Public worship -- Society of Friends; Society of Friends -- Doctrines
Why is it that some of us would rather go to a movie, or listen to the
radio, or see a ball game, or read an exciting book? One reason, it must
be acknowledged, is because our meetings today are sometimes dull and
unliving. We assemble in our meeting houses, but nothing happens. A
related reason is that many of us have not yet awakened spiritually. Our
bodies are active. Our minds are alert. But not our spirits. Such
awakening, however, will come in due time, if we encourage it, if we do
our part to prepare for it, if we live honestly and are true to
ourselves, face life with clear eyes, and continue growing.
The main reason why we do not worship, or do not want to, is that God is
not yet sufficiently real to us. He is not as real to us as our human
father. His power is not as real to us as the power of man's brain and
muscles, as steam power, as electricity. Worship expresses man's
relationship to God. How then can we worship if we are not aware of this
relationship, if the main party to it is unreal to us?
Some people speak of worshiping things that are not of God. God being
unreal to them, their relation to Him being unrecognized, they turn to
what is real to them, and engage in various so-called worships:
money-worship, hero-worship, ancestor-worship, the worship of material
power and machines, the worship of political States and their rulers.
These are false worships. God is the sole object of genuine worship--God
and His power which He manifests to us as love, light, and wisdom.
All forms of true worship arise from an experience of the _fact_ of God,
from the realization that God _is_. Men such as George Fox and John
Woolman had their first experiences of God early in life. Most of us
come to the experience gradually and later on, if at all. What are we to
do meanwhile? Most religions offer formal official statements of what
they believe God to be. They say what God's nature is, and set forth His
attributes. Friends make no such pronouncement; and I, for one, am glad
there is none. Man's words about God cannot substitute for a first-hand
experience of the living reality. Friends are directed to seek for the
reality within themselves. Meanwhile, we are called upon to have faith
that God exists and that it is possible for us to meet with Him. We are
called upon to prepare ourselves for this supreme experience. We are
urged to try to sense God's presence, daily to practice His presence. By
such practice, if we persevere, we shall surely come to have a
convincing experience.
Worship is our response to God's reality, a reality which is, to be
sure, within men, but which also is the radiant foundation of the entire
universe. In trying to worship, we turn ourselves Godwards. We yearn for
Him and endeavor to know His will. Our lives are pointed toward Him. If,
and as we succeed, we make contact with God, and by this contact He is
made real to us. When He becomes real to us we spontaneously love Him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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