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Besides the one altar, altars were erected by Gideon, Samuel, David and Elijah, but they were temporary, to meet emerjj^encies, and were erected by the immediate command or inspiration of God Himself. There was also an altar of incense but as Dr. Perowne pointedly remarked " the term altar is not strictly appropriate in this instance, as no sacrifices were offered on it." When Solomon's altar which was destroyed, was restored, as we learn from the book of Maccabees, which may be trusted in matters of history, it was built of unhewn stones : " they took whole {holoklcrous) stones and built an altar according to the former''' And when Herod restored the Temple, the divine commands were a^ain adhered to, for Josephus says : " it was made without any iron tool, neither did iron touch it at any time." In the times of the early Church, altars were unknown. The Communion Tables were of wood, but about the fifth century, when the Eucharist began to be regarded as an actual sacrifice then altars of stone were thought to to be necessary, upon which to offer up the so- r 11 l! I |i il 22 Layman's Handbook, — called sacrifice. Probably this was done as a sort of substitute for tlie pagan altars then being abolished, for although the Christian Church was founded in Rome before the arrival of Paul, still there were temples there in the year 400 to Jupiter, Saturn, Cybele and others, and even one hundred years later, although an edict was passed condemning to death those found sacrificing according to the pagan rites, still there was a certain toleration, and during those centuries many heathen errors crept into the Church. In France, a statue of Diana was worshipped at the court of Dago- bert II., in 689, and as late as 794, Charlemagne found it necessary to publish an edict order- ing sacred groves and trees to be cut down — but we still place them in our Churches at Christmas ! A decree of the Council of Paris, in 509, ordered stone altars to be made and they were ordered in England by Egbert, Archbishop of York, in 705. Tables appear however to have continued in use elsewhere much longer, for according to William of Malmesbury, Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester (1062- 1095) demolished throughout his diocese the wooden tables still remaining, and about the same time (1076) Lan franc, Bishop of Winchester, condemned them. Corrupt as is the Greek Church they have not yet dared to adopt altars. They use square tables on legs, which latter however it must be confessed are hidden by the many covermgs. Lay Ulan s lIa)uibook. 23 c as a 5 then ristian c the ; there ile and later, ling to to the oration, 1 errors atue ol Dago- ^magne order- down — ches at in 509, cy were shop of to have ger, for vulstan, lohshcd )les still (1076) demncd \Q.y have hey use wever it le many We regret to add that in the American Church Hymnal the word " Jk'thcls " in Nearer my God to Thee, is changed to " altars." "Out of my stony grief altars I'll raise." Anthems. (Sec Choral Services and Surpliced Choirs.) Our Reformers who had seen the evil of vicarious worship in the Roman Church left out all mention of Anthems in the I\ \\. of 1549, and it was not until a century after, in the time of Charles the Second, that they were acknowledged by the insertion in the P. B. of 1662, of a rubric, and this was the work of that immoral and worldly minded man Arch- bishop Sheldon and his clique who were deter- mined in every way to make the P. B. distaste- ful to the Puritans with the avowed desire of driving them out of the church. They even astonished the profligate king by styling him, in the Prayer lor Parliament, " most religious," and Bishop Jkn-net tells us that the king's witty friends " often asked him what must all his people think when they heard him praj-ed for as their most relicfious king." The province of a choir is to lead and support the song of a congregation, not to mono- polize it as they do in the anthems, and they should not be allowed to turn the House of God into a place of entertainment, for it is folly to call singing by proxy, worship. It was well remarked by Canon Bell, that the nearer we approach an ornate cathedral service the farther we depart from the simplicity of the gospel. Our Church music should be congregational piM! Ml M La}' wans Handbook. — only ; devotional, full of true reli^M'ous feelint^ ; not sensuous nor artistic, and then there will be no dan^^er that the multitude will mistake their pleasure in the melody of son^ for true relij^ion and be content to "draw niL,di unto God with their lips, while their heart is far from Ilim." There is no t^rcater danger incident to an elaborate Ritual than that of mistaking emotion for religious feeling. The most careless and godless may be moved to tears by the pathos of sweet music, or be held breathless by the touching spell of eloquent words. It is possible to be sentimental with- out being pious. If however our Churches are to be turned into Ecclesiastical IMusic Halls, and we must have anthems, then is it not too much to ex- pect us to stand and listen to the solo, duet and quartet? Why should we not remain seated as in other music halls? Must we stand to pay due respect to the choir ? Apostles' Creed. In the rubric this is called the "Apostles' Creed," instead of which it should be styled the Roman or Italian Creed, for as it now stands how many myriads, dead and living, have believed and still believe that it was framed by the Apostles, while on the contrary it was not written until long after the death of all of them. In some treatises we are told it was called the Apostles' Creed because it contains the Doctrine of the Apostles, but did they believe that our Lord descended into hell ? Is that Apostolic Doctrine ? 11 Mm Laytnatis Ilandbook-. ^5 lint,' ; ; will stake r true unto is far an^er lat of The /ed to c held :)q\ient with- turncd e must to ex- p, duct remain ust we lied the should "or as it d and that it on the fter the s called urns the believe Is that We follow the Minister in saj'inj; " He descended into hell"— but lie did not do so, neither do the two other Creeds say st). When He said "It is finished" His work was done, and the same da)- lie was in Par- adise with the penitent thief. I lades or Sheol is the reL,Mon of the lifeless, and Paradise was understood by the Jews to be that part of Hades wliere the spirits of the righteous dead repose. The earliest form of this Creed of which we have any knowledsre was used in the time of Ruffinus, bishop of Acjuileia, A.D. 390, and does not mention hell. '''' crucifixiis sub Poiitio Pilato ct scpultus ; tcrtia die'' — (was crucified under Pontius I'ilate, and buried ; the third day — ). The words " He descended into hell " are a later addition. Apostolical Succession. (See BisJiops) Every scholar has lung given up as a mere piece of patristic ignorance the pretence that the Apostles were the prototypes of the bishops, for the Apostolate ceased on the day that St. John died at Ephesus. Dean Stanley says "The Twelve Apostles whom He chose had no successors like themselves. No second Peter, no second John, no second Paul stepped into the places of those who had seen the Lord Jesus. . . . 71ic Seventy Disciples that went forth at their Lord's command into the cities of Palestine were soon irathered to their graves, and no order of the same kind or of the same number came in their stead. They went out once, and returned back to Nl 1 1; h 26 Layman's Handbook'. — their Master, to j^o out no more." The case is thus summed up in Sinitlis lUblc Dictionaiy. " It ceased, as a matter of course, with its first liolders — all continuation of it, from the fust conditions of its existence (cf. I (Jor. ix. i.) bein^ impossible. The c/>isfo/>ns of the ancient churches co-existed with, and tlid not in any sense succeed the Apostles ; and when it is claimed for bishops or any church officers that they are their successors it can be under- stood only chronolo^^ically and not officially," And this we mav well believj when we remember what some of the early bishops were. Grei^ory of Nazianzus, liishop of Constantinople who died in 3S9, was a f^ood man and an exception to the ijjeneral rule. This is what he says of the bishops of his day. We now quote the bishop's account as i^iven by Dr. Stanley, Dean of Westminster in his Christian Institutions. At the Council of Antioch " ' a yell, rather than a cry, broke from the assembled episcopate.' * They threw dust in his face ; they buzzed about him like a swarm of wasps; they cawed aj^ainst him like an army of crows.' . . . ' Showini^ their tusks, as if they had been wild boars.' " Again Gregory says " They are ' illiterate, low-born, filled with all the pride of upstarts fresh from the tables of false accountants,' * peasants from the plough, unwashed black- smiths, deserters, from the army and navy, still stinking from the holds of the ships.' " ** But he is aware of the objection that the Apostles might be said also to have been un- 1 Layman s Handbook. 27 3 case onarj'. ts first c fu'st ix. I.) Liicicnt in any n it is officers vuulcr- ciiiiiy." lien vvc bishops liop of a (jjood al rule. his day. s jjjivcn in his incil of kc from cw dust Hke a lUTi like v^ their I) lliterate, upstarts untants,' |c\ black- avy, still that the Deen un- -learned men. 'Yes,' he reph\s, as if antic- ipating^ the a'l^uiiient of the apostolical or papal succession * but it nuist he a real Apostle ; <;ive m - one such, and I will reverence him however illiterate.' ' Ihit these,' he returns to the charge, 'are time servinij, waitin^^ not on God but on the rise and How of the tides, or the straw in the wind-anj^ry lions to the small, fawninfT spaniels to the L^reat — flatterers of l.idies — snuffm^ up the smell of <;ood dinners — ever at the ^ates not of the wise but of the p(Averful — unable to speak themselves, but havint^ sufficient sense to stop the tonL;ues of those who can — made worse by their eleva- tion — affectini^ manners not their own — the lonijj beard, the downcast look, the head bow- ed, the subdued voice — the <^ot-up devotee.'" " A'^ain Gregory says ' Councils, congresses, we greet afar off, from which (to use very moderate terms) we have suffered many evils.' ' I will not sit in one of those Council . of geese and cranes. I fly from every meeting of bishops, for 1 never saw any good end of any such, nor a termination, but rather an addition of evils.' " Nearly broken hearted Gregcjry resigned his bishopric, and Dean Stanley says " He might, perhaps, have acted a more dignified part had he buried in oblivion all remembrance of tlie causes of his retirement. Ikit Jiistory has rati- fied the truth of the invectives which his vanity or his righteous indignation extorted from him." At the Council of Mphcsus (A.D. 449) when /TTT^ I I Ml ■\ li |:l Ijjllh^ I I I III !| M ! i i 28 Layman s Handbook. — a mob of monks appeared (we again quote Dean Stanley) " Flavian, Archbishop of Con- stantinople, lay watching for the moment to escape, when Dioscorus, the Archbishop of Alexandria, seized him round the waist and dashed him to the ground. Dioscorus kicked the dying man on the sides and chest. The monks of Barsumas struck him with their clubs as he lay on the ground. Barsumas himself cried out in the Syrian language, ' Kill him, kill him.' He expired from the savage treat- ment in a few days." Bishops, or superintendents or overseers, for that is the meaning of the Greek word, were the same as presbyters or elders in the Apos- tolic times, when there were only two orders, viz., bishops or presbyters and deacons. They are not necessary for the being of a church and Laud himself was rebuked by the University of Oxford in 1604, for saying that there could be no church without bishops. Eusebius, the church historian, who died in 338, was says Mosheim "a man of immense reading justly famous for his profound know- ledge in sacred literature." He endeavoured to complete the chain of bishops and confessed that it was impossible. He said he was utterly unable to find even the bare traces of those who had gone before him save here and there some slight marks and that he knew nothing of the persons who labored with Peter and Paul except what he had learnt from St. Paul's Epistles. Eusebius was a bishop and bishops therefore ■% Layman's Handbook. 29 in quote of Con- ment to isbop of aist and s Kicked :st. The leir clubs 5 himself Kill him, mc treat- rseers, for ord, were he Apos- MO orders, ns. They hurch and University iiere could \o died in immense md know- deavourcd 1 confessed a'as utterly IS of those and there :\v nothing Peter and Ti St. Paul's 3s therefore — ought to believe his testimony. Is it wilfully forgotten, or else how is it cx[)lained away ? Mave we in this 19th century any evidence % that he was not aware of in the 4th, and if so I by what miracle was it preserved ? ' Great stress is laid upon the Tactual Succes- sion or Laying on of Ihmds, but it was derived from the Church of Rome who did not adopt it until nearly one thousand years after Christ and abandoned it in 1439, under the authority of the Council of I^^lorence. It is not mention- ed in the P. H. of 1552, and the words "now committed unto thee by the im})osition of our hands" were introduced in 1662, by Shehlon. fhnu do the admirers of this doctrine brido-e over the first gap of 1000 years and the second gap from I4J() to 1662 ? Bishops liave studied divinity and must be aware of this. How then can they conscien- tiously allow the ceremony to be performed .'' *^ii The celebrated ecclesiastical historian Bing- ham, who died in 1723 did not attempt to \ prove the fable of Apostolical Succession, > declaring it to be an impossibility to make an exact and authentic catalogue; and Archbishop Whately, who died in 1863, and many others have exposed the absurdity of the doctrine, and among them the late Dean Grasett declar- ed honestly and boldly in the Synod of Toronto that he did not believe in it. It has not only been long since given up by the (ierman Lutherai Church but also by the ICpiscopally ordered churches of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. ^^^ 34 Layman's Handbook. — preceding names and dates are probably fabulous. The See of Dublin is supposed to h^v^c been founded by St. Patrick about the year 448, but the first named bishop is Livernus, A.D. 633, followed by ten others, eight of whom have dates, to 1095 when it became an arch- bishopric, but the Rev. Professor Stokes says the See dates from the eleventh century and calls those who trace it back to St. Patrick. " Romancers in ecclesiastical history." Staunton in his Church Dictionary, publish- ed in New York in 1849 (but Entered accord- ing to Act of Congress in 1838, and the pre- face is also dated in 1838), said of Uninterrupt- ed Succession in the American Church, " with- out it, ordination confers none but humanly derived powers ; and what those are worth, the reader may estimate when we tell him, that, on proof of a real fracture in the line of transmission between the first Bishops of the American Church and the inspired Apostles, the present Bishops will freely acknowledge themselves to be mere laymen^ and humbly retire from their posts," and Dr. Littledale said "In order to exercise the sacerdotal functions ive claim for ourselves and the Anglican priesthood, a regular commission in direct and regular process by the laying on of hands of bishops, from the Apostles." Are not the foregoing " real fractures " and where is the "direct and regular process?" There is not a single bishop in the Roman, English or American Church who can prove that there is not a flaw in his spiritual pedigree ! Layman's Handbook. 35 Athanasian Creed. This was formally sup- posed to have been written by Atlianasius, bishop of Alexandria who died in 375, but it never existed in thelanijuage in which he sjxjke and wrote and is now known to be an ecclesias- tical fabrication, supposed by some to have been written in France by Hilary of Aries in 430, while others believe it only dates from the time of Charlemagne, who ascended the throne in 771. In the attempted Revision in the Reign of William the Third, in 1689, in it was proposed to explain the damnatory clauses and this was renewed in the Convocation of Canterbury in 1879. The American Church omitted this creed entirely in their V. B. in 1789 and the R. E. Church of the U. S. and the R. \i. Church of Canada followed the example. The English P. B. Revision Society and the R. E. Church of Great Britain and Ireland omitted the three damnatory clauses and the obligatory rubric. The Irish Church (1878) retained the creed but omitted the rubric, so that no one is obliged to read it. Archbishop Tillotson condemned it two hundred years ago. George the Third never would stand up when it was read " showing " says Goldwin Smith "by this silent protest against its parade of paradox and its reckless denunciations, the spirit of a true Christian," and in our own century it hiis been condemned by Archbishop Tait, Dean Stanley, Dean Payne Smith and many others. The late ' I! 36 Layman's Handbook. — Bishop Lonsdale habitually sat down when- ever it was read as a silent but significant protest against its use. In the Preliminary Observations to the Spanish P. H. it is said " wc also accept the (so-called) At/ianasian Creed as containing a true definition of the Catholic P'aith, but do not hold it appropriate for use during public worship, nor was it used as such in the ancient Spanish Church." Auricular Confession. This is truly a most fearful subject. An unmarried man asks young girls ques- tions such as not only a father, but even a mother would not dare to ask their child. But they are frightened into it and most falsely told they must confess to the priest " because GoD when He was upon earth, gave to the Priests, and to them alone, the divine power of forgiving man their sins " — and " you must tell the Priest all the sins that you remember to have committed ; God absolutely requires this " — but the article in " Books for the young. No. i. Confession." (London, Palmer, 1872) is too long to quote here. The leading questions upon the seventh Commandment teaching the previously in- nocent one immoral ideas, that would other- wise never have entered her head, for as Dr. Magee, Bishop of Peterborough, says : " It is impossible, however prudent the priest may be, to avoid instilling vice by the confessional!' Each question, step by step, is more searching iiiiili Layinaiis lIa)idhook. 17 -than tlic last, and as the penitent is warned that a sini^le omission vitiates all, the weak- one reveals her inmost thoui^hts, if married perhaps tellini; thoucjjhts or deeds that she would not dare to confide even to her husband. When once the confession is made the priest becomes the master, the Drui-XTOK, for he has acquired all the secrets of the family, and the penitent, man or woman, can never look at him aL^ain as an independent bein^^. And morever can never feel confident that the priest, who is a frail human bein^^, may not disclose the secret, and that this is often done is undoubted, for not only priests who have been converted, but laymen as well, have stated that they had heard priests at the dinner table, over their wine, jest upon what the}' had heard in the morniuL^ in the confes- sional. The Duke ot Ikickin^ham, in his " Private Diary," relates the followin<^ : — '' I knozv fthe italics are the Duke's), a case where a Carbon- aro had hid his diploma and arms in a part of his house where he had built them up. Im- prudently he had entrusted his wife with the secret. Oppressed by the wei.L]^ht of it, she communicated it, under the seal of confession, to her confessor. He was villain enou^jh to betray his penitent and her husband to the police. The next night the police came to the very spot marked out by the woman who had thus sacrified her husband. The diploma and arms were found, and both husband and wife were carried off to prison, where they now remain." This was in Naples in 1827. 38 Layman 's Handbook. — — Tlic director of a late Kin^^ of Spain, and who was also the Queen's confessor, when the kinj^r upon a certain occasion declined to comply with his recjuests, insolently continued to press them, reminding; the kin<^^ '* I have your God* in my hand and yt)ur queen at my feet." " Patrick," said i priest to an Irishman, "how much hay did you steal"? "Well," replied Pat, " I may as well confess to your reverence for the whole stack, for my wife and I are f^oinf:^ to take the rest of it the first dark ni^ht." A {i::\\ years ago a Scotch gentleman gave evidence in the Private l^ills Committee of the Quebec Lci^^islatine conflicting with that given by his minister, the Rev. Gavin Lang, A • French member hurried over to him, and with a face full of warning, said, " Wait my fren till he get you in de confessional, and he make you pay up for dat." The abominable questions, especially upon the subject of purity, are even put to little children. I'hey arc printed in The Priest in Absolution. The R. C. Monsignor Capel in a correspondence with Canon Liddon. in the London 7Vw£'^', January i6th, 1875, announced publicly that the Ritualistic Priest in Absolu- tion was an adaptation frc^m one of the R. C. books on Auricular Confession. Scholars can find the questions asked (in Latin) in the R. C. published works of Dens and Liguori, and a few years ago Lord Oran- * i.e., the wafer-god ! Lay mail s IlaiiUbook. 