barbarism, who could be restrained by no worldly motives, and over whom the civil authority of the land exerted but little power when it came into conflict with their passions, were obliged to tremble as the awful denunciations of the Church fell upon their ears. To them there was a fearful yet salutary lesson taught, by the public shame of the penitent his deep humiliation-the bitterness and intensity of his remorse. It was with these individuals, then, whose probation had been so severe, but who were now again to be received into the body of the faithful, that the Church at this season prayed and fasted, that their sins might be washed away, and the comfortable hope which once they had forfeited be again restored. And if the evil days on which we have fallen, prevent the Church in this age from enforcing with a wholesome severity, her primitive discipline, is there not double reason why her members should bewail their sins, and pray God not to visit upon them the recompense of their offences? Should not their petition be-"Spare thy people, good Lord, and let not thine heritage be brought to confusion?" And in harmony with such convictions, we find that all the services of Lent breathe an evident feeling of contrition that we every where present ourselves n the attitude of humility, and pray our merciful Father to grant us "perfect remission and forgiveness." Let us strive then to partake of the spirit of these petitions: and when we look around us and remember how far, as a Church, we have wandered from the path of primitive holiness, how lukewarm is our devotion, and how feeble our faith compared with what it should be, we shall realize that there is reason for that deep and searching penitence which our Master seeks to kindle up within us, and the expression of which is heard so often in our Liturgy. These, then, are the reasons which induced the early Church to institute this Holy Season, thus exercising the power entrusted to her, "to decree rites and ceremonies."80 It is with her sanction that we are summoned to its observance. It is impressed upon us by the solemn voice which comes down from the years of a distant and dim antiquity. In these services many gen 30 Article xx. Of the Authority of the Church-"The Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies." แ erations have already joined, and thus gathered strength for the journey which lay before them. They have long since passed away, leaving to us not only their bright examples, but also the record of their experience. We stand in their places. We are the honored guardians of all those rites and institutions which they in their day found useful in the Church, and then bequeathed to such as should come after them. Solemn indeed is the trust-may we never betray it! May we always remember that we are baptized for the dead"-inheriting their responsibilities enjoying the fruits of their labors and that we must commit this sacred heritage undiminished to our successors. Let us never then be willing to give up these ancient services, which were used by the holy dead, whose memory we love, or to substitute in their place the novelties of an age "emulous of change." Let us be content to tread the path which still gleams brightly with the steps of those who for Christ's sake and the gospel's "counted not their lives dear unto themselves." Let us strive, as they did, against an unholy world-loving with a true devotion, the Church for which they died-and |