Read Ebook: The Worship of the Church and The Beauty of Holiness by Regester J A Jacob Asbury

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--O? suis-je? dit Harvey, qui ne pouvait s'imaginer qu'il f?t pr?cis?ment bien en vie, ? ce moment.

Il semblait avoir deux paires de mains et une t?te de bronze, car non content de souffler dans une grosse conque, il lui fallait n?cessairement se tenir debout, en s'inclinant suivant l'inclinaison du doris ? fond plat, et envoyer son appel grin?ant et guttural ? travers le brouillard. Combien de temps cette conversation dura-t-elle, Harvey ne put s'en souvenir, car il gisait ?tendu sur le dos, terrifi? ? l'aspect des houles fumantes. Il s'imagina entendre un coup de canon, l'appel d'une corne et des cris. Quelque chose de plus gros que le doris, mais tout aussi mobile, se dessina bord ? bord. Plusieurs voix parl?rent ? la fois; il fut descendu dans un trou noir qui tanguait, o? des hommes v?tus de v?tements imperm?ables appel?s <>, avec lesquels les matelots se prot?gent contre la pluie et les embruns, lui donn?rent un breuvage chaud et lui enlev?rent ses habits. Et il s'endormit.

Quand il s'?veilla, il ?couta s'il n'entendait pas le premier coup de cloche du d?jeuner sur le steamer, et s'?tonna que sa cabine f?t devenue si petite. Comme il se retournait, son regard plongea dans une sorte d'?troit caveau triangulaire, ?clair? d'une lampe pendue ? une ?norme poutre carr?e. Une table ? trois coins f the church the symbol of our faith in Christ crucified. Some chancels of old churches were even built with a slight deflection from the line of direction of the nave, thus representing the inclination of our Saviour's head upon the Cross. It made also the gathering together of each congregation of His Church--which is His mystical Body--the symbol of that body itself: that part in the nave representing His body, that in the transepts His outstretched arms, that in the choir His head. And so, also, "the united prayers and praises of the congregation make, as it were, in their very sound the sign of the Cross."

This plan of constructive symbolism affects not only the fabric of the church as a whole, but each separate part of the church has its religious character and meaning.

Let us linger for a moment on the outside. The spire points upward and teaches its lesson of aspiration. "Lift up your hearts," it seems to say, and holds up the Cross as that by which alone we are to be "exalted unto everlasting life." Whenever we lift up our eyes to it, it ought to repeat for us that lesson--rebuke downward thoughts and desires, and point up to spiritual and heavenly things.

In the tower are the bells, and what the spire with its uplifted Cross says to us in silent eloquence these say in sound and music.

"Bells in the middle ages were sometimes dedicated to saints. They were christened with all the usual ceremonies and with much pomp; sponsors were provided, the bell was sprinkled at the font, anointed with oil, and robed in a chrisom. Superstitious as these customs would seem now, there is something fine in the simple faith which thus, in those more poetic days, consecrated to God's service the voices which should proclaim Him far and wide over the land." In simpler form, the custom is still frequently observed of setting apart by solemn prayer and benediction the bells which are to call men to prayer or to ring out the praises of God.

Church bells are frequently marked by appropriate inscriptions. The following, for instance, was very common in the middle ages, all these powers being attributed to bells:

"Funera plango, Fulgura trango, Sabbata pango, Excito lentos, Dissipo ventos, Paco cruentos."

"I mourn the dead, I break the lightning, I announce the Sabbath, I excite the slothful, I disperse the winds, I appease the cruel."

As instances of modern inscriptions we have the following: "Bethlehem, Calvary, Bethany." "We welcome the infant to the Font. We invite the youth to Confirmation. We invoke the faithful to the Holy Communion." "Joyful our peal for the bridal; mournful our plaint for the dead."

Let us turn now to the inside of the church and inquire as to the spiritual significance which has become associated with its several parts.

The church is divided into two main portions--the body of the church and the chancel. This represents the whole Catholic Church, divided into those on earth and those who have passed into Paradise. The body of the church, representing those on earth, is divided again into two parts--the nave and transepts. And these have each their special religious associations and suggestiveness.

We may come to that same idea in connection with the main body of the church in other ways. Notice how it is made up of several parts, divided, in many churches, by pillars and arches. There is the central part, what is called, strictly speaking, the nave, and the two side parts, called the aisles. Now this threefold division of the main body of the church into nave and aisles may speak to us of the same thing--fellowship. These divisions do not make up three separate churches, but unite in the one church.

So, again, the idea of fellowship may come to us in another way. The special service of the nave is the Litany. This solemn service has been said from very early times from the Litany-desk, placed at the head of the nave, before the entrance to the chancel. "Its position there refers to a Litany, and a place for it to be said, of God's own appointing. 'Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Thy people, O Lord.' Our Litany, retaining the same words of supplication, is said, in allusion to this, in the midst of the church," the priest taking his place with the people, and, in fellowship of sinfulness and need, leading their supplications.