39 more had extracts from the equally vile Ritual- istic b(K)k printed for the use of Parliament. Were they printed here, we shcnild rentier ourselves liable to prosecution for publishinjj^ obscene literature. The first part of this book was published by Masters, London. The second part has no publisher's name, but contains the follovvin<^ notice : — " To prevent scandal, arisin^^ from the curious or prurient misuse of a book which treats of spiritual diseases, it has been thoui^ht best that the sale should be confined to the clergy, who desire to have at hand a sort of luidc uiecmn, for easy reference in the dischai\i^e of their duty as confessors." So that, accord- ing to their own showini^, an Enj^lish clergy- man is to have for his guide in the confession- al, a book which to prevent scandal, must be circulated in secret, is unfit to bear the name of a respectable publisher and which implies absolute pollution in the so-called priest. It was wx^ll said that if tlie questions contained therein to be whispered in the ears of young women by clergymen of the English Church were proclaimed upon the house-top, they would heat to the boiling point the blood of the English people. In the Roman Breviary sins are divided into cardinal (deadly) and venial (slight), and among the venial is lying ! This sometimes works both ways, for it is told of an Irishman who had stolen a cheque for a large sum in pounds, shillings and pence, that he confessed only for the shillings and pence, (of course 40 Laj'ifians 1 1 and book. — p«iying accord iiiirly,) keeping back the pouiuls, and icccivcd absolution for his robl)cry. The Komish priests ^rcn.crall)' receive ccjii- fcssions in public places, in chiirclies, but the Ritualistic "priests" hear them in vestries and private rooms, and in ICnL,dand it is said tliat youn^ women arc closeted with a " priest," sometimes for an hour or more at a time ! One very important question, .'•eldom, if ever omitted, is ''Have you told aiiyonc what was said in confession ? " Think of this, ye mothers, who have not already been cauj^ht in the toils. The mcddlinf^ priest, an unmarried man, is to be a dealer in confidences between your daughter and himself, which are forbidden to you her mother ! *' Confess your faults one to another " — faults, not sins {paraptoniata not amartias James v. i6.), and confess your sins to GoD. 11 K can forgive sins and He alone. Baptism. 1 ishop Hooper, the mart) r, said " Although baptism be a Sacrament to be received and honorably used of all men, yet it sanctifieth no man. And such as attribute the remission of sin to the external sign do offend." The ordinance has no power to regenerate man's sinful nature, nor does regeneration necessarily accoiiipany its administration. Our Lord Sdid ' Suffer little children to come unto Me." Romanists think differently however. A R. C. priest told his hearers that hell was paved with the skulls of unbapiized l.nymnifs Handbook. 41 -infants, but in Switzerland, in tlic Canton Valais, alK)Ut five years aL,M), a more tender- liearted one, in a sermon about l)ai)tism told his people " I cannot say where the babes have none to, wlu) iiave died unbapti/.ed for * /<• bon Dii'U ' has nut quite decitled what to do with thrm!" The horrible rubric forbiddint,^ the Hurial Service over the unbaiUized was for tin; first time introduced into our P. H. in what Dean Stanley called " the disastrous epoch of 1662. . . . till tlien it hatl been permitted, and (the rubricj still, throui^h the inlluence of the Southern Convocaion, maintains its i)lacc." If these unbaptized infants are fit for heaven why are the words of the Hurial Service too sacred to be used over their remains? Thank God these little ones will fall into different hands in the next world than those of Dr. Sheldon and his revisors. The Convocation of 1603, forbad Fathers bein^ Godfathers in baptism, the consequence ot which has been that not only are strangers called upon but even the sextons have been sponsors for hordes of infants whom they never expected to sec again, and among the educated classes how many septuagenarians can remember the names even of those for whom in the preceding half century they have taken the solemn vow — and given the parcel gilt cup — the most important part with some ? Is not the exhortation in such cases a mock- ery? At the Savoy Conference in 1661, the Presbyterians objected to this Canon, and now 42 Layifia n's Handbook. — ajtcr lioldiiig out for izvo coituries, we church- men arc at last acccptini^ the sr.i4<^estion of our Presbyterian brethren, for at the Convoca- t''^n of Canterbury in 1S79 it was decided that parents may be sponsors. Although our sponsors ans\ver for us, tliere is no rubric recjuirini;' that they themselves shall be Christians, and yet they are allowed to become sureties for us, as if one human soul, even of a believer, could be surety for another. The Puritans always protested against the sign of the cross in baptism, and the American Church in 1789 added a rubric permitting it to be omitted if desired. The K, \\. Church say the sign is not to be made except when desired, but in the Revised P. 11 all reference to the sign is expunged. Strange to say however it is retained in the Irish P. P. although it has therein been deem- ed necessary not only to print an apologetical note, but also the whole of the Canon of 1603, the false logic of which is unparalleled. " \\\Q honour and dignity of the name of the Cross begat a reverend estimation even in the Apostles time (for aught that is kiioivn to the contrary ! ! I j of the Sign of the Cross, etc." Although they thus defend the use of the sign, they dropped from the Calendar the Invention of the cross (May 3) and iioly Cross Day (^Sep. 14). The 36th Canon forbids crosses on the Communion Table, or on the covering thereof or behind the table, and the Lay) nan's flandlwok. 43 — 39th forbids carryiiifj any cross in processions. The 5th Canon, is *' No minister or other person durin^cj^ the time of Divine Service shall make the sii^n of the cross sa^'c when' prescribed in the rubric, i.e., in the Ba[>tismal Service ! Is this consistent, and why should the innocent babes alone be branded with the siijn of the accursed tree when it is prohibited every where else ? Baptism, in a few words, is an admission into the visible Church of Christ. The baptized become members of the Church militant, hereafter to be translated, if faithful, into the Church triumphant. Bishops. (See Aposiolieal Succession.) Epis- copacy as already shown under Apostolical Succession is not of i>ivine Appointment neither do bishops stand in the place of the Apostles, but old superstitions die hard and this still exercises an unhealthy inlluence on the mutual relations of the Church of the Re- formation. The bishop as we find him now is the creation of post-apostolic times. The presbyter-bishops were the only primitive bisliops and it is only in later times that the diocesan bi.-.hops have quite swallowed and reduced tc .--ubjection the order of Presbytery. Tl e Dean of Canterbury lately speaking i>\\ t'lis point adverted to the hackneyed quct?.tion o/" l<4natius " Do nuthiuL;" without the bishop," and said thai ' simply meant " Do nothin^j^ without the incum.bent " and was addressed to the whole church, advisini^- them always to consult their pastor. 44 Lay mail s ffandixwk. As jyic Rock said, some of our less learnec', and, let us say, less wise, modern b'shops try to make out that there were bishops in the time of Timothy Jkit this like many other illusions, is doomed to vanish away. Diocesan bishops may be very useful officers, but they are just as much, or just as little, of Divine orii^in as any officer of State. The N. T. at any rate, knows them not. The i^reatest living (this was in 1887) authorities on the subject of episcopacy are Dr. Lit^htfoot, the learned Bishop of Durham and Dr. Hatch, the Vice-Principal of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford. No one should eni^age in a controversy rei^arding" Episcopacy without carefully study- ing their writincjs on the subject. Hierome (Jerome), who died in 420, and ivJiODi zee quote as an authority in i^ur \.y.y.W. Articles, denied the superiority of bishops to presbyters by Divine rii^ht, and states it as a historical fact that the creation of bishops took place, not at once, but by degrees — paulatini, i.e., by little and little. That their first eleva- tion over others was a human contrivance, and that the first bishops were made by the pres- byters themselves, and consequently could neither have nor communicate any authority above that of presbyters ; and five centuries ago VVycHff, the Morning Star of the Reform- ation, rejected Episcopacy ns a distinct order in the Church, affirming that in the Apostles' time the two orders of presbyters and deacons were sufficient, and that the numerous distinc- tions which existed in his time were the i Layuiaiis IIiDidbook. 45 -inventions of men and served but to augnuut their worldly pride. Three consecrators at least are considered necessary to secure a lethal and true succession, so that one at least should be a true bishop, thus ownini; it to be a matter of doubt ; but in the early British Church, one alone was sufficient and it was the same in Scotland and Ireland, and in the latter country their num- ber was enormous. At one time they were believed to have reached seven hundred, and accord in^G^ to Green one bishop wandered throui^h the country with a pet cow at his heels without any support save from the fees lie charged for ordination. Wlio kept the records of tlic ordinations of these seven hundred bishops? Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury (ob. 10.S9), in a letter to Torloi^h 0"Hrien, Kini;" of Southern Ireland, complains most bitterly of the Celtic irreL;ularities, amoni;" which were that bishops were consec- rated by one bishop, and that holy orders were given by the Celtic bisliops for money. King John (1199-1216; sold bish()[)rics to the highest bidder. It may be said this was before the Reformation, l3Ut Henry VIII., appointed bishops who by their commissions wxTc to exercise their functions during his royal pleasure only. Edward V[., more dis- creetly appointed them to hold their sees "during good behaviour" — and it would be well if v/e had such a law now. Ouecn Elizabeth made Captain David Lyon of the Royal Navy, bishop of Cork in 1583 46 Layman s Handbook. -From his quarter-deck he stepped at once into tlic bishop's throne ! And when she demanded some of the church lands of the bishop of Ely, upon the latter declinin^^ she wrote as follows '* Proud prelate ! you know what you were before I made you what you are now. If you do not immediately comply with my request by I will unfrock you. Elizabeth." The bishop did obey immediately and saved his frock. Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury (ob. 1677) was as immoral a man as his royal master Charles the Second, and commonly spoke S i-eli^Ion as a matter of policy and an eni^ine .:-\ crovernmcnt. Blackburn, Arch- bishop of ^^ork (ob. 1743) ^^^^^ ^ pirate in early life. He became archbishop durini]^ the reii^n of Geort^e the Second, and as it is known that another prelate paid Lady Yar- mouth, that king's favorite, five thousand pounds for a bishopric — that Doctors of Divinity bribed Mrs. Clarke, favorite of the Duke of York to use his influence with his father George the Third, for bishoprics (so scandalous was the case that Parliament enacted a law, in 1809, declaring the brokerage of offices, cither in the Army, the CliurcJi or the State to be a crime highly penal), and that advowsons were until a very few years past as openly advertised and sold as calves or cabbages, and are still quietly sold — may we not with reason suppose that Blackburne bought his preferment in the Church with the Spanish doubloons he collected in the West Lay ma lis Handbook. 47 -Indies ? He is said to have retained the vices of his youth (a sailor's vices) even wlien lie became archbishop, and on account of liis passion for the fair sex (to use a common expression) it was jestintj^ly said of him that he gained more hearts than souls. Walpole calls him "the jolly old archbishop." He was bishop of Exeter and afterwards arch- bishop of York for 27 years. His life was ventilated some years ai^o in " Notes and Queries." Archbishop Stone who died in 1747, was considered the hardest drinker in Ireland. Geori^e the Third made his son the Duke of York, bishop of Osnaburg in 1764 (for the sake of the revenue of course) when he was only seven months old, and a sycophant named l^urLjh was base and blasphemous enouij^h to dedicate a book to this infant as The Rif^ht Reverend l^^ather in God ! The bishop of Cloi^hcr fled the kinc^dom in 1 82 1, having been guilty of the same crime (Romans I. 27) for which the Right Reverend (!) John Atherton, Lord l'>ishop of Waterford, was hanged in 1636. In Haydn's "Hook of Dignities " the words are " hanged for bestial- ity," and only in 1S78, the aged bishop of Michigan, U. S. A., was deposed for innnoral- ity. We might fill pages but will not further disgust the reader. It is advisable to say thus much however for the information of those who consider that bishops are necessary for the very existence of a church and who believe with Canon Liddon that the validity 48 Layman s Handbook. — of our chief means of communication with our most blessed Lord in tl c Holy Supper depends upon an Apostolic Succession. Perhaps one of the most extraordinary points in the history of the so-called (or self-styled ?) Successors of the Apostles, is that about a dozen of them were created by Scotch noble- men ! An En!:;lish prelacy was private pro- perty for over four centuries and latterly until within our own days belon<4ed to a Duke, not even a Royal nor an En^^lish one, but to a Scotch Duke who whether Presbyterian or even Mahommedan if he chose, could appoint an Kni^lish bishop. The Isle of Man with all royalties, reijalities, to^'"' * her with the patronage of the l^ishoprick, vvc.^ i^ranted by Henry the lA3urth (1399- 14 13) to Sir John Stanley, whose descendant James St?; -ey. jLarl of Derby left a daui^hter and heiress who married the second Karl of AthoU and at the death of the second Duke of Atholl in 1764, without male heirs, the patronage devolved upon his daughter — Lady Charlotte Murray, who then had the right to create an English bishop ! She married her cousin, the third Duke and the Dukes of Atholl continued to nominate the bishops of Sodor and Man to the King, who sent them to the Archbishop of York for consecration, and it is only within less than half a century that the Duke sold his rights to Government. Although duly ordained prelates they were bishops only however, and not Lords of Parliament, not holding from the king himself. Layuia)is IIiDidbook. 49 — In the Parliament of 1836 no less than ninetv-two members voted for the exckision of bishops from the House of Lords, and in that of 185 1 it was stated that i/ninrnse amounts of public property had been appropriated by Pro- testant prelates to their own private purposes and that the majority of the Episcopal Bench had grossly falsified returns. They mii^ht have referred, for instance, to Brownlow North, Bishop of Winchester, who it is said netted one and a half million pounds ($7)503,000) besides quarterini^ his sons, sons- in-law and nephews on the Church. He actually installed one of his sons in two dio- cesan offices when the boy was only seven years old. Another son Francis, Prebendary of Winchester, who succeeded his cousin as Earl of Guildford, manai^ed to j^ather together ;^3 50,000, when the Rolls Court interfered (in 1853) and compelled him to disgorge part of his plunder. The Times did not spare this bishop's son who paid one of his curates £2^^ or $120 a year; not much more than the wages of a foot-page, and the latter has his livery and board and lodging- besides. Archbishop Manners Sutton (of Canterbury) died in 1828. Dr. Lushington estimated his revenues at ^32,000, or $160,000 a year. No wonder we hear of the " inferior clergy." Notice the difference between the two clerics — the one ^^32,000, the other £2^. — One of the Trench's, the last Archbishop of Tuam, (it is now a bishopric) received i^ 17,326, or %'!^6,- 630 a year, and had only 3,000 Protestant families to look after. 50 Layifiatis Handbook. h i'!: In one of the Icadinf^ London \)i\^(ir9>( Daily Ne7us, Nov. 25, 1886) it was stated that the late Bishop of Rochester sold the tithes of a parish to provide a inarviage portion for his daughter! The non-resident layman bein^ compelled to provide for the *' cure of souls " out of his two thousand pounds a year tithes, first let the vicarage house, and then appointed a cleri^yman at the magnificent salary of one hundred pounds a year to do the work. One way they formerly had was to grant long leases at a very low rent, say fifty or one hundred pounds a year on consideration of a bonus of, say, one or two thousand pounds or more, cash doivn thus leaving their successors saddled with these low rents, and this was in vogue until Parliament found it necessary to deprive them of the power of granting leases for a term of years. Complaints have often been made in Eng- land of the low origin of many of the bishops who cannot bear their sudden elevation. When the present Archbishop of Dublin, Lord Plunket, was candidate for the Bishopric of Meath, one reason adduced in his favor in the Irish Papers was that he was born in the purple, and his head therefore would not be turned by being " My Lorded." The late Bishop Blomfield was thrust from one splendid preferment to another until he obtained the See of London. The Rev. Sydney Smith (one of his canons who knew him well) says " he was all of a sudden elevated from being a tutor, dining at an early hour <■ M F.nyjfKin's Handbook. 51 -witli his pupil, often on cold meat, to be a Spiritual Lord, and dressini; in a niajj^nificent dress, decoratetl with a title and flattered by- chaplains ; when any Church affairs were palmy and proniisinij^, he was the prime mover of their desii^ns ; but when a decline and fall seemed threatenini^, he took a much less pro- minent part. He urc^ed parsimony where it was expedient to be liberal, and liberality where it mii;ht have been well to be parsimonious, when the palaces of bishops swallowed up the hopes of lean and houseless incumbents." A London paper stated lately that the present l^ishop of London never shakes hands with the London clergy. Sixteen years ago, in 1874, a Wesleyan minister directed a tombstone to be put up in a churchyard in Lincolnshire, inscribed " in loving memory of Annie, daughter of the Kev. H. Keet, Wesleyan Minister. 1'he vicar of the parish forbade its erection, giving no reasons. Mr. Keet then appealed to Bishop Wordsworth who refused to recognize Mr. Keet either as " Reverend " or as "Minister," and actually allowed the matter to be brought up in a Court of Law where pride had a wholesome fall, the prelate losing the case, and the papers said it was rather from the Anglican than the Wesleyan that the title of Rev. ouijht to be substracted. Are we not blessed with too many titles in our Church? The Presbyterians manage their affairs with a IModerator and Clerks only ; the Methodists, a General Superintendent, Presi- dent and Secretaries. !:1 il ri ■» Mil 52 lAiymaiis Handlnwh'. And look at ourselves — Archbishops (Field Marshals), liishops (Generals), Deans (Col- onels), Canons (Lieutenant Colonels), Arch- deacons * (Majors), Rural Deans (Captains), and the " inferior clergy " (we use the word applied to them by their own superiors), the rank and file, and the bishop appoints his slaves, for such many of them are, all looking to him for titles or preferment. Did His Grace the Most Reverend James, Lord Archbishop of Jerusalem, or the Right Reverend Paul, Lord Bishop of the Gentiles, require such a staff? What would be said in the Army if a General could appoint all the Colonels, Majors, Captains, etc.? 7"he late bishop of Saskatchewan had twelve ministers in his diocese, all of whom were missionaries and two only had taken University degrees. There was no cathedral but he gave himself the additional title of dean and appointed three canons, one honorary canon, two rural deans and a bishop's chaplain who was also a canon, so that one half of his army were officers and the other half privates ! His successor signs himself " Saskatchewan and Calgary." What right have colonial bishops to territorial distinctions ? There is no established church and he is not bishop of all the backwoodsmen, half breeds and Indians there, but only of such as belong to the Episcopal Church. The signature of one of *We follow Whitakor's Alnianac-k, where Canons are placed first and have larjfer stipends. In Durham that of the Canons is jtl.CWO each and of the Archdeacons ,i;200 each. In Canada Archdeacons preceeral lowly boivings ; and coming to the side of the table where the bread and wine were covered, he bowed seven times ; and then after the reading of many prayers he came near the bread and gently lifted up the corner of the napkin wherein the bread was laid, and when he beheld the bread he laid it down again, flew back a step or two, bozved tJiree several times towards it ; then he drew near again and opened the napkin and bozved as before. Then he laid his hand upon the cup which was full of wine with a cover upon it, I: Lav^nans Ifinuibooh, (>7 — which he let \^o aL;aiti. went back and boived tliricc toward it; and then he came near ai,^'iiti, and liftin<;j up tlic cover of the cup looked into it, and seeini,^ the wine he let fall the cover aji^ain, went back and hoivcd as before. Whoever has seen the cardinals and prelates in Rome bowinj; to each other at Hii;h Mass on fete days will not be surprised at the above and it is carried to a i^reater extent in the Greek Church where the people stand silent bowini^ and crossing themselves the whole time. Their whole worsiiip seems to consist of these movements and sometimes they stoop so profoundly as to touch the floor with their forehead. Brotherhoods. (Sec Sisterhoods.) What does St. Paul say in his epistle to Timothy (Re- vised Version)? "The bishop (or overseer) must be ... . the husband of one wife." " Let deacons be the husband of one wife," and among "doctrines of devils" St. Paul includes "forbiddiuL^ to marry." "I desire therefore that the youni^^er widows (or women) marry, bear children, rule the liousehold." And to the Corinthians he says " Am I not free?" "Have we not right to lead about a wife that is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles and the brethren of the Lord and Cephas." " Let each man have his own wife, and let each women have her own husband " — and to the Hebrews ''Marriage is honourable in all." Can anything be more clear? In the Coll- in M. •■• ! I 11 68 L(xyinini' s lf(Hiilbook\ -temporary for January 1890, tlic Bisliop of Ripon (Dr. Boyd Carpenter) says : If it needs to be constantly remembered that there is nothing vvhicli is necessarily Roman in the idea of