The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-12-07

development of it's use. Degrees ot privilege of service there are, but the
 privilege of sonship Is the first and highest of all.
 The other curious, "old and original, titular description of the layman needs to be dealt with in his presence care fully, lest even on un-Hellenic ears, the uttered name should suggest it's per verted English equivalent. And so make haste to say that it is a case of | the gross degeneration of words. The people who live in the country now are
 pagans only in the archaeological sense of the word. And, while the dwellers in cities are villains, still, derivatively, they do not answer to the modern m an ing of the word. And so let me speak it quickly an 'idiotes' is not to-day,
 and was not so characterized when this word was used, an idiot" in the modern sense of the word. Few things are
 queerer than the way this came about,
 and there is a lesson in it for us all. Trench says, idiot is eminently char acteristic of Greek life. The idea was originally the private man as distin-
 guished from one clothed with office and
 taking share in the management of pub lie affairs. Its derived or secondary sense rude, ignorant person, (before
 it came to mean a fooD, bears witness
 to conviction woven deep into the
 Greek mind that contact with public
 life was indispensable even to the right
 development of the intellect" I think
 it is characteristic of American life, also
 and at any rate, it ought to be. It IS
 somewhat curious that Annas and
 Caiphas called St. Peter and St. John
 ''agrammator kai idiotai" unletter-
 ed and ignorant in the secondary
 sense of the word. Perhaps this
 has in it suggestion of what
 I am to speak of later, the indenti-
 fication of bishops with people. And
 it is quite true that St. Paul uses the
 word in the secondary sense, 'unlearn-
 ed, and unbelieving" and "unlearned
 in the Word,'' which ought by contrast,
 to teach us, that lay-people should be
 full of faith and we'll up in the Script
 ures, if they want to rise out of the
 lower, and reach up to the higher mean
 ing, of their descriptive title. But l
 think there is no doubt that what St
 Paul calls the room of the unlearned," ,"
 'how shall he that occupieth the room
 of the unlearned say Amen at thy giv
 ing of thanks" means the pew; the place
 where the layman is, and so the word
 here means the layman, the idiot, in the sense of being a private individual.
 I take my first stand here, to protest against the definition and deterioratio
 not of the word, but of the men; not as
 to public affairs, (that I believe tool
 but in the church. There are no idiots in the proper sense of the word; no private persons whatever; no people not charged with an important and essen tial part in the public affairs of the City of God upon earth in which begins and in which we are to fit ourselves for our citizenship in heaven. In the Church of God there is no layman in the first thought of the word, except as one narrows it to the idea of off1ce-holding. In the great life of the most vital of all organizations coursed through with the blood of the Son of God, and quickened by the breath of Gods spirit, mo man lveth unto himself" In order to for the growth of that most alive thing on earth, the body of Christ, it must not be forgotten that 'the whole body fitly framed together Is compacted by that which every joint supplieth, and maketh increase to edifying only according to the effectual working in the measure of every part.'
 I am going to begin with the nearest and the narrowest, and yet, naturally, in sense, the closest of the laymans namely, the layman in his parish. I am thankful to believe and to be sure that we are coming slowly and surely toward a higher ideal of this re- lation. What St. Paul calls saying Amen" is something, if it is said and sung cordially, intelligent,y, intention- ally, and not whispered and without thought. Think of what it means at the end of the Conservation Prayer in the Communion Office! That Amen is the assertion of the great truth that the whole body has part in the offering of that great Sacrifice, and not the priest alone. And everywhere, the re- sponsive element of public worship stands for an important truth The Lord opens many lips, in order that one mouth, the mouth of the congregation, may show forth his praise" And that old dialogue between the parson and the clerk and all it stood for in the way of proxy worship is, thank God, gone. Remember that your presence and par ticipation are of the essence of the pub- of God. Private prayer is ore thing, but a solitary mass is an incon- impoesibility. Again, I am thankful to begin to hope that the clergy are learning that the laity are more than convenient places 1f deposit, against which they can draw for the financial support of their work. Gold is, think, as poor a standard of ! man, as it is a good standard of met als. hail the coming day, when, in- stead of begging sermons, and dunning appeals, and the continual asking of aims, the pastoral effort shall be the lifting up of the people to live the life of Christ, and to be filled with the Spir- t, and to offer themselves willingly, and recognize their consecra ton to the service of the Master, in such a sort a shall carry with it the irresistible grace of ministering. Just as St. Paul puts together in his enumeration of the acts which differ according to the grace that 6 given us, prophecy, or ministry, or -eaching, or exhortation or giving, or ruling, all in one, as things to which we are to give ourselves, to devote