Matins and Evensong, had been arranged at convenient hours for the members of the Congress in St. John's Church. That first solemn gathering, of a large number of the clergy especially, in the early morning of Tuesday, July 8, was felt to be an augury of the complete success which followed.

The other, and earlier, occasion was, in like manner, the first launching of a movement, then new, which has taken larger proportions since, and has found its natural home in the Cathedral of the Diocese, the annual festival gathering of the choirs in union with the Oxford Diocesan Choral Association. The first meeting of this kind was held in Merton Chapel on the 5th of October, 1861. The chancel was filled with a surpliced choir of clergy, men, and boys, nearly 300 strong; the transepts were occupied by a close-packed but attentive congregation, which pressed close to the brass gates of the choir. The service was glorious, especially the Our Fathers, the Creed, and the Amens; and the sight which the Chapel presented from the steps of the Altar, at the collection of the Offertory, will never fade from my recollection.

Our beautiful Services, had they survived till now, would, most happily, be no longer so nearly exceptional among parish Services, certainly not in Oxford, as they were then. But it will be allowed to have been a pardonable satisfaction which their promoters and supporters felt in finding that, on such special

occasions as I have described, our Church was naturally selected as best able to provide such special religious Services as might be needed.

The recollections of the many frequenters of the parish Services in Merton Chapel during Mr. Sargent's Incumbency, will enable them to recal various other occasions,-such as Confirmations and First Communions, the Special Lenten Services, (at which the use, now not uncommon, of the Miserere and the latter part of the Commination Service, was first introduced,) or Special Sermons by distinguished preachers, which, although of inferior public interest, added greatly to the debt of gratitude which they must all feel to him whose zeal, and taste, and liberality rendered them possible, and whose memory will ever be affectionately cherished by all who had the happiness of knowing him.

I have spoken chiefly hitherto of the musical side of my dear friend's work in the development of a nearly perfect Service. The volume to which these words are introductory will prove sufficiently that that was by no means the only, or the chief side of that work. His life and his pulpit-teaching were truly and deeply Catholic and Christian, and those who knew him best will acknowledge their deep indebtedness to his example, and personal influence, and not least to his direct instruction. The Sermons which follow are a selection from a large number which he left behind, and from which three times the number, and of equal quality,

might easily have been given. Some of those now published, I cannot but think, have a permanent and intrinsic value of their own of a practical kind: as, for example, the course which will be found in this volume (Lent Lectures, Nos. I.-VI.) on the teaching of the Holy Eucharist. But the whole, it is believed, will be a welcome gift to many who heard them; and they will be a standing monument to them and to others of the work for which he lived; a work, which, though together with himself it "seemed to die," lives still in the widely-diffused influence of which it was the centre.

P. G. MEDD.

NORTH CERNEY RECTORY,

CIRENCESTER,

July, 1876.

SERMON I.

Praise.

PSALM cxlvii. 1.

"O praise the Lord, for it is a good thing to sing praises unto our God: yea, a joyful and pleasant thing it is to be thankful."

PSALM 1. 23.

"Whoso offereth praise, glorifieth Me."

OTHING can tend more to impress us with the general coldness and flatness of our love to God, than a careful study of the Book of Psalms. When we read those inspired songs we are struck at once with a spirit of earnestness and devotion far beyond the common experience of our Own hearts; we cannot help feeling that the sentiments they express, glowing as they do with such fire of love, are unreal in our mouths, and we almost hesitate to adopt them, lest in so doing we should profane them. Every one I think must have experienced some such feelings as these with respect to the Psalms. Whether it be a strain of joy, or woe, the humble confession of sin, the thanksgiving for deliverance, or the praise of God's majesty and goodness, they each and all bespeak the deepest and

B

purest love to God. There would seem to have been no alloy in the feelings that animated those holy psalmists; no half-surrender of the affections, but such an entire abstraction from the things of earth as made them most keenly susceptible to heavenly influence.

But, although all the Psalms shame us by their earnestness and warmth, yet it is those which extol God's goodness and mercy, and speak to Him in the voice of praise and thanksgiving, that make us feel most acutely how little our hearts are attuned to such heavenly themes. Doubtless, the penitential Psalms pour forth feelings which many have never known at all, and very few in their full meaning; but yet altogether they are more familiar to us than the offering of Praise. When in trouble, we are glad to have our fears and sorrows shaped into words; we feel, then, that we are nearer to God, that His hand is upon us, and we readily adopt the Psalmist's words of trust and penitence, and strong cryings for mercy and forgiveness. Our necessities bring us to our knees; our sins, fears, sorrows, the thought of death,—these bring us down upon the earth. Such prayer may be, and often is, no more than the cry of self in pain or terror. Even in sincere and religious minds, prayer is the ready utterance of a burdened and troubled heart. The memory of disobedience, a sense of personal sinfulness, a desire of forgiveness, repentance and the love of God, drive us day by day to Him. Such