is space behind the iconostasis, where none
but the priests and the deacon, or servant who trims the lamps, are
allowed to enter, and they pass in and out by the side doors. The centre
door is only used in the celebration of the holy mass. This part of the
church is the sanctuary, and is called, in Romaic, [Greek: agio],
[Greek: Bemo], or [Greek: Themo]. It is typical of the holy of holies of
the Temple, and the veil is represented by the curtain which divides it
from the rest of the church. Everything is symbolical in the Eastern
Church; and these symbols have been in use from the very earliest ages
of Christianity. The four columns which support the dome represent the
four Evangelists; and the dome itself is the symbol of heaven, to which
access has been given to mankind by the glad tidings of the Gospels
which they wrote. Part of the mosaic with which the whole interior of
the dome was formerly covered in the cathedral of St. Sofia at
Constantinople, is to be seen in the four angles below the dome, where
the winged figures of the four evangelists still remain. Luckily for the
Greek Church their sacred buildings are not under the authority of lay
churchwardens--grocers in towns, and farmers in villages--who feel it
their duty to whitewash over everything which is old and venerable, and
curious, and to oppose the clergyman in order to show their
independence.

The Greek church, debased as it is by ignorance and superstition, has
still the merit of carefully preserving and restoring all the memorials
of its earlier and purer ages. If the fresco painting of a saint is
rubbed out or damaged in the lapse of time, it is scrupulously
repainted, exactly as it was before, even to the colour of the robe, the
aspect of the countenance, and the minutest accessories of the
composition. It is this systematic respect for everything which is old
and venerable which renders the interior of the ancient Eastern churches
so peculiarly interesting. They are the unchanged monuments of primaeval
days. The Christians who suffered under the persecution of Dioclesian
may have knelt before the very altar which we now see, and which was
then exactly the same as we now behold it, without any additions or
subtractions either in its form or use.

To us Protestants one of the most interesting circumstances connected
with these Eastern churches is, that the altar is not called the
_altar_, but the _holy table_, as with us, and that the Communion is