build, it, then, into the daily life, as it is built into the very stones of the church.

The Transepts.—The transepts are the part of the church which gives to the building the cruciform shape. Crossing the nave before the entrance to the chancel, running the one to the north, the other to the south, they complete the outline of the cross. Upon the arms of such a cross our Saviour hung as He died for us.

The transepts may bring us, then, as we remember this, the thought of sacrifice, that our lives to be truly Christian must have the spirit of the Cross worked into them. It was by offering Himself in sacrifice that Christ redeemed us, and it is by offering ourselves to Him in sacrifice, by self-denial for His cause, and by doing good (at some cost to ourselves) to others for His sake, that we make the response He asks to His love. That offering of ourselves must be made not only by our lips in the act of worship, but also by our lives, in deeds.

So, also, the spirit of Christ is the spirit of service, through love, in behalf of others—the spirit of true fellowship. Now we cannot realize that spirit without sacrifice of selfish inclination and desire. We saw that the main body of the church represents that portion of Christ's Church which is on earth, and that the nave suggests the idea of fellowship as the very spirit and law of the Christian life. Now the transepts, making the cross, tell us that fellowship expresses itself truly, that is, after Christ's example, through sacrifice. "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." The true Christian life of loving fellowship, after the example of our Saviour who died upon the Cross for us, must get somehow, in self-denial for Christ and self-forgetful work for others, the sign of the Cross worked into it.

The Chancel.—The body of the church, as we have seen, is regarded as representing the "Church militant," that part of the Church which is here on earth and still in conflict. The chancel represents that part of the Church which is made up of those who have passed through death to the state beyond.

The word "chancel" is derived from the Latin word for the lattice-work which formerly parted this portion of the church from the nave. It is the same word from which we get our word "to cancel," that is, to destroy a writing by crossing it out with the pen, which makes something like the figure of a lattice. The lattice was part of the screen (sometimes called the "rood-screen," from the rood or crucifix upon it) which in some churches stood in the arch and divided the chancel from the nave. The screen signified death. Men passed through it from the nave into the chancel, as they must pass through death from the part of the Church which is on earth to the part which is in the world of spirits.

In the chancel itself we have two parts—the choir and the sanctuary.

The Choir.—As its name denotes, the choir is that part appropriated to those who lead the worship. It is cut off by the screen, or chancel arch, from the nave, and is elevated above it by several steps. In the symbolism of the church building it represents that part of the holy Catholic Church which is known as the "Church expectant"—those who have passed through death into the rest and waiting of Paradise.

Let us see what the Prayer-Book says of those who are in Paradise. In the Burial Office we have this prayer: "Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of those who depart hence in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity; We give Thee hearty thanks for the good examples of all those Thy servants, who, having finished their course in faith, do now rest from their labors. And we beseech Thee, that we, with all those who are departed in the true faith of Thy holy Name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in Thy eternal and everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

Note how the closing portion reminds us that while the departed "do now rest from their labors," they have not yet received their "perfect consummation and bliss"; that they wait for this till the coming of our Lord and the Resurrection, when it shall be "both in body and soul," "in eternal and everlasting glory." We speak of them, therefore, as composing the "Church expectant."

Now observe what the same prayer tells us of their state while thus resting and waiting in expectation of their perfect consummation and bliss. It says, "The souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity."

This same symbolic meaning for this part of the chancel may come to us in another way, that is, from the services which are conducted from it, Morning and Evening Prayer, which are commonly known, therefore, as the "Choir Offices." These look beyond the choir, which represents the "Church expectant" in Paradise, to the sanctuary, with its Altar, which represents, as we shall see, heaven and the "Church triumphant." The central point of the Church's worship is the great sacrificial act of the oblation of the Holy Eucharist. Upon this the other services of Morning Prayer and the Litany, which precede, and of Evening Prayer, which follows, depend for their significance; the first as preparation for it, and the second as an act of thanksgiving and praise; just as the "felicity" of those in Paradise is a felicity not perfect in itself, but one of anticipation of, and preparation and thankfulness for, the "perfect consummation and bliss" which await them.

And the dominant note of these services is keyed to that same idea. It is a note of "joy." There are indeed strongly marked features of penitence and need. We come before God in our worship as those who are sinful and needy. We ever make approach through the sacrifice of the Cross. But we come also as those who have confidence in divine love and mercy. So praise, joyous praise, predominates. The Te Deum, the Benedicite, the Benedictus, the Jubilate, all ring out this note and give joyousness to the service, while Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis tell of rejoicing and hope in what Christ has brought us by His Incarnation.

It is all a worship of preparation and joy. The choir may remind us, then, by its suggestiveness as related to the other parts of the church, and by the dominant note of joy which rings through its services, how the faithful departed go at death into the "joy and felicity" of Paradise, there to wait, as the "Church expectant," for the Resurrection and their "perfect consummation and bliss", that the "Church expectant" and the "Church militant" are not two Churches, but the one Church of Christ in two places and in two states, on earth and in Paradise, fighting and waiting; that they have still "mystic sweet communion" in praise and worship and prayer—the Church in Paradise leading our worship as the choir leads the worship of the congregation.

So, again, the choir may impress upon our minds how joy has place in the Christian life: that Christianity is not a religion of gloom, but of joy; that if Christ says, "Come, take up the cross, and follow Me," He says also, "My yoke is easy, and My burden is light," because the way of the Cross is the way into true joy.

So we pass through the transepts, which speak to us of self-sacrifice, into the choir, which speaks to us of joy. So long as self is first, the best and truest joy is shut out of our lives; but when self has been crucified, and love is first,—love that delights to serve, and that believes still in the