Text--"God is Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and in truth."--John 4:24.

      Worship of God is the noblest attitude of man. There is no higher plane of meeting between creature and Creator. This text names the twin facts and factors of acceptable worship. It must be in spirit and in truth. These are bonds of spiritual union and covenantal fellowship with the heavenly Father and his children. A religious body is profitably studied and best understood through its concept of devotion, adoration and homage. What it holds essential in doctrine, ordinances, polity, purpose and qualifications of church membership are traceable to its conception of that consummate act--worship.

      The Disciples of Christ furnish data for one of the most interesting and important chapters in all church history.

      The hundred years lying between 1809 and 1909 measure one-nineteenth of the centuries since the Holy Spirit inaugurated at Jerusalem the church of Christ. It compasses nearly one-fourth of the time since Columbus' discovery of America, and numbers all the years since the delivery of the "Declaration and Address." That document, delivered by a humble man, and unpretentious, was fraught with principles and facts of a restoration movement coextensive with Christendom. This renaissance of the apostolic church in America began when Gladstone and Chopin, Darwin and Mendelssohn, Tennyson and Holmes, Carson and Lincoln were born; when statesman and musician, scientist and composer, poet and humorist, pioneer and liberator, began notable careers. Those men took their parts in human affairs, made their contributions to the world's thought, and now sleep. But the church, serving the same generation, is only coming into possession of its powers and prestige. It fulfills a prophetic paradox: "A child shall be a hundred years old."

      This century completes an orbit. We now return to the region of beginnings, the grounds of hallowed history. Lonely lovers of truth went forth from here to do Christ's will despite almost insuperable barriers. They wrought through his word and the might of his Spirit, and fell in battle. They are not here, but their sons and daughters, servants and handmaidens of the Lord Jehovah, inspired by a pilgrim instinct, have returned. Then a few, now a multitude, make these glad days vibrant with the Master's praise.

      The attempt to reinstate in America the New Testament church in name, ordinances, officiary, aim, life and spirit has more than a suggestion of fitness. God chose this continent, after long trial of Asia, Africa and Europe, as a

I. N. McCASH.

land of religious liberty. Not only did he make it a retreat for Puritan and Pilgrim, Quaker and Huguenot, but for all who seek freedom within the church. Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, Unitarian and Universalist--all are exotics, scions from ecclesiastical plants, grown first in European soil and transplanted in America. But here, a century ago, American citizens, ministers of the gospel of Christ, discovered in [517] Christianity's temple of worship the unfettered word of God. That recovery was as vital to Christianity as the finding of the "Book of the Law" by Josiah was to a religiously confused and divided Israel. The re-reading of the law brought the people back to God, re-established Jerusalem as the center of religious life in Israel, restored the temple service, crushed idolatry, purified the morals of worshipers and united the kingdom.

      Less spectacular, but not less revolutionary in religious thought, attitude and life, was the movement of the Disciples of Christ for the restoration of Christianity in its primitive purity, at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

      A century ago, our pioneers mapped out a continent of religious thought. That map had two hemispheres, spirit and truth. Since then men of independent research have explored valleys, uplands, forests and deserts, hoisted flags, staked claims and declared their rights as discoverers; but examination of records through a hundred years will show the general contour map made by Barton W. Stone, Walter Scott, Thomas and Alexander Campbell correct.

      If one discourse of the Master is to be compared and contrasted with another, his talk to that one auditor, at noontide, in a sultry season, beside the well of a patriarch, ranks first in comprehensiveness and clear teaching. The contrast of water from a well dug by men with spiritual satisfaction, the comparison of meat brought by his followers with his nourishing soul food unknown to the woman and to them, are set forth.

      That Samaritan woman heard him say of the Messiah, "I that speak to thee am he." Forgetting the water-pot, and with unconscious evangelism, she brought from her city the people to hear the Christ. They heard, race prejudice died, religious hatred disappeared, and union with him opened wide a door of hospitality. It is ever thus. We are not experimenting when we bring men to Christ only.

      The meaning and practical application of his wonderful words brief notice unfolds. God is Spirit. The source of life, the creator of all things, the beginning of salvation of men, the judge of all--the heavenly Father--is spiritual. His Spirit called into existence the material universe to help represent himself in his thought, feeling, character and purpose toward man. The spiritual and material were thus associated.

      Man, a personality, revealed by Christ as a spirit dwelling in a body of flesh. He is both immaterial and material, joined for a few years at most. Man is to be put in alignment with Gad. Humans are to worship him for spiritual development. Christianity is the agency of such growth. The physical man is of the earth earthy. His body is the servant of his spirit. It has a distinct nature, peculiar needs which material substance supplies and satisfies.

