A solemn Protestation by the Priest follows, reciting Our Lord's own Words concerning the indissoluble character of the marriage bond, and then a Declaration to the company of the now completed marriage, and of its essential features, which are public assent, a mutual and symbolized pledge of troth, and the ratification by the Church in the name of the Trinity; all of which is set forth with the highest dignity and authority. Doubtless N. is the correct symbol for "Name" wherever it appears in the Service, and it is so employed in the English Book. The cause for the change here to M. in the case of the man is obscure; possibly the letters have stood respectively for Maritus and Nympha.

The BLESSING upon the kneeling parties, which is peculiar to this Office and slightly varied in wording from the First Book, invokes upon them God's favour in this life, and looks beyond it to the Life everlasting. It implies the belief that the tie hallowed here is the nearest approach to Eden, and that it will there find a higher realization. Here the Service proper ends, and the parties retire, preceding the congregation. The English Book follows it with a Service of mingled prayer and blessing, having an Introit, and either a Sermon or a Lesson compiled from the New Testament, summing up the duties of the married state. A rubrical injunction there follows that the Holy Communion should be received at the time of the Marriage or at the first opportunity after. This practice was once well nigh universal among communicants, and is indeed most salutary and appropriate immediately after the ceremony, under proper restrictions as to time and circumstances.

There remains a word to be said upon the subject of the possible termination of the marriage relation, otherwise than by death. Divorce is in law of two kinds, i. e.,

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a mensa et thoro" (" from bed and board"), a separation which may or may not be permanent; and that "a vinculo matrimonii," the complete and irrevocable dissolution of the bond itself. The former is unhappily often advisable and many times necessary, as the result of the feverish and unhealthy conditions of modern life, which so often. especially surround the approach to the marriage relation and permit alliances which are in their very nature improper and without promise.

The latter, though allowed by the secular law in many parts of America for almost any cause, so that the facility of obtaining it has become an outrageous travesty on decency itself, is absolutely forbidden by the law of God, except for the single cause of adultery, and that prohibition is by Christ Himself. The evils of divorce are terrible, and are entailing a frightful curse upon posterity as well as on the present age. Divorce itself would inevitably be checked, and one fruitful cause of it be removed, by statutes forbidding a subsequent marriage to another, the desire for which undermines many an ill-considered contract and many an undisciplined will. The standard of Holy Scripture has always been that of the Church in this regard, and a very small percentage of her members have been chargeable with this offence against morality-a distinction which she shares with the Church of Rome. Her canon upon this subject is as follows: "No Minister, knowingly after due inquiry, shall solemnize the marriage of any person who has a divorced husband or wife still

living, if such husband or wife has been put away for any cause arising after marriage; but this canon shall not be held to apply to the innocent party in a divorce for the cause of adultery, or to parties once divorced seeking to be united again."

XXVIII.

THE VISITATION AND COMMUNION OF THE SICK, AND THE CHURCHING OFFICE.

"That if it shall be Thy pleasure to prolong his days here on earth, he may live to Thee, and be an instrument of Thy glory, by serving Thee faithfully, and doing good in his generation; or else receive him into those heavenly habitations, where the souls of those who sleep in the Lord Jesus enjoy perpetual rest and felicity."-Prayer for a Sick Child.

THE

HE two Offices which we are next to treat are purely private in their character and may almost be considered as one. The first, that for the VISITATION OF THE SICK, naturally follows the one which inaugurates a new family life. The apparent formality of this Office arises from the fact that, as here set forth, it is not designed for use at an ordinary Pastoral call, but rather for a single Visitation of a more serious and formal character which, though now rarely used, should accompany at least the graver cases of illness. As it stands it is strictly an Office for professed Church-people, and out of place to be used for those not in her communion. It implies that Pastoral visits should have features which distinguish them from friendly calls of the ordinary sort; and it is a storehouse from which to draw for the more usual needs of the sick-room, and at the same time a standing testimony to certain vital principles often so sadly neglected.

Its contents are substantially those of the English Book,

most of the Prayers and rubrics being in the ancient Service Books of the Church of England, and some of the Prayers being traceable to the Primitive Church. There are many responses in this Service, and some friends should be present to join in these portions. It is rather long, but in the First Book was still longer, having at its close a Service of anointing with oil, or Extreme Unction, after the manner of the Primitive Church, as mentioned in St. James' Epistle. But the reference in that Epistle is probably to a cure, perhaps miraculous, while the Roman use, which still prevails, unwarrantably exalts it into a Sacrament. It was also once accompanied by a procession of the Priest and Choir to the sick person's house, chanting the Seven Penitential Psalms.

The opening rubric is a plain intimation that the Minister is not to be allowed to learn by accident of the serious or continued illness of his parishioners. Nor should a dangerous issue be threatened before he be sent for. The Pastor's visits should be frequent, natural and welcome, both in health and sickness, and a sick-bed is not the best place to make the first preparation for impending death. Holy living is the best preparative for holy dying, yet every sickness is a renewed summons to seriousness of purpose, and even death-bed repentance is not impossible. St. Augustine pithily remarks, "One was thus saved by Christ that none might despair, and only one that none should presume."

The first words are a Salutation of Peace at entering, followed by a recital in the sick-room of the first Deprecation of the Litany, which was in the First Book an Antiphon to the 143d Psalm; and then the triple Kyrie and the Lord's