theme that is so near the centre of all truth should, therefore, receive from

all who love the Lord the most earnest and prayerful attention, for if we are

right here, we have a corrective against all the other evils, doctrinal,

dispensational and practical.  On the other hand, if we are wrong here, we

are exposed to all the assaults of the wicked one.

In every argument or study it is a necessity that terms

be defined.  We must arrive at a clear, Scriptural understanding of what the

word 'worship' means and all that the term connotes.  The inspired Scriptures

were not given in our mother tongue, but in Hebrew, Chaldee and Greek, yet,

upon examination, the English word 'worship' will yield its quota.

The meaning of the word 'worship'.  Readers will not need a long

explanation concerning the qualifying suffix, 'ship', which is used in such

words as 'fellowship', 'discipleship', or in the less familiar form as in

'landscape'.  The word worship comes from the Anglo-Saxon weorthscipe,

'worth', or 'worthy', with the added suffix, and primarily means

acknowledgment of 'worth', wherever found.  Formerly the word 'worship' was

not so restricted as it is now, e.g. Wycliffe gives a startling rendering of

John 12:26, 'If any man serve Me, My Father shall worship him'! a usage of

the word that would not now be tolerated.  In our A.V., however, we still

read, 'Thou shalt have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with

thee' (Luke 14:10).  The Church of England marriage service contains the

words, to be uttered by the husband, 'With my body I thee worship', yet, not

idolatry, but recognition of the high place of honour, in which the husband

holds the woman who has given herself so wholly into his keeping, is

intended.  We still speak of a magistrate as 'your Worship', and of certain

Guilds as 'worshipful' companies, without transgressing either Bible teaching

or good taste.  In all these usages, the primary meaning, 'worthy-ship', is

retained.  In every act of worship there is either expressed or implied the

sentiment, 'Thou art worthy', and, commensurately with the advancing ranks in

the scale of being and holiness of those to whom this recognition is

addressed, will the worship offered grow richer, fuller and more exclusive.

All this

however but skims the surface of meaning.  The only words that

can unfold the

mind of God in this, and all other matters of truth, are the

inspired words

of Holy Writ.  As we have commenced with the English, let us

go back to the

Hebrew by way of the Greek of the New Testament.

Proskuneo.  There is a superficial resemblance in this word to

the Greek kuon, 'a dog', and some have given the primary meaning of the word

as 'to crouch, crawl, or fawn, like a dog at his master's feet'.  But there

is a sense of degradation about this figure, and it is entirely contrary to

any Scriptural conception of 'worship' that the Father seeks those who will

crouch, crawl, or fawn to Him like a dog.  There is another word, unused in

the Scriptures but used in classical Greek, namely kuneo, 'to kiss', and it

is from this root that Cremer, Thayer, H.J. Rose in his footnote in the later

edition of Parkhurst, and other lexicographers derive this word for

'worship'.  Proskuneo means properly, 'to kiss the hand (towards) one, in

token of reverence', 'to make a salaam' (Thayer).  Liddell and Scott give

instances where kuneo, 'to kiss', is used in the sense of proskuneo, 'to

worship'.  The root kus has come through into many languages beside the

Greek.  The Anglo-Saxon coss, the Danish kys, the German kuss and the English

kiss, being instances that come readily to the mind.

The Scriptures, moreover, associate kissing with worship.  'And Moses

went out to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance, and kissed him' (Exod.