      An age-long error, held by some in all lands, is that place, physical condition and bodily attitude count most in acceptable approach to deity. This woman, with such an error, said, "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, but ye say Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." Practices of self-torture and the sad stories of pilgrimages to meet God at shrine, temple, altar or upon mountains prove the width of such error.

      The intellectual or mental man has a nature differing from his body and his spiritual nature. The intellect thinks, plans for the body, using its organs for helpfulness or pleasure, and dominates it. It also must have exercise, food, rest and instruction. What feeds the mind would starve the body, and what would clothe, shelter and rest it, would expose to discomfort and death the physical. Intellect alone can not find God. Understanding alone can not worship him aright. Wisdom makes her throne in the capital of the mind, but with rarest jewels, gifts from collected treasuries, carried, by a royal retinue, must go, like the queen of Sheba, to Jerusalem for knowledge of Jehovah and understanding of his law and spirit.

      The spiritual man, the real man, the self in worship, that part which feels, longs, yearns and aspires, also hungers, thirsts, requires rest, seeks comradry, and must be satisfied. What will minister to the spirit of a man will deprive both body and intellect of their means of subsistence and growth. Albeit, [518] over-care for the spirit makes the recluse, monk and esoteric sadly out of touch with the world and its needs.

      Estimated as the world estimates man, the order is physical, intellectual and spiritual, or intellectual, physical and spiritual; but Christianity reverses that order, and makes spiritual first. The spirit controls body and mind. It reaches out through the intellect and down through the body which serves. It assents to the word, "I know that in me--that is, in my flesh--dwelleth no good thing," and "To be carnally minded is death." It joins in the resolve, "Casting down imaginations and every high thing which exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity everything to the obedience of Christ." Again, as with God in creation, in man material and spiritual find comradeship.

      Jesus, sent by the Father, is spirit embodied in flesh, clothed with a prepared body, material to hide the glory of Emanuel--God with us. His glory flashed through the darkened windows of its tabernacle on the mount of transfiguration, revealing a living, resplendent Shekinah.

      The Holy Spirit's part is to convict the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. He uses the Word as a sword to slay, or as seed to sow. He leads Christ's disciples into all truth, and abides as a Comforter.

      Through all this range of study, it is Spirit with spirit. It is Spirit, God, with spirit, man, in worship, Christ Spirit and the Holy Spirit bearing fruit in the lives of devout worshipers of God who worship him in both spirit and truth. The fruit of that Spirit is love. Mating itself with human spirit ripened in joy, which is love exulting; in peace, which is love resting in satisfied confidence; in longsuffering, which is love forbearing and abiding its time; in gentleness, love in society, polite and considerate; in goodness, love ministering to others; in faith, love standing guard or battling against the seen to obtain the unseen; in meekness, love in school, training for service; and in temperance, love controlling self.

      The Disciples of Christ strive to produce in the individual and church these fruits of the Spirit. They lay no claim to exclusive right to such products. These are not private property, but may be enjoyed by all. They hold, with all evangelical bodies, the fundamentals bound up and expressed in the two Scriptural phrases, "Common salvation," and, "Contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered unto the saints." Here are the facts, doctrines and spirit of our plea--the system of authoritative teaching without an amendment clause.

      The Disciples seek the Head of the church for authority of vitality and power. They hold fast to the absolute sovereignty of Christ. Government is strong only with authority. Jesus is King in his kingdom. His commandments are to be obeyed in love.

      Disciples of Christ can accept only the living, regnant Christ with his inspired constitution and by-laws of that "faith once for all delivered to the saints."

      The Restoration movement, which we celebrate to-day, began in the recognition of and return to the sovereignty of Christ. With him, a propaganda of Scriptural standards and measurements was begun. Its leaders restored fundamentals, while giving true values and place for accidentals in Christian teaching and life. They stood for that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, both in church government and theology. They rallied believers to Christ for that unity in him which promises the conquest of the world for him. Their appeal to all religious bodies, as well as to the world, was to return to the great Shepherd of the sheep.

      Into this movement for restoration have come the men of historic churches to which the course of years has added its value of influence. Countless varieties of thinkers are among the assimilated and absorbed. All of these have gradually been transformed from a heterogeneous to a homogeneous brotherhood by the spirit and authority of Jesus.

