When you were baptized the Clergyman said to your God-father and God-mother, "Name this child." And they gave the name which was to be your Christian name. Then the Clergyman said, " I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." That is how you came by your name; and that is why it is called your Christian name.

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So the next question is "Who gave you this name?" And to this you are told to answer, My God-fathers and God-mothers in my baptism."

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Then the Catechism goes on to say what God did for you at your baptism. You say Wherein," that is, "in which I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven."

Now I want you to understand that this is what God did for you. Your God-parents had nothing to do with it. If you had been baptized without any God-parents at all, it would be just the same. If they had made no promises at all in your name, it would be just the same. It was God's Holy Spirit that made you a member of Christ; it was God's Holy Spirit that made you the child of God; it was God's Holy Spirit that made you an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.

This is our new birth, our being born of water and the Spirit.

Now tell me again what did God's Holy Spirit do for you when you were baptized? He made me to be a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of His heavenly kingdom. Then He did three things for you. He made you a member of Christ, that is one thing; He made you the child of God, that is another thing; He made you an inheritor of His Kingdom, that is a third thing.

But though these are three distinct things, they are not three separate things. They are not like three keys upon a ring, where each is independent of the others; but like three links of a chain, in which the third depends upon the second, and the second and third upon the first.

Who gave you this-your Christian name?

My God-fathers and God-mothers in my baptism, wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.

OW to go on with our Catechism where we left off last

NOW N Sunday.

We were talking about the second question and answer.

I told you last Sunday that these three blessings which the Holy Spirit made over to us at our baptism, were not like three keys upon a ring; but like three links of a chain.

You might take one of the three keys off the ring; but this would not interfere with the others; but in the chain, if the first link is snapped the other two fall off.

The first link in this chain of blessing is the being made A MEMBER OF CHRIST: the other two hang upon this. We are children of God, because we are members of Christ; we are inheritors of the kingdom of heaven, because we are the children of God.

What then is meant by being a member of Christ?

A member is a limb or part of a body. Christ's Body is His Church and to be made a member of Christ, is to be made a member of Christ's Church. Christ came into the world, not merely, as we commonly say, to save sinners; but to set up a kingdom, a society in the world. To be made a member of Christ, is to be admitted into this society, to become a subject of this kingdom.

Christ once said to His disciples, "I am the Vine: ye are the branches" (S. John xv. I).

What did He mean by this? He meant that Christians had no independent life; but could only live by sharing His life. The branches only live as long as they remain in the vine. We can only really live, as long as we remain in Christ.

Did you ever see an osier bed? Osiers are what are woven into baskets. Well, each osier has its own root, and sucks up its own nourishment. One osier may die; but the others will be none the worse. The life of the osier is an independent life. And you know also what a vine is, and how the branches grow from it. The branch does not suck up water from the

ground by a root of its own; but draws its nourishment from the stem. If the stem dies, the branch dies. The life of the branch is a dependent life.

Our life, then, is the branch life; Christ is the Vine, we are only His branches. To be made a member of Christ is to be grafted into the Vine.

Then because we are members of Christ, we are the children of God.

Human beings can be children of God in four ways. First of all by creation. In this sense all human beings, without exception, are God's children. Secondly, by redemption. In this sense also all human beings are God's children in Christ. Thirdly, by adoption. In this sense all baptized Christians are children of God. And fourthly, by imitation. They who are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God" (Rom. viii. 14).

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By being made, then, a member of Christ, you become in Him, in a special manner, what He always intended you to be, the child of God; and because you are His child God gives you an inheritance in His Kingdom.

Now you must not suppose that this only means, that if you are good God will take you to heaven when you die. It means this; but it means a great deal more than this.

Christ came into the world, as I told you last Sunday, to set up a kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. This kingdom is His Church on earth. We are inheritors of this kingdom: we belong to it, we are in it. To be an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven, then, is to have a share in the blessings and privileges, and in the duties and responsibilities of Christ's Church. We have the holy scriptures of God's truth; we have the Sacraments and other ordinances of grace; we have the privilege of public worship, and private prayer; we have the presence of the Holy Spirit who dwells in the Church; we have the care of Christ's ministers; we have the forgiveness of sins, and the Communion of Saints, and the hope of glory. To have all these is what is meant by being made inheritors of the kingdom of heaven.

What did your God-fathers and God-mothers then for you?

They did promise and vow three things in my name. First, that I should renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh.

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N our last Lesson we were taught what God in His love has done for us. That before we had done anything, or promised anything, He made us actually what we were always in God's intention, members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of Heaven. This is what S. Paul meant when he said, " By grace are ye saved" (Eph. ii. 8). This is what he meant when he wrote to Titus, "Not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Titus iii. 5 R.V.1).

But though we are saved simply by God's grace and mercy, not the less have we our part to do, as S. Paul says again, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Phil. ii. 12).

And this is what we are next taught in the Catechism: What did your God-fathers and God-mothers do for you at your baptism?

They did promise and vow three things in my name.
Then we are told what these three things are.

(1) We are to renounce certain things. (2) We are to believe certain things. (3) We are to do certain things.

Now I want to make quite sure that you understand why it is that we are bound to do these things, why we are required to renounce, to believe, and to serve. Perhaps you will say, because we have promised. But no, this will not do. We should be every bit as much bound if we had no sponsors at all, and if no spoken promise had ever been made.

Very possibly some of you were baptized privately, and were never brought to Church afterwards by your parents. In that case you would not have had any God-parents at all and no spoken promise would have been made. But you cannot suppose for a moment that this would make any difference. I am sure you feel that you would be just as much bound to renounce, and to believe, and to serve, as if you had the full number of sponsors.

R.V., Revised Version.

The reason why we are to renounce certain things, is because the things that we are called to renounce are bad things, bad for us, and hateful to God. The reason why we are to believe certain things, is because the things which we are called to believe are true things, which God has revealed to us. The reason why we are to do certain things, is because the things which we are called to do are good things, good for us, and pleasing to God.

Now let us see what are the things which we are required to renounce.

But first of all let us see what we mean by to renounce. To renounce is to forsake, to give up, to turn our backs upon. And what are we to forsake, to give up? Whom are we

to renounce?

We are to forsake, turn our backs upon, all that is opposed to God: that is upon all that is opposed to love, and truth, and righteousness. We are to set our faces against evil, against what is bad, wherever we find it. We are to renounce (1) the evil of the evil one; (2) we are to renounce the evil of the world; (3) we are to renounce the evil in ourselves. Now to go back to the Catechism.

What did your God-fathers and God-mothers then for you? They did promise and vow three things in my name. First, that I should renounce the devil and all his works. But why are we to renounce the devil and his works? We must renounce the devil because he is God's enemy and We must renounce his works because his works are like himself bad, hateful works, things which will make us unhappy, as well as being specially displeasing to God.

ours.

The devil, remember, is a spirit, and his works, therefore, are the evil doings of a spirit: are, in fact, spiritual sinssins of the heart, sins of the mind, sins of the will.

Such are specially pride, falsehood, hatred, cruelty, and tempting others to sin. If we are proud we are like the devil: if we tell lies we speak like the devil: if we are malicious and cruel, we are acting like the devil: if we tempt others to do wrong, or keep them back from doing right, we are doing the devil's work.

The best way to renounce the devil is to follow Christ. The best way to renounce his works is to try and be humble like Jesus, to be truthful like Jesus, to be loving and gentle like Jesus.