service, and address yourself with fervour to the great act of Divine communion upon which we

now enter.

THE GREAT THANKSGIVING.

The Thanksgiving.-Hitherto all has been in a sense preparatory; here we enter upon the second great division of the service, which contains the solemn and significant acts of making the memorial of the sacrifice of Christ in the breaking of the bread and the poured-out wine, and the communicating of the body and blood of Christ in the partaking of the consecrated bread and wine,

It will be interesting to you to know that the brief versicles and responses with which this division of the service opens are found almost word for word in every known liturgy, in every part of the Church, from the earliest times; and there is great reason to believe that it is a correct tradition which assigns them to the apostolic age.

"Lift up your hearts.

"We lift them up unto the Lord.”

It calls upon us for an effort of mind, an

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effort of faith. Leave the thoughts of earth and earthly things. Leave your fears and doubts behind. Gird up the loins of your soul. Open the eyes of your faith. See yourself, with your brethren, in the presence of God, prepared to take your part in those great acts of communion between God and man, through Christ, which He has instituted.

"Let us give thanks unto the Lord.

"It is meet and right so to do."

The verse and response are the antiphon— the keynote of the great verbal act of thanksgiving (euxagoría) from which the whole service takes one of its most common ancient names -the Eucharist-the Thanksgiving.

1

The early liturgies commence this thanksgiving with mention of the great works of God for man in creation, in redemption, in providence. In the liturgy in the Apostolic Constitu

1 We have seen that the common name for it in the New Testament is the Breaking of the Bread. It is once by St. Paul (1 Cor. xi. 20) spoken of as the Lord's Supper. The name Lord's Supper is retained in our Prayer-Book, and in common use; but the most common name for it now is the Holy Communion, derived from St. Paul's saying (1 Cor. x. 16): "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? the bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?"

tions, which is of the third century, this recital is of great length and of very great interest. The thanksgiving always concluded by making mention of the adoration of the angels, and by inviting the whole congregation to join with them in singing the seraphic hymn, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts, heaven and earth. are full of Thy glory; glory be to Thee, O Lord;" and while the rest of the eucharistia is said by the celebrant alone, the whole congregation sings the hymn.

The primitive Church believed, and we believe, the whole service to be a great reality. It believed that God was really present to receive the worship of His Church offered through the mediation of Christ; and if God was really present, not unattended by the court of heaven. At the injunction, "Lift up your hearts," and the response, "We lift them up unto the Lord," they translated themselves by faith into the heavens; and there, by faith, they saw what Isaiah saw in his vision: "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train [of angels] filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims, . . . and one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord

...

God of Hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.” And in taking up in this solemn service the words of the angels' hymn, they believed that they joined themselves with the angels, and the angels with them, in the offering of this act of praise. They believed that there was here a fulfilment of the words of St. Paul (Heb. xii. 22): “Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel."

So St. Chrysostom says: "The seraphims above sing the holy Trisagion hymn. The holy congregation of men on earth send up the same. The general assembly of celestial and earthly creatures join together then in one thanksgiving (xagoria), one exultation, one quoir of men and angels in one station rejoicing together." So Cyprian, so Augustine, so the whole catena of the great fathers of the Church.

This opinion of the Church of Christ from the earliest times, and always, will seem the more reasonable if you consider that the incarnation and sacrifice of Christ were stupendous mysteries which were regarded by the angels with adoring wonder. "Which things," says St. Peter (1 Pet. i. 12), "the angels desire to look into." If you consider that in all these wonderful transactions for the redemption of a kindred race God was shewing forth His wisdom and mercy to the angels, "to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God" (Eph. iii. 10); if you will consider St. John's Revelation of the worship of heaven, where the angels join together with the redeemed of men: "I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth,