fest thy only-begotten Son to the Gentiles; Mercifully grant, that we, which know thee now by faith, may after this life have the fruition of thy glorious Godhead; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." The fact recited is the fact commemorated by this Festival, that God by the leading of a star did manifest His only-begotten Son to the Gentiles. This is made the foundation of a petition that we, who know Gon now by faith, may after this life have the fruition of His glorious Godhead. Observe the nice balancing of the sense here, and how the words are set over against one another. "Now" is opposed to "after this life," and is exactly equal to "in this life." "Knowing God by faith" is opposed to "having the fruition of His glorious Godhead," which is equal to knowing Him by sight, "walking by sight," seeing no longer through a glass darkly, but face to face. But it may not be immediately apparent what is the thread of connexion between the fact recited and the petition based on it; -how the star-guided pilgrimage of the Magi suggests a prayer for our future full fruition of the Godhead. Beyond all doubt the thread of connexion is this; and who will deny that it is a most instructive one? To walk by faith (as we are "now" [or in this life] required to do) is to walk by starlight. To walk by sight, on the other hand, to "have the fruition of the glorious Godhead," will be to walk by sunlight. The pilgrimage of the star-led Magi is a picture or emblem of the walk of faith. The light of a starlight night is just sufficient to guide our steps by, and that is all. We cannot discriminate colours by starlight, nor see far into the horizon, nor make out more than the obscure outline of objects in our neighbourhood. Would that our Rationalists would bear in mind that, in the walk of faith, there is light enough, and only light enough, for our practical guidance, abundant light for the purpose of reaching Heaven; but that on most of the speculative questions of Religion, the exact nature of Inspiration, the necessity in reason for the Atonement, the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and of the Eucharist, a cloud must rest for the present, which no exercise of our faculties can dissipate. We walk now by faith, and not by sight. And let the religionist, with whom the consolations of God are at present small,-much smaller than he could wish-remember that it is enough if, in this dim, dark condition of existence, we have certain foretastes and previous relishes of glory; the broad and genial sunlight, the cheering warmth of God's countenance and smile, in other words, the "fruition of His glorious Godhead," is reserved for "after this life." If GOD's promises (which twinkle down upon us, like the stars, in the firmament of His Word) be so cheering now, what will the fulfilment of them be? If God's love and Christ's grace are so sweet "now,"-if "now" the Christian is able to sing, "Jesu! the very thought is sweet; In that dear Name all heart-joys meet; The glimpses of His Presence are,' what may we not expect from the fuller revelation of this Love, this Grace, this Presence, the Power and Beauty of this Name? Lead us on, Lord, to this fuller Revelation! Let us be true (as the wise men were) to the guidance of the starlight which we enjoy, and so may we be brought out hereafter into the full sunshine of Thy countenance ! Now here, in these ideas thus suggested, is the outline of a long and profitable discourse upon that text, "Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then, face to face now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." But the outline is compressed into the smallest possible compass, the compass of a prayer, which may be written in three lines, and recited in less than sixty seconds. And exactly the same terseness and comprehensiveness of meaning is found in other Collects. Indeed, this is not more than an average sample of the significance of these little prayers. If it be alleged that this excessive terseness is too good for a coarse and superficial understanding, and requires some discipline of mind to appreciate it (just as masterpieces in painting cannot be appreciated by an undisciplined eye), this no doubt is true. We entirely believe that the majority in all our congregations would sympathize more with a diffuse enlargement upon the ideas of a Collect in a long wordy prayer, than with the mere concise utterance of these ideas in the Collect itself. But this is simply because they have never been taught to study the prayers they use, or to look for any depth of meaning in them. The Liturgy is used in Church, until the sound of it gets familiar to their ears, but the treasures of it are never explored either by private study, or public exposition. And, further, it is to be borne in mind that whatever objection may be conceived to lie against the Collects for their over-great terseness, lies with tenfold force against the Lord's Prayer itself. The Collects may well be contented to stand or fall in such company. It is in going through the Communion Office that we have come across the subject of this Chapter. The Collect is, and has been from the earliest introduction of this kind of prayer, a part of the Communion Office. And it should be observed that, when it appears in the Morning and Evening Prayer, it is as a memento of that highest office of the Church, of which it is a fragment. Morning and Evening Prayer are, by the theory of our Church, to be said daily throughout the year. The Communion is, by the same theory, to be reserved for Sundays and Festivals, when an Epistle and Gospel are appointed. But in our daily Service it is contrived, by the introduction of the Collect,1 that 1 No part of the ritual mechanism of the West is more worthy of admiration than the means by which the ordinary Office is continually linked on to the Eucharistic. The chief medium for effecting this, and indeed the only one that is of continual application, is the weekly COLLECT. It is to be observed that our First Collect (at Morning and Evening Prayer) "is not merely a bond of union between our common and Eucharistic F there shall be a continual reminder of that Festival, which is the highest (and which in earliest times was the only) act of Christian Worship. To live in continual preparedness for this Festival is to live in a state of readiness for death. can We The prayers of the saints are in the Book of the Revelation beautifully called "golden vials, full of odours." Yet in another passage of the same Book it is said that, when these prayers are offered "upon the golden altar, which is before the throne," "much incense" is offered with them,-a sign, surely, that in themselves they want fragrance, and not be a sacrifice of sweet savour unto God. will lay to heart both these hints as regards our Collects. "Golden vials" they are, as we have seen, formed out of the precious ore (in which there is no dross) of the Word of GOD, fashioned by learned and devout men with an exquisite skill, and a most perfect and classical taste. Yet in themselves they are but mere empty vials; we, the worshippers, must throw into them, as we use them, the odours of devout sentiment and pious affection. They are at best only forms of prayer; they must be filled with the mind of prayer, before they can be justly called prayers of the Saints. Nor, even when filled with this mind, can these prayers be of themselves acceptable. Every thing man touches with his will, understanding, affections, he soils, and renders unworthy of God's acceptance; "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.' "Much incense," therefore, needs to be offered with the prayers of all the saints at the golden altar, which is before the Throne. Offer it for us, Thou Great High Priest! As often as we are assembled to commemorate Thy full, perfect, .... Office, but such a one as to present to us the appointed variation of that Office for the current week. The Collect is endued with a wonderful power for carrying on through the week the peculiar Eucharistic memories and work of the preceding Sunday, or of a Festival."Freeman's Principles of Divine Service, vol. i. pp. 367, 368. and sufficient Sacrifice, present it for us once again before the throne of God. Plead for us its unspeakable merits and virtues. And Thou shalt not, for Thou canst not, plead in vain. Our prayers, in union with Thine, shall be presented upon the golden Altar; and so united, shall not fail to find acceptance, and to draw down a blessing! CHAPTER III OF THE EPISTLES AND GOSPELS "Never man spake like this man."-JOHN vii. 46 COMM YOMMUNION with GoD involves two leading processes. The first is Prayer, in the broad sense of that term, the access of the soul to its Maker,—its compliance with that invitation, "Draw nigh to GOD." The second is GOD's address to the soul;-the sounding out of the Holy Spirit's voice in the depths of the human spirit; in short, the response to Prayer. It follows from this simple consideration, that in any Office professing to be a Communion Office,-an Office in the use of which the soul may have the highest intercourse with God, which it is possible to have upon earth,--there must not only be "supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks,"-in a word, Prayer in its every form, but also portions of that Inspired Volume, which is the mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit to His people and to the world. A constant lesson from the Old Testament we have in the Ten Commandments; nor perhaps could any single passage of the Old Testament be selected which contains a more complete summary of the whole. For these Ten Commandments are the nucleus, round which the entire Old Dispensation forms itself-the very heart's core of that Economy. The fuller and |