_Sponsors in Baptism._--The Church requires that "there shall be for every Male-child to be baptized, when they can be had, two Godfathers and one Godmother; and for every Female, one Godfather and two Godmothers." The origin of this office is obscure. It may have been adopted from a Jewish custom connected with the admission of heathen children, or it may have arisen spontaneously out of the social conditions of the Church.
The object in view is "to insure the subsequent education and training in Christian truth and duty which is necessary to the full benefit of the grace conferred in this holy Sacrament."
Sponsors are so called "because they respond or answer for the child to be baptized. They are { 114} called 'sureties' because they give security to the Church that the child shall be virtuously brought up; 'godfathers,' and 'godmothers,' because of the spiritual relationship into which they are brought with one another, with the parents, and with the child."
"Formerly parents were not admitted as sponsors, since they are sponsors in fact and by nature, and therefore no vow can increase their obligation of duty toward the child. But while the Church prefers that there should be three sponsors for every child, in addition to the parents, in order to insure by a fivefold promise the future guardianship of the infant soul, she yet permits parents to stand as sponsors in order to accommodate every variety of circumstance and need, and to save the office of sponsor from ever being merely a formal or perfunctory thing."
_The Ring in Marriage._--"The use of the wedding-ring was probably adopted by the early Church from the marriage customs which were familiar to Christians in their previous life as Jews or heathen." A ring, or something equivalent, seems to have been given at marriage by the man to the woman from patriarchal days. The ancient custom of the Church was for the bridegroom to place the { 115} ring upon the thumb of the bride, saying, "In the Name of the Father"; then upon the second finger, saying, "and of the Son"; then upon the third finger, saying, "and of the Holy Ghost"; and then upon the fourth finger, saying, "Amen." "It was an old belief that a particular vein proceeded from the fourth finger to the heart." The ring, being of gold, and having neither beginning nor end, is not only a "token and pledge" of the vow and covenant made in marriage, but is also a symbol of the purity and unbroken constancy with which they should be "surely performed and kept."