Then the Minister shall say,

Let us pray.

ETERNAL GOD, creator and preserver of all mankind, giver of all spiritual grace, the author of everlasting life; send thy blessing upon these thy servants, whom we bless in thy name. Enable them to perform the covenant which they have now made in thy presence. May they seriously attend to the duties of the new relation in which they stand to each other; that it may not be to them a state of temptation and sorrow, but of holiness and comfort; may they live together in peace and love; and wilt thou, the God of peace and love, be always with them, and lead them in the paths of innocence and virtue to eternal life. May their hearts be united in the closest bonds of love and purity; may they be blessings and comforts to one another, sharers of each other's joys, consolers of each other's sorrows, and helpers to one another in all the changes of the world; and grant that they may so faithfully discharge the duties which belong to the condition into which they have entered, that they, and all who may be committed to their care, may meet together in that world of perfect felicity which thou hast revealed to us by Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Then shall the Minister speak unto the People.

FORASMUCH as M. and N. have con

sented together in wedlock, and have witnessed the same before God and this company, and thereto have engaged and pledged themselves to each other, and have declared the same by giving and receiving a ring, and by joining hands; I pronounce that they be Man and Wife; and those whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.

Then shall he add this

Blessing.

THE Lord God Almighty bless, preserve, and keep you; the Lord mercifully with his favor look upon you, and fill you with all spiritual benediction and grace; that ye may so live together in this life, that in the world to come ye may have life everlasting. Amen.

BURIAL OF THE DEAD.

When the Procession is entering the Church, the Minister shall say these Sentences:

I

AM the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. St. John xi. 25, 26.

A

LL flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever. Isa. xl. 6-8.

LIKE as a father pitieth his children, so the

Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. Psalm ciii. 13, 14.

WE

WE brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: Blessed be the name of the Lord! 1 Tim. vi. 7; Job i. 21.

The following Selections, or a portion of them, may then be read as a Scripture Lesson.

L

ORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am.

Behold thou hast made my days as it were a span long, and mine age is even as nothing in respect of thee.

For man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain; he heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them. And now, Lord, what is my hope? truly my hope is even in thee.

Hear my prayer, O Lord, and with thine ears consider my calling; hold not thy peace at my tears.

For I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

O spare me a little, that I may recover my strength, before I go hence, and be no more Psalm xxxix.

seen.

LORD, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.

For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep; in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.

In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth