into temptation;" your faith is strong that, if he should so try your fidelity, He will" deliver you from evil," for "he that spared not his own Son" as your Redeemer, -whom now you "remember" according to his own solemn ordinance-He will not deny his Holy Spirit to them that ask Him; but by that Spirit will make a way to escape.

"Almighty God

PRAYER.

through Christ our Lord.” HAVING thus far propitiated, as we humbly trust, the great Jehovah, that He may graciously incline his ear unto us, hearken to our prayer, and accept our sacrifice, we proceed to address Him as the Omnipresent God-present to us his servants upon earth, even as he is to his angels in heaven. A thought this, in itself how stupendous! How sustaining and comforting to the good! to the wicked how awful and terrifying! The wicked cannot escape the notice of such a Being -the good rejoice in the certainty of his present help and consolation'. Are all hearts open to Him? Then the humble and the contrite fear not to approach Him, even at his holy table. True! they feel their own unworthiness to receive or ask his blessing; they

1 Ps. xliv. 21. "If we have forgotten the name of our God, and holden up our hands to any strange god: shall not God search it out? for he knoweth the very secrets of the heart." Thus, to the good, collectively and individually-to the Church in her trials and to each member thereof in his—a sense of the divine presence is alike their protection and their joy. Ps. xlvi. 1. 5. "God is our hope and strength: a very present help in trouble:" "God is in the midst of her; therefore shall she not be removed: God shall help her, and that right early."

find no adequate language of their own to express their sense of his mercy; yet theirs is the reflection, at once soothing and animating, that since the God whom they worship knoweth the very secrets of the heart, their heart is open to Him; and they know that in their heart every thought is his! every fear, every hope, every wish, every affection, is centered in Him-He, their refuge whereunto they may always resort: their hope and their confidence. Hence the lowliest and the most unlearned, the trembling penitent and the returning prodigal, draw near to Him. Their heart is his, and He knoweth it: his mercy is theirs, and they rejoice in it. They have no desire which they would shame that He should know; no secret which they would hide from Him. Even those troubles and fears, which they can whisper to no human ear, they gladly and gratefully lay open to Him: upon Him they cast the whole burden of their cares and sorrows, and ere they seal their covenant anew at this holy Sacrament, each adopts the spirit and language of David-" Try me, O God, and examine my heart; see if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." And here the humble spirit in which our Church has framed her services, is so eminently conspicuous that it cannot be passed without special notice. In thus placing ourselves in the more immediate presence of a heart-searching God, there is indeed an apparent boldness, which in itself would seem almost bordering upon presumption; were it not that the requisite purity in those who so approach such a Being, is referred not to ourselves, but to the Holy Spirit, for which we pray. To that we look "to cleanse the thoughts of our hearts;" to his holy inspiration we must owe it, that

as we approach the heavenly feast, every imagination may be freed from wicked and worldly and vain desires, may be made sincere in the sight of God, may be filled with perfect love towards Him, and prepared in this service "worthily to magnify his holy name, through Christ our Lord." The prayer is one of singular force and beauty; and though peculiarly appropriate as introductory to this particular service, may well dwell in our hearts, and be poured forth from our lips, whenever we approach our God in the service of prayer, or penitence, or praise; for if there be a consideration of special weight, more than another calculated to encourage sincerity of heart when we bear our petitions to the throne of heaven, it is the happy conviction that He who sitteth thereon, knoweth our thoughts long before. What a motive for purity of thought, and uprightness of intention! Who shall dare, Judas like, to proffer to his Saviour love and honour; and cherish sin to the betrayal of his honour? What a stern monitor against concealed and secret sin! · Where is the heart not opened to Him whom we worship? What the desire, whose motive and object He knoweth not? What word or deed so secret, which sin and cunning can hide from Him? Come then, my heart; examine thy state ere thou dost approach to the Table of the Lord! If aught there be, which fear bids thee try to conceal from God, cast it from thee: conceal it thou canst not; and except by repentance there is no escape from the punishment due to it. Dost thou truly repent of the past? dost thou earnestly desire grace for the future? then rejoice that thy heart is open to the Father of spirits; rejoice that He knoweth every inmost desire of it, and that as

the secret counsels of sin and wickedness, so the secret tears of contrition and penitence are not hid from Him, with whom we have to do.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS1.

THE ten commandments are very fitly appointed to be read in this part of the service, to remind us that as He by whose name we are called Christians, came not to destroy but fulfil the law, the object of a holy faith is a holy obedience; and that as at our baptismthe first sacrament-we did solemnly promise and vow not only to believe all which God revealed, but obey all which He commanded, "even to our life's end;" as moreover we have ratified and renewed that vow at our confirmation-so we should from time to time' publicly declare our sense of the continued force of that obligation; an obligation which comes with added weight from the responsibility of added years.

In this service, therefore, we find introduced, after each commandment, a prayer to the throne of grace, that we may keep the same not in deed only, but in heart-our obedience sanctified, and raised from action to motive. But mark, here, the beautiful consistency with which our Church preserves her spirit of Chris

1 These have been already fully explained, from page 159 to 195. 2 The early Christians celebrated the communion whenever they met to worship and in our own Church, it was wont formerly to be celebrated every Sabbath.

tian humility, and enjoins the same upon all her worshippers. We are instructed that our trust for power thus to incline our hearts must be in the Lord; and our hope that He will vouchsafe that power must spring from faith in his mercy. "Lord! have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law." What an unreserved avowal, that vain are our own best endeavours, unless blessed by Him; and that his blessing, if vouchsafed at all, is of mercy, free and undeserved! The prayer, in itself so beautiful and scriptural, is the more appropriately thus placed in the service, as it allows a pause, brief indeed, but salutary, in which each worshipper, as the several commandments are declared, may in secret ask his own heart, "Am I clear of the offence forbidden? Have I fulfilled the duty enjoined? Am I willing to yield my heart to the guidance for which I pray !"

After the tenth commandment, the words of the prayer, though not the spirit of it, vary; the variation being of design, and for our further instruction. The supplication becomes still more earnest; the desire for grace still more ardent. We pray that God would not only incline our hearts to keep these laws, but that He would "write them all in our hearts," so that we should never forget them. Whilst some plunge into sin from daringly opposing or blindly disregarding the commandments, how many sin from living in forgetfulness of them? Is any one so bold, that he would sin if he remembered the penalty? Would he covet such wages as sin brings? Would he choose death? O God! in "mercy write all these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech Thee;" so that when temptation assails, they may also rise up as a fence against the evil