Brotherhoods, it is no less necessary to observe the cautions and \varninj4s whicli the histor)' of such institutions reveals. We arc neither to be deterred from makiufi^ an experiment by the cry that it is Roman, nor are we to be blinded to the risks which we encounter by the eai^erness of those who only welcome the proposal for the very reason which in others aw.ikens alarm. There arc dangers ; and the evidence which is the most strikin«^ is that which comes from the Latin Church itself. It would be simple madness to i<^nore the lessons of the past. In the twelfth century, Arnulf, Bishop of Lisieux, requested Pope Alexander VIII. to dissolve the monastery of Grestain, on the u[roun;hed. Itj the eighteenth century Sci;)io Je Ricci, Bishop of Pistoia, excommunii die Dom ' 1- ican friars, and forbade their ciating in nis Layuunis Handbook, 6y -diocese. l^iit |)crlia|ys the most remarkable illustration of all is one derived from our own days : — " The total number ot monasteries, etc., suppressed in Italy down to the close of 1882 was 2255, involvin^^ an enormous displacement of property and dispersion of inmates. And yet there is some reason to think that the State did but do roui^hly and harsldy what the Church should have done more <^Tadually and wisely ; for the judy;mcnt passed on the dissolution by Pius IX. himself, in speaking to an Kni^lish Roman Catholic bishop, was : ' It was the devil's work ; but the i^ood God will turn it into a blcssin*^, since their destruc- tion was the only reform possible to them.' "* On general j^rounds, too : " The rule observed by one may be dis- astrous to the thousands, who, under the influence of some passing excitement or eager emotion, take upon themselves a burden which experience may show was too grievous for them to bear. I.ifelong vows appear to me to be of this nature, when the vow involves that which is not necessary for righteousness* sake. The Convocation of Canterbury has realized this danger, and has pronounced against a system of lifelong vows. There is wisdom in this decision. To make a lifelong vow, in a matter which is neither within the survey of experience nor in the statute book of universal righteousness, is (if I may use an old-fashioned phrase belonging to an age of * Sec Articles on Monasteries in " Encycloijsedia Britainiica." I 70 Layman's Handbook. ''Ill \ M ii-I i' I'll kI! Jil 1 — greater faith and less fussiness than the pre- sent) to tempt Providence. We may be asked if there is not such a thing as a call to celibacy. I have no doubt of it. Our Lord's words are sufficient for me on the matter ; but he wno is so called needs no vow : the call will be evidenced in the fact of his life. And it is to be remembered that a man may be called to be a father of saints who does not know of his calling till he is far advanced in life. To make a vow which anticipates or prevents the calling of Providence savours of little faith, not of large faith, and has in it a flavour of self-will rather than that spirit which waits on the will of Him who, though He orders the whole life, yet veils from us His leadings from period to period." The Rev. Hobart Seymour described monas- ticism as " A vast body of bachelors without honest wives or children," and General Sir Robert Phayre in an Address before the Protestant Alliance lately, quoted the Rev. Pierce Connelly, in his Letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury, as saying that " Rome has never dared to exact the vow or even the promise of chastity from any candidate for holy orders, either before, or at, or after ordination to the priesthood." Candles on the so-called Altar. These are derived from the Pagan fire-worship of Tam- muz, the sun-god, mentioned in Ezekiel, who was worshipped under his various names with candles, torches and fires throughout the Layman s Handbook. 71 -world and the custom has been maintained in many places down to our own times. It cannot be derived from the fire on the altar of burnt-offering which was the fire that came down from heaven and consumed upon the altar the burnt-offering and the fat, for that was neither torch nor candle, but a fire that did not smoke and was one of the things in the first temple which the Jews declared did not exist in the second. Baruch who was living B. C. 586, and is by- some believed to have died in Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem, tells us that the Babylonians lighted up candles to their gods. " They light them candles more than for tliem- selves whereof they cannot see one," and Christians copied the custom at an early date, for about the year 305, the Council of Illiberis, in Spain, found it necessary to pro- hibit the use of candles at the tombs of the martyrs who had already usurped the place of the heathen demi-gods. Lactantius, known in his time (A. D. 310) as the Christian Cicero, said " They light up candles to God as if He dwelt in the dark, and do they not deserve to pass for madmen who offer up lai^"'ps to the author and giver of light ? The Romans had a feast on the 2nd of February in honour of Ceres or Juno Februata and walked in procession carrying lighted candles or torches. About the fifth century as the Pope found the people would not do away with this festival he devoted the day to the Feast of the Purification, although no one 72 Layman's Handbook. !! II iM — knows the date of that ceremony, and the people were told to carry their lights in honor of the Virgin Mary. This Candle-Mass (Candlemas) under the name of the Purifica- tion is still in our Calendar. The Spaniards were astonished to find a sacred fire and vestal virgins in Peru four centuries ago and when there lately Squier was equally surprised to find fires blazing on the mountains on what is called by Romanists St. John's eve. This is the night of the summer solstice or midsummer eve, which was sacred in Pagan times to Tammuz under his name Cannes, which was changed by the early Roman Church to Johannes, and St. John's fires are still made in Ireland and Britanny, as in Peru. A Druid ical sacred fire was kept burning in the cell of a monastery at Kildare, Ireland, mtil the suppression of monasteries in 1539. Fires to Beltis or the Lady, wife of Baal, (Lord), called Beltane, (/>V/ tein, Joel's fire) have been made in Scotland in our own times. In the state of New York, in the year 1753, an Iroquois Chief said *' When the fire at Onondaga goes out we shall no longer be a people" At Pecos, in New Mexico, the eternal fire was kept burning until about the year 1846, and to this very day the N. A. Indians celebrate their sun-dances during which they pass '' sacred " articles through the fire, torture themselves as the Bible says the followers of Baal did, and even cut out little snips of flesh and raise them on the point of Layman's Handbook. 71 -their knives toward the sun ! The Gucbres or Persian sun -worshippers have a temple at Vezd in Persia where the everlastinjr fire has been burning since the time of Zoroaster. The Chinese still have an annual feast of lanterns. The Buddhists burn thousands of small candles on their shrines and lastly — What shall we say of many English Churches ? Canon. This v/ord is so imposing that many without reflection consider canons as almost divine laws instead of which they are merely by-laws made by fallible men. About a quarter of a century ago the Queen and Prince Albert were condemned by many for allowing the Royal Marriages to be per- formed during Lent, contrary to the canons, but the only canons were those of the Council or Synod of Laodicea, a council of thirty-two bishops (and some of the prelates of those days were bishops of villages, many of whom could not even write) so obscure that it is un- certain whether it was held as early as A. D. 314 or as late as 399. Besides which it was not even a General Council, but a provincial or diocesan one, neither have the original canons b^<^n preserved but only a summary or abstract", .id not in the shape they were pass- ed. One other Council was formerly added to confirm the above, viz., that of Lerida in 546, but their supposed canon is now allowed to be spurious, but even were it not so what right had this little Spanish Council of nine **/! 74 Layman's Handbook. 'ii'i I :!: — members only, or any other Council to dictate to the whole Christian world ? Catholic. (See Apostles Creed.) This Greek term belongs properly to the Greek Church alone, for although it was originally applied to the whole Christian Church the Greeks first adopted it as a distinctive name, and it was afterwards borrowed from them or rather usurped by the Roman Church, when the Pope claimed to be the head of the whole Church, and it seems strange that when doing so the Romans did not translate it into their own language but retained the Greek word which signifies general or universal. The N. T., the Canons of the first four General Councils and the Nicene Creed were all written first in Greek, and in a form of the latter of the year 451, we find the words *' the Holy Catholic (kat/idlikcn) Church." The earliest form of the Roman or so-called Apostles' Creed of A. D. 390, however, does not contain that word but reads " Sanctum Ecclesiam " (Holy Church). In a Greek version in King Athelstan's Psalter, about the year 703, the words are " agian i^kfdcsian " (holy church). In an Anglo-Saxon version in the Homilies of /Elfric it is ''t/ia halgan gelatliunge " (the holy congregation). The first known version of this creed in Plnglish, being of the 13th century is ^' Juiy kirkc^' and even in a MS. of the 14th century in the Bodleian library it is simi)ly " holy church," but in the Prymer in English and Latin, 8vo. Paris, Layvians Handbook, n -1538, it appears as "The holy church ca- tholike." When the Americans revised their P. B. a century ago, they changed the Greek word (probably either to distinguish themselves from the R. C. Church, or that there should be no ambiguity) to one universally under- stood, and in the Prayer for all Conditions of Men it reads "Thy holy church universal." By styling themselves Catholic some mem- bers of our Church wish to signify that they are not Protestants. Chancel. (See Churches and Choral Services) When we took over the Romish Churches the martyred Bishop Hooper and many others wished to have all the chancels bricked up as they involved the unscriptural idea that the clergy are a priestly caste separated by some charm from the people of God. Unfortun- ately this was not done. The choirs were however brought out of the chancels (except from the cathedrals where they unhappily retained an ornate service for the reason given elsewhere) — but now we are putting them back again! Chancels like the dais in a palace, raise barriers unduly between the congregation and pastor, and although at the Reformation they allowed them to remain, the Rubric in the Communion Service " The Table shall stand in the l^ody of the Church, or in the Chancel " proves clearly that they were then only considered to hold a secondary position. f 76 Layman's Handbook. V ii!ii 1 i! |!'i! l|ih! Ill Bishop Durandus in his ]W)k of Rites, printed in Rome in 1591, said that "the chancel symbolized the priests, the church triumphant, while the pavement of the nave signified the people made to be trodden under foot," and not many years a.q^o one of Dr. Pusey's curates, a Mr. Morris, liad the effront- ery to use similar language : — " The ox was present at the Master's crib. To show that priests should at His Altar live ; The ass was also there Fit emblem of the patient laity Who meekly bear the burthens on them laid." And accordingly Sacerdotalists call it the " Sanctuary," the Holy of Holies " only to be trodden upon by the priests and th.eir assistants, and not to be polluted by the feet of the laity y' whom they have always looked upon with contempt. In 585 the Second Council of Miicon enacted that if a layman on horseback met a mounted clerk (or man in holy orders) he should uncover his head ; if the clerk was on foot, the layman should dismount and salute him under pain of being suspended from communion during the bishop's pleasure. There never was but one Holy of Holies and when the Jews fell into idolatry the Shekinah or Glory-cloud was withdrawn for- ever. In the Prayer I^ook for the Young, we are told that the chancel ''represents Heaven'' — and to bear out this idea more money is spent there than in any other part of the building. Gold and colours abound and windows ivith Layman s Handbook, 77 -fissures staring us in the face. althoiiL^h our Reformers prohibited paintings on w.ilis and windows. Canon Stovvell said "Let it never be for^^ot- tcn that just as the church lost Jicr spirituality she increased her gorgeousnessl' and another writer says " Hence we do not believe in such trumpery devices as priestly vestments, elab- orate altar-cloths, surpliced choirs and <(ewgaw chancels ; they only exist where the true " beauty of holiness " is wanting. Are St. Paul's words entirely forgotten " God .... dwelleth not in temples made with hands neither is worshipped hy men's hands ? Does the Almighty see with eyes of flesh as miserable man does, and admire our tawdry decorations? Some contend that because the Holy Communion is administered {not celebrated) in the chancel it thereby becomes more holy than the rest of the building, but by the same rule those who have family prayers in their dining-room might claim that therefore that room was more sacred than the others, or that a bedroom where the Lord's Supper had been administered to a sick person was more holy than the other bedrooms. Many old London churches have no chancels or where there is a small one it does not differ in ornamentation from the rest of the church. The well known Church of St. Mary's Isling- ton, rebuilt in 175 1, consists of a nave only with galleries. At the end is the Table, a slab of oak black with age, supported on legs I Pli I 1:1 ;8 Laymmis Handbook. — at the four corners and surrounded by a low . rail. It cannot be seen from the main entrance as the pulpit is in the centre of the main aisle with the desk in front of and below it, for the "preaching of the Gospel " was recognized by our reformers as the chief end of public worship. The pulpit was the centre object and it was so arranged that the greatest possible number should be brought within the sound of the preacher's voice — hence the erection of galleries. In this they differed from the Roman • churches, they being built with reference to a service which addressed the eye far more than the ear. A service that dealt in gorgeous processions with banners and pompous cere- monies and all the finery of a ritual that held men in awe by its outward fascinations, much of which would have been hidden and lost in a church with galleries — but now, in building new churches or restorincf old ones we are doing away with the galleries — we need not ask why, but what is to come next .-* The Decalogue in St. Mary's Church is in its proper place on the wall behind the Table, and the Font is also in its proper place near and in front of the pulpit. The Rev. Sholto D. C. Douglas said that chancels were the root of all evil and declared it as his opinion that there should not be any, and when he became Rector of All Souls' Church, Langham Place, London, about ten years ago he re-introduced the black-gown, changed the weekly communion to evening Layman s Handbook. 79 -communion, and ai)plicd for a faculty to re- move the cross from bcliind the table — which was <^ranted. All Souls' is a nave only with- out transepts and the place where the Holy Table stands is so small and low that it can hardly be called a chancel. Fifty years ago nothing more in fact was needed than a recess for the Communion Table with a space of peihaps a dozen feet for the communicants in front. The Ecclesiologist, accredited organ of the notorious Cambridge Camden Society (Vol. iii. ICS43-4) began very mildly with regard to the chancel which it said ought to be " raised a single step of six inches at the chancel arch ; and considerably east- ward of this must be two other steps at least " — but ere long Pugin and the other Roman- izing architects made a rule that ivhatcver the size of the church, the depth of the chancel shall be one-third of the length of the nave, and this was for the Clergy alone ! Thus in a small church of say seventy-five feet, twenty-five must be given to the clergy, even if merely a single incumbent with perhaps a choir of half a dozen boys, and only twice as much for the whole of the congregation. Can any one doubt that this was solely in- tended for the Elevation of the Priesthood, shamefully, also increasing the cost of the building as well as the amount of the architects commission. Moreover in a large church how can a Minister's voice be heard when standing at the Table at the end of this long building ? When such chancels exist the people should 8o Lay})iaiis Handbook. — insist upon havin^^ the Holy Tabic brought forward, as near to thcin as possible, and that the space should not be wasted free seats might be placed behind it as is the case in Liverpool. (See Cojuuiufiioii Tabii'). Gladstone in his " Tractarianisni is I'ojiery " (London, 185 1) used these words of the chancel " There you have the separation of the priest (so-called) from the people," and the late Principal Shairp said '* With my whole heart I believe with Dr. Arnold that the separation of the clergy from the people, as a separate caste endowed with some mysterious and mystic function, was the first and most fatal apostacy — a thing which, more than any other, has paralyzed the power of Christianity in the world." According to the Eui^lisJi Churchman the late Archbishop Sumner was conversing with the late Rev. W. Ackworth of Bath, concern- ing the restoration of a church, when the Rev. gentleman, who himself related the story, exclaimed " But, my Lord, there is no chancel in the church," to which the Archbishop replied with great energy '* And I should like to know Sir what business a chancel has in any Protestant Church," — and in reply to a request from the people of Tasmania concerning a book "Steps to the Altar" circulated with the approval of their High Church bishop. His Grace wrote *' I am of opinion that there is no altar in the present dispensation ; and therefore no steps can be required to it." Five or six years ago the Church of the : Layman's Ilandboolc. Si -Holy Faith, SixtccMitli Street, New York, came into the charge of a new Rector, tin* Rev. John W. Kramer, wiien the so-called altar was removed, the elevated chancel razed to a level with the floor and everything was restored to primitive simplicity. A Protestant change took place about the same time in London also, when the Vicar of St. Michael's, North Kensin<^ton, the Rev. Dr. Gray, with the approval of the bishop of London, removed the organ and choir from the chancel back to the gallery. In 1877, Mr. and Mrs. Lewes (George Eliot) were the guests of Dr. Jowett, Head Master of Baliol, Oxford. On the Sunday these famous heretics (!) went to hear their host preach. Jowett had gone on before and was just ascending the pulpit when he saw them entering and looking vainly for seats, the church being crowded as was usual when he preached. Jowett beckoned them to advance which they did very timidly being not much used to churches, and he absolutely placed them on each side of the Communion Table in the large high-backed chairs usually re- served for bishops where they sat fronting the amazed congregation. The Dr. might easily have found precedents for placing laymen in the chancel had he desired. Addison, in The Spectator, says " As soon as the sermon is ended the knight walks down from his seat in the chancel,'' and speak- ing of the kindly feeling between Sir Roger, the minister and people, he contrasts it with 6 ■ !■■ I ' 82 L ay ma >t '.v /A 1 luibiH >k. i( — the next village where there is a perpetual state of war. "The parson is always preaching at the squire ; and the scjuire to be revcnLjetl on the parson, never eonies to church. The s([uire has made all his tenants atheists and tythestealers ; while the parson instructs them every Sunday in the dignity of his order, and insinuates to them in almost every sermon that he is a better man than his patron." This was in 171 1. It should not be forj^otten that the Holy Temple passed away with the old l)isi)ensa- tion — and our Churches take the place of the Syna^o^ues, not of the Temple, and our service is essentially a synac^^ogue service. Chanting Amens. (See Clioral Services.) St. Paul says " How shall he that occu[)ieth the place of the unlearned say the Amen at the giving of thanks?" Why, a-> sometimes hap- pens in our Evangelical Churches where the Minister says Amen in our own language, should the choir master be allowed to lead off the congregation with a loud Romish Ah-men ? Chanting" Nicene Creed. (See Choral Services.) In the American, the American Reformed Episcopal and the English R. E. Prayer Books this is to be said. In the Canadian R E. P. B. it is to be read, and although our rubric allows it to be said or sung, the latter was only intended for cathedral services. It was never chanted in parish churches until the commencement of the Puseyite movement. L(iyiiiiin\s Handbook, «3 Choral Services. (Sec Anthems ami Sur/>liccd C/ioirs.) Nowadays men, women, hoys and j^irls — " 'I'o chun li repair, Not for the (lo( trine, hut the music there." It is the love of music more than the hive of God wliich leads peoi)le to have and to pntroiiize choral services, hut we repeat, the nearer \vc approach an ornate cathedral service the farther we depart from the simplicity of the fijospel. There is no authority whatever in the Knt:^- lish Church for Choral Services and Intonini^ in Parish Churches, and when it was allowed to remain m Cathetlrals it was as Hishop lUirnet shows, not intended to be permanent, but alloweil only because there were ,<^reat choirs so accustomed thereto that they could not easily alter it, but it was thouL,dit as they dropped off and died others would fall into their places who would officiate in a plainer voice. One of the proposed alterations in 1689 was "that the chantin<^ of Divine Service in Cathedral Churches shall be laid aside that the whole may be intellii,nble to the common people." Choral Services were part of the plan of the Ritualistic Campaign. A writer in the Church Times of March 30th 1867, says " Choral Service, so far as psalms and canticles are concerned on some week-day evening, zvi/l train people to like a more ornate worship, and that which began as an occasional luxury l.j TT^ «•; 84 Laytiiaii s Handbook. >M -will be felt to be a re^uliir want," and now how niany i)roressini; Christians declare Pro- testant services to be too tame (tlie worshij) of God, tame ! ! !) and cry out for more attrac- tive services. Anythin;^ however in ecclesiastical music luJiick is of tJic nature of an cxiiibition, or of a musical concert in which a portion of the con<^rei^ation only take part, is wron^^, and all compositions which can be rendered only by trained choristers should be excluded. The traininL^ is now carried to such an extent that the key-note is scjmetimes j^iv/'en as a i^uide to what is called the proper renderin^,^ of the Confession, Lord s Pra^'cr, Responses to the Connnandmeiits, etc. And here a few cpiestions have been asked. 