form of God, and filled with the immensity of Divine love.1 It is, however, from the pages of the New Testament that we derive our knowledge of this gracious figure; and the fact that it contains the evangelical history, and conveys to us the impression which Christ made upon the hearts of the earliest believers, must give it a unique place in Christian literature. It is not unfitting that it should be accompanied by the Old Testament; for thus the continuity of religious history is preserved, and we are brought into contact with the slowly expanding faith which culminated in Jesus Christ. In this way the Bible has quite naturally and properly become the sacred book of Christendom, and we may accept it as such without believing it to be infallible or identifying it with the Word of God. Many precious words of God, indeed, it speaks to us if we listen devoutly to it; and it is right that the reverent reading of it should form an essential part of Christian worship. For though there is no miraculous guarantee that every part is true, and though it brings no magical grace of which it alone is the vehicle, it does come to us laden with the holy associations of many centuries of devotional use, and speaks to us with the accumulated authority of prolonged experience. It is good to surrender ourselves to the impression of its most inspired parts, and humbly apply their lessons to our own hearts and lives. The drawing forth of its finest thoughts, and the application of these to the permanent wants of men, represent the chief uses which should be made of it in the services of the Church. It is there, in the main, that the preacher will find the Word of God which he has to announce; and if, like a merchant seeking goodly pearls, he has to discriminate those of finest quality from the dull or spurious, he cannot go wrong if he bears in his heart the Spirit of Christ, and applies it to try the spirits whether they are of God. But he must always remember that, so far as is possible to him through prayer Eph. iii. 8.

1 II Cor. iii., iv.; Philip. ii. 5-11;

and self-dedication, he must speak not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God; for it is only thus that the Word of God can be made really effective in the Church, and minister grace to the hearers.

2. The Sacraments

From the Word of God we proceed to the Sacraments. Sacramentum denoted, in judicial proceedings, the sum which was deposited by the two parties; and this deposit was so called either because it was paid into a sacred place, or because that of the losing party was applied to religious purposes, or possibly because it was a pledge of good faith. The last explanation would accord best with its military use to describe the preliminary engagement of a soldier, and then his oath of allegiance. From the military use it came to signify any oath or solemn engagement, and then is applied to the sacred pledge or bond of union which was recognized by the members of any fraternity. Of this last use there is a good example in Apuleius, where the unfortunate man who was turned into an ass hoped to receive some food from another ass and a horse on the ground that there was a mute and natural sacrament among dumb animals.1 How and when the term passed into Christianity is not known. It is first found in Tertullian, who clearly connects it with the military oath :- We are summoned to the military service of the living God at the time when we answer in the words of the sacrament.'2 It is evident that the words used at Baptism, which constituted as it were the oath of allegiance to Christ, might

1'Ego rebar, si quod inesset mutis animalibus tacitum ac naturale sacramentum, agnitione ac miseratione quadam inductum equum illum meum hospitium, loca, ac lautia mihi praebiturum.' Metamorphoses iii. 26. I owe the reference to the Rev. J. E. Odgers.

2' Vocati sumus ad militiam Dei vivi jam tunc, cum in sacramenti verba respondemus.' Ad Martyres 3. See also De Corona 11, ' Credimusne humanum sacramentum divino superduci licere, et in alium Dominum respondere post Christum ? '

fittingly be so described. The term has apparently this reference in a passage where Tertullian, in comparing the New Testament with the Old, says, 'God thus wished to make a new sacrament, in order that he might in a new way be believed to be one through the Son and the Spirit, so that God might now be openly known in his proper names and persons'; for a little before he has referred to the truth which is in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit according to the Christian sacrament.' From the actual response of the baptized person the word might be easily. extended so as to denote the entire rite of baptism. This rite, again, was analogous to the initiation into the heathen mysteries; and hence probably the term came to represent the Greek μvorýplov, and thereby acquired a latitude of meaning which is far removed from its original sense. Justin Martyr compares Baptism and the Lord's Supper to the Greek mysteries, which he thinks were invented by demons as a parody of Christianity.2 Accordingly the word μvorηptov in the New Testament is sometimes translated into sacramentum in the Vulgate,3 though in other passages it is rendered by mysterium. Thus sacramentum came to be applied loosely to a sacred or mysterious rite or doctrine, as, for instance, by Tertullian to monogamy ; but, nevertheless, Tertullian seems to use it specially of Baptism and the Lord's Supper.5 When the meaning of the term came to be more carefully defined, it was regarded as the visible

1'Sic Deus voluit novare sacramentum, ut nove unus crederetur per filium et spiritum, ut coram jam Deus in propriis nominibus et personis cognosceretur'; and shortly before, 'veritatis quae est in patre et filio et spiritu sancto secundum Christianum sacramentum.' Adv. Praxean, 30, 31. 2 Apol. I, 62, 64, 66.

