element upon the ancient constitution. Parliament may frame the laws; and the Sovereign's power of refusing assent to such laws, though still theoretically recognised, may have fallen into abeyance, and be practically inoperative as a check; but upon Parliament itself, and upon the nation which is represented in Parliament, the Sovereign will always be able to exert a moral influence quite out of the reach of any person of an inferior grade. Nor can any reasonable person doubt that the Sovereign's moral influence, so long as his position and the prestige of his position remains, will be a strong determining force in the career of the nation. All classes, by an unavoidable instinct of our nature, look up to the class above them, copy their manners, take their tone, form themselves upon their model; and thus it comes to pass that the force of the example set in high places is insensibly transmitted to the extremities of the system. Add to which the very important consideration that God deals not with men as mere units, but views nations and Churches as summed up in their ostensible heads and representatives, and that thus a prince who rules in righteousness proves a blessing-not merely by the natural force of example, but by a general law, which pervades the Divine administration-to all his subjects. How happy should we account ourselves that this doctrine of the influence of sovereigns is for us a joyful subject of contemplation,-one which we delight to look full in the face, instead of (as might be the case in the reign of a depraved Prince) shuddering at and shrinking from! For if ever in any country or at any period the character of the Sovereign has been such as to throw the antiseptic salt of a wholesome example into the spring of national life, and to be a pattern to all classes of moral purity and the domestic virtues, this has been the case, we are both proud and thankful to acknowledge, in our own land and times. For her our prayers may rise to Heaven in the most solemn acts of Divine Worship, with the comfortable assurance that it has pleased GOD in part to answer them

already-Very critical, too, and therefore urgently demanding our prayers, is the position of the heir to the throne, and of all those who stand around it, and might, under certain contingencies, become heirs. Might not the English Church really determine for good the destinies of the English nation, if upon all members of the reigning house she succeeded, by fervent prayers to the Majesty of Heaven, in drawing down the grace and blessing of the Almighty?

—that

The above remarks will, we trust, help to relieve the State Prayers of our Prayer Book, as they are called, from that formality, cold ceremoniousness, and want of interest, which attach to them in many minds,— well disposed in the main, but wretchedly narrow in their sympathies, and narrow also in their conception of the virtue of Intercessory Prayer. If, however, we desire a softening element in prayers of this description; if we desire to be brought out of the atmosphere of what may seem to be titles and compliments, into that of our common humanity,-nowhere is this done for us with such simple and touching pathos as in the latter part of the Prayer for the Church Militant. For there the different forms of human sorrow,sorrow which makes all mankind of one kin, and puts the sovereign on a level with the serf,—are brought before the mind; and we implore the Great Healer "of His goodness to comfort and succour all them, who in this transitory life are in trouble, sorrow, need, sickness, or any other adversity." Here is calamity, here is mourning, here is poverty, here is broken health, and if there be any other form of human woe, all presented to the eye of the Divine Compassion in five simple words of intense supplication. To Him who lives environed by the glories of Heaven, and the Hallelujahs of Seraphim, what a lazar-house of miseries must the earth be! How like a pool of Bethesda, with its great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, and withered,—with its restless pining and moaning, and its cruelly disappointed hopes! Can we think of this multitude of sorrows without sympathy, with

out at least a fervent desire to recommend it to GOD? And if we can think of it so, are we prepared to partake of the Feast of Love? Have we in that case any thing of His mind, who, upon the sight of the deaf and dumb, sighed, as He looked up to Heaven; who wept, as He stood between sorrowing sisters at Lazarus' grave? And if we have nothing of His mind, shall we present ourselves to hold Communion with Him at His Table? But there is a yet more touching suggestion in this prayer, which can hardly fail to reach the heart. There are those Christians (and some of them possibly among our own nearest and dearest) whose troubles, sorrows, and labours have reached their climax, and who have now passed beyond our sight into that realm beyond the grave, "where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." If to follow them with prayer were presumptuous, as being beyond the warrant of God's Word, we may at least follow them with thanksgiving. The angels strike their golden harps, as fresh souls are won to GOD in this world. Shall we not suppose that they strike them when those souls are taken home to Him,—released from the body of sin and death? And may we not join our poor voices with that angelic symphony? And may we not also implore grace for ourselves to follow their faith, considering the end of their conversation, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever? Yes, surely! it is an unloving spirit, and one totally uncongenial with the mind of Christ and His Church, which would cut us off from this solemn commemoration before God of those who have departed this life in His faith and fear. This is the one exercise of devotion by which the communion of living Christians with departed saints, their fellowship with us of interests, of hopes, of thankfulness, of adoration,-is recognised. As such we believe that the Liturgy would be imperfect and mutilated without it. We believe that without this clause in the Prayer

2 In the first Reformed Prayer Book (1549) the sentence bidding this Prayer ran merely, "Let us pray for the whole state

for the Church Militant, the heart would crave something which it would not find in the highest Office of the Church. For those who have lost Christian friends, who once walked side by side with them in this troublesome world, cannot banish the thought of such friends in their approaches to GOD. The departed ones seem to stand on the other side of the river of Death, and beckon us to cross, as they have crossed, under the sheltering wing of the Redeemer. And most precious is the thought that, as they are with Him, wrapt in a communion closer than any which can be enjoyed on earth, whenever we truly seek Him, we draw nigh (though unconsciously and invisibly) to their spirits. For the nearer the rays of a circle approach to their common centre, so much the nearer of necessity they draw to one another. Christ is the one meeting-point of the faith of the living, and of the sight of the dead; and thus in Him our faith hath communion with their sight. For we are "unto Mount

come" (not, are to come, but, are come)

of Christ's Church." And a prayer for the departed was inserted to this effect :-"We commend unto Thy mercy, O Lord, all other Thy servants, which are departed hence from us with the sign of faith, and now do rest in the sleep of peace: Grant unto them, we beseech Thee, Thy mercy and everlasting peace, and that, at the day of the general Resurrection, we and all they which be of the mystical body of Thy Son may all together be set on His right hand, and hear that His most joyful voice : Come unto me, O ye that be blessed of my Father, and possess the Kingdom," &c.

In the Prayer Book of 1552 all mention of the dead was omitted, and to the heading of it were added the words, "militant here in earth."

This alteration was made in compliance with Bucer's strictures, one of which seems somewhat far-fetched :-"I should be unwilling in that word-sleep of peace-to give occasion of gratifying those who affirm that the departed in the Lord sleep (even as to their souls) unto the last day.'

In 1661, after the Savoy Conference, when the doctrine of Purgatory had been extirpated, the present clause giving thanks for all those who have departed this life in GOD's faith and fear, and praying for grace to follow their example, was inserted, and is surely a most valuable feature of the Prayer.

Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect."

CHAPTER II

OF THE COLLECTS

"Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few."-ECCLES. v. 2

E have already sketched out the divisions of the Communion Service, according to the order in which they stand, and shown the relation to one another of its consecutive parts. But the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, to which we now come, suggest to us a division on another principle. There is, then, a part of the Communion Service, which is constant-used under all circumstances, whatever be the season of the year, and never subject to change. And, on the other hand, there is a variable element in the Servicea part which alters every week, or on certain high and solemn occasions. This part is composed of the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, and the proper Preface. A distinction of a similar kind runs through the daily Morning and Evening Prayer. The Psalms and Lessons vary every day; the Sunday Morning Lessons not only vary, but are a departure from the orderly course of reading the Old Testament through annually; the Collect, as in the Communion Service, varies every week; but all these variable elements are inserted into a framework, which is constant and fixed.

Before we go farther, may we not learn a lesson from