s the solemn setting apart to the work ordination of the Christian ministry in a congregation, or the act of investing with the sacred office in the Christian church.

The form in which this rite is administered is substantially the same in all sections of the church; but the rite has a very different signification, and is viewed with very different feelings, in different communions. These differences are determined chiefly by the views entertained of the nature of the sacred office itself, and of the relation of those invested with it to each other. Where a gradation of rank and authority obtains within the clerical body, and where the Christian ministry is regarded as a priesthood, it is obvious that ordination must have a very different meaning from what is attached to it by those who hold the parity of the clergy, and regard their functions as purely ministerial, and in no respect sacerdotal. In the former case ordination will mean to confer orders (coifere ordines); in the latter it cannot mean more than to receive into the body (cooptare in ordinem).

We shall best consult, we believe, the wishes of our readers if, without entering polemically into this thorny question, we place before them, from authentic sources, a statement of the opinions entertained by the leading sections of the church regarding ordination.

By the Roman Catholic ordination is regarded as a sacrament, and in its highest degree it is the investing with the priestly office and the conferring of priestly powers. To this there are several preliminary steps, which ascend in the following order:—The ostiariate, the lectorate, the exorcistate, the acolythate, the subdiaconate, and the diaconate (Concil. Trident. Sess. 22, c. 2. Comp. Concil. Carthag. iv. c. 3—c. 9, in Caranza, Summa Conc., p. 167). Through each of these steps the candidate ought regularly to pass; but in practice this rule is not always strictly followed, inasmuch as, when the service of the church requires, it is assumed that the proved fitness of a candidate for the higher stage renders it unnecessary that he should formally pass through the lower stages (Schnappinger, Doctrina Dogmatum Eccl. Christ. Cathol., vol. ii., p. 194). Ordination can be administered only by a bishop, who is a successor of the Apostles, and in whom resides the faculty of communicating ecclesiastical authority and sacerdotal power. By imposition of hands upon the candidate, accompanied with the words, "Accipe potestatem offerendi sacrificium pro vivis et mortuis in nomine Patri, Filii, et Spiritus Sancti," the bishop performs the act of ordination; and the individual so ordained becomes thenceforward endowed with the Holy Spirit, and capable of offering the sacrifice of the altar, and of remitting or binding sins. The character thus impressed upon him is indelible; the priest can never again become a laic, even though he may cease to discharge the functions of his office. A recent expositor of Roman Catholic theology has thus stated the effect of ordination in relation to the three superior grades of the clergy:—"The working of ordination is the sacerdotal grace, the power of the Holy Ghost, and that in such a way as that the fulness of the priesthood shall belong to the episcopate, on which account bishops are the chief servants and organs of grace, and they who communicate the Holy Ghost in confirmation and ordination; a lesser portion falls to the priests, to whom is given the power of offering sacrifice and absolving; whilst on the deacons comes only a beginning and shadow of the priesthood, to whom are committed only the preaching, the preparation and distribution of the eucharistic offering, and the dispensing of baptism." (Klee, Kath. Dogmatik, iii. 338.)

In the Greek Church, ordination is regarded in much the same light as in the Romish church. "The priesthood," says the Confessio Orthodoxa, p. 173, "inasmuch as it is a sacrament (μαρτυρία), was appointed to the Ordination. Apostles by Christ; and ordination (κατάστασις) takes place by the imposition of their hands even unto our day, the bishops having succeeded them for the communication of the holy mysteries, and the ministry of the salvation of men."

