PSALMS AT LAUDS OF THE DEAD (Dirge).

THE HOURS.

THE Reader, making the sign of the Cross from forehead to breast, begins, In the Name of the Father, &c., p. 137, then reads the Short Lesson, and one or more of the introductory prayers. When the Hours are celebrated chorally, then here (and whenever elsewhere the у. R.-Verse and Response-occur) it will be better that the . should be sung by the trebles and the Ry. by the basses.

Then the Psalms will be sung (or read) as in the Common Prayer, the Antiphon being first precented as far as the italics go, and then sung in monotone.

In Matins there need be no kneeling at all. Every one may stand. And this may be the posture throughout all the Hours; or the worshippers may kneel for the final prayers which occur at the end of all the Hours except Matins.

The worshippers should stand and kneel in two lines opposite one another; there will then be no difficulty whatever in responding. Even in a household of seven or eight people, the Psalms, when not sung, may be recited antiphonally, the Reader at the beginning of every Psalm reciting the whole of the portion of the Antiphon there placed, and the first verse of the following Psalm as far as the mediation, that verse being then finished by the worshippers on his own side. The second verse is taken up at once by those opposite, and so on till the Gloria, which should be said by all present with an inclination of the head. In the Antiphon at the end of the Psalms and elsewhere the Reader should recite the words printed in italics; the others together then finish it

Wherever Hymns occur in reading the Hours, they should be recited line by line antiphonally; or, where this is impracticable, by the Reader and worshippers alternately.

In other parts of the Office the Reader recites all, except what is printed for response in italics.

At the end of the Lessons, p. 145, &c., the Reader may turn to the east (or to that part of the room which represents the east) at the Thus saith the Lord, &c.

The Reclamation (the Response after the Lessons in Matins, which has not the letter Ry before it) should be said by all present, including the Reader.

I know by experience that, if the Hours are said in monotone, and not too slow, there is no difficulty or confusion whatever, even though recited by only three or four persons, including servants in that number.

To those unacquainted with the ancient offices, it may be necessary to state that Antiphons or "Anthems" (the word is the same) are passages, generally from Scripture, arranged so as to give the key-note to the Psalm or Collect which follows. In ordinary Offices, the first words only of the Antiphon are said or sung before the Psalm, but the whole is said after it. In special services, however, the Antiphon is said whole, both before and after the Psalm. many dioceses abroad the Antiphon is sung whole (in special services) before the Psalm, and the music of it is played by the organ alone, without the words, after the Psalm; the choir then taking up the Antiphon for the next Psalm which follows in order.

READING,

S. Michael and All Angels, 1864.

In

WHEN I pondered in my mind the great

danger of hypocrisy and loss of prayer

which S. Matthew signifies in the sixth, tenth, and twenty-third chapters; and how much man loses, and is deprived of, through his vainglory and blind folly; and when I considered the unstableness and wavering of man's heart and mind,-I was moved to write thus for the edifying of the soul to the pleasure and will of God, whereby man may the sooner obtain the grace of Christ.

Ofttimes, when I am wont to pray in the Church or elsewhere, I give particular regard to what I read and say; for truly I have often recited and prayed with my mouth, when my mind and heart have been cursed with worldly thoughts. Away with business in the presence of God! for I have lost the fruit of my prayer both to body and soul, when that passes away unheeded which I read or say; as, without the consent of the mind and heart, that which we read, or say, or sing, profits me and all others little or nothing. Wherefore I account it great folly, and believe that herein we are much

E

despised of God, when we sinners presume to speak or call to the High Lord of all in our devotion or prayers, as if we were brute and unreasoning creatures of no understanding; when we turn our ears, our hearts, and our minds aside from him to vain follies and empty fancies of the soul. Of what grievous punishment are we worthy who are but dust and ashes in the sight of God, when we disdain his Majesty, and little regard the Maker of heaven and earth speaking to us.

In

truth, no tongue can express the goodness and sufferance of our Creator and merciful Lord Jesu, who daily beholds the unkindness and sinful living of us ungrateful sinners, turning away our eyes and closing the door of our hard and obstinate hearts from him. Surely we are very hard hearted, since his merciful goodness is ever so ready to bear with us, and to grant us our desire in that way which may be necessary for our happiness, though we know it not. And yet he calls to us in divers places, as the Gospels witness: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and 1 will give you rest." And again in the Gospel of S. Matthew he says, "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." And yet again he says, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live." And thus in many more places he calls to us sinners in Psalms, in Canticles, and in Holy Scripture, if we will open the doors of our stubborn hearts, and our