ing twice, "Have mercy upon us," and the third time,
"Grant us Thy peace." The anthem is found in Edward VI.'s First
Prayer Book.

AGNOSTICISM. A school of thought which denies that we can know
anything of God, or of a future state. It does not say that there
is no God, but simply that it is impossible for us to know anything
of God. It would do away with all revelation and theology, and make
us think of God as the great Unknown and Unknowable.

AISLE. From a Latin word, meaning a _wing_. The lateral division
of the choir, nave, or transept of a church.

ALB, _see_ Vestments.

ALLELUIA or HALLELUJAH. A Hebrew word, meaning _Praise ye the Lord_.

ALL SAINTS' DAY. Nov. 1st. On this day the Church commemorates all
the known and unknown departed Christian worthies, and the communion
of the Church triumphant with the Church as yet militant on earth.
It is called also All Hallows Day.

ALMONER. One who has the distribution of alms to the needy. In
monasteries it was the officer who had charge of the Almonry, or
room where alms were distributed. The Lord High Almoner is a Prelate
who has the disposing of the alms of the sovereign.

ALMS. Relief given out of pity to the poor. In ecclesiastical
language, the money collected during the Offertory. Alms should be
collected every Sunday, whether there is a communion or not, as the
rubric directs. The disposal of the alms rests with the clergyman
and churchwardens, when there is an offertory, _i.e._, when the
offertory sentences are read (see Rubric). Collections made at other
times seem to be at the Clergyman's sole disposal.

ALTAR; LORD'S TABLE; HOLY TABLE; COMMUNION TABLE. Disputes have
frequently arisen as to whether the Holy Table was to be called the
_Communion Table_ or the _Altar_. Bingham writes--"The ancient
writers used both names indifferently; some calling it Altar, others
the Lord's Table, the Holy Table, the Mystical Table, the Tremendous
Table, &c., and sometimes both Table and Altar in the same sentence.
Ignatius, Irenaeus, Origan, and Tertullian all call it Altar. It is
certain that they did not mean by Altar what the Jews and heathen
meant: either an altar dressed up with images, or an altar for
bloody sacrifices. In the first sense they rejected altars, both
name and thing. But for their own mystical, unbloody sacrifice, as
they called the Eucharist, they always owned they had an altar."

In our Prayer Book it is styled the _Table_, the _Holy Table_, a