In the Anglican Church, there are some whose views of ordination very slightly differ from those avowed by the Romanists (see Tracts for the Times, No. 4, and No. 54, &c.) But the judgment of the church, as such, is more justly expressed in the following statement. Ordination is "a privilege peculiar to the character of a bishop, who is a governor in the church of God; whereby he conveys authority to some to preach the gospel, and to administer the sacraments, who are called presbyters, and from whence is derived our word priest; and to others to be assistants to himself and the presbyters in their spiritual administrations, who are called deacons; which is performed by prayer and the imposition of hands—a solemn ceremony of blessing and devoting persons to the sacred function." (Nelson's Companion for the Festivals and Fasts of the Church of England, p. 526, 22d edit.) The Church of England formally repudiates the sacramental character of orders in her 25th article, but attaches importance to ordination, as needful for the maintenance of that "reverend estimation" in which the ministerial office ought to be held in the church. The right of ordaining is vested in the bishop, who is bound to satisfy himself that the candidate is "a man of virtuous conversation, and without crime," and that he is "learned in the Latin tongue, and sufficiently instructed in holy Scripture." No one can be ordained a deacon under twenty-three years of age, unless he have a Faculty; and every one who is to be admitted a priest must be full four-and-twenty years old. The canonical seasons for ordination are the Sundays immediately following the four ember days; that is, the second Sunday in Lent, the Sunday after Whitsunday, the Sunday after the 14th of September, and the Sunday after the 13th of December (Can. 31); but on urgent occasions, according to the discretion of the bishop, ordination may be administered on any other Sunday or holy day, provided it be done "in the face of the church." The parties to be ordained are presented to the bishop by the archdeacon or his deputy, who is bound to attest their meet ness for the office to which they aspire. After administering to each the oath of allegiance, and exacting from them an avowal of their conviction that they are moved by the Holy Ghost to take on them the sacred office, a profession of their belief in the canonical Scriptures, and a promise to read them diligently to the people, as well as to live so as to be an example to the flock, the bishop ordains them by laying his hands severally on the head of each, and pronouncing over each the formula of authorization to discharge the functions of the office to which he is set apart. In the case of deacons, this authorization is limited to the reading of the gospel in the church, and the preaching of the same if licensed thereto by the bishop himself. In ordaining priests, the bishop says, "Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a priest in the church of God now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands. Whose sins thou dost forgive they are forgiven, and whose sins thou dost retain they are retained. And be thou a faithful dispenser of the Word of God and of his holy sacraments; in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." After this, the bishop delivers to every one of them, kneeling, the Bible into his hand, saying, "Take thou authority to preach the Word of God, and to minister the holy sacraments to the congregation where thou shalt be lawfully appointed therunto."

1 Whether all of these are to be counted sacramental is a point not fully settled in the Romish Church. Bellarmine refers to the different views, and concludes,—"Absolute tamen probabilior sententia est, quae ordines omnes sacramenta esse docet quam ea qua negat." (Sæcr. Ord., c. 5.) Ordination. The Lutherans repudiate alike the sacramental character of ordination and the priesthood of the clergy. Preserving as a sacred truth the idea of the universal priesthood of the people of God in a spiritual sense, they deny the existence of any essential distinction between the clergy and the laity, and regard the sacred office as simply a ministry, not in any particular congregation, but in the church at large—a ministry the special function of which is to preach the Word of God, to administer the sacraments, and to remit or retain sins (see Apol. Confess., Aug., art. 7, art. 10, art. 14; Conf. Aug., art. 5). Ordination is with them, consequently, simple consecration or designation to the ministerial office, and may be performed by an elder or pastor (Art. Smalcald, p. 352); though, for the sake of order, it is usually administered by a superintendent or prelate in the presence of other pastors (see Gerhard, Loc. Theol., xii. 145, 159). In administering it, prayer and imposition of hands are used, the latter being regarded not in any sense as a sacramental symbol, but merely as a venerable usage, which has descended from apostolic times, and as useful for admonition (Gerhard, xii. 163). "We have followed this usage," says Reinhard (Dogmatik, p. 635), "not from superstition, as if by it some special sanctity were imparted, but simply that the party who undertakes the office of a public teacher may be admonished of the importance of his office, and may be indicated to the congregation as one in whom it may repose trust."

The doctrine of the Reformed Church respecting ordination does not essentially differ from that of the Lutheran. Persons duly appointed, whether by the choice of the people or by a patron, and found duly qualified, after examination by the pastors of the district, are publicly ordained by prayer and the laying on of hands. According to Calvin himself, "though there is no direct injunction of the imposition of hands, yet the rite having always been observed in apostolic times, deserves to be retained, and is useful as tending to commend to the people the dignity of the ministry, and to remind him who is ordained that he is not his own, but is bound to the service of God and the church." He is doubtful, however, whether a plurality of pastors be indispensable for the ordaining of a minister, and he adduces the case of Timothy, as one in which ordination was administered by the Apostle alone (1 Tim. i. 5); the statement in 2 Tim. iv. 14 being understood by him "non quasi Paulus de seniorum collegio loquatur, sed . . . quasi dicaret, Fac ut gratis, quam per manum impositionem recipisti, quum te presbyterum crearem, non sit irrita." (Inst., lib. iv. c. 3, § 16.)

