there, every step they go the burden gets lighter, the water continually runs away, and the warm sun drys the wood, so that when they reach their cottage they almost wonder at its lightness, and think they have made a mistake in not bringing two pieces instead of one. The cross that we ought to bear seems to be much like this. It is floating about on the surface of the world, almost sinking beneath its stained waters; but some of us less mistaken than others lift it up and get it on our shoulders; it is very heavy at first, for it is weighted with our mistakes and errors; but as we go on, one by one they drop off, and the warm sun of love and honour soon dry it, and at last we reach our home lightly and joyfully, only wondering that we could ever have fallen into the mistake that it was heavy, and only wishing that we could have borne away two in the place of one. Depend upon it, rectifying this great mistake will prevent all the smaller ones, for smaller ones they all are, even if they do effect this present life at its very roots, and threaten to make it a burden for ever. A great error, some foolish mistake, will often tempt us to say, "It is no use now, it is done, and cannot be helped;" and there is an old proverb, “As he has made his bed so he must lie." Our proverbs are mostly good sayings, but surely there can be nothing so unchristian, so uncharitable as this; for it is a duty we owe to each other to soften our sorrows and help each other in our mistakes; thinking on this and acting up to it, that if a person has run wilfully into a mistake after he has been warned, then that it is best to let the trouble that the wilfulness brings upon him teach him to find out his mistake. We must all make mistakes, but we who think and know our duty have a sure and lasting remedy for them. What we have to do is to pray that we may be guided in our actions, and during our whole lives, so to do and so to speak that our mistakes may not be intentional, and that if we make them they may be forgiven.

Edith.

Above, a moonless summer sky,
A summer stillness round us lying,
As at the window, she and I
Knelt as the day was dying.

My hand had clasped her arm,
With eager earnest eyes

I watched her, as she scanned the calm
Still cloudland in the skies,

I wondered where her thoughts were roaming,
What face amid the clouds she sought;
I knew that in that quiet gloaming
'Twas not of me she thought.

My hand might stroke her wavy hair,

My touch her blooming cheek might smoothe,
Yet never might I hope or dare

To speak, to think of love!

Ah! Edith, Thou wilt never sigh,

To think, as time is flying,

Of that short hour when you and I
Knelt as the day was dying!

W. B.

THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER.

We purpose giving, from time to time, short papers on different parts of the Book of Common Prayer, which we have no doubt will prove useful to many of our Clerical readers, especially to those who, where the Rubrics are not sufficiently explicit, wish to observe the directions of the Ancient Service Books. It will be our special care to introduce nothing for which there is not prescriptive authority, or which is not in perfect harmony with the spirit of the Prayer Book.

The subject of our present pages, "The Coincidence of Holy Days," has of late received considerable attention, the difficulty occasioned by the silence or obscurity of the Rubrics being a practical one, wherever there is an attempt made to carry out the elaborate and well-arranged system of the Services of the Church. On some points a careful study of Ancient Usage compels us to differ from the conclusions which have been adopted by previous writers; whilst on others, especially with regard to the observance of Octaves, we have ventured to suggest the adoption of a custom which, to the best of our knowledge, has been hitherto unaccountably left unnoticed.

The Coincidence of Holy Days.

When two or more Holy Days occur on the same day, it was the ancient custom to observe that of the highest dignity, and to transfer

the others to the first unoccupied days, or, in certain cases, to commemorate them by the use of their respective Collects. In the English Church there is at present no authority for the translation of Holy Days. But as they frequently occur on the same day, the questions naturally arise-Which is to have the preference in the Services of the day? and under what circumstances should the others be commemorated? The following suggestions founded on Ancient Usage may serve as an answer to these questions.

Sundays are divided into Privileged and Ordinary. Privileged Sundays are of two classes.

I.-Sundays of the First Class.

1. Advent Sunday.

2. 1st Sunday in Lent.
3. Passion Sunday.
4. Palm Sunday.

5. Easter Day.

6. Low Sunday.
7. Whit Sunday.
8. Trinity Sunday.

II.-Sundays of the Second Class.

1. Sunday before Advent.
2. 2nd Sunday in Advent.
3. 3rd Sunday in Advent.
4. 4th Sunday in Advent.
5. Septuagesima Sunday.

6. Sexagesima Sunday. 7. Quinquagesima Sunday. 8. 2nd Sunday in Lent. 9. 3rd Sunday in Lent. 10. 4th Sunday in Lent.

All others in the year are Ordinary Sundays.