1. Who L^avc the key-note to the Publican when he said " God be merciful to mc a sinner?" 2. Some persons have no ear for music. Will the Lord Jesus turn a deaf ear to a suppliant because he cannot sing his prayers } 3. Does the reader sinL( \\v-, prayers in his private devotions? Attractive services, the attraction bein^ the music alone, are however the order of the day. The preachinfj of the i^ospel beinc^ not only not a .secondary matter, but Ljenerally an unimi)ort- ant one and we do not wonder that even the .secular press take note of it. One of them a.sks — "Are wc not already within measureable distance of the time when the announcement of Sunday Service will read ; — Layman's Ilaiuibook. «5 CIIUUCII OF TIIK riLCRIMS. Sit /I day, ( \/. <;., fSgj. MISS HIGH SKK, ii'/// .svV/i,'- af all services. Rev. Mr. X. Pcjundcr will preach." Christmas. Sir Isaac Newton, the t]^reatest of lMiL;li.sh I'hilosoi^hers, and better still a Christian Philosoplier, who died in 1727. sa}'s " The times of the liirth and Passion of Christ, with such like niceties, bei)ig not material to religion, were little ref^ardcd by (-hristians of the first ai^e," and Scalii;er says " To determ/ne the true date of Christ's birth belongs to G< D alone, not man." There is not a vvord in the Scriptures about the precise day or of the time of the year, and no one can tell, even the season of t e year, much less the day, on which our Lortl was born, but it was not in tite winter, for the shepherds of Palestine lU) not remain in the fiehls at ni.^ht then. The earliest allusion to Christmas is that of Clement of Ale.vandria who died in 220, and lie says, " there are some who over cnriously assic^-n, not only the yeiir, but even the (}i'.\y of the birth of our Saviour, which they say vva.s in the 28th )'ear of Au!.;ustus, on the 25th day of Pachon (May 20j." " And the followers of Pasilides celebrate the da\' of His baptism which they say was in the I5lh )'ear of Tiberius, on the 15th of Tubi, but some say it was on the iith (January loth or 6th). Further some say that He was born on 86 Layman s Handbook, -the 24th or 25th of rharniuti (April 21 01 22)." About the year 380, however it was enacted by the Roman Church that the Nativity should be observed on the 25th of December, which was the paj^an festival of Saturn, the h^truscan name of Tamnuiz, whose festival was celebrated in Rome on the same day that the " Drunken festival" of Bacchus or Dionysus was obscr jd in Babylonia, Chr)sostom, in a Homily delivered about t,S6, says "It is not yet ten y('!ars since the day was made known to us," and adds moreover that the day was fixed in Rome, in order that wliile the Pagans were occupied with their profane ceremonies the Christians mii^ht perform their holy rites undisturbed. Even two centuries after the time of Chry sostom this date was not fully established, for Jacob, bishop of Kdessa, who died in 1578, said " No one knows exactly the day of the Nativity of the Lord : this only is certain from what Luke writes, that lie was born in the nio-ht." The fir-tree w\as common in pai^an Rome at the season of the Saturnalia as is still in our churches at Christmas The Church of Scotland abolished Christ- mas at the Reformation and its observance W£is forbitlden in Kni^land duriny^ the time of the Commonwealth in 1652, by Act of Parlia- ment, but it was restored at the Restoration. f. ay man's IIa)idbook\ s; Churches. Sec Chancel and Consecration^ Cru- ciform temples arc of i)a[^an orii^in, liavin|^ been m-ulc after the shape of the X (tan) of Tammuz. We have shown that tliere is a iJruidieal 'lY^mplc in the sliape of an loiia cross at Callcniish, in the Lewis, Scotland (sec Cross). 'Inhere is also a cruciform struc- ture near <"ullo(lcn f^encrally called five cairns, but Sir iJanicl Wilson, in his Prehistoric Scotland, say-^ it may be more accurately de- scribed as one i^i^antic cruciform Cairn. There is a cruciform cairn at New Granite, Ireland, and another at iJowth, and Wayland Smith's Cave in iicrkshire, luiL^land, is like- wise cr >ss-shaped. 'l\vo of the princi{>al paL^odas in India, viz., those of Hcnarcs and Madura arc also built in the form of a cross and the c}'clopcan temple at Gozo near Malta is said to be cruciform. The Roman Church copied tl;c Paj^an form which was suitable for their religion with its separate so-called altar in each transept, but which is unsuited for a Protestant Church where the majority of those seated in the transept cannot see the minister when he stands at the Communion Table. Who would ever tlream of building a public hall after such a plan ? There are some who think the churches should be open during the week. Our most blessed Lord, however, told us to enter into our closets, shut the doors and pray to our leather which is in secret, but that does not suit the present advanced age, for the closets IH ft 88 L aymans Handbook, — have not been consecrated and sr.i)crstition teeichcs that there is more virtue in a prayer offered in a church or in some so-called holy- spot, or before some so-called holy cross or picture than in private. God, however, does not confer peculiar sanc- tity on mere material structures. The Tem[)le dispensation has passed away and with that the relii^n'on of ceremony and locality came to an end as He Himself told the woman of Samaria. When the clert^y come into the Church many people rise, not rememberini^ they are in the house appointed for the worship of God, and that it is He alone who out^ht to be worshipped there. And yet these people will often sit while prayer is offered. In some churches the people stand when the cleri^y f;ive out notices, but the only notice where it is enjoined by the Rubric to stand is on the announcement of the 1 loly Communion. Neither should the coniireiTation stand durin^^ the offertory althouc;h many clergymen try to introduce the practice by having a hymn sung at the time. There is a class of churches of which there are too many. One was lately described by an EnL^lish pastor. *' It is in the Ionic style" he remarked, "over the portico" he added, "is a tower, over that a cupola — and on the top of all a mortgage." The late Mr. Charles Groves of Liverpool was an enthusiastic promoter of Churcli ex- tension. In all he built eighteen churches, tl ! Laynuiiis Handbook, 89 — besides schools, and expended over one million and a quarter dollars for Church pur- poses in Liverpool. lie used to say that "no work one can en^ai^e in docs so much to benefit our fellow-creatures as building a church and })rovidin5^ a Gospel nn'nistry." His last appearance as a public speaker was in 18S1, at the Liverpool Diocesan Conference. Several had been speakini^ very strongly about the necessity of havini; a cathedral for the new diocese. Mr. Groves arose, i4reeted by a i^reat outburst of a[)plausc, aiul then aniiilst profound silence the venerable Churchman de- clared : — " I cannot consent to this while souls are perishini^. A cathedral is a luxury ; a church is a necessity. To your cathedral 1 shall never give a farthing ; for more Churches I will give ten thousand pounds." Colored *'Altar" Cloths. Laud connnenced to introduce these. As the "Altar" is illegal it follows that they are als(j, .uid they as well as colored stoles have been pronounced illegal by the 1^2n^ o ^ // /A / Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY 14580 (716) 872-4503 W.. ^ ^ i t 3 I 96 Layman's Handbook. required that the Table shall be of " joiner's work." And wliy ? Ikcausc an altar is of mason's work ! In Laud's time the priest-party began to box up the Tables and turn them into sham altars, nicknamed by the people " l^ox Altars." They also placed them altar-wise, ie.^ with one side against the wall and the other side towards the people, and not table-wise as they were previously, and railed them in, v/hich meant that the humble laity should be kep;. at their proper distance, as when they were placed table-wise the people knelt near and sometimes around them. The priest party also introduced rich altar-cloths, copes, cred- ence tables and the like. In 1876, Her Majesty's Privy Council decided that the Communion Table was a " table in the ordinary sense of the word, flat and moveable," and this last word is most important, for its being moveable makes it impossible that it should be regarded as an altar. It was originally intended to be moved at Communion time *' at which time the same shall be placed in so good part within the Church or Chancel as thereby the Minister may be more conveniently heard of the Com- municants," and the Judgment of the Judicial Committee in the case of Liddellv. IVesterton, and adopted in other cases, was that " The Communion Table was to be provided by the Parish, was to be moveable, not by machinery, but by hand, and 7vas actually to be very fre- quently moved'' Laymaiis Handbook. 97 — There arc many Tables in England which acjrec with the Judc^ment. At St. Martin's Church, Ilavcrstock Hill, they have an honest table of wood in the middle of the chancel, with eight or nine feet of space on every side of it. At St. Thomas', Lambeth, the table which is at the north, is placed a short distance from the wall, and at the consecration prayer the minister stands behind it, facing the con- gregation. In St. Nathaniel's, Liverpool, the table stands some distance from the wall and has behind it a row of .seats, which are re gularly occupied. When this arrangement was made in 1877 the Rev. Mr. Hobson applied for a faculty to do so. The chancellor of the diocese however demurred to grant it on the ground that such seats would be illegal. Mr. Hobson told him that he (Mr. li.) had yet to learn that the chancel was more sacred than the rest of the church, for it had not, he said, beentwice con- secrated, and after some delay a decision was given in his favor. At St. Columba's, Liverpool, the table stands in the centre of the rails, leaving a passage behind it. The pulpit and desk are both behind or inside the Communion-rails. At St. Luke's, Tavistock place, Plymouth, the table is placed a little distance from the wall, so that one can get round it, and such is the case at St. Peter's Martyr's Memorial Church, Clerkenwell. At the church of St. Mary-le- Port, Bristol, the table is placed table-wise, and not altar- wise. In Jersey the tables 7 98 Laynimis Handbook. — invariably stand in the body of the church lengthwise. Many more cases mi^ht be given. The table in Toronto Cathedral in Dean Grasett's time was on castors. The rubric says that at Communion time the Table shall have a fair white linen cloth upon it, but why is the cloth so often brought down to the floor concealing the legs and making it look like an altar? Are other eat- ing tables arranged in like manner? Wc have seen in London Holy Tables with the linen cloth npon the table and hanging down a little at each end, but not in front so that we could see under the Table. The Table should be covered up (legs ex- cepted), save when the Sacrament is to be administered, lest it should be regarded as an " altar." Canon 82, says it shall be covered in time of divine service with a carpet of silk, or other decent stuff. One of the rubrics in the Canadian R. E. P. B. is very carefully worded. " The Table shall be of wood and shall not have upon it a slab of any other material than wood, nor shall any candle, candlestick, flowers, or cross be placed upon or apparently upon, the Table, nor shall it be so constructed as to represent an altar, and during the time of Divine Service it shall be always covered with a plain cloth, nor shall the color be changed to indicate the Church seasons." Romanists and Romanizers like to place the letters I. H. S. (See TJie Cross) on the illegal "Altar" Frontals, because they are ^lii Layman's Ifafid/wok. 99 monoi^ram — connected with the Mass, tliat beinj^ stamped on the large wafer used by the R. C. priests. Confession. (See Auricular Confession.) Confipmation. TbJs is said by some to be an ApostoHcal instilution (.\cts, vi, 6, xiii, 3 and Heb. vi, 2.) while others deny that the " layinij on of hands " there mentioned referred to Confirmation. It is however of very early date being mentioned by Tertullian (ob. 225) and then followed immediately upon Baptism, and this was the case whether the neophyte was an adult or an infant, and it is still administered in the Greek and African Churches, as soon after Baptism as possible. Of our modern idea that confirmation is the ratification by the baptized child, when he has attained an age capable of deliberate choice, of the promises made for him by his sponsors there is not the slightest trace in Christian antiquity. Those who are fond of the Feathers may be interested to know that Clemens, the head of the Alexandrian catechetical school the pre- ceptor of Origen and the most learned man ot his age, (ob. 220), who denounced the practice of wearing false hair, said that in such cases when the priest in bestowing his benediction lays his hand upon the head, the blessing does not reach the wearer of the hair, but rests upon the person to whom the hair belongs! ! ! Jf Clemens Alexandrinus is not in error it I -.- „...^. *. II; lOO Layman s Handbook. \M — may be a question even now whether female candidates should wear caps as the bishop's blessing might not be able to go through them. And there may yet be some who will agree with him, for there are too many who resem- ble the men of Athens (Acts xvii, 22), and it is related of Sanderson, bishop of Lincoln, (ob. 1663) that a day before his death he de- sired his chaplain to give him absolution and at his performing that office the bishop pulled off his cap that the chaplain might lay his hands upon his bare head ! Mere we have a bishop, trusting not in Christ, but in a fellow sinner, and yet fearing that sinner's blessing might not be powerful enough to force its way through the little scull-cap worn by old men instead of wigs ! Consecration. "God called the dry land earth . and God saw thai it was good." Priest- craft, however, professes to improve upon this, and pretends by a Church ceremony to make certain parts of God's good ground more holy still ! Does the rest of God's good ground then remain less holy or even accursed in their sight ? How, in a cemetery, do they sanctify the ground, and how is their so-called blessing confined to so many feet and inches ? Sup- posing it can be done by walls at the four sides, what is to prevent it slipping through at the bottom ? No Bishop has yet attempted to consecrate a part of the mighty ocean — to mark ofT so many feet as holy and so many as accursed, for it means nothing else when the Layvians Himdbook. loi -l^ishop leaves a corner iinconsccrated for the burial of unbaptized infants, non-conformists and the like. Who ,^ave to l^ishoi)s the power to stamp any part of God's earth as unlioly ? And what becomes of the Church- men who are buried in the unconsecrated ocean ? God does not confer peculiar sanctity citlicr on places or on mere material structures. I'he Temple Dispensation has passed away, and with that the reliction of ceremony and locality came to an QWiS.^ but " priests " must have cere- monies, for they macjnify the priest, and what- ever unduly elevates him unduly exalts the l^ishop. The Rev, Hely H. A. Smith says, *' There arc multitudes who think that men can hew stones out of a quarry and cut down trees out of a forest, use some of these materials to build palaces and theatres, and take ' the resi- due thereof and construct a buildin^i^, with nave, aisles, chancel, belfry, and that as soon as a fellow-sinner has come and said a few words over it, then, as a matter of necessity, God is bound to take up His especial abode in it ; but it can never be proved that God has i^iven His consent to the transaction ; a place zs not necessarily halloivcd ground because man says it shall be ! " In reply to the argument for lavishini^ money and taste on churches and services, he adds : *' Can anythins becoming; leicalized they mii^ht not 1 : able to bar its entry into 'yhat would n<> Ioniser be their church, for by the law in i'.nc;land, a building by consecration ceases to belont^ to its former owner and becomes the property of the Established Church. Some of our readers may remember the deconsecration which took place at Bologna when Pius IX, returned to Rome about forty years a^^o. An ex-priest who had fought under Garibaldi ventured to return home but was seized and condemned to death. Before his execution, however, as his hands were supposed to have been consecrated by havin> Times, Sep. 13, 1878. Layman's Handbook. 109 — In 1883, at Corlcnti, Catania, Sicily, a priest named Failla, was poisoned with sti'}'chnine in the chaHce, by a Canon named Gaetano LimoH, who hated the deceased. Linioli had a brother who was a drui^i^nst, wlio often left his shop to the care of the canon who had thereby the means of supplyins^ himself with poison. His trial was only concluded nearly two years after when he was accpiitted for want of sufficient proof {London Times, Jan. 15,1885). This list must of course be a very imperfect one — but do we require Credence Tables in Protestant Churches } The Popes profess to be infallible but so great is their fear of poison that they on the contrary show that they are in one respect at least — fallible. They cannot themselves judi,^' whether the elements are free from poison — and require no less than three Tasting Tables. Bishop l^aggs describes the whole ceremony of the Pope's Mass which is too long to insert here. The first table, that of the Pope, is on the right side of the " altar." On it are sun- dry basins, plates and cups, wine and water. On the left side is the Credence of the officiating Cardinal deacon, and XXvcX of M. Sagrista a bishop, the principal taster, (this was written when thr' bishop was living). A sub-deacon takes the box of wafers from the third Credence. M. Sagrista and his attend- ants then take the chalice etc., to the Pope's Credence. In their presence the Pope's butler tastes the wine and water, which on bein"; de- ■s W" I lO Layman's Handbook. — canted is by him a second time tasted. All that is now requisite is taken to the "altar," where the wafers, the water and the wine are again tasted — (this is called the proba) — by- being eaten and drunk by M. Sagrista, " ivith his face turned towards the Pope.'' Three Wc. "irs are offered to the Pope from which he selects one and the officiating Cardinal and the bishop must swallow the two others. What then do the Popes believe ? Their excessive caution proves unmistake- ably that they do believe that the elements may be a vehicle for poison. Is it possible then that they can also believe that those vehicles for poison can be as they profess the real I^ody and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? Bishop Baggs was we believe an Irishman. We have referred to Bower's Lives of the Popes, but the reader can also consult P'oulke's Church's Creed or Crown's Creed, Arthur's Italy in Transition and an illustrated pamphlet "Credence or Tasting Tables," (London, Seeleys, i88i) by our old friend the late Rev. Mourant Brock, who took his title from an article of ours in a London Paper. Cremation, When the late Bishop of Lincoln j,Hiblished his views as to the possibility of cremation interfering with the resurrection of the body, an humble Low Churchman, the Earl of Shaftesbury, exclaimed, " What an audacious limitation of the powers of the Layuian'.s Handbook. 1 I I — Almighty ! What has become of the blessed Martyrs who were burnt at the stake ? Crosier. (See Pastoral Staff) Cross. (See Crucifix^ A cross on, or so placed as to ap]:)ear connected with the Communion Table has been declared illegal by the English Ecclesiastical Courts. The image of the cross is a Pagan symbol, being the y (tan) or initial and emblem of Tammuz the sun-god, the most ancient forms of which letter were sometimes crossed below the top like our small /, and it was adopted by the Roman Church and called the cross of Christ to draw the heathen into the Church by making them believe there was little differ- ence between the two religions ; for it must be remembered that although a Christian Church was founded in Rome before tlie arrival of Paul, still the Pagan religion was not finally abolisheci for some centuries, and there were Christian churches and Pagan temples in Rome until nearly the year 500, during which time many heathen errors crept into the Church. Tammuz was also called Bacchus, or The Lamented One, from the Phoenician bakkali, to weep or lament — " And, behold, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz " (P^z. viii., 14), and was often prayed to as Baal, or Lord. The image was not introduced into the Christian Church in Rome until about three centuries after the time of the Apostles, and 112 Laymaiis Handbook. 