forces with which our services are concerned. The Great Ones always avoid dominating the thought of man, but are ready to give counsel if consulted, and gently to influence in the right direction those who are willing to lay themselves open to such guidance.

If we are to profit by the result of clairvoyant examination into the value and efficacy of the vestments, we must first understand that they ought to satisfy two distinct sets of requirements. They have two parts to play; they must commend themselves on the whole to the aesthetic sense of the people (or at least they must not outrage it in any way) and they must offer no hindrance to the forces which are to flow through them. The best type of the vestments used by the Church at the present day fulfil very fairly the first of these conditions; they are dignified and stately, beautiful in colour and ornament, and they have behind them the deep interest of long historical continuity. When we consider them from the second point of view, however, we find that some of the various types are more useful than others; and it is that side of the question that I shall now try to explain.

Men of a certain frame of mind are amusingly impatient of ritual and vestments, and are constantly clamouring heatedly against them, and demanding whether we cannot do without them. Certainly we can. The great sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist can be offered, the power can be called down, the blessing can be poured out, without any of these things; but it can be done much more easily and smoothly with them. You can do for a short time without oiling your engine; but you will

soon find that it is producing less result than it should, and working with much friction. The ritual, the vestments, the bells, the candles, the incense all these are devices for saving energy, so that less may be lost in the machinery and more may be left for the great purpose of the sacrifice. God's power, men say, is infinite; He can do what He will without our help. It does not seem to occur to them that He may, not inconceivably, have an infinite number of purposes to which He wishes to devote that power, and that it is not seemly for us to cause Him to waste it because of our peevish personal prejudices. No doubt the human will can do all things when properly developed; but it can do them much more easily, and with much less trouble to the Source of all power, if a little intelligence is used in providing suitable machinery. An etheric materialization, for example, might serve instead of some of the vestments; but the energy used in making that materialization every time would be out of all proportion greater than that involved in making the vestment-to say nothing of the opportunity that the latter offers for a member of the congregation to share in the good work. Many a priest has not the least idea how to materialize; and the Christ meant His plan to work even in the hands of the ignorant. That is why the services are hedged round with many little precautions, and it is not wise to depart from a prescribed ritual unless one sees clearly all that depends upon it. Assuredly our Lord will work with whatever we have, but we on our side should do our honest best to provide channels as suitable as we can.

Let us review the various ecclesiastical vestments one by one; some we need but mention in passing, while others may require comment or explanation.

THE CASSOCK

The cassock (Plate 20) is simply the long outer coat or gown with a single upright collar which was part of the ordinary dress of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Later it was abandoned by laymen in favour of the shorter coat which was found in various ways more convenient, but the Church retained the cassock because of its greater dignity and gracefulness as a basis for the other vestments; and so it became the distinctive outer garment of the clergy on ordinary occasions. In modern days the cassock is often fastened by a long row of buttons from neck to feet, which somebody once compared to a boiler with a row of rivets; previously it was (and sometimes is now) a double-breasted garment, with one side folded over the other like a kimono, and it was confined at the waist by a broad sash of the same colour and material called the cincture. Even when there are buttons, the cincture should still be worn. In the Church of England priests and deacons wear black cassocks, and even some of the bishops do the same, though others of them are beginning to adopt a dark purple. In the Roman Church priests and the lower clergy wear black, the bishops a lovely rose-purple, cardinals red, and the Pope white. Acolytes and choristers in in both Churches wear various colours-red, blue, purple and black. Russet-brown cassocks seem to have been used not infrequently in the middle ages, but are hardly ever seen now, though I think they are still

permitted by the English canons. I remember that the Rev. Stephen Hawker of Morwenstow always

wore one.

In the Liberal Catholic Church we have the strongest objection to that negation of colour called black, and never use it under any circumstances. We therefore vest our acolytes, thurifers, cross, candle, boat, and crozier-bearers in scarlet, our choristers (whether men or boys) in light blue, and our priests, deacons and subdeacons in deep purple. Our bishops wear the traditional rose-purple. The cassock should always be long enough to hide the bottoms of the trousers.

In the medieval times this garment was not worn over ordinary dress, as it is now, but was itself the ordinary dress, worn only over underclothing. So in winter it was often lined with fur or sheepskin for the sake of warmth, and thus it acquired in later Latin the name of pellicea.

Quite apart from its dignity and seemliness, it is a decided advantage to the priest to have in the cassock a distinctive clerical garb, charged with the magnetism of innumerable services, permeated with thoughts of the higher life and of sacerdotal work, and so helpful in excluding the worries and trivialities of every-day existence.

THE SURPLICE

This (Plate 21) is the usual vestment of priests, deacons and choirmen for all services except for the celebrant, deacon and subdeacon at the Holy Eucharist or Benediction. The word is derived by natural phonetic modifications from its Latin name