'Heart religion
Heart religion
"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks." John 4:23
The music of splendid choirs, and the repeating of creeds and prayers, do not make worship.
Worship is heart adoration; and the only true homage that rises from an assembly, or from a private closet where one bows alone — is just the love and praise and prayer and devotion of hearts ascending in the words of human lips.
No mere forms of worship are acceptable; the form must be breathed full of love and life.
No offerings or gifts avail in worship, unless they are the expression of holy affections. The teaching is not that we are not to use forms of worship; we cannot well worship without forms.
But the most magnificent ritual will be empty of real worship, and will be an abomination to God, if there is no true worship of the spirit in it. All depends upon whether we put our hearts into the forms.