RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Worship Wrath of God
Church, London, 1901; H. Kellner, Heortologie oder das Kirchenjahr und die heiligen Feste in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwickelung, Freiburg, 1901; L. Ruland, Geschichte der kirchlichen Leichenfeier, Regensburg, 1901; O. J. Mehl, Die schinen Gottesdienste, Hamburg, 1902; P. Drews, Studien zur Geschichte des Gottesdienstes, 4 parts, Tiibingen, 1902-10; A. J. Maclean, Recent Discoveries Illustrating Early Christian Life and Worship, London, 1904; W. H. Dolbeer, The Benediction, Philadelphia, 1908; G. A. J. Ross, The Value of Worship, New York, 1909; L. Duchesne, Christian Worship: its Origin and Evolution, 3d Eng. ed., London, 1910; the literature under Common PRAYER, Boox or; Frasts AND Festrvats; Liruraics; Prac- TIcAL THEOLOGY; SunpAy; also under the articles on the ethnic religions much will be found apart from those works specifically noted above.
WORTHINGTON, GEORGE: Protestant Episcopal bishop; b, at Lenox, Mass., Oct. 14, 1840; d. at Mentone Jan. 7, 1908. He was graduated from Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y., 1860, and from the General Theological Seminary, New York, 1863; was ordered deacon, 1863, and ordained priest, 1864; became assistant at St. Paul’s Church, Troy, N. Y., 1863; rector of Christ Church, Ballston Spa, N. Y., 1865; was rector of St. John’s Church, Detroit, Mich., 1868-85; and was bishop of Nebraska from 1885. His administration was marked by a great development in the affairs of the see, BrstiograpHy: W. 8S. Perry, The Episcopate in America, p.
291, New York, 1895.
WORTHINGTON, JOHN: An English clergyman, known as a member of the school of ‘‘Cambridge Platonists” (q.v.), into whose inner life his Diary: and Correspondence (ed. Crossley, for the Chetham Society, Manchester, 1847) gives valuable glimpses. He was b. at Manchester, Feb., 1618; d. in London, Nov. 30, 1671; was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (B.A., 1635; M.A., 1639; fellow, 1641), where he had Benjamin Whichcote for his tutor and Nathanael Culverwel (qq.v.) for his friend; became a clergyman in 1646. Besides several parochial preferments, he was master of Jesus College, Cambridge, from 1650 to 1660, when he was displaced to make room for the restoration of a former master who had been ejected by the Puritans. He spent his remaining years between London and Lincolnshire, where he held the living of Ingoldsby, of which More was the patron, and a prebend in Lincoln cathedral. His original work consists mainly of a volume of Discourses (London, 1725), and a smaller volume of Miscellanies (1704); ‘but he also edited with great care the works of Joseph Mead, from whom the Cambridge movement may in a sense be said to take its rise, and the Select Discourses of John Smith, one of its most important members.
BrBLtioGRAPHY: Besides the literature under CAMBRIDGE Puatonists, and under the articles on the members of that school, consult Worthington’s Diary and Correspondence, ut sup.; Simon Patrick’s Autobiography, Oxford, 1839; J. Tulloch, Rational Theology and Christian Philosophy, ii. 426-433, Edinburgh, 1874; DNB, \xiii. 40-42. WORTMAN, DENIS: Dutch Reformed; b. at
East Fishkill, N. Y., Apr. 30, 1835. He was gradu-
ated from Amherst (B.A., 1857) and the Reformed
Church Seminary, New Brunswick, N. J. (1860).
He held pastorates at Brooklyn, N. Y. (1860-63),
Philadelphia (1863-65), Schenectady, N. Y. (1865-
1871); Fort Plain, N. Y. (1880-83), and Saugerties
(1883-1901), He was debarred from regular pas-
toral work in 1871-76 by ill-health, and for the next four years acted as supply to various churches. Since 1901 he has been secretary of the Ministerial Relief Fund of the Reformed Church in America. In theology he holds ‘“‘to the Reformed faith, with modifications as suggested by scientific learning and broader sympathies.’’ He has written the two poems Reliques of the Christ (New York, 1888), and The Divine Processional (1903). Several of his hymns are in current use.
WRATH OF GOD: The Hebrew language is rich in terms for “anger,” these picturing either the inward fire of wrath, or its outward manifestations in terms of animated physical life, specially breathihg (anaph), then overflowing rage, and consuming fire (Deut. xxxii. 19 sqq). The anger of God is kindled (Isa. v. 25), and he comes “‘to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire” (Isa. Ixvi. 15); his indignation is poured. out (Zeph. iii. 8); and his wrath produces the tempest described in Ps. xviii. 7 sqq. Jeremiah and Ezekiel may be described as par excellence the prophets of
wrath. Nor is this wrath a mere figure
Old of speech; it is real anger, manifested Testament. not only in its effects, but in the divine motive toward his creation. It is
the divine counterpart of human anger, and one tacitly accepted by the New Testament from the Old. The traditional view holds that the first sin and the divine anger are correlates, so that man is now a “child of wrath,’ while God has withdrawn far from him. Drop by drop man must drink the cup of divine wrath to the dregs, until finally the angry divine majesty snaps the thread of the life of man who selfishly withdraws in sin from the service of God (cf. Gen. i1., tii. with Ps. xc.). Since anger is possible only when one associates with another, and since, after Yahweh had chosen Israel, such intercommunication was possible only with his own people, and no longer with the Gentiles, whom he left “to walk in their own ways” (Acts xiv. 16), therefore the wrath of God is generally spoken of in the Old Testament only in connection with human interference in Yahweh’s personal relations with Israel. The very basis of the entire dispensation whereby Yahweh restricted his presence to Israel and left the Gentiles to their own devices was his wrath, which led him to deliver to death the race which had proved recreant to him (Gen. iii., vi., xi.); and this divine wrath, separating sinful man from life, is typified in the cherubim and the flaming sword at the gates of Eden (Gen. iii. 24). All this makes clear the relation of the wrath of God to his holiness. When man becomes sensible of the separation between himself and God, he must seek to repair the breach, and since repentance is the object of all divine judgments, God then restrains his wrath, so that mention is made, throughout all periods of the Old-Testament revelation, of the mercy and long-suffering of Yahweh. And yet, the rendering of love is not unlimited by the claims of wrath, and the holiness of God must still set up a barrier against the sin of man, so that all who draw near unworthily encounter divine wrath which is, in the most literal sense, a devouring flame (cf. Deut. iv, 33; Lev. x. 1-8). But despite his sin, man
Wrath of God Wratislaw