(LIBRARY I UNI VIHSITY Of CAtlFOftNIA SAN DIEGO J The Oxford Library of Practical Theology EDITED BY THE REV. W. C. E. NEWBOLT, M.A. CANON AND CHANCELLOR OF 8. PAUL'S AND THE REV. DARWELL STONE, M.A. LIBRARIAN OF THE PUSEY HOUSE, OXFORD THE CHURCH CATECHISM THE CHRISTIAN'S MANUAL BY THE REV. W. C. E./NEWBOLT, M.A. Canon :md Chancellor of S. Paul's LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 Paternoster Row: London New York, and Bombay 1903 A II rights reserved TO THE REVERED MEMORY OF MY MOTHER FROM WHOSE LIPS I LEARNED THE CATECHISM AS A CHILD THE PRECEPTS OF WHICH AS A MAN I CHERISH WITH EVER-INCREASING VENERATION EDITORS 1 PREFACE THE object of the Oxford Library of Practical Theology is to supply some carefully considered teaching on matters of Religion to that large body of devout laymen, who desire instruction, but are not attracted by the learned treatises which appeal to the theo- logian. One of the needs of the time would seem to be, to translate the solid theological learning, of which there is no lack, into the vernacular of every-day prac- tical religion ; and while steering a course between what is called plain teaching on the one hand and erudition on the other, to supply some sound and readable in- struction to those who require it, on the subjects included under the common title 'The Christian Religion, 1 that they may be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them, with meekness and fear. The Editors, while not holding themselves precluded from suggesting criticisms, have regarded their proper task as that of editing, and accordingly they have not interfered with the responsibility of each writer for his treatment of his own subject. W. C. E. N. D. S. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE INTRODUCTORY ........ 1 PART I I. THE INDIVIDUAL . . . . . . . 11 II. THE INFLUENCE OF OTHERS ON LIFE .... 34 III. RENUNCIATION OF EVIL INFLUENCE .... 62 IV. OBLIGATION ........ 86 PART II I. FAITH .... . . . . 113 II. THE FAITH . . . . . . . 135 PART III I. PRACTICE . . . . . . . . 161 II. PRACTICE . . . . . . . . 185 III. THE SERVICE OF GOD ...... 222 IV. THE SERVICE OF MAN ...... 241 PART IV PRAYER 263 PART V I. THE SACRAMENTS ....... 287 II. THE RIGHT DISPOSITION FOR THE USE OF THE SACRA- MENTS . . . 313 INTRODUCTORY INTRODUCTORY FEW thinking men can contemplate unmoved the mag- nificent pile of ecclesiastical buildings, which crowns the hill at Ely, and rising above the vast flats of the Fens, seems to gaze out solemnly upon the mystery of their blue distances. The chequered history of Eng- land is written on these walls, and the storms which have passed over the Church have left on them dark scars and deep furrows. Character in them, as in the life of a human being, is evolved out of failure, re- covery, restoration, and new beginnings. But to those who know where to seek for it, there is one record of peculiar significance, which bears on the subject of these pages. In the gallery adjoining the western wing of the Bishop's Palace, in the panels of a bay-window, bearing the arms of Bishop Goodrich, who occupied the see during the crisis of the Reformation, is carved 'the Duty towards God 1 on the left, and 'the Duty towards our neigh- bour 1 on the right, indicating perhaps the authorship of this particular part of the Church Catechism ; but speaking to us certainly with a voice out of those troublous times of one more effort made to adjust faith to practice, and to reconcile the conflict, so congenial to our fallen nature, between orthodoxy in creed and integrity of life, and to take up the challenge of the Epistle of S. James : ' Shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.' l For a glance at the Book of Common Prayer will show how remarkable is the position occupied in its 1 S. James ii. 18. A 2 THE CHURCH CATECHISM pages by the Church Catechism. Amidst structural services, offices, and Liturgy, with their rubrics and explanatory notes, it stands as an indication of the spiritual mood in which he who uses the book should approach the worship of Almighty God. It is, further, an endeavour to enlist the intelligence as well as the spiritual apprehension of the worshipper, so that he may pray with the spirit, and pray with the understanding also, and that he may sing with the spirit, and sing with the understanding also. "The Catechism appears to occupy the position which it does, in obedience to the same principle which has given us the long exhorta- tions in the various parts of the book, here however carried much further into the inmost recesses of the Faith. Every child must be taught the relation in which he stands to the God Whom he worships : Who He is in His Being and Nature, how He is to be approached, and what He requires as His own right, and what He expects from us as regards our fellow- men, and finally what is the underlying deep significance, in the region of grace, of the outward ceremonies and ecclesiastical terms which are here imposed on tin devout Churchman. A short explanation of the history of the Catechism, where it stood first in the Prayer Book, when it was produced, how it has been amplified, and who were its probable authors, has already appeared in a previous volume of this series, to which we must refer our readers. 1 It is only necessary now to attempt to justify this fuller treatment of that which was originally a manual for children about to be confirmed, as a working r<>ni|H>n- dium of rules of faith and practice for grown-up mm. It surely will not be maintained that the Catct hi>in is one of the childish things to be put away when one becomes a man ; rather we believe that those who com- piled it gathered up into brief, pregnant, and servict - able sentences, so much of the principles of religion a 1 Pullan, Hiitoryoftht Book f Common Prayer, pp. 207-8. INTRODUCTORY 3 would form the basis of a man's spiritual life, when he had passed out of the region of childhood into the hard facts of practical experience. The Church here trains up the child in the way he should go, in the express earnest hope that when he is old he will not depart from it. And it will be found, that in many cases at all events it is true, that the inner meaning underlying these questions and answers has only been understood when life has given its fuller teaching, and experience its deeper explanation. And so we find, that, although from time to time there has been a desire to simplify the teaching of the Catechism on the one hand, and enlarge its scope on the other, hitherto it has remained unchanged since Overall added the section on Sacraments in 1604. A manual which is to survive childhood must needs be couched in solid terms, and words which are to be committed to memory will of necessity be brief. The object of these chapters is to show the excellent grounding in faith and practice which he has received who has been trained in the teaching of the Church Catechism ; and how it may be to us a point of de- parture for graver lessons than those which appear on the surface ; while it supplies a valuable scheme and arrangement under which to group those vital truths of religion which bear upon our life. And so Archbishop Benson has said in his address to his Diocesan Conference in 1891 : ' I believe that there never has been in the hands of any Church any manual re- presenting the doctrines, the true spirit of the Bible, to compare with the Catechism of the Church of England. 11 In taking the Church Catechism as a sufficient manual of instruction for the Churchman of to-day, we lay ourselves open to objections from many quarters. A book of instruction which appears in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries can hardly be adapted to the requirements of the twentieth, it must needs amplify or 1 Quoted in Robinson, Chttrch. Catechism Explained. 4 THE CHURCH CATECHISM exaggerate much which, if of importance then, has since become exploded and obsolete. It must needs be out of touch with modern methods, and irresponsive to the wants and difficulties which have been created by the extraordinary developments of modern life ; further, however suspiciously we may view the term, there is a legitimate development in the life of the Church, and no one can deny that what has been called the Reforma- tion settlement is much nearer settlement as a system in the Church of England, than it was when the Catechism appeared, or in the turbulent times which have fallen on the Church at subsequent epochs of her career. Certainly there is an old-world ring about the phrases so familiar to us. He who penned the answers to these questions, and planned the scheme on which the questions are based, had no doubt as to the importance of definite dogmatic Faith. He had no thoughts of a conscience clause drawn as a bar across the entrance to elementary truth. He had no idea of a system of education which should proceed in absolute ignorance of God's revealed Word, or pass it through the close meshes of the sieve of prejudice, until only a thin residuum survived barely reducible to the contents of one of the answers here put before the Christian child. It is true that for the last thirty-two years the Church Catechism has had to bear the brunt of the assault on what is called denominational religion ; and the spirit of the age has been favourable to the assault. The Catechism has been attacked in the schools, tin Bible in the critical workshops, the Chnrrh on contro- versial platforms. Any positive statement because it is positive, any definite system because it is definite, seems to act as an irritant, and to challenge- immediate attack. * O God, if there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul/ is a more popular formula than tliiM proposition^ which speak of 4 a state of salvation," 1 of a definite faith, of sacraments necessary to salvation, and of duties to God, as well as duties to man. \Yr 1 INTRODUCTORY 5 been told again and again that children do not under- stand dogmatic distinctions, and so the Fatherhood of God is taught them with such dilution as the spirit of the age demands, and the child must be left to learn as best he may about the Saviour, and be extremely care- ful to avoid superstition, if he goes on to learn of God the Sanctifier. Thirty-two years is a long enough period by which to test the probable trend of a widespread, well- developed system of education, which represents the exact opposite to the principles enunciated in the Church Catechism, and no one can say that the outlook is reassuring. Here are two admissions side by side made by one entirely in sympathy with modern methods, and in a book where ' the voluntary school system ' is unsparingly denounced. ' Upon these city generations there has operated the now widely spread influence of thirty years of elementary school teaching. The result is a mental change ; each individual has been endowed with the power of reading, and a certain dim and cloudy capacity for apprehending what he reads. Hence the vogue of the new sensational press, with its enormous circulation and baneful influence; the per- petual demand for fiercer excitement . . . from his papers.' l This is the one statement, the other follows later on : ' Virtually it may be said the only forces operating among the new city race, the only attempts at spiritual or collective effort with which any dweller in it is ever likely to come into contact, are the forces of the older creeds of Christianity.' 2 The writer goes on to speak of them as developing and broadening, but still to him ' they offer the only adequate machinery for the warfare against the degenerating influences of modern town life.' This would seem to be profoundly true, and to offer the only hope for realising modern ideals, which hitherto have assumed it to be possible to do our duty towards our neighbour, before we know 1 The Church and the Empire, p. 8. J Ibid. p. 34. 