Слике страница
PDF
ePub

side as he entered the gates. And when the morning sun was high, a neighbour came to the cottage with a present in his hand, because it was Easter Day, and he found the old man lying dead, with a sweet smile of content on his pale thin face, and a white child whose glistening sunny hair fell over her to the ground like a golden pall, and hid the scanty rags which could not cover her. Evergild had fulfilled her dead mother's hopes, and her father and she had now gone together to the blessed land where there would be no more hunger or thirst, or cold or weary wandering feet.

C. C.

Reviews and Notices.

We have looked carefully at the few first numbers of The Bible Educator, a kind of periodical containing essays by writers of all denominations, and edited by the Rev. E. H. Plumptre, Professor of New Testament Exegesis in King's College, London, (Cassell and Co.,) and we have no doubt as to the verdict which should be pronounced on it. It supplies of course a good deal of miscellaneous information on subjects more or less connected with the Bible, the importance of which will be variously estimated. But to our mind there is this fundamental question to be answered, Is a clergyman justi. fied in editing the contributions of writers decidedly adverse to the teaching of the Church to which he belongs? So long as it is simply the "Perfumes of the Bible," or other questions of Natural History that are under consideration, the creed of the writer is unimportant, but when a Presbyterian is allowed to discourse on the relation of the Old Testament to the New, he is simply making havoc of the whole Church system. A series on this subject is thus begun by Dr. Milligan of Aberdeen. At present he has only told us that the Passover has no relation to the Eucharist or to the Atonement-much less of course (he implies) to Easter. And in the same way he will proceed complacently to cut away the Types of Pentecost and of Circumcision, and the threefold Ministry, and so forth. It is true that the name of each writer is prefixed to his article. But we repeat, is this an "Education" to which Professor Plumptre, Canons Norris and Rawlinson, and other professedly orthodox clergy ought to lend their names? We think not. Certainly we could not place in the hands of any one needing instruction, the fruit of such an unconscientious compromise.

We strongly recommend The Counsels of Perfection; or Christ and Modern Christianity, (Masters,) by the Rev. F. C. Woodhouse, Rector of S. Mary's, Hulme. It is an essay which every candid person must be the better for reading. It is not written so much for the purpose of advocating what is technically called "the Religious Life" as for showing the imperfections of

popular Christianity—a task which he performs in our judgment much more satisfactorily than does the author of "Dame Europa's School" in his recent Strictures ("Modern Christianity and Civilised Heathenism”) which have too much the air of unreality about them.

Mr. Mowbray of Oxford has done well to print on an ornamental card, the Judgment of the Court of Arches defining the Doctrine of the Eucharist. It is as follows: "The Objective, Actual, and Real Presence, or the Spiritual Real Presence, a Presence external to the act of the Communicant, appears to me to be the Doctrine which the Formularies of our Church, duly considered and construed so as to be harmonious, intended to maintain.”

We have not met with any so complete a Statement of the Case of the Church in reference to her political opponents, as is furnished in the Rev. W. W. English's pamphlet Church and State, (Longmans,) while it has also this additional merit, that it gives an excellent account of the Church as a spiritual organisation. A churchman carefully studying this little manual would be a match for any adversary.

The Rev. C. H. Hoole's Inquiry into S. Peter's Visit to Rome, (Oxford, Vincent,) is a Pamphlet of great value, showing much candour together with the full mastery of his subject. The conclusion at which he arrives, is that S. Peter was really martyred at Rome, but that he had nothing to do with founding or governing the Church there. This is just the view that we put forth in reviewing Dr. Mahon's Church History.

Correspondence.

[The Editor is not responsible for the opinions of the Correspondents.]

To the Editor of the Churchman's Companion.

Answers.

CHURCH TEACHING FOR SUNDAY
SCHOOLS.

SIR,-I think your correspondent M. C. M. would find the following books useful for reading to Sunday School children: "Little Tales for Little People," 1d. each (Palmer); "Sunday Stories for the Christian Year," 2d. each (Hodges); "Church Ballads," 2d. each (Hodges); "Holidays at S. Mary's," 2s. 6d. (Masters); "The Followers of the LORD," 28. (Masters'). This last contains a story for each day in Holy Week. "My Sunday Friend," d. monthly, (Batty) is a nice Magazine for children to read to themselves; and "New and Old,"

1d. monthly, (Stevenson,) always con-
tains a story, generally a very pretty
one, for children, and also suggestions
for Sunday School Lessons.
"Holy
Teachings," 1d. monthly, (Batty,) is a
good Magazine for helping teachers to
prepare for their Sunday scholars.-
Yours, &c., AGATHA,

SIR,-I think "Harry and Archie," and the sequel "Nanny," "The Chorister Brothers," "Chronicles of S. Mary's, or Tales of a Sisterhood," (more suitable for girls,) "Holidays at S. Mary's," and "Lent Legends," by Dr. Neale, would be useful to M. C. M. Also the Penny Post and the Church Times.-Yours, &c., ESSIE.

BOOK OF PRIVATE DEVOTION. SIR,-Carter's "Book of Private Prayers" is much used, but AGATHA cannot find a better one than "The Treasury of Devotions." "The Little Manual," 2d., is a nice little book. Carter's is about 1s.-Yours, &c., ESSIE.

M. OR N.

SIR,-I subjoin a few remarks on a subject which was, I believe, once proposed for discussion in your columns,

In the Book of Common Prayer, it is the rule to use the letters M. or N. in all cases where it is necessary to insert the name either of a person or of a place.

To this rule there is one exception. This occurs in the substitution in one Service of the letters A. B.

In the Service for the Public Baptism of Infants the form at Baptism thus appears: "N. I baptize," &c.

So also in the Private Baptism of Infants, and in the Public Baptism of such as are of riper years.

In all these cases, N stands for the name of either male or female.

But we pass on to the Catechism. Here we find, "What is your name? N. or M." And as it is usual in ecclesiastical documents to place the man's name before that of the woman, we are to imagine that N stands for the man, and M for the woman.

When however we arrive at the form of solemnization of Matrimony, we find these letters reversed. "I publish the Banns of marriage between M. of and N. ofAnd again, "M. wilt thou have this woman? N. wilt thou

[ocr errors]

have this man?"

Here in opposition to the example of the Catechism, M stands for the man, and N for the woman.

There is another Service to which we must now refer, and that is the Conseeration of Bishops. The oath of obedience to the Archbishop runs as follows: "In the Name of GOD, Amen. I, N. chosen Bishop of the Church and See of N. do profess all due reverence to the Archbishop and to the Metropolitical Church of N.," &c.

Here N stands for the name of a man and for the name of a place.

These are all the cases in which the letters M or N stand in the Book of Common Prayer, but as we said at the outset, one other form is used, viz., A. B.

Thus in the ordering of Deacons the Oath of the Queen's Sovereignty runs thus, "I, A. B. do swear," &c.

Now the question is, how came these letters to be so used, and can we propose any plausible reason for such use?

The A. B. may be disposed of at once. The Oath of the Queen's Sovereignty is from a Parliamentary source, and these are the letters commonly used in Parliamentary documents. The origin of their use is obvious to all, they are the first letters in the alphabet.

Not so however with M and N, we must for them look for some other origin. Many suggestions have been made as to the meaning conveyed by them. Some say that the letter N is the ecclesiastical letter, and that it stands for nomen, name. So no doubt it does in all services derived from a Latin source, but N can scarcely stand for name in Greek, besides M is also used by the Eastern Church.

Others say M and N are the two middle letters of the alphabet, and hence their use. But this does not account for the N standing as it invariably does before M whenever the latter occurs, except only in our English Marriage service.

Then again, there are those who assert that M is merely a corrupt form of NN. This in Latin would be name or names, but M does not occur in Latin services, so this will not do.

A most amusing derivation is assigned by the children in Jamaica. These latter will commonly tell you in reply to your inquiry as to the meaning of the N or M in the Catechism. "Nigger or mulatto, sar," and no doubt they take special delight in considering "de nigger him cum fust, sar."

But the source to which we would assign the origin of the letters, is one in favour of which certain evidences can be brought, by means whereof, although we cannot positively declare that we have

arrived at the true meaning, yet this much we can assert, that it is by no means unlikely to be a correct one.

Moreover it seems the most probable of those already referred to.

This source we consider to be, for N and M in services from an Eastern source, Nicolas and Mary; for N when from a Latin source, nomen, name.

But there is nothing new in this derivation. This is one of the most prevalent ideas upon the subject.

We perfectly admit this, but whilst we do so, we are under the impression that little or no evidence has been brought to support such a view. And until that evidence is brought, the mere assertion places the supposition upon no higher ground than that possessed by any other unsupported proposed idea upon the matter before us.

We now place our evidence before our readers.

We will take the case of N first. We say that there are two sources for the origin of the use of this letter, the Latin and the Greek.

Let us take those cases of the occurrence of the letter N in our Prayer Book, in those services which have come to us from a distinct Latin source.

The letter N occurs in the Marriage Service. This service is principally derived from the Sarum Missal, in which however the only letter used was N.; the M did not occur.

And in the first and second Prayer Books of King Edward's reign, and also in that of Elizabeth's time, the only letter used for man and for woman, was N.

We must therefore, since the introduction of the M. treat of the N in conjunction with that letter, and as no longer standing for the Latin nomen.

If however we take it as from a Latin source, we must take it as it originally stood, N for both man and woman, and thus for nomen.

One Service, and one only, contains the Latin use of the N in its integrity, and that is "The Consecration of Bishops." Here as we have before seen, N stands for both name and place, nomen.

N then when it occurs in a service derived directly from a Latin form, stands for nomen.

And now let us turn to those services in which the Greek Church has exercised an influence over us.

N is used in baptism. It is so used in the direct Latin form from which ours is derived. But beyond this it is so used in the Greek Church where it cannot represent nomen.

In services where men and women both are present, whilst in the Latin Church N alone is used, N or M seems to be the customary usage of the Greeks. Thus in Marriage N for the man and M for the woman.

When our Reformers were revising and compiling a Book of Common Prayer they desired in all respects to "let the ancient customs prevail," wherever they were enabled to do so without charge or suspicion of superstition. They knew that N and M were used by a large branch of the Church Catholic, and that even in some old forms in the English Church N for the man and M for the woman were to be found. Hence when they inserted the Catechism, N or M appeared from the Greek or most ancient

source.

But in the Marriage Service they originally retained the Latin N, and this until a very late alteration was made. When this alteration took place, the correct letter was used, but was inserted in the wrong place. For contrary to all precedent the M was used for the man, whereas in all other cases with which we are acquainted it was used for the

woman.

Probably they who made this last correction (!) were unacquainted with the traditionary history of the letters, and considering that M stood before N in the alphabet, they determined that so should it be placed in the Service.

We plead then that N from Greek Services stands for male or female in baptism, for male in Marriage, and M in all cases except the mistake in our Marriage Service referred to above, for the female.

And to these letters we assign the names of Nicolas and Mary.

N in Baptism. S. Nicolas was the patron saint of children, and of young people of both sexes.

N in Marriage. But beside being the patron Saint of children and young people, S. Nicolas was the patron of men generally.

M in Marriage. S. Mary was the patron Saint of virgins, and as such, the use of her name for the object assigned was peculiarly appropriate.

And beyond all this it will be seen by any who are acquainted with general Church history, that the names of these two Saints, SS. Nicolas and Mary, are very frequently united in dedications, and this conjunction is made as we believe, for the purpose of representing them as the patrons generally of all Christendom, i.e. of all both men and women who belong to the Christian world.-Yours, &c., S. COODE HORE.

Queries.

ORPHANAGE.

Her

SIR,-I should feel much obliged if any of your correspondents could tell me of an Orphanage into which I could be likely to gain admission for a little girl about eight years of age. mother died soon after her birth, and her father is also dead. Her grandmother worked after her strength and health were failing in order to be able to maintain her, and the child's future fate seemed to be her greatest source of anxiety on her death-bed. The little girl is now kept by an aunt and her husband, who, I believe, treat her with great unkindness, make her a complete drudge, and bring her up in a way which is altogether bad for her. I have not the power of helping her, but I should be very thankful if she could be placed in a good Church Orphanage. -Yours, &c., E. M. D.

FERIAL DAYS AND GLORIA PATRI.

MARION Would be glad to know the meaning of the "Ferial Days?" also by

whom the "Gloria Patri" was written and inserted in the Book of Common Prayer?

"OH! WATCH YE WELL." SIR,-Would you or any of your readers kindly inform me who was the author of the following verse:

"Oh! watch ye well by daylight,
By daylight may ye fear,
But keep no watch in darkness,
For the angels then are near."

Yours, &c., J. W. C.

THE CHURCHMAN'S COMPANION COT. SIR,-October draws near, and our readers will look for a further account of the "Churchman's Companion Cot," to which so many have kindly contributed. Since the little baby left in May, the "Cot" has been occupied by Harriet Draper, aged eight, from S. Giles', Oxford. She was hurt by a fall over a hurdle two years and a half ago, and has been lame and seriously ill ever since. She occupied the "Free Cot" for four months, (having no friends to pay for her,) and left us in September, walking, and quite sound. She was for a long time taken on to the shore in a perambulator, and by persevering use of sea water, and strengthening medicine, and good food, at the end of four months she was quite another being, and has now left us; the "Cot" being immediately filled by one of our policemen's children, little Edwin Mann, aged four years, quite unable to walk from rickets. His little sister was in the Home for five months, the parents making a great effort to pay for her all the time, and happily her life and health are restored. One whom they could not send in has died quite lately, so we are particularly anxious about little Edwin, and hope to set him on his feet. He is a bright, intelligent child, and it has been remarked how wonderfully contented and happy he seems, though away from a devoted mother. One advantage of having him in the "Free Cot," is that he is not liable to be re

« ПретходнаНастави »