Bridgeton pioneer., 1885-11-26
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

1t would, of course, be impossible for
America to reproduce anything which
exactly resembled the ancient Abbey
of st. Peters, One of the sources of its
infinite charm rests in the fact that it
grew gradually and almost fortuitously
into its present form and its present
uses. 1t serves the double object of a
mausoleum for the greatest of our
dead and of a cathedral where many
thousands are constantly assembled
to join in stately choral services and
hear the preaching of Gods word 1t
was not originally designed to fulfil
either object. 1t was the church of a
monastery not intended for the deliv-
cry of sermons to great crowds of peo-
pie, or for the ordinary quiet worship
of multitudes, but rather for the every
day services of the monks and for
great occasional professions and TIE
Deum. Nor was it originally meant
as burial place for the dead. The
bones of the sainted COnfessor were
there laid to rest, and during genera
tion after generation kings and mobiles
and great eccesiasticS and victorious
heroes desired to be buried around
his shrine. The great majority of the
graves and cenotaphs which attract
so many visitors are the accumulation
of the last three centuries, and the
worshippers, who often amount to
many hundreds even on ordinary week
days, have begun to frequent the choir
and transepts and nave in compara-
lively recent times
Much of the spell exercised by the
Abbey depends on the beauty of its
architecture. This can never be re-
produced. A copy or an imitation
produces but small effect and does not
spring from the same feeling which
give grandeur to the original. The
Abbey is the visible expression of an
intense absorbing faith. 1t reminds
us of all that is solemn in life; it was
meant to fill our minds with thoughts
of death, judgment and eternity. 1t is
symbolical in its minutest details.
The predominance of the numbers
three and seven had a mystic signif-
canoe. They indicate the Triune God
and the ''seven lamps burning before
the throne which are the seven spirits
of God" To the mind of a thoughtful
medieval monk the whole building
would appear to be a constant re-
minder of the Trinity in Unity and of
God in Christ. The triple height,
arches, triforium, clere story; the
triple length-Dave, choir, sacrarium,
the triple breadth-nave and two
aisles; choir and two ambulatories:
lantern and two would
speak to him of God, three in one.
The cruciform shape would continually
remind him of the sacrifice of Christ.
The nave represented the ship of the
church, the angels of the arches were
the elnblems of the church invisible,
the hideous gargoyles stood for the eX-
cluded demons. The chapels cluster
ing round the altar indicated the
Apostles gathered round the Cross and
generally the communion of saints
So completely was the symbolism
carried out that the line of pillars at
the altar, in the original Abbey of the
Confessor, detected a little to the
right, Gas is the case also in some other
cathedrals) to indicate the head of
Jesus declining on the shoulder in the
agony of death. To a sovereign like
Henry Ill, the builder of the chief
part of the Abbey in its present condi-
ton, all this religious symbolism was
as intensely real as it was to the monks
themselves. 1t would be vain, it
would even be impossible in an age
like this, an age of religious divisions
and OF common skepticism, to initiate
the architecture which expressed the
devotional feelings of an age of uni
form religion and universal faith.
There, then, is an initial difficulty in
the way of securing for America Il
Westminster Abbey. Could it be a
sacred building? If SO, to which of the
sects or churches would it belong? If
the services of one church were held
in it, would not the representatives of
all other religious bodies demand the
same privilege? On the other hand, if
the building were not consecrated to
worship it would lose half of its sane
tity.
Nature will always take the color of
the spectacles we wear. Those who
choose to wear yellow ones are likely
to die of the jaundice; they who pre-
fer rOSe-cOlOred ones make life n Glad