rding to His
own appointment, "a continual remembrance of the sacrifice of the death
of Christ" is "celebrated and made before the Divine Majesty," and as
the place where God "vouchsafes to feed us with the spiritual food of
the most precious Body and Blood of His Son our Saviour Jesus Christ."
All is done for His honor.

"'Tis for Thee we bid the frontal
Its embroidered wealth unfold;
'Tis for Thee we deck the reredos
With the colors and the gold;
Thine the floral glow and fragrance,
Thine the vesture's fair array,
Thine the starry lights that glitter
Where Thou dost Thy light display."

_The font._--The reverent administration of Holy Baptism, the other of
the two great Sacraments {42} ordained by Christ as generally necessary
to salvation, is provided for by the presence of the Font. As its name
indicates (from the Latin word for a fountain or spring), this is the
repository for the pure water which in this holy Sacrament is
"sanctified to the mystical washing away of sin." It is generally of
fine stone and often richly carved. Sometimes a separate room is
marked off from the rest of the church for it and called a
_baptistery_. There should always be, for proper protection, a cover
for the Font. A _ewer_ for the water to be used, and a _baptismal
shell_ with which to dip from the Font the water poured upon the head
of the person baptized, are frequently provided as seemly appointments.

The Font is often, following ancient custom, octagonal in form. The
symbolism of this form is this,--that "as the whole creation was
completed in seven periods of time, the number next following, eight,
may well be significative of the new creation," and, again, that the
octave, as a repetition of the first, is a symbol of Christ's
resurrection, and therefore of the "death unto sin and new birth unto
righteousness" in Holy Baptism.

The Font is usually placed near a door of the church. Its position
thus symbolizes the truth that Baptism is the outward form of admission
into the {43} Christian Church. It expresses what the child is taught
in the Church Catechism to say of Holy Baptism: "wherein I was made a
member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of
heaven."

Always in sight, the Font is a constant invitation by its very
presence, and shows that the Church is always ready to receive, and
desires to receive, new members "into the congregation of Christ's
flock."