Magazine for the young

it is set apart to the service of God, and made His house. The church-yard is also consecrated, to be the restingplace of those who sleep in the Lord.

The seasons of the Church are observed in our day; the round of services is continued.

Some of our prayers are the very same which have been used for many hundred years in the Christian Church. We still offer up supplications and thanksgivings in the name of our great Mediator. And in His place His appointed servants minister among us; they offer up our prayers, and bestow His blessing upon us.

We hear the word of God read, and we repeat the Psalms which have been so long repeated by God's chosen people; first by the Jews, and since, in a higher meaning, by Christians.

As long as we keep to the ordinances of the Church, we keep in the way of blessing. Every ordinance will be like a separate stream by which God's blessings are brought down to us.

But then, we must keep our hearts and lives in agree- | ment with the Church's rules. We must not come with idle, wandering thoughts, without trying to fix them to the solemn services which we attend.

If we try to fix our thoughts, God will bless our endeavours; but if we do not try, we can expect no blessing.

We must not come straight from leading bad or careless lives to church, and expect a blessing; for we are told that each Christian is to become a temple of God by purity of life; and those who defile the temple which He made are not fit worshippers in His temples made with hands.

If we try to bring our hearts and lives into obedience to God, at the same time that we observe the sacred seasons and services appointed by His Church, we shall keep ourselves in the communion of saints, we shall have a part in the family of God on earth, and in heaven, where we hope to serve and worship Him eternally.

Church Seasons and Services.

HEN our Lord Jesus Christ left the world, all outward things went on as they had done before. The sun rose and set, the moon kept her appointed seasons, all things continued as they were from the beginning of the world. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter followed each other, and the course of the year was still measured by the lights of heaven. So they have gone on, and so they are to go on, until His second coming.

But He did not leave the world as He found it-He left a Church upon earth. His apostles founded His Church in His name and by His commission. And as soon as Christ's Holy Catholic Church was established on earth, its course of service was appointed. Every where, in all places, men were to lift up holy hands in prayer and supplication. Every where, at all times, a service of prayer and thanksgiving was to rise up to God from His redeemed people, His adopted children. All over the world the family of God was to worship Him. And for this pur

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pose, the apostles, and the bishops who succeeded them, appointed sacred times and sacred places. They left a deposit of the faith in the creeds, that all the members of the Church might continue in the apostles' doctrine; and they appointed ordinances and forms, that all Christians might also continue in the apostles' fellowship. The governors of the Church thus provided for a holy bond of union throughout the world, in fulfilment of our Lord's prayer for His people in St. John xvii.

For this purpose time was to be divided and portioned out as might best suit the service of God.

Every day was to be a Christian day.

Every morning and every evening a sacrifice of worship was to be offered up, in place of the lamb which was slain morning and evening in the Temple-service, a sacrifice which was to be accepted through the Lamb of God slain for the sins of the whole world.

Besides this, several hours of the day were hallowed by the recollection of sacred events. The third hour by the descent of the Holy Ghost; the sixth hour by our Lord's crucifixion; the ninth hour by His expiring upon the

cross.

The Christian week began with the festival of the Lord's Day, in memory of Christ's resurrection. On Thursday Christians were reminded of His ascension; on Friday of His crucifixion; on Saturday of His lying in the grave. On Wednesday and Friday it was customary to perform longer services than on other week-days, in addition to those of the Sunday.

The Christian year was divided into sacred seasons. First, Advent, preparing for Christmas. Then the penitential time of Lent, ending with Passion-week. Then the great festival of Easter, prolonged to Whitsuntide. And besides these chief seasons and holydays, there was a course of service appointed for the whole year.

Certain parts of the word of God were to be read every

Sunday, and days were set apart for the remembrance of holy men, and of some events of our Saviour's life on earth. Thus every day, and every week, and every year, brought a course of Christian service. And every part of a Christian's life had also its proper service. The Christian's life begins from his new birth in baptism, and a form was appointed for the administration of that holy SacraAt the proper age each Christian came to the bishop, to receive further supplies of strength, and to renew his covenant, and then go on his course by the help of God's blessing bestowed through the laying on of the bishop's hands.

ment.

He was admitted to receive supplies of spiritual life at the table of his Lord, and to commemorate the Sacrifice made for him; and the service for the Holy Communion was framed.

There were services for the rite of marriage, for thanksgiving on the birth of children, for visitation of the sick, and for the burial of the dead.

So every part of the Christian's life was hallowed. The Christian was liable to the changes and chances of this mortal life; but through all changes, through all troubles, fears, difficulties, temptations, he had the guidance and support of the Church. He felt always that he was walking as a pilgrim, and that the rod and staff of his Lord were guiding him. He felt that he was a member of Christ, a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem.

These holy seasons, and these holy forms and services, were established when the heathens were converted to the Christian faith. And, blessed be God, they are continued to us. We, in this country, at this day, are living under bishops and ministers who have their commissions from the apostles. They are ordained to the sacred ministry by the same form of words which our Lord first used, as we may see in the ordination-service.

When a church is built it is consecrated by the bishop;