which uniformly celebrated Christ's Nativity on the twenty-fifth of December. The two Lessons at Morning Prayer are taken from Isaiah and Luke *. The first contains an explicit prophecy of the coming of Christ in the flesh, and of the establishment of his kingdom: the second relates the history of his Nativity, and recounts some of the striking circumstances that attended it. The evening Lessons are taken from Isaiah and Paul's Epistle to Titus +. The first foretells the miraculous conception of the Virgin, and the birth of Christ the second proposes the advantages of regeneration and sanctification, by the grace of God, through Jesus Christ, and urges the necessity of good works in order to obtain salvation. The Collect prays that we may be partakers of the benefits of Christ's birth, and made children of God by adoption and grace. The Epistle proves the Divinity of Christ, and the excellence of the Religion which he taught. The Gospel has the same tendency, leading us to infer the excellence of the Christian Dispensation from that of its Author. An accurate examination of those parts of the Offices, that are peculiar to this day, must impress us with an high idea of the good taste, as well as piety of the compilers. The Lessons, the Epistle, and the Gospel, like the Angel, bring us glad "tidings of great joy," and declare " that unto us is 66 Isa. ix. 1-8. Luke xi. 1-15. "born "born a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord." The appropriate Psalms, and the proper preface before the Trisagium in the Communion, teach us how to praise God for all the things we this day hear and see, and to sing with the heavenly host, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will "towards men." ST. STEPHEN'S DAY. STEPHEN was an early convert to Christianity, and the first that fell a Martyr to the Christian Faith. In the Acts of the Apostles, he is represented as a person of singular holiness, ability and zeal, being full of faith, and of power, and of the Holy Ghost *.” Of the seven that were elected by the Apostles to the office of Deacon, STEPHEN is the first named; and he is afterwards recorded to have done "great "wonders and miracles among the people f." His adversaries, members of five separate Synagogues at Jerusalem, "unable to resist the wisdom and spirit by which he spoke, suborned false witnesses, who deposed that they had heard him speak blasphe"mous words against Moses and against God." After they had heard his defence, as recorded in the seventh chapter, in which he vindicates the doctrines that he taught, by proofs drawn from the Old Testament, and directly charges the Jews with the murder of Jesus Christ, upon his declaring that he be * Chap. vi. 5. + Ibid. ver. 8. Acts vi. 9, 10, 11. held "the Son of Man standing on the right hand of "God, they cried out with a loud voice and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city and stoned him." Among the works of CHRYSOSTOM and GREGORY of Nazianzum, are Homilies to his memory, which were delivered on the anniversary of his martyrdom. In allusion to the name of STEPHEN, which in the Greek language signifies a Crown, the former of these writers calls him "the Crown of the Church:" and the latter" the great STEPHEN, whose temples "were bound with the Crown of martyrdom." From these two quotations we may form an idea of the occasional sportiveness of some of the Greek Fathers, and infer the antiquity of the observation of the festival of St. STEPHEN. The Collect, which in 1661 was improved, is directly addressed to Christ, to whom the Martyr during his suffering prayed, saying "Lord Jesus, "receive my spirit," and, "Lord, lay not this sin to "their charge *" The Epistle and the Gospel being peculiarly applicable to the occasion, were retained from the ancient Offices. ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST'S DAY. JOHN was a fisherman of Bethsaïda in Galilee, brother of the elder James, and the beloved disciple of our Lord, who on the cross committed to him the VOL. II. * Chap. vii. 59, 60. care care of his mother. After dwelling in Judea, where she is supposed to have died, about fifteen years after the Crucifixion, during which period he twice suffered imprisonment in Jerusalem, he travelled into Asiaminor; and was probably the founder of the seven Churches mentioned in the Revelation. From Ephesus he was sent prisoner to Rome, by command of the Emperor Domitian, and as Tertullian reports, was there cast into a caldron of boiling oil, but miraculously preserved. After this he was "for "the word of God and the testimony of Jesus," banished to the Isle of Patmos, where the Revelation was written. Being recalled by the Emperor Nerva, A. D. 96, he returned to Ephesus, where at an advanced age he published his Gospel, by desire it is said of the Christians, and Pastors of Asia. He is thought to have been the youngest of the Apostles, all of whom he survived. The Collect was a little altered at the Restoration, and at the Reformation a part of one of his own Epistles was very properly placed in the room of an Apocryphal Lesson, The Epistle and Gospel are now both taken from his own writings. In the former, the Disciple bears testimony to the divinity of his Lord; and in the latter, the Lord obscurely intimates, that the Disciple should not die till the dissolution of the Jewish Polity; a prophecy which was punctually fulfilled. THE THE INNOCENTS DAY. * THE Holy Innocents, the children of Bethlehem, slain soon after our Saviour's birth, are uniformly regarded by the ancient writers as Christian Martyrs. They are styled "the flowers and the first-fruits of "the Martyrs ;" and ORIGEN observes that their memory was always celebrated in the Christian Church, a sufficient proof of the antiquity of this festival. But whether this was at first a festival distinct from the Epiphany, or celebrated on the same day with it, is perhaps still doubtful. The Collect was re-composed and improved at the Restoration. The passage from the Revelation, read for the Epistle, describes the happy state and the employment of the Redeemed, and of the Innocents in heaven and the Gospel records the history of the massacre of all the children that were in Bethlehem, and the coasts thereof. Every one may observe that this, and the two preceding festivals, immediately follow the grand festival of the Nativity; but the reason of this arrangement is not so obvious. It is not to be presumed, that these were the days on which St. Stephen, St. John, and the " Holy Innocents," respectively suffered. But the Innocents and St. Stephen, to adopt the words of HILARY, were the first that were "advanced to eternity by the glory of martyr → Salvete flores Martyrum, "dom :" |