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service; a guide and direction to your devotions and thoughts. A service that all joined in,-not only in the particular church to which you went, but throughout England. Was it not intended for all the members of the Church? Then it belongs to you, for you are a sick member."

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If, when you know that the Service is beginning to be read at Church, you begin to read it also; then you may join with all who are worshipping everywhere, and you will cease to feel cut off and isolated. When you begin to do this at first it may appear to you formal; at any rate it will seem very flat, without any one to respond, without any hymns of praise, and you will have little, if any, pleasure in it. Do not be disappointed by this,-do not leave off the practice because of it,—for every time you try (after awhile) you will find more pleasure, and profit, and blessing in it, and feel more as you were joining "the great congregation." Perhaps, too, you will find the reading the Services alone and slowly brings out to you new beauties which you never saw before. Your circumstances, too, may bring home to your heart some prayers and petitions, which hitherto you had only "heard with the hearing of the ear." Especially in reading the Litany, you can bring in the cases of your own friends, separately, naming them in your heart, "widows," the "fatherless children,” the “ sick," "all prisoners and captives," &c., and this will give life to it, and enable you to be "helpers of their 5 Job xlii. 5.

4 Ps. xxii. 25.

joy," and will connect you with others who are "sitting solitary."

Do not say that it would be formal thus to read the Services at home, that they are meant for public worship, and that to use forms in private, and especially in a sick-room, is a bondage and formality. If you are cut off from the Church by sickness, then you have no part in her Services. It cannot be more formal to offer these prayers in private than in public; they are for the whole Church, and therefore for you. You often complain of the exceeding difficulty of fixing your thoughts, and offering your own words in prayer,here are words for you, true and holy words, which all ages have been uttering, exactly fitted to your wants, now and at all times. Sick people need guides for their thoughts and words more than others do; and they, who have tried the plan of reading the Services during the hours of public worship, can speak of the exceeding blessing that it has been to them.

If you are unable to read the whole Service, you can read some part of it; the Confession, and as much as you have strength for besides; or the Litany only.

If you are able to read much at a time, then, when you have read the Service, you can read a sermon; after that, you surely had better lie still for a time, and do nothing. Then gladly take the refreshment of seeing any of your family, or any

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2 Cor. i. 24.

7 Lam. i. 1.

friend who may come to see you. In the afternoon or evening, you may be able to read the Service again; and thus you will not find Sunday a tedious or a lonesome day, but will especially enjoy the rest and refreshing which it offers—the entire relaxation from the work of other days. To many sick people, the calm and rest of this holy day is peculiarly delightful. When they wake in the morning, they begin to feel the difference, and to give thanks that on this day the world may be shut out, and other thoughts may fill up the heart, without interruption from outward things, or from daily domestic duties. They feel refreshed in spirit, and the better enabled to go on their way during the week to come, because of this "day of refreshing from the presence of the Lord." The more a love for this day is cultivated, the more it will become a glad day-a day to be reckoned upon all the week, and rejoiced in when it comes. Thus it will become the pledge and foretaste of the "rest which remaineth;" the rest which they long for. ·

If, at any time, you can get any one to read the Service with you, it is a great help and pleasure; but you will not greatly need this, if you always consider yourself as in the congregation, and that you are truly one of the worshippers. You are not alone, "All the company of Heaven laud and magnify His glorious name." "Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin 8 Acts iii. 19.

• Hcb. iv. 9.

which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith."

WE

III

The Holy Communion

HEN first sickness comes, those who have truly cared for the blessing of joining in the Holy Communion at Church, keenly feel their absence from it; and especially when the days return for its accustomed celebration, they seem more than ever isolated and alone. This feeling may in part be removed, and much blessing found, by reading the Communion Service at the time when others are engaged in that service in the Church where you have been accustomed to worship; or, if you have not strength for the whole, at least read some portion of it.

You have been accustomed to think of this as merely a public service. But surely this cannot be the only view of it, since the Church has appointed a separate service (or at least an introductory service) for the Communion of the Sick, and thus shown that it is meant also for them. Ard a Rubric tells you, that you may eat of it by faith, when you are truly hindered from doing so actually.

But sick people should not be content with merely

10 Heb. xii. 1, 2.

R

thus partaking. The circumstances are rare and peculiar, in which it is not their bounden duty, as well as their highest privilege and blessing, to eat of the Body, and to drink of the Blood of our Lord.

Cases may occur in which they are visited by no clergyman; still they are authorized by the Church to send for him, and to ask him for this service. If circumstances make it impossible to get this blessing from the minister of the parish, or district, at any rate leave may be obtained to ask some friend, or some one through a friend, to minister to you.

There are very many hindrances, and many and great difficulties, which almost every sick person finds on this subject. Generally speaking, most of them are either groundless, or may be overcome by prayer for guidance and strength. One hindrance is the peculiar shyness which sick people feel in mentioning their desire; this probably is common to almost all, and does not entirely depend on natural shyness. It arises from many causes, perhaps the most frequent are: a dislike to giving trouble. -The fear of seeming to make too much of yourself or your state.-A dislike to speaking of self and your own wishes.-A fear lest others should think thereby that you are, or fancy yourself, more holy than you feel that you are.-—A feeling of awkwardness. The thought that you cannot enjoy, or even take pleasure in, the service unless it were in Church. A fear of interruptions, and of not choos

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