      The labor of our pioneers was not negative, but positive and constructive. They found the lost authority of Jesus, and were the first in modern times to reinstate him in his place in the good confession of faith to the penitent [519] believer, and as the unrevisable creed of the church.

      Wyckliff, John Huss, Jerome of Prague, all the great religious teachers, acknowledge Jesus as the Christ; but gathered no followers for him alone, organized no congregation of worshipers on this basic truth, around this life-giving creed. They seem never to have laid hold upon the fact of his authority, and yielded to his all-sufficiency.

      An eminent writer recently said: "The person of Jesus Christ is the heart of all living theology."

      Fitting proclamation of universal homage! Wondrous climax!! When the Father commanded: "Let all the angels of God worship him."

      He is before God the perfect Son. Before men he is the ideal love, justice, service, example, mediator and redeemer--the anointed Saviour.

      Reformers, prior to a century ago, overlooked the fact that the throne of power, favor and redemption must be central and occupied by him who "loved righteousness and hated iniquity."

      To worship God in Spirit includes the spirit of loyalty to Christ, the spirit of outreaching, helping love, the spirit of missions, the spirit of sacrifice and the spirit of obedience.

      Spirit worship alone, however, produces mysticism. It eliminates commands of God, banishes ordinances, and reposes in a vague, impotent religious experience. Its basis is emotion, and its expression variable feelings. Worship must be in truth as well. Worship in truth only tends toward legalism. The analysis of one can not be expressed in terms of the other. Christian worship is a union of Spirit and truth. They differ from each other. One can not be expressed in terms of the other. They unite in the living person of Jesus Christ, the spiritual life and the truth. Both are required. He was Christianity infolded, and Christianity is Christ unfolded. Truth lives in its author. Reject Christ and there is no worship and no salvation. Forget Christ and Christianity becomes history. Lose Christ and the world's moral and spiritual cataclysm has come.

      The Disciples of Christ stand for a religion of truth. They contended for the truth as they learned it from the Bible. And this contention for their conviction has been their offending and crown.

      From the high altar of the temple of truth, a voice strangely sweet announces, "I am the truth," while the open book of God on its pulpit reads, "Hear ye him."

      The slogan of the Disciples of Christ--"Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent"--which means when Christ speaks or is silent--embodies both requirements of the temple of truth. It has been the trumpet-call to battle, and the bugle-blast for silence. Its spirit is, speak the truth in love, and let all the earth be silent when truth speaks. Here is the centripetal force--love of truth--drawing within, and the centrifugal power--missionary zeal--heralding the gospel everywhere.

      In religion, as in every realm of thought, truth is discovered, classified, tested and proclaimed. "The law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."

      Truth is exacting. There must be agreement between thought and declaration; between word and deed; between thought and action, and between letter and spirit. To Disciples of Christ, truth is authoritative. To the records and corroborative evidence of primitive Christianity, the church to-day turns for examples of worship, observance of ordinances, officers of the congregation, name of the church and plan of salvation. According to those records, the New Testament church was re-established in truth, in America, a hundred years ago.

      Liberty is by the truth, not vague and unreal, not by abstraction, but in personality. "If the truth hath made you free, ye shall be free indeed." Freedom is the Christian's birthright, union the bond and strength of God's household. The Disciples stand fast in the liberty of Christ. They open prison doors of interpretation and maintain the right of private investigation and interpretation. The principle prevalent in the ministry of this renaissance is,

      They heed but one voice. "My sheep [520] hear my voice and follow me." Their test of truth is the word of God.

      The seeming note sounded through addresses, religious periodicals and recent books, "Back to Christ, back to Jerusalem," has been middle "C" in the Restoration keyboard. Early and later writers of such literature and modern advocates of such a return, can discern footprints of our pioneers in every path leading toward Jerusalem, even through her gates. They left the gates open and set no guards to hold possession and prevent other truth-seekers from entering. Their reliance was upon the apostolate preaching of Christ and the law of the Lord to woo and win sinners. They prayed that effectual doors should be open to the Word and that the Holy Spirit would use the truth to persuade men to turn to God. The facts of Christianity were laid before the mind to produce faith. The crucified and risen Saviour was set forth as the object of that faith. When a penitent believer obeyed the gospel, he entered into covenant with the divine Lord and Master. He became a member of that spiritual body which Jesus called his church, which he loved, for which he died, and which he will claim as his bride.

