The consecrated bread and wine still are worshipped as being the body of
the Lord. When the priest consecrates the bread and wine on the altar
for the Communion Service, sometimes a part of it is reverently kept
back and is called the reserved sacrament; this reserved sacrament is
conjured with. It is placed in a small box of ornate workmanship called
a shrine or tabernacle, and is deposited on an altar in the church,
which is called "God’s resting-place," and is worshipped as the body of
our Lord.
In preference, a secluded and quiet place in the church is chosen for
the altar of the reserved sacrament. "Admirable arrangements have been
made in some English churches. In one church there is a side-chapel
somewhat out of sight from the main entrance of the church. In another
there is a crypt chapel.... In another there is a chapel reached by
steps ascending from the church. By such arrangements, when the door of
the chapel is kept unlocked and the fact of reservation is known, there
is at once protection to the sacred presence of our Lord, and
accessibility to those who will use it well." To these lonely
side-altars in shadowy places of the sanctuary at any hour during the
day stray worshippers come and kneel before the tabernacle and worship
the body of Christ enclosed therein. "All that Christ can claim of
human love and adoration is due to Him in His sacramental presence,"
says an Oxford advocate of the intruding heresy; "the worship which the
Christian soul pays to Him when the sacrament is consecrated is paid
also as it is reserved. It includes the utmost response of which the
soul is capable."
In past times plain-speaking people called these worshippers of the
sacrament idolaters. That word may reveal the thoughts of many hearts
to-day. Dr. Darwell Stone, in his book "The Reserved Sacrament,"
advocates an ample toleration widely extended in the Church of England
on behalf of these idolaters. Facing the accusation of idolatry cast by
his opponents, he throws out a challenge. Speaking of those who make
the charge of idolatry, "from their own point of view," he states, "they
are perfectly right. If the consecrated elements are only bread and
wine after consecration as before, whatever gifts or virtues may be
attached to the profitable reception of them, those who imagine that
they are worshipping our Lord are wholly wrong in seeking the object of
their adoration in His presence in the Sacrament. But if it be true
that by consecration the bread and wine become His Body and Blood, if
our Lord Himself, eternal God, very Man, glorified, spiritual, risen,
ascended, is present in the Sacrament, then in the adoration there is no
idolatry, but rather the worship which is the bounden duty of a
Christian."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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