Page:The Parson's Handbook - 2nd ed.djvu/25

Rh one of the signs of the New Covenant. The birth of the Fore-runner was announced to his father when ‘his lot was to burn incense,’ a singularly inopportune moment from the Puritan point of view. One of the three significant gifts offered to our Lord at His birth was incense. In the Revelation an account is given of the ideal worship of the redeemed, by one who, more than any other man, had opportunities of knowing our Lord’s mind upon the subject. Now the worship he describes is again ritualistic; and the use of no less than twenty-eight ‘bowls’ of incense is mentioned. It is mentioned again three chapters further on in a manner that is significant; for it is then used ceremonially at the altar. The angel stands ‘at (or over) the altar, having a golden censer,’ he is given ‘much incense,’ to ‘add it unto the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar.’ ‘And the smoke of the incense, with (or for) the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand.’ The Sarum Missal itself hardly gives a more complete description of the ceremonial use of incense.

2. The next step towards arriving at the mind of the English Church is to read the Title-page of the Prayer Book, where, if anywhere, one might expect to find a succinct description of its contents. As a matter of fact we do find such a description:—