      The genius of this Restoration movement is an earnest contention for the truth as included in the "faith once for all delivered to the saints," without the power from its "Author and finisher" to change its terms or annul its requirements. With such a creed, our heralds were but seekers for life and power to do good through spiritual and covenantal union with Christ, the head of the church. Such a contention rejected all hierarchies which acknowledged two heads to the church, and disputed the right of temporal and spiritual power. A Christian yearns for a church with a human and divine head, with power on earth and in heaven. In Christ Jesus is the human and divine head of the church, both in one, with all authority in heaven and on earth given to him. He was divinity in the day of his incarnation, living on earth under human limitations; he is, since his ascension, human, living under divine conditions.

      Our leaders stood with open Bible, and plead: "Endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." "There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all." The best guarantee of the permanency of the church of Christ is in preaching a full gospel as veritable and redemptive history. In the person and career of Jesus are the meaning and explanation of Christianity. The fundamental truths of the gospel are his death, burial and resurrection. The greatest of these three, the resurrection, is linked inseparably with his death and burial. Take away this triad of truths and the gospel becomes a deserted house falling into ruins. The historical truth of the New Testament church therefore requires, first, that consistency, as well as the teaching of Scripture, makes the name of the body the same as the head. Second, that the ordinances and their observance shall honor the head of the church. The Lord's Supper prefigures the suffering and death of him who is the Head of the church. It perpetuates his voluntary suffering and death. In the anguish of that tragedy the Father forsook his only begotten Son, our Saviour, that he might not lose the human family. That memorial and feast silently represent violence and suffering for men. It is a mute reminder ever of death, death! His death!! It is a test of the loyalty and faith of his followers every first day of the week. That table, spread with the two emblems of bread and the fruit of the vine, is the Lord's and he prescribes the conditions of participation. They are pathetic and soul-searching. "Do this in remembrance of me." "Let each one of you examine himself."

      Baptism, in order of obedience, precedes the Lord's Supper, though burial logically follows death. It connects itself with the central event of Christ's tragedy. Its meaning is found in terms of the burial and resurrection of Jesus. It was administered in the apostolic church to penitent believers who confessed Christ the Son of God, and, voluntarily, like their Lord who died for sin, died to sin, and "were buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also rise to walk in newness of life." The Scriptures are plain in command, clear in [521] examples, a unit in mode, and overwhelming in illustration that immersion only was practiced by the apostles. Its form has no meaning apart from the burial of Jesus. Everywhere and in all periods of Christianity, the immersion of a penitent believer in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit has been considered Scriptural baptism.

      The Disciples of Christ do not prescribe this action of surrender. They are not the author of conditions of entrance into Christ, but as obedient servants of the King they lead all who voluntarily accept Christ to comply with his command as they have done.

      Third, the Disciples of Christ seek the union of all God's people. They recognize the Father has a people scattered and confused. They bow at many altars and yet desire truth. They weep by the rivers for the lost unity of the church. They seek union visible to the unspiritual world.

      The Disciples of Christ recognize that uniformity may not be unity, but the union of God's people must be in spirit and in truth. They seek to actualize in Christ Jesus the fulfillment of his prayer to the Father.

      Union in him is by constraint of love. Such unity will be evidence to unbelievers that God sent his Son, not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. It is the credential to the doubter that he may know Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour.

      No teaching of the New Testament is more important, and none urged with such unction as the uniting of the church. "There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." . . . "Stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel."

      The darkness of heathen lands makes imperative the union of Christians to save the perishing millions. The waste of means in attempting to establish, extend and maintain denominations, shames those who pray for the coming reign of Christ. The poorly fed multitude of ministers cries for a return to the unity of the faith in the bonds of peace. The united forces of wickedness that hold territory against the armies of righteousness, summon all lovers of truth to throw away their differences and fight the foes of the King.

      The music of the church will never attain its greatest art in its divided state. A small sect, isolated, can not produce the hymns, anthems and oratorios which a great racial religion and world-wide church can create.

      The Disciples of Christ, in spirit and in truth, follow the cross as it leads on to victory over paganism, till temples and shrines are deserted and grass grows in paths leading to their doors. They shout as an undivided body: "On to victory!" Against slavery, till not a slave is giving service beneath our flag on continent or insular possession without due requital. "On to victory!" Over race prejudice, till lambs and leopards, calves and lions, lie down in peace together. "On to victory!" Over immorality and vice in dens and high places of iniquity. "On to victory!" Against the cruelties of war and the horrors of attendant evils. "On to victory!" Against the beverage liquor traffic. The mobilized church is the only power to slay it. "On to victory!" When Gog and Magog shall gather to fight the battle of Armageddon. Then the Rider of the white horse, whose vestment is stained with blood, will lead, and proclaim the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ. [522]

[CCR 517-522]