6 THE CHURCH CATECHISM our duty towards God, and that God is what we conceive that He might possibly be, not what Revelation has shown that He is. The simple strength of the principles embodied in the Catechism stands out more firmly than ever from the wreckage of the flimsy buildings which were erected to hide it. And the more these principles are studied the more they will be seen to represent not'an attenu- ated residuum of truth, to which no one has any objec- tion, but a serviceable minimum such as a child may learn, and a busy man remember, of facts in the spiri- tual world as true now as when they were written, and which always must be true, because they are based on elementary principles and historical evidence. The existence and nature of God as He has been pleased to declare it either in natural or revealed religion, is susceptible of no change. Our right relation to this truth is of constant and vital importance, it must regulate our conduct, and act as a restraint on the one hand and an encouragement on the other. What God has done and is doing for us, is as important for us to know, as what we are doing for Him. Here is no region where we should expect to find change. God loves us, and always has loved and always will love us, as certainly as the sun shines in the heaven above. Sin ruins, the devil kills, and the world corrupts, with the same undeviating regularity as that with which fire burns, or water drowns, or poison kills. Everything which God has said is of extreme im- portance for us to know and act upon, more especially such things as He has emphasised as necessary. And He Who knew what was best for man, because 1 It-- was Man, and knew what was in man, gave us the Catholic Church. And here is a manual instructing every child as to what he will find in the Church as he passes through life, and recalling every man to the trm- principles by which he is to guide his COUI-.M.' through its many difficulties. INTRODUCTORY 7 If there is a tendency to regulate modern life on the principle that ' what a person is, is of more importance in God's sight than what particular religious formulas of belief he affirms or denies,' the principle, on the other hand, which runs through the Catechism is rather this, ' what a man is in God's sight depends on the particular religious formulae of belief he affirms or denies.' Religion is not a department of a man's life which lies on the outside of it, but a regulating principle which governs the whole, and right practice is of necessity the outcome of a right faith which governs that practice : 4 a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit,' and a man's life depends in the very last degree on what he believes, as is stated in its most extreme form in the Athanasian Creed, viz. that a right faith is necessary to salvation, which does not mean that we shall have to pass an examination in theology as a preliminary to entering heaven, but that the way of life can only be trodden in safety by those who know its conditions, and that Horeb, the Mount of God, is a place too dis- tant, and a goal too arduous, for those who know nothing of the meat in whose strength they must undertake the journey otherwise too great for them. It is in this spirit that the child is taught the dog- matic truths of the Catechism, and returns to them again and again when he is older, to assure himself that he is in the right path, by the sight of the familiar beacons of the Faith, the protecting hedge of the moral law, and the river of grace which runs beside the path. It is possible that two classes of readers may consult these pages : those who are put in charge with children and are earnestly anxious to impart to them sound principles as to the way of life ; and those who desire to test the working value of principles long since committed to memory, and now challenged by the newer methods of the day, and the changing fashions which affect religion as well as other things. As to the first, they will not find, except it may be 8 THE CHURCH CATECHISM incidentally, any explanatory or historical treatment of the text : this has been done already in many simple and accessible books of instruction. They will find rather the exposition of certain principles which form the basis of such instruction : the importance of the individual, the power of influence, the life of principle, the influence of conscience, the importance of faith, the conception of duty, and the rationale and power of sacraments. While at the same time those who are seeking for themselves to deepen their hold on religion and religious truth will see the importance of a firm hold of first principles in faith and conduct, as the best safeguard of that progress which means to advance in the way of truth, and of that liberty which means a freedom to do right. It is now more than fifty years since a book was brought out on similar lines by Mr. Isaac Williams in the series of 'Plain Sermons by contributors to Tract* for the Times? The Catechism has not altered since then, neither have the great truths altered to which the learner is there directed, but the con- ditions of life are changed considerably, and its perplexities and difficulties multiplied. Nothing is more wonderful in Christianity than its applicability to the shifting circumstances of an ever-changing world, and to the various types of humanity which come under its sway. So it will be found with this Catechism, which embodies its precepts, that while suit- able for a child it appeals to the grown-up man, while drawn up in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it has a clear message also to the twentieth, and that com- plex life in cities as well as the quiet life in the country are alike calmer and fuller if based on an intelligent appreciation of these elementary truths, which begin with the Christian name of the individual and end with ' charity to all men, 1 as the Creed also begins with * I ' and loses itself in * the Catholic Church ' and * the Com- munion of Saints " in that life which is everlasting. PART I Question. What is your Name ? Answer. N or M. Question. Who gave you the Name ? Answer. My Godfathers and Godmothers in my Baptism : wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. Question. What did your Godfathers and Godmothers then for you? Answer. They did promise and vow three things in my name. First, that I should renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh. Secondly, that I should believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith. And thirdly, that I should keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of my life. Question. Dost thou not think that thou art bound to believe, and to do, as they have promised for thee ? Answer. Yes, verily ; and by God's help so I will. And I heartily thank our heavenly Father that He hath called me to this state of salvation, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. And I pray unto God to give me His grace, that I may continue in the same unto my life's end. CHAPTER I THE INDIVIDUAL 'And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called.' I said, M. de Saint Antoine est beau-pere de M. le due de Gazes, n'est-ce pas ? Non monsieur, said Talleyrand, 1'on disait il y a douze ans, que M. de Saint Antoine etait beau-pere de M. de Gazes : Ton dit maintenant queM. de Gazes est gendre de M. de Saint Antoine. THE familiarity of familiar things is the chief obstacle to our bestowing any serious thought upon them. Now and then, for instance, a specialist arises who shows us the mysteries and possibilities of light or the wondrous properties of air. But the majority of men are quite contented to believe that there always have been light and air, and that there is nothing more to be said about them. So with such a familiar thing as a man's name, few stop to think of the possibility of any underlying mystery being attached to it, or of any important teaching belonging to it, and would be dis- posed to compare unfavourably the abrupt and prosaic opening of the Church Catechism with others which seem to be more dignified and profound. ' What is your Name ? ' This seemed to be the first and all- important question to be asked of and answered by children, in the estimation of those who compiled this manual of instruction. Not surely in itself, that is, from the fact of a child possessing this or that name, but inferentially from the fact of his having a name at 11 12 THE CHURCH CATECHISM all, as distinct from a number or other subdivision of a family. That this is no trick of fancy nor forced explanation to account for a weak feature, may be seen in several directions. First, in the obvious importance attached to names in Holy Scripture; secondly, in the very great care and thought which is still in some cases bestowed in the giving of them, coupled of course with absolute indifference in others; and thirdly, in the vital importance of the underlying truths which are thereby symbolised, which act and react upon the character of those that think. The importance attached to names in Holy Scripture is so patent as hardly to need demonstra- tion : but it may be useful to try and tabulate or classify the usages respecting them. First, we may distinguish generally a tendency to emphasise the significance of individual names, and to point to a message which lies hid in them, to a revelation which they are able to give. Any one who has investigated not only the names of people but the names of things in a good dictionary will know what a fascinating and instructive study it is, as he finds that we are sur- rounded with eloquent and appealing symbols, not with arbitrary signs for mere convenience. Holy Scripture draws attention to this, and shows us at times how the names themselves came to be, and how their signifi- cance expanded itself. The most striking example of this is the Name of God, which is appealed to again and again as a matter of the utmost solemnity and of the most extreme importance, a name given by God Almighty to Himself in stages of progressive revelation, each stage significant, each appealing to men to recognise the character and claims of THE INDIVIDUAL 13 Him Whom they invoked, and clothing the great mystery of the Godhead in the ideas which underlie the expression of Almightiness, simple existence, Fatherhood, Sonship, and Spirit. And so throughout the pages of Holy Scripture we are directed by the interpreting Spirit not to forget the significance of names. Ichabod, the child of the unhappy Phineas's wife, is a living witness to a forfeited glory, and to the causes which brought it about. 1 Nabal is the speaking embodiment of a fool; 2 the pool of Siloam, whither the blind man goes at the command of Christ, is ' by interpretation, Sent.' 3 While Zacharias 'the remembrancer of God,' Elizabeth 'the oath of God, 1 and John 'the favour of God, 1 are all obviously adapted to the memorable incidents in which they appear at the threshold of the Gospel. 4 The fact of this underlying significance is only what we should expect in a world which seems to be hung with diagrams, and vocal with sermons, and resounding with warnings. But the appeal to their significance shows us how liable we are to forget the manifold appeals of God under the stupefying influence of familiarity or of repeated impressions. The parable of the Sower, the lesson from the lilies and the ravens, and Maher-shalal-hash-baz the child of Isaiah, 5 and Jezreel the child of Hosea, 6 are examples of the same kind of living appeal which God has made and still makes to the heart of His people through the imagination, in a world where nothing is wasted and everything is significant. Closely connected with this, and yet with a more personal bearing on the individual, we have the ex- amples of names given to men, either as a prophecy of some latent power yet to be developed, or as a title commemorative of some achievement won, or of a good 1 i Sam. iv. 21. 2 i Sam. xxv. 25. 3 S. John ix. 7. * S. Luke i. 5, 13. 5 Isa. viii. 3. 6 Hos. i. 4. 14 THE CHURCH CATECHISM quality discovered in the character. So with reverence it may be said that the Holy Name of Jesus, twice in- sisted on by supernatural intervention before the sacred virgin birth, was a prophecy and an indication of the objects to be fulfilled in the life of the Incarnate God. So Cephas fixed indelibly upon the apostle the strong character to be carved out of his yielding and vacillat- ing nature. So Boanerges marked the existence of strong capacities to be used or misused by those who possessed them. So the apostles stamped the depth of their affection on Barnabas, and Paul marked out the new life which lay before Saul. And it is only a variation of this usage to notice how, especially in the Old Testament, names were changed, such as Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, Jacob to Israel, as a sign of certain crises of character, or of covenanted rela- tions which God then entered into with those that bore them. And this giving of names is not confined to in- dividuals, it is in some cases associated in very deep -iuMiificance with cities or even a whole people. 'Take a good heart, O Jerusalem,' says Baruch, ' for He that gave thee that name will comfort thee.' 1 Or again of /ion Isaiah says, *Thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city/ 2 Or more remarkably still, * Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken ; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate ; but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah ; for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thv land shall be married.'' 3 While of Christians, beside the notice of the first use of that name at Antioch, 4 we read, that they shall have the name of God and of Christ written upon them. 6 In reviewing these few instances, at least we may say that God has used names in connection with 1 Baruch iv. 30. * IM. i. 26. * Isa. Ixii. 4. 4 Acts xi. 26. Rev. iii. 12. THE INDIVIDUAL 15 places, peoples, things, and persons as symbols and indications of very special relations which He had towards them, that He designed them to act through the imagination upon the heart, that in His hands they became prophecies and warnings, acting as a stimulant or deterrent ; and further, that He knew how to reach the heart and stir the conscience to quicken love or kindle regret by the sympathetic chords which resounded in a man's personal name. 'Mary, 1 the sound of her own name roused the Magdalene to a quickened apprehension of heavenly things, and to a recognition of His Risen Presence, Who alone could awaken such memories, and kindle such ardent faith. 1 'Thomas,' the sound of his own name, once more, opened up to the apostle the gloom of his over- shadowed life, and the misery of his halting faith. 2 ' Simon, son of Jonas,' was a sound which sent the rock apostle back on himself to a time when as yet the light of Christ's countenance had not risen on his life ; 3 while ' Saul, Saul ' is the first articulate sound which burst upon the future apostle lying blinded and dazed in the throes of his conversion on the Damascus road. 4 There are said to be savages who look upon the telegraph wires which stretch across their country, in communication with European civilisation, only as so much wire from which they may surreptitiously filch material for arrow-heads he is scarcely more intelligent who despises the simplicity of simple things, or supposes it to be impossible that God can use common names, the ordinary designation of common life, as means of conveying His messages and uttering His warnings. And there is one other indication yet in Holy Scripture, which if it be only an indication, should still be noted by any one who wishes to study fully the 1 S. John xx. 16. 2 S. John xx. 29. 3 S. John xxi. 15. 4 Acts ix. 4. 16 THE CHURCH CATECHISM subject In two remarkable instances, at least, in the New Testament, a conspicuous failure in life is signal- ised by the absence of a distinguishing name in him who thus failed to answer to the end for which he was created. The rich man in the parable is nameless, where the name of Lazarus, the beggar, is familiar to every Christian child. 1 And the young man who feared to lose his riches and position, and so remained deaf to the call of Christ, is known only as one of those who have 'made the great refusal.' His riches have gone, they have perished with him, and in the gospel which records his history he is nameless. 2 II If such be some of the indications in Holy Scripture, which seem to justify the position of the first question and answer in the Church Catechism, it will be found that, on investigation, the customs and habits which govern human experience yield a similar result. It is easy, of course, to point to the large number of frivolous and meaningless names all around us, chosen either because the parents lacked imagination, or as mere labels, with as little moral significance as if the children were numbered ; or apparently dug out of the quarry of the last novel or news- paper romance. But even here we cannot alto- gether escape from some sort of significance. The careless naming indicates the careless parent, the care- less parent brings into more solemn relief the real responsibilities and duties laid upon those who found a family. It cannot fail to strike any thinking man. that any idea of marriage which looks upon children only as accidents or hindrances incident to that estate ; which neither looks backwards into a past however near, nor forwards into a future however immediate. 1 S. Lukexvi. 19. S. Mark x. 17. THE INDIVIDUAL 17 must have failed to grasp the true significance and dignity of that mysterious union. A builder who puts in his stones regardless of the plan which has hitherto governed the construction of the building, and has no idea of ' a consecutive art,' stands self-condemned as a constructor ; he is a workman who sooner or later must needs be ashamed. So, as the wrongness of wrong work, when we see it, bears witness to the inherent Tightness of that which is right, the obvious unfitness of that which throws any indignity on family life bears indirect witness to the beauty and congruity of a right conception of its meaning. But a little investigation of the principles which would seem to govern the naming of children would, we are confident, produce a different result. It would open up visions of much that is pathetic, much that is dignified, sometimes of much that is fantastic; but in a very large number of cases the result would be deeply significant, and show how Holy Scripture is not only the guide to human action, but is also a true mirror of the interests and motives which govern the habits of mankind. Who has not paused to notice in a suburban district, or when walking among the villas of a watering-place, the strange and incongruous names which distinguish the houses one from another in preference to street or number designation ? Here is the name of a mountain in Scotland, or the title of a famous general, here is the name of some quiet country town or village trans- planted into new surroundings, here it is the name of a woman or a man, there some local characteristic or singular beauty of place or landscape that has been em- phasised. Irritating and perplexing as it may be to the ordinary visitor, we may have in it the sort of principle which we shall see underlying the giving of names to children. Here the builder is recalling some very happy or important moment in his life, and calls the house which he is to occupy by a name which is to B 18 THE CHURCH CATECHISM give him the pleasure of a fond retrospect. Here he has called it by the name of some advantage of site or prospect which he hopes to profit by in the future. Here the title recalls to him some favourite hero, or some dear child or friend who has passed away. Here it indicates that he is a colonist who has taken to his new home some of the sacred fire of affection and memory which gathered round the place of his birth. There is a romance about the commonest things to those who will pause to look for it, because human nature finds it hard to escape from kindly imagination, which enables a man to see in the ordinary things of life the memories, the hopes, and the beauties with which he fondly clothes them. So we shall find it to be with the names of children, they are not always the dull and prosaic things which we take them to be. As in the case of Holy Scripture, so also in the wayward regions of human choice, we may detect a principle, and classify the modes of action which are apparently pursued by those who exercise an unrestrained freedom in the giving of a name to the child now about to take his place in the world. In one group of names we trace the influence "of tradition. The choice is determined by some person or event in the past. Here it is an ancestral name which has distinguished the family for many genera- tions, it appears in the pedigree and title-deeds of the estate, it is to be traced again and again on the monuments in the parish church, and is written in various characters in the registers of birth, marriage, and death. An estate may depend on it, the family honour is bound up in it He who holds it feels the strong grip of history and tradition behind him, he has one motive at all events to hold him up until he can place the flaming torch in the hands of his Here ngain the tradition is taken up out- THE INDIVIDUAL 19 side the family, perhaps the family has no tradition or has lost it, but the father of the child who is to succeed him in the world is fired with enthusiasm for some hero out of the past of history, or in the con- temporary history of the times. He wishes his child to recall to him and to himself the name of that great divine, or statesman, or general. He wishes for him such powers of mind or body as made the possessor of that name great among his fellows. Sometimes the result may be ludicrous : Alexander may turn out a coward, or Martin Luther an atheist, or Raphael an iconoclast, but for all that the name so given repre- sents a veneration for the past, a longing to see what is good once more reproduced in the world, and a desire that the child now born should be a child of promise, to inherit past blessings and distribute new benefits to the race. It is only a variation of this feeling which brings about the common practice of calling the new-born child after the name of some canonised saint. It is quite true that here we come across the belief, sometimes held only implicitly, that the child so named is put under the immediate patronage of the saint whose name he bears, and on whose feast-day he most probably came into the world. This is a belief held with great fervour in many parts of the Church, and together with the belief in the Guardian Angel, is calculated to lift up the heart into that region of supernatural life, which, although it is all around us, so few seem able to reach, and fewer still even to realise. But apart from this, it is no mean inducement to estimate aright the dignity of life, thus to be bound by name to a spiritual ancestry, to have ever before his eyes the example of one who saw God, and passed through the world as conqueror, who was honoured in his generation, and has received the homage and admiration of the Church. 20 THE CHURCH CATECHISM He who binds his child to a noble past, has no doubt done more than satisfy his own enthusiasm for great- ness, or gratify his own family pride ; he has given to the child the power of a tradition of singular efficacy in forming life. Passing on, we find ourselves face to face with another principle which would seem to underlie the name given to some children, barely separable from the former and yet distinct. If some names are retrospective and represent a tradition, others are prospective and represent a prophecy. David still hopes that Solomon his son may see the peace which was denied to him, and carry out the schemes for which he had made provision. We see in the names of some children hopes perhaps never destined to be realised, ambitions destined only to be disappointed, but also they serve to many in after-life as an embodi- ment of * the prophecies which went before on ' them, 1 to lift up and encourage the feeble heart, and to nerve to high endeavour. The mother of Zebedee's children has no doubt that her two sons are qualified to sit on the right hand and on the left of Christ in His king- dom, and she succeeds in inspiring them with the same belief, and helped them no doubt to face the reality of that which they had so imperfectly conceived. 