ARTICLE IV BAPTISM The Sacraments are by the Holy Ghost effectual signs of Grace. Baptism is a sign of Regeneration or New Birth. By it as by an instrument they that receive it rightly are grafted into the Church, receive remission of sins, are adopted as the Sons of God, and are made members of Christ, Children of God, and Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven. The conditions of rightful reception by adults are faith and repentance. Infants, according to our Lord's command, to suffer them to be brought to Him, are regarded as proper subjects of Baptism. ARTICLE V THE HOLY EUCHARIST The Holy Eucharist is the chief Gospel Rite whereby the Church worships God, and maintains her communion with Him. As a transaction within the spiritual body of Christ, it is governed by its own spiritual law. It is at once a Sacrifice and a Holy Communion or Feast upon it. It is the unbloody Sacrifice of the Gospel, and sets forth and pleads Christ's death until He comes. It is a Sacrament by which, in virtue of the Priest's consecration of the elements, the thing signified is the Body and Blood of Christ, which are thereby really present under the forms of bread and wine. Those who receive devoutly and with faith are alone partakers of Christ. The wicked and unfaithful receive to their harm. ARTICLE VI JUSTIFICATION No man can be accounted just before God apart from Christ. The remote cause of our justification is the free Grace of God through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; the proximate and instrumental cause is the washing of Regeneration in Baptism, whereby we receive remission of sins and have put on Christ; the subjective and receptive cause is faith. This faith is the joint action of man's whole intellectual and moral nature, believing, trusting, loving, self-surrendering of itself to God. It can only be ideally and not practically separated from good works. It is faith working by love. ARTICLE VII LITURGIES The Old Catholics deem it unwise for the present to alter or interfere with the national uses and rites of those Christians who came into communion with them, and desire to be under their hierarchical jurisdiction. ARTICLE VIII CHANGES OF LITURGIES The Ecclesiastical Authority reserves to itself the right to modify these uses and rites in any point which they may consider contrary to sound doctrine, and to supervise and give their imprimatur to any translations which may seem necessary that the people who so desire may worship in the vernacular. Such uses, rites, Liturgies, and translation of Liturgies become lawful only when licensed by the Ecclesiastical Authority. ARTICLE IX MISSION The object of the Old Catholic Hierarchy in this country is to supply the needs of those persons who do not understand the English language and who cannot intelligently and devoutly take part in services conducted in that language. The Old Catholics desire to work in harmony with those Christians holding the same faith and having the same Apostolic orders as themselves. ARTICLE X SYNOD The Bishops of the Old Catholic Church in America owe their obedience to the Old Catholic Synod of Europe, from which they have received episcopal orders. ARTICLE XI The Old Catholic Church desires union with the American Church, and to this end they have accepted the Quadrilateral decrees put forth by the American Church as being necessary for intercommunion with that body. The Old Catholic Bishops do not desire to exercise an independent jurisdiction, but they desire to exercise the same jurisdiction over their people as is exercised by the Anglican Bishops as members of the American Episcopate. They desire to exercise the same rights and discipline without interference or reversal of their disciplinary decisions as is exercised by the members of the American Episcopate, and they bind themselves not to interfere with or reverse the disciplinary decisions of the American Episcopate. ARTICLE XII CANDIDATES FOR EPISCOPATE Candidates for the Episcopate elected in America must have their election confirmed by the Old Catholic Synod in Europe, and no one is to be consecrated Bishop without at least three Consecrators in Episcopal Orders of undoubted Apostolic Succession. ARTICLE XIII TRIAL OF A BISHOP A Bishop in the Old Catholic Church in America is now liable for any offence concerning his doctrine or morals before a court composed of his ecclesiastical peers convened by the Old Catholic Synod of Europe, or acting for and representing them. ARTICLE XIV CANON LAW The Old Catholic Church in America accepts as binding upon them the Canons of the Old Catholic Synod of Europe, alterations being made to meet local circumstances. PROVISO IN CASE OF UNITY WITH AMERICAN CHURCH The Old Catholic Church in America reserves to itself the right, however, in case it is accepted by the American Church, to render to the House of Bishops that obedience and allegiance which is now vested in the Old Catholic Synod of Europe, provided, however, that the American Church extends to the Old Catholic Church in this country and to its Bishops the same representation which they now enjoy in the Old Catholic Synod of Europe. [Articles XV. to XX. cover "Trial of a Priest" and other matters of detail, and for lack of space are omitted.] ARTICLE XXI AMERICAN SYNOD The Old Catholic Churches in this country are to be governed by a Synod in which the Senior Bishop is to be President ex officio. The Bishop or Bishops present shall vote as a separate order. The clergy in good standing are entitled to a seat and vote. The laity are to be represented by one representative for every five hundred adults. The Bishops and clergy alone have a right to vote in matters of doctrine and worship. The laity have a right to vote with the Bishops and clergy in all affairs that concern the temporal welfare of the Church. All votes to be counted by orders and a majority of each order is required to affirm a measure. ARTICLE XXII ACCEPTANCE OF CONSTITUTION All congregations coming under the jurisdiction of the Old Catholic hierarchy in America must accept and sign through their representative. TH CHAPTER XV FINAL WORDS "Little children, love one another" HE following is partly taken from the Bishop's Address to the Diocesan Council of 1909. It gives a summary of some points in his teaching. That teaching is more fully brought out in his work entitled "A Catholic Atlas." Dear Brethren: We have been going in and out among you, dear brethren, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom for the last twenty years. The dis- . coveries of science in biblical learning have presented new problems respecting God and Revelation. The old Protestant theologies have ceased to satisfy their logical supporters. The systems based on the theory of the "Bible, and the Bible only" are disintegrated. The dead hand and mind of Calvin no longer rule the religious system he founded. Politically strong, yet theologically by its additions injured, Rome has suffered loss of influence. The religious future is thus seen not to lie with the Latin race and Latin thought, but with the broader spirit of the Teutonic races. It is a liberal Catholicity, not Protestantism nor Papalism, that offers the best solvent and satisfaction to modern thought. As a loving legacy to you, let me sum up some of |