Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Plain Suggestions for a Reverent Celebration of the Holy Communion: Fond Du Lac Tracts
For the very practical reason that the priest may be the better heard, as well as the symbolical one of the ascent to Calvary, it is customary to raise the altar on one or more steps. Save in very small churches or chapels, three steps of from four to six inches in height will be found a convenient number. As the priest is obliged, by the directions of the prayer-book, for the most part to stand while engaged in the altar service, it is important that the altar should be of sufficient height to enable him, in a standing posture, easily to read the altar-book.
This matter demands attention, because in por tions of the communion service both of the priest's hands are so occupied that he cannot take the book into them; and one cause of the not infrequent injury done to a clergyman's throat is his being often constrained to read in unnatural positions.
Three feet four to five inches is a good height for an altar. An altar lower than this will compel a priest of average stature to stoop inconveniently. Its length should be in proportion to the width of the sanctuary. The length varies from five feet and a half to twelve feet in American churches.
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