for the personal RATIFICATION of each Baptismal Vow, whether earlier made as an infant or as an adult. The answer made is the last step in the pathway of Christian childhood; the final stone laid in the foundation of the Christian life. In the Roman Church (as was also ordered in the First Book), the ancient custom is preserved that each candidate be brought to the Bishop by a Sponsor as a witness to the act. The six Versicles which follow as the Bishop rises were in ancient use in many Offices, as in that for Holy Matrimony, the Visitation of the Sick, etc.; and are taken from the Psalms, expressing confidence, thanksgiving and prayer. The INVOCATION PRAYER is of immemorial antiquity, and dwells on the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit, prophetic reference to which by Isaiah as lighting upon the "Rod of Jesse was fulfilled in Our Lord's Baptism, and through Him to His faithful believers, as from the Vine to its branches. The first two gifts implored are intellectual, the second pair are moral, and the third pair devotional; making up, with that for reverence or "holy fear," the mystic number seven.

The IMPOSITION OF HANDS, or touch upon the head of each as he kneels, is the essence of the Rite, and is accompanied by a form of words after the manner of a Benediction. The words are very beautiful, but have not always been the same. They varied somewhat in the First Book, and the manual contact was there accompanied by the Signing of the Cross upon the forehead, followed, as here, by the Dominus Vobiscum. The practice then and earlier was, as in Baptism, to confirm by name, and this name might be changed by the Bishop if he deemed it an unfitting one. With us the Bishop may rise from his

Chair and pass in order before a rail-full at a time, as at the Holy Communion, placing both hands upon each head. Or he may remain seated near the Rail and the candidates may kneel before him two by two while he places his hands on the head of each, which would seem a more dignified method. The English mode where the Bishop passes by an entire rail-full, touching each head, but repeating the formula of words only once for them all, is to be deprecated except on the ground of necessity, as depriving the reception of its proper individuality.

In the AFTER-SERVICE the Lord's Prayer retains its customary honoured position, at which all kneel. The first of the two Collects was composed in 1549, and claims Confirmation as an Apostolic and symbolic seal of God's favour. The second was not in the First Book, and is a repetition of the Collect for Sanctification in the Communion Office. The Blessing (addressed to those newly confirmed), is the latter part of the Blessing in the Communion Office, and was formerly preceded by the fifth and sixth verses of the 128th Psalm. It is common for the Bishop to personally greet and address the recipients of the Rite with a word of God-speed at this point, before they depart from the Chancel to enter upon the full Christian life. After so doing, the Service, if in the evening, concludes with a Hymn and Collects.

Confirmation must never be considered as other than immediate admission to Holy Communion. To correct a too common laxity upon this point, arising from training or environment, the first of the closing rubrics enjoins that "the Minister shall not omit earnestly to move the persons confirmed to come without delay to the Lord's Supper,"

There

and it is well if opportunity be given at once. should of course be no more difference in fact than there is in theory and principle between the list of those confirmed and the list of the actual communicants as borne upon the Parish Register. The second rubric, as printed in the First Book, did not contain its last clause, " or be ready and desirous to be confirmed." As now printed it is derived from a canon of the thirteenth century allowing the Holy Communion to such as are reasonably hindered from Confirmation, when there is the right spiritual preparation; as was the case with all America, in the absence of a Bishop's personal visitation, until Bishop Seabury's consecration in 1784.

It should be remembered that all Church legislation and all rubrical directions are made for the Church alone and for the use of her own members and adherents. This rubric is no exception and is of very ancient date, having indeed been made when the Church was One, and undivided by the rival schisms of to-day. It states plainly the reasonable and proper qualifications which she deems necessary for the admission of her own children to the full privileges of Communion, and it makes no declaration and passes no judgment whatever upon the present status of those Christians of other bodies who may feel desirous of a welcome at her Altars. When such regularly present themselves after a proper understanding of the Church's position, it is certainly a fair assumption that they are at least "ready and desirous to be confirmed," and they are welcomed accordingly.

The responsibility of coming, as with all other Christians, is on themselves alone, and they would, of course, be

deemed to have made right spiritual preparation, including a desire to comply with a plainly Apostolic ordinance. And this implied desire should, of course, be carried into effect at the earliest opportunity, as no thoughtful person would be willing to receive continuously the privileges of an order, religious or otherwise, whose obligations he was not willing to assume. The invitation invariably given in the Communion Office itself, "Ye who do truly and earnestly repent," etc., cannot be justly criticised in its terms by any "who love Our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity."

Written approbation of Confirmation is on record by many thinkers outside of the Church; among them by Rev. Dr. Adam Clark, a most distinguished divine of the Methodist body, who was confirmed after he became a Methodist preacher; by the Baptist Association in 1742; by a Committee of the Presbyterian General Assembly, which speaks of it as the exercise of the authority of a Mother by the Church; and last, but not least, by John Calvin himself, who distinctly expressed the wish that it might be restored to its primitive use in the Church.

XXVII.

THE SOLEMNIZATION OF MATRIMONY.

"Which holy estate Christ adorned and beautified with His presence and first miracle that He wrought in Cana of Galilee, and is commended of St. Paul to be honourable among all men: and therefore is not by any to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly; but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God.”—The Exhortation in the Marriage Service.

"Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder."-St. Matthew xix. 6.

BECAUSE marriage was instituted by God himself in the

state of man's innocency and publicly sanctioned by Our Lord at the marriage in Cana, it is recognized by the Church as a Divine institution no less than as a social compact, by the Office for the SOLEMNIZATION OF MATRIMONY. The express words of Christ and His Apostles give to Holy Matrimony the character of a religious mystery, and undoubtedly it is in the wide sense a Sacrament. It is a glowing type of the mystical union of Christ with His Bride the Church, and the object of this Service is to bind man and wife together "in the Lord." It is a civil contract as well, and as such is regulated by the law of the State as essential to the well-being of society. In this ordinance the functions of Church and State meet, and the officiating Minister is bound by the first rubric of the