Athenagoras moodudes a smile repudiator with the vra: Te are ve bound a oder a bloodless sacrifice, and our reasonable service:" but he is speaking, ostensly a lean of purely metaphcoca dering Against Topoo the Jew, on the other hand. St. Justin plainly asserts the womáce odered in the Enchanst as foretold by Malarth in the Indook the Prophets are called High Priests, and the Enthans, brong treated with singular inadermary, is spoken of as a same. St. Clement of Kome uses of the Christian ministry in one passage words which be elsewhere applies freely to the priesthood of the Old Testament. St. Ignatius declares in conpection with the Eucharist that as there is one Bishop so there most be one altar. By the middle of the third century the bishop was freely called a Priest, as may be veen especially in the writings of St. Cyprian. The title was afterwards extended as freely to presbyters, and in most Western languages, as in English, a word derived from presbyter is the only term in use to express the meaning of priest?

The fundamental work of priesthood is to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin. To offer the gifts in holiness is, according to St. Clement, a characteristic office of bishop or presbyter. The essential act of Christian worship, the blessing of the bread and wine to become the Body and Blood of Christ, the Christian Sacrifice, has always been reserved to him. The work of priesthood is completed in what St. Paul terms the ministry of reconciliation."

About the nature of this ministerial priesthood there are two opinions current. According to the one opinion the Lord conferred immediately upon the Apostles the power of offering when he bade them "Do this," at the Heb. viii. 4. See Note L. 2 Heb. v. 1; 2 Cor. v. 18.

institution of the Eucharist, and in like manner conferred on them the ministry of reconciliation by the words, "Whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them." They handed on these powers to others, who thus have a priesthood distinct, though inseparable, from their function as pastors and rulers of the Church. According to the other opinion, these words of the Lord were spoken to the Apostles rather as representing the Church than as individuals; the powers of priesthood were conferred immediately on the whole society, and mediately on the ministers of the society. These are priests because they are pastors and rulers of the priestly Church; they are organs of the Body of Christ in its priestly character. The distinction is theological; it is of no practical importance, since in either case the powers of the ministry are derived by transmission from the Apostles.

We have considered only what belongs to Christian doctrine. The organization of the Church in detail, the institution of subordinate offices, the relations of the higher ministries, are matters of ecclesiastical rule. The powers of the sacred ministry, on the other hand, are a charisma, a gift of grace. The work of the ministry is described by St. Paul as the building up of the Body of Christ. The Apostles and those associated with them are ambassadors of Christ, workers with God, and stewards of his mysteries, labourers in the harvest of souls, fishers of men. Their task is to help in the formation of the Christian character, by communicating the knowledge and the grace of God. It may be summed up as the ministry of the Word and the Sacraments, which two aspects of it we now proceed to consider.1

1 Eph. iv. 12; cp. Rom. xv. 20; 1 Cor. iii. 9; 2 Cor. x. 8; xii. 19; Col. ii. 7. Also I Cor. iv. I; 2 Cor. v. 20; vi. I; Tit. i. 7; 1 Pet. iv. 10; Matt. ix. 38; Mark i. 17; Gal. iv. 19.

SECT. IV.-The Ministry of the Word

Christianity is the religion of the Incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ, to whom is perfectly known the will of the Father, and by whom it is revealed to men. That which he taught, that which as received from him the Apostles spread through the world, is called emphatically the Word. What this means we see most clearly in the address of St. Peter before Cornelius, where he brings together in equal apposition the Word sent forth from God, the Matter so revealed, and the Person of Jesus Christ.1 The expression was not new. From old time the Word of God meant a revelation of the Divine will or purpose. The Word of God came to the prophets of the Old Testament, came to John the Baptist, the precursor of the New, came and dwelt among us in the Person of the Incarnate Son. From the day of Pentecost the Apostles spoke the Word of God with boldness. This was their special work; they appointed the Seven because it was unmeet for them to forsake the Word and serve tables. They were eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word. They declared that which they had beholden and their hands had handled, concerning the Word of Life. Through them the Word of God grew mightily and prevailed."

The Ministry of the Word is the task of making duly known to the world the revelation of Jesus Christ. This knowledge may reach the minds and hearts of men by

1 Acts x. 36-38. Τὸν λόγον—τὸ γενόμενον ῥῆμα—Ἰησοῦν τὸν ἀπὸ Ναζαρέτ—are grammatically in apposition, the object of ὑμεῖς oldare. The word pñua signifies the matter spoken of; here, the events of the Gospel. Cp. 1 Pet. i. 23-25.

2 1 Sam. iii. I; xv. 10; John x. 35; Luke iii. 2; John i. 14; Acts iv. 31; vi. 2; Luke i. 2; I John i. I; Acts xix. 20.

various channels, but there are special means appointed. The Word is preached, that is to say, solemnly proclaimed as by a herald; and for this solemn proclamation a commission is required. "How shall they preach, except they be sent ?" asks St. Paul. This mission makes the Apostle; on its continuance depends the Ministry of the Word.1

The mission is solemnly granted in the words of the Lord recorded by St. Matthew: "All authority hath been. given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

Four words are specially noticeable here. The commission is based on the authority or legitimate power which is granted to the Lord Jesus Christ in his human nature. It is a commission to make disciples, which is to bring men into a fixed relation of submission to a master. The purport of the mission is to make known what Christ commanded; a rule of life and conduct is proposed, as of equal importance with the facts of revelation. But this rule is proposed by way of teaching; no power is given to enforce it by pains and penalties.

We may here observe once more that nothing practical turns on the question whether in giving this mission the Lord addressed the Apostles as such, or the Church at large. In the latter case it is still the Ministers of the Word by whom the powers given to the Church are exercised.

About the proposition of faith much has been said in the Introduction which need not be repeated. What we 2 Matt. xxviii. 18-20.

1 Rom. x. 15.

have now to consider may come under the heading of the four words above noted.

All authority is given to the Son of Man. The Ministry of the Word does not exhaust this authority; it is one mode of its exercise. We are reminded of the authority given to the Son of Man on earth to forgive sins; but we may find another aspect of his authority which looks more directly to the Word. The Father "gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man." What is this judgment? “For judgment came I into this world,” he said, “that they which see not may see; and that they which see may become blind." Yet, on the other hand, “ God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him." "If any man hear my sayings, and keep them not," he said, "I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my sayings, hath one that judgeth him : the word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day." Reading together these passages from St. John's Gospel, with their superficial contradiction, we see what is the judgment spoken of. Judgment is not the purpose but the consequence of the coming of the Son into the world. He came to save the world from the judgment of death; and this salvation was by his Word. "He that heareth my Word," he said, “and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life." But there is a converse: "He that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." The effect of the Word is therefore judgment; the marking of those who reject the truth. "He that believeth on him is not judged he that believeth not hath been judged