Let Our Praise to You be as Incense. But not yet.

A strange interruption to our preparation for Divine Worship, this morning. A confused gentleman of Anglican appearance came up to me and asked whether we were Forward in Faith, or the more general type of Anglo-Catholic. I explained to him that we were Bogwulf Funambulist Baptists. We know of no strange liturgy, nor do we flirt with the Version of the Bible that is not merely Revised, but also New and Standard.

He appeared disappointed. Clearly - for we are tenants in Bogwulf Chapel, which is beautifully decorated and full of stained glass windows, contrary to the clear word of Scripture - he had assumed we were of that degenerate band of liberals and Erastians, the Church of England.

"Yes," he remarked, "I thought I couldn't smell any incense."

I explained to him that incense is merely a Papistical recovery of the use of incense under the Law which brings condemnation but no redemption. But I was surprised to discover that he was an Anglican who knew at least two chapters of the Bible - for he quickly responded "what about in Revelation 5 and 8 then? We'll have incense in heaven."

And that is correct. In incense we shall have heaven. And in the Old Testament there was incense. But for now - there is no incense. What could be clearer than that?