Forty Days, or the leading of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise some other kind of ministry would have cropped up here and there, as being equally serviceable to the Church.

The position taken in the Book of Common Prayer ranges us definitely on the Catholic side of this controversy. It cannot be seriously questioned that the Prayer Book provides for the making, ordaining, and consecrating of Deacons, Priests, and Bishops; and that these are the only kinds of ministers who are permitted regularly to minister to our people. The Preface to the Ordinal bears testimony to the Church's conviction that these three orders of ministry are no mediaeval nor modern invention, but date from the time of the Apostles:

"It is evident unto all men diligently reading Holy scripture and ancient Authors, that from the Apostles' time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church,- Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. Which offices were evermore had in such reverend estimation that no man might presume to execute any of them, except he were first called, tried, examined, and known to have such qualities as are requisite for the same; and also by public Prayer, with imposition of Hands, were approved and admitted thereunto by lawful Authority. And therefore, to the intent that these

Orders may be continued and reverently used and esteemed in this Church, no man shall be accounted or taken to be a lawful Bishop, Priest, or Deacon in this Church, or suffered to execute any of the said Functions except he be called, tried, examined, and admitted thereunto according to the Form hereafter following, or hath had Episcopal Consecration or Ordination."

Article XXIII is equally explicit in forbidding any kind of a minister to officiate in our churches, who has not been properly ordained by lawful Bishops:

"It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public preaching, or ministering the Sacraments in the Congregation, before he be lawfully called, and sent to execute the same. And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent, which be chosen and called to this work by men who have public authority given unto them in the Congregation, to call and send Ministers into the Lord's vineyard."

When a priest is instituted into a new cure, the following is the opening sentence in one of the prayers which the Bishop is authorized to

use:

"O Holy Jesus, who hast purchased to thyself an universal Church, and hast promised to be with

the Ministers of Apostolic Succession to the end of the World."

A further indication of the Church's teaching on this subject is to be found in the requirement of the General Canons that no person may officiate in any of our congregations without sufficient evidence of his being duly licensed or ordained to minister in this Church. Moreover the Canons expressly provide for the admission to our ministry of such ministers as have already been ordained by Bishops not in communion with this Church. Thus the Canons doubly emphasize the necessity of valid ordination to the ministry by lawful Bishops.

It may surprise some people to learn that the Prayer-Book is so definite and restrictive on this subject of the ministry. The Church's attitude would doubtless appear to them intolerant and bigoted, not to say arrogant. They would be inclined to ask what difference it could make whether a Christian minister had been ordained by a Bishop in succession to the Apostles or not, provided he were a good man. In answer we must say that it is simply a question as to whether a man has or has not been authoritatively commissioned to represent Christ and His Church. It is not at all a question of moral character nor

of intellectual ability, nor even of spiritual attainments. A Christian minister, who has not been episcopally ordained, may be a better man morally, a wiser and more highly educated man, a more eloquent preacher, and better equipped in spiritual discernment than many priests of the Church. He has not however been given authority to make the bread and wine the Body and Blood of Christ, to bless in His name, nor to absolve a penitent sinner. Indeed the ministers of non-episcopal churches do not claim to possess these powers. They claim simply that they have been given by the Holy Spirit the power to preach, to be the spiritual leaders and moral teachers of their people, to baptize and to administer a rite which merely commemorates the death of our Saviour. These powers, we should all be willing to admit, have undoubtedly been given to them by the Holy Spirit. Their ministry is often richly blessed, and results in leading many to forsake sin and to be devout and earnest followers of Jesus Christ.

Our Church retains the historic, three-fold, Apostolic ministry because that has always been the authoritatively commissioned ministry of the Holy Catholic Church. We wish to feel some security that we are connected with the normal

channels of grace and truth flowing from Christ Himself. Our government at Washington is very scrupulous about dealing with foreign nations only through their accredited representatives. If a man came from London and tried to conduct official business with our President, on the ground that he was quite as good a man as the British Ambassador, and indeed a little wiser and more suited to voice the real sentiment of the British people, it does not require much imagination to picture how that man would be received. The President deals only with the official representatives of the British government. In like manner we cling to the ministers of Apostolic Succession, because we desire the assurance that our ministers are indeed the ambassadors of Christ.

This view as to what is essential for the continuity of the Christian ministry is the view that was held throughout Christendom for fifteen centuries after Christ. It may be called the Catholic view. There have been two famous attempts to destroy or pervert this view of the ministry. Protestantism in the sixteenth century abolished the Episcopate and taught that Christian ministers derived their authority to minister from the congregation. Roman Catholicism in the nine