Again : "The Lavabo. "C. I observe, that at this period in the Mass the priest moves to the Epistle side of the altar; for what purpose? "P. He moves to the side, in order to wash the tips of his fingers in a small vessel prepared for the purpose. While the server is pouring water on them, the priest says a portion of the 25th Psalm. "C. What is the meaning of this action ? "P. The priest washes the thumb and forefinger of each hand, which, at his ordination, were consecrated for the offering of the adorable Sacrifice, lest, in the previous part of the ceremonies, any crumb of the sacred bread, or other matter, may have adhered to them. The symbolical use of this action is to remind him incessantly of the purity required in those who come before God at His altar. The ends of the fingers, and not the hands, are washed, to express that the priest shall be clean wholly.' See St. John, xiv. 10."-P. 40. The explanation of the Orate Fratres, the Preface, the Canon of the Mass, the Communicantes, the Hanc igitur oblationem, and the Consecration, follows. The latter we find thus introduced : "The Consecration. "P. The priest has now to perform the most solemn act of the highest office in the world. In the exercise of the power which he has received at ordination, he is to make the most precious Body and Blood of our Lord present on the altar, to the unspeakable benefit and consolation of all faithful souls. This power it is which raises the priest, as St. Chrysostom says, above angels; for to compare it with any dignity of this world would be simply preposterous. Nay, if dignity there ever were, to which it may suitably be likened, it was that of the Blessed Virgin chosen by the Holy Trinity to be the means of giving the Eternal Son of God to the world. Collect then, dear brother, all your devout attention, while I instruct you in the ceremonies which the Church has prescribed on this great subject. "The priest having concluded the forementioned prayer, which he says with hands joined, prepares for the Consecration, by first separating his hands, and gently rubbing the thumb and forefinger of each within the corporal" (the linen on which the bread or body lies). "The reason of this action is to free them from any grain of dust, or other substance, which they may have gathered up since the 'Lavabo;' or at any rate, to remind himself of the reverence due to the august mysteries he is about to approach."-P. 69. Under the head of the Communion of the Faithful occurs the following instruction on the Fast before Communion : "C. And now, Sir, about the nature of this fast before Communion. Does it, like the ecclesiastical fast, allow of taking liquids? "P. No; it is what is called a physical, i.e. natural, fast, and precludes the swallowing of any food or liquid whatever; so that water, taken even by accident, would debar the person from going to Communion on the same day. "C. What, even a drop? "P. A drop swallowed by accident along with the natural secretion of the mouth is a case excepted by the rubric from the general law. "C. How minute are these provisions; an enemy might say, how trivial! "P. Yes: but he would be a very shallow reasoner, for consider only the natural tendency of men to encroach upon laws which are not carried out into detail, and you will acknowledge the wisdom of the Church in making no exceptions to her rules but such as are required by necessity and charity."-P. 100. We should almost suppose that some of the habituès of Roman Catholic doctrine and observance would be somewhat scandalized by the great explicitness with which, in his fresh zeal and unshrinking faith, Mr. Oakeley lays such mysteries as these open before the eyes of the profane, and must desire that some cypher were employed by which only the very faithful could understand them : "C. May the Blessed Sacrament ever be touched except by a priest ? "P. By no means whatever; if done consciously and intentionally, out of irreverence, or even indifference, it would be a mortal sin so to touch it. "C. Accidents at the time of communion must be very distressing. "P. Nothing should be very distressing which is purely unintentional; however, I do not deny that we may well be distressed, within due limits, at any even purely accidental injury to the Ma jesty of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament; and on this account communicants should be very careful to assist the priest in the act of giving communion, by opening the mouth and presenting a sufficient surface of the tongue, though without opening the mouth tɔo wide, or drawing the head too much back (which looks unseemly), or holding the tongue too much down, which is dangerous. I would advise all priests to instruct beginners in the right way of receiving communion, and converts especially, who are apt to find it more awkward than those who have been accustomed to it from early youth. "Č. I know some Protestants who laugh at all this particularity. "P. So do I; the more the pity, not for us, but for themselves. I much suspect that those who charge our care of the Blessed Sacrament with over-nicety, much more those who jest upon it, would have passed their silly criticisms upon the act of St. Mary Magdalene, in the house of Simon the leper; or that of the holy woman who took spices to embalm our Lord's body; or of St. Joseph of Arimathea, who buried it with devout honour. If all this had not been love, certainly it would have been superstition."P. 115-116. And certainly if all these minute directions about tongue and head and thumb and finger-if all this centring of the soul's homage upon a body at best, a little paste apparently be not the most wretched abuse of man's disposition. for religion, the most irreverent lowering of the objects of his devotion and worship-we must confess to being the subjects of infidelity and blasphemy while aiming at the acquisition of the pure spirit of duty. This may be, and is, no doubt, the religion of a numerous and ancient Church-this may be, and is, no doubt, the honest accretion of the logically necessary results of certain given premises-but we think the true piety of man, and true conversion of the earth, depend upon our denial of it as the religion of Jesus Christ. And Mr. Oakeley resigns the service of the Church of England for this! Part III. treats of the remainder of the Mass-the ablutions, the Communio and Postcommunion-the Mass of the Dead, High or Solemn Mass (i.e. the full service with all the due attendants and solemnities) and Church Music, with an Appendix on Solemn Vespers, Compline, (or final office of the day-the completion of vespers), and the Benediction. CHRISTIAN TEACHER.-No. 53. 2 D We close this notice, not in a spirit of contemptuous amusement, but with a sense of profound sorrow-that so many conscientious and devout men should be at the same time such weak men, and consider the adoption of these cares and ceremonies and posturings an advance in their spiritual condition. What in the world must they have been before? THE PROSPECTIVE REVIEW. No. XXVIII. ART. I.-RECENT TRANSLATIONS OF CLASSICAL POETS. 1. Virgil's Works. Translated by the Rev. Rann Kennedy and by (his son) Charles Rann Kennedy. London: 1849. 2. The Lyrical Dramas of Eschylus. Translated into English Verse by John Stuart Blackie, Professor of Latin Literature in Marischal College, Aberdeen. London: J. W. Parker, West Strand. 1850. 3. Horace: Odes, Epodes, and Carmen Sæculare. Translated into English Verse by G. J. Whyte Melville, late Coldstream Guards. London: Simpkin and Marshall. 1850. THE literature of the Greek and Roman Classics no longer retains engrossing importance to the cultivated nations of modern Europe. Once, it was the only food to an active understanding and masculine taste; and although from day to day it proved the fertile parent of modern literary works, yet these were so pervaded by allusions to it, as not to be wholly understood and enjoyed without some classical knowledge. Our very poets breathed the heathen mythology; philosophy trod in the steps of Plato; historical writing was but beginning to be developed and English law, by refusing to avail itself of Roman precedent, attained no scientific shape. In such a state of things, all who desired intellectual culture sought it through the languages of Greece and Rome; and those who could not CHRISTIAN TEACHER.-No. 54. : 2 E |