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Oh, not in doubt shall be our journey's ending;
Sin with its fears shall leave us at the last ;
All its best hopes in glad fulfilment blending,
Life shall be with us when the death is past.

Help us, O Father! when the world is pressing
On our frail hearts, that fail without their friend;
Help us, O Father! let Thy constant blessing
Strengthen our weakness till the joyful end.

Songs of Prayer and Praise.

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany.

FOR GRACE TO LEAN ON GOD.

O Lord, we beseech Thee to keep Thy Church and household continually in Thy true religion; that they who do lean only upon the hope of Thy heavenly grace may evermore be defended by Thy mighty power; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

N this prayer we come to God, as children to a father.

IN

We know that we are liable to error both in doctrine and in practice; and so we ask to be kept in true religion. (Jas. i. 27), by a Father's goodness. But in asking this we make a solemn profession that we lean only on the hope of God's heavenly grace. That is, that we have complete distrust of self, and entire trust in God's grace. We have a good hope that this grace will not fail us (Deut. xxxiii. 27; 2 Chron. xvi. 9; Rev. iii. 10). And on this hope alone we lean.

But do we really lean only on this? To do this is the very root of true religion, and is something which "no one ever does without being first beaten completely out of trust in himself or his own resources." How often we act in our own strength, leaning on our own power, which is like a

broken reed. How seldom we are found coming up leaning" entirely "upon our Beloved" (S. of Sol. viii. 5).

Too often we turn to God when our own strength is failing, instead of leaning only upon the hope of His grace in all that we do, even from the beginning. If we would go to Him in the spirit of this Collect, feeling and acknowledging our weakness (Isa. xxxviii. 14), we should be defended (literally, walled round) by His protection (Deut. xxxiii. 12).

O Love Divine ! that stooped to share
Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear-
On Thee we cast each earth-born care;
We smile at pain while Thou art near.
Though long the weary way we tread,
And sorrows crown each lingering year,
No path we shun, no darkness dread,

Our hearts still whispering Thou art near.

When drooping pleasure turns to grief,
And trembling faith is turned to fear,
The murmuring wind, the quivering leaf,
Shall softly tell us Thou art near.

On Thee we fling our burdening woe,
O Love Divine! for ever dear;
Content to suffer while we know,

Living and dying, Thou art near.

Dr. Holmes. Songs of Prayer and Praise.

Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany.

FOR CHRIST-LIKE PURITY.

O God, Whose blessed Son was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil, and make us the sons of God, and heirs of eternal life; grant us, we beseech Thee, that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves, even as He is pure; that, when He shall appear again with power and great glory, we may be made like unto Him in His eternal and glorious kingdom; where with Thee, O Father, and Thee, O Holy Ghost, He liveth and reigneth, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

THE

HIS prayer fitly concludes the Epiphany Collects by leading us from our Lord's appearing upon earth to the final manifestation of Him at His second coming. Notice

(i.) The ground of the petition, which is the fact that God's blessed Son was manifested. Jesus Christ always was the Son of God (John i. 1; Col. i. 17; Heb. i. 8–10), but a time came when He was manifested on earth (John i. 14; 1 Pet. i. 20). The object of this was twofold: to destroy the works of the devil (1 John iii. 8)—these works are sins (John viii. 44; 1 John iii. 5; Heb. ix. 26-28) and death (Heb. ii. 14, 15)—and to make us the sons of God. By sin we lost our sonship, and Christ came to restore it (Gal. iv. 4, 5; see Collect for Christmas-day, p. 17), and to make us, in consequence, heirs of eternal life (Rom. viii. 17; vi. 23; Gal. iv. 7).

(ii.) The petition itself. Having this hope, that Christ came to destroy the works of the devil and to give us adoption (2 Cor. vi. 18, and vii. 1), we ask that we may purify ourselves (1 John iii. 3) even as Christ is pure (1 Pet. i. 15, 16; Matt. v. 48). How can we do this? We are to act and live as if we could make ourselves more Christ-like

(Phil. ii. 12), knowing, however, all the time that it is not we who work, but God (Phil. ii. 13) Who works in us by His Spirit.

(iii.) The result of the petition. As a consequence of this, we hope that, when He shall appear at His last Epiphany with power and great glory, we may be really like Him. We strive now to be Christ-like, but we fall so short; but then we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John iii. 2; 1 Cor. xiii. 12). No wonder then that with such a grand petition and such glorious anticipations on our lips, we seem to stand before the very throne of the Godhead, and offer this prayer directly to each Person of the Blessed Trinity.

O Thou the Conqueror that we

True victors in Thy strength might be ;
My sad heart comes to Thee for rest,
For in Thy love alone 'tis blest.

The conflict, Lord, is stern and long,
The tempter's power is ever strong;
Oft I am weary in the fight,

O give me patience, give me might.

Weary, yes, weary of the sin
Which mars my life without, within;
The sin that lurks deep in my soul,
O Jesus, pardon, cleanse the whole.

The subtle power of evil stay;
The pride, the self, O take away;
And make me what I long to be-
More pure in heart, more like to Thee.

That when hereafter Thou shalt come,
To take us to our heavenly home,
I may be like Thee as Thou art,
And fully cleansed in every part.

Harriet Hobson, 1870.

Sunday called Septuagesima.*

FOR DELIVERANCE.

O Lord, we beseech Thee favourably to hear the prayers of Thy people; that we, who are justly punished for our offences, may be mercifully delivered by Thy goodness, for the glory of Thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Saviour, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

THE

HE coming days of Lent cast their shadows before them. In the Collect for a Sunday, roughly speaking, seventy (as the two next are sixty and fifty) days before Easter, we take up a mournful strain preparatory to our confession of sin on Ash-Wednesday. The key-note of the prayer is DELIVERANCE.

We confess that though God's children, we are still “tied and bound with the chain of our sins." We long to rise up and escape (Ps. lv. 6); some of the old infection of nature doth remain, yea, even in them that are regenerate (Article XI.). And so when we receive chastisement, we confess it is a just punishment for our offences (Neh. ix. 33).

But all the while we are sighing for deliverance, and cry out with earnest supplication, like David, "Bow down Thine ear to me, deliver me speedily" (Ps. xxxi. 2; see xxxix. 8 ; xl. 13; lxx. I; cxix. 170); or, like Paul, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. vii. 24.) And what is the ground on which we ask for deliverance? Goodness we have none to plead. We are justly punished;

* The words Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima, are derived from the Latin words for seventieth (Septuagesima), sixtieth (Sexagesima), and fiftieth (Quinquagesima). The Sundays are so called because, speaking generally, they are about so many days before Easter.

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