'They who trust us educate us": and the name given by a good mother, if it fails as a prophecy, may yet remain as a strong inducement to realise that excel- lence to which others supposed us to be capable of attaining. But there are many names which represent neither tradition nor prophecy, which are linked to no achieve- ment or dignity in the past, and speak of no pinnacle of glory to be attained in the future, which vet represent a strong determination that the child shall take its place in the world as one who recognises the 1 I Tim. i. 18. THE INDIVIDUAL 21 dignity of ordinary life, unperturbed by sentiment, undisturbed by ambitions, resolute in filling the assigned part or rendering the prescribed service, and inflexible in the course of simple duty. The prosaic names of unknown people are a pledge, no less than the high-sounding title or the ambitious name, of the due recognition of the dignity of simple life, of hard work, and plain duty, and of the service of others, which is the highest claim to greatness. If this be in any sense a true account of the principles to be detected in a thing apparently so arbitrary as the giving of a name to a child, we may see how useful it may be thus to recall the name given, in a solemn way, and before God, and to remind the child that, as he daily passes through a world full of mysteries and stamped with significance, so he, his existence, his position, his very name should form food to himself for reflection and encouragement. It may rest with him to justify his existence, and show that every life that is lived, even the most insignificant, has its own peculiar message to the world. Or he may be taught to see how much of responsibility reposes in him to carry on the traditions of his race ; his name, whenever he hears it pronounced, should say to him 'respice,"* consider the past and how its influence touches your life, remember how God Who called Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob, would have you correct the present by the past, and regulate present conduct by registered experience, and shape your actions by the force of tradition. Or his name might teach him the simpler lesson of ' aspicej that he had inherited a rich treasure in the present now lying at his feet, which he must resolutely set himself to adorn. Or once more, the future with its ambitions and glory might open up before him as an unfulfilled prophecy to which he was destined to answer, and 'prospice ' be the ever-widening task which he sets himself to fulfil. 22 THE CHURCH CATECHISM III But leaving these considerations, which some will regard as perhaps disputable and certainly fanciful, we shall h'nd ourselves on more solid ground if we see in the distinguishing name an endeavour to single out the individual on the part of those who have been taught the importance of single lives, and an effort on the part of tnose who thus emphasised the Christian name in the Church Catechism to recall the possessor to a sense of his own value. The individual name should certainly remind us of two things, of our vocation and of our individuality, both of them of the utmost importance in forming a right estimate of our position in the world. Vocation, that is the great truth that we are where we are in response to the call of God, is an idea which lies scattered over almost the whole of the Bible. It is especially prominent in the New Testament, where Christians are besought to walk answerably to their vocation, where they are reminded that they are called to be Saints, that they have been called according to God's purpose, called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, called out of darkness, called to liberty, called to Eternal Life, called to inherit a blessing, called to glory and virtue. And it represents the fact that whether he knows it or not every one has been summoned into the world for an especial purpose and to do an especial work, for which God will provide the time and the means and the opportunity of its fulfilment, and to which an especial blessing is attached. It is easy enough to recognise this truth in certain prominent cases, or when a work has manifestly been assigned to its proper workman. But it is idle to deny that vocation as an universal doctrine explana- tory of the position of every living soul in thi> THE INDIVIDUAL 23 teeming world, is difficult to grasp, and at first sight repugnant to common-sense. Apart from the overpowering consideration of God's foreknowledge and predestination, back to which it is possible to carry the first beginnings of vocation, it seems impossible to believe that every stick and straw as it eddies along in the stream, every unknown unit of city life with its bundle or burden, slow or fast, has its definite aim and purpose in the evolution of a great scheme, and is, where it is, in obedience to a call. It seems difficult to believe that the butterfly has a vocation as it skims across the surface of life, just lighting on the busy throng to gaze and wonder, and then flying away, empty, useless, frivolous. 1 But the God Who has proclaimed His interest in the sparrows, and His minute care for our individual life, would seem to tell us that He admits of no intruders in His world ; all who are there are there by His knowledge ; more than that, they are there in obedience to His Will. If we once allow ourselves to be weighed down with doctrines of chance or fatalism, we shall find our- selves involved in theories which are incompatible either with God's Providence, God's Love, or God's Omnipotence. All those little lives which swarm in the alleys and byways of the city must be taken out of the statistics of the census or the average of attend- ance at the board school, they must be rescued from the contemptuous pity of the philanthropist, or the mechanical methods of the reformer, and we must claim for them that they each have a name, that in having a name they have a vocation, and that there is a place for each of them on God's earth, and a special mansion awaiting them in Heaven. God still comes to find His Moses in the ranks of the infants whom Pharaoh condemns to a promiscuous destruction. He still singles out of the gay and thoughtless throng the 1 See also the author's Religion, p. 16. 24 THE CHURCH CATECHISM Ignatius who is to do Him service, or out of the care- less listeners an Augustine or a Francis. But those who are left behind with their one talent, are equally called with those who have their five or their two. If we lose the sense of God's guidance in vocation as a power in the world, we fall at once into wrong theories of life, and into errors worse than the diffi- culties from which we would fain escape. But the bearing of this error on the individual life is even more disastrous. What can a unit in an undesir- able class know of the dignity and importance of life ? If he has come into life only to add to its social difficulties, to fill up still further an overcrowded world, to live unloved, and to die undesired, what motive has he to generous purpose or heroic action ? It is indispensable to a right estimate of things, it is indispensable to a true life, that God should retain His hold on every portion of His own world, and on all that move in it. And so we ask of every child, great or small, wise or simple, * What is your name ? ' For if you are impor- tant enough to live, you are important enough to have a name. You are known unto God ; at least therefore, you ought to be known unto those who are thrown with you in the rough intercourse of life. The call of God in its simplest form is a call to do two things : it is a call to live and a call to serve. Perhaps the Jews of old, whose manifold imperfec- tions we are disposed to sneer at, had a more vivid sense of the importance and privilege of simply living, than we have. They passed through life in the hope of the fulfilment of a great promise made to their race, and every child of Israel as ne stepped into rank in the line of conscious existence felt himself to be in some way an heir to a rich inheritance of promise. Prophets and kings were not satisfied with whatever personal aggrandisement they might gain from the world : they waited long and earnestly for the manifestation to THE INDIVIDUAL 25 Israel. Every Jewish mother would rejoice at the prospect opened up to her, every childless wife would lament her loss, while she praised God for what He withheld, as well as for what He gave. The privilege of simply living in the world of God's creating, with a share in His counsels and power to further His king- dom this is a conception which we find more and more difficult to realise for ourselves and much more for the waifs and strays of society, who seem to us to be of no more use in the world than the flies and insects which sport about where men are toiling and working out the problem of life. It is possible that we are learning a greater respect for life, that we realise that all who are born are entitled to live, and that the con- ditions of their life should be made as healthy and happy as possible. It may be that we recognise the possible chances of finding a Moses among the out- casts, and a David in the sheepfolds : but we still have to learn for ourselves and to make others feel that there are no useless mouths in God's city, that those who faint and fail or hinder and block the way, have missed their vocation and have frustrated God's pur- pose concerning them. We must honour and train up the young, not in the hope merely of finding a chance Moses among many outcasts, but because we are dealing with immortal beings whom God has called upon to live, as workmen in His building and as citizens in His kingdom, all of whom, therefore, we mark off with a name as those who exercise an independent function for Him. For, in the second place, God's call is a call to serve. The work is large and there is need for many workmen, some He is calling here, some there ; and we have labelled the work to be done under several departments which we call professions, trades, or occupations, to which we assign the several workmen, as the call of God which brought them into the world became the louder vocation which called them to the 26 THE CHURCH CATECHISM particular work which He gives them to do. This is a truth recognised in the case of certain professions, but we ought not to rest until we have recognised it in all, that the call of God is not an exceptional thing be- longing only to the more dignified professions, but that we should go here and go there, wherever it may be, in answer to a vocation, and that in following out our vocation will consist our perfection, and God's answer to our frequent prayer, * Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven/ Life, then, apart from the sense of the responsibility and privilege of living at all, acquires a fresh dignity, as we take up our position in it, not merely as a place where we can hope to get on or succeed, but as a post where we can do a real and effectual work for God. There is no doubt as to this call of God, first to Himself and then to the special work which He assigns to us. It was His call, as we have seen, that caused us first to be, which caused us to look out on this world of experience just opening out before us, with wondering and expectant eyes. It was His call that sent us to school, and gave us those keys of knowledge, with which we might open hereafter the as yet hidden treasures of the world. It was His call that gave us those aptitudes, tastes as we called them, which seemed to determine the direction of our after-life. The wishes of parents and friends were part of the call, circumstances, as we call them, were also included in it. But more than all there was the voice, now faint, now clear, which spoke to us alone, which we recognised as the voice of God. This, or something like this, con- stituted our vocation. 