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Bible Dictionaries
Lights On the Altar
The American Church Dictionary and Cyclopedia
or (See ALTAR LIGHTS.) In addition to what is set forth in the article to which the reader is referred, we reproduce from Wheatley on the Prayer Book the following: "Among other ornaments of the Church were two lights enjoined by the Injunctions of King Edward VI to be set upon the Altar as a significant ceremony to represent the Light which Christ's Gospel brought into the world. And this, too, was ordered by the very same Injunction which prohibited all other lights and tapers that used to be superstitiously set before images or shrines. And these lights, used time out of mind in the Church, are still continued in most, if not all, Cathedral and Collegiate churches and chapels, . . . and ought also by this rubric, to be used in all parish churches and chapels."
These files are public domain.
Miller, William James. Entry for 'Lights On the Altar'. The American Church Dictionary and Cyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/acd/l/lights-on-the-altar.html. 1901.