'I y ; f '- 1 : t -it is impossible to say when it was adopted in the Kni^Hsh Church. There are, it is true, many stone crosses of very early date in the Ikitish Isles, but some of them are undoubt- edly pre-Christian crosses of Tammu/,, who was formerly worshipped there, and Rawlinson thinks the Thames as well as the Tamar, Tame and Teme received their names from him, which is very probable, for it is well known that rivers and springs or fountains were dedicated to the Sun, which is the origin of so many Holy wells, and a Druidical tem- ple 380 feet long, in the shape of a cross, together with the circle of the sun similar to what is now called an lona cross, is still in existence at Callernish, in the Lewis, Scot- land. There is also a cruciform cairn at New Gnmge, Ireland, with what in a church would be called chancel and transepts ! At Malta and also at Gozo there are gigantic crosses in circles, or as they are sometimes called four- spoked sun-wheels, hewn in the solid rock, believed to be of Phoenician origin, and the Cyclopean temple at Gozo is said to be cruci- form. As if the cross of the Sun-god was insuffi- cient the Roman Church have also a brilliant plate of silver in the form of a sun fixed opposite to the wafer on their altars, so that everyone who adores at the altar must bow down before the imai^^e of the sun. It would seem that the cross was not used as a Christian symbol in England, except perhaps in church ceremonies, until the end Layman's Handbook. 113 -of the eighth century, for Mcitthevv of West- minister says in his C/ironic/c : " A D. 790. The siijn of tlie cross was seen on the i/ar- nients of several men, zuhich zvas a straiigc thing both to speak and hear of!' It was aboHshed at the Reformation, when the com- mandment condemning all symbols for the use of religion, and the chapter in which they are forbidden no less than five times, was again brought into remembrance. Archbishop Grindal, called by Lord Bacon the greatest and gravest prelate of the land, and by Milton the best o. the reformers, ordered '* All crosses to be utterly defaced, BROKEN AND DESTROYED," and it is only since about the last fifty years that they have been introduced into Protestant churches and ceme- teries, on the covers of Prayer- Books, and else- where, by the Puseyites. When St. Paul said he gloried in the cross, it was in the DOCTRINE of the cross that he meant. St. Paul would not seek THE living among the dead, but he sought Him on His heather's throne, and his boast was : " Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now, henceforth, know we Him no more." When Uie Apostle spoke of the material cross he did not style it a dear cross as too many do now, but he called it an accursed \.XQ:^ {Qf-A. nx., 13). If it represented sin and death, then — and St. Paul believed it did — it cannot represent anything else now. Joseph of Arimathea begged the body of his Lord, but he did not ask for the cross which was undoubtedly burnt up, for by the Jewish 8 114 Layman s Handbook. '. ! %' ii ' I — law, the wood on which one was hanged was burned to ashes as a thing accursed. The story of the discovery of the true cross by tlie Empress Helena, in 327, is a fable, which has been disproved. The cross represents a dead Christ, a buried Christ. It does not represent Christ's triumph, for that was accomplished at the Resurrection, and as a late Bishop of Exeter (Dr. Philpotts, a High Churchman) said, instead of exciting the mind to the contemplation of the triumph- ant issue of our Lord's sufferings, the material cross tends to chain it down to the sufferings themselves. Ours is not a dead Christ but a living Saviour, who ever liveth to make inter- cession for us. Our God is a Spirit, rnd they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Give us the LIVING SAVIOUR and the DOCTRINE of the cross, and let His enemies keep the material cross and the crucifix. The image of the cross is worshipped by the Roman Catholic Church as an Idol, for you cannot deny that they pray to it, sing hymns to it, bow down to it and kiss it, and so determined are they to continue in their idolatry, that the Second Commandment is generally omitted from their books of devo- tion. The third is called the second, and the last is divided into two parts, so as to preserve the original number. This Roman gibbet is now made of gold or diamonds. On earth our Lord was the son of a poor carpenter. Did He wear jewels Lay mail s Ilaudbook. 115 vas rhe the has ricd iph, .ion, otts, ting npii- erial rings )ut a ntcr- they spirit lOUR ; His I the d by for ^"5 SUlg , and their int is Idevo- the fcserve )ld or le son lewels -then? lie is now in heaven. Does He wear diamonds there ? And yet we pray that we may be h'kc Him ! It is made of flowers. Did our Redeemer bear our sins, our curses, and did he die for us on a lovely bed of sweet- scented white roses? Truly was it said, "In the latter times some shall depart from the faith." The I.H.S. is also oi Pai^an origin. Hislop shows that it was the sign of Isis, Horus and Seb, whose worship was introduced into Pagan Rome, and the Roman Church adopted it as they did the cross. They translated it Jesus Hominum Salvator (Jesus, Saviour of Men), and when at a later period the Jesuits took it as their particular device, they considered the letters as Greek (the Latin H being the Greek E long), and interpreted it as an abbreviation of Ies ous (lesous) the Greek for Jesus. Moreover the X P (cJii rho) is also Pagan. In Greek the X (called cJii) is equivalent in Latin and English to C H, and the P (called rJui) to our R. The X P (cJii rho) was the monogram of Chronos or Saturn, who was only another aspect of Tammuz, and was taken over by the Church to serve for C H R istos (Christos) or Christ ; and it has been supposed that when Constantino adopted this symbol, A.D. 312, for his banner, he intended it to serve both for Pagans as Chronos, and for Christians as Christos ; and when we reflect that the P^mperor postponed his baptism until he was on his death-bed, it is not very uncharitable to presume that he sometimes 'H r- ii6 Layman's JTandbook. -" faced both ways." This labarum or banner has been discovered on a coin of Alexander Bala, Kin<^ of Syria, B.C. 146, and also on one of Ilippostratus, Kin^ of Bactria, W.Q. 130. The X P was also a monogram of Jupiter Ammon and of Osiris, who were only other forms of Tr.mmuz. The "mystery of iniquity!" It is the only explanation. The early Christians seem soon to have ignored the Second Commandment. Bacchus was the same as Cannes, the Man- fish, worshipped by the Philistines as the Fish On (Dag On) and also adored in Egypt at his city called On (the Sun), in Hebrew Beth- shemesh (the House of Shemesh, Samas or Tammuz) and in Greek Heliopolis (the city of the Sun). Hesychius says that Bacchus was sometimes called Bacchus Ichthus, Bacchus the Fish, and Jerome moreover calls him Pisccin mtcroris, the P'ish of Sorrow, i.e.^ the Lamented Fish ! And yet as if the cross, the I. H. S. and the XP were not sufficient, they dared still further to compare the Lord of Glory with the heathen god. Fish in Greek is I-ch-th-ii-s (Ichthus) and the Christians adopted the Fish as a symbol, and treating it as an acrostic read it / esons CHristos THeoii Uios Soter, i.e., Jesus Christ God's Son Saviour. The image of the fish may be seen in the Catacombs, but it fortunately fell into disuse. All heathen mythology arose in Babylon, undoubtedly from corrupted traditions of a primitive revelation, and was carried to all Layniaii's Ilandhook. 117 l.C.y but — parts of the world by the dispersion of races, provin<^ most unmistakably the trutli of the J^ible narrative. The l^abylonians beh'eved in a Paj^an triad, and to symboh'ze tliat doctrine, as Layard's discoveries proved, they employed the equilateral trian<;le just as the Romish Church does to this day. It was one of the symbols of Bacchus, and of Osiris in Egypt, and is still a symbol of Siva in Hindostan, and yet how often do we see it in Evani^elical Churches, especially in Christmas decorations? Is not this " aid to devotion " a likeness for the use of religion? — "To whom will ye liken God ? or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?" If you place the image of the cross in your churches, is it not with the intent that it shall be considered a religious emblem, and if not adored, be looked upon at least with a certain kind of respect ? If )'ou doubt their regard of it, propose its removal and see how few will dare to second you — and yet the good King Hezekiah destroyed the brazen serpent. If you wear it as an ornament or place it in your houses, although, as vou say, it is a trifle (which it is not), do you not thereby accustom weak Protestants to the sight and put a stumbling block in your brother's way, and are you not imitating those who worship the same emblem, and therefore confirming them in idolatry? Not only do you uphold the Romanists in their sin, but you give offence to the Jeics ! We are expressly told, " Give no occasion of ii8 Layman s Handbook. -stumbling, neither to Jews, nor to Gentiles, nor to the Church of God," and the inia^^^c is an off"cnce to the Jews who, since the fall of Jiabylon, have constantly rejected all idolatrous worship. So strictly do they obey the Second Commandment that if a Jew passes by a wood consecrated to idols, or before a statue, he is not allowed to stoop down, even to extract a thorn that may have wounded his foot for fear that it should be thou<^lit he was bowinj^ to an idol. It is not only an offence to those of \vhom the Lord hath said, '* He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye," and of whom David said, " They shall prosper that love thee," but it is an offence also to those little ones who believe in Ilim, and it were better for that offender "that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. " If your cross is ' only a symbol,' " as Pastor J. Nogaret, of Bayonne, says, *' how is the image which is adored to be distinguished from that which is not, and if the two crosses are placed upon different buildings, which one will be spared in that day w^hen all the idols shall fall from their places ? " " If, on passing your church, surmounted by the icon, the worshipper thereof says, " Bles- sed is the zvood by which salvation cometh," or, " Hail, O cross, our only hope," (O crux ! ave spes unica, etc.,) or from Hymns Ancient and Modern, " Faithful cross, above all other ;" which is the most guilty, he whom you deem Laytnaiis If and hook. 119 -an idcjlator, or you who offer him tlic idol ? "Woe unto him that saith to the wood, awake ; to the dumb stone, arise ; it shall teach," There are some who say that our Lord con- secrated the cross by dx'inL; upon it. His death occurred in the year 33, but twenty-five years later it was not yet consecrated, for in the year 58 Paul called it the emblem of the curse. Whosoever therefore pretends that it has been consecrated must consider himself wiser than St. Paul. Our Saviour i^ave us three .symbols, and only three — water in baptism, bread and wine, — which are not ima^^es or likenesses of any- thinq; in heaven above or earth beneath. If you add to these blessed emblems is it not saying^ that they are insufficient, and therefore that His work is incomplete? Our Lord Jesus Christ said, " I will pray the Father and He will Ljive you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever." Was not that promise performed ? Is not that Holy Spirit enouj^h, but must you have a visible^ tangible similitude also ? It is a fearful thini^ to sin against the Holy Ghost. I dare not say that you are guilty of it, but should you not " Abstain from all appearance of evil.' " Take ye good heed to yourselves, lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure !' Such were the words of Moses, the Man of God, and they were re-echoed by the blessed T- 1 120 /. ay man ' j Handbook. — Apostle — " Little children keep yourselves from ima<^es " ('I'ynd.ile and Cr.inmer). Read Dent, iv. Five times in tliat one elia[)ter does Moses warn us airainst similitudes. l\'ithcrs and mothers, do you really believe in the Ten Commandments? If you do, and will still continue to risk the loss of your own souls, think at least of your children. " Vox I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, vi^.itini; the inic[uity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth 'generation of them that hate me," — nnto the third and fourth generation. The jud^Muent is a fearful one, but murmur not — " Shall the thing formed say to him that made it, why hast thou made me thus?" And oh, deprive not those dear ones of that blessini^ — " mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my command- ments." As Dean McNcile said, "In Holy Scripture the cross is used literally and metaphorically. Literally it means the instrument of capital punishment used by the Romans. Metaphor- ically it means the doctrine of atonement for sin made by the death upon it of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Literally it sit^ni- fics the most ignominious of gibbets. Meta- phorically it signifies the most glorious of truths ; but unfortunately superstitious Chris- tians (so called) identifying the literal with the metaphorical, the gibbet with the doctrine, have elevated the material figure into the place of the spiritual truth, and enlarged on what they call the glorious cross, the holy cross. I.ayitijit's llaiidbiwh. 121 — When St. I'aul wrote al)()Ut the cross, the (h'stinetion was clear. His hmj^ua^e about the {gibbet wa."> hat it was worse than ordiuar)- (leatli, even the death of the cross, that vilest of vile thinc;s. Iluiniliatioii could ^o no lower. I lis laiiL(uaL;e about the doitrinc was " Ciod forbid that I should ^dory sa\e in tlie cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. b\- WlloM tlic world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." [Wy WHOM, not by li'liich.) Had the cross continued in use as the instrument for the tapital punishment of the vilest criminals, it is difficult to conceive how it could ever have become an id(;lized ( hristian ornament. Had it continued in ilsc as a Roman gibbet, all its associations vouUl have been with the enemies and murderers of Christ, but not with Christ Himself lUit, when its use as a i^ibljet was abolished, and criminals were cxecutetl in some other way, then all its horrors L^radually faded from men's memories and the hateful thine; itself would have been utterly fortjotten, and become as comi)]etely an unknown thinjj^ as any other special custom of Imperial Rome, but for the fact tliat the Lord Jesus of Nazareth had suffered on it. This rescued it from oblivion. And thus, losing its original associations of horror and degradation, it became associated with the memory of JllM, and the aftection felt for Him, and the veneration paid to HiM, until the oriirinal distinction between the cross and the doctrine of the cross was lost sight of; and the instrument itself, instead of being, as at T? ( i f 1 i 1 ■ i 1 V 1, * ■■!: 122 Layniaiis Handbook. — first, contrasted in its ii^jnominy with the con- dcscendinc^ love of Christ, who died upon it, was ma<^nificd in remembrance of Him; and in process of time, and throui^h tlie idolatn^us cravin[,rs of human nature, the fii^ure of it was reproduced, of all sizes and of all materials, and set up as an object of worship. As the doctrine of the cross was more and more corrupted, the figure of the cross was more and more idolized until the language of Scripture, which connects a curse with it, was utterly rejected and contradicted, and the accursed tree was addressed as the Holv Cross. And now, so egregious is the confusion, that the language of St. Paul, glorying in the doctrine, is quoted in defence of the worship of the mi age. To the Dean's words let us add that it is a question how far metaphor can be depended upon in these cross-worshipping days, for many of the young, the ignorant or the care- less cannot, or do not, and others ivill not understand the cross metaphorically. The latter was the case at Oxford lately (tSS/) when a Canon mutilated Holy Writ, by giving as his text " God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord," thus deliber- ately omitting the explanatory part of the verse. At the Reformation both the image and the sign were abolished everywhere, except only by some strange oversight, in the Baptismal service. The Puritans, or original Low Churchmen always objected to this, and in Layman's Jtandbook. 123 -the time of Elizabeth it was but by a sini^le vote that it was retained. In tlie Convocation of 1563, a petition was presented to tlic Lower House that Haptisni should be performed without sii^nint^ the cross, and it was rejected by one vote only — 59 to 58 — all cler<^y. Forty years later it was deemed necessary to explain " the lawful use of the cross in Baptism " in the Canons of 1603, and a weaker or feebler defence could hardly have been made, for it is stated that " the honour and dii^nity of the name of the Cross be^at a reverend estimation even in the Apostles' times {for aught that is knc^vn to the contrary ) of the sx^n of the cross which the Christians shortly after used in all iheir actic 'is." Paul, however, who gloried in the doctrine only, called the material cross the emblem of the curse (^there was no reverence for the accursed tree there!) and Minutius Felix, the Christian rhetorician (A.D. 220), in his defence of Christianity entitled Octa^'iis, says, "Crosses, we (Christians) neither worship nor wish for. You (Heathen), who consecrate wooden gods, ivorship ivoodcn crosses, perha[)s as part of your gods ; for your very standards as well as your banners and ensigns of your camp, what are they but crosses gilt and decked?" Which now are we to believe — the Men of the Time, or the " Canonecrs " of 1603.'* It was only after the time of M. Felix that the f (tau) or pagan cross of Tammuz was introduced into the Christian Church. At the attempted Revision, in 1689, the w m i i'. , iili, it 124 Layman's Handbook. — Commission, consistinf^ of ten bishops and twenty divines, proposed that " If any minister at his institution shall declare to his bishop, that he cannot satisfy his conscience in bap- tizing^ any with the si^i^n of the cross, then the bishop shall dispense with him in that particu- lar, and shall name a curate who shall baptize the children of those in that parish who de- sire it may be done with the sit^n of the cross." In 1789, the American Church added a Rubric in their P. B., permittini:^ the sign of the cross to be omitted if desired, and the R. E. Churches of Enc^land, the U. S., and Canada, and the Enirlish P. B. Revision Society, have left out all notice of the si^j^n in their Prayer Books. Half a century ai^o the cross had not been adopted in the United States, for Staunton in his CJiurch Dictionary, 1838- 1849, says, " /;/ ancient times (the Italics are ours) the figure of a cross made of wood or stone, was in common use as a Church ornament, &c , being frequent- ly placed on steeples, towers, pinnacles, and the summit of arches and roofs ; besides being interwoven with all the curious and beautiful forms of Gothic ornament in the interior of Churches and sacred places." The Rev. Mr. Brailsford, in his letter to his diocesan, the Archbishop of Canterbury (Lon- don, 1873), shows when the cross was first in- troduced into the h^nglish Church of the Re- formation. He says: "This movement in the direction of error and idolatry in the English Church may be traced to about 40 years ago, Layuian^s Handbook. 125 -when a plain cross was put on the covers of books of devotion, as an ornament." It was about this tim."^ also tliat they commenced in- troducing^ crosses into the churches and cemeteries, liishop Maltby (Durham) foresaw what was coming, for in his change in 1841, he says : " We are threatened with a revival of the follies of a byi;(Mie superstition. A suspi- cious predilection has been manifested for the emblem of the cross ; " and soon after Dr. Pusey's advice to his followers appeared in the ''British Critic "' for Jan. 1842. "As a general rule to disguise 'the cross with such conventional shapes and Mich decorations as render it a mere ornament to the caj'cless and unfriendly observer, but a cross still to him that so regards it," and gradually at first the roofs of churches beiran to bristle all over with crosses of stone, or of iron, sometimes surrounded with the circle of the sun, for Tammuz, with whom the cross originated, was the Sun-god ; or combined with the so-called St. Andrew's cross, a fable of the middle ages, for St. Andrew is said to have been crucified in Greece, and in the Greek Menologies, and one or two western Martyrologies, he is de- picted as crucified on a cross of the ordinary form ; or with trefoils or shamrocks, which were emblems of pagan triads tens of centuries before the time of St. Patrick ; and lilies, the R. C. emblems of the Virgin, and anciently of Juno and I sis. Symbols for the use of religion are now Hf f. i 1 1 1 1 (1 1 1 ki__ 126 LayniaiCs Handbook, — often boldly called "Aids to Devotion," but will an image of the accursed tree, or a paint- ed doll, aid us in worshipping a HOLY SPIRIT who has Himself forbidden their use ? In one chapter of the Old Testament (Deut. iv.) Moses condemns similitudes no less than five times, and in the New Testament our mo"t blessed Lord Himself says : " God is a SriRI'J' : and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit " — (IN SPIRIT, not in an Emblem /) Oh ! for another good king Josiah — " And they brake down the altars of the Baalim in his presence ; and the SUN-I MAGES, tJiat ivcre on high above them, he hewed down." — (li Chron. xxxiv, 4, Revised Version.) In 1842, a church was built at Leeds, Eng- land, founded, it was believed, by Dr. Pusey, and called Holy Cross Church, but Bishop (afterwards Archbishop) Longley insisted upon the name being changed from " Holy Cross" to St. Saviour." In 1884 a cross which had been placed over the so-called altar of St. Jude's Church, Hardwick Street, Liverpool, was smashed by some person unknown. Romanists would have probably cried out for a service of re- consecration, but the Churchwardens replaced the Ten Commandments where they had formerly been before the cross was placed there, discarded the surpliced choir, and Bish- op Ryle sent a sound Evangelical minister who performed the service to crowded congre- gations on the following Sunday, Layman s Handbook. 