'Son, go work to-day in My vinryard': 1 and on our acceptance or rejection of it depends our perfection. If we grasp this great truth we shall the better see 1 S. Matt xxi. 28. THE INDIVIDUAL 27 why the shore is strewed with wrecks, and littered with failures. They are the wrecked and ruined lives of those who have missed their vocation and despised the work which God gave them to do. Here are servants who refuse the call of God to an honourable condition of service that they may grasp at a perilous freedom to be bought only at a great risk out of the very jaws of temptation. Here are young men and young women who despise the quiet life of their fore- fathers in the country town or village and escape to London and the big towns as if the streets were paved with gold, to find out their mistake only when it is too late. Here are the young people who start with the idea that self-pleasing is the first aim, and so seek- ing their life most miserably lose it. The steady voice of vocation is shouted down by the attractions of more tempting offers, and because men shrink from serious life or the responsibilities of an arduous post they think that unfitness for other things is a sufficient indication of their capacity for doing what they like. It is not merely the inadequate stipend, nor the voice of controversy, nor the general unsettlement which are responsible for the present diminution in the numbers of those who present themselves as candidates for Holy Orders. This profession is not alone in suffering from a want of seriousness which would regard life as a lottery where success depends on a successful choice, not as a vocation in which we follow out the call of God. Once to have grasped the great truth of vocation that life itself is a call from God to every one who is dowered with this perilous gift, and also a call to do some special work for Him, is to have advanced several steps towards the proper realisation of the importance of our own individuality. ' I have called thee by thy name : thou art Mine. 1 1 Every one has a special work 1 Isa. xliii. I. 28 THE CHURCH CATECHISM to do, however insignificant that work may appear to be, and the work of God is to that extent crippled by those who misuse their five talents and by those that bury their one. There is no doubt as to the minute care which the Church bestows upon the individual. The office of Infant Baptism in our Prayer Book might seem at first sight to be out of all proportion to the importance of the tiny recipient of that Sacrament. But it bears testimony to the extreme value in God's sight of all His children, and to the greatness and necessity of the gift there bestowed for the proper dis- charge of His special service. And a singular harm is done by those who slur over or disfigure this office in which the Church honours with an equal and impartial recognition all who are heirs of the grace of life, and are here born again of water and of the Spirit. So when the same child is brought to be confirmed the Bishop lays his hand upon his head individually. When he kneels at the Altar to receive the Bread of Life, it is the Body which is given for him, and the Blood which is shed for him, as if no one else beside existed. Ab- solution by the precious Blood of Jesus is for him as if all the infinite worth of the Atonement were centred on him. Never, perhaps, does the loving care of the Church for the individual stand out more clearly than at those moments when it is contrasted with the vulgarity of those who would consign to the grave, with every sign of neglect, the body of one contemptuously called * a pauper.' The dead body of one whom God has called upon to live in His world, albeit in a rude coffin and treated with scant honour, is equally the shrine of the soul of a ' dear brother/ with those whom the world honours with a splendid funeral. Dives has his funeral, and Lazarus is uorne of angels. It is this individuality which is being constantly threatened, and which must needs be defended all through life. We are conscious in this \n-y opening of the Gate- THE INDIVIDUAL 29 chism, and also in the services of Holy Baptism and Confirmation, of one especial danger which has to be met and warded off', not once nor twice, but constantly in the Christian course, and that is the danger of a ruined and distorted self, by reason of outward foes and inward tendencies, which must be considered later on. The delicate proportion which exists between body, soul, and spirit is in danger of being destroyed, and therefore the devil is bidden to stand away from the passions lest they should rebel against the authority of the Will ; the mind is kept fixed by a right belief on God, and the spirit is kept open and free by the hedge of duty, which prevents the encroachment of any evil which might shut out God, or hinder the freedom of approach to Him. It must never be forgotten that sin is the great solvent of our individual worth and great- ness. If we wish to do good in the world we must be good ourselves. Every nerve and fibre of our being must be strained to that end, and consecrated to that purpose. In spite of the fact that empires have been reared in blood, and fortunes made in reckless contempt for public and private honesty, still the records of the world go to show that only good men will do any per- manent good in the world ; and if there seem to be instances that prove the contrary, it will be seen that the good was done, not by, but in spite of, those who insulted the just decrees of God. A good deal more than our own salvation depends on the sanctification of our lives. God's work requires good men, and God honours the individual for what by His grace he may become. Every sin, every evil habit, every neglect impairs the usefulness of an agent in God's world. And it is a sad thing to contemplate how much of our time, by reason of sin, has to be spent in moral repair, which might have been spent in useful work. More than half our strength is diverted to keep 30 THE CHURCH CATECHISM sin from invading our life by a ruinous overthrow ; while perhaps the work of God is marred by our rebellious self, a self which greedily grasps at the good things of life and is selfish and evil. It is no slight indication of the worth set by the Church on individual life, that after she has marked her sense of its importance by the giving of a name, she at once proclaims open war with everything which might damage its usefulness or impair its worth. But apart from this danger which is always imminent, the honour which we have seen to be bestowed without distinction upon the individual is surely designed to correct another evil. The ungodly lies in wait to destroy, but also the child of God may forget his own worth. There is a tendency to leave the battle to champions, and to allow Goliath to threaten rather than make oneself ridiculous by going against him in an unequal combat. It is only where a David steps out of the ranks, a child ill-matched in strength as regards his adversary and utterly unequipped in weapons of war, it is only when the champion lies beaten and destroyed at the hands of a boy, that it occurs to the faint-hearted and feeble that what he has accomplished might have been equally effected by the resolute faith of the poorest and weakest among them. No one may refuse to fight because he is no giant, nor withhold his testimony because he is afraid of adverse criticism. The possession of great gifts has not always rendered the possessor of them a blessing to his fellow-men. His Knowledge may be kept only as a chained library to which others have no access ; his powers and endow- ments may all be used for self, or made to minister to a spirit of rivalry in the battle of life. Holy Scripture puts before us in more than one place the triumph of the weak over the strong, the preference of the younger to the elder, the election of the alien before the nirmhn- of the privileged race, the Gentile before the Jew, the THE INDIVIDUAL 31 Samaritan before the Israelite who despised him, the Publican before the Pharisee. Our Blessed Lord Him- self rose upon the world out of the low and depressed ranks of the poor, and chose His apostles from the un- known and illiterate. So of old Joseph the despised boy, the victim of cruel wrong, torn from his father's home, sent among strangers, tempted, punished, de- graded, and forgotten, is prepared by God for the moment for which His Providence had designed him. The frightened boy who had been sold and banished lived to say that ' God did send me before you to pre- serve life.' 1 A little maid, an unknown and unnamed unit from among the captives, brings to Naaman in his affliction the good news which secured to him his recovery from leprosy. 2 From time to time Christ still comes to the fisherman's net, and places the peasant on a pedestal as a benefactor of the race. Sometimes He comes to the shop, and singles out some Matthew from the receipt of custom to be an Apostle and Evangelist of fame and honour. Sometimes He singles out an officer in the army, a lawyer, a runaway slave. But there are Andrews whom the world never hears of, Matthews who still remain at the receipt of custom, although in heart they have followed Jesus ; there is many a Cornelius still in the army, many a repentant sinner whose repentance never comes abroad. God gives to those who listen to His call a work beyond their work, which elevates drudgery into an imperial enterprise, and puts His own servants into the posts best suited for them, and calls the most unlikely agents to do that particular work for which He has fitted them, at that particular time when He has need of their especial powers. God's work is not done by a series of men of genius, all excellent in the same sort of degree, and conspicuous for striking capacities. A great building is not raised by a series of architects, there is a place 1 Gen. xlv. 5. 2 2 Kings v. 2. 32 THE CHURCH CATECHISM among those who rear it for the common labourer who knows the value of honest work even in places where * scamping 1 would not be liable to detection. A cam- paign is not successfully carried through by an army of generals, there -is a place in it for the humblest member of the commissariat who supplies the marching power of the army. Here is a truth of individuality which it is well firmly to grasp, that every individual life is to be welcomed and honoured and named, not because it is a life which may possibly develop into what we call greatness, but because, if it can be kept to its pur- pose, it must of necessity be a useful life, in the varied fields of work which open out in the manifold counsel of God. And so as we name the child with his separate name, and start him off on his separate course, we shall fight, once more, against that tendency which would look upon single lives as belonging to groups and families, turned out as it were from one mould, and separable into abstract classifications. So we shall refuse to allow an unloving poor law to classify the poor, the unfortu- nate, the afflicted, the idle and vagabond under the head of ' paupers/ as if they were so much social refuse who had lost the rights of individuality, as if society had no further interest in their condition, and as if humanity refused to own them. We shall resent the idea which underlies the convenient appellation of * hands ' if it means that the owner has no care for the souls and individual interests of those who are employed by him, whom he regards as so many mem- ber* to be used, not as so many names to be honoured. We shall refuse again to use generalisations as con- venient folds of destruction into which to drive those who disagree with us, without taking the trouble to understand either the position or the meaning of our antagonists. We have not disposed of ZMOOMM by saying that all Publicans are sinners, or answered the THE INDIVIDUAL 33 challenge of Christ by saying that He is a Samaritan. Nothing is more remarkable in Christ's teaching than to see how His conduct, whether tender or severe, His methods, His teaching, varied with the individual He addressed. Pilate was a man, not a Roman governor; Zacchaeus was an earnest inquirer, not a dishonest Publican ; Nicodemus was an ardent seeker after truth, not a member of the sect which most vehemently opposed him. ' Honour all men. 1 It is the apostolic precept, which would teach us to give to every one the honour which belongs to a being, dowered by God with life, redeemed by the precious Blood, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. It is a call to us further to recognise a possible leader of mankind, certainly one who has been called into the world with a work to do and a message to give, and therefore we ask, ' What is your name ? ' God has called you, we would welcome you, most of all we would bid you remember your own worth, and the greatness of the issues which lie before you. CHAPTER II THE INFLUENCE OF OTHERS ON LIFE ' And they come unto Him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four.' I am sure that Nature is a teacher, and a great teacher, if so be that we have been in another school first. DIRECTLY we have asserted our strong belief in the inalienable rights of individuality which belong to us all, we become conscious of that other set of facts which exhibit man in various stages of dependence on others, from the healthy influence which ministers to his more perfect development, to the entire subjuga- tion by another's will which leaves him a slave instead of a free man, a copy instead of an original, a machine instead of a human being. A glance will show us how dependent our natural life is on others ; the cries which the infant first utters are typical of his utter depen- dence on external aid during the early years of his life ; as he grows up he is fed and warmed and clothed and healed of his sicknesses by different branches of organised human skill and labour : the most indepen- dent mind will own that it owes something at least to the intellectual bent given to it by its earliest teachers ; while morally for good or for evil the character has been moulded and formed either by accepting or re- sisting the influences which have surrounded its growth. The circumstances of our life lie embedded like strata 84 THE INFLUENCE OF OTHERS ON LIFE 35 in the recesses of our character, some virtues for which we are now conspicuous are rooted in a remote past, certain influences which have ceased to move us are buried away as fossils or as hidden seams of still useful potentiality. Like Ulysses, we can almost say, ' I am a part of all that I have met,' so powerful is the impact of other lives and other powers on our own, from our childhood to our grave. This great principle of influence as a prime factor in the formation of character is recognised and carried up into the very highest region of the spiritual life, by the old institution of sureties, or godfathers and god- mothers, in Baptism, which the Catechism in more than one place emphasises and explains as a matter of extreme significance. The meaning, advantages, and responsibilities of sponsors, together with their historical status, have been dwelt upon in a previous volume of this series. 1 It is only necessary, therefore, in this place to insist on their representative character, i.e. as representing the Church which brings helpless infants to Holy Baptism, as the faithful four bore the helpless cripple into the presence of Christ : and further, to show how they fulfil a very definite function in doing for the child a necessary act which he cannot then do for himself, and in promising to do more, to make him ' perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.' 2 Roughly speaking, the special work done by the sponsors is twofold: at the moment they act as the child's proxies in the definite contribution which every recipient of God's bounty is required to make as a condition of receiving it ; and further, they promise for the future that the child shall enter on life pledged to a course of action, to believe and to do and to avoid 1 Stone, Holy Baptism, pp. 100-109. 2 2 Tim. iii. 17. 36 THE CHURCH CATECHISM certain things, as to all of which he shall be definitely and carefully instructed by those who themselves know and believe and are conscious of the great issues which are at stake. As representatives of the Church, they bear witness to a great principle that the followers of the Crucified, like their Master before them, are to seek and to save that which was lost : that the disciples have ' to go,' to take definite steps and to exert themselves to extend the flock of Christ : that they have to make disciples of all nations by baptizing them into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. 1 The presence of the sponsors bringing the child to Holy Baptism bears witness to the principle which underlies all good in- fluence, and our responsibility in using it; it is the same principle which is at the bottom of all schemes of true education, and of missionary effort at home and abroad, and is in itself a perpetual protest against the indolent rebellion of the first murderer expressed in the selfish phrase, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' 2 And in noticing this it is not a little significant to see how abundantly our Lord rewarded the faith shown by others for those in whom they were interested. A\V have already noticed the instance of the healing of the palsied man brought before Jesus by the exertions of his friends, and we are expressly told that His action of healing was manifested, * when He saw their faith.' 3 Our Lord praises again in terms of admiration the faith of the Centurion displayed on behalf of his servant. 4 The belief of the nobleman is made the measure of his reward as regards the healing of his son. 6 The belief of Martha is put forward as a pre- liminary necessity to the manifestation of God's glory in the raising of Lazarus. 8 We cannot ourselves escape from the influence of others, and we cannot perform 1 S. Matt, xxviii. 19. Gen. iv. 9. * S. Mark ii. 3. 4 S. Luke vii. 9. S. John iv. 50. S. John xi. 40. THE INFLUENCE OF OTHERS ON LIFE 37 our actions so that they should have no bearing on the lives of others; but we are not prepared to see the persistence with which this influence is put before us as a duty, or to recognise in the sponsors at the Font a type of a Christian's attitude to his fellow- men throughout his life. But the sponsors are not merely representative whether of the whole church or of a principle ; we have already noted two very definite functions which they have to undertake. In the first place, they have, as we have seen, to act as proxies for the child in a notable action which that child is required to perform, while as yet he is incapable of doing it. At the Font the child is confronted with the first exhibition in his life of a great principle of divine action, that God requires as a preliminary to the bestowal of His grace, a recognition on the part of the recipient that he understands, accepts, and values the gift there bestowed upon him. God has willed to show us again and again that He respects and cherishes human freewill, that all His blessings are bestowed, saving the integrity of this, and all His discipline exercised to maintain it. The fact that He requires us to ask for in prayer that which He wills to bestow without our prayer, is a con- spicuous indication of the principle. God will not pauperise the recipients of His bounty, or force His blessings upon unkindly and unwilling hearts. And so in Holy Baptism, God gives to the child the gift of new-birth, i.e. ' in the case of infants, who inherit the taint and distortion of original sin, the love of God provides that they may be unconsciously set free from that which they have unconsciously received,' 1 but at the same time He demands from the child, on his part,repentance whereby he forsakes sin, and faith whereby he stedfastly believes the promises of God made to him in that Sacrament. 2 And this repentance 1 Stone, Holy Baptism, p. 100. 2 Church Catechism. 38 THE CHURCH CATECHISM and faith the sponsors must guarantee until, when the child is of an age to know right from wrong, he can furnish them himself. Here clearly there is no room for moral bankrupts and spiritual paupers who promise and offer that of which they themselves are quite destitute. God, we believe, will not allow the child to suffer for the sin of others, but it is robbing God of the respect due to Him to represent repentance and faith on the part of the recipient of Baptism out of a life dead in trespasses and sins, and a heart which neither has seen God nor known Him. But in a more intelligible way than this the sponsors commit them- selves to a definite line of action as regards the child who has been baptized. As far as they can use their influence, the child goes forth pledged to a decided course throughout his life. They are not of those who launch the child into the waves of this troublesome world, and tell him to find out the course which best commends itself to him, to keep an open mind and to think for himself. They are not of those who say, if there has been a Fall at all, it was a fall upwards ; or of those who believe that God's commands are useless and obsolete. They stand there with their hand on the child, representing to him experience, and Faith, and they tell him that they pledged him in the most solemn manner while he was yet unconscious to believe and to do certain things of the utmost consequence to his moral welfare, and that their whole endeavour will be directed to enable him to act intelligently, bravely, and skilfully as a free agent in matters where to hesitate is to be lost, and to be uncertain is to fail. It is to guardians such as these that the Church commits the child still freshly sprinkled with Bap- tismal dew; and the nature of their undertaking is explained to them in no uncertain tones. The Priest is instructed to speak to the godparents of the child, before they leave the church, as follows : * For- THE INFLUENCE OF OTHERS ON LIFE 39 asmuch as this child hath promised by you his sureties to renounce the devil and all his works, to believe in God, and to serve Him ; ye must remember, that it is your parts and duties to see that this infant be taught, so soon as he shall be able to learn, what a solemn vow, promise, and profession he hath here made by you. And that he may know these things the better, ye shall call upon him to hear sermons ; and chiefly ye shall provide that he may learn the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments in the vulgar tongue, and all other things which a Christian ought to know and believe to his souFs health : and that this child may be virtuously brought up to lead a godly and a Christian life : remembering always that Baptism doth represent unto us our profession : which is to follow the example of our Saviour Christ, and to be made like unto Him ; that as He died and rose again for us, so should we, who are baptized, die from sin, and rise again unto righteousness : continually mortifying all our evil and corrupt affections, and daily proceeding in all virtues and godliness of living. 1 l And then follows an earnest reminder that the child is to be brought to the Bishop for Confirmation at a suitable time and with due preparation for that Rite. II With this solemn injunction laid upon them the sponsors must of necessity seek proxies to enable them to carry out this serious charge to the well being and proper development of the child. The child must be trained, there is no escaping this : if he is not trained by duly qualified teachers he will be trained by what are called circumstances. The tender vine may be either nailed upon the sunny wall, where training and restraint mean freedom to expand and develop into 1 The Ministration of the Public Baptism of Infants. 40 THE CHURCH CATECHISM fruitf ulness, or it may trail along the ground through the mire, laying hold of such chance sticks and stones as come in its path, trodden down, unpruned, un- directed in a barren liberty to go astray. Human nature cannot stand alone, it must needs lay hold of some prop and guidance; it is for those who are interested in the child's welfare to choose what these shall be. The conscientious god-parent knows that his first representatives will be the parents of the child, or whatever represents the home influence which will be brought to bear on his early years. The question of whether it is right or wrong to baptize a child which can only be handed back to degrading and sinister influences, has already been discussed in the volume above alluded to. 1 Allowance perhaps, however, ought to be made in nominally Christian countries for the general atmosphere of Christianity in which the child will find himself; and, also, we have not exhausted the depth of mercy which underlies the experience of the Psalmist, * When my father and my mother forsake me, the Lord taketh *me up.' 2 But apart from such im- portant and anxious questions, the godparent must feel how very much must of necessity depend on the character of the home training to which the child is committed by him. * That this child may be virtuously brought up to lead a godly and a Christian life. 11 This injunction obviously lays a great charge on those who are responsible for the home life, where the child receives his first impressions, his first encouragement s. and his first rebukes : where he should learn to pray, and grow up shielded, if possible, by the sheltering leaves of tenderness, affection, and reverence. We are elaborating painfully, and with faltering steps, our systems of education for the young. Here is an 1 Stone, Holy Baptism, pp. 106, 107. * P>. xxvii. 