abandoned by Romanists and Greeks, on their side as well as by Anglicans on our side. Our concessions must be equal. Separated from our native country, by travelling, or by political duties, or by commerce, hearing as we must do a variety of languages, habits of worship differing from our own, and religious customs which from their novelty disturb us, we must not shrink into our own little selves and hold aloof; but we must remember that this is the very thing that our Blessed Lord anticipated, and yet in that very anticipation, He looked to the unity of the whole : "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold. These also I must bring and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd."

I shall now conclude by citing two authors of repute, who are of our own Church—one of the past, another of the present age-bearing on the subject of intercommunion, and showing the means by which it may be brought about. Their opinion is at any rate worthy of consideration. The one is Bingham, in his "Ecclesiastical Antiquities;" the other is Palmer, of the present day, in his "Treatise on the Church."

I. BINGHAM.

On Intercommunion of National Churches with each other :

"It was necessary that every Christian, when he came to a foreign Church, should readily comply with the innocent usages and customs of that Church where he happened to be, though they might chance in some circumstances to differ from his own. This was a necessary rule of peace, to preserve the unity of communion and worship throughout the whole Catholic Church. And then, as it was the duty of

every member of any particular Church to comply with the innocent customs of his own Church, in order to hold free communion with her, so it was the duty of every Christian to comply with the different customs of all other Churches wherever he happened to travel, in order to hold communion with the Catholic Church in all places without exception." *

And then he relates the case of S. Augustine persuading his mother, Monica, to conform to a custom at Milan to which she had not been used at Rome, and this by the advice of S. Ambrose:

"And we must observe that this bond of union was very mainly maintained by the Holy Eucharist as its sign. The custom of the churches of different countries being to send the Eucharist mutually to each other, to testify that they were in union with each other."

"Which being so common a way of testifying communion with distant Churches in those days, it was a very just complaint which S. Chrysostom made against Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, and his accomplices; that when they came to Constantinople, they came not to Church, according to custom and ancient law. They joined not themselves to him, nor communicated with him, in the word, or prayer, or the Communion of the Eucharist; but as soon as they landed, passing by the Church, they took their lodging in an Inn, when the Bishop's house was ready prepared to entertain them."

Then Bingham concludes the chapter thus:

"By this account of things it is easy to judge what stress the ancients laid upon the laws of Communion, obliging every Church to communicate with her sister Churches over all the world, in all holy offices, in order to preserve in the communion

* Bingham, Book xvi. c. 1.

of worship one entire thing throughout the whole Catholic Church without any notorious division, or distraction." +

"We may infer from what has been said that since Unity of Communion is the law of God, both in the Universal Church, and in all the particular Churches in which it is arranged; it is impossible that in the same place there can be several different Churches, equally authorized by God, and united in Christ. It is true that persons may be in fact separated from the Communion of the Church in a particular place, who are not truly separated from the Universal Church. This may arise from an excommunication founded on an error of fact, not yet made manifest. It is also true that the commnnion of a Church may be divided by a lawful separation according to the principles to be laid down in the 5th section. But what I contend for is, 'that in one locality, there can be but one society, whose communion Christians are bound to seek in preference to all others.'

"The supposition indeed, that Christians in each locality could be bound to entaintain fraternal intercourse in Religion with several communities mutually separated, would carry an absurdity and cotradiction on the very face of it, because the obligation of each individual to communicate with all would render it impossible that there sbould be different communions."

The conclusion is maintained by S. CYPRIAN in several places:

"The Lord Himself admonishes and teaches us in His Gospel saying: And there shall be one Flock and one Shepherd.' And does any one imagine that there can be in one place many SHEPHERDS, or many FLOCKS." *

* Bingham, Book xvi., c. i.

+ Treatise of the Church, vol. ii., p. 48.

Now let us sanctify what has been said by the words of good Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester in the reign of James I.

Let us pray,

FOR THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

i.e.

THE CHURCHES THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE WORLD.

FOR THE EASTERN

Its Deliverance and Union.

FOR THE WESTERN:

Its Adjustment and Peace.

FOR THE BRITISH:

That what is wanting in it may be supplied.
That what is unsound may be corrected.
And for the strengthening of what remains.
That all heresies, schisms and scandals public
as well as private may be removed.

For their Verity, Unity, Stability. That in all Charity they may flourish and

TRUTH BECOME A LIVING PRINCIPLE.

FINIS.