

E-text prepared by Al Haines



Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
      file which includes the original illustrations.
      See 26136-h.htm or 26136-h.zip:
      (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/2/6/1/1/26136/26136-h/26136-h.htm)
      or
      (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/2/6/1/1/26136/26136-h.zip)


Transcriber's note:

      Page numbers in this book are indicated by numbers enclosed in
      curly braces, e.g. {99}.  They have been located where page
      breaks occurred in the original book.  For its Index, a page
      number has been placed only at the start of that section.





THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH

And the Beauty of Holiness

by

J. A. REGESTER, S.T.D.

Rector of St. Paul's Church, Buffalo, N. Y.


  "Oh, may I dwell in His Temple blest,
    As long as my life may be,
  And the beauty fair of the Lord of Hosts,
    In the home of His glory see!"
            BISHOP COXE, _Christian Ballads_







New York
James Pott & Company
285 Fourth Avenue
1898

Copyright, 1898, by
James Pott & Co.

First Edition.  Printed, January, 1898.
Second Edition, Revised.  Printed, May, 1898.




Preface

The material in this manual is, so far as known, accessible only in a
number of books.  Obligation to those from which it has been gathered
has not been expressed by references, which must have marked nearly
every page, but, instead, a list has been appended which may be
consulted if it is desired to verify statements or to study more fully
any subject presented.

The object in view has not been to discuss the propriety, or
lawfulness, or obligation of any matter referred to, but simply to give
information.




Contents


                                                    PAGE

  WORSHIP .....................   7
  THE CHURCH, THE PLACE OF WORSHIP.........  11
  SYMBOLISM OF THE CHURCH BUILDING.........  17
  ARRANGEMENT AND FURNITURE OF THE CHURCH .....  37
  SYMBOLIC ORNAMENTS OF THE CHURCH.........  51
  HOW TO USE THE PRAYER-BOOK............  92
  DEVOUT CUSTOMS AND USAGES ............ 103
  LIST OF BOOKS FOR REFERENCE ........... 119
  INDEX ...................... 121




{7}

_The Beauty of Holiness_


_Worship_

The worship of Almighty God is one of the characteristic acts of
humanity.  The brute looks up to heaven, but man alone looks up with
thought of God and to adore.  "The entire creation grew together to
reflect and repeat the glory of God, and yet the echo of God slumbered
in the hollow bowels of the dumb earth until there was one who could
wake up the shout by a living voice.  Man is the first among the
creatures to deliver back from the rolling world this conscious and
delicious response, the recognition of the Father who begat him.  He,
and he alone, is nature's priest, her spokesman, her mediator."

{8}

The idea of worship, in which the crown and glory of manhood thus has
expression, "includes all those acts which make up the devotional duty
of the soul to Almighty God."  Our private and family devotions are
acts of worship.  They enter into its obligation, are comprehended by
it, but do not fill it out.  They are not sufficient alone.  The due
acknowledgment before others of our belief in and reverence for God,
the blessings which attend only upon the use of united praise and
prayer and of Sacraments, the honor of God, the rendering of "thanks
for the great benefits that we have received at His hands," the setting
forth of "His most worthy praise,"--all demand the public act of
worship.

The obligation and privilege of such worship cannot be too greatly
exalted.  It is not a matter of inclination merely; it is an imperative
duty, the discharge of which may not be regulated by considerations of
convenience, or indolence, or pleasure.  To neglect it, is to dishonor
God, to withhold what is His due.  It is also to dishonor ourselves, to
violate our own noblest instincts.  No other act of which we as men are
capable is so dignified or so worthy of ourselves.  Not to worship is
to debase ourselves.

