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that Incarnation it was realized that the spiritual stands in no contrast, but in the most absolute accord with the real and the human. And, brethren, this is the truth handed down to us with the signature of the Church of the Upper Chamber and of the Catacombs, that worship knows no dependence upon outward ceremonial nor local privilege, because the society which offers it is itself the temple in which God dwells, in which He is present Himself to prompt, Himself to offer, Himself to accept the sacrifice of its worship.
Such teaching, so radical, so thorough, so unmistakeable in its spirituality, sets us all, according to the characteristic power of truth, free. So long as it is held and remembered, we are free to take with safety those externals of worship which, without it, for fear of falling into bondage to them, it might be wise to leave. We may use them in such measure as may be suggested either by considerations of expediency, drawn from a study of their effect on human nature; or by indications of their propriety, such as are analogies to them which we find in the natural order of the world, in its beauty and joyousness; or by their correspondence to our own two-fold nature, outward as well as inward, body as well as spirit. So long as we keep our faith in Christ, we are free to offer the very costly ointment of spikenard, without fear lest we should come to think that its price of three hundred pence, or its alabaster box, should be the
