Presiding Bishop, one of whose duties is to "take order " in these matters. The time chosen is very generally a Sunday or Holy-day, and it is invariably so by rubric in the English Book.

Each of the three Forms of Ordination is a Morning Office, as the Litany and the Holy Communion form parts of them. In each case Morning Prayer is to be said previously, preferably at an earlier hour as a separate Service. The major part of all three Offices, with a few indicated exceptions, is to be taken by a Bishop, and the Sermon, in case of the first two, is addressed specifically to Clergy as well as people upon the "duty and office" of those ordained. As will be seen later, Deacons receive the Laying-on of Hands after the Epistle, Priests after the Gospel and a Bishop after the Nicene Creed. It will be convenient to consider together the analysis of the first two Offices, leaving that for a Bishop for treatment by itself.

Each of the two LESSER ORDINATIONS begins with a Sermon, and the rubric directs that it shall set forth the necessity of these Offices and the popular esteem in which they should be held. After the Sermon the Bishop is seated within the Sanctuary, and to him at the Rail are presented the candidates for either Office, in both cases by a Priest (in England by an Archdeacon or his deputy). The provision that they are to be "decently habited" (inserted in 1662) implies the Vestments to be used in their subsequent ministration in the Office in question. The Presentation and Warning are followed by a Summons by the Bishop to the people to name the impediment, if any there be, to their reception into or advancement in the Sacred Ministry. Silence indicates the assent of the laity, as the

positive statement has already done for the Clergy In the second Ordination the Bishop himself certifies as to fitness, but in either case he here ceases from further procedure if challenged.

The Litany follows, and is found here in most of the ancient Services of Western Christendom. Its full form is used (with a special Suffrage in each case, following that for "all Bishops, Priests and Deacons," and closing with its final Prayer, "We humbly beseech Thee, O Father,") as a direct Preface to the Holy Communion. The Collect for Deacons refers to St. Stephen, whose Ordination is narrated in one of the alternative Epistles, the other being St. Paul's instruction to St. Timothy on their proper qualifications. The Collect and alternative Epistles for Priests are similar to these, and there the alternative Gospels cite the example of Christ as the Good Shepherd. Before the Gospel in the Service for Deacons comes a detailed catechetical Examination, which, in that for Priests, is preceded, after the Gospel, by a very special and solemn Exhortation to the candidate on the great dignity and responsibility of the Pastoral Office and the special need of Divine grace to ensure a faithful discharge of its weighty and serious duties.

In the solemn series of Ordination Vows which now succeed, the candidate for each Order expresses a belief in his inward call to the Sacred Ministry, "according to the will of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Canons of this Church," and also in the Holy Scriptures as containing "all doctrine necessary for eternal salvation." Each furthermore promises obedience to his Bishop and other chief canonical Ministers, "following with a glad mind and will their godly admonitions, and submitting to their godly judg

ments," and also to frame and fashion his life and those of his family according to the doctrine of Christ. In addition to these common obligations, a Deacon pledges his loyal assistance to the Priest in the various subordinate functions already recited; and a Priest undertakes "with all faithful diligence to banish and drive away from the Church all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's Word." The latter also pledges himself to diligence in prayer and study and in the furthering of "quietness, peace and love among all Christian people;" as well as to "use both public and private monitions and exhortations," and "so to minister the Doctrine and Sacraments and the Discipline of Christ, as the Lord hath commanded, and as this Church hath received the same."

Upon the head of him who is to become a Deacon the Bishop, as the candidate kneels, now lays his hands, using the authoritative words of Ordination and Mission, which admit him to the Sacred Ministry of Christ in the name of the Holy Trinity; with the delivery to him of a copy of the New Testament and the command "to read the Gospel in the Church of God, and preach the same if thou be thereto licensed by the Bishop himself." The distinguishing outward mark of his Office, the crossed Stole, may then be placed upon his shoulder and the newlyordered Deacon (if there be more than one, he is selected) reads the Gospel, which is Our Lord's charge to watchfulness. The Communion Service is then proceeded with, those who have been ordained receiving the same; and its final Collect is a Prayer for humility and constancy.

In case an Ordination of Deacons and Priests is held at the same time, the former are first presented, examined

and ordained; the Litany being used but once, together with both Collects, the Epistle from the Service for Priests, and an alternative Gospel. Unless the Bishop sees reasonable cause, a Deacon must so remain at least a year, at the end of which time he may be admitted Priest by his Diocesan. Unhappily the Diaconate is little else than a mere stepping-stone to the Priesthood, at least in America; and under the prevailing status of clerical support must largely remain so, the minimum of service as a Deacon being generally availed of. But this state of things has arisen from an imperfect conception of the real nature of this Order, which is not necessarily a purely clerical one.

So long as this impression finds a general lodgment, the Church will continue to be deprived of the adequate help of one of her primitive and Apostolic arms of service, which now hardly wins recognition as a distinct and enduring Order. But godly men, winning a livelihood in other avocations, are beginning to realize that a vast work may be accomplished by them in the Church of their love by their admittance into the Diaconate, without the necessity or expectation of further promotion. Such men as these who, possessing high character, are successful in secular pursuits of a nature compatible with sacred work, are just the men to do good service for God and His Church in the restricted or perpetual Diaconate; reserving for the Priesthood those who have both the desire and liberty to give their entire lives unreservedly to work in a higher Order.

A Lay-reader must be a communicant, having a revocable license in writing from his Bishop for a limited term,

which license is not valid outside of his Diocese. He may serve a vacant Parish if it be unable to secure an ordained Minister, and may act therein as a Catechist if especially licensed. Where there is an officiating Clergyman, he is subordinate to his direction, and is never to use the Absolution or Benediction, nor any Office beside the Daily Service, save that for the Burial of the Dead and parts of those for the Visitation of the Sick and of Prisoners.

To continue in the ORDINATION OF PRIESTS, the Vows are succeeded by the Bishop's Blessing as he rises, and then by a space of Silent Prayer by the whole congregation. This is a most impressive act, existing in no other Service, not even at the consecration of a Bishop, and well indicates the intrinsic dignity of the Priestly Office and its great concern to the whole Church. The Hymn Veni, Creator Spiritus, which is now to be sung or said by the Bishop and those who are present, responsively by verses as indicated, was originally in Latin and is attributed to St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. It has been in use here since the eleventh century, is in two translated versions, and is the only metrical Hymn inserted in the Prayer Book. The first of these translations is the one almost universally employed, it being ascribed to the poet Dryden and much superior to the latter, which is very diffuse and the work of Archbishop Cranmer. It is a thrillingly impressive Invocation of the Holy Spirit as Creator and Paraclete, and also a Prayer for light, love and spiritual knowledge.

A final and most comprehensive Prayer follows before the Form of Ordination and Mission, which strikingly dif