Page:The first report, etc., of the Lichfield Society.djvu/21

Rh praises; and that those who regularly attend should have certain places assigned them for the occupation of themselves and their families. Almost all the new churches which I have seen, those, at least, which have been built within the last year or two, are fitted up in this way, with open sittings, facing eastward and ornamented with carved finials; and no one who has seen a church thus arranged, would be contented with the re-introduction of the modern square unsightly pews.

Another axiom in church-building, (at least, I trust, it is now acknowledged so,) is that there should be no galleries. I would not go so far as to assert, as some one has, that it is impossible to say one's prayers in a gallery; still, it is not too much to say, that all the associations of sitting in a gallery are that you are there to hear and not to take a part. Some, no doubt, will say that a great deal of "church accommodation" is lost if you have no galleries. To this I make the following answer. It is considered that a church ought to accommodate, at least, one-third of the inhabitants of the district or parish to which it is appropriated. If then you build a church crammed with galleries, and so arranged as to hold two thousand persons, you suppose a district of six thousand. It is possible that you might find a preacher with sufficient strength of lungs to perform the service for a year or two in such a church; most men would be incapacitated at the end of a few months. Still, even if he could perform the Public service in the church, he would be utterly unable to accomplish the Parochial duties. The people would still be sheep without a shepherd. And they who thought that they had provided for their religious wants would only be deceiving themselves.

Instead of this mode of proceeding, I would say—form a district in which a Priest, with an assistant Deacon, might profitably exercise his parochial functions; a district not containing more than two thousand souls; then build a church for seven or eight hundred. Such a number might easily be accommodated on the ground plan, and no gallery would be needed. Another collateral advantage would be that for this number so arranged, there would be no difficulty about the pulpit—which might be placed close to one of the pillars of the chancel arch, and all would be able to hear with ease.

There are other points in the internal arrangement of churches which demand a careful inquiry; and which it is very important should be rightly determined. The size and depth of the chancel is not the question of least difficulty: some very excellent writers who have done eminent service to Church Architecture, contending that the chancel