THE KING’S BUSINESS
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had lived and thought upon the earth, no philosopher had ever evolved so sublime a truth as Jesus utters here and He utters it to one person, and she an outcast. But though in the thought of this woman and of the disciples who were now approaching, our Lord had but one hearer, He kne\V His words would ultimately reach countless millions of men and women, but it was this woman who first drew the words from Him, and from His example we may learn the wisdom of uttering the profoundest truths to the unlikeliest of men and women, to those who are most ignor ant and most sunken in sin. The “ for” in the last clause is deep ly significant. The form of expres sion is peculiar, the literal translation of it would be “ and for” it gives the reason why true worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and truth, namely, because the Father is seeking such. The form o f the phrase suggests that this is not only the rea son but the altogether conclusive rea son, and so it is, for this is what the Father is seeking, this therefore is what man should do. No more con clusive reason than that could possi bly be given: the one great reason why we should all be worshippers of “ the Father” and worshippers “ in spirit and truth” is because that is what the Father seeks first of all. V. 24. “ God is a spirit (rather, God is spirit ) : and they that worship (rather those worshipping') Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The insertion o f the indefinite arti cle “ a” before spirit in this verse is unfortunate, this rendering would make God one spirit among many. What our Lord Jesus really said is “ God is spirit,” thus defining God’s essential nature, free from all limita tions of place and time. Spirit is ttie antithesis to matter (Luke 24:39). It
cordance 'and go through his Bible and look up every passage where the word “worship” is used, he will find that worship is a definite act, distinct from prayer, thanksgiving, praise, ser vice, obedience, giving. He will find that worship is the soul bowing before God in adoring contemplation of Him self. Some one has well said, “ That in our prayers we are taken up with, our needs ; in our thanksgivings we are taken up with our blessings; in our worship we are taken up with Himself.” How little of what we call “ public worship” is really worship. There is song, there is prayer, there is instruction, but very little worship. How little of what we call our pri vate worship is really worship. But what God is seeking above all else is worshippers, and He is seeking a certain kind o f worship, not outward worship, not the prostration of one’s body before Him, though real wor ship will lead to that; He is seeking for the worship that a man renders in his innermost being, “ in spirit,” and a worship that is real, “ in truth.” These words of our Lord should sink deeply into the heart o f every one of us and lead us to ask, “ Am I render ing to the Father that which he seeks from me above all else, worship in spirit ' and truth” ? How pathetic are the words o f our Lord when we stop to meditate upon them and then think of present conditions as they really are. Oh, to think, of the Father seeking, seeking, seeking wor shippers and finding none, or very few. It is a remarkable fact and a deeply significant one that our Lord uttered these words, among the profoundest that ever fell from His lips, in con versation with a woman who was not only an ecclesiastical but a social out cast, and who was profoundly ignor ant (until she met Him) of some of the simplest truths of religion. For all the thousands of years that men
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