"In the adjoining Mirovarennaya Palata, the Holy Chrism is prepared every other year, in strict conformance with the original instruction. It is, when prepared, taken in sixteen silver phials to the Uspenski Sobor and then at a special service during Lent (usually Holy Thursday) consecrated by the Metropolitan, and further hallowed by the addition of a few drops of the oil from the vessel of 'Alabaster' in which the Holy Chrism was first brought into Russia from Constantinople, the vessel having never been emptied, since the quantity taken for this purpose is immediately replaced by the addition of that newly made. The 'Alabaster' is a long-necked flask of copper, wholly covered with scales of mother-of-pearl, and is supposed to be of the same size and form as that box of ointment Mary Magdalene offered Jesus. "The library of the Synod contains about one thousand Slavic MSS. on Church rites and copies of the scriptures, many between the seventh and twelfth centuries, and five hundred Greek MSS. of even earlier date. They were got together by the patriarch Nikon for the purpose of comparison, and restoring the ritual of the Russian Church to its original, or at least earlier, rule. The printed books have mostly been removed to other collections, and the MSS. are of interest only to those well acquainted with the rites of the early Christian Church, and such students are readily granted access to them." Such a brief account does scant justice to one of the finest and most complete collections of ecclesiastical furniture the world has produced; but, interesting as some of the objects are to all beholders, it is to the student of ecclesiasticism that they will appeal with greatest force. To him also, the technique of ritual; the customs appertaining to the dispersion of relics among newly-built churches and restoration of those injured by time and accident; together with many other matters of Church rule and procedure which find illustration in this collection, should prove both attractive and instructive. Of greater general interest is the story of the struggle between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, the rise of heresy and states of different forms of dissent; that dramatic movement of ecclesiasticism which is world wide, continuous, and of perennial concern to all.