Prayer rug

“ About two hundred years ago small embroidered rugs were largely made in Persia, chiefly at Ispahan. These were prayer rugs, and on each of them, near one end, was a small embroidered mark to show where the bit of sacred earth from Mecca was to be placed. In obedience to a law in the Koran that the head must be bowed to the ground in prayer, this was touched by the forehead when the prostrations were made, and so the letter of the law was carried out. The custom still prevails. The Persian women who make the finest prayer rugs seldom weave any other kind of rug. ”

“ Its sheen should be judged by walking around it and considering it in various lights.
Note that with few exceptions the fringe and selvedge on a rug were not made for beauty but for protection. When the fringe is ropy, long, or uneven, or the selvedge eaten into or ragged, do not leave the rug to its unkemptness, but trim it religiously. A man should have his hair cut and put in order at proper times; and the propriety of this observance is commonly preached on very many prayer rugs, where the comb is prominently pictured, to remind the devout that “cleanliness is next to godliness.” ”

“ As the Mohammedans of Persia are unwilling that a Namazlik be trampled by the foot of an infidel, few from there can be bought; but the Mohammedans of other countries are less scrupulous, so that many of the prayer rugs sold in America have been made solely for trade and have never been used in worship. They may be beautiful, but special interest attaches to old pieces of which the well-worn nap shows where the knees of both father and son for over half a century have often pressed. ”

“ When I stand at Thine Altar, grant that I may have the profoundest sense of Thy Presence; take me, as it were, out of the world; shut the gate of my heart against it; lift up my spirit; let the house of prayer be unto me as a heavenly place; let the very rails of the altar remind me of my especial separation from the world; may I feel myself to be on holy ground; I cannot draw nearer unto Thee on the earth, may I feel Thy nearness. Till me with a sense of my own sins and Thy great love, of my own unworthiness and Thy mercy; for who can tell the love wherewith Thou hast loved us ”

“ Yet while by the light which shines in his own soul the seeker after God regards the outer chamber—its altar, its shewbread, its walls, and canopy—his thought passes beyond the veil. The altar is fashioned according to a pattern and used according to a law which God has given. It points to prayer, thanksgiving, devotion, that have their place in human life because facts exist out of which they arise—the beneficence, the care, the claims of God. The table of shewbread represents the spiritual provision made for the soul which cannot live but by every word that cometh out of the mouth of God. ”

“ There may be individual Christians under these roofs, who sigh and cry for the reigning ungodliness; or who, in some retired place, have set up an altar where God in Christ is worshipped, as has been done in a miserable cellar, in a home where no other place of prayer was allowed. ”

“ Cheap magnificence, meretricious show, is the order of the day; something pretty, something novel, calico hangings, sparkling lustres, paper pots, wax dolls, flounces and furbelows, glass cases, ribands, and lace, are the ornaments and materials usually employed to decorate, or rather disfigure, the altar of sacrifice and the holy place. It is impossible for church furniture and decoration to attain a lower depth of degradation, and it is one of the greatest impediments to the revival of Catholic truth. ”

“ Steps lead up to the altar. These were covered with rugs and carpets; for the feet of the bishop must tread only on velvet and flowers. Candelabra, vases, banners, crosses, crucifixes, flowers, and tall thin tapers—all the altars were crowded with such adornments. Human vanity and the love of surpassing one's neighbors, these also figured conspicuously among the things the fitfully shining sun looks down upon. But what a charm there is in such a contest! Surely the desire to beautify the spot on which the Blessed Sacrament rests this is only another way of professing one's adoration. ”

“ If it could be settled that certain forms of worship should be permitted at certain hours, no one could complain of being taken by surprise.
As to the distinctive dress at the Holy Communion, the question has really been brought within a very narrow compass. A prescription of such dresses applying to all churches is unquestionably found in a rubric of the Prayer Book of 1549, and is, as many contend, re-enacted in the existing ornaments rubric. ”

