HOLY WATER

In the Romish Church, water ble ed with an appropriate service by the priest, and placed in a shallow basin, called the holy water stoup, at the entrance of the Church. Its primary use was, that the hands of the worshippers might be washed, and “pure hands lifted up in prayer;” afterwards it symbolized their purification from defilement before engaging in prayer. The modern Romanists forget this, and, as if they thought that some intrinsic benefit resulted from the physical application of the holy water, independent of its mystic meaning, use it both on entering and leaving a church. So many superstitions had become connected with the use of holy water, that it was discontinued at the Reformation.