Eph. i. 9, iii. 3, 9, v. 32; Col. i. 27; I Tim. iii. 16; Rev. i. 20, xvii. 7. 4 De Monogamia 11.

5 Adv. Marc. iv. 34, ad sacramentum baptismatis et eucharistiae admittens.' See also De Praescr. Haer. 40, where ' res sacramentorum and sacramenta Christi,' are shown by the context to refer to these distinctively Christian rites.

sign or symbol of invisible divine things.1 This definition still leaves room for a very wide application; and accordingly Augustine, in the same treatise in which he suggests it, says that the Israelites were burdened with many visible sacraments . . . in the observance of food and in the sacrifices of animals and in innumerable other things, which were nevertheless signs of spiritual things pertaining to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the Church.'2 The word is even applied to such an event as the deluge, because it prefigured the future judgment, and redemption through the wood of the cross. These few remarks may be sufficient to explain how the word sacrament came to be applied specifically to certain Christian rites.

It does not belong to our present purpose to trace the history of the doctrine of the sacraments. Suffice it to say that many centuries elapsed before opinion settled down into the fixed Catholic dogma with which our exposition must begin. The Catechismus Romanus defines a Sacrament as the visible sign of invisible grace, instituted for our justification.' In order to explain this it is pointed out that of all the things perceived by the senses there are two kinds. Some things have been invented in order to signify something, while others exist not for the sake of signifying something else, but for their own sake alone. To the latter class belong almost all natural objects; but in the former are included words, writing, standards, images, and other things of a similar kind. For a sign is that which gives us a knowledge of something besides that which falls under the senses, as from a footprint we easily learn that some one has passed. A sacrament belongs to this genus, since by a certain form and similitude it declares to us what God effects in our souls

1 Thus Augustine says, 'De sacramento . . . signacula quidem rerum divinarum esse visibilia, sed res ipsas invisibiles in eis honorari.' De catech. rudibus xxvi. 2.

2 Ibid. xx. 8.

Pars II, cap. i. § v.

3 Ibid. xix. 8, 9; and see xx. 2, 3, and xxvii. 2.

by his own power, which cannot be perceived by sense. Thus the Apostle calls circumcision, which was the sacrament of the ancient law, a sign of the righteousness of faith. Now, of signs some are natural, as smoke is a sign of fire; others have been invented by men for their own convenience, and appeal to the several senses; for instance, the hoisting of a flag, to the eyes; to the ears, the blast of a trumpet; and, above all, words, which serve to express the inmost thoughts of the mind. In addition to these two classes there are signs which have been divinely given, and which themselves come under two heads. Some have been instituted solely for the purpose of signifying something or conveying an admonition; for instance the purifications of the law, unleavened bread, and many other things belonging to the Mosaic ritual. But others have the power not only of signifying, but of effecting something; and the sacraments of the new law are distinguished by their power of effecting the sacred thing which they declare. The sacred thing thus symbolized and produced is the grace of God, which makes us holy, and adorns us with all divine virtues. Hence we reach a fuller definition of a sacrament: it is 'a thing subjected to the senses, which, by the institution of God, has the power both of signifying and of effecting holiness and righteousness.'1 By this definition images of the saints, crosses, and other things of that kind, though they are signs of sacred things, are excluded from the class of sacraments.

These mystical signs, instituted by God, signify more than one thing, and declare not only our holiness and righteousness, but moreover two other things which are most closely united with holiness, namely, the passion of Christ the Redeemer, which is the cause of holiness, and eternal life and beatitude, to which our holiness ought to be referred as its end. Accordingly the Doctors of the Church recognized a triple significance in each sacrament: that which brings the memory of

1 § x.