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

{11}

_The Church, the Place of Worship_

It would seem that at first Christians worshiped in any place which
they could use with safety. "But soon the Lord revealed Himself to the
world as the King of it, until in a few generations the earth was
covered with His shrines, and mines and forests and human skill offered
to Him their best gifts." "The custom of setting apart places and
houses as holy and dedicated to God's worship was ever a part of the
faith of God's people." Thus it was said to Israel in the wilderness,
"Let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them." Of the
building of the Temple Solomon says, "Behold, I purpose to build a
house unto the n