SECOND SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY.

Almighty and everlasting God, Who dost govern all things in heaven and earth; Mercifully hear the supplications of Thy people, and grant us Thy peace all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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THE mighty King Hezekiah, when restored almost by miracle, and when by miracle assured that his prayer was heard, regarded as a sufficient answer the promise that there should be peace during his lifetime: and in each generation the petition goes up, Give peace in our time, O Lord!' Such wars as we have known in late years enable us to appreciate the blessing of national peace, to which we had long become so accustomed that we forgot it could ever be disturbed; but now we are reminded by the sufferings of others, how great and how tender is the mercy by which we are still encircled in our island homes. In our prayer, however, we ask for a deeper and more abiding gift, 'Thy peace;' that peace of the Lord Jesus which can exist in the midst of outward violence; which was experienced by many in the battle-fields of the Crimea and the fortresses of India; His peace, which can subdue the madness of the people, and say to the winds and waters, 'Be still.' It is remarkable how large a place the idea of Peace occupies, and

how often in various applications the word occurs in Holy Scripture, compared with its small account in human schemes of felicity. Peace is generally esteemed as a cold and dim anticipation, a sort of 'twilight grey,' a state in which there is rather resignation than happiness; as though excitement were a necessary ingredient of bliss. This is partly because its presence is so noiseless; it lies about us like the quiet of the summer air, and we are only conscious of it when it is disturbed; but undoubtedly, even in its external sense, Peace is not duly valued; even Christian people do not ‘seek peace and ensue it;' they do not, as much as in them lies, live peaceably with all men ;' they do not 'study to be quiet;' the gratification of self defence, the pleasure of uttering a retort or repartee, the love of argument for its own sake, the pride of overthrowing the opinion of another and maintaining one's own, the desire to prove oneself in the right even in the smallest matters, are preferred to Peace; it ought not so to be. Peace in all its significations and applications, was the Saviour's dying bequest; 'Peace I leave with you.' Internal Peace, in its full meaning, is that equilibrium of the whole moral being which leaves every power free to enjoy a holy liberty; a liberty redeemed from fear; a liberty that moves within the circle of Divine Love; it is that calmness of the soul in which the image of God is reflected, as the moon is in still water; it is not the ice-bound stream catching a glittering

ray, but the deep calm lake receiving into its bosom and giving back the image of the heaven above it. Some would paint joy as a streak of dazzling brightness breaking athwart the cloud; it is not so; peace is the calm blue sky in which the sunshine of joy is sparkling. Peace is emphatically God's own gift, and is to the Christian a citadel of strength 'keeping his heart and mind,' while the enemy rages outside.

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THIRD SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY.

Almighty and everlasting God, mercifully look upon our infirmities, and in all our dangers and necessities stretch forth Thy right hand to help and defend us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

To the Almighty and Everlasting we appeal, beseeching Him to look in mercy on our infirmities, as distinguished, perhaps, from our sins; for besides our woeful need of pardoning grace as sinners, we have deep need of condescending mercy and pity as weak and helpless creatures. Both are found in the loving heart of our Saviour; 'He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are but dust;' and in all our dangers and necessities the power of the Lord is present to heal even now, as when to the poor leper He put 'Philippians, iv. 7.

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2 Psalm ciii. 14.

forth His hand and touched him, saying, 'I will, be thou clean;' 'His hand is stretched out still,' not in judgment but in compassion; and His mighty power is shown in stretching forth His

hand to heal.

We are surrounded by dangers which we see not and necessities which we feel not; our dangers are hidden from us by the unceasing care which guards us day and night; and our necessities are concealed by the unfailing regularity of the supply; so that we rarely remember to thank Him for our preservation;' and it is well that apparent trifles are sometimes permitted to show that they are dangers, and that the great events of our lives are made to hinge on the insignificant, in order to teach us the lesson of constant dependence.

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We lose half our trust if we apply this prayer only to what we consider our spiritual dangers and necessities, the concerns of the soul: for soul, body, and spirit; for this day's walk through the world as well as for eternity; for daily food, for suitable raiment, for domestic comfort, as well as for spiritual sustenance; for the kindly intercourse of friendship to-day, as well as for the society of saints and angels in glory, we must seek the supply of all our need from The Giver of every good gift; and it is in thus exercising a constant sense of dependence and trust, in thus mingling the thought of God with every circumstance of life, that we shall maintain a close and real inter

course with Him, and learn indeed that He is a God at hand, and not a God afar off.

FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY.

O God, Who knowest us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers, that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright; Grant to us such strength and protection, as may support us in all dangers, and carry us through all temptations; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

EVERYONE thinks it is an awful thing to die; but truly it is an awful thing to live; none the less awful because we are blind to the worst of the many and great dangers which surround us. We are set in the midst of them; not by choice; not by chance; we are here, as a matter of actual fact, surrounded by dangers as 'great' as those which beset our first parents when 'the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,'' by snares which may entangle our steps and cast us down to perdition, by an enemy who seeks our destruction like a lion roaring after his prey; and by manifold evils arising from the state into which sin has thrown human society. The dangers are 'many;' we are ever ready to fancy that the opposite of wrong is right, that the opposite of falsehood must be

1 2 Corinthians, xi. 3.