By the act of adoration is implied the full and most absolute acknowledgment of worship; and of consequence, such can only be suitable or proper to offer exclusively to Almighty God. JEHOVAH, in his threefold character of person, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, can be the only object of adoration; and this, through the glorious mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; (saith Jesus) no man cometh unto the Father but by me." (John 14:6) This, in the strictest sense of the word, is adoration. But in the Eastern world, the customs and methods observed in acts of reverence among men, from the humbler to the higher ranks, too nearly approach that homage, which is due only to the Lord. The prostration of the whole body, kissing the earth, and the like, savour much of idolatry.
See Kiss.