Festival, it being one of the three times in the year when all their males appeared before the Lord, came together to the Apostles to judge if the report were true. And they "were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed, and marvelled, saying, one to another: . . . We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?" What did it mean but that in all the world was the Gospel to be preached to every creature, and the wonderful works of God proclaimed to him in his own tongue, that hearing, he might understand?

And if the Gospel were to be taught that all should hear and believe, can it be doubted that those who receive it should worship God with their understanding?

St. Paul, writing to the primitive Church at Corinth, says; "If I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at the giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest? . . . . In the Church I had rather speak five words with my understanding that by my voice

I might teach others also, than ten thousand words. in an unknown tongue."

This was the "Word of God, and the custom of the Primitive Church;" but the Church did not long keep her first faith. In the latter part of the

fourth century, mass was said in Latin as the established practice of the Catholic Church, an invention of priestcraft to keep the service and its meaning to themselves, making the congregation but spectators of the performance of mysterious rites they could not enter into nor comprehend. They no doubt might worship "with the spirit," but their understanding was not edified.

The Anglican Reformation had two principal objects; the publication of an English Prayer-Book, and a Bible also in the vernacular. We have seen how the second of these objects was accomplished.

The first English Prayer-Book of Edward VI. legalised by the first Uniformity Act, came into force appropriately enough on Whitsunday, June 9th, 1549. The whole Service was translated into English that the congregation might no longer "assist" at, but enter into it as their own. "And the Laity were thus plainly recognised as full members of the Church, having under due spiritual conditions, a full indefeasible right to its Services and Sacraments."

How fully the Reformers realised and carried out this principle may be seen from the final exhortation of the Baptismal Service, which directs that

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every baptised member of Christ's Church shall be taught "in the vulgar "-or common-" tongue," the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, as being the main essentials of religion; and for the better comprehending of which, the Church Catechism, also in the vernacular, is further set forth for that purpose.

ARTICLE XXV.-" Of the Sacraments."

The sacraments are here defined as being, not merely badges or professions of the Church's faith before the outer world, but chiefly as witnesses and signs of God's love and goodwill towards us, in token of which He has "instituted and ordained these holy mysteries, as pledges of His love, to our great and endless comfort;" and by which-if on our part rightly received-He works in us, to the quickening of our love to Him in return, and strengthening and confirming of our faith.

The Catechism farther expounds it thus ; a sacrament is the "outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ Himself, as a means whereby we receive the same," that is, by means of the "outward sign" rightly received, is given unto us the "inward grace," "and a pledge to assure us thereof."

Not only by the outward rite is the spiritual gift bestowed, but the visible institution is to us a sure

token that if we in penitence and faith approach the one, we shall receive the other.

The two sacraments recognised by our Church are those only "ordained by Christ Himself" in the Gospel,-Baptism and the Lord's Supper; by our Lord instituted as the supreme means of grace on earth; without the one we cannot be united to, nor without the other abide in Him. The other five sacraments of the Church of Rome are rejected here by name, as being partly corruptions of Apostolic traditions, partly-as Matrimony and Confirmation-expedient enough in themselves and therefore right, being "states of life" in no way contrary or disobedient to God's Word, but which may not be placed on the same level with the two Divine Institutions recorded in the Gospel.

The mystical number of the seven sacraments is supposed to have been first originated by Peter Lombard in the twelfth century, and was thenceforth adopted by the Catholic Church. The Tridentine decree on this subject is as follows; "If any one shall say that the sacraments of the New Law were not all instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord; or are more or fewer than seven, viz.: Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Orders and Matrimony; or that any of these seven is not truly and properly a sacrament; let him be Anathema." The Catechism of the Council of Trent further defines the sacraments thus; the outer or "sensible thing," is of two parts,

one called the "element," the other the "word." The Catechism then proceeds to find for each sacrament the "element" and "form of words instituted by Christ Himself. Omitting the two Gospel sacraments, we will examine how it sets about this impossible task.

Confirmation.

"Pastors must explain that not only was it instituted by Christ our Lord; but that by Him were also ordained, as Saint Fabian, Pontiff of Rome (not the Gospel) testifieth, the rite of Chrism, and the words which the Catholic Church uses in its administration." The "element is defined as the "Chrisin," or a composition of oil and balsam consecrated by the Bishop, which Fabian asserted the Apostles received from our Lord. The "form" is the following sentence of administration, "I sign thee with the sign of the cross, and I confirm thee with the chrism of salvation, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The Catechism is hound consistently to prove that these words were ordained by Christ, but unable to advance any such proof, evades the point thus; "Were we even unable to prove by reason that this is the true and absolute form of this sacrament, the authority of the Catholic Church, under whose mastership we have always been thus taught, suffers us not to entertain the least doubt on the subject."

Penance.

"Christ the Lord was pleased to give it a place among the sacraments." Nothing in proof