“ When this wonderful truth is made known, we are no longer astonished that God should assure us, by so many precious promises, that he will hear and answer our prayers. We are called the temples of the Holy Ghost. If the Holy Ghost dwell in us, to guide and direct us in all our ways, will he forsake us in so important a matter as prayer? O, then, what a solemn place is the Christian's closet, or the house of prayer! ”

“ I have shut the doors of my chamber and entered into my closet, that I might pray unto Thee in secret, for Thou hearest and lovest the secret prayer. No man seeth or heareth me; no man knoweth that I have come to pray ”

“ God has placed a love for the lovely in every human heart. He Himself—in all reverence be it spoken—has led the way. When designing furniture for the Tabernacle built for glory and for beauty in the far-away desert, He made it in the most artistic, most serviceable, and most simple of forms. Look at the description of those golden candlesticks, with their golden almond-shaped knops and elegant branches. Think of the curtains of scarlet and blue and purple, and fine twined linen. ”

“ Silk, satin, and velvet ornament the interior of the elegant edifice; the most delicate perfumes burn in each of its corners, and, in order further to embellish the altar on which the Holy Eucharist is to rest for a few minutes, there is a perfect coquetting with chaplets, festoons of gauze, crystal lamps of various colours, and transparencies through which the subdued rays of the sun shed their softened light. ”

“ By this time, twilight and gloom prevailed through the church: only a couple of wax-lights upon the altar throw wondrous and mighty shadows through the aisles: the angel that hangs down from the roof above the baptismal font is awoke into a solemn life by the shadows and the rays, and seems almost in the act of ascension: through the windows, the stars or the moon are beginning to peer: aloft, in the pulpit, which is now hid in gloom, the priest is inflamed and possessed by the sacred burden of glad tidings which he is announcing: he is lost and insensible to all besides ”

“ When the men come within about twenty paces of the altar, they all strip themselves of their upper garments at once and betake themselves to their devotions, praying thrice before they begin fowling. On the first day the first prayer is offered as they advance towards the chapel on their knees ”

“ We enter a dark, long passage leading to this cell of midnight vigils and occult research; the door slowly opens, I reverently enter upon—heaps of tinsel leaves and flowers, with scissors and glue and all the paraphernalia for flower-making; piles of bouquets lie on the bed, all with silver leaves exactly alike, and each one with a brick-red rose in the centre. They are to decorate the church on Easter Sunday; they are the only proofs of piety and science and lore that the sanctum of our jolly priest possesses. ”

“ To burn our incense upon this altar we must come very near to the mercy-seat, to the vail, to the holy of holies. Faith in the merits of a Redeemer emboldens us to take this place. It is most holy ground we stand on when we offer our praises and prayers upon this altar. We are close to God. The incense-cloud ascends, and penetrates the inner sanctuary. We gain a fellowship and communion with God. Faith brings us to cordial intimacy [Pg 183] with God. Such is the nature of that acceptable worship which was so vividly symbolized by the burning incense in the holy place before the mercy-seat. ”

“ We offer on the earthly Altar the same Sacrifice that is being perpetually offered on the Heavenly Altar. There is only one Altar, only one Sacrifice, one Eucharist—"one offering, single and complete". All the combined earthly Altars are but one Altar—the earthly or visible part of the Heavenly Altar on which He, both Priest and Victim, offers Himself as the Lamb "as it had been slain". The Heavenly Altar is, as it were, the centre, and all the earthly Altars the circumference. We gaze at the Heavenly Altar through the Earthly Altars. ”

“ Man's heart has found a home and resting-place in this vale of tears. To us the altar is the vestibule of heaven, and the Host its open door.
Yes, and to us the words of the prophet, when he calls the reign of Antichrist "the abomination of desolation," because the Daily Sacrifice shall then be taken away, has a peculiar fitness. It is our delight now to think that, as the sun in its course brings daylight to each successive spot on earth, it ever finds some priest girding himself to go up to the Holy Altar ”

“ Each of these gilds had, usually in its parish church, a chapel, or at least an altar of its own, where, for its peculiar service, it kept one if not several priests and clerics, provided, too, with every needful liturgical appliance, articles of which were frequently the spontaneous offering of individual brothers, who sometimes clubbed together for the purpose of thus making their joint gift more splendid. Now it is most remarkable that upon this cope, and quite apart from the sacred story on it, we have two figures, that to the left, pranked out in the gay attire of some rich layman ”

