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Collect. Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that Thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent. Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of Thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.

Epistle. Joel ii. 12.

Gospel. St. Matt. vi. 16.

In what way may Lent help us? It helps us, I think, by making us realize our degradation in so far as we are worldly, ensnared by our lusts, visited by temptations unresisted.

Miserably inadequate seems all consideration of this plague of sin and the infinite worth of redemption; the greatness of the Love that drew us out of exile. We feel a deep need of the Sacrifice when we see the hideousness of sin-its destructiveness, its subtle force.

He who came to show us the pathway to the invisible world of life and light resisted these forces. He surrendered every delight that came between Him and the great work given Him to do. Sinless, He yet bore the contradiction of sinners, not withdrawing Himself from them except for prayer and communion with God.

He

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walked among the sinful and tried to make them holy. He was ever merciful to the sinner who was conscious of sin and sought to return. He always loved the sinner while He always hated the sin. Now in Lent we will to come personally close to this holy life manifested, the Incarnate life, and make it our individual measure. We are being led to the Cross, where He sufferedHe the perfect, the holy, the pure!

It is because we seek after this power in Christ Jesus that we recognize our powerlessness without it: the lack of peace, the lack of grace. From first to last He shared our lot. He was our elder brother as well as the Captain of our salvation. He brought God so near to us individually that we may say, with St. Paul, "He hath loved me, He hath given Himself for me."

Because Lent is set apart to us for a searching of hearts it is not therefore a time of separation from our brethren. No. It binds us more closely in brotherhood, because the whole of the Lord's life was communion with man. He who knew no sin became sin for us. He was debased for us that we might be glorified with Him.

Your culture, your growth in these great truths must be different as the circumstances of your life are different; but God will show you the way, if your mind is set to hallow all occasions. Take the mind off the diseases, the desolations and the dreariness of life and fix your thought on God's eternal years, the unchangeableness of the Most High. Then the discipline and ob

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servances of the Church, symbol on earth of this unchangeableness, will bring you joy and strength. So to the devout soul the transient things of life, which are done in God, which are accepted in Him, are transmuted into the immortal life, and become a part of that eternal Now which is in us-the fullness of Eternal Life.

O Lord our God, we come to Thee in all our weakness, confessing our pride, our wilfullness, our appetites, our worldliness. Thou, O Lord of our life, dost promise to heal us, and to love us still. Thou hast translated us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Thy dear Son. We pray that we may ever thankfully receive this Thine inestimable benefit; and that our wills may be set to follow His most blessed life.

Grant that we may continually realize the tender love of the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. May His loving voice be heard by us, filling our souls with an answering love, and calling us from the empty pleasures of sense to the service of the living and loving Lord of our Life.

So may we remain Thy children, rejoicing in our Father's house, lying down to rest in His gracious care. For in life, in death, O merciful Father, may we be Thine!

THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT Collect. O Lord, who for our sakes didst fast forty days and forty nights; give us grace to use such abstinence, that, our flesh being subdued to the Spirit, we may ever obey Thy godly motions in righteousness, and true holiness, to Thy honour and glory, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. AMEN. Epistle. 2 Cor. vi. 1.

Gospel. St. Matt. iv. 1.

To-day we meet the NO of Lent. We push aside the crowd of earthly delights, that we may listen to the heavenly voices; to do this we must abstain from many permitted things lest they hinder us.

We are so swathed about with human comforts and pleasures, often utter frivolities, that we fail to hear the divine voice calling us to higher things: to truth and self-denial and lofty endeavour for the world as well as ourselves; the sound of our vocation grows dim and dull through the intrusion of care and the demands of sense.

We ask, "Is it wrong to do these permitted things?" No. But for a while lay them aside; such things as dancing, novels, luxuries of the table; and take such abstinence as a symbol and a means a symbol of repentance for inferior life, a means of attaining a higher plane of action.

Remember Esau ! He came to Isaac, not seeing

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that he had forfeited his birthright for a mess of pottage. He had, so to speak, kept no Lent in his life. A vigorous man, a filial son, a generous nature, he yet despised the higher rôle of the first-born, and sold it to gratify his hunger, not realizing what he had done until Isaac refused him the blessing. Then a great and bitter cry was torn from him-the opportunity of choice was gone. Ah! may none of us ever utter that cry!

So, in this "His mercy's day," we bear in memory the "Valley of Decision" into which our Lord went down. The Christ is tempted in the flesh; all fleshly lusts are symbolized in physical hunger; and this is His answer, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God."

The world and its glories pass before Him. "All will I give Thee if Thou wilt worship me." All ambition to be gratified, riches, power, splendour, fame, this world's prizes at His feet. The Christ makes answer, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, Him only shalt thou serve.'

Then the temptation to presumption; a sin of good people. We say, "the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we," thinking we are not in danger, sure that we are spiritually sustained; and the petty jealousy goes on, the crowding envy, the unkind speech continues, the little creeping sins are permitted. I am a Christian; I say my prayers; I study my Bible; I go to church, how can I be evil? Ah! the delusions that enter here! David cried out, "Keep