"And also daily endeavour ourselves" (a reflexive verb, "to endeavour oneself," now no longer in use, and therefore not to be read, as some clergy do read it, with an emphasis upon ourselves, as if it were intended to express some obligation upon us to copy Christ's life) "to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life." The general meaning is, to imitate Christ's life; but we must not fail to observe the special aspect under which the imitation is here presented to us. The Epistle and Gospel are so contrived as beautifully to dovetail into one another, inasmuch as the Epistle ends, "Ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls," 2 and the Gospel begins, “Jesus said, I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." The phrase following the steps of his most holy life" has reference to the Eastern custom (different from our own) of the shepherd going before the sheep with his crook in his hand, and the sheep following him, planting their feet upon his foot-tracks, as our Lord says, " When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him for they know his voice." Do we recognise His voice in Providence, in His Word, in the depths of our consciences ? Have we felt that we personally and individually, and not merely in the mass, are addressed by Him,—that we are known and called "by name"? And are we following Him, or endeavouring to do so, studying how we may set our feet upon the tracks which He has left behind Him all along the sands of human life?

1 This reflexive verb appears again in the seventh Answer in the "Form and Manner of Making Deacons ;" "I will endeavour myself, the Lord being my helper." 21 Pet. ii. 25. 4 St. John x. 4.

St. John x. 11.

Then may we hope that, in the dark hour when flesh and heart faileth,' He will be our guiding Shepherd still, will feed us in the green pastures of Paradise, and lead us forth beside the waters of comfort, will fulfil to us the gracious promise," Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." 2

1 See Psalm 1xxiii. 26.

2 Psalm xxiii. 2, 4.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER.

Almighty God, who shewest to them that be in error the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness; Grant unto all them that are admitted into the fellowship of Christ's Religion, that they may eschew those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Deus, qui errantibus, ut in viam possint redire justitiae, veritatis tuae lumen ostendis: da cunctis qui Christiana professione censentur, et illa respuere quae huic inimica sunt nomini, et ea quae sunt apta sectari. Per Dominum.— Miss. Sar.; and see Gel. Sac. [Mur. i. 301], and Greg. Sac. [Menard] p. 89.

THIS Collect is of great antiquity. It may be traced up to the earliest of the Sacramentaries, that of Leo the Great. Gelasius left it untouched; but Gregory added a single word to it, which developes the meaning rather more fully. As it stands in Leo's Sacramentary, the words are, "to the intent that they may return into the way." Gregory inserted the words " of righteousness," to indicate clearly what way was meant. We have already seen that in many of the Collects which they have translated, our Reformers acted upon the same principle of introducing a word or two to unfold the sense. This very ancient prayer places us in imagination in the midst of a primitive state of things, which has long since passed away. Tertullian, writing as early as the close of the second century, tells us that Easter, and the whole of the period from Easter to Pentecost, was in the early Church

one of the great seasons for the administration of Baptism.1 Catechumens, having been prepared by careful instruction during the forty days of Lent, received the Sacrament on Easter Even or during Easter tide, there being doubtless in the choice of the season an intended reference to the words of St. Paul, "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God."2 Part of the ritual of Baptism in those days consisted in the investing of the baptized person in a white linen dress, the colour symbolizing the righteousness wherewith by his engrafting into Christ he was endued, while the material, being that in which the dead were wrapped, signified that those who are "baptized into Jesus Christ" are "baptized into his death." If the Baptism took place on Easter Eve, this dress was worn till the first Sunday after Easter, when it was exchanged for ordinary attire, and laid up in the

4

1 De Baptismo, c. 19 (p. 232a). See Bingham for this reference, and for the explanation of the passage in Tertullian; "Ant. of Christian Church," Book xi. chap. vi. § 7. 2 Col. ii. 12.

3 This dress was called in Latin "alba," and in Greek λаurρà oг λevêǹ ἐσθὴς, οι ἐμφωτίον. . . . “Constantine the Great, dying shortly after his baptism, was buried μετ' αὐτῶν τῶν ἐμφωτίων, in the garments which he had then worn."-Smith and Cheetham's "Dict. of Christian Antiquities," Art. BAPTISM, § 61. In the first Prayer Book of Edward VI. (1549) the white vesture ("commonly called the crisome") was directed to be put upon the baptized infant immediately after its baptism, and before the anointing. The form of words to be used by the minister in putting it on the child was as follows:

"Take this white vesture for a token of the innocencie, whiche by God's grace in this holy sacramente of Baptisme, is geven unto the ; & for a signe wherby thou art admonished, so long as thou lyvest, to geve thy selfe to innocencie of living, that after this transitorye lyfe, thou mayst be partaker of the lyfe everlasting. Amen."

Then followed the anointing of the child upon the head, and then (what we still retain) the signing with the cross, and reception "into the congregation of Christ's flock.”—See Edward VIth's "Two Books of Common Prayer," p. 334. [Oxford, 1838.] 4 Rom. vi. 3.

church to be a witness against the newly-baptized in case of his breaking the Baptismal vow. And not unfrequently in case of death it was used as a shroud to wrap the body in, an usage which was adopted at the death of Constantine. In endeavouring, then, to understand the Collect before us, we are to imagine that just previously to the Easter Festival we had seen a large group of catechumens brought to the font and there solemnly "admitted" by Baptism "into the fellowship of Christ's Religion," and then clothed in "fine linen" robes, "white and clean," in which robes they appeared in public during the ensuing week, and which were afterwards kept as evidence against them, in case of their doing anything unworthy of their Christian profession. And the prayer,

offered for them when these white robes had been discontinued for a fortnight, and the first impressions of their regeneration by water and the Spirit were beginning to lose their freshness, was that they might do nothing hereafter which those robes should seem to reprove, and that their lives might be of a piece with the colour of the robes, holy, harmless, undefiled,-a daily dying unto sin, and living unto righteousness.

Almighty God, who shewest to them that be in error the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness." It should be clearly understood that the "error" here is not that of Christians untrue to their profession, but of the unevangelized world, or of those who, having received the faith, have apostatized from it,—the speculative error of avowed unbelief or misbelief, combined, as it so often is, with the practical error of gross vice and immorality. Unless this is heeded, the petition of the Collect will not seem to hang together with its opening clause. The imagery of