fatherly compassion, whenever, prostrate at the throne of grace, we lay bare before Him the desires of our hearts. The vows shall be most graciously received, even when they cannot be granted. When the heart is assured of this, "the peace which passeth all understanding flows into it.

The more literal rendering of the words “who call upon thee" is "who supplicate thee." Whether, according to its derivation, the word "supplicate" indicates that the knees of the petitioner are bent under him, or, as seems more probable, that the open palms of the hands are extended towards the person from whom relief is sought, the idea conveyed by the word is the same-not prayer only, but prayer offered with an imploring earnestness. The Litany of the Church of England, the accents of which surely indicate special fervor, is called in its title "the Litany, or General Supplication." And the most intense prayer which man ever offered, our blessed Lord's prayer in the garden, has the name of "supplication" given to it in our authorized translation of the Epistle to the Hebrews, as also in the Latin Vulgate," When He had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto Him that was able to save Him from death." If the prayers of the sinless One were so intensely earnest, what have ours, think you, need to be?

'And grant." These words are an insertion of the translators, and probably a necessary one.

In translating very terse Latin into English, some

amount of enlargement and expansion is necessary to make it generally understood. But here the effect of the insertion is to unhook the latter part of the prayer from the foregoing, and to break up into two separate petitions what before was only one. But when there was only one petition, how did the parts of it hang together? Where God does not see fit to fulfil the prayers of His people, His favorable reception of them will show itself in enlightening them as to their duty and strengthening them to perform it. Where He cannot give the thing asked for, He will answer by light and strength.

دو

وو

"May both perceive and know." The words "and know are added by the translators. The Latin has only "may see.' The addition of the verb to know is not superfluous. It conveys a slightly different notion from "perceive." We perceive how we ought to act by the whispers of God's Spirit in the conscience; we arrive at the knowledge of how we ought to act by the study of God's Word. The Word of God, of course, as well as the Spirit of God, plays a most important part in our moral guidance; but I apprehend that in the prayer before us spiritual intuition is the thing principally meant, that intuition, which the heavenly Father pledges Himself to give, when He says to the penitent sinner, "I will guide thee with mine eye. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding; whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle." Let us then, in every perplexity about God's will, pray

with Joo, "That which I see not teach thou me."

وو

"And also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil the same." The "grace" and the "faithfully" are expansions made by the translator. "May have strength" (or become strong) "to fulfil what they see.' This is the exact force of the original. To fulfil God's will is to execute it faithfully. How essential this clause is to the completeness of the prayer, we can understand only by considering the positively baneful effects of knowledge without practice. "To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Second Sunday after the Epiphany.

Almighty and everlasting God, who dost govern all things in heaven and earth; Mercifully hear the supplications of thy people, and grant us thy peace all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui cœlestia simul el terrena moderaris; supplicationes populi tui clementer exaudi, et pacem tuam nostris concede temporibus. Per Dominum. (GREG. SAC., MISS. SAR.)

IN

N translating this Collect, our Reformers have given a turn to the close of it, which must be admitted, I think, to be an improvement. The literal translation of the original, which is found in Gregory's Sacramentary, is as follows: "Almighty and everlasting God, who dost control

at once heavenly and earthly things, graciously regard the supplications of thy people, and grant thy peace to our times."

"Almighty and everlasting God." "Almighty": here is God's power; "everlasting": here is His perpetual existence in the future. Nothing could be more exact as a translation than the word "everlasting." The original is an adjective derived from the adverb "always"; "always existing," in contrast with the transient and changeful existence of the creatures.

"Who dost govern all things." The Latin word is not that, which we have before met with in the Collects, and which, in its original acceptation, signifies the prudent guidance of a helmsman. The original meaning of this word is to set bounds to, and hence to restrain. Thus it is used of the government of the tongue, and of the government of horses. The word afterwards comes to have the more general meaning of administration and sway; but never altogether drops, I think, the notion of something which offers resistance to the administration, and rebels against the sway. It is perfectly easy to see how, in the management of "earthly things," God finds such resistance to His sway. He has gifted man with freewill; and in the exercise of this freewill man has rebelled against Him, as the Epistle to the Hebrews says, 66 we see not yet all things put under Him," that is, under Jesus, who, we may usefully remind ourselves, is now governing the universe, in His mediatorial character as God's

Viceroy. But "things in heaven," too, are said to be equally and at the same time restrained and controlled by God. How car. this be? What resistance can be offered to God's sway in heaven? What unruly will can rise up against Him there? The answer must be sought in such passages as, "There was war in heaven;" Michael and his angels fought against the dragon;" "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (margin, "against wicked spirits in heavenly places"). All it is given us to know is, that in some lofty region, far beyond the reach of our senses (though not, of course, in that immediate Presence-Chamber of God, which is usually understood by the word "heaven") a struggle for mastery between the powers of good and of evil is still going on, in which we men-immortal spirits, but dwelling in tabernacles of flesh and blood—are deeply interested; that God restrains the spirits arrayed against us, and never suffers us to be tempted above that we are able; and that, besides fortifying us for this warfare by His Holy Spirit, He employs the holy angels for our succor and defence. It is to their bright squadrons that Nebuchadnezzar refers, when he ascribes glory to God in this magnificent strain— "And he doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest thou?"