On

good is sought, bodily infirmities, age, sickness, etc., should be considered, and no rigorous rule insisted upon. the other hand, it is very much to be desired that the holy spirit of the early Church should be revived, to counteract the manifold temptations of this age of luxury. If the coveted blessing is so great, surely self-denial but enhances its value, and a service which costs nothing is worth but little.

The word "Communion" was not in early ages applied to the Liturgical Office. In the Acts it is rendered “fellowship," or community, and was used, as in a familiar sense now, for the whole Society of believers, as the Anglican Communion, the Greek, the Roman, etc. Excommunion then carried with it the loss of all religious privileges. Another primitive as well as modern use of the word expresses the act of participation, the central feature of the Office. And so we speak of" daily Communion," "weekly Communion,"" Communion in both kinds," etc. The word itself, as distinguished from other descriptive titles of the Office, stands for the principle of the fellowship of man with God and with his fellow-men, and thus represents only a part of the whole doctrinal truth. It was originally symbolized by the Kiss of Peace, which was afterwards substituted by a symbolic tablet engraved with the crucifix and called the "Pax-bred," which was passed about at the Service to be kissed by all.

A better, and the most expressive title for the Divine Mysteries is "The Holy Eucharist." Though not directly employed in the New Testament, it was a familiar term as early as the year 70 A. D., as shown by its use in the oldest Church manual extant, the "Teaching of the Twelve Apos

tles." The Greek word means "Thanksgiving," from Our Lord's attitude as "He looked up to Heaven and gave thanks" before breaking the Bread. By the term "Communion" our thoughts are led more to human and divine fellowship and the subjective effect upon ourselves. All this might be if it were a simple memorial. But it is far more, and in the "Eucharist" a higher, yet inclusive, thought prevails-that of gratitude and thanksgiving for the benefits of redemption, and a re-presentation before the Father (not, God forbid, a re-enactment, nor a substitution), of the great Sacrifice of Christ. And so the Fathers gave this title to the whole Service, as though synonymous with the Consecration feature, rather than with the Reception.

The title is of great value as having no selfish or merely human aspect, and as expressive of deep gratitude for deliverance from the bondage of sin. As Christ our Passover has been once sacrificed for us, we pray the Father to accept our bounden duty and service in this Holy Sacrament, as a real "sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving," and as an offering of "ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy and living sacrifice" unto Him. In another aspect "the Eucharist is the great means whereby the Church, out of Heaven, shares in the propitiatory Sacrifice of Intercession forever offered in Heaven by Our Lord and Saviour." From this insight into the deeper and higher significance of the Service has come the use of the term "Celebration," as denoting any single use of this Sacramental Office.

The Holy Eucharist is the outward expression of Intercommunion, and therefore of organic Church Unity. "When that is consummated, the Sacrament of contention

will again be the Sacrament of peace, and Christians will be free to transform and subdue all to Christ." That there is a "priesthood of the laity " is indeed an indisputable truth. Every baptized believer may "offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." The Jews were a nation of priests, chosen and separated from all other peoples. Yet even with them there was an inner circle jealously guarded, a threefold order of High Priests, Priests and Levites, set apart by express Divine command, the sanctity of which was terribly vindicated in the punishment of Korah's unwarranted intrusion, and of the thoughtless profanation of Uzzah. The principle of an earthly Priesthood was by no means abolished by the Great High Priest. The sacrificial system did not come to an end upon the Cross. They both survive under changed forms and conditions in the New Dispensation, and their perpetuation in this manner was foretold by the elder Prophets.

The Hebrew Priest offered a typical sacrifice. The blood sprinkled upon the Altar pleaded an atonement for the soul, and the Priest gave back to the worshipper, as reconciled, the body of the slain victim. The Christian Priest offers a commemorative Sacrifice. The pure and unbloody Offering which he makes is a constant memorial of the One all-sufficient Oblation, and he gives to the communicant as the sustenance of eternal life, the spiritual Food of the Body and Blood of Christ. The Hebrew Priest also inspected the leper, performed over him the ritual of purification, and pronounced him ceremonially clean. The Christian Priest has like authority in pronouncing, under proper conditions, the Declaration of Absolution from the leprosy

of sin. It is abundantly proved in the facts of Christ's own ordination of His commissioned representatives, that the same august lips which pronounced "Do this in remembrance of Me," said also and with equal permanence of delegated power "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them."

"Christ is Himself the Priest in every Eucharist, and the Absolver in every Ministry of reconciliation." But His priestly power, though absolute, is delegated and vicarious, and acts officially through a distinct Order of men. This Order is not a profession merely, but acts under the sacred principle of authority, receiving through its individual members, each once for all, its permanent commission from above. The whole Church testifies with one voice to the reality of the Christian Priesthood in history. The reformers, as well as St. Jerome, were wont to say, "No Priest, no Church," and the phraseology of the Book of Common Prayer sustains this principle. Rightly viewed, and divorced from the extravagances of sacerdotalism, it is an abiding instrumentality of help and comfort. If "God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity," what a solace and encouragement that He has mercifully condescended to commit His ministry to the abiding agency of men mortal and erring like ourselves, yet authorized to dispense His covenanted grace through appointed channels !

XVII.

THE HOLY COMMUNION.

"The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another; but rather it is a Sacrament of our Redemption by Christ's death: insomuch that to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith, receive the same, the Bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ; and likewise the Cup of Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ."-The Twentyeighth Article of Religion.

THE HE far-reaching influence of the pure discipline of the early Church was incalculably salutary. The venerable and holy St. Ambrose in the fourth century challenging the Greek Emperor Theodosius at the door of his own Cathedral, and refusing him the sacred Elements until he had submitted to penitential discipline for wanton bloodshed, is a majestic figure. But in the degeneracy of the Church in the Middle Ages, a vindictive temper often usurped the holy spirit of primitive days; and in the twelfth century the anathema of the Greater Excommunication, in which, after reading the Gospel, Bishop and Priest joined in denouncing the offender "by bell, book and candle," was an awful and often a most blasphemous ceremony.

The violent reaction of Reformation days resulted in nearly banishing ecclesiastical discipline altogether, and the absence of some wholesome and properly restricted