2 Thess. chap. ii. ver. 15.

From the Commination, or Denouncing of God's Anger and Judgments against Sinners.

Now seeing that all they are accursed (as the prophet David beareth witness) who do err and go astray from the commandments of God; let us (remembering the dreadful judgments hanging over our heads, and always ready to fall upon us) return unto our Lord God, with all contrition and meekness of heart; bewailing and lamenting our sinful life, acknowledging and confessing our offences, and seeking to bring forth fruits of penance.

O Most mighty God, and merciful Father, who hast compassion upon all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast made; who wouldest not the death of a sinner, but that he should rather turn from his sins and live; mercifully forgive us our trespasses; receive and comfort us, who are grieved and wearied with the burden of our sins. Thy property is always to have mercy; to thee only it appertaineth to forgive sins. Spare us therefore, good Lord, spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed; enter not into judgment with thy servants, who are vile earth, and miserable sinners; but so turn thine anger from us, who meekly acknowledge our vileness, and truly repent us of our faults, and so make haste to help us in this world, that we may ever live with thee in the world to come, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Though we ought to repent as well as pray daily, yet because we seldom do that well which we pretend to do always, the Church hath in all ages thought fit to set apart some solemn times for public performance of our repentance, and these are the days of Fasting; for God himself usually joins Fasting with his commands to Repentance, and good men have rarely practised the one without the other, because the main end of Fasting is to make us penitent, nor is it any further acceptable to Almighty God than as it promotes our contrition, and makes us fitter to humble ourselves for our sins.-Dean Comber.

A COMPANION

FOR

MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH.

THUS SAITH THE LORD,

Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls....Jer. ch. vi. ver. 16.

In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength........Isaiah, ch. xxx. ver. 15.

ALMIGHTY GOD, the giver of all good gifts, who of thy divine providence hast appointed divers* orders in Thy Church; Give thy grace we humbly beseech thee to all those who are te be called to any office and administration in the same; and so replenish them with the truth of thy doctrine, and endue them with innocency of life, that they may faithfully serve before thee to the glory of thy great name, and the benefit of thy holy church, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

* From the Apostles' time there have been these orders of Ministers in Christ's Church: BISHOPS, PRIESTS, and DEACONS.

Book of Common Prayer.

Galatians, chap. iii. ver. 27.

THE CHURCHMAN

SUPPORTS THE SOCIETIES WHICH ARE SANCTIONED BY THE CHIEF PASTORS OF THE CHURCH, [THE TWO ARCHBISHOPS AND THE BISHOPS. ]

THESE ARE THE

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. Established 1698.

WHICH "circulates widely the Holy Scriptures and the Book of Common Prayer; and conveys by gratuitous grants, as well as by the Cheap distribution of its Books and Tracts, the means of wholesome Scriptural instruction to the people of the Land."

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PROPOGATING THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS,

WHICH " endeavours to bring the Heathen to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus; and to keep up in professed Christians who have quitted our native shores that faith which they have received."

THE NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE EDUCATION OF THE POOR IN THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH,

ESPECIALLY "by enabling them to give a reason of the faith which they profess, by leading them to the house of the Lord, for the comfort and benefit of His sacred ordinances, and by consigning them to the care and superintendence of their appointed Pastors, when entering on the engage. ments and temptations of the world."

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE ENLARGEMENT, BUILDING, AND REPAIRING OF

CHURCHES AND CHAPELS,

WHICH "has since its formation in 1818, assisted in providing additional Church Room for 398,960 persons ;* of which number the free and unappropriated Sittings for the use of the Poor are for 292,339 persons," who have thus opportunity afforded them of "entering into HIS gates with thanksgiving and into HIS courts with praise.”

THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE EMPLOYMENT OF ADDITIONAL CURATES IN POPULOUS PLACES, WHOSE object is "to increase the means of pastoral instruction and superintendence at present possessed by the Church."

"It is by contributing to the attainment of such objects that we may best fulfil the sacred duty of ministering to others the ost precious of those gifts which we have ourselves received."

* See the Report for 1838.

2 Timothy, chap. iii. verse 16.

OLD TESTAMENT GOSPEL.

ISRAEL, in ancient days,

Not only had a view
Of Sinai in a blaze,

But learned the Gospel too;
The types and figures were a glass,
In which they saw a Saviour's face.
The Paschal Sacrifice,

And blood-besprinkled door,*
Seen with enlighten'd eyes,

And once applied with power,

Would teach the need of other blood
To reconcile an angry God.

The Lamb, the Dove, set forth,

His perfect innocence,t
Whose blood of matchless worth
Should be the soul's defence;

For He who can for sin atone
Must have no failings of his own.
The Scape-Goat on his head‡
The People's trespass bore,
And to the Desert led,

Was to be seen no more:
In him our Surety seem'd to say,
"Behold, I bear your sins away."
Dipt in his fellow's blood,

The living bird went free ;§
The type well understood,
Express'd the sinner's plea ;
Described a guilty soul enlarged,
And by a Saviour's death discharged.
Jesus, I love to trace,

Throughout the sacred page,
The footsteps of thy grace,

The same in every age!

O grant that I may faithful be

To clearer light vouchsafed to me !-COWPER.

*Exo. xii. 13.

+ Lev. xii. 6.

Lev. xvi. 21. § Lev. xiv. 51-53.

2 Thess. chap. ii. ver. 15.

WHEN the celebrated Bishop Bull was Rector of St. George's, in Somersetshire, he was sent for to baptize the child of a Dissenter, upon which occasion he made use of the office of baptism as prescribed by the Church of England, which he had got entirely by heart; and he went through it with so much gravity and devotion, that the whole audience were extremely affected by it; and notwithstanding his using the sign of the cross, they were so ignorant of Church offices, that they could not discover it was the Common Prayer. When the whole was over, the father of the child observed to him with how much greater edification they prayed who depended entirely on the Spirit for assistance in their extempore effusions, than those who tied themselves to premeditated forms. Upon this Mr. Bull shewed him the office of baptism in the Liturgy, which he had just performed. This, added to other arguments, so affected the Dissenter, that he became a Churchman.-Churchman's Memorial. From the Voice of the Church.

SEARCH all the records of Christian antiquity, look into every corner of the Christian world, even in these days, and find, if you can, the Church which has no certain and prescribed form of public prayers;-which permits every blockhead rashly and off-hand to blunder out before Almighty God whatever comes uppermost. These are the mere imaginations of the fanatics of our time: " we have no such customs, neither the churches of God."-Bishop Beveridge on Church Government. om the Voice of the Church.