and mercy among the suffering.

The ancient office of

Deaconess is revived by Canon for work of the last-named character. She is to be admitted thereto by an express Service set forth by the Bishop, after examination as to carefully specified qualifications for which training has been provided; and she is directly responsible to him, or to the Priest of the Parish in which she serves.

Figures are but a poor index in spiritual concerns, and it will suffice in this brief review to note a few facts from the report made by its "Committee on the State of the Church" to the General Convention which set forth the Standard Prayer Book of 1892. Of the one hundred and sixty-two American Bishops who had received consecration during her independent life, seventy-two (in as many Dioceses and Jurisdictions), were in active service; and the number of Priests and Deacons exceeded four thousand. Of communicants more than five hundred and fifty thousand are enrolled, and her baptized members exceed two and three-quarter millions. Her ratio of increase in communicants and members in the last triennial period is over twelve and one-half per cent., in Ordinations over thirty per cent., and in Churches erected fifteen per cent.; about one-half of all the latter being free. Her relative growth in membership largely exceeds that of the population, having advanced from one in four hundred and sixteen in 1830, to one in one hundred and twenty-three in 1890.

In this there is small occasion for boasting, but, in view of the history of the past, infinite cause for gratitude. The number of those who in America still bear testimony to the pure Apostolic order which is the twin companion

of evangelical Truth, is yet but a "little flock"; but sure it is that the true principles which should underlie an orderly system of religious organization and worship are silently and slowly yet powerfully leavening the sober thought of America.

XXXV.

OUTLOOK AND OPPORTUNITY.

“A city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God."-Hebrews xi. 10.

"A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time."— Isaiah 1x. 22.

"But ye are come unto * * * * * the general assembly and Church of the firstborn, which are written in Heaven.” -Hebrews xii. 22, 23.

AND what of the future? The American Church's

official Commission on Christian Unity, now sitting for many years past, after prolonged correspondence and conference with representatives of one of the most powerful and influential religious bodies of Protestantism, is able to report that a basic principle of corporate union is conceded by that body as vital, and that our own progress in this quest has been important and the prospect hopeful. All about us the signs of the times point to a strong desire, as yet less outwardly expressed than inwardly felt, for an open realization of inclusive constitutional and institutional Christianity. Over ninety per cent. of Christendom is Episcopal in its government. The people of the English-speaking race are destined under God to play a mighty part in the evangelization of the world; and the rendering of both the Bible and the Prayer Book into this language are among the noblest contributions

made to human advancement; each of them the work of Churchmen, as, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, was the New Testament itself.

Unquestionably there will always be with some a preference, from constitution or training, for a non-liturgical Service, and such feelings and tastes should have entire respect. In the Offices which are not sacramental a large variety is provided; and the ordinary uses of daily worship should be made to commend themselves to all men as to times and varied methods, within the wide limits of a wise and ordered discretion. With thinking people the fiction of the "aristocratic" character of the Church is long since exploded. There is no religious body more democratic, and no system so adaptable to the "plain people." No one claims that even the Prayer Book is ideally perfect. As a matter of liturgical arrangement it is sufficient to note that if the Psalter immediately followed the Daily Service, and the Collects, Epistles and Gospels the Communion Office, as adjuncts should follow principals, and if the special Ash Wednesday and Thanksgiving Services were printed in their consecutive order among the Altar Services, a more logical and orderly sequence would have been secured. But these are not grave matters. Whatever variations there may be in individual choice, there is that in the gracious words of the Prayer Book, "melodious, idiomatic," free alike from vain rhetoric or empty abstractions, which will never die.

What is needed is more thoroughness, consistency and self-consecration in its use. Intrinsically God has little need of the earthly tabernacles or liturgies, which are only to lead us to Him; and the beauty of holiness is

often found existing in a station wherein all Church privileges are denied. Even Articles of Belief may obscure the vision of God if they do not guide and inspire the conduct of life. The hope of the Apostolic Church lies largely with her laity, as yet far too faithless in "redeeming the time" and seizing opportunities for the Master. It is for them to demonstrate that in her alone is to be found, not only unity of spirit, but the bond of peace; and to do so in righteousness of life. In her alone, if her teaching be lived out, the spirit of individualism, which is the essence of the sect-idea, becomes transfigured into loyalty to a common and divinely-transmitted Faith. Dispassionately considered and without disparagement to other usages made precious by inheritance and long habit, she alone of all Communions, holding fast to the history and traditions of the past, receives through them warrant for the continuing Brotherhood of the present, and looks confidently forward to the unchangeable Promise of the future.

The Church only needs to be known and realized in this manner to become not merely respectfully heard but lovingly embraced. And in all her armory she has no weapon for this conquest equal to the Book of Common Prayer. Made a missionary tract, it will find its way into thousands of households already half-starved on the unsatisfying fare of a divided Christianity, and will reach hundreds of religious teachers longing for something better than a merely voluntary association and leadership. How the Prayer Book appears to the wisest and most acute living critic of literature (though not himself a Churchman), let his own glowing words reveal: