United States or Ireland ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The bread and wine were first passed around by the officers of the church, after which came the feet-washing. The elder who began the ceremony drew off his coat and vest, and girded a towel around his waist.
The movable feast of Whitsunday or Pentecost, which occurs on the seventh Sunday after Easter, is a solemn occasion in the Mennonite meetings, for at this time is held one of the great semi-annual observances of bread-breaking and feet-washing. The ensuing day, Whitmonday, is a great secular festival. All the spring bonnets are then in readiness for the "Dutch" girls.
The two principal preachers were seen disencumbered of their coats, much animated conversation began, and feet-washing did not seem to be observed with so much seriousness as the Supper. I took a seat near the end of two long benches which were arranged to face each other, and on which sat some of the brethren whose feet were to be washed by one of the preachers.
I mentioned to this aged man the feet-washing that I had attended, and told how Dr. , the bishop, had washed the feet of the other brethren. "Did he wash them all?" said my Amish acquaintance. "Yes, all that were assigned to him. How is it among you?" "They wash each other's, every two and two. If he washes them all, he puts himself in Christ's place. He says, 'Wash each other's feet."
We saw many sights that are universal in Roman Catholic countries, and many that are peculiar to Fayal: we saw the "Procession of the Empress," when, for six successive Saturday evenings, young girls walk in order through the streets white-robed and crowned; saw the vessels in harbor decorated with dangling effigies of Judas, on the appointed day; saw the bands of men at Easter going about with flags and plates to beg money for the churches, and returning at night with feet suspiciously unsteady; saw the feet-washing, on Maundy-Thursday, of twelve old men, each having a square inch of the instep washed, wiped, and cautiously kissed by the Vicar-General, after which twelve lemons were solemnly distributed, each with a silver coin stuck into the peel; saw and felt the showers of water, beans, flour, oranges, eggs, from the balcony-windows during Carnival; saw weddings in churches, with groups of male companions holding tall candles round kneeling brides; saw the distribution to the poor of bread and meat and wine from long tables arranged down the principal street, on Whitsunday, a memorial vow, made long since, to deprecate the recurrence of an earthquake.
The seas which his ancestors once swept with their galleys, he now sweeps with his telescope, and with as keen an eye to the MAIN chance as any of his predecessors displayed. The feet-washing ceremony was evidently a propitiatory homage to the purity of my quarter-deck.
He gave a long account of the ordinances of the Jewish Church, and then of those which the "Lord Jesus instituted in the place of these the baptism that was celebrated a week ago, and this Lord's Supper, this feet-washing, this kiss of peace, this manner of visiting offenders;" the last phrase being an allusion to the severe rule which forbids the New or Reformed Mennists to eat, etc. with those excommunicated by the society.
In Peter's case the hereafter appears to have come when the feet-washing was done and Christ explained its meaning; and it is very helpful to our faith to observe Mr.
It's this: the thing in you that's wrong must be made right; and it can be. Every sin done by the man who is trusting Christ as his Saviour, every such sin must be cleansed away. And it can be. The feet-washing told this bit of tremendous truth. These men trusted Christ.
The sentimental blasphemy of that feet-washing scene is an evidence of the depths of sexual morbidity into which this voluptuous religion of pity can lead us. O that figure in the white nightgown, blessing his reformed harlot! It is a pity Wagner ever touched the Celtic Legend German sentimentality and Celtic romance need a Heine to deal with them!
Word Of The Day