WHY NOT MADE PEREMPTORY.

117

The Church doubtless exercised a wise discretion in the change, which is in accordance with the principle upon which she does not forbid persons to come to the morning prayer on sunday unless they also remain to the completion of the communion service. For she does not the less plainly assert the fitness and importance of their partaking of the holy feast, but only guards against the danger-then chiefest-of turning into an act of mere formality that of which the very design and meaning require that it should be the free-will act of the whole heart. And I trust that now the

have before pointed out how the latter inculcates the monstrous doctrine that marriage is a state of unholiness licensed by the Church, instead of one of the chief instruments of true Christian holiness and here in like manner the puritan considers a marriage-festival as a profane revel, licensed by the same authority, but which, being intrinsically evil, must defile the Lord's Supper if they be not kept quite apart from each other. It would be hard to say which is the more irreligious and demoralizing part of the notion—that the Gospel does license sin within certain limits; or that the right partaking of this holy feast is not the only way of duly hallowing every common festival, and of strengthening its guests against the temptation to turn it into an occasion of selfish enjoyment and of' divertisements unsuitable' to the character of a Christian man.

time is not far off, when the growing feeling and understanding of our inestimable privileges as members of the Catholic Church, will cause this provision and direction for the receiving of the communion at the time of marriage to remain no longer a dead letter, and that all serious persons will look on that sacrament as no less a part of the marriage service than their vows or the benediction of the minister-remembering here too the words of Him who has said, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have

no life in you.'

It will throw light upon the method of the Church in this matter if we compare the ordination services and the form (handed down from very ancient times) of the coronation of our sovereigns, with this of holy matrimony, in all of which there is the same introduction of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, as the bond and seal of the solemn engagements in each case entered into. I have pointed out already1 how the

1 The method I have adopted of following the order of the service, and commenting on each successive part, has made

THE MARRIAGE UNION CONFIRMED BY IT. 119

words of the Church, on tying the knot of wedlock and proclaiming its inviolability, connect marriage with the sacrament of Baptism; how she then teaches that as baptism is, by the free gift of God, the beginning of a new life to all who are thereby received into God's family, so really-so certainly-is the marriage which the Church makes and blesses a fresh beginning of that same regenerate life to the married persons, in all that relates to their union and to the family of which it is the foundation: and in like manner are they now reminded that in the other sacrament of the Lord's Supper must they ever find the food and nourishment necessary for the continuance of the same life in them. Believing this, acting upon this belief, how would the hearts of married persons be quickened and their minds enlightened in the participation of this mystery of

repetition, here and in other places, unavoidable. In the service itself, in which the latter half is in a great measure the same as the former, only recast into new and more beautiful forms of prayer and praise, the repetition is a real merit—just as it is in music, or in the writings of the Hebrew Prophets, with whose spirit the Church is ever deeply imbued.

our common faith! How would their communion with God and with their brethren in this sacrament become living and practical when they felt it to be thus inseparably connected with all the affections and interests and cares of their earthly fellowship; how would that earthly fellowship be transfigured to a heavenly and unfading brightness when it was thus found to be a true part of the universal fellowship of the Church of Christ! Even now, in the morning of love, and hope, and joy, thy heart tells thee, O Bride, O Bridegroom, that these are not deep enough to satisfy thy soul, -tells thee so then most plainly when most thou feelest how pure and holy and of God they are but draw near to this marriage feast, clothed in the marriage garment which has been provided for you, 'offering and presenting yourselves, your souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice to God,' and then shall ' fulfilled with His grace

you

be so

and heavenly benediction' that the inmost and largest desires of your hearts shall be satisfied. Here shall ye learn the meaning of that pledge of wedlock-the ring given and received-and

ITS SYMBOLS AND THE WEDDING RING. 121

why it and other pledges which to the cold understanding may seem trivial and worthless, do express to your hearts the fact of your union as no words can do, when ye see plainly its relation to those holy symbols of the bread and wine, (as of the water in baptism,) which, mean and earthly as they seem to the carnal eye, are not only badges or tokens of our Christian profession, but effectual signs of God's grace' outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ Himself, as a means whereby we receive and a pledge to assure us thereof." Here shall ye learn how, and how only, ye may abide together in a love which has no alloy and no reserve, no taint of earthliness or selfishness, when-remembering that for your family too, and for its sins our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed and given up into the hands of wicked men and to suffer death upon the cross- 3 ye come together to this altar to claim the benefits of that His inestimable sacri

the same,

1 Article on the Sacraments.

2 The Catechism. 3 See the first collect for Good Friday.

M