error, oftenest one of the head, and not of the heart. In seeking to persuade them, moreover, it is well to impress upon them the fact that they are not thereby casting any slight on the grace which has been already given them through their earlier training and spiritual experience, but are only coming to receive a new gift which God has had in store for them all along though they knew it not. "For all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit." 1

As to METHODS OF CONFIRMING, the rule is not the same everywhere. Both the Oriental and the Roman Churches. retain the ancient custom of anointing, and signing with the sign of the Cross, but these are only ceremonial accessories. The essential "visible sign" is plainly specified by the scriptural name of "The Laying on of Hands,” accompanied by prayer for the Holy Ghost. In the medieval Church of England, as in the Roman Church today, the Bishop was accustomed to touch only the cheek of the candidate. This undoubtedly constitutes a valid Confirmation, but the rule of the Prayer Book, which requires that the Bishop "lay his hand [hands in the American Book] upon the head of every one severally," is not only more in keeping with Holy Scripture and primitive custom, but is also much more impressive. Many Bishops, moreover, still continue the ancient practice of signing with the Cross, as was already done in Holy Baptism.2

1 I Cor. xii, II. See also the note at the end of chap. xvi, p. 166, and the anecdote told there of Bishop Wilberforce.

2 The Scottish Book makes special provision for this, leaving its use, however, to the discretion of the Bishop. The form is as follows: "N, I sign thee with the sign of the cross [here the Bishop shall sign the person with the sign of the cross on the forehead] and I lay my hands [or hand] upon thee, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The prayer, "Defend, O Lord," follows immediately.

In regard to THE PROPER AGE OF CANDIDATES, the Church of England in her 112th canon requires that all persons shall become communicants before the age of sixteen. The American Church has no rule as to age, nor can any definite age be prescribed for receiving this gift of the Holy Ghost. It would seem, however, as if the age of twelve, when the Holy Child Jesus was admitted by a species of Jewish Confirmation to the full privileges of the Church,1 should be the constant aim of both parents and clergy. It is not really a question of years (some are too young at seventy), but of fitness and desire. It should be noted however that, in the Office for the Baptism of Infants, the Church lays down the rule that "this child shall be brought to the Bishop," not merely left to itself to come. It is plain also from the smallness of her demand concerning religious knowledge that she has here in mind a very tender age. There is to be no delay, but "so soon as he can say the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments, and be further instructed in the Church Catechism set forth for that purpose."

The following words of one who knew and loved children are worth pondering in this connection:

"Do you not judge the religion of young people by a harsher standard than you do your own? Do you not often expect more from them than you ask of yourselves? Do grown people never fall away afterward? I believe it will be found that the proportion is not so great in the case of the children as in the case of grown people. [This was also the remarkable confession of the late Mr. Spurgeon in his later years.] I am sure, if they do fall away, for evermore with a voice of increasing entreaty, the grace that came with their early Communion will plead with them, and knock at the door of their hearts, until, like him of old, they will

1 S. Luke ii, 42.

rise and go to their Father, and say, 'Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son.'" 1

In the revision of 1892 the American Church provided the following form of presenting the candidates for Confirmation to the Bishop:-"Reverend Father in God, I present unto you these children (or these persons) to receive the Laying on of Hands." This is followed by the following rubric and Lesson:-"Then the Bishop, or some Minister appointed by him, may say,

"Hear the words of the Evangelist Saint Luke, in the eighth Chapter of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles" (Verses 14-18). After the final rubric of the original Office this also was added: "The Minister shall not omit earnestly to move the Persons confirmed to come, without delay, to the Lord's Supper." 2

1 Dr. James de Koven. What is said here about the early Confirmation and Communion of children generally is especially true of boys, who, if allowed to grow up and go away from home unconfirmed, find decision, preparation, and formal confession of Christ a formidable barrier in later life, much more so than girls under similar circumstances.

In "An Alternative Order for the Ministration of Confirmation, as Canonically Sanctioned in the Scottish Church," provision is made for "candidates who had not godfathers and godmothers at their baptism." Here the vows are asked separately.

CHAPTER XXXI

SOLEMNIZATION OF MATRIMONY

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE

"While divorce of any kind impairs the integrity of the family, divorce with remarriage destroys it root and branch." GLADSTONE.

T is important to observe the title of this Office. It is

that is, the Church's solemn sanction and blessing upon the entrance on what is in itself a divinely ordained estate or condition of life. Without that blessing, the union of an unmarried man and an unmarried woman would still be marriage. For marriage, first of all, is a natural state of life, "instituted of God in the time of man's innocency," for this threefold purpose, (1) the continuance of the human race, in "a godly seed;" (2) "for a remedy against sin;" (3) "for mutual society, help, and comfort." As thus ordained by God at "the beginning of the creation," and as sanctioned afterwards by our Lord, marriage is the union of one man and one woman so that they are no longer "twain," each independent of the other, but "one flesh." 2 It necessarily follows that marriage, once freely entered into and consummated by cohabitation, is indissoluble. To allow that the sin of one, or of both parties, could destroy the bond, would be to make marriage a mere contract to be dissolved at pleasure, and not a "holy estate." Moreover, being a natural union, "one flesh," it is no more possible for either the Church or the State to dissolve the bond than it

1 Gen. i, 28; ii, 18, etc.; Mal. ii, 15; and the opening address in the English Office.

* Gen. ii, 24; S. Matt. xix, 5; S. Mark x, 6, 8.

is possible for them to dissolve the natural bond that binds the child to its parents, or a brother to a sister. "What God hath joined together" man cannot in reality "put asunder," for "they twain are one flesh." 1

This original law of marriage was grievously abused and broken by the Jews. The effort of Moses in dealing with the question is the first of which we have any record in history, and it was rather in the way of restriction of inevitable evils, "because of the hardness of their hearts," 2 than of a return to first principles. Only the weightiest causes were admitted, and no divorce was allowed except from bed and board, a mensa et thoro. Divorce from the bond, a vinculo, had no recognition whatever. The only prescription in the case of adultery was the death of the adulteress." Moses' work undoubtedly produced beneficent results, but scribes and rabbis, like their modern representatives, the divorce lawyers, found or made plenty of loopholes whereby, fifteen hundred years later, they obtained for their clients divorces "for every cause.'

6

It was then in face of this condition that WE FIND OUR LORD RESTATING IN UNMISTAKABLE LANGUAGE the Law AS IT WAS "FROM THE BEGINNING." His complete and unqualified teaching is summed up in the sayings as given by S. Mark and S. Luke: "Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery;" and "Whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband

1 S. Matt. xix, 5, 6.

2 Deut. xxiv, 1; S. Matt. xix, 8; cf. Acts xvii, 30.

• See a discussion of this in Luckock's History of Marriage, 30, sq.

4 Lev. xx, 10.

S. Matt. xix, 3.

• S. Matt. xix, 8.