Sitting during the Lessons

There is no doubt, I believe, that in former times the people stood when the minister read the Lessons, to show their reverence. It is recorded in Nehemiah, viii. 5.: "And Ezra opened the Book in the sight of all the people (for he was above all the people), and when he opened it all the people *stood* up." Why this practice should have been altered, or why our Rubric should be silent on this head, does not appear quite clear, though I find in Wheatley (*On the Book of Common Prayer*, chap. vi. sec. vi.) that which seems to me to be a very sufficient reason, if not for the sitting during the L…