One great disadvantage of extremely smart dress being worn upon a Sunday, is that persons so dressed will generally be afraid of injuring their clothes by kneeling. George Herbert says that "kneeling ne'er spoil'd silk stockings," but I am quite sure that many persons are in great fear lest kneeling should spoil silk dresses. Now kneeling is, as I have already endeavoured to make as clear as possible, a necessary part of worship; and therefore if a smart dress prevent kneeling, it may be very good for some purposes, but clearly is not suitable for a Church.

Of course in all things of this kind there is a fitness and propriety, which may be discovered by those who will endeavour to do so in the fear of God. That which may be quite appropriate for one person, may be quite inappropriate for another. The unchristian thing is to ape a degree of splendour which we cannot support, as when a maidservant dresses herself to look like a duchess. Independently of all consideration of Church-going, this over-dressing is wrong it involves an extravagance which ought not to be indulged: frequently it is supported at the expense of piety,-as for instance when a young woman spends in finery what might be given for the comfort of an aged parent. It involves too the thoroughly wrong

principle of dressing for dressing's sake, making dress an end not a means, putting the "lust of the eye" and the "pride of life” in the place of that decent covering of our nakedness, which was rendered necessary by the entrance of sin into the world

Why should our garments, made to hide
Our parent's sin, provoke our pride?

These are points upon which much more might be said, if it were to my purpose to say it but I am chiefly engaged with dress, as it stands in relation to public worship, and in such relation more than in any other it is necessary to study the fitness and propriety of which I have been speaking, because the Church is nothing else than the presence-chamber of the Great King.

If any one should think that it is below the dignity of a Guide to the Parish Church to give advice and direction concerning dress, he may remember that S. Paul would have been of a different opinion. Let him look at that chapter in the first Epistle to the Corinthians', in which the Apostle directs that women should have their heads covered in Church, and silences those who might contend for the contrary practice by saying, "we have no such custom, 1 I Cor. xi.

neither the Churches of God." And on the general question of the kind of dress suitable to Christian women, he may consult the third chapter of S. Peter's first general Epistle (from which two or three words have been quoted already), where amongst other things the Apostle writes, "Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting of the hair, and of wearing of gold, and of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." Lastly it may not be amiss to bear in mind the "white robes" in which the saints of God are represented as worshipping in Heaven, according to the vision granted to S. John.

CHAPTER XI.

THE OCCASIONAL INTRODUCTION OF THE

BAPTISMAL SERVICE.

"A good profession before many witnesses."
1 Tim. vi. 12.

IN the form given in the Book of Common Prayer for the public administration of the Sacrament of Baptism, it is ordered that the administration shall take place after the reading of the second lesson, either in the morning or in the evening service, "as the Curate by his discretion shall direct." This place is marked out, not as on the whole the best place, but as the only place, for the introduction of the Baptismal service: no discretion is left to the clergyman1, and though in some Churches a different

1 I do not say that no discretion ought to be left to him, and it has in fact been suggested by the Ritual Commissioners that the rubric should be amended so as to run thus: "The godfathers and godmothers and the people with the children, must be ready at the Font, either immediately after the

practice is adopted, such practice has no sanction in the Book of Common Prayer. I do not mention this for the purpose of throwing blame upon any one, but because unfortunately the regulations of the Prayer Book have in some parishes been so long neglected, that a clergyman who baptizes infants after the second lesson is regarded as making an innovation1, whereas in fact he has no option left to him, but is plainly ordered to baptize then, and in general at no other time.

But is there any good reason for the rule. Certainly, very good reason indeed. The Baptism of infants is to take place in public, when the congregation of Christian people are met together, on two grounds: first, that the child may have the benefit of the prayers of the

last lesson at Morning or Evening Prayer, or at the conclusion of the Litany if the Litany is used as a separate service, or at such other time as the Curate by his discretion shall appoint.” I am quite of opinion that this enlargement of the discretion of the Curate would be a great gain, and that in many instances he is compelled to do what the revised rubric would permit; but it remains equally true that it is most suitable that Baptism should take place as part of the Morning or Evening Service, where no strong reason exists to the contrary.

1 In some parishes, within my own experience, the dissatisfaction manifested by the parishioners has been so great, that the clergyman has found it impossible to revert to the rubrical order.