A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

Than sing a hopeless dirge, or coldly chide

The faith that owns relief from earthly woe.

The last line of this quotation suggests another point to which attention must be directed, viz. the fact of our returning thanks to Almighty God for having “delivered our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world.” How, it is asked, can this be done with sincerity, at the very time when the tears and moans of weeping friends seem to belie the assertion? And we answer, it is because the Church assumes that those who attend her services are under the influence of Christian faith; and of Christian faith a most important part consists in the belief of God’s especial providence. Except by God’s permission, the true Christian believes that not a sparrow can fall to the ground, not a hair on our head can perish; and the true Christian also believeth that God doth not willingly afflict the children of men, but that when he chasteneth, he doth it even as a father chasteneth his child, for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. Suppose that a parent be taken in the vigour of his strength, from a loving wife and helpless little ones,—and this is, perhaps, the severest dispensation we can conceive:—that the desolate and the destitute should grieve is natural. And are they to be blamed for this? No; for at the grave of Lazarus our blessed Lord groaned in his spirit and wept. Why, indeed, is affliction sent? Is it not sent for this very purpose—to make us grieve? And while affliction is impending, we may pray that it may be averted. Did not the Lord Jesus do the same? Thrice, in his agony, he prayed that the cup of sorrow might be removed from him; thereby affording us an example, that we may pray for the turning away of a calamity,—though at the same time affording us an example to say, when the prayer has not been granted, “Father, not my will, but thine be done.” And if the petition, the petition for the life of a parent or a friend, has not been granted, why has it been unheeded by the Father of mercies? The faith of the true Christian answers, even because God foresaw that it would be more conducive to the everlasting welfare of the lost one, the everlasting welfare of his desolate wife, to the everlasting welfare of his destitute children, that he should be taken at the very time he was. This, says the heart of faith, is mysterious in our eyes, but it is the Lord’s doing; it is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. It is thus that, in the midst of sighs and groans, the Christian spirit can give God thanks while nature weeps, grace consoles, and faith assures us that what has been done is right.

GALILEE. An appendage of some of our large churches is traditionally known by this name, and is supposed to be connected with some purposes of discipline, and to have borrowed its name from the words of the angel at the sepulchre to the women, “Go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee, there shall ye see him, as he said unto you.” (Mark xvi. 7.) The churches where a Galilee occurs are Durham, Lincoln, and Ely; but they have little in common except the name. That at Ely agrees with that at Durham in being at the west end of the church, but it differs in being to all appearance a mere porch of entrance, while that at Durham is a spacious building with five aisles and three altars; and, so far from its use being as a porch of entrance, the great west entrance was actually closed in the fifteenth century, while the Galilee in all probability retained its original use. That at Lincoln is at the south-west corner of the south transept; it is cruciform in plan, and has over it another chamber of the like size, once apparently arranged as a court of judicature, which favours the idea that the Galilee had some connexion with discipline. This was certainly the case at Durham, for there the consistory court has been held from time immemorial: and there Cardinal Langton erected a font for the children of persons who were excommunicate. But this was nearly 300 years after the building of the Galilee, which was certainly erected by Hugh Pudsey in the twelfth century, that women, who were allowed to proceed but a short distance into that particular church, might have a place where they might frequent the Divine ordinances; and this in itself had something of the nature of discipline. It may be worth noticing in addition, that all the three Galilees still remaining were erected between the middle of the twelfth and the middle of the thirteenth century.

GALLICAN CHURCH. (See Church of France.)

GARGOYLE, or GURGOYLE. A water spout, usually in Gothic buildings formed of some grotesque figure.

GEHENNA. The true origin and occasion of this word is this: there was an idol of Moloch, near Jerusalem, in the Valley of Hinnom, to which they offered human sacrifices. The Rabbis say, that they were wont to beat a drum, lest the people should hear the cries of the children that were thrown into the fire when they sacrificed them to idols. This valley was called Geenon, from Ge, which signifies a valley, and Ennom, which comes from Nahom, that signifies to groan; therefore hell, the place of eternal fire, is called Gehenna. The ancient writers did not make use of this word, and it was first used in the gospel.

GENERATION, THE ETERNAL. (See Eternity.) It is thus that the filiation without beginning of the Only Begotten of the Father is expressed.

The distinction of a threefold generation of the Son is well known among the learned, and is thus explained:—1. The first and most proper filiation and generation is his eternally existing in and of the Father, the eternal Λόγος of the eternal Mind. In respect of this, chiefly, he is the only begotten, and a distinct person from the Father. His other generations were rather condescensions, first to creatures in general, next to men in particular. 2. His second generation was his condescension, manifestation, coming forth, as it were, from the Father, (though never separated or divided from him,) to create the world: this was in time, and a voluntary thing; and in this respect, properly, he may be thought to be first-born of every creature, or before all creatures. 3. His third generation, or filiation, was when he condescended to be born of a pure virgin, and to become man also without ceasing to be God.—Waterland.

The second person of the Trinity is called the Son, yea, and the “only begotten Son of God,” because he was begotten of the Father, not as others are, by spiritual regeneration, but by eternal generation, as none but himself is, for the opening whereof we must know that God that made all things fruitful is not himself sterile or barren; but he that hath given power to animals to generate and produce others in their own nature, is himself much more able to produce one, not only like himself, but of the self-same nature with himself, as he did in begetting his Son, by communicating his own unbegotten essence and nature to him. For the person of the Son was most certainly begotten of the Father, or otherwise he would not be his Son; but his essence was unbegotten, otherwise he would not be God; and therefore the highest apprehensions that we can frame of this great mystery, the eternal generation of the Son of God, is only by conceiving the person of the Father to have communicated his Divine essence to the person of the Son; and so of himself begetting his other self the Son, by communicating his own eternal and unbegotten essence to him; I say, by communicating of his essence, not of his person to him (for then they would be both the same person, as now they are of the same essence); the essence of the Father did not beget the Son by communicating his person to him, but the person of the Father begat the Son by communicating his essence to him; so that the person of the Son is begotten, not communicated, but the essence of the Son is communicated, not begotten.