WORMWOOD WORSHIP OF GOD. 



109 



entirely destroyed by the French, hy the orders of 

 Louvois. The city has been since rebuilt; yet 

 there are even now many gardens where formerly 

 there were buildings. In the early part of the 

 French revolutionary war, Worms again suffered 

 much, being occupied alternately by both the hostile 

 armies. Worms was formerly a bishop's see, the 

 prince-bishop of which was always the archbishop 

 of Mayence. 



WORMWOOD (artemisia) ; a genus of com- 

 pound flowers, which may be recognised by the dis- 

 sected and usually downy leaves, and the small 

 roundish heads of flowers. The common species 

 (A. absinthium) is tonic, anthelmintic, stomachic, 

 and slightly stimulating, and has been used with 

 advantage inintermittents, gout, scurvy and dropsy. 

 The seed is used by the rectifiers of British spirits, 

 and the plant is a good deal cultivated in certain 

 parts of England for this purpose. The leaves and 

 points of the shoots of the tarragon (.4. dracunculus) 

 are used as an ingredient in pickles. A simple in- 

 fusion of the plant in vinegar makes a pleasant fish 

 sauce : it is eaten along with beef-steaks, and is 

 employed, both in Europe and Persia, to correct 

 the coldness of salad herbs, and season soups and 

 other dishes. The plant is of the easiest culture, 

 but, like the other species, requires a dry soil. 

 From the acrid leaves of A. Chinensis, moxa is ob- 

 tained a substance much in use among the Chinese 

 as an actual cautery. For this purpose, the moxa 

 is laid upon the part affected, and set on fire. 

 Numerous species of artemisia are found upon the 

 plains of Missouri. 



WORONZOFF; a distinguished Russian family. 

 Three females belonging to it are conspicuous in 

 Russian history: 1. Elizabeth Woronzoff; the 

 mistress of the grand prince, afterwards emperor 

 Peter III. She subsequently married the senator 

 Poliinski. 2. The countess Butterlin. 3. The 

 princess Daschkojf, for some time the confidant of 

 Catharine II. She took a very active part in the 

 dethroning of the emperor, whose mistress her sis- 

 ter was, and in the elevation of Catharine to the 

 throne. The uncle of these two, the high chan- 

 cellor count Michael Woronzoff, was the head of 

 the Swedish party, and the enemy of the chancellor 

 BestuschefF, the head of the Danish party. When 

 the latter fell into disgrace, in 1757, count Woron- 

 zoff was made chancellor of the empire. Count 

 Alexander Woronzoff was made, in 1802, chancellor 

 of the empire by the emperor Alexander, and re- 

 ceived the direction of the department of foreign 

 affairs. His brother, S. Woronzoff, was Russian 

 ambassador in London when the French revolution 

 broke out, and took an active part in all the nego- 

 tiations between England and Russia during the 

 reigns of Catharine, Paul I. and Alexander. He 

 died in London in June, 1832. His son, Michael 

 Woronzoff, is governor of New Russia (residing at 

 Odessa). He was a general of infantry in the wars 

 of his country in 1813, 1814 and 1815, against 

 France. In 1826, he was deputed by the emperor 

 Nicholas, with Ribeaupierre, to negotiate, at Aker- 

 mann, with the Turkish commissioners, respecting 

 the misunderstandings between Russia and the 

 Porte. 



WORSHIP OF GOD. The expression of 

 veneration for the highest of beings, of submission 

 to his will, and of thankfulness for his goodness, 

 though it may be offered in the secret stillness of 

 the heart, will often be conveyed by external visi- 

 ble signs, through which the feelings of awe and 



love endeavour to manifest themselves in the most 

 forcible and lively manner. These acts of homage 

 to a superior power will be characterized by more 

 or less of rudeness or elevation, as the conceptions 



| of the object of worship are more or less gross or 

 spiritual. Prayer and sacrifice, accompanied with 

 various ceremonies, are the most general external 

 acts, by which the feelings of religious veneration 

 are expressed ; and while some nations and sects 

 are eager to surround these acts with all the splen- 

 dour of earthly pomp, others think to render them 

 more worthy of the Being to whom they are ad- 

 dressed, by the absence of all worldly show. If 

 the worship of God, says Paley, be a duty of re- 

 ligion, public worship is a necessary institution ; be- 

 cause without it the greater part of mankind would 

 exercise no religious worship at all. Besides, as- 

 semblies appointed for this purpose afford regularly 

 recurring opportunities for moral and religious in- 

 struction to those who would otherwise receive no 

 such instruction. If we advert to facts, it will be 

 found that the general diffusion of religious know- 

 ledge among all orders of Christians, compared with 

 the intellectual condition of barbarous nations, can 

 be ascribed to no other cause than the regular 

 establishment of assemblies for divine worship ; in 

 which portions of Scripture are recited and explain- 

 ed, or the principles of Christian erudition are so 

 constantly taught in sermons, incorporated with 

 liturgies, or expressed in extempore prayer, as to 

 imprint, by the very repetition, some knowledge 

 and memory of these subjects upon the most un- 

 qualified and careless hearer. But while the dif- 

 ferent forms of Christian worship resemble each 

 other in their fundamental principle, there is almost 

 every variety in the details of the ceremony ; and 

 there have been not less violent controversies and 

 causes of offenoe, afforded by different views of the 

 ceremonial arrangements of worship, than by differ- 

 ences of opinion in matters of dogmatical theology 

 or ecclesiastical government. The heathens ob- 

 jected to the early Christians, that their worship 

 had none of the external splendour of other reli- 

 gions no temple, no altars, no images. The 

 primitive Christians assembled together in social 

 worship, but they did not attribute any peculiar 

 sanctity to the spot of their meeting, which, in fact, 

 was commonly the house of one of the congregation. 

 In the course of time, however, as they became 

 more numerous, they met in rooms or buildings ap- 

 propriated for the purpose. When the congregation 

 was assembled, the first, act of divine service per- 

 formed was the reading of the Holy Scriptures, as 

 was the custom in the Jewish synagogues. At 

 first, the Old Testament was of course alone used 

 for this purpose ; but in process of time, as the 

 books of the New Testament were composed, 

 these were also read in the churches. The reading 

 of the Scriptures was followed by a short and 

 familiar address, explaining and applying what had 

 been read, and exhorting the hearers to piety and 

 virtue, and by the singing of psalms or hymns, se- 

 lected from the Scriptures, or composed for the 

 purpose. The congregation then rose up, and 

 joined in prayer, with their faces turned towards 

 the east. It is a subject of dispute whether pre- 

 composed forms or extempore effusions were used 

 in prayer. See Liturgy, Mass, Lord's Supper, &c. 

 Worship, Minister of Public (in French, Ministre 

 du Culte ; in Prussia, Minister des Cultus). In 

 those countries in which the direction of every 



i thing is in the executive, and the whole action of 



