en observances; if so, it without doubt _originated_ in the Jewish
practice. The service within the church was conducted with all the means
at command for rendering it complete. Music was cultivated--antiphonal
singing, or singing in responses, practised. The clergy wore vestments
symbolical of their offices, each form and colour having its significant
meaning. Candles were burning continually at the altar, as in the holy
place of the temple, symbolising God's presence in the church. Every
part of the building was designed to form a proportionate whole, and the
principle of dedicating to the house of God the best works of men's hands
was admitted, the embellishment of His temple being then deemed of
superior importance to the decoration of individual dwelling-houses.

Transubstantiation had not polluted the table of the Lord by its
presence; the _mystery_ of the _spiritual_ presence of the Lord in the
Eucharist, appealing to _faith_, had not been replaced by the _miracle_,
directed to the carnal senses. Images had no place in the house of God,
picture worship was unknown. Confession of sins was practised, and
penances were imposed, as tests of the sincerity of repentance; at the
celebration of the Eucharist offerings were presented, in memory of the
dead who in their lives had offered gifts to God; fasting was observed,
but only from choice, and Sunday and the feast of Pentecost were the only
_festivals_ and holy-days observed. Gradually, however, after the
alliance of the church with the state, and through the accession of
converts from the heathen world, grosser elements mingled themselves with
these observances; the superstition that the spirits of the saints
hovered around the mortal remains they had tenanted, led to the removal
of their bodies from their tombs, and placing them within the walls of
the church, and to the erection of shrines, where, first to offer up
worship _with_ them, afterwards _to_ them.

And who among us cannot feel the poetry and truth that gave birth to this
superstition? Who that has ever watched in the chamber of death the
bursting of the earthly chrysalis, has not felt the soft touch of the
spirit's wing, has not been conscious of the presence of the
spiritualized immortal, has not recognized the fragrance of the soul
passing from its earthly habitation, and filling the air with the essence
of its life, as the sweet scent of the flower when its perfect fruition
has been accomplish