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teach you all these things, according to his desire. And now you are old enough, you must be using your own thoughts, not only while you are learning your lessons, and answering questions, but about all your religious duties.

Martha. Such as the Church-service?

S.M. Yes; and all that you read, and all your duties towards God. Now, I am going to tell you about the Psalms. Harriet, to whose honour do we repeat the Psalms?

Harriet. To God's honour.

S.M. And are they all in His praise?

Lucy. Mr. Stanley said there were different kinds of Psalms.

S.M. Can you remember them?

L. Penitential, and prophetic, and historical, and

S.M. For thanksgiving. Now, the penitential are to be used

sins.

Emma. When we repent, and are sorry for our

S.M. And the prophetic?

E. They foretell things to come-things about our Lord Jesus Christ.

S.M. And the historical Psalms give part of the history of the Israelites. The Psalms of thanksgiving?

Kitty. They praise and thank God for His mercies?

S.M. Very well. Now find the 95th Psalm in your Prayer-books. No-not among the Psalmsin the morning-service. Do you remember what Mr. Stanley told you about those words by which it is called, "Venite exultemus ?"

Sarah. Oh, yes. He said they were the first words of the psalm in Latin; and that Latin was the tongue, or language, that the Romans used.

S.M. They repeated the Psalms in their own tongue. Now, this psalm is repeated—when ? Jane. Every Sunday in the year?

S.M. Every day in the year it is ordered to be said or sung?

M. Is it ever sung, ma'am?

S.M. Harriet has heard it sung, I think?

H. Oh, yes, when I went to see grandmother. In that church it is sung (chanted, they called it) every day.

E. Is it pretty?

H. I thought it sounded very pretty; but I could not hear all the words plain.

S.M. That was because you are not used to that kind of singing called chanting. If you were used to it, you would understand. It was the old way of repeating the Psalms, and that makes it pleasant. It is pleasant to do any thing that the early Christians did. In their times the Psalms were always sung by people answering each other by turns, as the priest and people do now when they say them. Do you remember what Mr. Stanley said, when he told you about the service in the cathedral?

L. Oh, yes. He said this way of singing the Psalms is as old as St. Ignatius, who lived along with St. John.

S.M. And may be older too, he said, for what we know; and that the Song of Moses, and of Deborah and Barak, were sung responsively, that is, answering one another. And you remember the verses in Isaiah, -how he heard the angels crying to each other in that holy hymn used in the communion-service. Now, can you tell me what this 95th psalm should remind us of?

K. To worship and praise God.

S.M. So it is fit for what it is called-an invitatory psalm; because it invites us to worship and fall down before the Lord our Maker. You see, therefore, that at the beginning of the service, when we have confessed our sins, heard the absolution, said the Lord's Prayer, and next asked God to open our lips, then we are called upon to praise Him. Now tell me, Jane, what else does this psalm remind us of?

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J. That God made us; that He made all things. E. That we are His creatures, the sheep of His hand.

S.M. And what else?

M. About the children of Israel, who were His chosen people.

S.M. Yes; of His mercies to them, and of their rebellion against Him. But why are we reminded daily of them, and of their sins? Are we Israelites? J. No.

S.M. We are of the nations of the Gentiles. The Jews have been cast off; all but those who became members of the Christian Church. The Israelites were once His chosen people; who are His people

now?

H. We are; the Christian Church.

S.M. And do you know why we, the members of the Christian Church, are to be reminded of the Jew's history every time we meet to worship God? Because it is a type, a pattern, a figure of our own history. You can tell me from what land the Jews were brought up?

M. From the land of Egypt, where they were in bondage under the cruel king Pharaoh.

S.M. And so we have been brought out from the bondage of Satan. Into what place were they brought?

E. They were forty years in the wilderness. S.M. And we are put into this world for our place of trial, as they were in the wilderness. Listen to what I will read you from the first epistle to the Corinthians. [She reads to the 11th verse of the 10th chapter.] Now, what is said about their being baptised?

S. They were all baptised unto Moses in the Red Sea.

S.M. And you all know how we have been brought into Christ's Church by baptism. You remember the words in the baptismal service?

L. "Thou didst safely lead the children of Israel

Thy people through the Red Sea, figuring thereby Thy holy baptism.'

S.M. And that reminds you of what you have been so often taught?

M. Oh, yes, about baptism; about being washed from the sin that is born with us; and having grace given us for our salvation.

S.M. They were baptised in the Red Sea -we in the water of Christian baptism by the hands of God's appointed ministers. Next, it is said, they did all eat of the same spiritual meat, and drink the same spiritual drink. What was that?

H. Oh, the manna, and the water from the rock. S.M. That rock was Christ." And how are we fed-those who are of an age for it?

J. In the communion of the Lord's Supper, is it?

S.M. Yes, you are right. That food is Christ. We spiritually eat His flesh, and drink His blood. And all through our pilgrimage, our journey through life, Christians, who will seek and ask, are refreshed by rivers of living water-by the Holy Spirit given us from our Lord Christ. Now, what was it that the Jewish Church in the wilderness looked to? what did they hope for at last?

K. The land flowing with milk and honey; the land of Canaan.

S.M. And what do we look to and hope for?
L. For heaven.

S.M. Yes; Canaan was promised to them, if they did not forfeit it by their sin. So they were inheritors of the land of Canaan. And what does the Catechism say that we are made inheritors of by baptism?

E. Of the kingdom of heaven.

S.M. Did they forfeit the promised land?

J. Yes; almost all died in the wilderness.

S.M. Because they provoked God to anger; they disobeyed Him. They murmured; they worshipped idols; they rebelled against Moses who was set over

them, and that was rebelling against God. And so, too many Christians behave, and in their hearts desire to turn back again to Egypt—that is, to all those things that they renounced in baptism. Think, and you will see how we disobey God as they did; how we murmur against Him if all does not go on as we wish; how we worship idols-that is, set our hearts on the things of this world. And do we not rebel against God when we rebel against those He has set over us-our ministers, governors, parents, and teachers, as the Jews did against Moses? Think now within yourselves, every one of you, how you may have been like the sinful Israelites in all these things. Think of their dying in the wilderness, and losing the promised land, all but Caleb and Joshua, who were faithful. Think of those solemn, fearful words of Scripture: "Of how much sorer punishment shall we be thought worthy, who have trodden under foot the Son of God;" who have despised His promises. Did God keep His promise to Joshua and Caleb, and to the children of those who died in the wilderness?

M. Yes; they were settled in Canaan, and had it for their own.

S. M. And when will He perform His promises of eternal life to us?

J. At the last day.

S.M. He will then fulfil His promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ, as He fulfils His promise of His Holy Spirit to those who ask in this world. He will be with His Church for ever: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." But any one member of the Church may fail, and not enter into His rest. If we harden our hearts, and grieve the Holy Spirit, what then?

L. We shall be cast off like the rebellious Israelites.

S.M. Very well. So now you must all remember about this psalm,—that it is to remind us that we, God's creatures, living in the world that He has

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