Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/584

 RELIGION 560 alight with innumerable candles and filled with the gorgeously robed clergy, and at their head the Pope, a service in the chapel, with the wondrous notes of the organ and the lovely singing of the choir, cannot fail to impress the stranger very forcibly. St. Peter's is claimed by the Italians as the finest cathedral of the world. At ten o'clock precisely on Christ- mas Day, the mas- sive centre door being thrown open, music begins, and the grand procession of the day approaches. The great church is full of light, partly shed by the hundreds of ever-burning lamps round St. Peter's shrine and partly by the light streaming through the great coloured windows. The well into which legend says the star fell after the Na On comes the pro- cession, bishops in purple and rich lace, canons in white, minor canons in grey fur capes, priests and deacons, and one hundred acolytes wearing silver buckled shoes and surplices. Red-robed cardinals in vest- ments of cloth of gold, adorned with precious stones, precede the Pope's chair, borne high on the shoulders of his bearers. With thumb and two extended fingers, to symbolise the Trinity, the Pope blesses the congregation. At the high altar, a little in front of the attendant clergy, the Pope celebrates High Mass. When the Host is elevated, the crowds sink on their knees in silent worship. When High Mass is ended, the Pope, on his chair, is borne out of the cathedral on the opposite side of the nave, and again with extended hand blesses the crowd of worshippers. In Naples the Festa Natalizie, as Christmas is called, is celebrated with much rejoicing. Mirth and laughter prevail ; but at midnight, when the toll of the church bell announces the hour of Mass, all fun and frolic ceases, the streets are de- serted, and every church is filled with devout worshippers, who on their knees celebrate the birth of the Saviour. In Spain, Christ- mas is a two-days holiday. Nocha- buena, as Christmas Eve is called, is cele- brated by the civil and military authori- ties by visiting all prisoners, in com- pany with their advocates, and there and then liberate all those who have been imprisoned for light offences. Everyone is in the street on Nocha- buena, and at mid- night the gaily lit with worshippers for Mass. This service is universal in Spain, and is called the Misa del Gallo, or Cock-crow Mass. There are three Masses on Christmas Day, and the Church rule, strictly observed, is, that if a man fails to attend the Misa del Gallo he must, to save his religious character, attend all three on Christmas Day. The Russian Church is solemn in its cele- bration of Christmas. It sternly sets its face against " fiendish songs " and " devilish games." But the worshippers, after taking part devoutly in church services, tenacious of old customs, return to their revelries amid the protestation of their priests. In Germany and Austria Christmas is eminently a festival of homely associations. At Christmas morning services families indifferent or long estranged meet in kindly feeling of goodwill. churches are crowded WOMAN'S WORIi AMOMG OUM. SAILORS By FLORENCE BOHUN The Great Work of Miss Agnes Weston and Miss Wintz in Establishing Sailors' Rests- Miss Weston's Work among Sailors — The Formulation and Development of her Great Scheme — Royal Patronage — Th; Present Dimensions of the Movement a temperance house for bluejackets close to the dockyard gates ; "a public -house with- out the drink " was what they wanted. For six years Miss Weston had been helping the men of the Navy, writing them letters, greeting them as they came off the ships, holding Sunday afternoon meetings on board the men-of-war lying at anchor off Devonport and Portsmouth. But she had not considered permanent or regular work among sailors, and for some little time she TJntil the latter part of the nineteenth century the British sailor on shore had no better shelter to go to than the " grog-shop," where in less than a week he could spend two or three years' savings. Two brave women altered all this, and have given every bluejacket a " home " on shore. To Miss Agnes Weston and her assistant. Miss Wintz, all this magnificent work is due. It was in 1874 that some of the crew of H.M.S. Dryad asked Miss Weston to open