the denominations, and call their own branch of the true vine the Church. This is likewise evident in the requisition imposed for matriculation to one of their principal colleges in America. In the college statutes is found the following:

"Sec. 1. Matriculation shall consist in signing, in the presence of the president, faculty, and others, the following promise: "I promise to observe the statutes, lawful usages, and customs of this college, and to maintain and defend her rights, privileges, and immunities, at all times and in all places, according to my station and duties in the same.'

"The last clause of the promise is a supplementary offshoot of the laws of this Church in olden time, and should be called the Act of Gag. Whatever indignities a student might suffer from this institution, he must maintain her 'rights' and 'privileges,' and be silent respecting all her errors. Free speech according to the honest conviction, unless favorable to the college, is here totally interdicted.

Apostolical Succession.

"Nothing assists this people so much in retaining their power as constant proclamation of the apostolical succession; yet I find that one of its archdeacons says: I deny, my lord, that succession of bishops is an infallible point to know the church by; for there may be a succession of bishops known in a place, and yet there is no church, as at Antioch, and Jerusalem, and in other places where the apostles abode, as well as at Rome. But if you put to the succession of bishops, succession of doctrine withal, as St. Augustine

doth, I will grant it to be a good proof for the Catholic Church; but a local succession is nothing available.'

"Bishop Pilkington also taught: So stands the succession of the Church: not in mitres, palaces; lands, and lordships, but in teaching true doctrine, and rooting out the contrary.'

"On the other hand, the Puseyites say: The fact of the apostolical succession - that is, that our present bishops are the heirs and representatives of the apostles, by the successive transmission of the prerogative of being so is too notorious to require proof. Every link in the chain is known from St. Peter to our present metropolitan. Can we conceive that this succession has been preserved all over the world, amidst revolutions, through many centuries, for nothing?'

"Another Episcopal divine says: 'The Church of England was founded, probably, in the Apostolic Age, and, it is said, by the labors of St. Paul.'

"Of what real value is such an assertion as this? Probabilities and they say' are no authority to the unprejudiced inquirer. If we take such proof as valid, we shall next give credence to the virtue which, ‘it is said,' accompanies contact with the bones of a saint, and also the toe of His Holiness!'

"Where is the historical proof that the Church of England was founded by one or more of the apostles? And if such proof was clear as the noon-day sun, what would it signify for this church more than any other, since the mission given to the apostles by Christ, was to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

"When Simon Peter had toiled all night a-fishing, and had caught nothing, he cast his net on the right side of the ship, according to the direction of Jesus, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.' In this multitude there must have been more than one kind. This event, which was typical of the salvation of men by the ministry of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour, proves conclusively that it was never meant by the founders of the Christion Church to inculcate the idea that there was to be included in the Church of God only one kind of believers. Had it been so, it would have been stated what kind of fishes these were, that there might have been motives to perpetuate the succession.

"Likewise does the vision unfolded to Peter, when he saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air, prove that no one class of men is more favorable in the eyes of God, provided he hath cleansed them, than another. 'Then Peter opened his mouth and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him.' And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.'

"The Church of England, or the Episcopal Church, by arrogating to themselves the possession of the Word, the sacraments, and the threefold ministry,' illustrates the claims of monarchists in all ages of the

world, 'We are the men, and wisdom will die with

us, unless kept in the authorized channels of succession in both church and state.'

The Three-fold Ministry.

"Their claim, also, to the ministry as founded by the apostles in a three-fold office of bishops, priests or presbyters and deacons, is not valid.

"The apostles styled themselves by various names. In 1 Tim. 5: 17, they are called elders and laborers. Again they are styled teachers and shepherds. The terms bishops and elders throughout their writings are used without distinctive difference. This is also true of the usage of the ecclesiastical writers who followed the apostles. From the writings of Coleman, I find Chrysostom as saying that the elders or presbyters were formerly called bishops and deacons of Christ, and that the bishops were called elders.' Also, Theodoret styles both the elders and bishops watchmen. In another passage, he says that those who were called bishops, evidently held the rank of presbyters and elders. Iræneus, Bishop of Lyons, calls all the bishops who preceded Victor, presbyters. Jerome adds a similar testimony.

"From this and other equally copious and valuable testimony, it is clear to me that the Episcopal church has no warrant for this their assumption of the pure order of a three-fold ministry.

The Liturgy.

"Another claim of the superiority of the church, or its exemption from liabilities to departure from the

faith, is its Liturgy. Having found an argument* in its favor, which, though not by any means conclusive, is ingenious, I copy it herein.

"What, it may be asked, is the authority and what is the utility of a Liturgy? I hardly need answer that forms of prayer are no new thing. If you ask me where they originated, I answer, in heaven. The very first suggestion of a precomposed form of divine service came from God himself. Liturgies are, therefore, no human invention.

"When the Tabernacle had been erected, and the people gathered into it, God gave to Moses a form of words wherewith he should bless the people when they departed, saying: "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee," etc. When an Israelite brought to the priest "the first fruits," he was required to repeat a certain form of words. Just before the death of Moses, God commanded him to write a song commemorative of God's mercies, which the Israelites and their descendants were required to use. In the time of Christ, the Jews had a Liturgy in their synagogues. In this service he himself joined. He rebuked the Jews for many things, but never for using a Liturgy. He censured them for formality, but never for employing forms of prayer. He reproved the Pharisees for their pride, and formality, and long "prayers, which they made, standing at the corners of the streets, to be seen of men." These prayers were made to attract the public attention, and so to win the praise of passers-by, and, therefore, may have been extemporaneous.

* From "Why I am a Churchman," by Rev. G. M. Randall, D. D.