The Church: Her Books and Her Sacraments

by E. E. Holmes

[[9]] "The Folkestone Baptist," June, 1899.

[[10]] "Letters and Memoirs of William Bright," p. 143.

[[11]] "Life and Letters of H. P. Liddon," p. 329.

CHAPTER IV.

THE CHURCH'S SACRAMENTS.

We have seen that a National Church is the means whereby the Catholic Church reaches the nation; that her function is (1) to teach, and (2) to feed the nation; that she teaches through her books, and feeds through her Sacraments.

We now come to the second of these two functions—the spiritual feeding of the nation. This she does through the Sacraments—a word which comes from the Latin sacrare (from sacer), sacred.[[1]] The Sacraments are the sacred media through which the soul of man is fed with the grace of God.