...

all thy strength"-the loving Him with the love of gratitude; with the love of instinct and natural attraction, as drawn towards Him by the conviction that He is our chief good; and with the love of the judgment and reason, as being in all his attributes supremely worthy of love. But observe the close connexion of this aspiration with the petition," Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts . . . that we may perfectly love thee." Before the perfect love of God can be formed in any heart it must be cleansed, not only from the love of sin, but from all idolatrous love of the creatures. Love the creatures indeed we may (nay, we are commanded to love our neighbour as ourselves2), but we must love them in and for God, and in subordination to Him; we must regard them as borrowing all that they have of beauty, and excellence, and worth from Him, just as all the fair colours of nature are really resident, not in Nature, but in the light, are borrowed from the sun. An idolized creature in any corner of the heart excludes God from that corner. That idol, therefore, must be torn down, the thoughts of the heart must be cleansed from it, before we can "love God perfectly."

"And worthily magnify thy holy Name; "-in the original, which is not quite so full, "worthily praise thee." Observe that praise follows in the train of love; the magnifying of God's Name is the outcome, the natural and necessary expression, of love for Him. Praise is the voice of love, as prayer is the voice of faith. Prayer would be an absolute impossibility, where there is no faith; for "he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him; and praise is an equal impossibility, where the heart is abso1 St. Mark xii. 30.

2 St. Mark xii. 31.

3 Heb. xi. 6.

lutely untouched by the love of God in any form. And let us remember that the Holy Communion, for which this Collect forms a preparation, is a sacrifice of praise. For do we not say, after celebrating it, "We thy humble servants entirely desire thy fatherly goodness mercifully to accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving"?

In conclusion; it cannot be too strongly urged upon those who offer this prayer at the opening of the Office of the Holy Communion, and say “Amen” from the ground of their hearts to the Priest's recital of it, that they must assuredly believe in the answer to it being vouchsafed if they would really possess the boon they ask for.2 It is not mere prayer, however fervent and persevering, but believing prayer, which is crowned with success, prayer in which the faith of the petitioner lays hold of the love of God in Christ, and of the truth of the promises made to us in Christ. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all," He who gives Him to us afresh sacramentally in this holy Ordinance, "how shall he not with him also freely give us" that Spirit, which is the first and most essential requisite to make the Ordinance of avail ? 3 We must recognise in God a longing to give us His Spirit, far stronger and deeper than any which we discover in our own hearts to seek it; for has He not said to us by the Son of His love; "If ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" Will the veriest

4

1 Amen is to be said by the people to the Collect (as is shown by its being printed in Italics), though to the Lord's Prayer it is to be said by the Priest alone, which is indicated by its being printed in the same type as the Prayer itself.

2 See St. Mark xi. 24. 3 See Rom. viii. 32. 4 St. Luke xi. 13.

ruffian share his last crust of bread with his hungry and crying child, and shall not the Heavenly Father who is light1 and love,2 respond to the first earnest cry of His baptized children for that grace which is the sustenance of the soul? To suppose for a moment that we are more solicitious and earnest about our sanctification and salvation than He, is virtually to deny His message of reconciliation, and thereby to throw such discredit upon His truth and love as to shut ourselves out from a participation in them.

1 See 1 John i. 5.

2 See 1 John iv. 8, 18.

PART II.

COLLECTS VARYING WITH THE ECCLESIASTICAL

SEASON.

CHAPTER I.

THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT.

Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty to judge both the quick and dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.

THIS magnificent Collect was first made in 1549. It came from the pen of Cranmer and those who were engaged under him in revising the old Latin Offices, and adapting them to the use of the Reformed Church; and, like other passages of the Prayer Book which originated with them, it shows how abundantly qualified they were for their task. But as, wherever they can do so, they appear in the character of translators rather than composers, why did they reject the Collect for the First Sunday in Advent which was found in the old Office Books, and which is perfectly free from taint of error and superstition? It ran thus; "O Lord, raise up, we pray thee, thy power and come, that through thy protection we may be delivered from the dangers which hang over us by reason of our sins, and through thy making us free we may be saved.”1 Not only is there no mischief here, but

1 Excita quæsumus, Domine, potentiam tuam et veni, ut ab imminen