reduce them in the least under the laws of conservation or correlation.

3. What the inner, forming, constituting, life-giving power within the animal is, we know not; neither can we in the least bring it under these laws.

4. What it is that thinks behind, or within, the physical agencies of thought, being the bottom cause of all the phenomena shown by those agencies, as a scientific cognition, is yet utterly beyond us, and, as completely as the others, refuses to fall under these highest physical laws.

But all these powers, or forces if you will, affirm themselves as plainly as the equally unknown force within the earth af firms itself by the quaking that it causes and the fissures it opens, and the elevations, depressions, and volcanoes that it produces.

These inscrutable powers state themselves, and prove themselves, in the phenomena they produce; and, while men are so constituted that they must believe all that appears has a cause, however inscrutable it may remain, they will ever so state themselves. And, however intimate may be the relation science shall ultimately show as existing between them and the physical tools they use, however closely dependent for manifestation they may be shown to be upon them, they will stand exponents and proofs of the spiritual and inscrutable in God's universe, to every opened eye forever.

ARTICLE III. CURRENT FALLACIES CONCERNING

ORDINATION.

Dens,

THE Church of Rome makes ordination a sacrament. in his Theologia, vol. ii, p. 36, Dublin edition, 1832, asks: "Quid est sacramentum ordinis?" The answer is, "Est sacramentum novæ legis quo spiritualis potestas confeter et gratia ad ecclesiastica munia rite decenterque obeunda." It is a sacrament of the new law by which is conferred power and grace for duly and appropriate discharge of ecclesiastical functions.

By the Episcopal theory: "It is the act of conferring holy orders or sacerdotal powers, by means of which office-bearers are made a spiritual order, consecrated to the service of the Most High in things wherewith others may not meddle." According to the "form and manner of ordaining priests," "The bishop, with the priests present, shall lay their hands on every one that receiveth the order of priesthood, and the bishop saying, Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a priest committed unto thee, by the imposition of our hands: whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained."

The Presbyterian doctrine is thus stated by Dr. Hill in his Lectures on Divinity, vol. ii, p. 439, 3d edition, 1833: "Ordination is the appointment of Jesus Christ conveying a character by the instrumentality of the office-bearers of his church." "Every one who is ordained by the laying on of the hands of the office-bearers of the church, becomes a minister of the church universal. He is invested with that character in a manner most agreeable to the example and directions contained in the New Testament; and by this investiture he receives authority to preform all the acts belonging to the character."

The Provincial Assembly of London, under the head "Divine right of the Gospel ministry," say: "Ordination makes a man a minister that was not one before; and consequently the essence of the ministerial call consists in it, not in election." The universal practice among Presbyterians releases the ordained person from all responsibility to the particular church of which he

was a member, and that church from all watch over him. He is responsible only to his Presbytery, and if he becomes an offender he can only be tried by his peers. Thus he belongs to a superior order, separate and distinct from the brotherhood of the church.

The Congregational view is thus stated in the Cambridge Platform: "This ordination we account but the solemn putting a man into his place and office in the church, whereunto he had right before by election: being like the installing of a magistrate in the commonwealth." "As for ordination," says John Milton, "what is it but the laying on of hands, an outward sign or symbol of admission? It creates nothing, it confers nothing; it is the inward calling of God that makes a minister, and his own painful study and diligence that manures and improves his ministerial gifts.'

Thus the Papal, the Episcopalian, and the Presbyterian theories maintain that there is something mysterious which metamorphoses a layman into a clergyman. The method is not clearly defined; nor do they all hold to the same exact process; but they agree in this, that something is received by the ordained man which he had not before, and which is communicated to him only in the external act called ordination, effected by the laying on of the hands of the proper office-bearers in the church.

If such are the teachings of the New Testament, it will appear by a careful examination of the original Greek. There are thirteen words which in the received version are translated ordained. Seven of these have no reference to the placing of men in office, viz:

1. diarάoo occurs sixteen times, and only thrice ordain ; 1 Cor. vii, 17, "so ordain I in all the churches;" ix, 14, "even so hath the Lord ordained; Gal. iii, 19, "It was ordained by angels." In neither is there a setting apart to office. It is generally rendered command, appoint, set in order. Robinson's N. T. Lex., to arrange throughout, to dispose in order.

2. κατασκευάζω is found eleven times and only once is translated ordain, Heb. ix, 6, "when these things were thus ordained," that is, the things of the tabernacle. It is usually rendered, to prepare; Robinson's Lex., prepare fully.

3. κρίνω occurs one hundred and nine times and is only once rendered ordain, Acts xvi, 4, "decrees to keep which were ordained," etc.; usually translated sue, judge, determine, condemn, avenge, etc.

4. πроорí occurs six times, once ordained, 1 Cor. ii, 7, "which God ordained," literally preordained. Usually rendered determined, before, predestinate.

5. Tάoo is found eight times. Robinson's N. T. Lex., to order, to set in order, arrange; twice ordained, Acts xiii, 48, "were ordained to eternal life;" Romans xiii, 1, "The powers that be are ordained of God."

6. проурάр is found five times, usually to write before; once ordained, Jude 4, "before of old ordained."

7. porras, only twice, as Rom. ix, 23, "which he had afore prepared," and Eph. ii, 40, "which God had before or dained."

As in neither of these does the word ordain refer to the setting apart of men to office, we turn to the remaining six words. Do these, or any one of them, clearly denote the imparting of any new or spiritual powers, by virtue of the imposition of hands, or any performance on the part of those who officiate? The words will speak for themselves.

1. noé occurs five hundred and forty-two times, and is translated by words which express the simple fact of making. The one exceptional case reads, in Mark iii, 14, "Jesus ordained twelve to be with him." There is no evidence here that it means any thing more than that the twelve were made his attendants; much less that, by any external ceremony, they were set apart and thus received new spiritual powers. We know from the record that, in individual cases, the Lord simply said, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men," Matt. iv, 19, and Mark i, 17, where the same word is also translated make. It is so rendered more than one hundred times.

2. Tinμ is found ninety-eight times, and is usually rendered to put, to make, to appoint; only twice is it translated ordain. John xv, 16, "I have chosen you and ordained you;" 1 Tim. ii, 7, "whereunto I am ordained a preacher and apostle.' In 2 Tim. i, 11, the same word is translated "whereunto I am appointed a preacher and apostle." The latter text is in strict

keeping with the more uniform rendering, which is, to put, place, set, etc.

3. yivouaι occurs seven hundred and eight times, and is most frequently translated to be done, made, and only once is it rendered ordain. Acts i, 22, "one must be ordained to be a witness," etc. This whole translation is instructive and worthy of particular attention. Notice the following facts.

(1.) One person, having certain specified qualifications, is to be ordained to be a witness, etc. (2.) Two men are selected who have the qualifications. (3.) The disciples, being about one hundred and twenty (Acts i, 14, 15), prayed, not to set any one apart, not to confer any character or qualification,—not to consecrate any one to office, but to be guided in casting the lot (ver. 24). (4.) They, by lot, elected Matthias (ver. 26), and by that election and without any recorded action on the part of the apostles or others, "he was numbered with the eleven" (ver. 26). We notice here that the ordination was the election of Matthias. If so in the case of an apostle, and under the supervision and direction of the apostles, much more so in all other cases. The apostle Paul says of himself, Eph. iii, 7, "whereof I was made a minister." Here the same Greek word is used and is in harmony with its usual rendering. In Gal. i, 15, he more definitely tells how he was made a minister and apostle. "It pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me that I might preach Him among the Gentiles." It was Paul's call "by the grace of God to reveal his Son in him" that made him a minister and apostle, and not any external ceremony. In his second letter to Timothy, i, 11, he says, "whereunto I am appointed a preacher and apostle."

The apostles were directed by Christ, after he had commissioned them, Luke xxiv, 49, "tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." Again, Acts i, 8, "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." Accordingly we read in Acts ii, 4, "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Their