doubt have saved man in some other way, but He chose the way of taking upon Him our human flesh as the outward and visible sign of the tremendous inward and spiritual grace that He was about to convey to man. Who are we to say that in our opinion He had better have done it in some more spiritual way?

Christians are always addressed in the New Testament as having been saved by their admission into the Church by Holy Baptism. St. Paul in almost every epistle addresses his readers as "Saints." They were not saints in our modern use of the word; many of them were very far indeed from saintliness, but because they had been baptised they were "in Christ" and members of His Body. This does not imply that they were free from liability to sin, and falls from grace. The epistles are full of warnings against most unsaintly conduct on the part of the new Christian converts, full of rebukes and condemnation for sin; nevertheless so long as they had not excommunicated themselves by wilful sin they were in the way of being saved; they were within the new covenant with Jesus Christ. It is a great pity that we do not realise more fully this truly evangelical doctrine of our oneness with Christ in the great family of His love. We are too apt to think and to act as though we were outside the covenant of His love, as though we were left to ourselves, and as though no grace were given and were ready to be given to help us on our way.

It was the Church's sense that we are all one great family in Christ that probably led to children being baptised from the first as well as grown-up people. Why should they be excluded from the covenant of God's love? Why should they not be brought up as Christians, and as God's dear children, instead of waiting until they formed a cold judgment for themselves as to whether or no they approved of the Christian faith? The Church's psychology was accurate. It knew that by the time children were grown up their characters had long ago been formed for good or evil. The time that the child most needs the influence of Christian grace is while it is growing up, while

its habits and character are being shaped and moulded. Those who have studied the child nature most closely tell us that the character is definitely formed and decided in its main lines by the age of nine, and it seems the very height of folly to deprive a child, during those years, of the enormous help that comes from knowing that it has been already taken into the family of God, that it is, in a special sense, a member of the Body of Christ, a child of God, and that it is heir to all the great heritage of the Christian faith. If we believe in the special gift of the Holy Spirit why should we deprive our children for long years of that covenanted grace and help? So thought the Church and it has been ever anxious that all its members should come into the Christian family at the earliest age.

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Holy Baptism was in earlier times administered with great publicity and ceremony as befits the great sacrament of entry upon the Christian life. The same is the plain intention of the Prayer Book, where it is directed that Baptism shall not be administered but on Sundays and other Holy days when the most number of people come together; as well for that the congregation there present may testify the receiving of them that be newly baptised into the number of Christ's Church; as also because in the baptism of infants every man present may be put in remembrance of his own profession made to God in his Baptism." Unfortunately modern impatience of any lengthening of the service has led to Holy Baptism being relegated to the time, usually in the afternoon, when fewest people, not most, are present, with very harmful results. Many people hardly remember that Holy Baptism is a Sacrament at all, and speak of "The Sacrament" meaning the Holy Communion as though it were the only sacrament of the Christian Church.

We are bidden by the Apostle to walk worthy of our vocation but unless we are reminded by public baptism of what our vocation is, and what a solemn vow, promise, and profession we have all made, namely to follow the example of our Saviour Christ and to be made like unto Him, we are in danger of forgetting. We all of us need to be reminded

not once but often that we are members of Christ, children of God and inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven, and that it was not only so in the past, but that it is our duty to-day as Christian men to renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world and all the sinful lusts of the flesh; that it is our duty to believe all the articles of the Christian faith and to keep God's commandments and walk in the same all the days of our life. Holy Baptism should not be a dim memory of the past but a daily incitement to walk to-day worthily of the vocation wherewith we have been called, and of the grace that God is for ever ready to bestow.

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XXVIII. THE OPENED DOOR

Behold, a door was opened in heaven.-REVELATION IV. 1. N the chapter from which these words are taken a vision is given of the glory of the worship of heaven. It is not, of course, intended that the description should be taken as an exact picture of that worship, but it is an attempt to convey in symbolical language something of the glory of true worship.

"A door was opened in heaven." To eyes accustomed only to the things of earth the vision of heaven is like the opening of the door of a brilliantly lighted palace to one wandering in darkness. "Behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat upon the throne." The glory of Him Who sat upon the throne can only be imagined by likening Him to the flashing of precious stones: "He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone; and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on

their heads crowns of gold." The elders probably represent the angelic powers, or possibly, as their number is double, the angelic powers and the Church triumphant. “And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal : and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes before and behind. And the first living creature was like a lion, and the second like a calf, and the third had a face as a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within; and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." The image of the four living creatures is derived from Ezekiel and they undoubtedly signify the powers of created nature with their attributes of majestic sovereignty, of strength, of intelligence and of swiftness, while the eyes signify the unsleeping watchfulness of nature as a whole. "And when these living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and because of Thy will they were, and were created." The whole scene is a magnificent ideal of worship; all the powers of heaven and of nature casting themselves down in loving adoration, in glad and perfect submission, before the majesty of God in Whom, and by Whom, and for Whom all things exist. Now, as has been said, this scene is not intended to be a transcript of Heaven's worship as it is. That would be far beyond our comprehension. It is an ideal of worship of the highest kind, in so far as it is comprehensible to, and capable of realisation by men. It is a type of what our earthly worship should be, or should at least aspire to be.

Man, in the presence of God, should be filled with something at least of the passion of praise and adoration that fills the heavenly host. Note that the heavenly worship is not simply thanksgiving to God for mercies and kindnesses received. It is not merely gratitude to God for what He has done but rather praise and worship directed to God for what He is in Himself; because He realises all the highest ideals and aspirations of which the worshipper is capable.

Now it is unhappily true that our English-speaking race has largely lost the very idea of true worship. People come to Church from a notion that they ought to come, or that it is good for them to come, because they may receive spiritual benefit. The sermon has gradually usurped a larger and larger place until in some religious communions worship has become almost synonymous with listening to a sermon. People think of worship as of receiving something, whereas they ought to think of it as giving. It is because of this utterly false way of regarding worship that people stay away from Church if there is no sermon, or if they think that the preacher lacks eloquence. They are prepossessed with the idea of getting something out of their attendance, of getting some good for themselves, if it is only for their souls.

The true idea of worship is enshrined for us in the beautiful Post-Communion Prayer in our own liturgy. We have already made an offering to God of our substance, and we go on to ask God" mercifully to accept our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving." We say: And here we offer and present unto Thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto Thee... And although we be unworthy, through our manifold sins, to offer unto Thee any sacrifice, yet we beseech thee to accept this our bounden duty and service; not weighing our merits, but pardoning our offences, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

It is because so few of us realise the joy and happiness of true worship that congregations are so small and services often so lifeless. People think that it is no use to come to