be proved from many sources that from the most ancient times anointing formed part of the outward sign of Confirmation. The inward grace imparted by Confirmation is the receiving of the Holy Ghost, with the strength given by Him to confess the Faith boldly, and to live in accordance with it. This Sacrament was instituted by our Lord, or else the apostles would not have administered it. The deacon, Philip, could not administer it, but only the apostles, who had received from our Lord the power and authority to apply to the faithful all the graces of Redemption. Hence bishops, as the successors of the apostles, are the ordinary ministers of Confirmation.
God knows how to bring good out of evil. The great persecution of the Christians in Jerusalem, far from destroying the Church, served by the wise Providence of God to increase her sphere of action and her glory. The persecuted Christians themselves became richer in merits, and many Jews and Samaritans were converted to the faith; and the Church was extended throughout Judaea and Samaria. Just as the storm which shakes the trees carries their seed to a distance, even so did the storm of persecution which broke over the Church in Jerusalem serve to scatter the seed of the Gospel, and propagate it in distant regions. “The blood of the martyrs”, writes Tertullian, “is the seed from which spring up new Christians”.
The conversion of the Samaritans was a very significant fact in the Church’s history. The Samaritans were, avowedly, outside the pale of faith, and did not belong to the chosen people of God, but stood, as it were, between the Jews and the Gentiles. By now calling them into His Church, God gave it to be known that His was to be no national Church, limited to the Jews, but a Universal, Catholic Church, intended for all countries and nations; and for this reason the head of the Church, St. Peter, went himself to Samaria to unite this new and important flock to the Mother Church. The conversion of the Samaritans prepared the way for the conversion of the Gentiles.
The object of miracles. The Samaritans paid heed to the words of Philip, and believed them, “for they saw the miracles which he did”.
The Universality, or Catholicity of the Church. God sent the messenger of the Gospel to the Ethiopian officer, although he lived in a Gentile country. Thereby God showed that the heathen also were called to have a share in Redemption, and that the Church was to be indeed Catholic. The curse which rested on the race of Cham (see Old Test. VII) was removed in the person of this Ethiopian: and in him the descendants of Cham, who had fallen away from God into the very lowest depths of idolatry, were now called into God’s Church, and offered salvation by her means.
He who corresponds with grace will obtain salvation. The Ethiopian was a man of good will. In spite of his wealth and high position, he made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and diligently studied the Holy
