tection and assurance of thy people; that it may please thee to bless the magistrates of the realm, and all that are in authority, that they may truly and impartially administer justice, to the punishment of wickedness and vice, and the maintenance of true religion and virtue; that thy spirit may rest upon them, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord; that they may rule with equity the meek of the earth, and judge the people with righteousness *,-We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

Having thus prayed individually for several of the classes constituting our national Church,—the Queen, the clergy, the council, the nobility, and the magistrates,we conclude this portion of the Litany by one wide and comprehensive petition for them and for all. "That it may please thee to bless and keep all thy people." The high and the low, the rich and the poor, the learned and the ignorant, the governors and the governed, the teachers and the taught ;-that it may please thee to bless and keep all thy people, to draw us all unto thee by the bands of thy love, and the strength of thy grace; to keep us all in brotherly unity upon earth, and to bring us at last unto heaven, from our Church militant unto thy Church triumphant, one fold, under thee the good Shepherd and Bishop of our souls,-We beseech thee to hear

us.

* Isa. xi. 2, 4.

89

LECTURE XIII.

That it may please thee to give to all nations unity, peace, and concord;

That it may please thee to give us an heart to love and dread thee, and diligently to live after thy commandments; We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

HAVING prayed for the whole state of Christ's Church militant here on earth, and then for all members thereof in particular, who are subject to the dominion, and in communion with the national Church of England; we are now impelled to take a yet wider range than the first, and embrace in our prayer of love not only the holy Church universal, and that pure and apostolical part of it established within these realms, but those heathen nations also, who are still as sheep that have gone astray, who have not yet returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls, whose darkness is yet uncheered by the Sun of Righteousness: "That it may please thee to give to all nations unity, peace, and concord, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord." We beseech thee, who from thy throne beholdest all the dwellers upon earth, that all nations may be brought to confess thy holy name, to agree in the truth of thy holy word, to live in

the unity of the Spirit, the bond of peace; that all nations already included in thy Church may become Christian in spirit and in truth as well as in name; that all heathen nations may be speedily united unto them by the bonds of Christian unity, peace, and concord; thou who calmest the raging of the waves, and stillest the madness of the people, cause righteousness to cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea.

This beautiful and devout ejaculation becomes, however, mere sounding brass, if offered up by any one who does not, according to the ability which God has given him, strengthen the hands of those who are actually engaged in the noble work of bringing "all nations" into this heavenly state of "unity, peace, and concord;" preaching unto them the gospel of peace, and bringing unto them the glad but long-delayed tidings of good things. It is not enough that we wish the Gospel to be spread; it is not enough that we pray the Gospel may be spread; both our wishes and our prayers are surely inconsistent, profiting nought, either us or them, unless we practically aid in the spreading of it; by contributing, through some one of the channels which none need be long finding, towards the established means for the supply of the Word, and ministers of the Word, among "all nations," who are even yet, in this nineteenth century, withering under the blight of heathen superstition and ignorance. For, "How shall they call on Him

in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent*?" Oh! may we, whenever we repeat this intercession of the Litany, think of the obligation which the Gospel imposes, and which we, by so praying, impose afresh upon ourselves, of letting our light shine before our less-favoured fellow-men, nor rest satisfied until we have done all that in us lies to bring them unto Christ, and enabled "all nations" to join with ourselves, and the blessed saints of the Church above, in glorifying our Father which is in heaven! Oh! may our prayers and our endeavours prevail! Oh! may each year we live be marked by some new conquest over the strongholds of Satan! May we, like that conqueror of old, think no conquests sufficient, while there remains aught else to conquer! May we be penetrated more and more deeply with the sublime language of the prophet, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reignetht;" nor ever rest satisfied with our exertions until we have realized what follows; "Break forth into joy, sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed *Rom. x. 14, 15. + Isaiah Lii. 7.

Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations*!" Yea, may all the ends of the earth see the salvation of our God!

To return; if, in offering up this prayer faithfully and acceptably, we recognise and impose upon ourselves afresh, each time we repeat it, the obligation of aiding, by our own personal exertion, the diffusion of Christian knowledge among "all nations;" by doing this, we incur another obligation also, the obligation of acting ourselves up to that which we thus recommend to the adoption of others. This latter obligation appears to have been kept in view by the framers of our Litany; for the duties so imposed upon us, if we would be sincere and consistent members of Christ's Church which we profess our desire to enlarge, form the subject of the four following petitions. We shall, on the present occasion, consider the first of them only: "That it may please thee to give us an heart to love and dread thee, and diligently to live after thy commandments; We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord." We pray thee that thy saving health may be unto all nations; we pray thee that the whole earth may be filled with the knowledge of God; we pray thee to bless the means which are used for spreading abroad, over the idolatrous nations of the world, the freshness and the soundness of that health, the light and the joy of that knowIsaiah Lii. 9, 10.