here particularly in place, since we have just made mention of the Lord's " satisfaction" (indulgentia tuæ propitiationis,

-Miss. Sar.), and are encouraging ourselves in the hope that His "bountiful grace and mercy" will "speedily help and deliver us." We are praying under strong anticipations of faith; and hence the doxological clause.

Why should the Collect for St. Thomas's Day have a doxological ending more than other Saints' Days? "Hear us, O Lord, through the same J. C., to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, now and for evermore." It may possibly be, because to bring good out of evil is the highest glory of God, and, as the Collect rehearses, the greater confirmation of the faith was a good brought out of St. Thomas's scepticism. He himself adored Christ after his doubts were put to flight; and the Church ascribes glory to God for the benefit which she has reaped from those doubts, and for the evidence by which they were dissipated.

The first Collect after the Communion in "the Ordering of Deacons," has this doxology, "through the same thy Son our Saviour J. C., to whom be glory and honour world without end." The corresponding prayer in "the Consecration of Bishops" has an adoration-ending ("the Lord the righteous Judge, who liveth and reigneth one God with the Father and the Holy Ghost, world without end"), while that in "the Ordering of Priests" has a bare mediation-ending. The institution of the Christian ministry, and the call of successive generations to it, is a subject of praise (as is fully declared in the prayer immediately preceding the Ordination of Priests), and at the conferring of its highest and lowest grades praise and adoration are peculiarly in place.

The doxology at the end of the prayer "in the

time of Dearth and Famine" is the most difficult of all the instances to be explained. We pray that "the scarcity and dearth, which we do now most justly suffer for our iniquity, may through thy goodness be mercifully turned into cheapness and plenty; for the love of Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory, now and for ever." We do not see any sufficient reason which can be assigned for the use of the doxological termination in this connexion.

(2.) The adoration-ending (" who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit, ever one God, world without end," Christmas Day) consists of a profession of faith in the Holy Trinity, the Unity of the Godhead being also, in the great majority of cases, expressly recognised by the clause "ever one God," or something tantamount, as "in the unity of the same Spirit." This is the ending which we should expect to find, and do find, in the Collects for the four great Festivals. In the Collect for Trinity Sunday, which is addressed not to God the Father singly, but to the entire Trinity, the unity alone is brought out in the close, and there is no express mediation-clause on which it depends-"who livest and reignest, one God, world without end." (Compare this with the rubrical direction given in the "It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty," to the effect that the words "Holy Father" are to be omitted on Trinity Sunday, and with the emphatic bringing out of the Unity in the first words of the Proper Preface for that day, "Who art one God, one Lord.")

We find similar terminations in the Collect for the third Sunday in Advent-Advent being a season of exultation, no less than of humiliation, as pointed out above under II. (1.); for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, (which also looks forward with chastened hope and joy to

the time of Christ's second appearing); for Septuagesima. Sunday, (where this adoration-ending is a light which falls athwart the shadows thrown over the Church's prospect by the coming season of humiliation); for the first Sunday in Lent, (where it is meet that He, who for our sake did fast forty days and forty nights, should nevertheless be recognised as a Person in the Blessed Trinity); in the first and third Collects for Good Friday, (where it is meet that the crucified Saviour, who yet is to draw all men unto Him by the power of His Cross, should be thus recognised); for the Sunday after Ascension, (where the recently enacted triumph of our King and God is still fresh upon our minds); for St. Matthew's Day, (where the only reason assignable for the adoration-ending seems to be that the mention of following Jesus in the body of the prayer made it awkward to say "through Jesus Christ," and to say "through the same" would have been bald and unrhythmical to the ear); in the first Collect for the Queen in the Communion Service, (a suitable adoration of the "King of kings, the Lord of lords, the only Ruler of Princes "); in the Baptismal Service, before the sanctification of the water, (where the eye seems fixed upon the everlasting reward of the righteous, at a period when the mediatorial kingdom shall have been delivered up to the Father, and God shall be all in all, and therefore the mediation-ending is dropped, and the address made, as in the Collect for Trinity Sunday, to the whole Godhead); in the last prayer at the Baptism of Adults, (as if to distinguish that rite by a somewhat higher and more jubilant tone from the Baptism of Infants); in the Collect after Confirmation, (which is to be regarded as the crown and completion of Baptism, by the conferring of the gifts of the Spirit, and in which, therefore, the high and jubilant tone

is in place); in the Prayer for a sick Child, (where we thus appropriately remind ourselves that the Lord Jesus is living and reigning with the Father and Holy Ghost above, and administering all things as is most for God's glory, and best for this little one of His flock); in the prayer immediately before the Ordering of Priests, (which is pervaded by a high strain of thanksgiving and adoration); in the corresponding prayer before the Consecration of Bishops, (to which a similar remark will apply); in the first prayer before the Benediction at the Consecration of Bishops, (this function being an unusually solemn and exalted one); and in the Prayer in the end of the Litany at the Queen's Accession, where we ask for the Sovereign" everlasting life and glory in the kingdom of heaven," and the eye therefore is directed heavenward.

In six cases the clause reciting the Unity of the Godhead ("Ever one God," or "in the unity of the same Spirit") is left out; these being the Collect for the first Sunday in Advent; the Thanksgiving preceding the Publick Baptism of Infants and of Adults; the Collect at the Ordering of Deacons; the Collect at the Ordering of Priests; and the prayer before the examination of one who is to be consecrated Bishop. There can be no doubt that in these cases the unity of the Godhead is implied, though not expressed; and Canon Bright and Mr. Medd have shown their sense of this in their Latin Version of the Book of Common Prayer by inserting in all these prayers the clause, " in unitate Spiritus Sancti." These six prayers then furnish instances of incomplete adorationendings, just as certain of the Collects are imperfect specimens, and lack some members, some being without the recital of a doctrine or fact, others without an aspiration, etc. (See the first paragraph of Chap. III. Book I. p. 17.)

CHAPTER II.

THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT.

Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning, Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience, and comfort of the holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

THIS Collect, like the preceding one, is due to our Reformers, and first made its appearance in 1549. Even if we did not know this, we might augur it from the family likeness which the two Collects have to one another. Both are built upon passages in their respective Epistles. Both cite the very words of the passages on which they are based, making no covert allusions to Holy Scripture, but openly proclaiming their relationship to it. Another feature of resemblance between them is, that each of them fills up a gap in the cycle of teaching through which the Collects lead us. Now is the accepted time" is a thought of a very quickening character, and one which it is very important to bring before the mind in prayer. It is brought before the mind forcibly by the "now in the time of this mortal life" of the first Collect. And surely, that there should be among the Collects a prayer bearing upon our right use of the written Word of God was in the highest degree desirable, not to say necessary. It is true that there are in the Saints' Day Collects many references to parts of Holy Scripture (as to "the doctrine" of St. Mark, St. Luke, St. John, St. Paul, and of the Apostles and Prophets