You will see the reason for thus making the Altar a place of dignity and beauty, and for these various provisions for reverence in the sacred rite celebrated there, if you will recall what we have already seen of its meaning. We show honor to and reverence the Altar and its worship as the place and the performance of the highest act of divine worship, in which, by the ministry of His Church and according 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 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 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."
It should always remind those who have been baptized of the grace of their second birth, when they were made "members of Christ," and of their duty, "being made the children of God, to walk answerably to their Christian calling."
It should call to remembrance that "baptism doth represent unto us our profession; which is, to follow the example of our Saviour Christ, and to be made like unto Him; that as He died, and rose again for us, so should we, who are baptized, die from sin, and rise again unto righteousness." That is the main profession or business of a Christian man, and the Font, where Baptism constantly represents our Lord's death and rising again for us, should ever remind us of it and call us afresh to "mortify all our evil and corrupt affections, and daily proceed in all virtue and godliness of living."
The Lectern.—The lectern, supporting the large Bible from which the Lessons are read, bears witness to the esteem in which our Church holds the Sacred Scriptures. It is worthy of note that our Church makes larger provision for the people "to hear God's most holy Word" than any other religious body in the world. Almost the whole Bible—some parts of it several times—is read publicly every year. Lessons from the Old Testament were read in the service of the synagogue. Our Lord's example shows how properly we follow this ancient custom of reading Scripture lessons in public worship: "As His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Esaias."