STANDING in public prayer is still the practice of the Jews. This posture was adopted from the synagogue by the primitive Christians ; and is still maintained by the Oriental churches. This ap pears, from their monuments, to have been the cus tom also among the ancient Persians and Egyptians, although the latter certainly sometimes kneeled before their gods. In the Moslem worship, four of the nine positions (I, 2, 4, 8) are standing ones ; and that posture which is repeated in three out of these four (2, 4, 8), may be pointed out as the proper Oriental posture of reverential standing, with folded hands. It is the posture in which people stand before kings and great men.
While in this attitude of worship, the hands were sometimes stretched forth towards heaven in sup plication or invocation (1 Kings viii. 22 ; 2 Chron. vi. 12, 29 ; Is. i. 15). This was perhaps not so much the conventional posture (I) in the Moslem series, as the more natural posture of standing adoration with outspread hands, which we observe on the Egyptian monuments. The uplifting of by which they expressed the most intense tion, was by bringing not only the body but the head to the ground. The ordinary mode of pros
tration at the present time, and probably anciently, is that shewn in one of the postures of Moslem worship (5), in which the body is not thrown flat upon the ground, but rests upon the knees, arms, and head. In order to express devotion, sorrow, compunction or humiliation, the Israelites threw dust upon their heads (Josh. vii. 6; Job. ii. 12 ; Lam. ii. to ; Ezek. xxiv. 7 ; Rev. xviii. 19), as was done also by the ancient Egyptians, and is still done by the modern Orientals. Under similar cir cumstances it was usual to smite the breast (Luke xviii. 13). This was also a practice among the Egyptians (Herod. ii. 85), and the monuments at one hand (the right) only in taking an oath was so common, that to say, `I have lifted up my hand,' was equivalent to I have sworn' (Gen. xiv. 22 ; comp. xli. 44; Deut. xxxii. 40). This posture was also common among other ancient nations ; and we find examples of it in the sculptures of Persia (fig. 1) and Rome (fig. 2).