might cure our pride, the root and beginning of all sin, the ruin of angels and men, appeared in great humility, was born in a stable, and died upon a cross. But at His second coming and manifestation, He shall be revealed from Heaven in His glorious Majesty, to ascend His throne and judge the world. With an eye to this last grand Epiphany, as well as to teach the high privileges and strict obligation to purity and holiness, in opposition to all the works of the devil, the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for this last Sunday of the Season are appointed. The Lessons, ending those of Isaiah, which have been read since the first Sunday in Advent, shew forth plainly the calling of the Gentiles, the rejection of the Jews, and the final end of all things, when "the Lord will come with fire, and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire" (Is. lxvi. 15). The least attention to it will shew the whole service to be of this nature, and if devout attention be paid to it, it will strongly enforce the very important and practical application of the whole, which is plainly pointed out and powerfully taught in the inspired words of St. Paul to Titus, first bishop of Crete, which may well be called the sum of the Gospel, in faith and practice. "The grace of God, which bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men; teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing (Epiphany in the original) of the great God, even our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works" (Tit. ii. 11-14). It were well if these four verses were treasured up in every Christian's faithful memory, and made the subject of frequent devout meditation. The beautiful Collect for the day gives us an excellent prayer for grace to comply with them, that grace which ends in glory. This Collect, which, with the Service belonging to it, was added at the last review of the Liturgy, upon the King's happy restoration, is seldom used in public. It answers well, however, as a general Collect for the Season of Epiphany, as that of the first Sunday, through Advent. It may with great advantage be used as a private and family prayer,-the Prayer-book being indeed a store-house of doctrine and devotion fitted for all occasions. THE SEASON BEFORE LENT. ALLELUIA!1 best and sweetest Of the hymns of praise above! Angel host, these notes of love : While your golden harps ye move. Alleluia! Church victorious, Join the concert of the sky! Join not yet your melody. Alleluia! strains of gladness Suit not souls with anguish torn: Best become our state forlorn : We with bitter tears must mourn. But our earnest supplication, Visit us with Thy salvation, Ours at length this strain shall be. 1 In the ancient Church, the allelujah, "praise the Lord," which is the voice of rejoicing, ceased on Septuagesima Sunday, and was not renewed till Easter. Septuagesima Sunday. "I have all, and abound; I am full.”—Phil. iv. 18. SUCH is St. Paul's confession concerning his temporal condition, even in the midst of his trials. Those trials brought with them spiritual benefits; but, even as regarded this world, he felt he had cause for joy and thankfulness, in spite of sorrows, pains, labours, and self-denials. He did not look on this life with bitterness, complain of it morosely, or refuse to enjoy it; he was not soured, as the children of men often are, by his trials; but he felt that if he had troubles in this world, he had blessings also; and he did not reject these, but made much of them. all, and abound; I am full," he says. And elsewhere he tells us, that "every creature of God is good," and that "godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come" (1 Tim. iv. 8). "I have Gloom is no Christian temper; that repentance is not real which has not love in it, that self-chastisement is not acceptable which is not sweetened by faith and cheerfulness. We must live in sunshine, even when we sorrow; we must live in God's presence- -we must not shut ourselves up in our own hearts-even when we are reckoning up our past sins. These thoughts are suitable on this day, when we first catch a sight, as it were, of the forty days of Lent. If God, then, gives us grace to repent, it is well; if He enables us to chasten soul and body, to Him be praise; and for that very rea son, while we do so, we must not cease rejoicing in Him. All through Lent we must rejoice, while we afflict ourselves. Though "many be called, but few chosen;" though we must "so run that we may obtain ;" though we must be " temperate in all things," and "keep under our body and bring it into subjection," lest we be cast-aways; yet, through God alone, we can do this; and while He is with us, we cannot but be joyful; His absence only is a cause for sorrow. We The three holy children are said to have stood up in the midst of the fire, and to have called on all the works of God to rejoice with them: on sun and moon, stars of heaven, nights and days, showers and dew, frost and cold, lightnings and clouds, mountains and hills, green things upon the earth, seas and floods, fowls of the air, beasts and cattle, and children of men,-to praise and bless the Lord, and magnify Him for ever. have no such trial as they; we have no such awful suspense as theirs, on entering the burning fiery furnace. We can neither instance their faith, nor equal their rejoicing; yet we can imitate them so far as to look abroad into this fair world, which God made " very good," while we mourn over the evil which Adam brought into it; to hold communion with what we see, while we seek Him Who is invisible; to admire it, while we abstain from it; to acknowledge God's love, while we deprecate His wrath; to confess that many as are our sins, His grace is greater. Our sins are more in number than the hairs of our head, yet even the hairs of our head are all numbered by Him. He counts our sins, and, as He |