Worship

No definition of' this word, as used in " divine worship," "religious worship," "place of worship," and similar expressions, applicable to all cases, has, seemingly, been framed by any court. The word has no technical, legal signification; each case, in which its meaning has been the subject of contention, has been decided upon its own merits. A Sunday-school is a worshiping assembly.'' But a Sunday-school was held not to be contemplated by the expression "divine worship," in an agreement between two congregations for the erection of a common meeting-house, at a time when Sundayschools were not in vogue in the neighborhood.^ One room iised as a chapel does not reserve the whole building " for religious worship." ^ A Christmas-tree festival for Sunday scholars at a school-house is not an assembly for "religious worship." " Camp-meeting grounds belonging to an association deriving profit therefrom are not to be exempt from taxation as a " place of worship." ' " Religious worship " has no technical meaning, in a legal sense. Whether a temperance camp-meeting is "a public assembly convened for the purpose of religious worship " is a question of fact.^ Receiving compulsory prices for admission to a camp-meeting on Sunday is worldly employment or business, and not within the exception of " works of necessity and charity." " A prosecution for disturbing an assemblage for religious worship will not" be sustained by proof that the meeting was for business purposes, though opened with religious exercises. '" A buildingf or "religious purposes " is exempt from 'taxation although used for educational purposes, so long as the use is merely incidental or occasional, or, ■if habitual, is purely permissive and voluntary and ■does not interfere with the use for religious purposes, there being no alienation (as, e. gr., by lease) of the building in whole or in part for educational uses. ' Campbell v. Brown, 1 Grant, 83 (1854).

2 Marshall v. Blackshire, 44 Iowa, 473 (1876), Seevers, Chief Justice. = Martin v. State, 6 Baxt. 234 (Tenn., 1873). ■• Gass' Appeal, 78 Pa. 46 (1873). »St. Joseph's Church v. Assessors, 13 R. I. 19 (1878). "Layne v. State, 4 Lea, 200 (1879).- ' Summit Grove Meeting Association v. School District of New Freedom, 12 W. N. C. 108 ^Pa., 1882). 8 State V. Norris, 69 N. H. 536 (1880). 'Commonwealth v. Weidner, 4 Pa. Co. Ct. R. 437 (1888): -4.ct 23 April, 1794.

Much Sunday-school teaching, though auxiliary to religion, is not purely religious. Buildings for religious worship, or parts of them, are frequently permitted to be used on week days for literary or scientific lectures, or for industrial instruction. Some of these uses, while not wholly religious, are prompted by religion.' See Assembly, Civil; Chcrch; Parsonage; Religion: StrNDAT.