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to God for the blessing which he has bountifully bestowed upon us, and praying to him that our pastors may never cease to be faithful in their ministry, as the Church instructs and directs us in the Collect for this day.

Collects.

"O ALMIGHTY God, who into the place of the traitor Judas didst choose thy faithful servant Matthias to be of the number of the twelve Apostles; Grant that thy Church, being always preserved from false apostles, may be ordered and guided by faithful and true pastors; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

"ALMIGHTY God, the giver of all good gifts, who of thy divine providence hast appointed divers orders of ministers in thy Church: Give thy grace, we humbly beseech thee, to all those who are 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."

"O GOD, who knowest us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers, that by

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e Second Collect for the Ember weeks.

Collect for the fourth Sunday after the Epiphany.

reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright; Grant to us such strength and protection, as may support us in all dangers, and carry us through all temptations; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

BLOT from the sacred book the page,

Erase the dread record,

Which points to each succeeding age

The traitor of his Lord!

That Lord so gracious and benign,
Image of God above,

So full his words of truth divine,
His deeds so full of love!

To be the object of his choice,
To tend him day by day,
To see his life, to hear his voice;
To kiss him, and betray!

O, blot it out, the fearful page,

Erase the dread record;

Nor point to each succeeding age

The traitor of his Lord!

Forgive the thought! For not in vain

That page recording tells,
How deeply fix'd the guilty stain

In Adam's offspring dwells.

It tells, how rankling deep within Breaks forth the deadly taint; How foul the character of sin; How sure its punishment!

Then let it stand; for so decreed
The Spirit of the Lord,
That all of Adam's race may read
And mark the dread record;

May still the traitor's awful fate With pitying thoughts deplore; And scan their own uncertain state, And tremble, and adore !

ANNUNCIATION.

Mary the mother of Jesus. ACTS i. 14.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE VIRGIN MARY.

SOME churches keep four holydays at least in memory of the blessed Virgin: namely, her Nativity, her Annunciation, her Purification, and her Assumption or taking up into heaven". Of the first of these events we have no certain or probable information; none in any author of credit, nor in such a form as to be intitled to serious consideration. Still less is any credible information to be expected concerning the last, which, instead of being a real event, is rather to be regarded as a legendary and superstitious tale, feigned no doubt in imitation of the evangelical narrative of our Lord's ascension, and calculated to exalt the blessed Virgin into a condition of rivalry with her Son; but having

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no foundation whatever in historical truth, and dressed out with a display of circumstances, distinguished by monstrous impiety, and worse than childish folly.

The other two events are recorded in holy writ, and are commemorated by our Church in the series of her annual services. But though the festivals have some relation to the blessed Virgin, they more peculiarly belong to our Saviour. The Annunciation has a peculiar respect to his Incarnation, which was at that time made "known by the message of an angel." The Purification is principally observed in memory of his being, as on that day, "presented in the temple in substance of our flesh:" and so the festival, though noticed by the Church as "commonly called the Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin," appears in the judgment of the Church to be more correctly called, "the Presentation of Christ in the temple." The latter of these two festivals would more properly fall under consideration, in the series of events belonging to our Lord's life: the former of the two may be regarded as standing apart from that series, and may be fitly made the occasion for considering the life of the blessed Virgin, or, as she is called by St. Luke, "Mary, the mother of Jesus."

Mary is represented by the general voice of

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