from the deep of the earth again.”1

But hear him on his

deathbed, how he sighs after the things which God had promised," Although my house be not so with God," has not gone on prosperously and without reverses, as the morning light waxes, and the grass grows, continuously, "yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire."2 The everlasting covenant was all David's "desire" in that season, as well as all his "salvation." His heart and mind, touched by the magnetism of grace, were true to the polestar of the hope which God held out. Shall not this reprove us, who, with light so much brighter than his, have desires so much fainter for the joys above?

Finally, do not omit to observe the beautiful appropriateness of this clause to the Christian season for which the Collect is appointed. We are drawing near the Ascension Day, and feel that we are drawing near to it. We shall soon be called upon to pray that we may (in a spiritual sense) accompany our Lord in His journey to the realms above; that "like as we do believe " Him "to have ascended into the heavens, so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually Here, then, Here, then, is a first foretaste of the Ascension

dwell." Collect.

"Make our hearts true to Thy precepts, to Thy promises, O God. Make our happiness more and more independent of circumstances, which are ever shifting and varying like the wind. And thus do away with everything within us which might resist the attraction of a crucified, risen, and ascended Saviour, and draw us after Him, and unto Him, 'with cords of a man, with bands of love.' "3

1 Ps. lxxi. 18, P.B.V.

2 2 Sam. xxiii. 5.

3 See Hosea xi. 4.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER.

Lord, from whom all good things do come; Grant to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Deus, a quo cuncta bona procedunt, largire supplicibus tuis, ut cogitemus, te inspirante, quae recta sunt, et te gubernante eadem faciamus. Per Dominum.1—Gel. Sac.-Miss. Sar.

THIS Collect may be traced up through the Missal of Sarum to the Sacramentary of Gelasius, who was raised to the Papal chair in 492 A.D. The only deviations from the original made by the translators in 1549 are first, the addition of two adjectives, God's "inspiration" being called "holy," and His "guiding" "merciful." If these epithets cannot be said to add much to the sense of the Collect, they at least do something for its sound. Great and commendable pains were taken by the compilers of our Prayer Book to make the prayers rhythmical to the ear, under the view, possibly, that rhythm is not merely an ornament of style, but also an assistance to the memory. Besides these additions, the translators substituted the word "good" for "right" in the petition of the Collect. The Latin has, "Grant that by thy inspiration we may think those things that be right." The English is, "that

1 Gel. Sac., as given by Mur. [tom. i. col. 585], omits the words "tuis" and "Dominum."

by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good." "Good" has an advantage over right in this respect, that it establishes an instantaneous connexion between the petition of the Collect and the doctrine that "all good things come from God," on which it is based. But, on the other hand, there is some forfeiture of idea in the alteration. "Good" is a much more comprehensive term than "right." Things morally "good" are "right." But the word "good" applies as well to God's natural blessings, health, strength, food, raiment, success, as to His spiritual blessings, the grace to discern what is His will, and the power to do it. And there is every reason to think that natural blessings, though not as high in the scale of God's gifts as spiritual, were specially in the contemplation of the original framers of the prayer.

The

"O Lord, from whom all good things do come." Fifth Sunday after Easter is sometimes called Rogation Sunday, as being the commencement of the week in which the Rogation days fall, and which is characterized by them. The Rogation days (or days of asking) are said to have been instituted by Mamertus,1 Bishop of Vienne in France,

1 Or Mamercus (for the name is given in both forms). Solemn supplications, or Rogations, existed before the time of Mamertus; but he was the first who affixed them to the three days immediately before Ascension Day. One chief object of these Rogations, Sidonius Apollinaris tells us, was "ut aut imbres aut serenitatem deprecarentur." See the passage of Sidonius cited by Bingham in a note to "Ant. of Christian Church, Book xxi. ii. 8 :-"The Rogation days of Mamertus were received in the English Church at an early period, as the Council of Cloveshoo appointed that these three days should be kept holy, after the manner of former times.” -Palmer's "Origines," vol. i. p. 270. [Oxford, 1839.] The Council of Cloveshoo (a place which can now only be conjecturally identified) was held in 747, under Archbishop Cuthbert, Ethelbald king of Mercia presiding. See a reference to another of its acts on p. 39 of this Volume.

use.

about the middle of the fifth century. They were instituted, it is said, in view of certain calamities, earthquake and fire, which had occurred in that district, and a recurrence of which was to be deprecated by litanies, or solemn supplications to God, said or sung in procession. But, independently of this local reason for the institution, the Fifth Sunday after Easter had, probably before the time of Mamertus, been considered a suitable season, as falling in the full burst of spring, for praising God for the produce of the earth, and imploring Him to preserve it to man's In short, it was regarded as a sort of harvest festival, only celebrated, not at the time of the harvest, but in anticipation of it-a season at which Christians reminded themselves how precarious was the increase, the tokens of which they saw all around them, how easily blight, or insects, or two or three days of drought or wet at a critical period, might utterly ruin what at present promised so well, and in this uncertainty betook themselves to Him, "from whom all good things do come," to bring the fruit to perfection, ripening the blade into the ear, and the ear into the full corn, so that there might be not promise only, but a joyful ingathering at the appointed time. the Reformed Church it was thought well to preserve these Rogation Days. Accordingly a homily, in four parts, was appointed for this week, one part for each of the three Rogation Days, and a fourth to be read in the course of the perambulation which was made round the bounds of parishes during this week, and which served to keep up the memory of the bounds, and so to prevent territorial disputes. These perambulations may be regarded as a relic of the ancient litanies of Mamertus, which were to be sung in procession. They are the only processions, besides those in the Marriage and Burial Services, which

In

The sub

have been retained by the Reformed Church. ject of the homily, as given in its heading, is "That all good things cometh from God." The first part speaks of natural "good things;" the second of the "good things" of fortune and circumstance; the third of spiritual "good things," as coming from God; while the fourth part, which was to be delivered on the day of perambulation, distinctly recognises the fact that the principal object of the assembling together is "to laud and thank Almighty God for his great benefits, by beholding the fields replenished with all manner of fruit, and to make our humble suits in prayers to his fatherly providence, to conserve the same fruits in sending us seasonable weather." The first clause of the Collect then, " from whom all good things do come," must be understood to glance at the vernal produce of the earth, the leaf, bud, and blossom which we see around us. on all sides in the opening spring, as being the result of God's working in the realm of Nature. But because this reference was not sufficiently explicit, the Royal Commissioners, appointed to revise the Book of Common Prayer in the reign of William the Third, prepared a new Collect1 for Rogation Sunday, expressly asking for seasonable weather that we may gather in the fruits of the earth, and chose as the Gospel that passage of the Sermon on the Mount, in which our Saviour bids us take no thought for our life,

1 This Collect, which may be seen in Procter on The Book of Common Prayer" (Cambridge 1855), Appendix ii. p. 249, runs thus :- -"Almighty God, who hast blessed the earth that it should be fruitful, and bring forth every thing that is necessary for the life of man, and hast commanded us to work with quietness and eat our own bread; Bless us in all our labours, and grant us such seasonable weather that we may gather in the fruits of the earth, and ever rejoice in thy goodness, to the praise of thy holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord." The portion of Scripture appointed for the Epistle was Deut. xxviii. 1-9, and the Gospel was St. Matt. vi. 25, to the end.