caused this command: these additional exercises are designed, not only as a preparation for a due observance of the coming festival of the Ascension, but also to implore the favour of God upon the fruits of the earth now making their appearance.

The Collect, devoutly and humbly acknowledging that all good things, whether spiritual or natural, are the sole gift of Almighty God, prays that He would, by His Holy Spirit, so influence our hearts that both in thought and deed, we may do those things that are acceptable to Him.

The Epistle warns us that the mere hearing of the word, without the corresponding fruits of righteousness, is vain; that religion, to obtain favour with God, must be founded on love to Him, and shewn in love to man for his sake, and in careful abstinence from every species of iniquity; that, in short, we must be found conscientiously performing the whole sum of our duty to God, to our neighbours and ourselves. The Gospel shews us how this great end may be obtained, namely, by prayer to God in the name of the Son of God, who in this portion of Scripture gives us every possible encouragement to call upon his heavenly Father, and every consolation that we can require under every condition of life.

The journey of the Israelites through the wilder

the occasion of an impending calamity, appointed extraordinary prayers and supplications to be used in his diocese. In the beginning of the sixth century the first council at Orleans appointed that these days should be yearly observed.

ness is figurative, and represents, as it were, typically, our own passage through the world. In the chosen people, as in a mirror, we behold ourselves, and in what befell them, we are taught to find an application to ourselves. With this understanding the Proper Lessons for this and several preceding Sundays may be considered addressed to ourselves as to those to whom they were originally committed; and as such we must give diligent heed to the many forcible and affecting motives by which they urge us to love and obedience; to dependence and humble trust in Him who is our Guide and Protector, as He was that of the Hebrews of old, amidst all the dangers of our earthly pilgrimage.

ST. JAMES i. 27.

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Oн proud of heart! through ages, still the same
And e'er shall be, weak man, the slave of sense;
Fond of all outward things, and vain pretence,
Thy worthiest worship placing oft in name.

For easier 'tis to live by strictest mode,
Bend the bare knee till callous it become,
Make caves our bed, the forest wild our home,
And tread with bleeding feet the thorny road;

To rob poor nature of due food and rest,

Court pain, and lash with scourge the meagre form,
Bare our defenceless head and brave the storm,
And clothe our shivering limbs in coarsest vest;

Than in retired and simple path to dwell,
No praise desiring but the praise of God;
Budding like simple flower on meanest sod,
Yet freshening all like fountain in the dell :

Than to restrain the darling vice that preys

Upon our heart, or such a victory gain

As shall not win the admiration vain

Of sinners like ourselves, and fix their gaze.

Man would his Maker serve, but more his pride,

A monstrous thought by Satan's self begot; More deadly sin than this assails him not,— Fame sought in paths which God hath sanctified.

Pure must the Christian be, and humble seen
E'en as the lowly Lord whose name he bears,
Above the world's applause, its fears, its cares,
The soother of all woe, midst woe serene.

Such Christ alone will love, our God receive.
The saintly hypocrite but wakes his ire,
Who offers on his breast unhallowed fire,
And dares himself, yea, e'en his God deceive.

Such meek disciple's name in fame's proud roll,
With pompous eulogies may not appear,
Yet shall it sound in his enraptured ear

When earth shall shrivel as a parched scroll.

223

ASCENSION DAY.

Morning Lessons, Deut. x.

St. Luke xxiv. 44.

Epistle, Acts i. 1.
Proper Psalms, viii. xv. xxi.

Evening Lessons, 2 Kings ii.
Ephesians iv, to v. 17.
Gospel, St. Mark xvi. 14.
Proper Ps. xxiv. xlvii. cviii.

COLLECT.

GRANT, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe, Thy only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with Him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

A devout observance of the Christian fasts and festivals is highly beneficial, tending as it does to strengthen our faith, and to reduce faith to practice. It speaks but little for the really religious temper of late years, that this holy day has been, and still is suffered to pass as 66 a common prayer day," as it is called, and without any especial reverence to mark its solemnity. Yet surely it is one which commands our utmost veneration, and may well call forth our best hopes, our utmost wonder and gratitude. And