Chapter I. The Sacramental Principle
Chapter II. The Christian Sacraments
Chapter III. The Number of the Sacraments
Chapter IV. The Sacraments of Initiation
Chapter V. The Holy Eucharist
Chapter VI. Holy Orders
Chapter VII. Holy Matrimony
Chapter VIII. Holy Unction

PREFACE

An apology is necessary for adding still another book to the already large number dealing with the Christian Sacraments and the Christian sacramental principle. The apology is best made by recounting briefly how this little book came into being.

The contents of this book comprise four lectures given at St. Thomas' Church, New York City, during the month of January last under the auspices of the New York Altar Guild. The lectures were not prepared with a view to publication, and it is only because of the insistence and kindness of some of those who heard them that they now appear in book form.

In reading the lectures over I am aware of the painful inadequacy of much of the treatment. But I have thought it better to let them go out practically in the form in which they were delivered, rather than attempt to expand them at the numerous points when expansion, or at least explanation, is badly required. My obligations to many other writers will become evident as the book is read. It is my hope that this very imperfect treatment of a great subject, may lead those who read these lectures to undertake the study of larger and more adequate books, some of which are referred to in the course of the lectures, and from which I have borrowed freely. I must express especial gratitude to the Rev. Frank Gavin, Professor of the General Theological Seminary, New York, for having generously placed at my disposal, the results of his investigations as to the Jewish antecedents of the Christian Sacraments.

GRANVILLE MERCER WILLIAMS, S.SJ.E.
St. Andrew's House, Brooklyn, N. Y. March 13, 1928.

Project Canterbury