VI.

OF THE SIGNS, OR SILENT CEREMONY.

WHATEVER may be accounted the fundamental cause, the fact is obvious, that mankind seem, always and everywhere, naturally to have laid hold of a certain symbolic language, to shadow forth to the mind's eye those deeper or stronger emotions and sentiments of the soul which are either too profound or too mighty to be completely expressed by spoken or written speech.

This symbolic tongue of the soul, ignoring all differences of time, of country, and of articulate sounds, is absolutely universal to man, and speaks with the same meaning to every nation, and every individual of the race. We might instance the bended knees and uplifted palms of worship and entreaty; beating the breast and wringing the hands in grief and despair; and so on through the deeper agitations, or more solemn transactions of civil, religious, and domestic life.'

This universal symbolic speech, the sacred Rite of Matrimony calls in largely to adumbrate, as

Read also the 6th chap. of Fairbairn's Typology of Scripturo

we have said, its most profound significance; and to asseverate, with all the certitude of which our present being is capable, the solemn covenants which are here undertaken.

THE SILENT CEREMONY.

I. "The persons to be married shall come into the body of the church, (or shall be ready in some proper house,) with their friends and neighbors."

II. "Standing together, the Man on the right hand, and the Woman on the left."

III. "The Minister receiving the Woman at her father's or friend's hands,"

IV. [(Ancient but now chiefly disused.) The virgin-bride is veiled, her hair is untied, both are crowned, the pallium, or bridal-canopy is thrown over both].

V. "Shall cause the Man with his right hand to take the Woman by her right hand."

VI. "The Woman with her right hand taking the Man by his right hand."

VII. "The Man shall give unto the Woman a Ring."

VIII. "The Minister taking the Ring shall deliver it unto the Man,"

IX. "To put it upon the fourth finger of the Woman's left hand."

X. [Both kneel. (An extra-rubrical propriety.)]

XI. "Then shall the Minister join their right hands together."

(The three following are disused in the Western Church.)

XII. Both taste the cup of love.

XIII. The bride-groom imprints the solemn kiss upon the lips of the bride.

XIV. The crowns are lifted from their heads and laid upon the altar.

XV. They rise from their knees, and withdraw arm in arm.

I. [The persons to be married shall come into the body of the church.] Three fundamental principles of holy Matrimony are symbolized, perhaps equally, in this action. First, the voluntary and complete change of condition, from that moment forward, when they arise and go forth from their separate homes to be joined together in undivided and indissoluble wedlock. Next, the unrestricted publicity' which they obviously seek in going to the open arena of "the great congregation." Third, the Religious sacredness of the union which they are careful to ratify at the house of God. All of which, but especially the last two, stand diametrically opposed to illicit cohabitation and intercourse.

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The medieval rubrics' directed that the man

Compare page 52.

'See the Sarum and all the old "Manuals."

!

and woman should at first take their stand "before the door of the church' in the presence of God the priest and the people ;" and here make their Espousals. After this contracting part of the service was over, if the Marriage vows were also to be assumed at that time, the bridal party marched from the church door to the "altar step," led by the priest saying the ancient Marriage psalm.' There, the pair "kneeling with heads deeply' inclined," and being commended by the Minister to the silent prayers of the company standing around, the service proceeded to the final benediction or gospel.

[Or shall be ready in some proper house.] This clause is peculiar to the American Book. For the reasons just stated, Christian propriety most decidedly prefers the consecrated house of God, as the place where so public and solemn and holy an engagement shall be transacted. Yet necessity has always been allowed to bend this rule'— as in the case of the prisoner, the sick, and of course all those in whose neighborhood no church edifice exists. Since the extension of the rubric in our country, it often yields to

Anto ostium ecclesia coram Deo et sacerdote et populo.
⚫ Sco Chap. vii.
• CXXVIIIth

Prostratis sponso et sponsa ante gradum altaris.

By special licence; in the Greek and Roman churches, from the Bishop: in England, from the Primate, the Chancellor, and certain other civil ollicers.

reasons less cogent and worthy-as a morbid modesty, a false taste, or mere convenience.

But of all other places than the church, for whatever reason chosen, beyond question the house of the bride's father or friend, is the least exceptionable in every aspect; and infinitely rather to be chosen on every ground of Christian propriety and sentiment, than the woods, or open lawn, the deck of a steamer, a hotel parlor, a stage-coach, or an ascending balloon. It seems to be often forgotten, that the established Christian proprieties, which are thus disregarded, are founded not in mere human caprice or taste, but in a humble and dutiful respect to the great Being who is the only source to which we can look for the unspeakable felicity which marriage duly contracted and conducted is capable of yielding, or to protect us from the unspeakable sorrows which an inauspicious marriage is capable of bringing around us.

[With their friends and neighbors.] The importance of this rubric is too often slighted. The greatest exertions should always be made to bring out as spectators of the Ceremony at least the whole of both circles of nearest relatives. Carelessness in this particular, though common, is more reprehensible than is generally felt. A transaction the most momentous of all temporal undertakings to the parties concerned, and in its

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