WORSHIP, Freedom oL (The word wor ship is derived from A. S. weorthscipe° worth, worthy, + tripe, ship; it meant worthi ness in 0. E., and is now used to designate reverence for a person or a thing). Reverence is the honor due to another because of some excellence which he has and we have not. That excellence is either natural or supernatural. If we reverence another because of some natural excellence, which we have not, our worship is natural. By such natural reverence we honor our parents, because of a superior excellence In them. They gave us life itself. For that gift we can never sufficiently pay them back. By the excellence of parenthood they will ever be superior to us, and an object of natural reverence. Of natural worship and reverence this article does not treat I. Supernatural and External Worship.— If we reverence another because of some supernatural excellence, which we have not, our worship is supernatural. Now this super natural excellence may be finite or infinite, created or uncreated. Supernatural reverence of another, because of infinite and uncreated excellence, is called adoration. Supernatural reverence of another, because of finite and created excellence, has among Catholics the technical, figurative name of dolia— from &walla, %slavery.' Just as the subscription Your obedient servant' means servitude only in a figurative sense, so the supernatural rev erence of the saints is slavery only by a figure of speech. Moreover, among Catholics the reverence for the Blessed Virgin Mary is called hyperdulia, 'more than &who' to mdi cate that the homage paid to her is in a class by itself. It is not adoration because the motive, objectively considered, is not infinite and uncreated. It is dtdia; because the motive is finite and created. It is 'more than Mitt; because divine motherhood, the motive of our reverence for Mary, though a finite and created excellence, is unique and in a class by itself. There is only one mother of the divine Per son, Jesus Christ Supernatural reverence — be it adoration, hyperdtslots, or dtdia — is either in ternal or external worship. Quite naturally one is free from State interference with one's internal worship; the State is not concerned with the acts of reverence, which one in no wise expresses by outward signs. Thembject of this article is freedom, not of internal, but of external, supernatural worship.
Obligatory Worship.—This freedom of worship does not preclude man's obligation to religion, which flows from natural taw. Ex ternal, supernatural worship is not a matter of choice to man. Apart from the duty of reli
gion, consequent upon his knowledge of God's supernatural revelation of Himself to the hu man race, man is by the very law of nature obliged to both internal and external super natural worship. For man was created to praise, reverence and serve God. But man it made up of both body and soul. Hence the faculties of his animated body, as well as the powers of his spiritual soul, should join in this praise, reverence and service of the Crea tor. That is to say, there should be an ex ternal manifestation of the reverence, which the mind conceives and the will elicits. "Ever since the creation of the world, the unseen truths about God,— that is, His everlasting power and divinity,— are to be seen by being reasoned out by means of His works. So that men have no excuse.' (Romans i, 20). The religious freedom, whereof our article treats, is man's right to follow the dictate of his rea son and the mandate of his will as to the manner of external worship. This right should be respected and protected by the State as it now is constituted. It is fundamental to our government For the First Amendment to the Constitution ordains that 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' Freedom of external worship, guaranteed to the individual by the Constitution of the United States, does not preclude the duty of civil so ciety as such to give reverence to God. For God is the author and stay of civil society. Without Him and His gifts there would be no social organism. Hence is society bound to acknowledge His dominion and beneficence. The State recognizes its indebtedness to par ticular persons and to other States. America is not unmindful of the services of Lafayette and Rochambeau, nor of France that sent them to our aid. Much less should our State be oblivious of the infinite Being, on whom we depend for our existence and well-being. Nor are the United States forgetful of God. Wit ness the appeal of the signers of the Declara tion of Independence to 'the laws of nature and of nature's God,* to the rights wherewith men endowed by their Creator,* and 'to the Supreme Judge of the world, for the rectitude of their intentions,' when they pledged them selves to the support of the independence of the United States •with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.' NVitness likewise the annual proclamation of Thanks gi%ing Day by the President of the United States.