also, holding a carpenter's square.

Three Hours' Service.--A solemn service quite generally held in our
Churches on Good Friday, from 12 M. to 3 P. M. in commemoration of
our Lord's Agony on the Cross. It usually consists of meditations,
or short addresses, on the Seven Words on the Cross, or on kindred
topics, interspersed with hymns on the Passion, special prayers, and
spaces of silence for private intercession. If well conducted it is
a {256} most impressive and helpful service and serves to bring out
the awful events of that momentous day when the Saviour of men was
cruelly put to death by those whom He came to save.

Thurifer.--The name given to one who bears the censer in services
where incense is used.

Thursday, Holy.--(See ASCENSION DAY.)

Thursday in Holy Week.--(See MAUNDY THURSDAY.)

Tierce.--The third hour or 9 A. M. One of the SEVEN CANONICAL HOURS
(which see).

Tradition.--A term used in the Thirty-fourth Article of Religion to
denote customs, rites, forms and ceremonies of the Church which have
been transmitted by oral communications or long established usage,
and which though not commanded in so many words in Holy Scripture,
yet have always been used and kept in the Holy Catholic Church. For
this reason they are revered, practiced and retained in its various
branches at the present time. Such traditions are the following:

1. The observance of the first day of the week instead of the
seventh.

2. The observance of the Christian Year, or the system of Feasts
and Fasts and Holy Seasons according to the events in our Lord's
Life.

3. The Baptism of Infants.

4. The use of Liturgical worship.

5. The use of vestments by the ministers in divine service.

6. The arrangement of our churches after the model of the Temple.
{257}

7. The observance of the seven hours of prayer.

8. The sign of the Cross in Baptism and at other times.

9. The choral service.

All these traditions of the Universal Church are retained or
permitted by the American branch of the Church.

It is also to be noted that by _tradition_ is meant the uniform
teaching of the Church from the beginning, _i.e._, the witness
that the Church bears by the writings of the Fathers and the
enactments of her General Councils to the Truths of the Christian
Religion and the interpretation of Holy Scripture. This is in
accord with St. Peter's words, "No prophecy of the Scripture is of
any private interpretation." Inasmuch as the C