Article August 6, 1932 Issue

Spiritual Worship

ADA P. BALLENGER

In the fourth chapter of John's Gospel we read, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, has explained what God is. Thus, on page 465 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," God is described as "incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love." To worship God as described by any of these terms is to worship spiritually, for there is no element of matter implied by any of them.

To worship spiritually is to know the object of worship to be Spirit, and to offer only spiritual sacrifices. To sacrifice spiritually is to lay down all belief in the reality of man as material or as having a material origin. It is to know that Spirit is the only cause and creator, the only preserver of man; for only Spirit can know spiritual man, and only spiritual man can perceive God as Spirit. Worshiping "in spirit" is knowing that strength and ability are in Spirit. As Jesus puts it, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work;" that is, God works unceasingly, and I express Him in His reflected strength and wisdom. To work always to improve one's expression of good is spiritual worship.

Again, spiritual worship is seeing man as spiritual, the image of God, who is Spirit; seeing only that which God perceives. And God perceives nothing unlike Himself. He cannot, for no such unlikeness exists. Spiritual man consciously, consistently, perpetually expresses spirituality. And mankind can prove this as spiritual desire is dominant.

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