127 Not to Thy cross, but to Thyself My LIVING Saviour would I clinj,'^ ; 'Twas Thou and not Thy cross didst l)ear My soul's dark guilt — sin's deadily sting. It is difficult now to find a P. B. without little Maltese crosses in the four corners of every page, and this form of the cross is the one used in R. C. l^ooks of Devotion to point out where people should cross themselves, and the R. C. bishops always make the same before signing their names. Some two score years ago the Pope sent his first archbishop, named John Hughes, to New York. He was in the habit of writing in the papers with this sign to his name and the New York Herald nicknamed him Cross John Hughes. Crucifix. (See Cross.) " A figure of the cross, either in statuary or painting, etc., with a representation of Christ extended upon it, very commonly used by Roman Catholics in their private devotion, and conspicuously placed in their churches to excite (as they allege), religious feeling, and aid in fixing their thoughts on the sufferings and death of the Redeem.er. The superstitious notions, and ' peril of idolatry,' which have long attended the crucifix, have led to its banishment from all Protestant Churches." The above is copied verbatim from Staun- ton's Church Dictionary, New York, i83(S- 1849, as being the definition of a High Church clergyman half a century ago. TT t •: 1'^ ■ •1 ^^s 1 II 128 Layman's Handbook. Do those who are fond of crucifixes never reflect tluit our Lord was stripped naked by the soldiers in scorn and contrnipt, and that they are following that example, and more- over that our Lord will appear the second time clothed with a f^armcnt down to the foot. (Rev. i, 13)? They sin;:^ from Hymns A. and M. and the Hymnal Companion, "Those dear tokens of His [)assion, still His dazzlini;- body bears," or from the latter, (No. 171): " For ever here my rest shall be, close to Thy bleedin<; side." (No. 233) : " O joy all joys beyond, to sec the Lamb who died, and count each sacred wound, in hands and feet and side." (No. 146): " Thy vSaviour stands; shows his wounds." Do they hope to strip off His [garment in heaven to see His wounds, as the Roman soldiers unclothed Him on earth? And do they believe that the wounds of our Perfect God are still bleedin4, at the Council of Whitby, where as we are told by Dr. Short, l^ishop of St. Asaph " Oswy decided in favour of the Roman Church, because both parties agreed that St. Peter kept the keys of heaven, and that he had used the Roman uietliod of w 136 Layman s Handbook. m ml % co^nputiiigl' we are following l^ing Oswy's and ruling still ! ! ! The word "Easter" in Acts xii, 4, is an error, for it was not then (A.D. 44) observed. It is correctly rendered Passover in the Re- vised Version. It is perfectly true as the Dictionary observes that " There is no evidence in the N. T. that Easter existed at first as an institution," for it is nowhere claimed to be of Apostolic origin. The early church consecrated every Sunday to the memory of the Resurrection. It is said that it sprang from the feast of Pasch and agreed originally with the time of the Jewish Passover, when Christ was crucified, a period which in the days of Tcrtullian, who died about 225, was believed to have been the 23rd March. This festival was not preceded by a lent Tertullian however, asks why in the face of St. Paul's language as to times and seasons Pasch is celebrated, and why the periods from thence to Whit Sunday are spent as one long season of rejoicing, and Socrates, the church historian of the 5th Century says of this feast " on which the rest depend," " The Saviour and His Apostles have enjoined us by no law to keep this feast. . . . TJic Apostles had no thought of appointing festival days, but of promoting a life of blamelessness and piety. i\nd it appears to me that this feast has been introduced into the Church from some old usage, just as many other customs have been established." Layman's Handbook. ^n Eastward Position. (See East at the recital of the Creed.) This must be distini^uished from Turning to the East in the Creed, being sacer- dotal in its signification, and is adopted by the Ritualistic clergy because it is the posi- tion of a sacrificing priest. The so-called altar is his east and it is the position taken by him when he stands at or before that altar with what he calls the real body of our Lord before him, and with his back to the people whilst in the act of what he professes to con- sider offering up a sacrifice. He stands thus so that the congregation cannot see the man- ual actions, viz., the breaking of the bread and the pouring out of the wine, in which act they are expected to believe some mysterious change takes place ; but there is no mystery ; The bread is not changed into flesh, neither is the wine chanq;ed into blood. At the First Communion did our Lord break the bread and pour out the wine at the table before His Disciples, or did He turn His back upon them and do it } As we ha^'e shown under "Communion Tables " and Transubstantation," this East- ward Pcsitiop is carefully guarded against in sone of our own churches and also in the Free Church of England (who use the Revised P. B.), ti^e R. E. and the Spa. " '• Churches, by placing the Table table-wise when the Minister stands with his s'dc to the people, or better still by removing the table from the wall so that the minister sta'.ids with his back to the wall and his face to the people. In SJSjmmmlmBrt I 138 Layman's Handbook. neither case can there be any concealment nor mystery. Moreover in these positions the table remains a Holy Table and cannot be turned into a Sideboard for the display of illegal ornaments, by the addition of a reredos. According to the EnglisJi ChurcJiuian at one of the Liverpool Churches lately when the Eastward Position was introduced by the Incumbent "some of the parishioners arose from their seats and turned their backs upon the Incumbent to show their resentment of the outrage." The Eastward Position is one of the Six Points of Ritualism, all of which have been condemned by the Ecclesiastial Courts. The five others are the Roman or Mass Vestments, Lights on the so-called Altar, the Use of un- leavened bread or wafers and Incense. Elevation of the Cup and Paten. This has been pronounced illegal in PLngland. The Spanish Church is very decided upon this point. Their P. B. says, " And with regard to the error of those who teach that Christ gave Himself, or His Body and l^lood, to be ele- vated, reserved, carried in procession, or adored under the veil of bread and wine, we abso- lutely reject it." Ember Days. These were not instituted until about the middle of the fourth century as a local Roman custom, and were not adopted by the Galilean Church until about the time of Charlemagne, four centuries later, and in i i Layman's Handbook. 139 — England probably about the same time. The Irish Church, when they revised their P. B., retained these days, " In accordance (as they say in their Canons) with the ancient custom of the Church" — which means the Roman Church of the Dark Ages ! ! ! The American Church, however, eliminated these days, and the R. E. Churches of Eng- land and Canada followed the example. Entire Congreg^ation Spectators at "Mass." Non-communicating attendance now taught by Ritualists in connection with their High Celebration, or High Mass (!) is a corrupt and degenerate Roman practice against which the Reformation was aimed. As the Homily of 1562 say, "Every one of us must be guests and not gazers, caters and not lookers." Ours is an Administration of the Lord's Supper, not a Celebration nor a Theatrical Show. The title "iMass" was discarded by the Revisor in 1552. Fasting Communion. (See Communion and Lent.) This is advocated on the horrible de- graded Romish notion of the actual presence of Chrisfs body in the stomach, and that it will meet with other food there ! And yet they are at liberty to eat and drink as much as they please immediately after! The so-called "Real Presence" must then assimilate with that food and pass away with it, but how does that agree with Holy Writ, " Thou wilt not suffer 'i'hy Holy One to see corruption." 1 I if HI 140 Layuian's Handbook. If fasting is only a natural and reverent ' instinct as some say, is it not strange that the original institution of the Supper was after a meal ? The Agape founded on the Jewish Supper was followed by the Communion and herein St. Paul virtually condemns fasting communion, for he says " if any man hunger let him eat at home " — i.e., let him eat something at home before he comes to the Holy Supper. Some .ay it jhould be administered " very early in t"' . *. orning," as the hour of the Re- surrection, b;^ Paul on the contrary tells us it was to show the Lord's death till He come. ^H ■ 1 [ Floral Decorations. (See Flowers) Derived from the Pagans who used flowers in their worship. What did Paul and Barnabas say when the priests of Jupiter offered flowers to them .'' Strewing the dead and their graves with flowers was a heathen custom reprobated by the primitive Christians, but by the time of Prudentius (4th century) they had adopted it. :f Flowers on the Communion Table. In 1849, the late Dr. Philpotts, bishop of Exeter, a High Churchman of the old school, was announced to officiate in one of the Churches of Torquay. As he entered the chancel he noticed two flower-pots on the Holy Table. Without a moment of hesitation, and without even calling for the sexton to remove them, he sci/ccd the pots and dashed them on the floor Layman s Handbook. 141 -in the corner of the chancel. The minister who placed them on the table was named Smith and he was afterwards known as Flower- pot Smith. According to the English ChurcJiinan the Rev. W. H. Wright, a Herefordshire rector, on coming into his parish lately, removed the Ritualistic brass cross, flower vases, candle- sticks and the super altar from the Com- munion Table. The bishop he;iring of it required the same to be replaced until a "faculty" or license was duly obtained. " The faculty has now (1890) after some delay, been issued by the proper authority and the ornaments have ceased to disfigure the church in question." Polydore Vergil, the Italian historian, who accompanied the Pope's legate to England in 1503, says "Trimming of the temples with hangynges, flowers, boughes and garlondes, w', m 142 Laynnan's Handbook. Font. In the Primitive Church the rites of baptism were performed in springs or foun- tains and rivers. In later days baptisteries were built outside of the churches. Later still fonts were admitted into the churches and after the Reformation were generally placed near the pulpit. Staunton's Church Dictionary, New York, 1 838- 1 849 — shows how they were placed at that time before the Puseyite movement. *' Font." A vessel usually placed in or near the chancel to contain water for the adminis- t ati^. of Baptism. Glcria Patri In 1869, among the proposed aitera,.ions of the Liturgy was, that " the Gloria Patri should not be repeated at the end of every Psalm, but of all appointed for morn- mg and evening prayer." Unfortunately this was not carried out, but a century later the Americans adopted this change. On the 27th evening we have seven verses and the Gloria^ six and the Gloria, seven and the Gloria, eight and the Gloria, again eight and the Gloria, and finally four and the Gloria, and on the 25th day, between the 33rd and 72nd verses of the same Psalm we sing the Gloria five times. Is not this using "vain repetitions as the heathen do ? " Guilds. Guilds as the historian Madox tells us were abolished at the Reformation " because of their inherent superstition." They were first introduced by the Pagans and Popery Layman s Handbook. 143 — borrowed thcni. Tlic Hcformation swept them out of the church ; and now, after \y\\Y^ quie- scent for more than three hundred years, they are again galvanized into existence. Harvest Festivals. A remarkable German letter first published in English in the Union Revieiv for 1867, enumerates harvest festivals amonij the other ai:^encies for educatini]^ the people for "Catholic Practice," adding : — "The service is generally a musical one ; the village church is sure to be decorated with flowers and fruit for the occasion." The Rev. Hely Smith says, " It is well for the people of England to know that these apparently praise- worthy and very popular services were intro- duced for the express purpose of accustoming them to the ornate ritual of Rome." Bishop Ryle says " God's House is not meant to be an exhibition of flowers, corn, fruit, evergreens and ferns, but a place for prayer, praise, and the preaching of the Word." A church should not be turned into a flower garden. As we said of Chancels, are the flowers and fruit and tawdry decorations in- tended for the honor of that GOD i^jJio is not ivorsJiipped by man's hands, or for the admira- tion of that God who Jias not tyes of flcsJi and sees not as miserable man sees ? Hig'h and Low Church. Dr. Short, bishop of St. Asaph, says : " The declaration of open war between the High and Low Church parties may be considered to have taken place in 1566." w if ■ H 144 Layuians Handbook. The first mention of cither term of which wc have any knowledge however, was a century later when Pepys, in his Diary, in 1661, while complaining of the fearful deprav- ity of the Court of Charles the Second, says : " And the clergy so higli, that all people that I meet do protest against their practice." In 1689, Sir Thomas Maynard, hrst Commis- sioner of the Great Seal, said : " As for the clergy, I have much honour for High and Low of them," and in 1703, Hooper, bishop of Hath and Wells, regretted the terms "High Church," and " Low Church ; " since the party to which he belonged only desired the Church's welfare ; and the other party he did not believe were averse to Episcopal order. Incense. God Himsei.F prescribed the ingre- dients and quantities for making incense. He decreed that priests alone should offer it, and that it should be lighted only by fire from heaven. And the penalty for infringing each rule was DEATH ! None, not even the Jews themselves, know what Hebrew words the spices mentioned specify, 7ior are tliere any priests left, for the line of Aaron has became exLinct. Ritualists quote: *' In every place incense shall be offered unto my name," but the Prophet did not allude to the literal burning of incense. The word was simply used as a symbol for prayer. The use of incense has been condemned by the courts. Layman's Handbook. 14^ Intoning. (See Choral Services^ If proper or necessary in churches, why not elsewhere ? Why should not an M. P. intone — " If you please Mr. Spea-ker will you be kind e-noui;h to grant the pray-er of my pe-ti-tion ? " In- toning is not the way people would pray when the circumstances around them were unusually solemn. If, during Divine Service on one of our steamers they should be praying in this unnatural way, and were suddenly told that the ship had sprung a leak and they would all be in eternity in a few moments, would they continue their intoning and monotoning then 1 St. James draws a distinction, " Is any among you suffering? Let him pr^iy. Is any cheer- ful ? Let him sing praise. We have shown elsev/here why intoning was " temporarily " retained at the Reformation. Invocation of Virgin and Saints. To which many have been led by the Saints' Day Ser- vices and Hymns, all of which tend to dulia or saint-worshiping. Our P. B. was never thoroughly reformed and still contains too may " bits of scarlet " as the late lamented Dean Alford called them. At the Reformation our Calendar was form- ed after the Roman, where the Saints' Days had been inserted by different Popes between the fourth and thirteenth centuries, the last having only been placed thereabout A.D. 1256, when it pleased a Pope to decree that the 25th of July was St. James' Day, although the Greek Church says it was April 30, the 10 146 Layniafi's Handbook. —Armenian Church, Dec. 28, and the Coptic Church, April 12. The Roman and En^dish Churches (alas, that there should still be so much in common between us) call April 25, St. Mark's Day, while the Greek Church celebrate it on Jan. 11, and the Coptic on the 23rd Sept., and as St. Mark is said to have been martyred in Alexandria, it would seem, if any are true, which is very doubtful, that the Coptic is the real date. The Puritans always complained about the Saints' Days, and in 1662, "for the charitable purpose of annoying them " as Isaac Taylor says, " the Bishops added a great many to the Calendar, among them being a few popes." In all the Revisions from the American in 1789, the Romish saints' days have been ex- punged, but in all except the R. E. P. B. they have retained the days of the Apostles, imply- ing thereby that they are true anniversaries, but no one knows the dates of the births or deaths of any of the Apostles. The term " Saints " has been much abused. In the Greek Testament Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, are not called Saints and at the late Revision of the Bible the American Committee desired to have that title struck out but the English Committee refused. Before the time of Pope John XV, who in 993 claimed the right as his sole prerogative, so far as the Western Church was concerned, or according to others Pope Alexander, A.D. 1 1 70, not only Councils but even bishops could manufacture saints, and they were Layman's Handbook, 147 5ed. irk, at in |ive, jed, .D. |ops rere -multiplied in proportion to the demand. Our so-called protomartyr St. Alban is probably one of these fictitious saints. In 791 King Offa wished to found a church at Verulam, now called St. Albans', and a patron saint bcin^ necessary the clergy and people com- menced a search and soon found a body, which had undoubtedly been planted pre- viously, and the name too invented. It was declared to be that of St. Alban '* t/ic incviory of zv/toin had been lost for five centuriesl' and who was then said to have been martyred in the Diocletian persecution in 303, but both Eusebius, who was livin^^ at the time, and Sozomen a century later, deny that that persecution reached Enj^land, and in that standard work SviitJis Dictionary of Christian Biography^ we read " St. Alban, if he ever ex- isted:' Among the many absurd stories told of this so-called protomartyr — and believed too in pre-Reformation times — is that like as the Red Sea and Jordan were opened for the Israelites so when Alban came to the Thames the waters stood abrupt like precipices on cither side and the Saint walked over dry sho i ! When we sing " For all the Saints," we sing not only for all the Romish Saints but also for Saint Pontius Pilate {ox Ncale in '.") History of the Eastern Church sa>s that iie is one of their Saints ! The reason assigned being simply this, that in attesting his conviction that the Lord Jesus was a just man, he took water and washed his hands ! fi if n .' '>,'■ 'i :^ .(5 ^ mm m 148 Layman's Handbook That \vc iiKiy not be guilty of the bhisplicniy of Saint-worshipin;^, i)erhaps tlic wisest phiii is not to join such of the choir and congrcj^a- tion as do sin<^ hymns to saints. Jesus the Christ. Is not the name of ou »st blessed Lord treated with undue fainiiianty, to use far too mild a term, in many of our modern Hymnals? No one would address his earthly father as John, James or Fom, nor would any one address the Queen as Victoria, but our heavenly Lord, is constantly addressed as "Jesus" without eithei the prefix of Lord or the suffix of the Anointedi He Himself said ** Go and say the MASTER saith," instead of which wc call the Master "Gentle Jesus, Sweet Saviour, Royal Child, Babe Divine, Holy Child, Infant Rede 2r." There is a reason for crowding the ^et titles upon us as by them people are gradually accustomed to the Romish error of considering Him as still a child subservient to His blessed mother, which is not very far from worshiping the Madonna and child. There is no Babe Divine, no Royal Child, no Infant Redeemer. Our Redeemer was not an infant, but a Man, the Man Christ Jesus, who had attained the ripe age of thirty-three years before He died and ascended into Heaven where He is now a living Saviour interceding for us. It is true He is called Holy Child in Acts iv, 27, but every scholar knows that is an incorrect translation, for it should be Holy Servant, and is .so rendered in Layman s IIaudbook\ 149 — the Revised Version. lie was Jehovah's Servant. In the llynin by Cardinal Newman, (the last hymn we believe written by hini before lie went over to the Church of Rome) He is called " Kindly Liidit," so-styled of course because Me said He was the Li,L;ht of the world, but lie said also that I le was the Door. Shall we sin<^ then Leatl kindly Door? I le said li^ the.i O tht was tne true Vine. Must we pray kindly Vine have mercy upon us? In the II\'mnal Companion Lord is changed to Lc)ve. "Jesus our Love is crucified." We love and honour the Queen, but who would dare to say " Victoria our Love." There are several nstances where the titles ^nven to our Lord in the Sinaitic and other oldest MSS. are omitted in the Authorized Version, as for instance Matt, xvi, 21. For "Jesus," read "Jesus Christ." Luke x, 39. For "Jesus's" read "the Lord's." 41. For "Jesus" read "the Lord." Acts xix, 13. For "Jesus" read "the Lord Jesus," and some others. Did not our Lord say " One is your Mastkr even Christ?" Peter when sinkiuLj called Him Lord and at the Last Supper the Disciples, even the most intimate, the beloved one, called him Lord. Stephen when dyinLj saw the Heavens opened and the Son of Man standinj^ at the riL,dit hand of God, and his last words were Lord — Lord Jesus ! The name (and title) once — the title twice. ii>o Layman's Handbook. li Kneeling in the Creeds. The rubric says the creeds shall be said standing. It is the same also in the Irish, the American, the English Revised and also the English, the Canadian and the American R. E., and the Spanish Prayer-Books, eight in all. Lent- (See Commination and Fasting Corn- nmniori). In the N. T. not a single Stated Fast is prescribed, nor any exhortation to fast- ing made, such as is repeatedly made to prayer and thanksgiving. Both Dean Alford and Tischendorf showed that the word " fasting " was an interpolation in the N. T. in four places (Matt. xvii. 21, Mark ix. 29, Acts x. 30, and i Cor. vii. 5), and the Revised Version agrees with them, and it was undoubtedly the cunning work of those who desired to have Biblical authority for fast- ing, against marrying in Lent, etc. The Jewish religion was a religion of cere- mony. Ours is not, and when our Lord up- braided the Jews for not keeping their fast, He taught very plainly that He did not approve of ceremonial fasting. When he said that when he was taken away His disciples would fast, did he mean that they would keep a cere- monial fast, or that like David they would be so overcome with sorrow that they would not care to eat ? " My heart is smitten and withered like grass ; so that I forget to eat my bread." If the former was the case, when did His disciples keep that ceremonial iast ? - Layman's Handbook. 