According to the Presbyterians, ordination is "the solemn setting apart to some public church office," and is to be performed, with authority of the Presbytery, by prayer and imposition of hands. The doctrine of the Church of Scotland, as expounded by Dr Hill, is, that "every one who is ordained by the laying on of the hands of the office-bearers of the church becomes a minister of the church universal. He is invested with that character, . . . and by this investiture he receives authority to perform all the acts belonging to the character." The business of the church, he adds, "is to convey the powers [of the ministerial office] to those whom she finds qualified. By ordination they become ministers of the church universal;" and he carefully distinguishes between this and the election or appointment by which a man becomes the minister of a particular congregation; "this assignation of place being merely a matter of order, which is not essential to his character." (Lectures in Divinity, vol. ii., p. 489, 440, third edit.) In the United Presbyterian Church, this local assignment enters as an important element into the effect of ordination: the party is ordained "to the office of the holy ministry, and to the pastoral inspection of the congregation by whom he has been chosen and regularly called." (Rules and Forms of Procedure, &c., p. 47.) In administering ordination, a minister, who is either the existing moderator of the Presbytery, or one appointed to act as such for the occasion, presides; a sermon is preached, in some cases by the moderator, in others by some minister appointed by the Presbytery; certain questions are then put to the candidate, bearing on his religious belief, ecclesiastical relations, and official engagements; and on receiving satisfactory answers to these, the presiding minister engages in prayer, and by imposition of hands, in which all the members of the presbytery present join, ordains the candidate; after which the latter receives the right hand of fellowship from his brother ministers, and suitable addresses are delivered to minister and people on their respective duties.

By the Independents, or Congregationalists, strenuous objection is taken to the doctrine that ordination is the investing of a man with the character of a minister of the church universal. Such an "individuum vagum, or pastor at large," they hold to be "irregular and cross to the order of the gospel," being a pastor without a flock, an officer without an office, a ruler without subjects. (Hooker and Cotton's Survey of Church Discipline, part ii., chap. ii., p. 60; 4to. 1648.) They regard "ordination not as a designation to the work of the ministry (of which they find no examples in the New Testament), but as a solemn appointment to office in a Christian church" (Fuller, Works, v. 280); and, consequently, when a minister changes his place of service it would be according to their principles that he should be re-ordained in his new sphere. In practice, however, this latter course is not always followed; nor are all agreed as to the necessity of ordination even in the first instance. The views chiefly prevalent among English and Scottish Independents are expressed in the following article of the Declaration of Faith, Church Order, and Discipline of the Congregational or Independent Dissenters, issued in 1833:—They believe that church-officers, whether bishops or deacons, should be chosen by the free voice of the church; but that their dedication to the duties of their office should take place with special prayer and by solemn designation, to which most of the churches add the imposition of hands by those already in office." The order usually adhered to in this service is as follows:—First, a sermon is preached, which is generally devoted to an exposition and defence of Congregational church polity; then certain questions are proposed to the candidate regarding his personal religious history, his views of divine truth, his motives for desiring the work of the ministry, and his intentions as to the actual discharge of the functions of the ministry in the sphere to which he has been called; the ordination prayer is then offered, usually by the minister who puts the questions, and, when imposition of hands is used, by all the ministers present uniting with him in this act; after which the ministers give to the newly ordained pastor the right hand of fellowship. Some minister of experience then gives the charge to the pastor, and another addresses the people on their respective duties; and the service concludes, as it began, with prayer and praise. By some it is held that the right of ordination rests with the officers of the individual church in which the party to be ordained is to officiate, and, in the absence of such, with the private members (Davidson, Ecclesiastical Polity of the New Testament, p. 241, ff.); but these extreme views are not generally entertained by Congregationalists. (W. L. A.)