might be seriously questioned if we ever heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.*

IV. The one theory of the nature of the Sacraments has been examined. Sustained by great ecclesiastical organizations, supported by an array of names mighty in the annals of the Church, it does not coincide with the Holy Scriptures, it does not satisfy the wants of the heart. If it be not correct, there remains only the other theory. If the Sacraments are not means and channels of grace, no rational explanation can be given of them than as signs and testimonials of it.

This theory is by no means new. Something might be adduced to show that it is not inconsistent with the statements of the early Fathers of the Church, if these be taken with considerable latitude. It, however, received a fuller development at the time of the Reformation, and has since continued as the faith of a large section of the Church. That it has not met wider reception, and been more generally acknowledged, is due, among other things, to this, that while it correctly presents the commemorative character of the Sacraments, it has not clearly set forth, nor with any unanimity insisted upon, that of which they are commemorative. The strength of the sacramentarian theory lies in this: It demands for the Sacraments an importance which the word of God justifies; it presents a weighty reason for their administration, in that they execute an office which can be fulfilled by nothing else, and a reason which, mistaken though it is, secures for them a reverence faulty only by excess ; it rightly grasps the truth that they have an objective as well as a subjective value, an importance in themselves as well as in the heart of the receiver. With the Commemorationists, however, they have been too often lowered to the level of mere badges or tokens of profession, (as was the case with Zwingli, if, indeed, that great man has not been misunderstood,) or else have been made to depend for their value so exclusively upon the faith and inward feeling of the participant, that the ques

*It needs but to consult any books written by the Sacramentarians to see how little space is accorded the Holy Spirit. See Archbishop Manning (Roman Catholic) on "The Temporal Mission of the Holy Ghost," especially the chapter on "The Relation of the Holy Ghost to the Church." Whoever would do for the doctrine of the Holy Spirit what Dörner has done for that of "The Person of Christ" would confer an inestimable benefit on the cause of truth. It would modify our opinions of many a so-called heretic-Montanus, for instance.

tion has been at once started in the mind of the objector, whether the same inner state would not be just as acceptable to God, and profitable to man, without as with the Sacraments.*

Besides showing a worthy office for them, any definition of the Sacraments, to be correct, must show their consistency with the essential characteristics of revealed religion, for they would be burdens to, and not helpers of, our faith if they were out of keeping with that system of truth of which they profess to be outward symbols. Now among these leading features of the Christian religion, with the requirements of which any definition must comply, are these: It is founded on historic truth; it has a ground-work of facts and events in human history which cannot be assailed without impeaching its own integrity; it is marked by a sublime simplicity, being the revelation of a God who is light, and in whom is no darkness at all; it is a rational system, fearlessly addressing itself to the reason of man as coinciding with its necessary intuitions; its end is man's spirituality.

And though it be not so necessary, it would certainly add great force to any definition to be able to comprehend within its scope the Jewish as well as the Christian sacraments. For inasmuch as the principles of administration of an unchangeable God are unchangeable, varied only in application to meet various exigencies, it is probable that the two Churches are but continuous parts of one great scheme, and that whatever is of the essence of baptism and the eucharist is equally so of circumcision and the passover, which are distinguished by broad lines from the rest of the Mosaic economy.

The system of things under which we are living, and of which the Jewish and the Christian Church are parts, is preeminently a plan of redemption. With the perception of this only can the mysteries of nature and of revelation be inter

* Principal Cunningham, "Historical Theology," vol. ii, p. 125: "The general doctrine of Protestants upon this subject, though there is some diversity in their mode of explaining it, is this, that the Sacraments are symbolical or exhibitive ordinances. . . . They regard them, however, as mere appendages to the word or the truth, and as exerting no influence whatever, apart from the faith which the participation in them expresses." To this last part we object.

See a choice work, "Belief, What Is It?" p. 10, et seq. Blackwood & Sons. 1869.

preted. When by the fall sin entered into the world and the orderly government of God was disturbed, that plan was inaugurated. The covenant of works was superseded by the covenant of grace. To restore this interrupted harmony, the direct government of the Father gave place to a mediatorial and provisional system, the execution of which was committed to God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each of whom has his personal and peculiar share in the accomplishment of the end. All that relates to atonement or propitiation is the office of the Son, as essential to which, a body was prepared him to do the will of God. All that has reference to renewal, imparting of life, is the office of the Holy Ghost, "the Lord and giver of life." The atonement must precede renewal; renewal or regeneration must complete atonement. The ideas are distinct, but in unison; both divine Persons work harmoniously together, and will until the prayer is answered fully, "Our Father, thy kingdom come," and "the Son shall deliver up the kingdom to God the Father." Of this plan of redemption the Sacraments are copies writ to the eye. We define them thus:

The Sacraments are outward and visible signs, testifying, primarily, to the divinity of God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, the agents in the great work of redemption, with the appropriate office of each in that work; taking their rise from, and thereby historically attesting, events of world-wide importance, in which the peculiar office of each of these divine Persons was specifically manifested; secondarily, testifying, on the part of the recipient, his personal participation of the office of that divine Person whose sacrament he commemorates. Baptism is the sacrament of the Holy Ghost; the Supper, the sacrament of the Son of God.

