ng home to visit their parents on this day is probably a
survival of the older practice.

REGENERATION. A Latin word meaning _new birth_, or being born again.
The catechism teaches us that the grace of Baptism is "a death unto
sin, and a _new birth_ unto righteousness..." So, in perfect
consistency with the catechism, the minister, immediately after
the administration of Holy Baptism to a child, addresses the
congregation thus: "Seeing now, dearly beloved brethren, that this
child is _regenerate_;" and he returns thanks to God that it
hath pleased Him "to regenerate this infant with Thy Holy Spirit."
The same connexion between regeneration and baptism is expressed in
the Office for Private Baptism and in the Office for the Baptism of
Adults. There has been much confusion and misunderstanding caused
by using the word _regeneration_ as though it meant _conversion_.
Both the Bible--Tit. iii. 5; John iii. 3-5--and the Fathers use
_regeneration_ as the _new birth_ of baptism, but never as meaning
anything else, unless figuratively as Matt. xix. 28. (See
_Conversion, Baptism_.)

REGISTER. A parochial record of Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials.
The keeping of a church book for registering the age of those that
should be born and christened in the parish began in the thirtieth
year of Henry VIII. Canon 70 gives directions for the safe keeping
of parish registers wherein baptisms, weddings, and burials were
entered. Duplicate registers of weddings are now kept by order of
recent legislation, and also copies are made quarterly and given
to the registrar of the district. There is a small fee payable by
those who wish to search the parish registers; and for a copy of
an entry 2s. 6d. is the legal charge.

RENOVATION. This action of the Holy Spirit upon the heart of man
differs from Regeneration (which see) in that it is progressive,
and may often be repeated or totally lost. Whereas Regeneration
comes only once, in or through Baptism, and can never be repeated
nor ever totally lost.

REPENTANCE or CONTRITION, A sincere sorrow for all past sins, an
unfeigned disposition of mind to perform the will of God better
for the future, and an actual avoiding and resisting of those
temptations to sin under which we have before fallen.

REREDOS. A screen behind an altar, necessary in cathedrals, and
some large churches, because the altar is not against the East
wall. The name is commonly given to all carved or decorated work
immediatel