151 — When our P. B. was compiled the Epistles and Gospels for Lent were continued from the old offices, and it appears strange that our Reformers did not notice that it had been im- possible to find an Epistle for that day deemed so important, the first day of Lent, called the Head of the Fast, and that in the old Service Books they had been compelled to fail back to one of the lesser Prophets of the O. T., and to this day the words '* Turn ye even to me . . . . with fasting .... sanctify a fast," are read to us as if it was Biblical authority for a stated fast of forty days, even should the season be a prosperous one, and one more fitted for thanksgiving than for mourning. On the contrary, however, Joel foresaw an impending calamity of a water famine and plague of locusts and exhorted the Jews to keep a fast for that particular occasion only ! Was not our Lord's forty days fast part of His temptation, for it was only after he was so weak with fasting that Satan made pro- posals to him ? No stress ivJiatever is laid upon it in the N. T. ; in fact Mark does not even mention it and it is entirely ignored in the Epistles. It is often called a miraculous fast, but where was the miracle ? We are not told that He did not eat nor drink as in Esther's case, but only that He fasted or restricted Himself to a very plain diet, perhaps bread, or even berries and roots only, and after forty days of such a diet He naturally hungered terribly. Christ fasted forty days once only. If he 152 Layman's Handbook. r ¥. ^»^ [fjj I If ii| iliii ! — had meant to lay down a law for an anniver- sary fast, why did He not fast repeatedly? If we are following His example why do we fast repeatedly when he only fasted once ? Why did not the Apostles keep the Lenten fast? Paul lived more than thirty years after our Lord's death and wrote fourteen epistles, in not one of which does he recommend fasting ! What Paul said was, "In Evr .THING by prayer and supplication ivitJi t/ianksgiving, let your requests be made known unto GoD." In everything — but not one word about fasting. Lent originally had no connection with the forty days in the desert. It was first estab- lished by a Pope about A D. 130, as a tithe of the year or thirty-six days only. This lent of thirty-six days lasted for some centuries. It is not certain when the additional four days were added. Some authorities say in 487, while others place it as late as the time of Pope Gregory II, who died in 731. The additional four days were not recognized in Scotland, however, until the end of the eleventh century, and five centuries later the Presbyterians abolished Lent entirely. Cassian, called the Monk of Marseilles, a disciple of Chrysostom, who, according to Canon Robertson, **was a person of consider- able note and influence," writing in the fifth century, and contrasting the Primitive Church with that of his day, said : " It ought to be known that the observance of the forty days had no existence so long as the perfection of . that Priuiitive CJmrcli remained inviolate!' Layman s Handbook. 153 — In plain English, Lent was a Church, not Christian, ceremony introduced to give power to the clergy and principally to enable the " priests " to fleece the laity, and to this day dispensations can be obtained for money to eat meat on fasting days in the Roman and Eastern Churches, and others who break the Church laws are obliged to reveal it in the confessional and are mulcted accordingly. A late writer says of the Abyssinians that " Their religion is mostly a formality ; their priests are ignorant . . . their chief ser- vice consisting of a repetition of an extensive liturgy, and Christianity (lie should have said Churchiaiiity) is an observance of rites, cer- emonies and good deeds. They celebrate about two hundred fast days, and whoever is not able to fast so long and often informs the priest who for a pecuniary consideration under- takes the task for him." The Armenians, according to Dr. Hook "scrupulously observe fasting; and fasts so fre- quently occur that their whole religion seems to consist in fasting;' and the Temoin de la Verite stated that in Equador, where there is a Romish Church for every 1 50 inhabitants, and one tenth of the population consists of priests, monks and nuns, 270 days in the year are either fast or fete days. Three quarters of this holy ( ! ! ) South American State can neither read nor write. The Russians have a proverb " Heaven can only be reduced by famine," and they have accordingly four stated Fasts, viz. the Four Great Lents. Of Easter, seven weeks ; St, 154 Layman's Handbook. i !■ h" 11 I*'.;-.- Ft -Peter's Fast from Trinity Monday, from twenty to forty days according to the time when Easter falls ; the Assumption, in August, seventeen days and the Christmas Fast from the 15th of November, thirty-nine days, be- sides which there are the six great days ot prayer and repentance and thirty-one Wednes- days and as many Fridays. Total 165 to 195 days. During all this time neither meat nor fish (during the Easter Lent) are allowed, nor eggs, nor milk, nor even sugar. Marriages are pro- hibited, and the married must live as if they were smgle. "As for buy the the rich," as Lacroix says, " they right of living during the fast the same as they do the rest of the year. If they conform to the rules of the Church, they fast by eating the most delicate fish, vegetables raised in hot houses and nourishing fruits ripened by the heat of stoves." Like the above Church we have also about the same number of ceremonial days for although the Bible only commands us to keep one day in seven holy, the Fasts and Feasts in the Table in our P. B. amount to about two hundred. We boast of our P. B., but how many of us are there who observe all those ceremonial days ? To conclude : The fast of forty days arose in Babylon. The Egyptians observed a fast of forty days in honor of Osiris and the Romans held a forty nights wailing for Pro- serpine. Humboldt tells us the Mexicans Layman's Handbook. 155 rose fast the Pro- cans -three days after the vernal Equinox began a solemn fast of forty days in honor of the sun. The Vezidis of Koordistan still keep a fast of forty days and we all know the Mahomedan Ramazan. Froude says of the Roman Church " The Church forbade the eatintr of meat on fast days, but the Church was ready with dispensa- tions for those who could afford to pay for them. The Church forbade marriage to the fourth degree of consanguinity, but loving cousins, if they were rich and openhandcd, could obtain the church's consent to their union." Will it be believed that in the city of London they at one time fasted on St. Mark's Day on one side of the street ivliile they did not on the other, because forsooth the Bishop of London had ordered the day to be observed and the Archbishop of Canterbury had not ! In Pilk- ington's work, entitled Bnrnynge of Paules ChurcJi, 1563, Vv'e read: "Although Ambrose saye that the churchc knewe no fastinge day betwixt Easter and Whitsonday, yet beside manye fastes in the Rogation week, our wise popes of late ycares have devysed a mon- strous fast on St. Markes Daye. All other fastinge dales are on the holy day even, only Sainte Marke must have his day fasted. Tell us a reason why so that you will not be laughen at. We know wel ynough your reason of Tho. Beket, and think you are ashamed of it ; tell us where it was decreed by the Church or Generall Counsell. Tell us •> Mi ' i i' V )' 'I k' 156 Layman's Handbook. If -also, if ye can, why the one side of the strete in Cheapeside fastes that daye, being in London diocesse, and the other side, being of Canterbury diocesse, fastes not ? and so in many other townes moe. Could not Beket's holynes reache over the streete or would he not ? If he could not he is not so mighty a saint as ye make hym." It is only since the leaven of Poperj/ began to work in our church, within the last half century, that some of our clergy have annually on the arrival of Lent, issued a notice that certain religious services would be held during the season. Thus leading the people to believe they should attend to their religious observances more during Lent than during the other months of the year. Our reformers on the contrary, knowing how the observance of Lent in Popish times had been productive of superstition, denounced it, and would not observe it. Our good King Edward VI., in his procla- mation about the observance of Lent in 1548, said that he minded not that his subjects should think there was any difference i.i days or meats and that the one should be to GoD more holy and pure than the other : for all days and meats were of equal purity, and in and by them we should live to the glory of God, and Becon, Prebendary of Canterbury, in 1563, said "Antichrist prescribeth certain days to be fasted, yea, and that under pain of everlasting damnation, as the time of Advent, Lent, embering days, saint's eves, etc." Becon Layman's Handbook. 15; -was a divine of i^reat eminence and dedicated his book to tlie Bisliop of Chichester, and he spoke truly in attributing^ it to Antichrist, for we repeat there is no warrant in Scripture for investing Lent with any special holiness or for making it a time for special religious services. Let a man lead a careless, worldly life for 325 days, and then as the Romanists say do penance for forty days, and this for a score of years in succession. Should the angel of death then appear a day only before the next Lent, what the better would he be for his previous twenty Lents ? And yet there are myriads who think the old scores are wiped out and who immediately open fresh ones, commencing often with the display of new bonnets and the like, firmly believing the old .proverb : OD all in of in lain "At Easter let your clothes be new, Or else be sure you will it rue." St. Paul did not say pray more at one season than another, but what he did say was, '* Pray without ceasing." There are some good Protestants who think they must eat fish on Wednesdays and Fridays. This was really the law in lingland from the time of Oucen Elizabeth down to our own time. It was not a church law, however, but a civil one, and was repealed by Act of 31 and 32 Vict. After the blessed Reformation, when the people were no longer obliged to eat fish, the government feared the demand would de- Wi m I il 158 Layuian^s Handbook. — crease, and the fisheries, that nursery for seamen and especially for sailors for the Royal Navy, would decline, and for that reason and " to reduce the high price of meat," orders were passed from 1564 to 1579, enjoining the observance of the old fast days, changtug however the name to Fish days, and one statute said that it is " not for any superstition to be maintained in the choice of meats," and another reads, " that the same is not required for any liking for Popish ceremonies heretofore urged (which utterly are detested), but only to maintain the mariners and navy in this land by setting men afishing." It is worthy of note that the Jews had ottly one divinely appointed stated fast. This was the great day of Expiation, appointed by the law of Moses, and it was a fast of one day only. All the other fasts were national ones, ap- pointed at different times by the authority of the state. There are no less than fifty-six hymns for Lent in the Hymnal Companion. Can Bish- op Bickersteth find one single authority for this Church fast in the New Testament ? Lig'htS. (See Candles) Using lighted Candles at the Communion Table during the adminis- tration of the Holy Communion, when such candles were not wanted for the purpose of giving light, has been condemned by the courts. Mass, instead of Lord's Supper. The Article Layman's Handbook. 159 -says " The sacrifices of masses in which it is commonly said that the priest offers Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain and guilt, are blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits." The Abbd Malot expressing a doubt to Cardinal Richelieu (who was a churchman of the Archbishop Sheldon type) as to how many masses would save a soul, the Cardinal replied, " Pho ! you are a blockhead ! As many as it would take snow-balls to heat an oven." Mitre. Hook says the two horns of the mitre are generally taken to be an allusion to the cloven tongues of fire which rested on each of the Apostles on the day of Pentecost ! ! ! They are not horns however, but the fish's head, with the mouth open, seen in profile, of the priests of On or Oannes, the Man of the Sea, the Fish-god, worshipped by the Philis- tines as Dag On, the Fish On, who was another form of Tammuz. '1 hese priests were robed in the skin of the fish, the tail reaching down to the ground, and the Fish-god appears to have been portrayed in the same manner. One is engraved in Smith and Cheetham's Dictionary of Christian Antiquities under " Fisherman," and absurdly called " The Divine or Apostolic Fisher," but under " Ich- thys " it is styled " a monster ! ! ! " Who shall decide when doctors disagree ? Dean Stanley it is true says the mitre is the icle .1^ !tni Ai liil 160 Layman^s Handbook. — same as the cap or turban of the Eastern Church, and its division into two points only marks the crease which is the consequence of its having been Hke the opera-hat, folded and carried under the arm. This will not be understood by the present generation for the folding hat went out of fashion half a century ago when Gibus invented the spring opera- hat. The Dean however (and we regret to differ from him) gives no authority, and it may be only an idea of his own ; but turbans (and we have worn one in the East) are thick and solid and would hardly fold as an opera-hat, and even if they did would not split open Let any one examine the Fish-god, first engraved by Layard, and declare if he can that the mitre is not the fish's head seen in profile with the mouth open ? And in connection with the pagan mitre it may be added that Stanley says of the pagan divining rod or modern pastoral staff that it is not the symbol of the priesthood against the state — nor even the crook of the pastor over his flock, but simply the walking stick, the staff of the old man, but here again we believe the Dean is in error, for the crosier or pastoral staff of the bishop is, as we have elsewhere stated, the litmis or crooked divining rod of the Roman auGfurs and Chaldean priests, and was originally a slender rod about two or three feet long. Hook says the mitre has " fallen into utter disuetude in England, even at coronations," Layman s Ilaiidbook. i6i — and " is now merely an lieralclic decoration." This was only in 1864. Unhappily this relic of paj^anisin has been a^^ain adopted by many bishops of our church. Mixed Chalice. This has been pronounced illegal by the English Courts. Non-Communicatingf Attendance. (See Entire congregation spectators at Mass.) Offertory Bag^S. One of the so-called trifles, but the old proverb says, " Many drops of water will sink a ship." According to the rubric, at the offertory the minister should say one or more sentences, and formerly when the church was a large one we have heard the greater part of them read, but now one, or perhaps two, are jjjenerally considered sufficient, but where is the authority for taking up the collection with an organ accompaniment or an anthem for the enter- tainment of the audience ? ning itter ms," Organs. We laugh at our Scotch brethren for their dislike to " squeaking abominations," but they were found fault with in England as early as the twelfth century. Ethelred, an author of high authority, and a friend and contemporary of David the First, king of Scotland (11 24-1 153), gives us the following minute and curious account of the church music in his own days : " Since all types and figures are now ceased, why so many n f— !39! M! 162 Layfuaiis Handbook. — organs and cynibols in our churches ? Why, I say, that terrible blowing of the bellows, which rather imitates the frightsomcness of thunder rather than the sweet harmony of the voice ? For what end is this contraction and dilation of the voice ? One restrains liis breath, another breaks his breath, and a third unaccountably dilates his voice ; and some- times I am ashamed to say, they fall a-quaver- ing like the neighing of horses. Next they lay down their manly vigour, and with their voices endeavour to imitate the softness of women. Sometimes you shall see them with open mouths and their breath restrained as if they were expiring and not singing . . . . . And this ridiculous behaviour is called religion ; and when these things arc most frequently done, then God is said to be most honourably worshipped." (i^lred. Speculum Caritatis. Trans, by Pinkerton and quoted in Tytler's Scotland). At the time of the Reformation, organs were considered as amongst the vile.st remnants of Popery by all the more enthusiastic parti- zans of Protestantism, and were so generally demolished that scarcely an instrument could be found in England at the Restoration ; and foreigners were brought over to play on some of those that were erected. Among others. Lord Bacon, who was not an eytre^ ic Piuuan, objected to them, and at th .vocation ot 1562, the proposal that c iiis shouk oe removed was lost by a single vote only. The first organ built in New Ei jland was Ln vmnu's ffniidhook. "''3 jans ^mts Lfti- [ally mid and iome lers, uin, In ol l" be was — in 1745, but they objected to liave them in Meeting-houses as tlie descendants of the Puritans then called their churches. Now, however, (except in EnL,dand where Non-con-^ formists are considered to worship in chapels) the word church has become the appropriate title for all Christian places of worship, being simply the Greek Kuriakc, (in Scotch, Kirk), signifying the Lord's house. Orientalization of Churches- The continuing of this Pagan custom, which was gradually be- coming obsolete, was one of the first things inculcated by tlie notorious Cambridge Cam- den Society, more than half a century ago. While other public buildings arc placed with their fronts on the streets, too many churches when on streets running east and west, are built with one side on the street, the main entrance being thus on the west, with the Holy Table opposite that entrance, thus forcing the people to face the east, a Romish custom derived from the Pagans, who worshipped the sun in the east. The Temple, on the contrary, fronted the east, and P^zekiel, 600 years B. c, says of an abomination, " and behold at the door of the Temple of the Lord, . were about five and twenty men, with their backs towards the Temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east ; and they wor- shipped the sun toward the east." About the year 1845, the Puseyites started a monthly architectural review called the Ecclesiologist, the writers in which labored "r-';n"Trlicc in the Pulpit.) Fifty years ago our clergy were content with the surplice and gown, neither did they wear a distinctive dress in the streets as if they were a higher caste than the humble laity. Several years ago we met an old friend, a D.D. and Canon, (a High Churchman of the old school) and remarking to him that one of the English bishops had just appeared in a peculiar vestment he replied that he did not like it, and the true dress for a clergyman was the cassock, " the short cassock such as I wear." "Ah, Doctor," was our reply, "when we were boys clergymen did not wear that costume," and, taking hold, at the same time of the lappet of his unbuttoned coat, we added, "Doctor, when did this come in.!*" with emphasis, but smiling, he answered, " by degrees," and walked on, and a few years after a gentleman wrote in The Rock that as he was waiting at the Windsor railway station he saw four gentlemen from Clewer standing near him. They all wore the Roman collar, the limp felt hat and the long, single-breasted frock coat, and he asked one of the porters if they were R. C. priests. " No, sir," was the i^a^^^^as 196 L(i}')>tnn's Handbook. mKB^: II rc[)ly, " they ain't Roman priests, but they be very ^^ood imitations of them." The use of the Roman Mass vestments have been pronounced illegal. Wafers. The Administration of Wafers instead of Bread at the Holy Communion has been pronounced illegal by the Enijlish Ecclesi- astical Courts. It has been asked by the Rev. Dr. Maguire *' What is this object which is worshipped as God ? What is its history ? Was it made, and if so who made it t Is it a creature or a Creator ? What becomes of it ? Can it speak as God ? Can it act as God ? Can it think ? Is it eternal ? God ? " And the Dr. may well ask what becomes of it, for if it is eternal and does not pass away with the rest of the food and " see corruption " it must remain in the stomach, and after a dozen Communions, how many of his so-called Christs will the Romanist have in his stomach ? The Romanist, believing the wafer to be Christ Himself, eats his salvation and places it in his stomach. The Protestant receives the elements by faith^ and places them in his heart. Has it one single attribute as li ! Wi m i Layman s Handbook 197 POSTSCRU'T. ^^"foi-^'nt^^'" ^T u"^^^'"'"" ^^>'"^^^ ^''^ now almost > ^ i o'^ ^^' ^^''^'°P ^^^ Delaware clescribinrT It said One hundred bishops were all brounJit togetlier in St. Paul's Cathedral. Ther^ we were to stand up and make our profession of iaith and what a ^^rrand thin- ,t would liave been to have had the bishops repeat tlic creed together. Instead of which we stood up for ten mmutes and the choir sang an elaborate piece of music which we could not follow " k;! ''"'^"^^'?«''y serves us it was that pattern DdaTare'' ''^''' '^''" ^''""^ ^'^" "'^"^^ ''^ J.]'