, especially, ought to be the matter of our praise. 2. When we draw night to God, to worship him, our hearts must be filled with high thoughts of him, and he must be exalted in our souls. 3. The more we abase ourselves, and the more prostrate we are before God, the more we exalt him. We must worship at his footstool, at his ark, which was as the footstool to the mercy-seat between the cherubim ”

“ Another short document has appeared, which runs as follows:—"I believe in God the Father, who by his Almighty Word created the world, and governs it in wisdom, justice, and love. I believe in Jesus Christ, one Saviour, who by his teaching, his life, and his death, has redeemed us from the bondage of sin. I believe in the work of the Holy Spirit upon earth—a holy universal Christian Church—the forgiveness of sins, and the life everlasting. ”

“ The worship experience consists in the sublime attempt of the betrothed Adjuster to communicate to the divine Father the inexpressible longings and the unutterable aspirations of the human soul—the conjoint creation of the God-seeking mortal mind and the God-revealing immortal Adjuster. Worship is, therefore, the act of the material mind's assenting to the attempt of its spiritualizing self, under the guidance of the associated spirit, to communicate with God as a faith son of the Universal Father. ”

“ So that they may be, to those who receive them, for the cleansing of their soul, for remission of sins, for communion of Thy Holy Spirit, for the fulness of the kingdom of heaven, for confidence in Thee, not for judgment or for condemnation. We also offer unto Thee this reasonable worship for those who are at rest in the faith, our fore fathers, fathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, hermits, and for every righteous spirit departed in the faith. ”

“ Where these principles animate the worshippers, they will be governed by them also in daily life; their whole life will be a service and sacrifice well-pleasing in the sight of God, and what are called their “acts of worship” will not be artificial flowers stuck on to dead and rotting branches for their adornment, but sweet, natural blossoms, upon which God will smile, and which He will pronounce ”very good.” ”

“ We are carnal and cannot bring God the worship He seeks. But Jesus came to give the Spirit: He has given Him to us. Let the disposition in which we set ourselves to pray be what Christ's words have taught us. Let there be the deep confession of our inability to bring God the worship that is pleasing to Him; the childlike teachableness that waits on Him to instruct us; the simple faith that yields itself to the breathing of the Spirit. ”

“ I request those who profess to be Saints to exercise faith, and to endeavor to realize that the worship of God is sacred, and beneficial to His people. It is true that we have much to do of a temporal nature, as it is termed; many duties pertaining to daily business and the affairs of this life devolve upon us. ”

“ It might, again, be asked whether worship—prayer and communion—is indispensable for a religious life, apart from the argument that prayer is spontaneous or reasonable. Strictly abstaining from wickedness, vigorously practising goodness, faithfully serving humanity, may not man lead a religious life? ”

“ Some people may think that it does not matter how people worship, that God will accept of their worship, anyhow. But from what we read of His dealings in the Bible, we find it a matter of the greatest importance. ”

“ It is only under the influence of high spiritual elevation and joy that God’s holiness can be fully apprehended or rightly worshipped. The sentiment that becomes us as we worship the Holy One, that fits us for knowing and worshipping Him aright, is the spirit of praise that sings and shouts for joy in the experience of His full salvation. ”

“ While, then, we accept Christ’s statement in its fullest significance, and maintain that our “reasonable service” is the offering of ourselves as living sacrifices, that spiritual worship is offered not in church only or mainly, but in doing God’s will with a hearty good-will, we all the rather see how needful it is to utter ourselves to God as we do in our social worship ”

“ Such great care did idolaters take for the keeping up of the worship of gods made with hands, while the worship of the true and living God is neglected, and few nations or cities glory in patronizing and protecting that. ”

“ Giving or sacrificing unto God for the sake of God is an act of worship.
From Acts 2:42, Acts 20:7, and many other Scriptures that could be listed, we learn that teaching and studying the Bible are also commanded of God’s children; and that, likewise, is worship.
In Ephesians 5:19 we read these words, “Speaking unto yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to 89 the Lord.” And in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom ”

“ II. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, etc. This negative commandment becomes the positive injunction to worship God aright, as He has revealed Himself to us, “in spirit and in truth”; or in other words, according to the spirit of the Lord’s Prayer and of the Eucharist, which are of Christ’s institution; or in the spirit of His own worship. ”

“ Yet, although true worship is not confined to time and place, they think it incumbent on christians to meet often together, in testimony of their dependence on their heavenly Father, and for a renewal of their spiritual strength. ”

“ The worship in 'spirit and in truth,' for us men who belong to the religion of the Incarnation, must be a worship in body. But it will be spiritual if it is full of spiritual intention. Secular business again is spiritual if it is ruled by the divine Spirit according to the law of righteousness. ”

“ We implore God in this petition to enlighten the heathen that yet stand in the shadow of death, and all unbelievers and heretics, that they may learn to know and adore Him; and to grant sincere conversion to all sinners. We also ask, for ourselves and our fellow Christians, the grace to grow in the knowledge of God, in His love and service and in Christian perfection, so that thereby God may ever be glorified more and more. A truly Christian life is our highest glorification of God, hence to obtain this grace we must diligently pray. ”