of being members of the Catholic Church; and

(2) To suggest some simple lines of instruction which they might pass
on to others. Unless the instructed Laity will help the Clergy to
teach their uninstructed brethren, a vast number of {viii} Church
people must remain in ignorance of their privileges and
responsibilities. And if at times the instructed get impatient and
say, "Everybody knows that," they will probably be mistaken. Many a
Churchman is ignorant of the first principles of his religion, of why
he is a Churchman, and even of what he means by "the Church," just
because of the false assumption--"Everybody knows". Everybody does not
know.

It seems absurd to treat such subjects as _The Church, Her Books, Her
Sacraments_, in half-hour Lectures; but, in spite of obvious drawbacks,
there may be two advantages. It may be useful to take a bird's-eye
view of a whole subject rather than to look minutely into each
part--and it may help to keep the Lecturer to the point!

E. E. H.

{ix}

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
I. The Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
II. The Church's Books (1) The Bible . . . . . . . . 21
III. " " (2) The Prayer Book . . . . . 40
IV. The Church's Sacraments . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
V. Baptism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
VI. The Blessed Sacrament . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
VII. The Lesser Sacraments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
VIII. Confirmation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
IX. Holy Matrimony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
X. Holy Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
XI. Penance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
XII. Unction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Dear Saviour! make our hearts to burn,
And make our lives to shine,
Oh! make us ever true to Thee,
And true to all that's Thine--
Thy Church, Thy Saints, Thy Sacraments,
Thy Scriptures; may we own
No other Lord, no other rule,
But Thee, and Thine alone.

A. G.

{1}

THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

THE CHURCH ON EARTH.

_Christus Dilexit Ecclesiam_: "Christ loved the Church"[1]--and if we
love what Christ loved, we do well.

But three questions meet us:-