Apostolic imposition of hands is made clearer. It is called the gift of the Holy Ghost (viii. 17, xix. 6) * * * By the time that the Epistle to the Hebrew was written we find that there existed a practice and doctrine of imposition of hands, which is pronounced by the writer of the Epistle to be one of the first principles and fundamentals of Christianity, which he enumerates in the following order: (1) The doctrine of Repentance; (2) of Faith; (3) of Baptism; (4) of _Laying on of Hands;_ (5) of the Resurrection; (6) of Eternal Judgment (Heb. vi. 1, 2). Laying on of Hands in this passage can mean only one of three things--Ordination, Absolution, or that which we have already seen in the Acts to have been practiced by the Apostles, imposition of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost on the baptized. The meaning of Ordination is excluded by the context. We have no proof of the existence of the habitual practice of Absolution at this period nor of its being accompanied by the laying on of hands. Everything points to that laying on of hands which, as we have seen, immediately succeeded baptism in the Apostolic age, and continued to do so in the ages immediately succeeding the Apostles. * * * The Fathers, says Hooker, "everywhere impute unto it that gift or grace of the Holy Ghost, not which maketh us first Christian men, but, when we are made such, assisteth us in all virtue, armeth us against temptation and sin. * * * The Fathers therefore, being thus persuaded, held confirmation as an ordinance Apostolic, always profitable in God's Church, although not always accompanied with equal largeness of those external effects which gave it countenance at the first." (Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. I, p. 242-244.) _4. The Time of Confirmation:_ "Originally Imposition of Hands followed immediately upon Baptism, so closely as to appear as part of the baptismal ceremony or a supplement to it. This is clearly stated by Tertullian (De Bapt. vii, viii), Cyril (Catech. Myst. iii. I), the author of the Apostolic Constitutions (vii. 43), and all early Christian writers." (Smith's Bible Dictionary, pp. 242, 3, 4.) _5. Eucharist:_ Paul's account of the establishment of this Christian institution is perhaps the earliest written and the most complete: "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood; this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come."