kneeling beside us are uniting with us in the offering of the Sacrifice, not only are we one with all those other members of the Body who on this same morning are kneeling at the numberless altars of Christendom, but that all those who are in Christ are with us partakers of the same Sacrifice, and that in its offering we are joined with all the holy dead, and by our partaking of Christ are brought close to one another.  We therefore lovingly take their names upon our lips, and enkindle their memory in our hearts; and find that death, which we had thought of as a separation, has but broken the barriers to the deepest and most blessed communion, and that we are now, as never before, united to those whom we find in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And then comes the unexpected challenge:  “what does all this mean:  these repeated and diverse acts that you are accustomed to speak of and to think of as acts of worship?  What, ultimately, do you mean by worship, and can there possibly be found any common feature in these so diverse acts which can justify you in regarding them as essentially one?  This act which is in truth presenting yourself before the majesty of God in humble adoration, in the guise of a suppliant child depending upon the love of the Father for the supply of the daily needs; or this other act which is of such deepest mystery that we approach any attempted statement of it with awe, which is in fact the representation of the sacrifice of Calvary; and then these invocations by which we ask the loving co-operation of our fellow members of Christ that they may associate themselves with us in the work of prayer and mutual intercession—­how can all these acts be brought together under a common rubric, how can they all be designated as worship?  What in fact is it that you mean by worship?”

So are we challenged.  So are we thrown back, and in the end thrown back most beneficially, to the analysis of our acts.  Worship, we tell ourselves, is worth-ship; it is the attribution of worth or honor to whom these are properly due.  “Honour to whom honour is due,” we hear the Apostle saying.  Worship is therefore not an absolute value but a varying value, the content of any act of which will be determined by the nature of the object toward which it is directed.  It is greatly like love in this respect; its nature is always the same, but its present value is determined by the object to which it is directed.  We are to love the Lord our God, and we are also to love our neighbour; the nature of the love is in each case the same; and yet we are not to love our neighbour with the limitless self-surrender with which we love God.  The love of God is the passionate giving of ourselves to Him with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength.  The love of the neighbour is measured and restrained, having in view his good that we are seeking, the promotion of his salvation as our fellow member in the Body of Christ.  In