It is a night indeed

As erst to be observed, and from like cause

A race from slavery freed,

Snatched from destruction's wide-extended jaws. With shoes upon thy feet, and staff in hand, Prepare in haste to leave thy Egypt's guilty land.

Indulge not careless ease,

Nor rest unsanctified beneath thy roof;

Thy God was on his knees,

Wilt thou refuse? From him friends stood aloof,
And all that earth had ever seen of woe

Was sent that awful night for thy dear Lord to know.

Again thy life review ;

Weep o'er thy sins, fresh resolutions make
Thy footsteps to renew,

And every course forbidden to forsake:

Then with a humble heart the morn await,

And Calvary ascend through his own temple-gate,

165

GOOD FRIDAY.

Morning Lessons, Gen. xxii. to v. 20. Evening Lessons, Isa. liii.

ALMIGHTY GOD, we beseech Thee graciously to behold this Thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end, Amen.

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified; receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before Thee for all estates of men in Thy holy Church, that every member of the same in his vocation and ministry, may truly and godly serve Thee, through our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

O MERCIFUL GOD, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that Thou hast made, nor wouldest the death

of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live; have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Hereticks, and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of Thy word; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to Thy flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be made one fold under one Shepherd, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

Ill, it has been observed, does the name of this day seem to accord with the subject of it. "A day of fasting and of prayer, of humiliation and sorrow; a day of darkness, of blood and death;" a day which witnessed the most awful transaction that history has ever recorded, or the world can ever again witness-the Son of God crucified, and that by the very beings for whom he was content to lay down His sacred life. But good, nevertheless, unutterably good, is this holy day to the whole race of mankind; for, to the death of Christ we owe life, and all that is really good, either in time or eternity. Joy and sorrow, shame and gratitude, then must rightly divide our heart; and draw from us proofs of conduct suitable to such emotions. From the very earliest ages this holy day has been observed in the strictest penitential manner; nor can it be supposed that any arguments are needed at the present time to enforce such a respect of it, as a merci

ful God must expect at our hands, or, as decency, not to say just and holy thankfulness, demands.

Great care has been taken in the selection of the different parts of the office of this sacred day. Our meditation throughout the week has been gradually, yet forcibly drawn to the awful event which completes it; but on this day, all that can affect our heart, enliven our faith, or enlarge our charity, has been brought to bear. The Collects, embracing the cause of our Lord's death, and the blessed effects of it, are so framed as to omit no petition which such a cause, and such results, in the true spirit of charity, suggest.

The first Morning Lesson narrates the offering up of Isaac, in which remarkable transaction, the love of God, the Father, in giving His only Son to die for us, and the obedience of God, the Son, to the will of his Father, are clearly and strikingly typified.* The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah is again selected, and, most appropriately, for the first Evening Lesson; the day's awful event being at once a commentary upon it, and the fulfilment of the prophecies it contains. The second Morning Lesson and the Gospel, which was reserved with great propriety for this day, show the completion of all that had been foretold of the sufferings of the Messiah; and should leave us grateful

*The Church used this Lesson for this day's service so early as the time of St. Austin. This eminent man, who was Bishop of Hipps, was born at Tojaste in Numidia, in the year 354, and died in the year 430.

indeed for our redemption, but humble and afflicted at the cause of them.

The Epistle and the second Evening Lesson point out the blessed effects of Christ's death, and enforce the practical application of it in a life of obedience and godliness, of faith and purity. In the second Evening Lesson we are exhorted to patience under afflictions, the example of our blessed Redeemer being propounded for our imitation.

The Proper Psalms are so suitable to the subject of the day, that they require no comment. The twentysecond in particular, which was either in part or entirely recited by our Lord on the Cross, and of which many passages were literally fulfilled in His sufferings, can never be read without the liveliest sentiments of awe and astonishment, of love and grateful sorrow.