omits those words does not Moreover, the actual laying reason than this: the person who believe them to be certainly true. on of hands, with the appropriate words, is surely of the very essence of Ordination; and if the form of words used has been deliberately chosen for the very purpose of omitting what is implied in certain prayers which, however suitable, are not of the very essence of Ordination, the inevitable inference is that when the Bishop comes to do the very thing for which the prayers have been a preparation, he carefully guards against being supposed to intend what the prayers, taken alone, might have been supposed to imply. I offer this opinion with great diffidence, but "with my present lights" it seems to me sound. I hope Protestantism has gained more than it has lost by degrading Orders from the dignity of a true Sacrament. "The essential matter and form of Ordination consists only in the imposition of the Bishop's hands, joined to the invocation of the Holy Spirit." My objection to the alternative form in our own Ordinal is that it contains no "invocation of the Holy Spirit"; and that it was adopted for the very purpose of excluding that invocation. Here follows Bishop Kerfoot's letter: "August 6, 1874. In the American Church, I believe that most of the bishops use the words 'Receive the Holy Ghost' in ordaining a priest. I always do. But the alternative form is, we of course hold, equally efficient. The fact is, as you of course know, that in some services (I remember the fact so given in Maskell) no such one form, or act, or set of words was used; but the 'Order' given was defined by the whole service, and the Holy Ghost invoked in more parts than that one part of the ordination. The form prescribed in the Church of England Prayer Book, and most rightly kept in our American Prayer Book, and among us generally used, is surely right; but it is not essential; nor is it the earliest form or mode. I prefer and always use it, but no principle is involved necessarily . . . the office given is defined all through the service. If any advocates of low views think they would gain by leaving out that special form, they are mistaken. ... "But I am clear that all acts of bishop or priest or deacon are precatory. 'I baptize,' etc., 'Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a bishop,' etc.-all are prayers of office; prayers of sure efficacy, because put up by the officer commissioned so to invoke the gift of the Spirit. (Of course sacramental gifts may be hindered by the wilful sin of the person.) None of us has, or can have, grace to give, nor can we command. The Holy Ghost is present, and HE gives the grace in the sacrament and in the ordination. Putting it thus (and this seems to me a strong view, too), I have found believing Evangelicals assent at once and cheerfully. I try to win them to realize and confess their own convictions. Most truly yours, J. B. KERFOOT.” THE JUDGMENT OF GOD IN THE EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE AND FRAUD.* And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God.-DEUT. viii. 19-20. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death. . . . The wages of sin is death.-ROM. vi. 21-23. I propose to speak to you this morning about a very serious epidemic, of which it is only too plain that very many of us are sick, and of which no small number have pitifully died. You will find no mention of this epidemic in any bills of mortality, or in the reports of any Bureau of Vital Statistics. It is not the Asiatic cholera, nor yellow fever, nor small-pox, nor diphtheria; it makes itself manifest by no eruption of pustules, no blotches on the skin, no exhausting nausea, or agony of colic, or racking torture of cramp. to God, one might almost say-would to God that it did! for then, perhaps, we might betake ourselves to some sort of doctoring before the fatal collapse. On the contrary, this epidemic is ushered in, not by the parching heat of fever, but only by a soothing and delicious rise of temperature; not by acute pain, but by a pleasing exaltation of sensibility. We think that we are better than we ever were; the world looks Would * Preached on the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, 1884. brighter to us; the gayeties and delights of society are more exhilarating; we say to ourselves again and again in happy surprise: "Who could have believed that it was possible to get so much enjoyment out of life ?" We are lured on to our destruction, because the worse we get the better we think we are; and we scarcely realize that we are sick until the death-rattle is in our throats and the death-sweat upon our brows. The epidemic I am about to speak of is the epidemic of fraud and vice, of abject cowardice and brutal violence. And, to prevent misunderstanding, I may here say over again what I have said to you scores of times before I do not believe the perfection of Christian character requires, I do not even believe that Christian perfection admits of, a rigorous asceticism.* * Of course I put out of consideration highly exceptional individual temperaments, or conditions of society; nor do I include under "rigorous asceticism such abstinence or fasting as the Catholic Church requires from her members. Hermits and monks and nuns have had a great work to do, both for the Church and the world, and in innumerable instances they have nobly done it. Wake again, Teutonic Father-ages, Speak again, beloved primæval creeds; Flash ancestral spirit from your pages, Tell us how of old our saintly mothers Schooled themselves by vigil, fast and prayer, Learnt to love as Jesus loved before them, While they bore the cross which poor men bear. Tell us how our stout, crusading fathers Fought and died for God, and not for gold; The world in which God has thought fit to place us is Ye who built the churches where we worship, Oh! forgive the children of your love! (C. KINGSLEY: The Saint's Tragedy.) |