This truth of fellowship in Christ which the nave suggests, we confess our belief in when we say, "I believe in the holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints." The pictures of the saints of the Old and the New Testament, of the angels who worship Christ our Saviour, and of the men blessed by Him when on earth, which shine for us in the windows, may help to give it reality in our thought. The four main walls of the church, which are supposed to represent the four Evangelists, and the pillars, "which, as the chief supports of the fabric, are said to represent the Apostles, prophets, and martyrs," may remind us also of the holy and glorious fellowship into which we have been brought.

This fellowship in Christ is one of the means which God's love uses for helping and saving men. We are helped by it. We must by it help others. Let us build, it, then, into the daily life, as it is built into the very stones of the church.

So, also, the spirit of Christ is the spirit of service, through love, in behalf of others--the spirit of true fellowship. Now we cannot realize that spirit without sacrifice of selfish inclination and desire. We saw that the main body of the church represents that portion of Christ's Church which is on earth, and that the nave suggests the idea of fellowship as the very spirit and law of the Christian life. Now the transepts, making the cross, tell us that fellowship expresses itself truly, that is, after Christ's example, through sacrifice. "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." The true Christian life of loving fellowship, after the example of our Saviour who died upon the Cross for us, must get somehow, in self-denial for Christ and self-forgetful work for others, the sign of the Cross worked into it.

The word "chancel" is derived from the Latin word for the lattice-work which formerly parted this portion of the church from the nave. It is the same word from which we get our word "to cancel," that is, to destroy a writing by crossing it out with the pen, which makes something like the figure of a lattice. The lattice was part of the screen which in some churches stood in the arch and divided the chancel from the nave. The screen signified death. Men passed through it from the nave into the chancel, as they must pass through death from the part of the Church which is on earth to the part which is in the world of spirits.

In the chancel itself we have two parts--the choir and the sanctuary.

Let us see what the Prayer-Book says of those who are in Paradise. In the Burial Office we have this prayer: "Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of those who depart hence in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity; We give Thee hearty thanks for the good examples of all those Thy servants, who, having finished their course in faith, do now rest from their labors. And we beseech Thee, that we, with all those who are departed in the true faith of Thy holy Name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in Thy eternal and everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

Note how the closing portion reminds us that while the departed "do now rest from their labors," they have not yet received their "perfect consummation and bliss"; that they wait for this till the coming of our Lord and the Resurrection, when it shall be "both in body and soul," "in eternal and everlasting glory." We speak of them, therefore, as composing the "Church expectant."

This same symbolic meaning for this part of the chancel may come to us in another way, that is, from the services which are conducted from it, Morning and Evening Prayer, which are commonly known, therefore, as the "Choir Offices." These look beyond the choir, which represents the "Church expectant" in Paradise, to the sanctuary, with its Altar, which represents, as we shall see, heaven and the "Church triumphant." The central point of the Church's worship is the great sacrificial act of the oblation of the Holy Eucharist. Upon this the other services of Morning Prayer and the Litany, which precede, and of Evening Prayer, which follows, depend for their significance; the first as preparation for it, and the second as an act of thanksgiving and praise; just as the "felicity" of those in Paradise is a felicity not perfect in itself, but one of anticipation of, and preparation and thankfulness for, the "perfect consummation and bliss" which await them.

It is all a worship of preparation and joy. The choir may remind us, then, by its suggestiveness as related to the other parts of the church, and by the dominant note of joy which rings through its services, how the faithful departed go at death into the "joy and felicity" of Paradise, there to wait, as the "Church expectant," for the Resurrection and their "perfect consummation and bliss", that the "Church expectant" and the "Church militant" are not two Churches, but the one Church of Christ in two places and in two states, on earth and in Paradise, fighting and waiting; that they have still "mystic sweet communion" in praise and worship and prayer--the Church in Paradise leading our worship as the choir leads the worship of the congregation.

So, again, the choir may impress upon our minds how joy has place in the Christian life: that Christianity is not a religion of gloom, but of joy; that if Christ says, "Come, take up the cross, and follow Me," He says also, "My yoke is easy, and My burden is light," because the way of the Cross is the way into true joy.

So we pass through the transepts, which speak to us of self-sacrifice, into the choir, which speaks to us of joy. So long as self is first, the best and truest joy is shut out of our lives; but when self has been crucified, and love is first,--love that delights to serve, and that believes still in the absolute and perfect goodness of God even when the cross is laid upon its shoulders,--then joy comes in, the joy which is a foretaste of that which those in Paradise know, even as that is a foretaste of the perfect joy of heaven.

When we enter a church, the part which is the center of attention is always the sanctuary--the place of the Altar. To this the other parts all lead up. It is the most elevated part, and here the dignity and beauty of the decorations center, just as all our life in the fellowship of Christ's Church here on earth, our cross-bearing, and the worship by which we are prepared and trained on earth and in Paradise, all lead us heavenward.

The sanctuary is made the place of the greatest dignity and beauty, and is most richly decorated, because it is the place of the Altar; and it is through thoughts which come to us from the solemn service of the Holy Eucharist, which is celebrated at the Altar, that this part of the chancel is made the symbol of heaven.

Let us see from Holy Scripture what it is that our Lord, who in His love did so much for us on earth, is still doing for us in heaven. "We have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, ... called of God a high priest after the order of Melchisedec.... Because He continueth ever, He hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." This is finely presented in one of our Eucharistic hymns:

"O Thou, before the world began Ordained a sacrifice for man, And by the eternal Spirit made An offering in the sinner's stead;

Our everlasting Priest art Thou, Pleading Thy death for sinners now.

"Thy offering still continues new Before the righteous Father's view; Thyself the Lamb forever slain, Thy priesthood doth unchanged remain; Thy years, O God, can never fail, Nor Thy blest work within the veil."

Now if we turn to the Office for the Holy Communion, we shall see how the oblation in the Holy Eucharist is linked in with this present work of our "great High Priest" in heaven.

In the Prayer of Consecration we say: "All glory be to Thee, Almighty God, our heavenly Father, for that Thou, of Thy tender mercy, didst give Thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the Cross for our redemption; who made there a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world; and did institute, and in His holy Gospel command us to continue, a perpetual memory of that His precious death and sacrifice, until His coming again.... Wherefore, O Lord and heavenly Father, according to the institution of Thy dearly beloved Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, we, Thy humble servants, do celebrate and make here before Thy Divine Majesty, with these Thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto Thee, the memorial Thy Son hath commanded us to make." What is done as we thus "celebrate and make before the Divine Majesty," in the commemorative sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist, the "memorial" of Christ's "precious death and sacrifice," is beautifully and strongly expressed in another of our Eucharistic hymns:

"And now, O Father, mindful of the love That bought us, once for all, on Calvary's tree, And having with us Him that pleads above, We here present, we here spread forth to Thee, That only offering perfect in Thine eyes, The one true, pure, immortal sacrifice.

"Look, Father, look on His anointed face, And only look on us as found in Him; Look not on our misusings of Thy grace, Our prayer so languid, and our faith so dim, For lo! between our sins and their reward, We set the Passion of Thy Son our Lord."

This is one way in which the sanctuary of the church reminds us of heaven--by reminding us of what is done in the heavenly "holy place," and also there.

Then, again, the sanctuary has the same suggestiveness as the place of Communion. To have the communion of the presence and life of God, through Christ, this is the very center of the blessedness of heaven. What it is that we have here on earth in the "Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ" we will let our Lord Himself tell us. "In the night in which He was betrayed, He took Bread; and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, Take, eat, this is My Body, which is given for you; Do this in remembrance of Me. Likewise, after supper, He took the Cup; and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of this; for this is My Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for you, and for many, for the remission of sins; Do this, as oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of Me."

So before He had said, anticipating this Sacrament of Communion which He thus ordained: "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.... Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me."

And so we pray in the Holy Eucharist: "Grant us, ... gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh, of Thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink His blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His body, and our souls washed through His most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in Him, and He in us."

It all speaks of a foretaste here, in a Sacrament, of what heaven shall give in its fullness.

The sanctuary tells us of heaven in another way.

What the soul that gains its blessedness shall find in it we may put into one small but very sweet word--"peace."

Now the Altar in the sanctuary of the church, with its "perpetual memory" of Christ's "precious death and sacrifice," stands for peace between God and us. The aim and purpose of that sacrifice was to bring about atonement, that is, at-one-ment, the setting at one, at peace. Christ "loved us, and gave Himself for us," and by this sacrifice brought reconciliation between us and God, "having made peace through the blood of His cross."

And so at the close of the Holy Eucharist celebrated in the sanctuary, after the "memorial" has been made before God which His Son "hath commanded us to make," and we have been "partakers of His most blessed Body and Blood," this is the Blessing with which the Church lets us depart--a blessing which carries the thought up to what, in its fullness, waits for us in heaven: "The Peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord."

The oblation, the communion, the peace, of the sanctuary, these all tell us thus of heaven and the "Church triumphant."

Of Christ's "mystical body," with its fellowship and cross-bearing on earth, its passage through death to the joy of Paradise, and, waiting beyond, heaven, with its communion and peace through the Cross--it is of this that the church as a building may speak to devout hearts.

A person coming into one of our churches would recognize at once a difference between its interior arrangement and that of many other places of worship. If he thought out the purpose of this arrangement, its adaptation to various forms of divine service and religious uses, he would feel that "here is a place where people are taught to worship the Lord in holy rites, and where forms and spaces and objects are themselves teachers of holy truths."

From the door a broad alley , running lengthwise of the building, leads to the chancel. It suggests that the approach of the people, for the blessings and consolations which are dispensed there, is made convenient and is invited.

A rubric directs that at the time of the Communion the Altar shall be covered with a "fair white linen cloth" . Another "fair linen cloth," commonly called the "linen chalice veil," is also directed to be used for covering the consecrated elements after the communion of the people. To these custom has added other convenient and seemly appointments of linen and silk.

The "chalice veil" is a square of silk, embroidered and often fringed, used to cover the vessels before the consecration.

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