“ First, that veiled altar and ardent lamps tell of the divine presence abiding among men: ecce tabernaculum Dei cum hominibus. What sanctity this imparts to the whole fabric, and how dead do even the most stupendous churches appear when denuded of the sacramental presence; the ground itself in such a place is holy: not only the disposition of the fabrick itself, but every enrichment, every detail harmonises in setting forth one grand illustration of the faith. ”

“ If the whole sanctuary and altar-steps cannot be covered, at least the predella of the high altar, and of the other altars should have a rug (Cærem. Episc., I, xii, 16) . Exceptions to this rule: (1) From the time of stripping the altars on Maundy Thursday to Holy Saturday the carpets are removed. They are replaced on Holy Saturday before the Mass. (2) During solemn Requiem Masses the floor of the sanctuary and the altar-steps are to be bare although a suitable rug may be placed on the predella and, when a bishop celebrates, in front of the faldstool (Cærem. Episc., II, xi, 1) . ”

“ Concerning which altar the Lord commandeth in Leviticus: 'The fire shall always be burning upon Mine altar.' [Footnote 223] The fire is charity. The altar is a clean heart. The fire shall always burn on the altar, because charity should always burn in our hearts. Whence Solomon in the Canticles: 'Many waters cannot extinguish charity,' [Footnote 224] for that which ever burneth cannot be extinguished. Do thou, therefore, as the prophet commandeth, keep holy day and a solemn assembly, even to the horns of the altar: because the rest of thy thoughts will keep holy day. ”

“ The sacristy was a jumble of prayer books, vestments, broken rosaries, crucifixes, and pictures. An ink pot and pen lay on a broken table beside a blotting pad. A lamp which once hung from the roof was beside them, smashed to atoms. ”

“ Mass is never said except on an altar, fixed or portable, set aside for that particular purpose by the solemn prayer and benediction of a bishop. The altar is always covered with linen cloths, and generally contains relics of saints. As the mass is commemorative of our Saviour’s passion and death upon the cross; to put the priest and people in mind of these, there is always an image of Christ crucified upon the altar. ”

“ The wealthy Mohammedan rulers vied with each other in taking with them on their pilgrimage to Mecca rugs of the finest materials and choicest designs for presentation to the mosque, the whole interior of which was usually hung with carpets, beautiful and costly beyond description. Many of these so-called mosque rugs were of the Shiraz class. It is still the custom in some parts of the Orient to give rugs to the mosque as thank offerings for special blessings received and frequently the Mohammedan bequeaths a rug when he dies to the mosque where he worshipped. ”

“ I have made over an old carpet for the platform, helped to buy chairs, Bible and communion table, so that when our pulpit comes we shall be nicely fixed. Our hall is very large and rather dreary without any pulpit furniture. Nobody knows but those who have worked in the field, how great are the obstacles in the way of forming a colored Congregational church. We have the same jealousy and bitter feeling from the churches around us that there is farther South. ”

“ And the answer will be, because the church is the edifice where God in the holy Mass daily renews the prodigies of His mercy, and it can never be worthy of His love; because God, who sacrificed Himself for us, is ever with us in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar, to soothe our cares and answer our prayers. Yes, the grand feature of the Catholic Church is the holy altar. On the altar is the tabernacle for the residence of the Lord of Hosts. ”

“ Wherefore, if we be the Temple of God, 'we {120} have an altar.' [Footnote 431] Our altar is our heart: for the heart is in a man what the altar is in a temple. On this altar is made the sacrifice of praise and joy, according to the saying of the Psalmist: 'The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,' etc. [Footnote 432] On this altar is made the commemoration of the Body and Blood of Christ. From it do prayers rise to heaven, because God looketh to the heart. This altar, therefore, is sprinkled with water when the hearts of men, by means of the preaching of the gospel, are cleansed from sin. ”