only by
our lips in the act of worship, but also by our lives, in deeds.

So, also, the spirit of Christ is the spirit of service, through love,
in behalf of others--the spirit of true fellowship. Now we cannot
realize that spirit without sacrifice of selfish inclination and
desire. We saw that the main body of the church {25} represents that
portion of Christ's Church which is on earth, and that the nave
suggests the idea of fellowship as the very spirit and law of the
Christian life. Now the transepts, making the cross, tell us that
fellowship expresses itself truly, that is, after Christ's example,
through sacrifice. "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love
one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." The
true Christian life of loving fellowship, after the example of our
Saviour who died upon the Cross for us, must get somehow, in
self-denial for Christ and self-forgetful work for others, the sign of
the Cross worked into it.

_The Chancel._--The body of the church, as we have seen, is regarded as
representing the "Church militant," that part of the Church which is
here on earth and still in conflict. The chancel represents that part
of the Church which is made up of those who have passed through death
to the state beyond.

The word "chancel" is derived from the Latin word for the lattice-work
which formerly parted this portion of the church from the nave. It is
the same word from which we get our word "to cancel," that is, to
destroy a writing by crossing it out with the pen, which makes
something like the figure of a lattice. The lattice was part of the
screen {26} (sometimes called the "rood-screen," from the rood or
crucifix upon it) which in some churches stood in the arch and divided
the chancel from the nave. The screen signified death. Men passed
through it from the nave into the chancel, as they must pass through
death from the part of the Church which is on earth to the part which
is in the world of spirits.

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

_The Choir._--As its name denotes, the choir is that part appropriated
to those who lead the worship. It is cut off by the screen, or chancel
arch, from the nave, and is elevated above it by several steps. In the
symbolism of the church building it represents that part of the holy
Catholic Church which is known as the "Church expectant"--those who
have passed through death into the res