the idea of God.

IV

THE IDEA OF GOD IN PRAYER

The question may perhaps be raised, whether it is necessary for us to
travel beyond worship, in order to discover what was, in early
religions, or is now, the idea of God, as it presents itself to the
worshipper. The answer to the question will depend partly on what we
consider the essence of religion to be. If we take the view, which is
held by some writers of authority on the history of religion, that the
essence of religion is adoration, then indeed we neither need nor can
travel further, for we shall hold that worship is adoration, and
adoration, worship.

To exclude adoration, to say that adoration does not, or should not,
form any part of worship, seems alike contrary to the very meaning of
the word 'worship' and to be at variance with a large and important
body of the facts recorded in the history of religion. The courts of a
god are customarily entered with the praise which is the outward
expression of the feeling of adoration with which the worshippers
spiritually gaze upon the might and majesty of the god whom they
approach. He is to them a great god, above all other gods. Even to
polytheists, the god who is worshipped at the moment, is, at that
moment, one than whom there is no one, and nought, greater, _quo nihil
maius_. A god who should not be worshipped thus--a god who was not the
object of adoration--would not be worthy of the name, and would hardly
be called a god. So strongly is this felt that even writers who
incline to regard religion as an illusion, define gods as beings
conceived to be superior to man. The degree of respect, rising to
adoration, will vary directly with the degree of superiority
attributed to them; but not even in the case of a fetish, so long as
it is worshipped, is the respect, which is the germ of adoration,
wholly wanting. Even in the case of gods, on whom, on occasion, insult
is put, it is precisely in moments when their superiority is in doubt
that the worship of adoration is momentarily wanting. Worship without
adoration is worship only in name, or rather is no worship at all.
Only with adoration can worship begin: 'hallowed be Thy name'
expresses the emotion with which all worship begins, even where the
emotion has not yet found the words in which to express itself. It is
because the emotion is there, pent up and seeking escape, that it can
travel along the words, and make them something more than a succession
of