This duty and privilege of worship the church and the Prayer-Book help
us to perform.  Just as {9} other buildings about us--homes, stores,
factories, schools, libraries--stand for and represent certain
interests and departments of our lives, so the church as a building
makes its claim and reminds us that there must also be room--a large
place and sacred--in our lives for worship, and supplies the hallowed
means and helpful associations for its right discharge.  And what the
church supplies the means of doing fittingly, the Prayer-Book directs.
It comes with the reminder that while Sunday brings the great
opportunity of worship, the obligation is not a thing of one day only,
but of every day, and that our public worship should be "daily," if
possible.  It enables every one who comes into the church to be a
worshiper.  It gives to each one his part.  It makes no distinctions.
High and low, rich and poor, have equal share in the service.  It
teaches to worship reverently, and in spirit and in truth.  "Everything
in the Prayer-Book is solemn, humble, reverential, as it respects man,
and ennobling and glorifying as it respects God."  And this is meet and
right.  For, as has been truly said, "Worship is the concentration and
consecration of whatever is noble in the world.  It is the dedication
to the Most High of all that is best in what the eye can see, the ear
hear, the voice sing, the hand execute, {10} and the mind conceive.  It
is the sanctification of color, sound, and skill, of intellect,
imagination, and emotion.  It is devotion--devotion of what is
excellent in man, devotion of what symbolizes the loveliness of nature.
Therefore it is that worship calls for art; therefore, too, it is that
art so often finds its noblest use in worship.  Worship and art
together take the beauty of the world and offer it up as a tribute at
the feet of God."




{11}

_The Church, the Place of Worship_

It would seem that at first Christians worshiped in any place which
they could use with safety.  "But soon the Lord revealed Himself to the
world as the King of it, until in a few generations the earth was
covered with His shrines, and mines and forests and human skill offered
to Him their best gifts."  "The custom of setting apart places and
houses as holy and dedicated to God's worship was ever a part of the
faith of God's people."  Thus it was said to Israel in the wilderness,
"Let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them."  Of the
building of the Temple Solomon says, "Behold, I purpose to build a
house unto the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spake unto David my
father, saying, Thy son, {12} whom I will set upon thy throne in thy
room, he shall build a house unto My name."  Our Lord confirms this
practice as one of sound and true religion.  He called the Temple "My
Father's house," and by cleansing it of buyers and sellers showed that
it was to be used for no other purpose than the worship of God.
Christians from the earliest days have had consecrated places which
were held in reverence as distinct from the home.  And so the
Prayer-Book says, "Devout and holy men, as well under the Law as under
the Gospel, moved either by the express command of God, or by the
secret inspiration of the blessed Spirit, and acting agreeably to their
own reason and sense of the natural decency of things, have erected
houses for the public worship of God, and separated them from all
unhallowed, worldly, and common uses, in order to fill men's minds with
greater reverence for His glorious Majesty, and affect their hearts
with more devotion and humility in His service; which pious works have
been approved of and graciously accepted by our heavenly Father."

It is an ancient custom to dedicate churches to the glory of God and in
honor of some special saint.  This custom probably arose from the fact
that in early days churches were commonly built over the {13} graves of
martyrs, or in the place of their martyrdom, and hence were called by
their names.  Sometimes the church is named from some fact in the
sacred history of our redemption, as the Incarnation, the Annunciation,
the Nativity, the Epiphany, the Transfiguration, the Crucifixion, the
Resurrection, the Ascension.  Or it may take its name from the Holy
Trinity, or from some title of our Lord or of the Holy Ghost.  Or it
may be named for one or all of the holy angels.  It must be felt to be
a decided advantage to have the place of the worship of God designated
by a dignified name, and one non-secular and religious in its
associations.

The word "church," by which we designate the place of divine worship,
being derived from the Greek _kuriakon_, the Lord's house, embodies the
idea of its sacred character.

A canon, or law, of the Church forbids consecration so long as a debt
remains on the building.  It may, however, before consecration be used
for worship.

As consecrated and set apart for the holy offices of religion, the
church is the proper place for the ministration of the Sacraments, and,
preferably, for marriages and burials.  The Church's rule in reference
to Holy Baptism is that even children shall {14} not be baptized at
home "without great cause and necessity."  This rule is laid down
because the decency and solemnity suited to so great a Sacrament can be
had better in the church, set apart and arranged for the purpose, than
in any private house, and in order that by the public