pletely a prayer, as distinct from a self-communing, the taste of introducing such a clause may be questioned; but surely it is a noble meditation, and a helpful and edifying one. The explanation which it gives of our Lord's appearing on that occasion in a standing posture is most interesting. To have appeared to Stephen sitting might have seemed to betoken a want of interest in his troubles; it might have been taken to be looking on listlessly, without helping; therefore the Lord has risen from His throne, as it were, to interfere on his behalf and give him His hand. And is there no sense in which He now appears to the eye of our faith, not sitting but standing? Surely there is. "We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." No advocate ever sat down to plead; it is the judge who sits; the advocate stands erect before him. We all deeply need the Lord's succour in the way of advocacy, if in no other way. And very happily, therefore, the Collect closes with a glance at Christ's function of pleading the cause of His people-"our only Mediator and Advocate."

1 1 John ii. 1.

CHAPTER VII.

ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST'S DAY.

Merciful Lord, we beseech thee to cast thy bright beams of light upon thy Church, that it being enlightened by the doctrine of thy blessed Apostle and Evangelist Saint John may so walk in the light of the truth, that it may at length attain to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Ecclesiam tuam, quaesumus, Domine, benignus illustra, ut beati Johannis Apostoli tui er Evangelistae illuminata doctrinis, ad dona perveniat sempiterna. Per Dominum. (Miss. Sar. Col. 65.)

THE warmest admirers of the prayers which are found in the old Latin Offices will be ready to admit that the Collect for St. John the Evangelist's Day was greatly improved by the Revisers of 1662; improved by having additional point and a practical turn given to it. The Collect, as literally translated by Cranmer in 1549, ran thus:" Merciful Lord, we beseech thee to cast thy bright beams of light upon thy Church: that it being lightened by the doctrine of thy blessed Apostle and Evangelist John may attain to thy everlasting gifts: through Jesus Christ our Lord." Comparing this with the Collect as it now stands, we see at once the inferiority of the old to the new. The old Collect had made mention only of two lights, the light of the Spirit and the light of the Word; the new one most aptly introduces a third light, that of glory, or everlasting life, to which the

two first lights are conducive-that is, lead the way. Then, again, the old Collect contained no direct allusion to Christian conduct. It was merely a prayer that God would enlighten us by His Word and Spirit, and did not even insinuate what the new one expresses, that we must walk in the light thus shed upon us from heaven, if we desire to reach His glory. These alterations of the old Latin prayer are masterly touches indeed, which prove Bishop Cosin's abilities as a reviser of Church Offices to have been of the highest order.

We have here, in the first place, a petition for the light of the Spirit. "Merciful Lord, we beseech thee to cast thy bright beams of light upon thy Church," or, as the original is, "Graciously cast thy bright beams of light upon thy Church, O Lord, we beseech thee." There is a peculiar aspect of graciousness about the Levitical benediction, in the two last clauses of which light is mentioned in connection with the Second and Third Persons of the Blessed Trinity: "The LORD bless thee and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance" (the light of His countenance) "upon thee" (as it were in smiling graciousness)," and give thee peace."

Christmas-time (and St. John's Day is one of the satellites which attend upon the high festival of Christmas) is a time of Divine graciousness; it is the season when the Sun of Righteousness rose upon the world with healing in its wings, when the Incarnate God made His face to shine upon His people, and was gracious unto them. And this dawn of Divine graciousness reminds. us of that second step in God's union with man, which took place at Pentecost, when the risen and exalted 1 Num. vi. 24-26.

Saviour shed forth the Spirit on His expectant Church; or, in other words, when God the Holy Ghost lifted up the light of His countenance upon His people, and gave them peace. But the light of the Holy Spirit is of course from the Father, as it is by and from the Son: He does not come to us independently; He streams forth from all eternity from the Father; He reaches sinners through, and is (in time) sent by, the Son. And, accordingly, we are told that "God"—God the Father-"is," in His essential nature, “light;"1 and St. Paul says, " God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."2 There is in this last text no direct mention of the Holy Spirit; but of course His agency is implied. What can God's shining in our hearts be but the light of the Holy Ghost, which there He sheds abroad? At Pentecost God issued the same fiat in the world of spirit, which He had long centuries before issued in the world of nature; "God said, Let there be light and there was light."3

And do not omit to observe that the blessing is supplicated, not directly for the individual, but for the Church; "Merciful Lord, we beseech thee to cast thy bright beams of light upon thy Church." It is very observable how pointedly our attention is called to this fact by St. Luke in his narrative of Pentecost. The disciples were not scattered units, when God first cast His bright beams of light upon them; "they were all with one accord in one place;" the sound as of a rushing mighty wind, "filled all the house where they were sitting," "5 and made "men to be one mind in" that "house;" in short, the

11 John i. 5.
4 Acts ii. 1.

2 2 Cor. iv. 6.
5 Acts ii. 2.

3 Gen. i. 3.

6 Ps. lxviii. 6, P.B.V.

Holy Ghost visited the disciples as a family. What an argument is this for common or united prayer-prayer made in the house of prayer, and where other members of the family are gathered together in the name of Jesus, and "agree" with us " as touching" the things "that" they "shall ask." The two or three are God's household, and the consecrated building is their heavenly Father's house, and consequently their home, the modern representative and symbol of that upper room, where the disciples abode2 after the Ascension, and where God first shined into the hearts of His people, and lifted up the light of His countenance upon them at Pentecost.

"We

"That it." It is not without interest to observe that the Church is always "it" in the Book of Common Prayer, not (as one might rather expect) "she." pray for the good estate of the Catholick Church; that it may be so guided;" "cleanse and defend thy Church; and because it cannot continue in safety;" "that through thy protection it may be free from all adversities." In the Latin Offices, as also in the Greek Testament, this, of course, could not be so, because both in Latin and Greek the word for Church is a feminine noun. But it is equally Scriptural, when speaking of the Church collectively, to use either the feminine or the neuter. For "the Church," we are told in our Ordinal, " is the Spouse and Body of Christ."5 Regarded as Christ's bride, the Church would be, of course, "she;" regarded as His body, "it."

"That it being enlightened by the blessed Apostle and Evangelist St. John." God is a light no less than His Spirit.

doctrine of thy

The Word of "Thy word is a

316th Sunday after Trinity.

1 St. Matt. xviii. 19. 2 See Acts i. 13. 422d Sunday after Trinity. 5 Form and Manner of Ordering of Priests.