ve as elsewhere. And do not forget that _hope_, be it ever so
"trembling," is _never_ forbidden at a grave-side. I am no advocate of
what is called "the larger hope"; I dare not be. But I am deeply
convinced that mercies of the Lord, in cases quite beyond our possible
knowledge, are experienced in the very act of departure.

"Betwixt the stirrup and the ground
Mercy I sought, mercy I found."

That instance has many parallels; and God only knows their limits. Never
should we say, whatever we may awfully fear, that such and such a soul
is _to our knowledge_ lost.

As regards the practical management of extreme cases, the young
Clergyman will of course act altogether under his Incumbent. And the
young Incumbent will remember that he can have recourse to his Bishop
for counsel.

THE HOLY COMMUNION.

iv. Let me say one special word on our administration of the precious
ritual of the Table of the Lord. I am not attempting here any
discussion of its doctrinal aspects in detail. For myself, as I have
said elsewhere, I make no secret of long-settled "Evangelical"
convictions. I regard the Holy Eucharist as above all things else the
Lord's way of sealing to His true Israel the unutterable benefits of the
New and Everlasting Covenant, rather than an occasion on which He
infuses into them His glorified Manhood. His sacred Body and Blood are,
for me, the Body and the Blood _as they were_, once for all, at Calvary,
and as they are not therefore literally now; and my participation in
them is accordingly my participation in the virtues of the Atoning
Sacrifice, there once and for ever wrought and offered. But this is by
the way. I speak now of our spirit and manner in the administration, in
respect of some principles which are little if at all affected, it seems
to me, by even grave differences of doctrinal theory. Alas, at the
present day it is too often the case that the communicant is fairly
bewildered by the varieties of Communion ritual, or by the complications
of it. Ought this to be so, on _any_ theory of the Eucharist? Did I for
one believe our adorable and beloved LORD to be locally present (I use
the words not technically but practically) on the Holy Table as nowhere
else here on earth, I think that all my instinct would go towards a
reverence whose depth was manifested not by an elaborate ceremonial but
by the most solemn possible simplicity of act. A ritual whose details
must be matter of careful practice, and whi