ALTAR.
[To TES EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR"] SIR,—Your correspondent's proof that the word " altar " has been used in unauthorized manuals from the Reformation downwards has not much relevance to your own statement, which it seeks to controvert, that " the term has no place in authorized manuals." The one authorized manual of the Church of England is the Book of Common Prayer, which speaks uniformly of the " Lord's Table " or the " Table."
That the Coronation Service retains the word " altar " among other reeditevalisms is not surprising; but it is probably due to the fact that there was no coronation between 1837, when Tractarianism was in its cradle, and 1902, when it had won its triumph. The use of the term in "A Companion to the Altar" stands on a different footing altogether. It is metaphorical, and to be compared with such titles as Herbert's " Temple." Accordingly, although the word " altar" is found in one of the prayers of that manual—" Most gracious God, I come to Thy altar to renew my baptismal covenant of which this sacrament is a seal "—it is not found in any of the directions to the communicant. The question is not of the first importance, but it is always important to state evidence correctly, and not to confuse issues.—I am, Sir, &e., B.
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