\^^'f^^lf'^^^^^^^^r in his charge in 1880 said -The so-called intoning cf the minister and the chanting of the psalms hin- der rather than help, the heavenward aspir- ations of the people ; " and we have felt this ourselves and once when nearly distracted liited up our head and saw the choir-master marking time like the leader of an orchestra, to incline our hearts to keep this law " Ur. Eraser, Bishop of Manchester, said " he knew churches where large congregations would gather when it was\..own^a poX anthem was to be sung, or where a popular singer was known to be taking part in the service, or where some skilful player was about 198 LaynncDi's Handbook. — to play a favorite voluntary on the organ, and where without such attractions the congrega- tion would not be large." Such churches are like the famous and fashionable Dublin Cathedral which has long been known as " Paddy's Opera." Ten years ago Dr. Bedell, Bishop of Ohio, published a description of a fearful anthem which we would rather not repeat, but a sur- geon's knife must sometimes cut deep and it may still serve as the bishop intended as a warning. But we must use blanks, for they mocked and blasphemed that name which the Jews never mention without adding ** Blessed be His Holy Name." ** And this " he said " was what they sang : " " . . . is a Spirit ; . . . is a Spirit ; and they that worship Him, and they that worship Him, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth . . . is a Spirit ; and they that worship Him ; . . . is a Spirit ; must worship Him ; they must : must worship : ship Him ; in Spirit and in truth ; for the Father seeketh such (tenor) ; for the (all loud) seeketh such, seeketh such, seeketh such to worship Him. (Very softly) . . . is a Spirit ; (waxing louder) . . . is a Spirit ; and they ; they that worship Him ; they ; and they ; they that worship Him must worship Him and (loud yellendo) THEY that worship Him ; and they ; must ; that worship Him (tenor, softly) must ; (contralto) worship ; (all) Him in Spirit and in truth ; (all but tenor) for ; (all) the Father seeketh such ; (bass) TMymans ILvidhook. 199 -seck'cth such ; (all softly) to worship Him ; to worship Him ; to worship (sort ofdyin.i; away) in Spirit and in tru-u-u-th." Wyclififc condemned the frivolity and arti- fice of the church music of his day five hundred years airo as beino, but in Boston $600, and tiiese salaries are sek'om increased. '* Should however a rival c/iiirc/i make an offer for a voice, if the first churcii is desirous of retainini^ it, the rivaPs price is paid and the voice retained." ^\ rival church forsooth ! A rival's price ! Not a rivalry in good Vv'orks, but in melo- dramatic performances by artists often " robed in white to represent the ani^els" (see Sur- pliccd Choir) and in buildin<^s professedly con- secrated or dedicated to the service of the Almighty God. Sometimes too a notice is given that a "silver collection " will be taken ! Is this for the poor, or the poor performers } * Reminding one of Elhelred's coinpl.iint in the 12th century of the terrible blowing of the bellows " resemblinK thunder. (See <'>ri;tins). ■;! ! 202 Layniau's Handbook. Is this the Religion of the nineteenth cen- tury ? Better far, oh how far, that of the per- secuted Nonconformists of the 17th who dreading every moment to be pounced upon by spies and informers, met together secretly in a house in Ironmont^er Lane and psalm with a loiu voice!' sung a 'sfS Layman's Handbook. 203 THE ENGLISH INQUISITION. When speaking of liovvin- in the Creed Zirt-hT''^^ '"^^^^^ ^^^"^''^^^ Inquisition," and If ,t did not apply to the Star Chamber no one can deny that the Court of Hi by Archbishop Whitgift, he being then the ruling spirit. Others were fined and im- prisoned in close prisons and dungeons where they died like rotten sheep. For nearly twenty years Whitgift waged war with the Puritans. He fined and imprisoned their clergy, sus- pended hundreds, and deprived many of their livings, so that the Queen's ministers became alarmed, and Lord Burleigh, the Lord Keeper, as the Chancellor was then styled, hinted to him that he resembled a Spanish inquisitor trapping his prey. At one time, it was said, nearly a third of the whole beneficed clergy were under suspension for refusing to comply with the habits and ceremonies of the church. In 1630, Laud being then Prim.ate, Dr. Leighton, a Scotch minister, for writing a work against bishops, not more censorious than we see now frequently, was fined ^10,000 and condemned to be whipped, set in the pil- LaynuDts Ilaiidbook. 205 —lory, have one of his cars cut off, one side of his nose sht, and be branded on his face with ^. b. \ox Sower of Sedition, Tlien seven days after to be pilloried a-ain and whipped and have the other ear cut off, and the other side of hi;^ nose slit, and to be imprisoned for life ' VV/ien thcscutcncc was delivered Arehbishop Laud pulled off Ins eap, aud koldiup- up his liands, gave thanks to GoD ivho had cri^^en /nni eke victory over Ids enemies. Laud kept a diary, and the foUowinir entry related to Dr. Leighton : ^ " First, he was severely whipped before he was set m the pillory. ear^cut off.^'''"^ «et in the pillory, he had one Third, one side of his nose was slit up. fourth, he was branded on the cheek with a red-hot iron. On that day sc'nnight, his sores upon his back, ears, nose and face being not yet cured he was whipt again at the pillory in Cheap- side, cutting off the other ear, slitting the cheek"'' ''^^'''' "'''''' ^""^ branding the other How the Most Reverend Archbishop must |iave gloated over his enemy's sufferings, and tliat too for years, as Leighton remained in his dungeon eleven years, and until Laud was imprisoned m his turn, and when released by the Long Parliament he could neither walk see, nor hear. ' In 1632, Prynne, a lawyer, wrote a book decrying stage-plays, comedies, dancing, etc., 206 Layman's Handbook. ii .■ \H — and because the King and Queen frequented these amusements, and the latter sometimes acted a part at private theatricals at court, it was considered a libel against her. He was sentenced to lose both his ears and pay a fine of ;^3,C)00. Three years later he wrote a pamphlet against Laud and the bishops, and for this (it being far more serious than infer- entially attacking the Queen), it was ordered that the remainder of the stumps of his ears should be cut off, and he to be branded on both cheeks with the letters S. L. This was done, the hangman rather sawing off the remainder of his ears than cutting them. He was also fined ;^ 5,000, and ordered to be imprisoned for life. Henry Sherfield, a bencher of Lincoln's Inn and Recorder of Salisbury, was tried in 1632, for breaking a window, so blasphemous that I hardly dare describe it. In this window were seven pictures of GoD THE Father, in form of a little old man in a blue and red coat, with a pouch by his side. One represented Him creating the sun and moon with a pair of compasses, others as working on the business of the remaining days of the creation. On the fifth day a naked man is lying upon the earth asleep, with so much of a naked woman as from the knees upward growing out of his side, and on the seventh day the LORD GOD sat in an elbow chair at rest ! ! ! Many simple people did reverence to this window in their going in and out of the church, because they said the Lord their God was there. Lay mail's Handbook. 207 i Inn 632, lat I were "orm vith IM r of ess the rth as his OD this I the ;od Laud spoke up in excuse of the paintings, and moved as Sherfield had taken them down in contempt of ecclesiastical autJiority^ that he be fined i^l,ooo, be removed from the Record- ership, and be committed a close prisoner till he paid the fine and gave bonds for future good behaviour. To all which the Court agreed, except the fine, which was reduced to The Rev. John Workman preached a sermon against pictures and images, for which he was suspended by the High Commission and im- prisoned. He was so much respected that shortly before this the City of Gloucester had given him an annuity of ^20. For this the Mayor and authorities were cited^ before the High Commission, and the annuity was can- celled. Then Mr. Workman set up a small school, but the Archbishop hearing of it, inhibited him. He then commenced to prac- tice medicine, which the Archbishop likewise absolutely forbade. So that being deprived of all means of subsistence he fell into a melan- choly disorder and died. The severity of this court was generally ascribed to Laud's passionate disposition. The people could enjoy no rest, until at last, after eighty years of peisecution from the Crown and Bishops,* as violence naturally engenders violence, the oppression produced its bitter fruit. The blame must largely rest •DuiiHg this period, Grindall, as already stated, would not persecute tlu- Puritans, neither was Abbot willing to do so, and both accordingly lost the fav»r of the Court. Grindall was Primate for eight years and Abbot for twenty-two. 208 Layman's Handbook. |: :-:% 'til fi . IS 'i w, — upon their instructcrs, for "curses like chickens, come home to roost." A vindicitive spirit arose among the people. The Revolution took place. Acts of retaliation followed, but the sufferings of the Puritans during the three previous reigns were far greater than those of the Episcopalians during the Commonwealth. The jails were not crowded by Episcopalians as they had been by Puritans, nor were Epis- copalians branded or mutilated. To be sure numbers of the Royalist clergy were deprived of their livings, amounting, according to some, to sixteen hundred, according to others, twenty- four hundred. A fifth of their income, how- ever, was allotted to their families. Many of these clergy, however, had been so unmindfiTi of their spiritual duties as to sep- arate themselves from public sympathy. The " great scarcity of preaching ministers " was early noticed, and just before the Revolution in " A certificate from Northamptonshire, 1 64 1," in the British Museum, it is told of a parsonage worth three hundred pounds a year (probably held by a pluralist), where not even a poor curate remained to read prayers, cate- chise children, or bury the dead ; and of a vicarage where the nave of the church had been pulled down, the lead covering the roof sold, the chancel made into a dog-kennel, and the steeple turned into a pigeon-house. After the Restoration the Bishops deter- mined to revenge themselves — and one result was our Book of Common Prayer, in which Layman s Handbook, 209 -they endeavored as far as possible to spite the Puritans. King Charles II. called for all the clergy to subscribe to his book, but upwards of two thousand, or about one-fifth of the clergy of that day, had conscience enough to refuse to do so, and were driven from their pulpits. In 1663, the first Conventicle Act was passed making it penal for more than five persons, besides the family, to assemble in private houses " for any exercises of religion in any other manner than is the practice of the Church of England ; " and the penalty might be inflicted by the justice of the peace, without a jury ! For the first offence the punishment was three months imprisonment, or a fine of five pounds ; for the second, six months or a fine of ten pounds ; and for the third (now, however after conviction by a jury), banishment for seven years to some of the American plantations, excepting always, as too congenial an abode, the Puritan colon- ies of New England. The payment of one hundred pounds would discharge from such imprisonment or tiansportation, but escape before transportarion subjected the victim to death. One clause in the act was remarkable, for while one of the plainest and best established maxims of civil policy requires that in all criminal prosecutions favour should always be given to the prisoner, this clause on the con- trary was that if any dispute should arise with regard to the interpretation of any part of the U Vi 'i ; 2IO Layman's Hanabook, 't -act, the judges should always explain the doubt in the sense least favourable to con- venticles. The writings of the day teem with accounts of the persecutions. The people were obliged to adore the Almighty in concealment and to adopt ingenious devices to escape notice or to elude pursuit. The Baptists of Bristol hung up a curtain and placed their minister behind it, so that a spy coming in could not see the preacher. Sometimes when a suspicious per- son made his appearance it was customary for the congregation to begin singing and for the preacher to pause. At Andover the Non- conformists met for prayer in a dark room, until a ray of morning light struggling down the chimney announced the hour to depart. Thomas Vincent, an ejected clergyman, had occupied a Conventicle at Southwark and was dragged out of his pulpit by the hair of his head, tried, found guilty, committed to prison for three months and then if he would not conform he was to abjure the realm or suffer death. There is a curious description of his Conventicle. Almost every seat that adjoined the sides had a door like the sally port of a fire ship to escape by, and in each door " a small peep-hole like to taverns and ale-houses doors to ken the people before they let them in." At Duckinfield, in Chester, people still point out the place in the oaken thicket, where the proscribed ministers and their faithful adherents met for prayer, and there is Layman's Handbook. 211 •also the Pulpit Oak at Eversden, and several trees called Gospel Oaks where they were accustomed to meet. Sectaries in the city ol Chichester were charged with treating contemptuously the Surplice and Prayer-Book. Some were im- prisoned and others bound over to the Sessions. At Yarmouth, two hundred Nonconformists were charged in the Commissary Court with not taking the Sacrament. At Axminister, Devon, the people met in a lonely place near a great wood, and while their pastor was preaching the soldiers rushed in among them and took many captives, some of whom were fined and others imprisoned for five years and some months. Mr. Palmer, a Nottingham Nonconformist minister, was ap- prehended and some others with him, at his own house, for preaching there on the Lord's Day. A congregation, meeting at a baker's house in Bristol, was visited by the Mayor and Aldermen who burst open the door, but the minister escaped through a back door. At another house a guard of musketeers came to take the people in custody, but it was dark and they escaped through a cellar. In one village in Somersetshire, sixty men and women were apprehended, and, in default of paying fines were sent to gaol. Here is a touching case. They did not dare to raise their voices. "We met at Mr. Russell's m Ironmonger Lane, when Mr. Lambert admin- istered to us the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, and we sung a psalm with a low voiced Hs 212 Layman's Handbook. In 1670 a new Bill against Conventicles was passed, by which Informers received one-third of the fines ; officers were empowered to break open houses, except those of ' irs, where Conventicles were said to be assembled ; constables were to be fined if being aware of such meetings they neglected to give informa- tion of them, and a fine of ^100 on any Justice of the Peace who should refuse to execute the law. To escape after conviction subjected the victim to death. Sheldon especially was delighted at the enactment of this statute and zealously availed himself of it. So also did others. Informers were let loose upon all kinds of inoffensive citizens and the severities of the New Con- venticle Act wore more than doubled by con- necting them with the execution of earlier statutes. Neal tells us that a High Churchman in his sermon before the House of Commons, told the honourable members that Dissenters could be cured only by vengeance, and that the best way was to set " fire to the faggot " to teach these obstinate people " by scourges or scorpions " and to " open their eyes with gall." The records of a Baptist Church assembling in Broadmead, Bristol, have been preserved. We read "On the 2nd of July (1682), Lord's Day, our pastor preached in another place in the Wood. Our friends took much pains in the rain because many informers were ordered out to search and we were in peace though there were near twenty men and boys in Layman s Handbook. 213 -search.* "On the i6th brother Founes preached first and brother Whinnell after preached under a tree, it bein^ very rainy. "On the 13th (of Au^^ust) our pastor preach- ed in the wood, and afterwards broke! bread at Mr. Young's in peace. But HcUier and the rest were out that day, and sluit uj) the gates, and kept watch at the weir and behind St. Philip's, and took up several in the evening as vagrants on the Lord's Day and sent some to Newgate and some to Bridewell." " On the 20th met above Scruze Hole, in our old place and heard brother Founes preach twice in peace, and there we met also on the 27th in peace and both days we sang a psalm in the open wood." The prisons were horrible beyond descrip- tion, covered with filth of the most loathsome kind ; jaolers and turnkeys exercised despotic power and extorted exorbitant fees, prison- ers were crowded together to suffocation, fever and pestilence were engendered and nourished, and numbers perished before their trial. It may seem incredible, but Macintosh in his History of the Revolution, gives his authorities for the statement, that EUwood, the Quaker, and the friend of John Milton, when immured in Newgate for his religion, saw the quarters of those who had been executed for treason, placed close to the prisoner's cells, and their heads tossed about like footballs ! Nearly eight thousand Protestant Noncon- formists (so called because they would not conform to the Prayer-Book) perished in 214 Layman^ s Handbook. It f '&,♦ I a. -prison in the time of Charles the Second. William Penn reckoned that more than five thousand Quakers perished for the sake of religion, and according to Bishop Short, " Old- mixon says that Jeremy White had collected a list of sixty thousand persons who had suffered for religion between the Restoration and the Revolution." Charles the Second revived the Court of High Commission at Edinburgh at the urgent request of Archbishop Sharp and others of a kindred character, and it was, if possible, still more cruel to the Covenanters than Whitgift and Laud's had been to the Puritan's and Nonconformists. Imprisonment, fine, torture, death were its daily inflictions, and it became intensified in its tyranny in proportion as the spirit of revolt increased against Episcopacy. Hunted down, as Macaulay says, like wild beasts, tortured till their bones were beaten flat, imprisoned by hundreds, hanged by scores, exposed at one time to the license of soldiers from England, abandoned at another time to the mercy of bands of marauders from the Highlands. Bishops were restored to their ancient places and in 1662, ministers were ordered to take presentations from them ; in other words they were to renounce Presbyterianism and accept Episcopacy. About four hundred, or about one-third of the clergy gave up their churches, manses and stipends rather than submit to this outrageous mandate. Layman s Handbook. 215 — There was no safety for any one. Masters were held liable for servants ; landlords for their tenants ; fathers for their wives and children ; and to ^ave the least intercourse with a proscribed person was the same as to be guilty. An Act was passed giving power not only to judges, but also to the officers of all the forces to put persons to death without further warrant. The principal instrument of torture in Scotland at that period was the Jhot, being a loose frame of wood like a boot into which wedges were driven so as to crush the limb of the prisoner. At one time (in 1668) ten were hanged on one gibbet at Edinburgh and thirty- fi ' ; before their own doors at different places, all of whom might have saved their lives if they would have renounced the covenant. These executions all of which were principally instigated by Archbishop Sharpe were going on when the king put a stop to them, saying that blood enough had already been shed, and ordered that such of the prisoners as would simply promise to obey the laws for the future should be set at liberty and that the incorrigi- ble should be sent to the plantations. Chambers says that a calculation was made that previously to 1678 seventeen thousand had suffered finmg and imprisonment for attending field-meetings. As for the numbers executed, and shot by the soWiers, there is no record. And all this occurred in England and Scot- land only two centuries ago. In our righteous 2l6 m Lay^narHs Handbook. — indignation, forgetting the beam that is in our own eye, we can never find words strong enough to condemn the Dragonnades in France at the same period, but conveniently ignore the sufferings of the British Non-con- formists and Covenanters. Hallam, a most impartial critic, observes : — ** It is somewhat bold in Anglican writers to complain, as they now and then do, of the persecutions they suffered at this period, when we consider what had been the conduct of the Bishops before, and what it was afterwards. I do not know that any member of the Church of England was imprisoned under the Com- monwealth, except for some political reason ; certain it is the jails were not filled with them." We conclude in the words of the Rev. Tal- bot Greaves, in a Tract of the Church Associ- ation. " One word more. There are some who seem to think that Spiritual and Evangelical Religion can best be advanced within the Church of England by withdrawing from her in a solemn protest against error. I cannot see it so. Should we not rather imitate our Lord ? He taught in the temple and He cleansed it. That temple was as corrupt as ever our Church can be, and His foreseeing eye saw how vain would all attempts at reformation prove, yet He taught in it and cleansed it, not once but twice. We cannot see the future. Our Layman's Handbook. 3,7 "anrrLTT/^' ^ <=''°^"^d with success At deL?eit'-trrsu,;" ''^ '^p'^ -"'-'- was with our Master w™^^ K^''"^ "^ ^'^ " the Te„,ple, and then' Z S tn"' °"! °' others ; but let u^ nr.f .f "-o™ will g,ve it to pating 'it. And le?° ^^l ^""^^^1 ^^ ''"'''=>- being%rmed witMhe Gospd'^of^",' "'' "^^' 'carrying the bow of the 1ni„V ^''T ""^^ back in the day of battle '• ^ ' ^"'"^^