The Reading Desk. THE matter hitherto contained under this head has always been explanatory, illustrative, or defensive of the Liturgy and Rubric of the Book of Common Prayer; and, for some time past, we have been going on with a brief and continuous exposition of the Order of Morning Prayer, because we felt that many members of the Church were ignorant of the Scriptural nature, devotional excellencies, and inimitable beauty of many portions of our Liturgy. And we still think that if this were continued by some person well acquainted with the Liturgy and Rubric, our readers would derive great benefit from such exposition, We shall be glad if some clergyman, who would feel interested in the pursuit of the subject— and we know not who would do otherwise would take this portion of our Magazine off our hands. We have had serious thoughts of publishing, under this head, the substance, if not the entire of, Dean Comber's transcendent work "THE COMPANION TO THE TEMPLE," which we believe is out of print and very scarce. We will reconsider the subject, and shall be obliged, in the meantime, by the opinions of any of our clerical readers on the point. We have often thought the phrase Reading Desk hardly correct, and would rather hear it called Praying Desk, wherever it is used by the Clergyman as the place of prayer. Reading Desks, we believe, were formerly used for no other purpose than that of Reading the Lessons, &c. for the day, the Clergy then praying down with the people, but nearer than they to the Communion Table. The Clergyman in the Reading Desk, gives to his part in the service too much the appearance of his being merely engaged in reading prayers to the people rather than praying with them. If this erroneous idea could be entirely got rid of, and all the people taught to value the prayers more than they now do, and the preaching less, it would be a great blessing; they would then also repeat the responses or pray of themselves instead of employing a clerk to do it for them. In this respect considerable reform is much wanted; but, alas, people seem much more disposed to reform any thing and any body rather than themselves. The Pulpit. A SERMON PREACHED AT QUEEN'S-SQUARE CHAPEL, WESTMINSTER, BY THE REV. M. A. GATHERCOLE. “ And, lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”—(St. Matthew xxviii. 20). My Christian brethren, I have chosen as the basis of my first discourse, in the midst of the overwhelming mass of immortal beings congregated within the limits usually assigned to this great metropolis, the important words which I have just read to you; not only because they are replete with great support and consolation to me, and to every divinely-commissioned minister of Christ, in the discharge of our sacred functions, but because they also naturally lead to the considération of doctrines which it is necessary that you should thoroughly understand. In order rightly to comprehend their full import, we must diligently examine the context, that we may know, and knowing, bear in mind,-the high character of the person here speaking; the character of the persons addressed; and the circumstances under which the language was used. The person here speaking is the LORD JESUS CHRIST, the co-equal, the co-existent, and co-eternal Son of God the Father, and in orderof revelation to us, the second Person in the incomprehensible and adorable Godhead, by whom, and for whom, all things were created and are upheld. But though of the essence of the glorious Godhead, and God of the Substance of the Father begotten before the worlds, he is also Man of the Substance of his Mother born in the world, having become incarnate that he might redeem us miserable sinners from the curses of a broken law, and make us the sons of God and heirs of eternal life. And while, as touching his Godhead, he is equal to the Father, and, therefore, called the Son of God; as touching his Manhood, he is inferior to the Father, and, therefore, called the Son of Man; and being so, there is given him, as was promised and foretold, dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him. (Dan. vii.) And having humbled himself, and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, therefore, God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in the earth, and things under the carth, and that every tongue should confess that JESUS CHRIST is Lord, to the glory of God the Father, (Phil. ii.) All creatures, therefore, and all things, both in heaven and earth, are now subject to our Lord and Saviour Christ, who orders, governs, and disposes of them for the good of his holy Church, and thereby, for his own glory. For God having raised him from the dead, hath set him at his own right hand, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion; and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also that which is to come; and hath put all things under his feet, and made him head over all things to his Church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. (Ephes. i.) The fulfilment of all the promises made during the existence of the Mosaic dispensation regarding the future power, dominion, and glory of Christ, began to be received by him immediately after his glorious resurrection; and hence just when he was about to ascend up to the right hand of God--when he was on the point of leaving his Apostles alone, in the midst of a comfortless world till he should send to them the Holy Ghost the Comforter, he thus addressed them-" All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach (or make disciples of) all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo! I am with you alway even unto the end of the world." As I have already intimated the occasion on which our Lord uttered these words, the last of which constitute my text, was that of his departure from the world; and if the last words of a mere fellow creature, when about to depart from this world to another, be much talked about, thought of, and long remembered, how much more ought the last words uttered on earth by the Lord of life and glory to be im pressed upon the minds of his followers, and constantly regarded by them? It is true, that the language here used was not addressed by our Lord to all his followers indiscriminately, but still it is of such moment that all are highly concerned in the important doctrines it embraces, as we shall immediately discover by considering the characters of the persons to whom it was originally spoken. By reading the sixteenth verse just before the text " Then the eleven Disciples went away into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them,"-we find that the eleven Apostles, and they alone, were the persons to whom our Lord addressed the words of the text. To his eleven Apostles then,-those whom he had invested with the Apostolic office, he graciously promised that he would be present with them alway, even unto the end of the world. But it may be asked how could our Lord be with those eleven Apostles-those very persons to whom he was speaking; for he, who knew all things from the beginning, certainly knew that they would not live to the end of the world, as the event has proved, for they are not alive now, and have been dead above seventeen hundred years? This, my brethren, is an important question, and contains the very point which it is requisite we should well understand. We cannot, of course, suppose for a moment that our blessed Saviour was making an unmeaning promise-a promise which he knew he could not fulfil; and therefore the promise was a faithful one, and one which he has been fulfilling ever since he made it, and is fulfilling it now, and will continue to fulfil it even unto the end of the world: in other words, he has been with his Apostles ever since, and blessed be his holy name, is with them now, and ever will be, even unto the end of the world and it only remains to be decided in what way our Lord meant that he would fulfil this his gracious promise. There are only two ways in which this could be done; the one, that he would be with them as men; and the other, that he would be with them as Apostles. That he did not mean that he would be with them to the end of the world as men, is very clear; because he knew that, as men, they would not live so long, and therefore the only sense in which he could be with them, and in which he could mean that he would be with them, was, that he would be with them as Apostles; as those commissioned and authorised by him to go and convert all nations to the Christian faith, and to baptize such converts, and teach them all the commandments which he had given them. Lo, said he, I am with you, you my eleven Apostles, -with you whom I have invested with the Apostolic Office,-with you, in your official character, wheresoever you are, and whensoever you execute any of the sacred duties of your office, as my ministering servants. It was as Apostles that our Lord promised to be with the eleven; for although, as men, they would die; yet, as Apostles, they would live, and continue to exist unto the end of the world. If Apostles were not to exist to the end of the world, it would have been impossible for our Lord to be with them so long as he said he would be. And, therefore, notwithstanding what some will affirm, that there are not any Apostles now, and that the Apostolic Office has long since ceased, the words of our Lord assure us that there are Apostles at the present time, and will be to the very end of the world. The promise was made to them as invested with the Apostolic Office, and, by consequence, to all those who should ever - C have that holy office conferred on them. The necessity for the existence of the Apostolic Office is as great now as during the primitive age. Men are now to be converted and brought into Christ's fold, the Church; and it is now as necessary as ever that the Church be guided and governed, and provided with a succession of ministers to preach the everlasting Gospel, to administer the holy Sacraments, and to build up the children of God in their most holy faith; and the presence of Christ is now as necessary as ever to the fulfilment of that other promise of his that he would preserve his Church, that the gates of hell should not prevail against it. The eleven Apostles did not mistake their beloved Master's meaning and design, in conferring upon them the Apostolic office, for they proceeded to confer it upon others to succeed them; and these, again, conférred it on others; and thus they faithfully transferred their office to future ages. And all those who are now in the regular unbroken line of succession from those on whom the Apostolic Office was originally conferred, and to whom our Lord's promise was originally made, have the blessed assurance that their Lord is present with them to bless their ministrations to the souls of those to whom they minister. The first and principal of these ministrations is Ordination, and thereby conferring the power of ordaining others, and so on successively to the end of the world, which is necessarily implied in the promise itself, as that, without which, it would never be fulfilled. The first that were ordained to this office were ordained by Christ, when he breathed on them, and said unto them, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Not that they were previously without the Holy Ghost; for they were, by his sacred inHuence, brought to the knowledge of the truth, and preserved therein; but he then conferred on them the Holy Spirit in a higher and more peculiar sense, which enabled them to perform the duties of their sacred office, with the accompanying blessing of his presence, which he promised to them, to guide and assist them in governing his Church, and doing all things necessary for its preservation and welfare. To the same effect are his words in St. John: "I will pray the Father," saith he, “and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of Truth, (xiv. 16.) For wheresoever the Spirit is, there is Christ. It is by his Holy Spirit that he is present at the execution of any part of the ministerial office to make it effectual for the great ends and purposes for which it was designed. Our Lord himself conferred the office on the Apostles by breathing on them, which was a way peculiar to him but the Apostles themselves ordained their successors by "the laying on of hands," and this mode of ordination is that which has existed from the time of the Apostles, and by it the Apostolic Office has been handed down from one to another to the present time, and will continue to be so, even unto the end of the world, Christ himself being continually present at such laying on of hands, and thereby transferring the Spirit upon all thus ordained, as really as he at first did, when he breathed upon his Apostles, so that they who are thus ordained, are said to be made Bishops by the Holy Ghost himself, as well as the Apostles were. And although they have not the name of Apostles, as that has been dropped by all their successors, out of reverence for the first Twelve; yet the Bishops of the Church of England hold the Apostolic Office-the very same office which was sustained by those immediately appointed by our Lord; and, with the exception of the power of performing miracles, which was not peculiar to the Apostolic office, our Bishops possess the same power and authority in (not over) the Church of Christ, as the Twelve Apostles themselves possessed. This doctrine of the Apostolical succession has been believed and acted upon by the whole Catholic Church of Christ in every age, and is essential to the very existence of a Church,-so much so, that no communion has ever long maintained much purity of doctrine on other points without it, as is now unhappily exemplified by the religious communities on the Continent, and most of those in our own country. Nor is any man, whatever be his pretensions, to be considered a minister of Christ, who has not been thus ordained in regular succession. It is impossible to produce a single instance from all the word of God, of any man having ever assumed the office of a minister of Christ without ordination; and no ordination can be of any avail unless it has been regular in its succession from the Apostles; for if any man's line of ordination has had a later beginning it is utterly useless, for any man at this day has just as much right to begin a new line of ordination as any man had to do so ten, fifty, or a hundred years ago. It will not avail a man to say that he possesses the inward call, because we can have no other evidences of that, than his own word, and if we had, the outward call, as it is sometimes termed, is as necessary as the inward. "What God hath joined together let not man put asunder." Besides, it will not be denied that our blessed Lord possessed the inward call long before he received the outward call, which was by the voice from heaven at his baptism when he was thirty years of age; and yet he only then commenced his ministry. St Paul also received the inward call at his conversion when he was told that he should bear Christ's name to the Gentiles, and yet he did not commence his ministry until three years afterwards. In short, the inward call moves a man to take the office, but does not confer it; the actual conferring the office, or the outward call or appointment, is by ordination; and to be of any spiritual benefit either to the minister himself, or to those to whom he ministers, that ordination must be of unbroken descent from the Apostles; to whom and to their successors by them, the promise of the presence of Christ was given. For be it observed that having committed authority and power to his Church to perform all things necessary for the accomplishment of his great work, our Lord does not now work without the Church, but by and through the Church, as in the cases of the conversion of St. Paul and Cornelius. He might have told them his will concerning them, but he refers them to the Church as having been appointed by him, and as quite competent to the work for which he had designed it. He teaches none now but by and through the medium of his Church, or which is the same, the ministers of the Church. To do otherwise would imply that his Church has proved insufficient for the accomplishment of the work for which he institututed it; but this would be derogatory to his Omniscience, and the remedy would produce infinite discord and confusion amongst his followers. All this the Great Head of the Church has wisely pre |