The Greater Festivals may be conveniently divided into two Classes.

I.—Festivals of the First Class.

2. The Circumcision.

1. The Nativity of our Lord.

3. The Epiphany.

6. Pentecost and two fol-
lowing days.
7. S. John Baptist.

4. Easter and two following days. 8. All Saints.

5. The Ascension.

II. Festivals of the Second Class.

All others which are provided with Collect, Epistle and Gospel, in the Prayer Book.

The greater Ferial days are those of Advent and Lent. Of the latter, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and Easter Even, take precedence of a Festival, which, if it occur on either of the last two, is not even commemorated.

Rules for the Occurrence of Holy Days.

NOTE.-Holy-Days are said to occur when they fall on the same day.

I. If two Festivals occur on the same day, the Service of that of greater dignity should be said, the other being commemorated by the use of its Collect.

II. On Festivals occurring on Sundays, if the Festival have precedence of the Sunday, the latter should be commemorated by the use of its Collect after that of the Festival.

III. On Festivals occurring on Ferial days, the Collect of the Festival only should be used, except during Advent and Lent, when the Collect of the Week should be said after that of the Festival.

IV. The Collect of a Festival should be said throughout its Octave after the Collect of the Week. But if another Festival occur within the Octave-that of the Nativity of our Lord excepted, within which all Octaves are commemorated-the Collect of the previous Festival should be omitted.

V. The Festival of S. Thomas, even when the Patron Saint has no Octave.

VI. If two or more Collects of commemoration are said on the same day, the Collect of a Festival should precede that of a Sunday, and the Collect of a Sunday that of an Octave.

VII. To preserve an uneven number of Collects for three is significant of the Blessed Trinity, five of our Lord's Wounds, seven of the gifts of the Holy Spirit-recourse should be had to those placed for this purpose at the end of the Communion Service. At Matins and Evensong, they should be said after the Collect "for Grace," and for " Aid against all perils:" at the Holy Communion, immediately before the Epistle.

To facilitate references, the above suggestions are embodied in the following Table, in which it may be seen at a glance what Service should be used on any given occasion.

1. Service of First: Commemoration of Second.

2. Service of Second: Commemoration of First.

3. Service of +Festival of greater dignity: Commemoration of the other.

4. Service of First: nothing of Second.

5. Service of First: nothing of Second except within the Octave of the Nativity of our Lord.

4 4

Days within an

Octave.
Festivals of 2nd
Class.

Festivals of 1st
Class.

*If a Festival of Second Class be the Patron Saint, it takes precedence of the Sunday: the latter being only commemorated.

+Festivals of our Lord are of greater dignity than those of Angels; those of Angels than those of Apostles, &c.

Rules for the Concurrence of Holy Days.

NOTE.-Holy Days are said to concur when the first Vesper of the succeeding coincide with the second Vespers of the preceding.

I. If a Festival fall on a Saturday, the Sunday should always be commemorated at the second Vespers of the Festival.

II. If a Festival fall on a Monday, the Collect of the Sunday, unless it be privileged, should not be commemorated at the first Vespers of the Festival.

III. As Ferial Days have no Vigil or Eve, the Collects of Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and Easter Even should not be said at the Evening Service next before.

IV. At the first Vespers of Easter Day the Collect of Easter Even should of course be commemorated.

RAMBLES & REVERIES OF A MODERN
MORALIST.

BY WILMOT BUXTON.

II. CONCERNING A FLOWER-POT.

"As to your gilliflower-"

"Is it a gilliflower ?" said Charney.

"Ma Foi," said Ludovic, “I know nothing about it, Signor Conte; all flowers are gilliflowers to me."

La Picciola.

I was walking in the City the other day; I do not often go there, there is little pleasure to me in hearing a continual, monotonous, deafening noise, and being pushed and squeezed and jostled about. You cannot think comfortably in the crowded thoroughfares of the City, your chain of ideas is continually being rudely snapped by a collision with some passenger in a hurry. No, I do not like the City. However, I was there the other day; not in the thronged pathways, though; I had left them, and found myself in a little qeer out-of-the-way street which seemed to lead nowhere in particular, and was so quiet and orderly, and even dull, within five minutes' walk of Cheapside, that it seemed quite out of place, and unnatural.

There was a large dusty warehouse at one end of it, I remember, with a waggon laden with heavy goods standing near it, but the men had gone away from the waggon, and the place was quite deserted. There was nothing whatever attractive in the street except its quietness, for it was a narrow, dusty, close little alley of