VI.

Sundays and Holy Days.

ONE of the most beautiful and beneficial arrangements of the Church is its system of Holy Days. The mind is carried by it through the whole round of Gospel truth, and receives influences from each, which, when combined, give to the Christian character harmony and completeness. The great events in the Saviour's lifeeach of which is linked to some eternal truth; the exam ples of holy men; the various practical duties; and the prominent spiritual experiences which belong to the child of God-all are brought forth in such wise successions and in such excellent combinations, that only the heedless and culpably negligent can fail to derive, from the yearly round of sacred services, the most strengthening and sanctifying influence. Let us walk, in spirit, around the sacred circle of divine truth, of which the Saviour is the centre, and at every point we may walk under the beamings of his grace.

THE COLLECTS.

There is perhaps no part of the service more endeared to the devout Churchman, none which takes stronger

hold of his heart and abides more blessedly in his memory, than the Collects which are connected with the Holy Days. It may be fanciful to remark that they have always seemed to the writer to occupy the same place in prayer, which the sonnet occupies in poetry. Each of them is, as it were, one breathing of the heart. Each is the expansion of a single desire or sentiment of the soul. And the language in which this sacred feeling or aspiration is breathed forth, stands unmatched for its simple and venerable gravity and ardor.

Nor is there any portion of the work of our Reformers which more signalizes their wisdom, and evinces the absence of a blind and undiscriminating hostility to all that was practised by the Church of Rome, than the retention of several festivals and feasts. They had seen the evils and abuse of an undue multiplication of Holy Days. They had observed how saint worship had well nigh banished the worship of the Saviour. And yet they retained only as many as were profitable, and cast aside as many as were mischievous, with as wise discrimination as if their minds had been subjected to no bias of partiality.

The Collects connected with the Holy Days are, for the most part, of a venerable antiquity. The source whence they have been derived are thus indicated by Palmer:1 "The majority of these (the Collects in the English ritual) occur, in the Latin language, in the an

1 Origines Liturgicæ. From Bishop Bronwell's commentary on the Prayer Book, we subjoin, in Appendix No. 1, the following series of Tables, which show precisely the source and mark the changes of each Collect.

cient Missals of Salisbury, York, Hereford, &c., and they are also in the Sacramentary of the English Church, written before the Norman conquest. We meet them in all the ancient MSS. of Gregory's Sacramentary, as used in the Roman, Italian, and other Western Churches, and thence show that they formed part of that Sacramentary when it was first introduced into England by Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, and in consequence have been used in the church in this country for above twelve hundred years. Many of the Collects, however, are much more ancient than the time of Gregory, A. D. 590; they occur in the Sacramentary of Gelasius, Patriarch of Rome, A. D. 494; and some may be traced to the Leonian Sacramentary, used in the Roman Church about A. D. 483.

THE EPISTLES.

2

The custom of reading an Epistle or portion of Scripture from the writings of the Apostles in connection with another from the Gospels, was practised in the primitive Church. It was formerly called "the Apostle." the injunctions of Edward VI, in 1547, it was to be read in the pulpit, or in some convenient place; and by the injunctions of Queen Elizabeth it was to be read in the

By

2 Mr. Palmer has arranged in parallel columns the English text and the Latin extracted from the liturgical offices of the Church of Salisbury," with which those of York and Hereford almost always agree" from which it may be seen how large a number of the Collects have reached us from the earliest period of the English Church. See Origines Liturgicæ, vol. i, p. 347–393.

3 Palmer, vol. ii, p. 42.

Cathedral and Collegiate Churches, by a special reader, entitled an "Epistler," who was to be habited in a cope. 1

"Almost all the lessons now read as Epistles in the English liturgy have been appointed to their present place, and used by the Church of England for many ages. They are found in all the liturgies of the English Church used before the revision of our offices in the reign of Edward the Sixth, and they also appear in the monuments of the English liturgy before the invasion of William the Conqueror. It is in fact probable that they are generally as old as the time of Augustine, A. D 595; since we find that the most ancient lectionaries of the early Church of Rome contain nearly the same selections, and therefore Augustine probably brought these selections into use in England. In this view, the lessons entitled Epistles in our liturgy have been used for above twelve hundred years by the Church of England. We must consider this more as a subject of interest and pleasure than of any great importance, since all scripture is given us by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correc

6

5

tion, for instruction in righteousness.' Yet we may remark, that the extracts read from the Epistles are generally devotional and practical, and therefore best adapted for ordinary comprehension and general edification." 6

4 Palmer, vol. ii, p. 44.

5 I have endeavored to trace the antiquity of the Epistles in chap. iii, to which I beg to refer the reader for further information.

Palmer, vol. ii, p. 45-46.

THE GOSPEls.

Immediately before the Gospel is read it is the custom, in the Church of England and in our own, for the Choir to sing, or the congregation to say, "Glory be to thee, oh, Lord!" It is the only part of our service which is universally practised without being prescribed. The custom prevailed in all the Churches of the East and West. "When the deacon had ascended the pulpit and announced the title of the Gospel, the people with one voice exclaimed, Glory be to thee, oh, Lord!'" The liturgy of the Episcopal Church in Scotland retains it, not by custom only, but as part of the prescribed service.

The portions of scripture appointed for the Gospels are for the most part the same that have been in use in the Church of England for twelve hundred years.

This use and position of the Epistle and Gospelimmediately before the sermon-is a very expressive recognition of the source whence the teachings of the sermon were to be drawn. It seems to be a solemn proclamation to the people, "To the law and to the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, there is no light in them." It appears to have been intended to pre-occupy their minds with the truth of God's word, that they might with the more profit listen to its explanation and development. It seems, at the same time, as an admonition to the preacher that he beware, lest he contradict by his teachings the authoritative word which is yet sounding in the ears of the people. Considered in this connection, this portion of the service is of great importance, and should least of all be