Chapter IV 

 WORSHIP 



Although '* worship '' is the title which I have chosen 

 for this address, worship was not the subject which I 

 had in mind when I first set to work to prepare it. It 

 was then my intention to prepare an address on the 

 subject of fellowship, and '* fellowship *' was the title 

 which I originally chose. But as my work approached 

 completion, I found, to my surprise, that I had prepared 

 an address on the subject of worship, and the title was 

 changed accordingly. And this significant fact may 

 well serve to illustrate the close connection which exists 

 between these two important subjects, worship and 

 fellowship. They are not of course identical. We may 

 have, and often do have, fellowship without 

 worship. But I believe that it is practically impossible 

 to have worship in any full and complete sense without 

 fellowship. 



In the earliest days of which we have any knowledge, 

 the thought of worship was always associated with the 

 rite of sacrifice ; and, although I know that the theory is 

 much controverted, I like to think that the late Professor 

 Robertson Smith was right when he taught, as teach he 

 did, that the earliest thought associated with the rite of 

 sacrifice was the thought, not of expiation, but of 

 fellowship. Just at first it was probably merely human 

 fellowship that was thought of, as in the old Arabian 

 ** blood-bond,'* of which probably many of you will 

 have heard. Two wild sons of the desert would chance 



69 



