CHAPTER XXV.

THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT.

. We beseech thee, Almighty God, mercifully to look upon thy people; that by thy great goodness they may be governed and preserved evermore, both in body and soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Duaesumus, omnipotens Deus, familiam tuam propitius respice ; ut te largiente regatur in corpore, et te servante custodiatur in mente. Per Dominum. - Sac. Greg.-Miss. Sar.

THE Christian Easter corresponds, as every one knows, to the Jewish Passover. The celebration of the Passover began on the fourteenth day of the month Abib,1 when the Paschal lamb was to be slain in the evening.2 Abib, being the month of the Exodus, was honoured by being made the first month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year; 3 consequently, there was a fortnight of preparation intervening between the beginning of the year and the Passover. The Christian Church, recognising Easter as the antitype of the Passover, retains some traces of this fortnight. The Fifth Sunday in Lent is just a fortnight before Easter. It is called Passion Sunday, because the 1 The name 66 Abib," which is given to this month in the Pentateuch, means an ear of grain, a green ear; and hence the month Abib' is 'the month of green ears.' It thus denoted the condition of the barley in the climate of Egypt and Palestine in this month." After the Captivity the month was called Nisan (Neh. ii. 1; Esther iii. 7). [See Kitto's Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature, s. v. ABIB.]

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2 See Exod. xii. 6.

See Exod. xii. 2, xiii. 4.

Epistle makes distinct mention of the shedding of Christ's blood,1 and of the purpose of His death,2 while the Gospel gives an account of that attempt of the Jews upon His life, which may be looked upon as the commencement of His Passion. On this Sunday, too, we open in the Lessons a new book of the Bible and a new train of thought. We read of the call and mission of Moses, and enter upon that series of events which culminated in the Passover and the Exodus. So that the fourteenth day before Easter may be said to be a marked period in our Church Calendar. This being the case, one would rather expect that the Collect should bear some trace of the new current of ideas, which sets in to-day, and should harmonize with the Epistle, Gospel, and Lessons. But it does not do so. And this is a weak point in it, which was observed in the proposed revision of the Prayer Book in 1689, immediately after the accession of William of Orange to the throne. Patrick, Bishop of Chichester, was to revise the Collects; and a new Collect for the Fifth Sunday in Lent was suggested, suitable enough, as being framed from the Epistle, but somewhat lengthy and cumbrous.5 How

1 See Heb. ix. 12.

3 See St. John viii. 59.

2 See Heb. ix. 15.

4 See Exod. iii. 2, 7-11.

5 This Collect is given in Blunt's "Annotated Book of Common Prayer' (London, 1866. Part I., p. 95, Col. 2):-"O Almighty God, who hast sent Thy Son Jesus Christ to be an High Priest of good things to come, and by His own blood to enter in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us; mercifully look upon Thy people, that by the same blood of our Saviour, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot unto Thee, our consciences may be purged from dead works, to serve Thee, the living God, that we may receive the promise of eternal inheritance; through Jesus Christ our Lord."

A commission was issued in September 1689, to ten bishops and twenty divines (including Stillingfleet, Patrick, Tillotson, Beveridge, and Tenison), authorising them to prepare such alterations of the Liturgy and Canons as might conduce to the reconciling of differences, etc. Patrick's instructions

ever, the whole scheme of revision fell through, as it was evident from the attitude of the clergy that it would never be accepted by the lower House of Convocation. Though hardly as seasonable as it might be, the present Collect is, nevertheless, a valuable one; and our Reformers have been skilful and felicitous in the translation of it. As it stands in Gregory's Sacramentary, and the Missal of Sarum, it runs thus; "We beseech thee, Almighty God, mercifully to look upon thy household; that by the exercise of thy bounty it may be governed in body, and by thy watchful care preserved in mind. Through the Lord."

It will be observed that for "household" or "family" the translators have substituted the word "people." And though people is a colder, less attractive, and less amiable word than household or family, a plausible reason may be assigned for the alteration. The petition of the Collect is for government and preservation. Now the words government and preservation rather point to what a king does for his subjects than to what the head of a family does for its members,—they are political rather than domestic words. So much may be fairly alleged in favour of the change. But the Latin word means "household" or “ family,"a word which occurs thrice elsewhere, once in the first Good Friday Collect, where God is besought "graciously to behold" His family; and again in the Collects for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, and the Twenty-second after Trinity, in both of which He is besought to keep His household with continual fatherly care (not, as

were to "make the Collects longer, by way of making them more affecting.' Those who object to the terseness of our Collects manifest, by the very objection, a total inability to appreciate their excellence. (See Canon Bright's "Ancient Collects" [Oxford and London, 1869], p. 197; and Macaulay's "History of England" [London, 1855], vol. iii. p. 476.)

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our translation runs, to keep it "in continual godliness," or "continually in his true religion"). Here the prayer is that He would "mercifully look upon " His household ; and we may remind ourselves that, if we desire God to look down upon us, we must be careful to look up to Him. It is said that, when the two disciples, who heard John the Baptist speak of our Lord as the Lamb of God, followed Jesus, "Jesus turned, and saw them following." We must follow Him in earnest prayer, and cry after Him, if we desire that He should turn and look back upon us in mercy. Great will be the consolation, if He looks back in such a manner that we become conscious that His eye of compassion is bent upon us,-if our eyes meet His. Secondly, it will be observed that the original Latin Prayer spoke of God's government as applying only to the body, and of His preservation as applying only to the soul. It is very difficult fully to appreciate the distinction; and our Reformers have done wisely in obliterating it. Surely we need preservation or guardianship for the body as well as for the soul, and government or guidance for the soul as much as for the body. And so, having perhaps in view that passage of the Epistle to the Thessalonians, "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," they have thrown together the body and soul, as well as the petitions preferred for each one of them respectively,—" that by thy great goodness they may be governed and preserved evermore, both in body and soul." God, in the government and preservation of His people, appears as their king and lawgiver, according to that word of the prophet Isaiah; "The Lord is our law

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1 St. John i. 38.

21 Thess. v. 23.

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giver, the Lord is our king; he will save us.' For it is the law of a country, the executive of which is lodged in the sovereign, which not only governs the subjects, lays them under restraint, and exacts from them contributions, but also protects them-makes their properties, their lives, and even their characters safe. And observe that this protection is for loyal subjects only; if a man will not submit himself to the governance of the law, he shall forfeit his right to be protected by the law; the law itself shall take away his property, his freedom, or (in the last resort) his life. So it is only in obedience to the government of the heavenly Lawgiver that we find our preservation; and awful indeed it is to think that a wilful and habitual sinner throws himself out of the protection of Him, in whose hand momently is his life, health, fortune, and every blessing which he is permitted to enjoy.

"Both in body and soul." It is interesting to observe how faithfully the Prayer Book echoes the Bible in bringing the body into the sphere of religion, in recognising its sanctification, and the function which it has to fulfil in the service of God. Consecrated to God in Baptism as a temple of the Holy Ghost, the body is fed in the other and higher Sacrament with the symbols of Christ's body and blood, in token and anticipation of its resurrection, according to that word of the Saviour; "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." Hence in the Office of the Holy Communion we are taught to pray that we may so "eat the flesh of" God's "dear Son, Jesus Christ, and drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body," and also to "offer and present

1 Isaiah xxxiii. 22.

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2 St. John vi. 54.