*

and teaching but from the unholy priest, with his youthful "carnal affections" and his anointing of the "breasts" of our children, and, as in the Vade Mecum, of our female relations. Because, forsooth, the Apostles used oil as a medicinal remedy, and by God's blessing cured those they so anointed, the would-be divinely-gifted successor advances this ceremony as a sacrament, forgetting that Holy Mother Church appoints to be read on the 14th June the fifth chapter of St. James, in which in addition to the anointing it is expressly stated, "And the prayer of faith shall save the sick." However, as the infallible but very inconsistent Church shows in the lessons † appointed by her to be read on the 22nd March, laying of hands on the sick is sufficient to heal them, while in Acts iii. 1-8, and Acts ix. 33-4 (lessons appointed for June 19th, 30th, and July 1st), the Apostle only speaks to the sick to release him from sickness, therefore anointing cannot be essential. But, says the priest, you will see in the latter case how the Apostle heals the man of his illness in the name of Jesus Christ, so we, as his successors, heal your souls by divine absolution. Not so, O Ritualist and Romanist; if you would have our faith in your power on the one point you must have it on both, for both are done in Christ's name, and if you can forgive sins in His name you can heal the sick; but unfortunately you do not do the latter and cannot do the former, and therefore, until you have Apostolic power to raise up the sick, not merely pray over a dying person, but restore him to vigour again, we see through your jugglement of confession and thence your means to the end of supreme and despotic power, not only as heretofore in Church and State, but over the home, the heart, the actions and the thoughts.

HOLY ORDERS.

Q. 85. Is ordination a sacrament?

A. It is truly and properly a sacrament, and doth confer grace and who denies this is accursed.

* St. Mark vi. 13.

As to being a sacrament, see P. 14.

"Now it is very important for us to find out our vocation; 1st because it is God's will that we should serve Him in that particular

† St. Mark xvi. 18.

state of life which He has marked out for us; 2nd, because He has given us grace and gifts suitable for that state; 3rd, because it will be very difficult to serve God if we are so unhappy as to mistake our vocation, and that for these reasons: we shall not have the proper gifts for the life we have chosen ; and we cannot expect God's blessing on the work. The Saints used to call Baptism, Confirmation, First Communion, and Vocation, the four nai's that fasten us to the cross of Christ; if one of these nails be wanting, or even loose, we shall hang heavy on that cross. "A mistaken vocation is like an unlucky speculation-we run a great risk of failing and losing all we possess."-Prayer Book for the Young, pp. 345-6.

Then follow three prayers: 1, for choosing a state of life; 2, for one who desires to serve God as a priest

66

and 3, 66 for one who desires to serve God as a religious";

all of which seem to point that there is none other vocation by which we can be saved except that of the priesthood or a religious, for

Q. 86. What are the several orders instituted for the service of the Church?

A. The orders always received by the Catholic Church are seven; the greater and the less; the greater are the priest, deacon and

"No one can attain perfection in the spiritual life who does not follow the callings of Grace, whithersoever they lead him; different men may be called diversely, it may be to self-renunciation, solitude, bodily mortification, strict rule, or a spirit of prayer; be it what it may, there is no safety in stopping short of that call "-T. Î. CARTER'S Self-Renunciation, pp. 168-9.

"In the Holy Eucharist, the celebrant, deacon and sub-deacon and the two acolytes are to wear girded albs, etc."-Sarum Use, p. 18.

In 1875 the writer was informed that a missioner was

It has often been said to the writer, and she has heard the same preached, that a person not married by the Church was living in sin; but it is a strange fact that couples "mated "—if it so please the Ritualist-by the Registrar often live pure and undefiled lives, while many of those who have received the sacerdotal blessing are divorced, separated, or leading vile and adulterous lives, and while the priest urges "those whom God hath joined together let not man put asunder," let both him and his class fulfil their High Priest's bidding, and see to it that in no way are they the cause of the parties being torn asunder, or of hatred and jealousy arising through their intermeddling confessionals and spiritual advice. Methinks also if "Christians require the Church's services to join them indissolubly together, they would not, as the records of our Law Courts show, accept divorces and separations at the hand of an earthly judge, but rather follow their Lord's and their holy Church's teaching when she says: "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord"; and "Husbands, love your wives," for "He that loveth his

wife, loveth himself";* and there does not appear any qualification as to whether he or she is good or bad, Christian or heathen, religious or irreligious.

That Christ undoubtedly approved of the state of marriage is shown by His blessing the Feast at Cana, but He nowhere utters a dictum that persons are to be joined together by any special human ordinance, "Those whom God hath joined together," surely that means those in whom God has implanted a mutual love, and a desire to fulfil the law under which He made them male and female (Matt. xix. 4), with a desire to live together during life. But on the contrary, He says emphatically, "Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery!"† O Christian people of a Christian land, why do you mock God with a religion that defies His commands, and therefore your Holy Mother Church, His exponent.

Q. 88. May those that are in holy orders marry, or those that are married be received into orders in the Church of Rome?

A. No; those that are married may not be admitted; those that are admitted may not marry, and those that being admitted do marry, are to be separated.

"To be spiritually chaste, the soul must not only abstain from all merely natural affections, but it must receive interior sweetness and light in a calm self-restrained way, and be ever ready to give up all such delights, and to rest in God only."-T. T. CARTER'S Self-Renunciation, pp. 137-8.

Here, though free to marry, the Ritualist endeavours to copy the Romanist, and celibacy in the former is generally taught. If Christ commanded his shepherds to remain single, why was such a dogmatic idea not started until 1100 years after the Christian era; and after all, methinks, such a custom savours of paganism rather than Christianity. Did not the priests of Isis take vows of celibacy? Were not the Vestals virgins? So really Holy Mother Church's sainted priest is following the example of his pagan progenitors, and naturally falling into their sins, too well known to bear repetition. Reason demands that the married clergyman with his own children must know better how to sympathise with poor Hodge who has lost his † St. Matt. xix. 9.

* Ephes. v. 22, 25, and 28.

dearly loved wife, or a mother weeping over the death of her precious little infant. What wants she with strings of texts about God's chastening love, etc.? Give her a look with the pitying sympathy of your own bereavement shining in your eyes, and perhaps, as you press her hands and bid her not fret for her little innocent, a choke in your own voice as you remember your own sorrow. These soothe and heal the wounds, and your texts will fit in better another time, when she feels "the parson " shares with her the grief of a sorrowing parent. So with Hodge. "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin!"

Then of course there is the well-known passage: "For there are some eunuchs, which are so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake" (Matt. xix. 12).

As for the priestly celibates, if they wish us to believe their celibacy is undertaken for God's glory and the good of His work, and not for a system of secret concubinage, let them then devote themselves to God, let them make themselves "eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake,” and publicly before the Holy Church's altar really and honestly obey her (if she bonâ fide demands the sacrifice), and like Christ in His circumcision submit to the knife, and then we shall know, when our daughters and wives and sisters go to Confession, and enter convents, there will be no danger from secret interviews with men, who, of all males, are alone permitted to hear the first, and enter the last. As the holy priest wishes us penitents to receive and implicitly believe his power to forgive sins, so let him receive and strictly obey his Lord and His Mother's teaching!

He

Take the New Testament teaching on marriage. Christ speaks of His Father—a father cannot fulfil his duty without children-He sanctifies the home life as a child. uses the expression, "As a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings" (Matt. xxiii. 37), signifying the great glory of motherhood. How can motherhood be without marriage? And in the Old Testament God's greatest blessing is "Be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. i. 22 and 28; viii. 17; ix. 7; XXXV. 11). Further, if the priests want the

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