interpret the divine nature to us. The spirituality of God is abundantly taught in the O. T., but by implication only. The abstract statement occurs only here and in 2 Cor. 3:17.--=Must worship him in spirit and in truth.= Nothing else is worship. Observe (1) Christ answers the woman’s question not by pointing out the right place of worship, but by inculcating such a conception of the true nature of worship, that the controversy respecting Gerizim and Jerusalem shrinks into insignificance. The solution of many theological problems is to be found, not in any answer, but in a new, a higher, a more spiritual conception of religion as a spiritual life. (2) The place, and impliedly the forms and methods of worship, are matters of no importance. (3) It is important that we know what we worship, _i. e._, that our worship be intelligent, else it is superstitious. “Unless there be knowledge, it is not God that we worship, but a phantom or idol.”--(_Calvin._) (4) That knowledge includes three elements, viz., that God is a _spiritual being_, with the sympathies, the flexibility, the _life_ which belongs to spirit; that he is a Father, and is therefore to be approached with a filial, reverential, trusting affection (Matt. 5:9, note); that he is revealed to us through the Jewish Scripture and the Jewish Messiah. (5) He must be worshipped in spirit, _i. e._, with the heart, and in truth, _i. e._, in accordance with the realities of his nature as thus revealed to us; nothing else is worship. (6) Worship is essential to a religious life. God looks for it, as well as for work, as an evidence of love. The whole lesson is eloquently embodied by Henry Ward Beecher in his _Life of Christ_: “It expresses the renunciation of the senses in worship. It throws back upon the heart and soul of every one, whoever he may be, wherever he may be, the whole office of worship. It is the first gleam of the new morning. No longer in this nest alone, or in that, shall religion be looked for, but escaping from its shell, heard in all the earth, in notes the same in every language, flying unrestrained and free, the whole heavens shall be its sphere and the whole earth its home.” 25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. 26 Jesus saith unto her, I[141] that speak unto thee am _he_. [141] ch. 9:37.