and to be strengthened and vivified and given new spiritual life through the influence of God's Holy Spirit upon man's spirit. This is what Christ has already done for many, and what He is willing to do for all, if they will come to Him that they may have life.¹ He Himself has said: 'I ² am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.'

Communion with God in prayer through Christ is a fountain of the water of life. When the true Christian drinks of it, he receives inward joy and peace, comfort, grace and blessing. The more he drinks of the water of life, the sweeter and pleasanter does it come to be to him. In this way he gains an increasing portion of true spiritual grace and favour, and grows in the knowledge and love of God, thus ever becoming more fit to enter into God's more immediate presence after death. It is clear, therefore, that worship of this sort does not seem to a true Christian grievous or burdensome, but, on the contrary, he feels that it is a .privilege, a joy, a blessing.

Those who profess other religions than the Christian have no knowledge or experience of any such worship as this, for such prayer and such a method of salvation as brings love of God, hatred of sin, and pardon of offences (thus purifying and healing the

sinner and pouring into his heart the consciousness of God's grace and favour) is found nowhere but in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is evident from what we have already learnt regarding the various ways in which other religions have in vain taught men to seek for salvation.

In addition to the prayer which a true Christian offers to God in private and in his own words, without any prescribed form or ceremony, Christians have their public worship, when they meet together as a congregation, on Sundays and on other days, in their Churches or in private houses, at whatever time they may have fixed for the purpose. They then read the holy Scriptures and listen to their preachers, who expound them, and teach and exhort in accordance with what God has revealed therein. But, since in the Gospel there is no definite rule and command given that such public worship should be conducted only with certain ceremonies and in a fixed manner, therefore every regiment in the army of Christ Jesus, that is to say every section of His Universal Church, has the right to prescribe such rules as commend themselves to their own community, it being understood that forms and ceremonies are in themselves of no spiritual value, but that every part of the public worship of God should be conducted in an orderly and reverent manner, according to the words of the Apostle: 'Let ¹ all things be done decently and in order.' In