GLORIA IN EXCELSIS.

Then shall be said or sung.

GLORY be to God on high, and in earth peace, good will towards men. We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we worship Thee, we glorify Thee, we give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory, O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty.

O Lord, the only-begotten Son Jesu Christ; O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Thou that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.

Thou that takest

away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. Thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father, have mercy upon

us.

For Thou only art holy; Thou only art the Lord; Thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art most high in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

THIS Eucharistic hymn has been sung by the Church of Christ in her Holy Communion Service certainly from the third or fourth century, and probably earlier. Some believe that it has come down to us from the days of the apostles.

In the Eastern Church it goes by the name of "The Angelical Hymn;" and doubtless no words could strike the keynote of this utterance of the Church's heart, this pouring forth of her adoration mingled with tender pleas for mercy, so well as the song of the

angels at Bethlehem, Glory to God in the highest, and in earth peace, good will towards men.“

We never weary of this song. The music of it haunts us from the days of our childhood: it intensifies the joy of youth: it strengthens the faith of manhood and womanhood: it sheds a glow over the silver frost of age. And the more we ponder it the more unfathomable it is found to be. Does it not seem as if the singers of this hymn had but now come from standing before the throne of

a With regard to the text of this angelic song Dr. Scrivener writes: "If there be one case more than another in the criticism of the New Testament wherein solid reason and pure taste revolt against the iron yoke of ancient authorities, it is that of the angelic hymn sung at the Nativity. In the common text all is transparently clear

The blessed words are distributed after the Hebrew fashion into a stanza of three members. In the first and second heaven and earth are contrasted; the third refers to both these preceding, and alleges the sufficient cause which has brought God glory and earth peace. By the addition of a single letter to the end of the last line, by reading evdokías for evdoxía, the rhythmical arrangement is utterly marred, and the simple shepherds are sent away with a message, the diction of which no scholar has yet construed to his own mind" (Criticism of New Testament, p. 513). Let, then, every shadow of suspicion pass from our mind, and let us rejoice that, instead of the uncouth translation offered us in the Revised Version, we have in our authorized Bibles and in our Prayer Book the words which were undoubtedly sung by the angels over the fields of Bethlehem.

glory in the heaven of heavens, and there beholding the face of God? For we instinctively view things in relation to that of which our hearts are full. Their hearts were filled with the fulness of God.

And yet we ask ourselves again and again, What called forth this adoration of the angels? Their song was the chorus to the message of another of their holy brotherhood to the shepherds, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people; for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord: and this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." Was there not much here rather to chasten and perplex? What, the Incarnate Creator of all worlds, self-humbled as a helpless Babe in His mother's arms! That they should express wonder, awe, or gratitude on man's behalf would have seemed natural. But that their first thought should be "Glory to God," what an inlet it is to an angel's heart! How truly Martin Luther says, "The good angels are wiser and know more than the evil angels: for this reason, they have a mirror wherein they look and learn, the face of the Father."

How much these blessed angels knew of the Saviour's after ministry, and death, and resurrection is veiled from us; probably much from the lamp of prophecy. But this must have been transparent to them; they were heralding an act of unexampled self-humiliation, which pledged the Son of God to

redeem the children of men. This was the uttermost of Divine love. And they could trust God with an illimitable trust. To look up into His face would be to read His infinite delight that the Son of His love, in whom He is always well pleased, should thus stoop from the throne of the heavenlies to do His will and destroy the works of the devil, and give Himself for His chosen bride, and open the gates of bliss to all believers. They would behold with a new meaning the great white throne spanned with the emerald arch of mercy. And hence instinctively they sang, Glory to God in the highest, and in earth peace, good will towards men.

Surely it was a true instinct which led the Church militant here in earth, from the earliest ages of her warfare, to begin her hymn of Eucharistic praise with this angelic song. For in the Supper of His love Jesus reveals Himself to His own, as not unto the world: He draws very nigh unto them: He comes in and sups with them, and they sup with Him He shows them plainly of the Father: He gives them largely of His Spirit: they are in His banqueting-house, and His banner over them is love. It is the nearest approach on earth to the unutterable felicity of being presented faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. They have here a foretaste of heaven. The angels' joy is theirs. There is no dark spot in their heart unprobed, no cloud of unforgiven sin betwixt them and their God. They are moving in a world

of love. They are conscious of great impulses of gratitude towards God and of tender sympathy towards mankind. And so without any painful effort, yea, almost by a blessed necessity, their souls respond, Glory to God in the highest, and in earth peace, good will towards men.

After the keynote is thus struck, there are five utterances of grateful adoration: (1) We praise Thee; (2) we bless Thee; (3) we worship Thee; (4) we glorify Thee; (5) we give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory. We praise Thee, whose pure and perfect goodness satisfies that nature. in which man was created after the likeness of God, and in which Thy Holy Spirit is now recreating us. We bless Thee, pouring forth our hearts in thanksgiving, the irrepressible voice of our joy in Thee. We worship Thee, for our souls are wholly prostrate and subdued within us, and we crave even the lowest place in Thy courts, where we may offer Thee the homage of our hearts and give Thee all we are and all we have. We glorify Thee, ascribing to Thee all the glory who hast saved us with so great a salvation, a salvation which reveals all Thy perfectly harmonious righteousness and grace. We give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory, not for Thy gifts only, manifold and bountiful as they are, mercies innumerable as the moments which fleet over us, deep as the depth of misery from which Thou hast rescued us, high as the heights of bliss to which