the people on the Sunday before what holydays or fasting days are in the week following to be observed.” -Rubric of the Nicene Creed.

When a holyday happens on a Sunday there have been different opinions as to which service should be read. Some take no notice of the holyday, and use the service for the Sunday, alleging that the holyday, which is of human institution, should give way to the Sunday, which is allowed to be of divine; but this argument is not satisfactory for though the observation of Sunday be of divine institution, yet the service we use on it is of human appointment. Nor is there anything in the service appointed to be used on ordinary Sundays, that is more peculiar to, or tends to the greater solemnity of the Sunday than any of the services appointed for the holydays. What slight, therefore, do we show to our Lord's institution, if, when we meet on the day that he has set apart for the worship of himself, we praise him for the eminent virtues which shined forth in some saint, whose memory that day brings to our mind? Such praises are so agreeable to the duty of the day, that it seems a becoming practice to make the lesser holyday give way to the greater: as an ordinary Sunday, for instance, to a saint's day; a saint's day, to one of our Lord's festivals; and a lesser festival of our Lord to a greater: except that some, if the first lesson for the holyday be from the Apocrypha, will join the first lesson of the Sunday to the holyday service as observing that the Church, by always appointing canonical scripture upon Sundays, seems to countenance their use of a canonical lesson even upon a holyday that has a proper one appointed out of the Apocrypha, if that holyday shall happen upon a Sunday.

The sacred events which the Church commemorates are admirably adapted to instruct and edify her

members. She begins her annual course by looking towards the dawn of the Son of Righteousness, directing our attention to the FIRST ADVENT of her Lord in humility, and beyond that, to his SECOND ADVENT in glory. She then leads us to contemplate his lowly NATIVITY, and the inestimable blessings of peace on earth and good will towards men connected with it. Then she brings before us his CIRCUMCISION, his first act of obedience to the law for our sakes. She next proceeds, in the EPIPHANY, the birth-day of the Gentile Church, to place before us some of the most remarkable manifestations of the incarnate God, in his miracles and his holy doctrines. After this she draws us aside from the busy world to behold her Lord's mysterious TEMPTATION and his triumph over the tempter, desiring us during the penitential season of LENT to imbibe his self-denying spirit; and now she approaches, step by step, her Saviour's PASSION, marking each day of suffering with an appropriate service, and teaching us in all our sorrows to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, "who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross." Still further she follows him even to the silent тOMB, and bids us come and see the place where the Lord lay;" and after the great work of our redemption is thus finished, she greets us in the glorious morn of EASTER with the joyous salutationThe Lord is risen, the Lord is risen indeed! at the same time admonishing us, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God." She lingers with her Lord during his passing visits to this lower world after his resurrection; and on ASCENSION-day, having caught the last glimpse of him ascending to glory, she waits till the Comforter is come, whom her Lord promised to send from the Father, even the

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Spirit of Truth; and on WHITSUNDAY hails the fulfilment of that promise, in the miraculous effusion of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, and in his continual presence with his Church. She then closes her heavenly course by directing us to meditate with the profoundest reverence upon the glorious mystery of the TRINITY; and leads us to the throne of the Most High, inviting us to join the choir of the blessed spirits above in ascribing glory, and honour, and power to Him "who has created all things, and for whose pleasure they are and were created." But lest we should falter in the high, but arduous career which our Lord has opened to us, thinking it too much for human weakness to tread in his steps, we are cheered on from time to time with the illustrious examples who have run the race that is set before us, and through faith and patience have inherited the promises.

Is not this a full and striking exhibition of the Christian system? and is it not admirably calculated to bring before us, year after year, the principal facts of the gospel history, and the important doctrines connected with those facts! Does it cherish a spirit of patriotism to commemorate the eras of our country's glory? and shall it not cherish a spirit of piety to commemorate the eras on which signal blessings were conferred upon the Church universal?

These festivals of the Church are also a guide and directory to her ministers. If left to themselves, they might dwell too exclusively on some particular topics ; for every one, according to his turn of mind, has some subject on which he feels himself most at home in expatiating, and which he is liable to bring forward to the neglect of others equally important. Now, the full and comprehensive developement of divine truth which our Church lays before us in her festivals, is the

best corrective that could have been devised against this tendency; for if her ministers rightly attend to. her suggestions they will be enabled, as faithful and wise stewards, to give to every one his portion in due

season.

If this system shows the wisdom of the Church, it also points out the importance of her members acting in conformity with it. We should be on our guard against modern innovations in this matter, and not quietly suffer these sacred days to pass by unobserved. The principal festivals, indeed, are generally regarded; but it is to be feared that the saint's days are often overlooked. But why should this be? Where it is impracticable to attend public worship, the collect, epistle, and gospel for the day should be used in our private or family devotions. If the privileges which our Church affords are great, let us remember that our responsibilities are proportionable; if she introduces us to the "glorious company of the apostles, the goodly fellowship of the prophets, and the noble army of martyrs," it is not that we may boast of the high communion to which we are admitted; nor is it that we may, with a voluntary humility, give them the worship due to God only; it is not to honour the creature that they are had in remembrance, but rather to supply us with continual incentives for adoring Almighty God, who, through his grace, has given us such blessed examples, and to inspire us with a holy emulation to aim at following them as they followed Christ. If we observe these festivals in such a spirit, we shall keep equally distant from a superstitious reverence of the saints, and a profane contempt of them, and having honoured them here in the only way we can, by endeavouring to imitate them, be permitted hereafter to join the glorious and blessed company, who came out of great tribulation, and have washed

their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb*!

The occasion of the rule being framed for the time of the celebration of Easter, was a great difference which arose on this subject between the churches of Asia and other churches. The former kept their Easter upon the same day on which the Jews celebrated their passover, namely, on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan, (which month began at the new moon next to the vernal equinox,) and this they did upon what day of the week soever it fell; and were from thence called "Quartodecimans," or such as kept Easter on the 14th day after the appearance of the moon. Whereas the other churches, especially those of the West, did not follow this custom, but kept their Easter on the Sunday following the Jewish passover; partly the more to honour this day, and partly to distinguish between Jews and Christians. Both sides pleaded apostolical tradition, these latter pretending to derive their practice from St. Peter and St. Paul : whilst the others, namely, the Asiatics, said they imitated the example of St. John.

This difference at length becoming the cause of disturbance in the Church, Constantine got a canon passed at the general council of Nice, "That everywhere the great feast of Easter should be observed upon one and the same day; and that not on the day of the Jewish passover, but, as had been generally observed, on the Sunday afterwards," and that the dispute might never arise again, these paschal canons were established :

1st. That the 21st March shall be accounted the vernal equinox.

* The foregoing remarks are derived from the Rev. G. PRESTON WRIGHT of Hackney. See also Cycle of the Churche's Services in Rosebuds Rescued, by S. C. WILKS.