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CHURCH SERVICE.

THE FIRST PART OF THE COMMUNION SERVICE. We begin by repeating the Lord's Prayer, which peculiarly suits this most solemn act of Christian worship. Then we proceed, in a very old and excellent collect, to beg of Him, unto whom all hearts be open, so to cleanse the thoughts of ours, by the inspiration of His holy Spirit, by breathing into us with lasting efficacy good inclinations and purposes, that we may, as perfectly as our present state admits, love him in our souls, and magnify him in our words and lives. Purity of intention is both in general requisite for approaching God's altar, and more especially for going through the next part of the office aright; in which, after hearing the Ten Commandments rehearsed to us, we pray God to have mercy upon us, and pardon us, so far as we have transgressed either the letter or the spirit of them, as explained by our blessed Redeemer, and incline our hearts to keep each of them better for the future. It doth not appear that this form of devotion was ever used in any liturgy before our own. But surely, taking the Commandments with the Gospel interpretation of them, it is a very instructive and edifying one. And they who think the confession in the Morning Prayer not particular enough, have sufficient room here to supply that imagined defect.

Next follows a prayer for the king. The primitive Christians, in every public office, presented a supplication for their sovereign. Now, in this office, unless it were put in the beginning, few in proportion would join in it when the sacrament is administered, considering how many return home without receiving. And, therefore, it is placed here just after the Ten Commandments, of which the authority of the magistrate is one main support, as they are of that in return; and we pray the Almighty that, in mercy to his church, he may so rule the king's heart, whom, in the course of his providence, he hath chosen to reign over us, and to be his servant and minister to us for good, (Rom. xiii. 4.) that he may above all things seek his glory, by maintaining his laws above mentioned; and will so rule our hearts likewise, and those of all his subjects, that we may faithfully and humbly obey him, in God; that is, in the strength of his grace, and in subordination, not contradiction, to his supreme will; and for God, not only for fear of man's wrath, but for conscience sake also. (Rom. xiii. 5.)

Then we offer up the collect for the day; and after it read two portions of Scripture, to which it hath frequently a reference. One of them is usually taken from the Epistles, and the other always from the Gospels. The Epistle hath been thus read certainly for 1300 years, but the Gospel much longer. And the very portions that we now use were most of them used on the same days 1200 years ago, and perhaps a great deal earlier. The annual course of them, and of the collects prefixed to them, began then, as it doth now, not with the civil year, or the entrance of the sun into this or that sign, but from the Advent-the approach of the appearance of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness. (Mal. iv. 2.) And it was so contrived that the former part, from his birth to his ascension, should represent to us the principal articles of his history; the latter, those of our own duty.

At the reading of the Gospel, the people are directed to stand up, in honour of Him whose life and words it relates. And there appears no time when they did otherwise, or when that acclamation, Glory be to thee, O Lord, was not made, which, indeed, at present is not prescribed, though it was in the first edition of Edward the Sixth's liturgy, but omitted afterwards, probably by accident; for there could be no objection raised against it.

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As in the Morning Prayer, so in the Communion Service, for the same reason, after reading the Scripture, we recite the Creed; only there we have that of the ancient Latin church, here that of the ancient Greek, made in the first General Council, held at Nice, above 1400 years ago, and thence called Nicene; excepting that some small additions were inserted since, all of them but one,* about fifty years after.

In this creed we profess ourselves to believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, because some had spoken of the human and divine nature of our Saviour, which they called Jesus and Christ, as two persons not united. The words, Light of Light, intimating, that his divine nature is from the Father, as light is from the sun, or as one light without diminution of itself kindles another, were intended for some imperfect illustration, (and doubtless a very imperfect one it is, and any other must be,) of his mysterious generation. The words, Lord, and Giver of Life, ascribed to the Spirit, are not to be joined as one single attribute, but are taken from two different texts of Scripture: in the one of which he is called, according to the marginal reading, the Lord the Spirit, (2 Cor. iii. 18.) and said in the other to give life; (Verse 6.) that is the spiritual life of grace. The phrase, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, may signify either his deriving from the latter as well as the former his eternal subsistence; or, since that hath been disputed between the Latin and Greek church, his being sent by both into the hearts of men, as the Scripture plainly affirms he is. (John xiv. 26. xv. 26. xvi. 7.)—Archbishop Secker.

MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.

THE GALLA COUNTRY IN AFRICA.

