"who die in the Lord " that "their works do follow them." We are all alike sinners, and our "sure and certain" hope of immortality is a common one to all who profess His Name.

After the responsive Kyries' cry for mercy comes the Lord's Prayer without its Doxology, and then two final Collects, both very beautiful, from the Reformation period. The first is a Prayer of victory over natural grief, and boldly expresses our confidence in the present felicity of the Intermediate State, which Dives so anxiously begged that his still living brethren might win. The second is called "the Collect," as being that used in the Eucharistic Office of the First Book, at a Burial. It names God as the Father of our Lord, claims Christ's own Words and those of St. Paul, and is a wonderfully earnest supplication for us who remain, that we may win the rest of Paradise and at last an unworthy place at God's right hand. One or both of these Prayers may be used, and the final words are those of the Apostolic Grace which were added in 1651, its words " all" undoubtedly including the departed as well as the survivors. The Additional Prayers provided at the close include one especially applicable to the death of children; and it is certainly to be regretted that reverence for the dignity of the Office as it stands has prevented more adequate provision for these peculiarly grievous losses, which appeal so pitifully to sympathetic and sorrowing hearts.

us

The doctrines of the Intermediate State and of the Resurrection have been dwelt on in the Creeds, and the custom of interment with the feet to the East was earlier referred to. The Burial Office may be said by Lay-readers, as a work of mercy, like parts of the Visitation of the Sick or of

Prisoners. Flowers have their proper and elevating influence at funerals as in themselves emblems of the Resurrection, but they almost cease to be such when tortured into unmeaning pillows or harps, or worse still into broken columns and kindred devices which in so far leave our theology to well-meaning but untrained florists. Akin to such monstrosities and still more reprehensible are the purely pagan symbols like the inverted torch and cinerary vase with which Christian cemeteries are filled.

Happily the day of unrelieved gloom at funerals, scarcely less repulsive than the hired mourners and noisy ostentation of the East, is passing, to be replaced by usages betokening simplicity, naturalness and faith, as becomes those who believe that death, painful though it be to the bereaved, is but an incident in an endless life. The abandonment of an undue indulgence in raiment of the most sombre black, and the use of coffins with a less hopeless shade of covering are indications of a healthier public sentiment, now becoming emancipated from the undertaker's absolute sway in such matters. And with these ought to disappear the tolling of Church bells at funerals, which often has a depressing effect upon the sick. Inordinate expense too at such times, especially among the poor, is, let us hope, to be abandoned as more rational ideas break in upon this and other practices which are really born of superstition rather than of true reverence. Another gain will be made for principle as well as health when an unnatural and hopeless care ceases to be expended upon the perishing body in the use of metallic caskets or other devices, whereby it is temporarily retarded from "

ing to the dust as it was." The sanitary argument for

cremation may be strong in some cases in populous centres, but the deepest Christian sense will cling to the retention. of a last resting-place in our Mother Earth, whence violets spring.

Loving thoughtfulness for our dead will always prompt us to erect monuments in stone or brass to their memory, but it is worthy of reflection whether even this may not be carried to too great an extent. Memorials which are in themselves useful and live on in helpfulness to others, like the adjuncts and adornments of a Parish Church, or better still the endowment of education or charity or worship, are best of all. And every congregation which has among its members the very poor who can not procure for their loved ones six feet of earth outside the pauper's lot, should see to it as an act of Christian charity, that the Church itself possesses a final resting-place for such in God's acre," without money and without price."

XXXI.

THE ORDINATION OF DEACONS AND PRIESTS.

"And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, * * * * whom they set before the Apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied * * * * *; and a greai company of the Priests were obedient to the faith."—Acts of the Apostles vi. 5-7.

"Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.”—St. John xx. 23.

AL

LL that follows in the Prayer Book (as familiarly so called), forms no part of the American Book of Common Prayer under a strict construction, and it is so indicated in its Table of Contents. The Offices hereafter recited are of occasional use and therefore printed in smaller type, and their rendering is limited to the powers of the highest Order of the Ministry, they being such as were accordingly embraced anciently under the name of "The Pontifical." The first section of these was not adopted in America until 1792 (three years later than the Prayer Book proper), as indicated by its separate Ratification, but is substantially the same as the corresponding English Offices. Though long bound together with the rest of the Book, this part, called THE ORDINAL, was originally printed by itself, and hence contained a repetition of the Litany and the Holy

Communion, which are integral parts of its Offices. This repetition still continues, though the Holy Communion does not here comprise either the Warnings or the Additional Collects; and both that and the Litany are to be rendered here by Bishops only.

The Ordinal consists of three distinct Services, constituting a series, i. e., the Form and Manner of MAKING DEACONS, of ordering PRIESTS and of ORDAINING OR CONSECRATING A BISHOP. These are the three Holy Orders of the Christian and Apostolic Ministry. A Deacon is said to be in Partial Orders and a Priest in Full Orders, while a Bishop transmits Orders. The names of the three Orders as bodies are the Diaconate, the Presbyterate or Priesthood, and the Episcopate. The authority for transmission of the gift of Orders lies with the Episcopate alone, and is derived in unbroken succession from the Apostles themselves, who in turn received it from Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Supreme Head of the Church. The acceptance of these truths rests upon warrant as strong as that for Infant Baptism or for the sanctity of the First Day of the week.

The comprehensive and masterly Preface to the Ordinal is the work of Archbishop Cranmer. The appeal is to the record of human history, and the verdict here recorded is, after investigation, seriously challenged by none whose candour and intelligence command respect. "It is evident unto all men, diligently reading Holy Scripture and ancient Authors, that from the Apostles' time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church." And to this stream of blended Divine and human history the Elder Dispensation brings its world-old tribute, in the analogous and pre