lose crown or cap;
with tunic of camel's hair; cope fastened with two leather thongs
crossed; with lamb and locust; his head on a dish.

John Evangelist, Saint.--Commemorated on the second day after
Christmas, December 27th. St. John was the son of Zebedee and Salome
and brother of St. James the Great. The sons of Zebedee were,
doubtless, among the first called of our Lord's disciples and St.
John was from the first among those nearest and dearest to our Lord.
Not only was he one of the Twelve Apostles but he was one of the
three chosen witnesses of our Lord's greatest glory and humiliation
on earth, viz.: in His Transfiguration, and the Agony in Gethsemane.
He delights to call himself "the disciple whom Jesus loved." He lay
on Jesus' bosom at the Paschal Supper and to him the Lord committed
the care of His own mother when He died. St. John "is known to the
affection of the Church as the Apostle of love, and to her intellect
as the _Theologos_, the Divine." Besides his Gospel he wrote the
three Epistles bearing his name and the Revelation. St. {155} John is
said to have spent the later years of his life at Ephesus, and is the
only one of the Apostles who died a natural death. He died at the
age of 100, having been born the same year as our Lord. In the
Emblems of the four Evangelists (See EMBLEMS) the eagle is always
allowed to represent St. John, and most fitly, "for like the eagle
he soars high above the earth basking in the pure sunlight of
Divine Truth."

Joining the Church.--This is a phrase that has been brought over
from the usage and phraseology of the various denominations. Its use
among Church people has been productive of the greatest harm. In the
first place, it is hardly a correct phrase for a Churchman to use.
We may "join" an Odd Fellows' lodge or a debating society, but we do
not _join_ a family or household which God's Church is. We are born
or adopted into a family, and so we are adopted into God's family;
incorporated, grafted into the Body of Christ, His Church, and not
simply "join" it as we would a debating society or a political club.

In the next place, harm has been done by the use of this phrase by
Church people, because as popularly understood it is in direct
contradiction to the belief and practice of the Church. According to
this phraseology Holy Baptism counts for nothing, and yet the Bible
teaches that it is in Holy Baptism that we are made members of
the Church, and that all future bl