on by a star to the Magi; (2) The Manifestation of
the glorious Trinity at His Baptism, and (3) The Manifestation of
the glory and Divinity of Christ by His miraculous turning water
into wine at the marriage in Cana of Galilee; all of which are said
to have happened on the same day, though not in the same year. "The
Epiphany is a Festival which has always been observed with great
ceremony throughout the whole Church; its threefold meaning and
its close association with the Nativity as the end of the Christmas
Tide, making it a kind of accumulative Festival."

Epiphany, Sundays after.--The Epiphany is continued in the Sundays
following, the number of which is variable being dependent on the
time Easter is kept. There may be one "Sunday after Epiphany" or
there may be six. The Scriptural teachings of these Sundays are
all illustrative of the fact that the Eternal Word was manifested
in the Flesh.

Episcopacy.--The name given to that form of Church government in
which Bishops are the Chief Pastors with Priests and Deacons under
them. The word is derived from the Greek _Episcopos_, meaning
overseer; _Bishop_ being the Anglicized form of the Greek word.
Much controversy has been held in regard to Church government, as
if the form was a matter of uncertainty, or not clearly revealed.
The question can only be decided by first regarding Christianity
as an institution, as the Kingdom of God, and then inquiring whether
this Institution, founded by our Lord, has been characterized always
by the same {99} thing. In regard to Church government we find that
the Church as an institution was always governed by Bishops, and that
for 1500 years after Christ no Christian people recognized any other
Ministry but that of Bishops, Priests and Deacons. Since the
Reformation the controversy has come up and various theories,
especially Presbyterian and Congregationalist, have been advanced.
But even now the question of Church government may be considered
as a matter of fact rather than of theory. If we take the whole
Christian world of to-day, we find that the number of Christians
is in round numbers _five hundred millions_. Of this number only
_one hundred million_ are non-Episcopal, so that we may conclude
from the universal acceptance of Episcopacy before the Reformation
and from the large preponderance of adherents to this form of Church
government at this present time,--from these facts we may safely
conclude that Episcopacy is in accor