10. THE INFLUENCE OF OTHERS ON LIFE 41 elementary education of the very first importance which it is the peculiar function of the home to impart. What this means, we know too well, in the case of those who are swaddled, nurtured, and degraded in every circumstance of cruelty, want, and wickedness ; but apart from this, there is a growing fear that the sponsors who give the child back cannot depend, as they ought to be able to depend, on the right training of the Christian home. There are children who are looked upon as encumbrances, there are those who are left entirely to servants, and there are those who drink in insensibly from their earliest years a spirit of worldliness and indifference, which is the atmosphere which pervades a godless home, the home which seems to have its conscience clause to prevent the intrusion of religion after family prayers, or its system of daily routine from which any exhibition of its beauty and obligations is rigorously excluded lest it should offend the worldly members of the household; and which, like an obtrusive toy, must on no account be brought from the nursery into the drawing-room. Parents should remember that they are as godfathers and godmothers to their own children in their own house, and that no amount of public service in Church or State will compensate for the neglect at home of a primary duty to God. There is evidently a strong temptation to inscribe Corban over home duties, and those unromantic claims which seem incompatible with the loud calls of public activities. A man is not a hero to his own servant, too often, alas ! because his servant sees too much, but also because he sees too little, of the man in his private life. Why is there a cer- tain sting in the taunt that the sons of clergymen most often turn out badly ? Untrue as most of these sweep- ing generalisations are, still no one can deny that there are still Elis, who by neglecting their own house bring scandal on the people of the Lord. There are still 42 THE CHURCH CATECHISM Lots, who fail to make their influence felt at home, so that a wife fails at a critical moment, sons-in-law mock, and daughters are contaminated with the evil influence of the place where they live. We English people are proud of our homes, we think much of thrm, and show that we value them ; and, no doubt, as the Roman Empire made its strides of annexation and progress by the colonies which it planted throbbing with imperial life, and strong in law and order and civilisation, to we should make greater strides in winning the world for Christ, if we could plant down Christian families in our streets and squares, in our towns and villages, through which the individual could make himself felt, because he had obtained that which was promised for him that he should obtain, the virtuous bringing-up, and the constant sight of people, pledged like himself, paying their vows unto the Lord, and walking at liberty because they seek His command- ments. Surely philanthropy, and religious exercises, and even works of Christian charity done at the ex- pense or even in defiance of family life are, to say the least of it, a mistake. In old days the family used to worship together, even if it were in the family pew ; l now, one goes here, and another goes there, and one is busy pursuing this scheme and another that, very often at the expense of home duties. Next to the duty of personal holiness should come the sense of obligation which belongs to father and mother, brother and sister, to study the duties of home life, and to endeavour to make this a circle of living fire which shall brighten and burn with the glow of Christian excellence and Christian love. 1 For a curious defence of the family pew, see Life of Phillips Brock:, vol. i. pp. 32, 33. ' This family life was also extended into the church, where the family met in its pew as a family in the Divine pre- sence. It is one of the gifts of the much-derided eighteenth century, this family feeling it bequeathed, symbolised by the pewing of churches,' etc. THE INFLUENCE OF OTHERS ON LIFE 43 There would seem to be two things especially which are lacking at the present moment, and which must be supplied, if home is to take its proper place in the scheme of religious training which sponsors undertake to provide for the children whom they bring to the Font. We need Christian discipline and Christian persuasion. In a luxurious age there will always be a shrinking from anything which may seem to give trouble at the moment. Discipline involves assertion of authority coupled sometimes with disagreeable scenes, and so the child is allowed to stumble on, as best he can, with faults uncorrected, habits of self-control unformed, unwarned of his dangers, unaware of his helps, and unassisted in form- ing his ideas. He is not helped to renounce, because he must know a little of the world ; he is not encouraged to believe, because he must keep an open mind; he is not worried about duty so long as his inclinations do not openly violate the laws of propriety or the dictates of convenience. An indolent parent is at no loss for a formula to justify him in his masterly inaction, which he dignifies by the idea of natural development in the perceptive powers of the child. Coleridge's botanical garden has many varieties, over- grown with weeds, because never prejudiced to straw- berries or roses. Much can be done, and ought to be done, by the elder in warning the younger against the inevitable temptations of life, which made their bap- tismal promises so necessary. And also much could be done in helping them to answer to the vocation of which we were thinking in the preceding chapter. We know how in old days the highest profession, such as Holy Orders, was enterprised in obedience to a father's command. JVlen unfitted and unwilling were coerced into the service of the Sanctuary in order to hold a family living or to satisfy some parental desire. Now all has been altered; we have gone into the other 44 THE CHURCH CATECHISM extreme; valuable talents are thrown away, and perhaps young lives are spending their energies in driving cattle which, by the help of a little encouragement at home, might have been devoting their powers to the highest needs and interests of mankind. The old coercion is gone, thank God for it, but we might fairly look for that reasonable and gentle persuasion for lack of which many a child of God is losing his way, and is being false to his plighted vows without knowing it. A great deal is being said about the dearth of candidates for Holy Orders in quarters where we might reasonably look for some exhibition of Christian chivalry and devotion. Many reasons are assigned for it ; most probably there are a variety of reasons. But it remains a sad fact, that when the army and navy and other noble professions make their appeal to our public schools and meet with a generous response from the best and noblest of our sons, the immediate service of Christ in the ministry of His Church seems to offer attractions to a diminishing number. It is only too possible that some of the chill air which damps ardour comes from the home, where religion too often is criticised and despised ; where the utmost encourage- ment that can be looked for is negatively a non-refusal, which is not incompatible with a good deal of subtle discouragement and contemptuous wonder. The en- couragement which the Church ought to be able to depend upon in the homes of her children should be positive, a leading that way, even if it be the way of sacrifice, towards the generous undertaking of difficult and unpopular tasks. It must always be a hard matter rightly to estimate influence at its proper worth, but if the lives of some of our greatest men could be analysed, it would be seen how much this quiet unobserved power has added to the formation of cKaracter. It will be a blow indeed to the Christian training of our children if sponsors can no longer reckon on the good THE INFLUENCE OF OTHERS ON LIFE 45 influence of home. Every one who is concerned with so delicate and subtle a blessing as that which belongs to a Christian home, must look to it that he maintains its sanctity and develops more and more its powers for good, lest when God visits His people, and His judg- ments are abroad, His servant stands forth ashamed, who in working for Him neglected his own soul, and forgot his duties, and was false to those whom it was his duty to cherish. But if home teaching and home influence are the first and most important factors, in the formation of the child's character, on which the sponsors ought to be able to depend, there speedily comes a time when other and more direct pressure must be brought to bear in the form of a systematic and definite education which will include instruction, training, and discipline, and the forming of habits which are to last through life. The sponsors, then, to whom the spiritual guar- dianship of the child was committed, ought to be able to count in a Christian country on a Christian system of education, reaching up from the elementary schools in the different parishes to the highest educational systems in the land. There are few subjects which have so fully occupied public attention during the last thirty years as that of education. We have sacrificed much and have been promised much in connection with this great cause, but the prevailing sentiment at the present moment is one of profound disappointment that schemes which promised so much have conferred so little real benefit on the children at large. A generation is rising up wilful, disobedient, selfish, and irreverent, keeping perhaps more free from some of the brutali- ties of sin which would render them obnoxious to criminal penalties, but even more tainted with all the subtler indications of alienation from God. We see a sharp contrast between instruction and education, and the sad phenomenon of those who are rendered unfitted 46 THE CHURCH CATECHISM by what they learn, for posts of usefulness which they might fill. There is no question more full of anxiety at the present moment to those who have the care of children than this, What is the nature of that system to which I commit my child to be educated, that is, the machinery whereby all his latent powers may be drawn out and developed for his work in life, by which all tendencies may be encouraged and nurtured if they are good, and checked and redirected if they are bad? For school is not a place for training merely the head or the intellect, but the whole man ; a place where we hope to get ready and send out those who are to fill the different places in Church and State, able for their work, furnished and equipped as men whose sole aim in life is the glory of God, whose motive-principle is duty, and whose ambition is to do good. When the child was given back from the Font into the hands of those who were to train him and remind him of his promises, everything seemed to be full of God. The things to be avoided were those things which were displeasing to God ; the guiding principle of his life was to be faith in God, the path of duty was to begin, continue, and end in God. But when the child passes the door of the school, at the time when he is most sensitive to impressions, most observant, and most inquisitive what does he find ? A strange and chilling reserve about that subject which he was taught to believe to be the most important. * We do not talk much about God here ' would seem to be the fittest expression of the attitude of those around him. Either religion is kept out with a conscience clause as if it were a dangerous explosive, or it is treated as a sort of extra subject for those who like to take it up, like French or Latin, or it is expelled altogether as a thing about which the child must ask his mother, and not those who are concerned to impart to him useful knowledge. THE INFLUENCE OF OTHERS ON LIFE 47 It is not the question of how much or how little religion is to be taught which is so disastrous, it is rather the attitude of those who are responsible for schemes of education. For many years now, in schools and in dealing with her heathen subjects, the State has pro- claimed with no uncertain voice, ' I am ashamed of the Gospel of Christ,' and ostrich-like would shut her eyes to the unwelcome conclusion, that under the plea of a more perfect education her children are being robbed of excellences and powers which once were theirs before they forgot God. Until religion has its proper place of honour as pervading all education, and not as an optional subject, the guardians of the child can only feel that their responsibilities increase when they hand the child over to its so-called teachers. At school he may learn evil without being taught he has to renounce it, he may be taught how to make his way in the world without learning the faith which is to make him wise unto salvation, and the rough path of duty may be forsaken for the smooth road of inclination. Never does sectarian bitterness show itself in more ugly colours than when it stands at the door of the school and says to the Christian guardians of the Christian child, not ' You shall not teach my children in your way, 1 but 'You shall not teach your own children in your own faith.' A wise Solomon would surely indicate still, as the true mother of the child, who loves it and cherishes it, her who says, ' Give her (my rival) the living child,' if she claims it, ' and in no wise slay it ' ; if she claims the child let her take it, and teach it at least something about God ; while he would refuse to recognise any signs of motherhood in her who, in the desperate exigencies of party bitterness, says, 'Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.' 1 Education is a thing at once so grand and so vital that our very existence as a nation depends on it. It is a 1 I Kings iii. 16-28. 48 THE CHURCH CATECHISM divorce which ought never to be contemplated between religious and secular education ; all true education must be religious, and those who have the care of children know better than all beside, that the tree of Life must be planted close to the tree of Knowledge. But in the exhortation to god-parents, quoted above, special mention is made of one form of instruction which strikes upon our ear with an old-world sound, but of which there is still a considerable survival among us. The child, as a means of instruction, is to be called upon ' to hear sermons.' The sermon in church is looked upon as having a very definite place in helping him to realise his duties and know his dangers. The suggestions given to clergy how they are to preach are many and varied, friendly and the reverse, but we seldom read of any advice as to how the people are to hear and receive sermons. The extraordinary numbers of sermons preached, and the attraction which they still have, indicate that this mode of instruction is still popular ; but on the other hand, as at the door of the school, so at the door of the church, it is quite possible that the child may meet with deterrents instead of encouragements to hear sermons. He may meet crowds of the young and unemployed flocking out of church in the face of the preacher, evidently believing themselves to need no such instruction. He will become conscious of the critical attitude among some of those that remain, as those who would still inquire, 'What will this babbler say? 11 When he leaves the church he will find it difficult to believe, from the conversation around him, that any or all of the audience were not better competent to instruct than the preacher. Children have to be taught not only to hear but also how to hear ; and some of the advice which is now given to preachers might well be transferred to the hearers. First of all, there should 1 Acts xvii. 1 8. THE INFLUENCE OF OTHERS ON LIFE 49 be a clear conception of what the sermon is, and is not, meant to effect. It is wrong to despise sermons, but it is also a mistake to misunderstand their posi- tion in the ecclesiastical economy. We have traces of a sermon occupying very much the place which it does now in the Holy Eucharist, at a very early period in the Church, 1 where it probably speedily merged into an exposition of the Gospel and Epistle. The Holy Eucharist is the only service in which a sermon is specific- ally ordered in the Prayer Book ; but with the expansion of our needs, and in view of the manifold calls and opportunities which lie before the preacher, not once or twice on Sundays and holy days, but frequently as the occasion may require, the ministry of preaching is made use of for correction, reproof, and instruction in righteousness, and has been sometimes, and might be always, a mighty engine for spreading the Truth, and be helpful both in building up the faithful as well as in bringing to those outside Christian influences the glorious gospel of the Blessed God. Those who have the care of children might at least fulfil their duty in this respect, that they set themselves to stop the foolish and unwise criticism of sermons, and that they endeavour, by their own patience and seriousness, to set the ministry of preaching once more on the basis which it ought to occupy as an important part of the teaching office of the Church. And if the child is warned not to despise, so he must be warned not to over - estimate sermons. Religion no doubt has suffered, and suffers still, from those who make the hearing of a sermon their sole religious duty. * Preach- ing the gospel ! " is a phrase which in many cases has been pressed out of all meaning, as if there were a virtue in the mere reading of the doctor's prescrip- tion, or as if the study of the signpost were equivalent to an actual progress in the journey of life. 1 S. Just. Mart. Apolog. i. 67. D 60 THE CHURCH CATECHISM And while he recognises the importance of respect for sermons on the one hand, and the necessity for not over-rating them on the other, the Christian child must be taught to feel that there is a duty which belongs to those who hear sermons as well as to those who preach them, and that if the preacher must say, as he fixes his eyes upon God, ' Yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel,' 1 the listener must say to himself with all earnestness and persistency, * Take heed therefore how ye hear/ 2 For the child must be taught to believe that in hearing the sermon he is hearing a message from God, from Whom he comes and to Whom he is going, and to Whose service he has been pledged. It will be difficult sometimes even for a child to believe this, and the attitude of his superiors may make it more difficult. The utterance which he is called upon to accept is faltering, feeble, and quite unworthy, or it is an undisguised display of self, or it is an enunciation of doctrine which seems to contradict all that he has been taught to believe most sacred, and which it would be a peril to the soul to follow. This is a difficulty whirh our Blessed Lord seems to have dealt with when He stated the principle on which His followers should deal with the authorised yet false teaching of His own day : ' The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses" seat : all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do ; but do not ye after their works : for they say, and do not/ 8 That is, in so far as the Scribes and Pharisees enforce the law and precepts of Moses, obey them, but do not imitate their conduct. We should indeed be in a spiritual difficulty, if we felt ourselves bound to carry out the precepts of every sermon which we hear. But as the duty of honouring our parents is never more conspicuously beautiful than when it is displayed towards a dishonourable, unkind, or even brutal parent, so Christian reverence is never more 1 I Cor. ix. 16. * S. Luke viii. 18. * S. Matt, xxiii. 2, 3. THE INFLUENCE OF OTHERS ON LIFE 61 lovely than when it is displayed in the face of what is unworthy, of what must be received even with protest from those who are set over us in the Lord. The most successful sermon ever recorded is the one brief cry of woe uttered by the prophet Jonah : ' Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be over- thrown.' 1 It carried with it the conversion of a city. There have been times when the dignity of the message surpassed and swallowed up the personality of the messenger, j ust as there have been times when the messenger seems to have strangled the message by his own obtrusive personality. There have not been wanting examples of great men who have strongly resisted the evening criticism of the Sunday's sermon. Certainly it will be of little use to call upon children to hear sermons if at the same time we make no secret of our own contempt for them, and show them where to look for weak points, and how generally to disre- gard their teachers. Nor is this spirit of contemptuous criticism damag- ing only to those who are taught, it reacts also in imperceptible ways on the teacher as well. Too often there comes to be a tacit understanding be- tween the preacher and those to whom he ministers which seems to say to him, ' If you are willing to say something of the usual length, which does not offend us, or jar upon our feelings, or have the ap- pearance of dictating to us, we will listen to you ; if not, our remedy is simple. 1 And then what can be expected from him but the dead perfunctory enuncia- tion of platitudes as from a man who must say some- thing ? But if, on the other hand, he were to feel that he was speaking to those who say, ' We have to labour much in other parts of God's vineyard; we have neither the time nor the aptitude for the special study of these questions ; you are there to teach us ; we look to you 1 Jonah iii. 4. 52 THE CHURCH CATECHISM to guide us, while we reserve to ourselves the verifica- tion of our own reading, and the obedience due to the authoritative teaching of the Church/ here a man would be encouraged to do his best. The faults are by no means always on the side of the preacher. How- ever unworthy and perfunctory the address may be, no speaker could fail to catch some inspiration from the moral confidence which mounts up from the audience to the spokesman whom they trust, and who exhibit something of that humble and teachable mind which is prepared to extract some good even from the worst sermon, if it be only patience, which George Herbert found as a Pandora legacy at the bottom of the box, which had contained only a mass of useless trifles. How to hear, how to receive instruction, is a spiritual acquirement of which the young should be made speedy possessors, for if it be true, as Dean Church says, that one of the things which a preacher will least care to meet at the Day of Judgment will be his own sermons, it may be also true that one of the saddest things which will then befall the ordinary listener will be the condemnation of the old prophet, which wails out in its sadness, * This is the refreshing : yet they would not hear/ l III Everything has conspired to show the godparents the exceeding value, in God's sight, of every one, even the smallest of His children. No training or instruc- tion must be spared to fit them for their high destiny, and to make them worthy of what has been already done for them. But the privileges of the baptized are summarised for us in the Catechism in forcible and pregnant terms. The giving of the name marked a great occasion in life, and the bestowal of pre- cious gifts. The name given, and the promises so 1 Is*, xxviii. 12. THE INFLUENCE OF OTHERS ON LIFE 53 earnestly plighted, coincided with and signalised that moment to which a child may look back with pride and say, then ' I was made a member of Christ, the child of Go