If the preacher is worth listening to (which is not
invariably the case) it is a good thing to go and hear him: and it is
well, therefore, to attend one or other of the services (morning or
evening) at which a sermon is preached. But it is not essential to
attend both: and the question may be raised whether one sermon a
Sunday is not as much as most men can profitably digest. A sermon is
in any case (except at the Eucharist) a detachable appendix to a
Church service; and it is both possible and legitimate either to
attend the service and leave the church before the sermon, or to avoid
the service and come in time to hear the sermon, according to
preference or opportunity.
As regards external details of observance, kneeling, and not
squatting, should be the attitude adopted for prayer. It is customary
to turn eastwards for the Creed, and in some churches, though not in
others, to kneel at the reference to the Incarnation in the course of
the Nicene Creed. It is also a common practice in some churches to
genuflect (_i.e._ to drop for a moment upon one knee) on rising from
one's place to go up to the altar to communicate, in reverence for the
Blessed Sacrament.
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