The laying on of hands is no magical sign, effecting a change independently of all spiritual considerations. But the s.ame thing is true of the water in baptism and the bread and wine in the Eucharist. The utility of an outward and visible sign is undoubtedly very great, but it is only a minor part of an ordinance, and does not enable those who receive it to neglect the spiritual disposition which is necessary. The outward sign is the help to faith. The vitally important factor in the ordinance is the Holy Spirit who works in it. See Swete, The Holy Spirit in the i\T, p. 384.
i. The ordination prayer. — All the passages in Acts mentioned above (1-^ 6' 13^ 14^) tell us of prayer being used, but, except in the case of the choosing of Matthias (where the words are no guide to us for the general case), we have no indication as to the nature of the prayer. The prayer preceded the laying on of hands (6'"). The earliest ordination prayer that we can even pro- visionally arrive at dates from perhaps the begin- ning of the 3rd century. By a careful comparison of the ordination prayers in the parallel Church Orders of the 4th cent., which are derived from a common original that is perhaps of the time of Hippolytus, we can conjecturally determine the ordination prayer of the lost original. But even this gives us only one out of what was doubtless a very large number of such pr.ayers in use through- out the Church ; and, further, those used at ordin- ations, like those used at the Eucharist, were probably at the first in a very fluid condition, if not extemporaneous. The gi'eat characteristic of all ordinations for many centuries after the Ascen- sion was their extreme simplicity, no matter to what office a person was ordained ; a prayer and laying on of hands were practically all, except that the kiss of peace, and, in the case of a bishop, enthronizatiou, were added. But it is very note- worthy that while our Lord in Jn 20--'- said, ' Re- ceive ye the Holy Ghost,' and ' Whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them,' etc., the Christian ordinations invariably took the form of a prayer. The introduction in the West, in the Middle Ages, of the deeharatory form, in addition to (not instead of) the ordination prayer, was very probably due to a desire to follow our Lord's example exactly. But the earlier Christians would seem to have reg.arded such a procedure as irrever- ent. Their Master had used a declaratory form, had by His Divine power declared that their com- mission was given to them. They themselves believed that their own proper course was to pray that God would give the commission to the ordinands by their instrumentality. The same
feeling conies out in the fact that in the early ages the eucharistic consecration by the Church was always conceived as etlected by a prayer, and not by a declaratory form of wonls. See EUE, artt. ' Invocation (Liturgical) ' and ' Ordination.'
5. Fasting. — In Ac IS-'- we read that fasting preceded the solemn mission of Barnabas and Saul. In 14'^ ' fastings,' as well as prayer, accom])any the appointment of presbyters 'in every church' by Paul and Barnabas. The i)lural 'fastings' seems to mean that these apostles at each town held a solemn service of ordination with fasting ; they did not ordain a large number for the whole district at one convenient centre.
Fasting was frequently in early ages associated with solemn prayer (Ps 35", Dn 9', Mk 9-' [some M.SS], Lk 2") ; and so with baptism and the Eucharist. The pre-baptismal fast is mentioned in the Didache (7 i. ), by Justin Martyr {ApoL i. 61), Tertullian [c/e Bnpt. 20), Cyril of Jerusalem (Cat. iii. 7, xviii. 17), in the Church Orders (see ERE v. 768"), and elsewhere. The fast before Communion is mentioned in Tertullian (ad Uxor. ii. 5) and in the Church Orders (ERE v. 768"). In the Testa- ment of our Lord (i. 22) and the Arabic Didascalia (23, 38) there is a fast for bishops after their ordination. But we do not find in early post- apostolic literature much emphasis laid on fasting in connexion with ordination.
6. God working through His ministers in or- daining.— It was not only when there was a special Divine intervention, as in the case of Matthias, Paul, and (probably) Timothy, that the first disciples believed that God was the real ordainer. He always worked through His human instruments. Even in the case of Matthias the special intervention extended only to God's selec- tion (so they regarded the lot) of one out of two men ; the choice of the two was made by the people. Yet no one would doubt that Matthias was really appointed an apostle by God. And this, as seems most probable, is the meaning of Ac 20-'. St. Paul tells the presbyters of Ephesus that the Holy Ghost has made them 'bishops.' Yet he doubtless had ordained them himself, though probably (as in 6^) the people had elected them. It is perhaps due to this significant passage about the Ephesian presbyters that, as Swete remarks (I'lie Holy Spirit in tlie, Ancient Church, London, 1912, p. 290 f.), all the forms of ordination in the Church Orders recognize the Holy Spirit as the source of ministerial power, though the in- vocation of the Third Person in the Eucharist was not quite so universal.