Article March 25, 1911 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from F. Stanley Van Eps, Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr., Arthur F. Winnington Ingram

[Rev. F. Stanley Van Eps in Christian Work and Evangelist.]

God is worshiped in spirit and truth today as never before. This is not confined to a church building or to the services held in church. The home is more than the church, being the very ideal of the church. The real sanctuary of God is within man. Great as may be the help of the outward, the inward is of supreme importance. What Jesus told the woman at the well is today known with greater clearness far and near than ever before—that "God is a Spirit," and the true worship is "in spirit and in truth." The outward flows from the inward, as the voice expresses the inward worship. A heart full of praise has what naturally finds utterance in song and in speech and in action. Growing fulness of the spiritual life must find new forms of expression. In music the last composition has not been made; why should it be supposed that religion has found its final expression, that church attendance is the true test of real spiritual life, that the passing of old things of outward form in church matters means the decline and fall of the church? Are we to have no houses now that our forests are passing? Today the cement materials for construction have been brought to such perfection that we shall build houses proof against the hazards and the inconveniences of the wooden structures of the past. Our life is more secure and more comfortable and better than ever before. Religion is more secure and more according to the truth, and more satisfying and effective in practical living right here, and richer in its promise of eternity, than ever.

[Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr., in Outlook.]

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS