ere are reasons, no
doubt, why it must not be too readily administered; in some parishes
parents, for one reason or another, too often try to secure "a
christening" in private, on insufficient grounds, with no intention of a
public dedication afterwards. But when the case is clear, and you are at
the little suffering one's side, perhaps with a distressed mother close
beside it and you, see to it that you so minister the rite, so read the
few precious words, as both to sympathize and to teach. Let me add that
Private Baptism often brings the Clergyman into a house where religion
is utterly neglected; and the opportunity may be a priceless one, if the
power of love and spiritual reality is with you in the work.

And when you officiate at a Wedding, different as the conditions are
from those just remembered, still do not forget that for at least some
there present the hour is a deeply moving one. And is not the Marriage
Service a noble one to read, to interpret, with its peculiar mingling of
immemorial and archaic simplicity with a searching depth of scriptural
exhortation, and a bright wealth of divine benedictions? Throw the
power of a true man's solemnized sympathy into your reading of that
service.

PROBLEMS CONNECTED WITH THE USE OF THE BURIAL SERVICE.

Of the ritual of the Grave I hardly need to speak. I know only too well
that there are funerals and funerals. There are occasions of unrelieved
sadness. There are occasions when the Minister's heart is chilled by a
manifest and utter indifference. But the saddest, dreariest of burials
is an opportunity for the Lord. Whether or no you see your way to give
an address, let it be seen that you are dealing with God in the prayers,
and read the Lessons "as one that pleadeth with men."

A brief word in passing on the problem raised by some of the phrases of
our Burial Service. Let me call attention to the studied generality of
the words, _In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal
life_. Before 1662 this ran "in sure ... hope _of resurrection_, etc.,"
which, as you will observe, expressly applied the "hope" to _that_ case
of burial; the change was evidently made on purpose to relieve
conscience in the matter. Then remember that the whole service is
constructed, like all our services, for the member of the Christian
community taken on his profession; and that assumption, unless flagrant
facts withstand it, is to be made, in public ordinance, as much at the
gra