Lord.''* We know, indeed, that this custom of rising is certainly is old as the days of St. Chrysostom; for he speaks of it in one of his Homilies on St. Matthew-" If the letters of a king are read in the theatre with great silence, much more ought we to compose ourselves, and stand up with attentive ears, when the letters, not of an earthly king, but of the Lord of angels are read to us. ." In the same way the Author of the Constitutions says "When the Gospel is read let the Presbyters and Deacons and all the people stand with profound silence."

These then, are the principal parts of our service, and you perceive not only their great antiquity, but also how carefully the Church now adheres to the rites and customs of early days. From the manner in which our Liturgy was arranged by the English reformers, you can see the object they had in view in the great work to which they were call ed, and the spirit in which it was accomplished. They wished simply to purify their Church and Ritual from the corruptions of the Middle Ages, and to have them both conformed in every respect to the pattern of primitive times. In this respect they differed widely from those on the Continent. There, antiquity was disregarded-the Church, with her ministry and Ritual, entirely abandoned and instead of a Reformation, the result was a Revolution.§ Casaubon, therefore, paid but a merited tribute to our Church, when he wrote "Si me conjectura non fallit, totius reformationis pars integerrima est in Angliâ ; ubi, cura studio veritatis, vig studium antiquitatis."

*Bing. Orig. Eccles. lib. xiv. ch. 3, sect. 10.

+ Hom. i. in Matt.

+ Constit. lib. ii. cap. 57. § "Thus when the infatuate Council, named of Trent, Clogg'd up the Catholic course of the true Faith, Troubling the stream of pure antiquity,

And the wide channel in its bosom took

Crude novelties, sca ce known as that of old:

Then many a schism. overleaped the banks,

Genevese, Lutheran, Scotch diversities.

Our Church, though straiten'd sore 'tween craggy walls,
Kept her true course, unchanging and the same;
Known by that ancient clearness, pure and free,

With which she sprung from 'neath the throne of God."

Thoughts on Past Years, p. 274

It remains to say but a few words with regard to the dif ference between the Prayer Book as used in England and in this country. At the close of that revolution which politically separated us from England, the Church also in this land was, of course, severed from that to which she had been "indebted, under God, for her first foundation, and a long continuance of nursing care and protection."* Wher, therefore, the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by other English prelates, had consecrated three Bishops for this country, that we might have the Apostolical succession among ourselves,† it became necessary also to make some trifling alterations in the Prayer Book, to adapt it to the circumstances of the Church. These changes were made, and these only; for, as it is expressed in the Preface to that volume" This Church is far from intending to depart from the Church in England in any essential point of doctrine, discipline, or worship, or further than local circumstances require." Our early Bishops, looking to the Church from which their own derived her existence, wished that every one should trace the Mother's lineaments in the features of the child. Thus, then, the Prayer Book was finally arranged, and so we trust it will remain through all ages of our Church here, until her earthly warfare is accomplished, and this service gives place to the anthems of Heaven.

And now, in conclusion, let me ask-have we not reason to bless God for this "form of sound words," which has thus come down to us from a distant antiquity? May we

* Preface to the Prayer Book.

+ The Right Rev. Wm. White, D. D., of Pennsylvania, and the Right Rev. Sam. Provoost, D D., of New York, consecrated in the Chapel of the Archiepiscopal Palace at Lambeth, in England, on Sunday, Feb. 4th, 1787, by the Most Rev. John Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Archbishop of York, and the Bishops of Bath and Wells, and Peterborough. The Right Rev. James Madison, D. D., of Virginia, consecrated in the same place, on Sunday, Sept. 19th, 1790, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishops of London and Rochester.

