XII.

THE PRAYERS AND THANKSGIVINGS, AND EVENSONG.

"Almighty and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve; Pour down upon us the abundance of Thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord."-The Collect for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity.

STILL standing, at the close of the Creed, Minister and

people exchange Benedictions in a form as old as the Apostles, and indeed found in the Book of Ruth and the 129th Psalm. Then, all kneeling, follow the four SUFFRAGES used responsively, which are prayers for mercy, salvation, purity and sanctification. After the example of Our Saviour in the Garden and on the Cross, they are brief ejaculatory petitions, taken from the 85th and 51st Psalms, and placed here to mark the transition to the last general division of the Daily Service, that of PRAYER. The words, "Let us pray," are sometimes employed to recall wandering thoughts. Distractions which are permitted soon grow into a habit of unconscious diversion, which is to be conquered only by a conscious effort.

The first Prayers here used in the Service are very brief and are termed "Collects," they being pithy condensations

of thought, and because collected and offered by one voice. In the case of the first Collect, named in the rubric the "Collect for the Day," an additional reference is had to its being generally a brief expression of the truths dwelt on in the day's Epistle and Gospel. The "Day" referred to is the Sunday or Holy-day, or both, which gives the keynote to the teaching of the week. And the reason for the precedence given to this Collect here is that all shall, in public or private devotion, keep familiarized with the special instruction of the time, and shall further, by this act, tie the Daily Service in thought to the Communion Office, of which the Collect is an inherent part. The only exemption allowed in the rubric is when the Holy Communion itself is immediately to follow.

In their brevity and comprehensiveness, Collects differ from the longer, extemporaneous prayers of non-liturgical bodies, as well as from other prayers in our own fitual. They are intended to stimulate devotion, concentrate attention and prevent weariness, by their variety and the frequency of the responses. They are easily memorized in youth and are a great help to private devotion. Nearly all of them were originally in Latin, and to the more rhetorical usage of the Greek Church they are practically unknown. They are modelled above all on the Lord's Prayer, but also on the prayer of the Primitive Church at the choice of St. Matthias, and on that for boldness after the healing of the lame man and the imprisonment of Péter and John, as narrated in the first and fourth. chapters of the Acts; the latter prayer indeed appearing to be a precomposed form. In them both, the supplication itself, though highly important, is greatly condensed,

while the address is a prominent feature. "God is in Heaven, and thou upon the earth; therefore let thy words be few."

The structure of a Collect is exact and definite. Its rules are deduced from the prayers of saints, as those of grammar from the usage of classic authors. It properly consists of a single intense period or sentence, seldom long, and containing but a single petition. Tertullian calls. them "arrows of prayer shot by Christians to Heaven." Their outline or plan, when well constructed, has five parts, i. e.: 1. The invocation or address. 2. The reason, frequently historical, on which the petition is based. 3. The petition itself. 4. The resulting benefit desired. 5. The pleading of Christ's merits, or an ascription of praise, sometimes both.

The second and third Collects which follow, those For Peace and For Grace, are used daily because they ask for blessings without which life is not worth living. Both are very old Latin prayers, found in the Sacramentary of Gelasius as early as 494 A. D., and are very appropriate for use in Family Prayer. That for Peace is really for defence and safety; for the Church Militant against her spiritual foes, and for the peace of each Christian soldier. By "knowledge," the life of thought is indicated, and by service," the life of action. That service is even more beautifully characterized in the Latin, by the words, "Whom to serve is to reign." The "grace" asked for in the next Collect is "to live well," to obey and to serve ; like the clauses, "Thy Kingdom come" and "Thy will be done” in the Lord's Prayer. The" defence" solicited is first from sin; and both Collects breathe the spirit of morning

freshness and activity. Matins ended here in the First Book, but longer, intercessory Prayers now follow; with permission, in the English Book, for an Anthem at this point, and direction for the insertion of the Litany, when used. On any week-day the Service with us may close here with the Grace alone.

The first of the Intercessions for others is (not merely in national crises, but) always for the authorities of the State (and especially For the President) as St. Paul directs in I. Timothy ii. 1, 2. It is modelled on the Prayer for the Queen's Majesty in the English Book, and was originally more rhetorical, being first found in the private prayers of Queen Katharine, the consort of King Henry VIII. The English Book has no break after this Prayer, which is followed there by one for the Royal Family. Our rubric directs the omission of the remaining Prayers when the Litany is to be used, and permits the omission when the Holy Communion is immediately to follow (the Grace may properly conclude in the latter case), on account of the intercessory character of these Offices.

Next after the Prayer for Rulers comes that For Clergy and People, this being over thirteen hundred years old. In the English Book the attribute assigned to God is "Who alone workest great marvels," referring to the gifts of Pentecost to the early Church; but our own beautiful phrase, "from Whom cometh every good and perfect gift," is better. The Prayer is for healthful cleansing and continued refreshment. The Church's growth depends upon the earnestness and frequency of such supplications. Prayer upbuilds, and stifles the too frequent destructive criticism which would pull down. This is appropriate for

private use, specially fitting during a vacancy in the Cure or See, and always so for our own Bishop, Priest and congregation.

The Prayer For all Conditions of Men was originally much longer, having been written in 1662 by the Bishop of Ely as a substitute for the Litany, before the restoration of the Prayer Book after its abolition by the Puritans. It is now printed as an Occasional Prayer by the English Church, but is there ordered to be used when the Litany is not said. In tone it resembles that for the Church Militant, and is founded on the Good Friday Collects. Recognizing the breadth of the Holy Catholic (or Universal) Church, it is really a daily Prayer for Christian Unity, and for the holding of the Faith in peace and righteousness. Even broader than this, it addresses the Creator and Preserver of all mankind, and includes all men, especially the afflicted, and its first part is an admirable petition for Foreign Missions. The distresses of life are classified as those of mind, body and estate (condition), and relief is asked through patience and peace. The marginal rubric allows the insertion of a clause of special application. At this point are to be inserted any Special Prayers which may be appropriate, taken from the Table of such which follows the Litany.

In the English Book, our General Thanksgiving, which follows here, appears as one of these Occasional Thanksgivings, and its Daily Service closes without it, though it is really said there perhaps nearly as often as with us. This precious form of words, compiled in 1662 by Bishop Reynolds from one used after a triumphal progress of Queen Elizabeth, is half thanksgiving, and half prayer for the