A circle of hands, holding each other. Photo: By Wylly Suhendra on Unsplash.
Worship as a unifying force: Rufus Jones, 100 years ago in the Friend (16 October 1925)
‘But worship is different.’
Worship, like love, unites; speculation and argumentation divide. The moment we try to formulate doctrines, or to construct a theory of Church organisation, we discover that we are handling explosive material and we are sure to arouse disagreement, if not dissension. We are moving here in the field of debate, and however plausible our position may seem to us, there are always other ways of viewing that same position of ours which we usually overlook. In all matters of life and thought the problems are intricate and complex, and no formulation of terms can exhaust the possibilities of any situation. There is something about the ‘inner life’ of a black beetle which escapes the wisest entomologist. He describes the outside appearance, the look of the beast. He reports on legs and wings and speed of motion, but when he is done with his description the beetle might say, if it could utter itself, ‘You do not know me at all as I am in myself!’ How much more does our knowledge fall short of the mark when we are dealing with the inner life of a man, and how hopeless is the task of telling all the infinite truth about Christ, about God, about the universe and about eternal destiny! No, it cannot be done. There is more to be said than any of us say. And when anyone tries to make us take his account, we want the privilege of saying it over in our own way and of supplementing his way of saying it.