The Right Rev. Samuel Seabury, D. D., of Connecticut, had been previously consecrated in Aberdeen, Scotland, Nov. 14th, 1784, by tne Bishop of Aberdeen, with his coadjutor, and the Bishop of Ross and Moray assisting.

cot say of the Church-" Her clothing is of wrought gold?" Our Ritual contains not the sentiments or thoughts of any one man-or even any one generation of men-but embodies the spirit and the devotion of Universal Catholic Christendom, in its earliest, purest day. It is tinged with no party views. It is not intended to speak the language of any one small section of believers, but it seeks to bring us before the throne of God in the same spirit with which His children were accustomed to approach Him, when warring sects were unknown, and but one united Church was spread every where over the earth. Oh, are there not, then, solemn recollections and glorious memories connected with the Liturgy by which now we worship? Is it not some thing, to realize that in our devotions we are not dependent on the feelings of a mortal like ourselves, for the direction which our thoughts shall take, but that the prayers we utter bear the stamp and breathe the spirit of Apostolic days? Does not this Ritual come to us with new power when we think that, age after age, its solemn, elevating voice has been heard in the Church-that it is now what it was, when Christianity itself, in the dawn of early youth, was contending even for existence with a Pagan world? Yes-when I stand at this altar, to minister in that holy rite by which with bread and wine we commemorate our Lord's death, I remember that seventeen centuries ago these emblems were consecrated, with almost the same words, in the distant East where our faith had its birth, and through Northern Africa, where once hundreds of Bishops sat in the councils of the Church. There also that noble ascription-" Therefore with angels and archangels, and with all the company of Heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name". -was uplifted in many a strange tongue, as men thus professed their faith even at the peril of their lives. And now it has descended to us, as a chain which binds us to them in holy fellowship. The same anthems which you sing, have been sounded forth from ancient confessors and martyrs, as they went joyfully to the stake, and been the last accents heard from their lips as the flames gathered around them.*

"Thein odies were quickly wrapped in flame; they shouted Te Deum laudamus. Soon their voices were stifled-and their ashes

Countless generations of the saints-the dead who slept in Christ a thousand years ago—have worshipped in the very prayers which now you use, and had their souls thus trained up for Heaven.

Therefore it is that, as each age passed by, this Ritual has gone down with a richer freight of hallowed associations and blessings to the generation which succeeded, until we in our turn have inherited it. We wish, therefore, nothing better. We are willing to tread in the footsteps of the holy dead who have gone before us. We will worship in thei words, and trust that at the end we shall share in their reward. We will feel, too, that the noblest legacy we can leave to those who shall come after us, is this form of sound words —so full-so complete, that we may well say in the words of Dr. South-"There is no prayer necessary, that is not in the Liturgy, but one, which is this: that God would vouchsafe to continue the Liturgy itself, in use and honor, and veneration, in this Church forever.

alone remained." Death of Esch and Voes, the first martyrs of the Reformation, at Brussels, 1525.

The venerable Bede, as he was dying, repeated the Collect for the day, which was the Festival of our Lord's Ascension. Malms Lia &

VI.

THE CHURCH'S VIEW OF INFANT BAPTISM

Blest be the Church, that watching o'er the needs
Of infancy, provides a timely shower,

Whose virtue changes to a Christian Flower
A growth from sinful nature's bed of weeds i
Fitliest beneath the sacred roof proceeds
The ministration; while parental Love
Looks on, and grace descendeth from above,
As the high service pledges now, now pleads.

Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Sonnets, XV

HUMAN language could not frame a question which would appeal with greater force to the parent's heart than that simple inquiry which Elisha addressed to the woman of Shunem-" Is it well with the child ?"* It is asking after the welfare of one around whom their warmest affections are clustering, with all the strength of a father's love, and the undying steadfastness of a mother's tenderness. The infant, even in the first months of its helpless innocence, is already exerting a powerful influence over many hearts. How many bosoms-alike of childhood and of age-are filled with its love! How many countenances, as they cluster around it, light up with gladness at its smiles! How does its presence spread happiness through its home! Thus early do the threads of its influence go out, and entwine about the hearts of those to whom Providence hath committed its keeping. How powerfully, then, do the warmest feelings of our nature respond at once to the question—“ Is it well with the child?"

But expressive as is this inquiry when applied to the temporal welfare of your child, what an added emphasis does it have, when we carry it still farther, and refer the question * 2 Kings iv. 26.