be raised again in incorruption, in glory, and in power; a glorious blossom springing out of a bare grain; a spiritual body evolved by the mighty power of God from the natural. This resurrection will consummate the sanctification of our bodies, which at present can only be inaugurated.

Before passing away from this clause, we should not omit to remark that the word "hearts" comes before "bodies" in the prayer for direction and sanctification; and for the best of reasons, because (as good Dean Comber so well says) it is "in the affections of our hearts that sin is wont to begin, and by the members of our bodies it is too often accomplished." Our bodies move under the direction of our wills, and our wills are swayed by our affections; and the seat of the affections is the heart.

"In the ways of thy laws, and in the works of thy commandments." "Ways" is inserted by the translators, to correspond with and balance the word "works." In the original the words are merely, "in thy law, and in the works of thy commandments." The heart is to be directed, sanctified, and governed "in the law; and this is done when God, in pursuance of His new covenant, puts His laws into our hearts, and writes them in our minds, which terms of the new covenant we pray Him to fulfil to us, when we say, 'Incline our hearts to keep this law;" "Write all these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech thee."-The body, on the other hand, is to be directed, sanctified, and governed "in the

works of God's commandments," because the body is the great organ and instrument of activity, and there can be no activity without it.

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Our

That through thy most mighty protection, both here and ever, we may be perserved in body and soul." The literal translation of the original Latin is, "that by thy help, both here and ever, we may attain unto health and salvation." rendering is at once free and accurate, "that we may be preserved in body" (there is the "health" of the original Latin) "and soul" (there is the "salvation"). There is a far more intimate connection than we are willing to allow, as between the body and soul of man, so between the restoration of the two; and that the restoration of the soul to spiritual soundness, which is and must be accomplished "here," is a pledge and instalment of that bodily recovery, which awaits God's true people when they awake up after God's likeness, and are clothed upon with "the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens," "that mortality may be swallowed up of life." Our Saviour's miracles, which were chiefly miracles of healing, and His commission to the Apostles "to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick," are indications of this connection to the thoughtful mind.

The Collect for Peace, at Morning
Prayer.

O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom; Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies, that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Deus, auctor pacis et amator, quem nosse vivere; cui servire regnare; protege ab omnibus impugnationibus supplices tuos; ut qui in defensione tua confidimus, nullius hostilitatis arma timeamus. Per, etc. (GEL. SAC., MISS. SAR., BREV. SAR.)

ΤΗ

`HIS noble prayer is derived ultimately from the Sacramentary of Gelasius, the second in order of the three great Sacramentaries, and the date of which is the last decade of the fifth century. It appears there as a Collect to be said at the Post-Communion in a Mass for Peace, the Collect of the Mass being that even more beautiful one, which stands in our Prayer Book as the Second Collect at Evening Prayer. The Collect before us appears not only in the Missal (or Communion Office) of Sarum, but also in the Sarum Breviary, or Book containing the Daily Offices of the Church, and corresponding to our Matins and Evensong, which indeed were for the most part compiled out of and abridged from these daily Offices. It is found in the Breviary as a Collect for Matins.

دو

"O God, who art the author of peace." Eight times in the course of St. Paul's Epistles (reckoning the Epistle to the Hebrews as one of them) is God styled "the God (or Lord) of peace." And in one of these passages our translators have inserted the word "author," which does not appear in the original, being mindful perhaps of the phraseology of this Collect, and not unwilling possibly to establish a connection in the minds of the people between the language of the Bible and that of the Prayer Book. "God is not the author of confusion," says St. Paul to the Corinthians, "but of peace," the peace here contemplated being in the first instance, as will be seen by a reference to the context, that of Church order, since what the Apostle is enjoining is an orderly performance of Divine service without unseemly interruptions, even where the speakers have all of them the supernatural gifts of tongues or prophecy. But God makes peace in the world as well as in the Church. For how sings the Psalmist! He "maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariot

1 There was an interval of sixty-two years between the First Prayer Book of Edward VI. (where this Collect first made its appearance) and King James's Translation of the Bible, which was published in 1611. So much older is the English of the Prayer Book than that of the Bible. I do not doubt that other instances might be found, in which the translators of the Bible have sought to bring its phraseology into agreement with that of the Prayers of the Reformed Church.

in the fire."-Nor is the peace which God makes, merely or chiefly external. It is not merely peace among the discords and jars wrought by the unruly wills and affections of sinful men, but peace in our conflict with the Evil One, with the charges of an accusing conscience, and with the assaults of temptation. And observe that it is a peace, which consists not in freedom from molestations, but in victory over them. The only true peace for the seed of the woman is through trampling down of the serpent and of the seed of the serpent. And therefore St. Paul, after bidding the Romans "mark and avoid those who caused divisions and offences" in the Church, traces these divisions and offences up to their fountain-head, and assigns the source and seat of the mischief, when he says, "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly."

"And lover of concord." The words "of concord" are an expansion of the original made by the translators, the literal rendering of the Latin words being, “O God, the author and lover of peace." And yet the word "concord" really contributes to the sense. Peace is with avowed enemies; but concord is with those who are in the position of friends, with members of the same family, of the same class as ourselves. Christ, in His great high-priestly prayer, prayed for His disciples, "that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us."