The arguments upon which the correctness of this definition is based are two: it rationally accounts for and explains all the characteristical features of the Sacraments, and it conforms to the general tenor of the Holy Scriptures.

1. As to the first of these arguments, if the Sacraments are testimonies to the divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit: (a.) An office of the utmost importance is assigned them; they have a value in themselves which fully deserves and justifies our reverence. In them the spirit of man testifies that its wants are met by them of whom the water and the blood

are signs, and the three that thus bear record on earth agree in one.

(b.) A rational ground is laid for limiting the number of them to two; they must be these, they can be no more.

(c.) A broad line distinguishes them from mere ceremonies, such as feet-washing for instance, which, while allegorically expressing a truth, stands in connection with no such peculiar office of the Son, or the Spirit, and with no historical event of world-wide importance.

(d.) Historically, baptism dates from the day of Pentecost, upon which the Holy Spirit descended to create the Christian Church; or, if any man wishes to go further back, from the descent of the Spirit, in the "form of a dove," upon Jesus, when the life that had dwelt in the bosom of the Father began visibly to be manifested to the world: the Lord's Supper was inaugurated upon

That sad, memorable night

When Jesus was for us betrayed.

And while we may not look for the same clearness of truth in the Jewish sacraments, circumcision was instituted when Abraham was called to found a new nation and Church, and another name, typical of a new nature, was given him—things plainly foreshadowing the work of the Spirit; and the Passover stands in unquestioned connection with a deliverance from bondage in which the virtue of atoning blood was typified. As signs, secondarily, of our personal appropriation of redemption, this definition serves to designate:

(a.) The persons to whom the Sacraments may be administered. They are legitimately used so far, and only so far, as they express the truth. To pardoned and converted adults both are lawful; to infants the communion, which designates deliverance from personal guilt, is not proper, while the sign of the new birth is appropriate to them, as having had that "manifestation of the Spirit" which has counteracted depravity so far as to make them eligible to the kingdom of heaven.

(b.) It determines the mode of administration. That mode of applying baptism which is likest the pouring out of the Spirit from on high, and of receiving the communion which most resembles the putting forth of faith to appropriate the

merits of the Redeemer, is the fittest to express the nature and office of both.

2. The scriptural argument can be only hinted at here. To elaborate it would require a volume. The general tenor of the word agrees, as investigation will show, with these, which we present as texts representative of the mind of the Scriptures Of Baptism, "Born again of water and of the Spirit; "*"Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?" Of the Lord's Supper, "Do this in remembrance of me;""For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death, till he come." The connection of the Spirit with baptism is as well marked, and as constantly enforced, as is that of the Lord's death with the Lord's table.

ART. V.-CHAMBERLAYNE ON SAVING FAITH.

Saving Faith: its Rationale: with a Demonstration of its Presence in the Organic Condition of Methodist Church Membership. A Treatise in Two Parts. By Rev. ISRAEL CHAMBERLAYNE, D.D. New York: Nelson & Phillips. MANIFESTLY, this book was not intended for mere cursory readers, nor for superficial thinkers. Let all such do themselves and the author the kindness of letting it alone. It is not other than an earnest, manly, masterly discussion of a very grave subject, for momentous and manifest reasons. Its purpose is nothing less, nor else, than to show that there prevails extensively, perhaps generally, both in the Methodist Church, and throughout other Churches, a very grave and most injurious misapprehension of the organic law and common usage of our Church, relative to the conditions of Church membership. Indeed, the author of this treatise alleges that we have widely departed from primitive Methodistic teaching concerning Saving Faith, as well as with reference to the prerequisites for Church-membership. If this be true, is it not remarkable? In the General Rules, which are de facto the Constitution of the Church and the platform of ecclesiastical Methodism, we learn that "There is only one condition previously required + Acts x, 47. + Luke xxii, 19. § 1 Cor. xi, 26.

* John iii, 5.