essential principle. True worship must be based upon revealed truth. This we can see is

expressed negatively in Matt. 15:, "In vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines

the commandments of men" (Matt. 15: 9).

Secondly, the Lord associated together "worship" and "salvation" implying that

worship could not be understood, and would not be acceptable apart from salvation. This

salvation, said Christ, was "of the Jews", because to them had been committed the oracles

of God, to them pertained the promises and the covenants and the service of God, and

most important of all, from them must come, as regards the flesh, the long promised

Saviour. True worship therefore is regulated according to divine revelation, is at the

heart evangelical, and is intimately associated with the person and work of the Saviour.

Judaism itself drew all its power from these sources. It was a divinely given religion of

types and shadows, it was given only to one people Israel, it found its fulfillment in the

person and work of the Saviour whose person and work alone made its rites, ceremonies,

sacrifices and observances of any value.

On two occasions the Gospel of John records the statement "The hour cometh and

now is" (John 4: 23; 5: 25), and once in a slightly different form "The hour cometh,

yea is now come" (John 16: 32). Weymouth rightly translates John 16: 32, "The time

is coming, nay has already come", for eleluthen is the perfect of erchomai. In

John 4: 23 and 5: 25, the original reads Kai nun estin which unfortunately, Weymouth

translates exactly as he does the different words of John 16: 32. Kai nun estin can only

be translated correctly by the words "and now is". How are we to understand this

expression, "and now is"? In John 5: 25 it is seen to be the present spiritual equivalent

of the future physical resurrection. In John 4:, however, the temple at Jerusalem still

stood, and the prophetic words "Your house is left unto you desolate" had not been

pronounced. In chapter 2: the temple had been referred to as "My Father's house" and

even in the period covered by the early part of the Acts of the Apostles, it was not

inconsistent evidently, for Peter and John to go up to the temple at the hour of prayer.

It is therefore possible that what the Saviour said when he spoke to the woman of

Samaria, was "The hour cometh when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in

spirit and in truth", but when John came to write this gospel, he was able to interpolate

for the benefit of the reader the information that this hour had now come. For us, to-day,

the question of "place" so far as worship is concerned, has no meaning. Chapels and

Churches are convenient meeting places where the saints can assemble, but if they know

the truth, whatever the architecture, and whoever it may be who made the building

"sacred" one of the hymns they will surely sing will be:--