Ar the northern bank of the Killefi the Dahalo Country begins, and in the west the Galla Territory of the Berrarata Tribe. Having passed the Killefi, we saw to the north-west the top of a high and black mountain, which rose behind a lower mountain range that springs out from the Wanika Country, and is a continuation of the mountains of Rabbay, Ribe, Kambe, Dshibana, Dshogni, and Kaooma. On the top of the said black mountain the town Sebaki is said to be situated. It is the place to which the Galla resort in all weighty concerns referring to their tribe; and no doubt many destructive war expeditions have been planned there; and the terrible Moru or High Priest, in the Druid manner of old, has inspected the entrails of slaughtered animals. Who can know how much * Consisting of the words, "And the Son," which came in some hundreds of years after. (See Nichols.)

misery and woe may have gone forth from this university of the devil? for such places are the high schools of the heathen, and these are entirely under the influence of the father of lies and murder. But we will not despair, for we know our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given his life also for the Galla, can and shall in his time erect an evangelical school at Sabaki. The spirit within us sighed for the coming of this time, and in the name of our Master we took already possession of the place, though at present we cannot even think of setting our foot on that part of the Galla Coast, from the ferocity of its inhabitants. But we were as sure as Abraham of old, when the promise concerning the possession of Canaan was given him. "Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." This we did by asking our Heavenly Father that the Galla nation might soon be given for his Son's inheritance. Pray we did for a country inhabited by murderers, by wilful man-slayers, who consider their work on earth to consist in killing, as surely as the Wanika Tribes consider their business to be in cultivating the soil. Indeed we felt ourselves very uneasy in sailing along the Galla Coast, not so much on account of the personal danger, but especially by reason of the shocking stories which our well-versed pilot related to us, and which I know were perfectly true. No doubt the first missionaries of Germany, on passing its frontiers, had similar feelings rising up in their minds; but the Lord has heard their prayers, which, if I may use the expression, are the birth-place of Christian development with which a country may be blessed in after ages. Whatever the world may say or think, yet it is certain that the invisible roots of a nation's regeneration from heathenism, its resurrection from death, lie in the deep sighings and sympathies of the missionary. In his mind the Lord is risen from his sanctuary on high, in order to regenerate a nation-whose Church history begins there.-Rev. Dr. Krapf.

EDITOR'S PORTFOLIO.

HEADS OF SELF-EXAMINATION FOR THE SABBATH MORNING.

HAVE I, since the last Sabbath, prayed for my scholars?

Have I (as far as I have had opportunity) visited such of them as were absent from my class? If, from causes by which conscience is satisfied, I have not had it in my power to visit them myself, have I deputed the office to some other person, or in some way or other sought to let them know that their absence is noticed and regretted?

Have I perused with consideration the portions of Scripture which they are this day to read and repeat to me, so that I shall be able to explain to them what is difficult to be understood, and to direct their attention to those profitable reflections which are naturally suggested?

Is there one among my scholars whom I have not privately, as well as in the class, urged to flee from the wrath to come, and to whom I have not pointed out the only way to be saved, namely, by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ?

Is there anything in my demeanour, dress, habits, mode of ad

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members. We should suppose that it will be again rejected by the Lords.

The case of the juvenile pauper establishment at Tooting has now been finally closed, and Drouet committed to Newgate for manslaughter: a fearful exposure of the horrors of the contract system! A system which, whether in such an establishment as that, or on the railway, in the barracks or the workhouse, is productive of the worst effects, and has the fewest redeeming features.

The verdict of the jury was to the effect, that great mismanagement and culpable neglect were manifest; that the guardians were reprehensible; and that the Poor-law in this respect seemed to be insufficient in preventing abuses.

There is little of interest with regard to Ireland, at present, in a political point of view. Agitation has been crushed; but not, we fear, uprooted. The insurrectionary spirit has been broken and palsied, but waits its opportunity to rise again.

We are glad to see that the Longford clergy have taken the lead in addressing a circular to the Roman Catholics of Ireland in general, inviting them to consider the differences between their own and the Protestant creeds, and see to which side the truth belongs. It is short, but comprehensive, clear, calm, and decisive. The mildness of its language, which we are sorry to see sometimes forgotten even by the partizans of orthodox truth, is much to be commended.

There is in some districts at the present time, the most appalling distress, mitigated however by the benevolence of English friends. A proposition has been lately brought forward by Mr. Gildea, of Newport, in the county Mayo, to introduce flax-spinning as a means of subsistence among the unemployed poor. He has tried it himself. He collected, two years ago, £3,000 from England, and could have collected more. With this he bought flax and spinning wheels, and set 500 women to work, in the manufacture of cotton. These he was enabled to continue through the whole of 1847, and part of 1848; and found it to be not only a means of employment, but a source of profit. Government measures of relief having so often failed, why should not private individuals commence this work of physical reformation? and who so fit to undertake it as the parochial clergy?

The war in the Punjaub still continues. There was a battle fought between the Sikh advanced guard and our troops on the banks of the Chenab, which ended in their retreat, but not till after a heavy loss sustained by the English. We cannot but feel that with greater prudence there would have been fewer lives lost. The

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