THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER

TRINITY.

Lessons: Judges iv., v., vi. II.

Epistle: 1 John iii. 13. Gospel: St. Luke xiv. 16—25.

THE COLLECT.

O LORD, who never failest to help and govern them whom Thou dost bring up in Thy steadfast fear and love; Keep us, we beseech Thee, under the protection of Thy good providence, and make us to have a perpetual fear and love of Thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Spirit of the Lord came upon" [Heb., "clothed"] "Gideon."-Judges vi. 34.

Clothed with the Holy Ghost,
Go, brother, on thy way
To Afric's night-bound coast,
A herald of God's day.

Clothed with the Holy Ghost,
A robe and crown of flame,
As once on Pentecost

The first great baptism came.

Clothed with the Holy Ghost,
Stand, soldier of the Lord;
His cross thy only boast,

His Gospel truth thy sword.

Clothed with the Holy Ghost,
Thy panoply of proof:
The devil and his host
Shudder, and flee aloof.

Clothed with the Holy Ghost,
If suffering be thy lot,
When worn and wearied most,
Thus mantled, murmur not.

Clothed with the Holy Ghost,
Till Christ shall call or come,
And from the watchman's post

Shall take thee to His home.

These lines were written on the consecration of Dr. Ingham, Bishop of Sierra Leone, Feb. 24th, 1883.

THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

Lessons I Sam. ii. 1-27, iii., iv. 1—19. Epistle: I Peter v. 5-12. Gospel : St. Luke xv. I—II.

THE COLLECT.

O LORD, we beseech Thee mercifully to hear us; and grant that we, to whom Thou hast given an hearty desire to pray, may by Thy mighty aid be defended and conforted in all dangers and adversities; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

"I will bring him that he may appear before the Lord, and there abide for ever. And Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord."-1 Sam. i. 22 and ii. I.

"O lonely mother, reft of thy sweet child,
What means that song of lofty eucharist
Within thy desolate home? Surely thy arms
Crave the loved burden they have borne so long:
No little feet are pattering by thy side:
The crib is empty by thy couch at night.
Hast thou not left thy treasure far away
In the dread house of Shiloh? Other hands
Will feed thy nursling; other lips than thine
Pour into his fond ear the things of God.
Why floats upon the evening wind thy voice,
'My heart rejoiceth in the Lord : my horn
Is lifted in my God: no rock is like
The Rock of our salvation'? Surely sighs,
Not songs, befit thy lot. Why singest thou?"

The mother probed her heart and inwardly
As in a muse made answer to herself,

"Had I not given my firstborn ere his birth
And pledged him as a lifelong loan to God?
And if He now has ta'en me at my word
Why should I mourn because my child is His
For ever? Ramah is not Shiloh : yet
The love of Ramah passes Shiloh's gates,
Yea, passes and repasses to and fro,

And wraps my darling round by day and night.
He ministers to God an infant priest :

I serve Him in the costliest offering

A mother's heart can render, and perforce

Must sing His praise. He has done all things well.

From His rich stores of immortality

He gave me this great gift, a deathless soul;
And now He deigns accept it from my hand;
Until the house of God above the heavens
Draw all, my husband and my child and me,
Within its mansions of eternal rest."

THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER

TRINITY.

Lessons I Sam. xii., xiii.; Ruth i. Epistle Rom. viii. 18-24. Gospel : St. Luke vi.

:

36-43.

THE COLLECT.

O GOD, the protector of all that trust in Thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy; Increase and multiply upon us Thy mercy: that Thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose ̄not the things eternal: Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ's sake our Lord. Amen.

"The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.”—Rom. viii. 19.

Joy for the everlasting chime,

Swept from creation's great majestic chords,
The echoes of eternity in time

That all things are the Lord's!
The breath of morn, the hush of noon,
The evening's amber light,

Until the unsuspected silvery moon

With all the stars that cluster round her soon
First tell us it is night;

The mirth and music of a thousand rills

Amid the slumber of the hills;

And borne upon the bosom of the breeze
The diapason of the far-off mighty seas!
Joy for the glancing of the insect's wing,
And every living thing

In water, air or earth,