especially those in the third section, concern matters of mere opinion and are couched in scholastic and philosophic language, not easily understood by the common people. Such are those that treat of speculative subjects such as Predestination, Free Will, Election, Justification, and the reconcilement of Faith and Works; each of them the arena of endless and unprofitable controversy. Except as they agree with the Church's teaching in reference to the acceptance of the Word of God, the Creeds, the Sacraments and the Ministry, neither a belief in nor even a knowledge of these Articles is required for Church membership either here or in England. In the American Church the Clergy, as responsible teachers, before Ordination or admission, subscribe conformity to the Doctrines and Worship of the Church. Though the largest latitude is given to personal judgment by the Church in the consideration of these and kindred questions, it would be well to cultivate a more general acquaintance with them from a historical and educational standpoint, as in this way they will be profitable for instruction as well as for doctrine.

Those of an elder generation are still familiar with the time when their Prayer Books contained at the back the HYMNAL of that day, which was divided into "Selections from the Psalms of David in Metre," and " Hymns suited to the Feasts and Fasts." The constitutional restrictions which surround the Hymnal are less rigid as regards change or choice than as to the rest of the liturgy, resembling more nearly in this respect the Lectionary; which latter may be amended by a single General Convention, while the rest of the Prayer Book requires the agreeing

action of two consecutive sessions at an interval of three years. The appointment of Hymns and Anthems lies with. the Minister, whose duty it is made by Canon "to suppress all light and unseemly music, and all indecency and irreverence in its performance."

As the Hymnal stands, it is the sober judgment of critical poetic scholarship after many years of deliberative revision. In the English Church there is no authorized standard of metrical song. Our Hymnal is compiled and arranged on the lines of the Church's liturgy, beside which it has a very large number of Hymns of general application. Its divisions are suited to the Daily Morning and Evening Prayer and the Lord's Day, to the entire Christian Year in its varying round, to the Sacraments and Occasional Offices and to special places and occasions of public gathering, to the study of the Bible and the needs of children, for use at home, in travel, with the sick, and in the work of Missions. To provide so worthy an adjunct to the Prayer Book all stores of hymnody have been ransacked, and it is one of its pleasantest features that it embodies the fruit of the consecrated thought of many Christian minds and hearts (outside of as well as within the communion of the Church), whose sympathizers own with us allegiance to one common Lord.

XXXIV.

ORGANIZATION-LEGISLATION-EDUCATION.

"Stir up, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the wills of Thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by Thee be plenteously rewarded."—The Collect for the Sunday next before Advent.

"O Lord, we beseech Thee, let Thy continual pity cleanse and defend Thy Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without Thy succour, preserve it evermore by Thy help and goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”—The Collect for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity.

IN forming a just conception of the Church, there remain

to be considered certain outlines of working ORGANIZATION which need to be understood because they cooperate with an attitude in matters of ritual to place her on a peculiar plane among religious bodies. In her primitive history the method of localized government was that of the See (i. e., the "Seat"), which was the jurisdiction of a single Bishop, its local name being taken from that of its chief city where the Bishop lived. All distribution of labour among his Clergy emanated from the Bishop, in whom was lodged, as still it is, the power of Mission (or of sending others to a specific work). Dioceses in the strict modern sense, modified by parochial limitations and privileges, did not exist, and the Bishop's full powers were exercised in accordance with the terms of the original Commission.

This may be called the purely Episcopal System in the Church's working life.

Causes not necessary here to detail, but (if not having an earlier origin) very largely the result of our unfortunate early history in this country and of our inheritance from the Mother Church (which, in matters of property-holding and the assignment of duty, is largely a creature of the State), have so modified this theory in America that little in actual fact remains to a Bishop of this original power of Mission except in Cathedral work, or in actual missionary fields where self-governing Parishes do not exist. The power of appointment of Priests or their designation to duty which he has thus lost (or rather abdicated), is now exercised by the lay officials of the organized Parishes which are subdivisions of his Diocese; and a Clergyman now ordinarily goes to a new field of labour, not, as originally, because his Bishop has sent him there, but because he has himself accepted a call from a particular Parish through its Vestry. Parishes in a Diocese through their representatives form the Convention or Council, which is the legislative body of that Diocese, and the Diocesan Clergy are members thereof in virtue of their office. This may be termed, in contradistinction to the other, the Parochial and Conventional System.

Time and space forbid a discussion of their respective merits. The latter is at present the legalized and canonical usage of the American Church, and has its advantages, though it is evidently not an integral part of the ChurchIdea. She existed for ages without it, and still so exists in many parts of the world, and in mission fields in America as well as elsewhere. And the feeblest Mission, though

knowing nothing of Parish boundaries or Vestry management, and, through its Missionary or perhaps without one communicating after the primitive method directly with the Bishop who is the chief Missionary, is entitled none the less to the fostering care and loving sympathy of the entire Diocese, whether in individual Parishes or as represented in its annual Council.

The Greek word "Dioikein," from which comes "Diocese," means to keep house" or "to govern," and "Paroikos" in Greek, which is the word "Parish," signifies 66 near the house." The association is evident; and elements neighbourly to a Church make up a Parish, while a Diocese is governed by a single Overseer. The Bishop is supreme in both, but the local self-government of Parishes in purely temporal affairs, which is justly remitted to the laity, has in process of time been suffered to add to itself the choice of their Minister; and has thus shorn the former of so much of his prerogative, though he retains the power of assent and often adds that of nomination. His full powers in this regard are retained in active exercise in the Church of Rome, and similar ones are employed by the so-called bishops of the Methodist body.

person supply the needs of is sometimes chosen as the Indeed, he is the chief Rec

He may and often does in vacant Mission stations, and temporary Rector of a Parish. tor of his whole Diocese, and feeble Parishes may well in practice consider him as such, and so revive in him for their own needs, either singly or in connection with each other, the dormant power of Mission; which would enable them to sustain with his help a partial service in rotation from such of his assistants as he might send them. If