QUOD FUI, DOMINE, IGNOSCE; QUOD SUM, CORRIGE ;

QUOD ERO, DIRIGE.

LORD, FORGIVE WHAT I HAVE BEEN; CORRECT WHAT I AM ; DIRECT WHAT I SHALL BE.

ASH-WEDNESDAY.

SOME account of Ash-Wednesday, the first day of Lent, seems to befit this portion of the present manual.

The appointment of this day, with the three others which follow it, was designed to make up the thirty-six days, of which the fast had before consisted, to forty. But it was confined to the Western Church. The Eastern Church began their fast upon the Monday in Quinquagesima (afterwards in Sexa gesima), and accomplished the forty days, by excluding not only the Sundays, but the Saturdays also except Easter Eve.

As proper offices for the celebration of the Holy Communion on Ash-Wednesday appear in the Sacramentary of Gregory the Great, it has been supposed by some, that the four additional days are to be attributed to him. It is more probable, however, that these services were added to the book, long after his

death; and that the order to begin the Lenten fast on the Wednesday of Quinquagesima, was not general till late in the ninth century. Indeed, in the Church of Milan, this usage, however common elsewhere, throughout the west, has never been absolutely received. Not till the sixteenth century was AshWednesday there considered, as the commencement of Lent, and only then, where the Ambrosian offices were not used.

In our own branch of the Church, the addition of the four days, and the special observance of AshWednesday, dates from their first introduction, and, most probably, the offices which had before been used on the Monday in Quadragesima, were simply transferred, with the change.

There were, however, other rites besides. The Church then dealt with those, on whom she had imposed public penance, and whom she intended to readmit, by absolution, to communion at Easter. The course was this: The priest having previously heard their confession, the penitents were presented, on AshWednesday, at the door of the church. After their admission within, they were clothed with sackcloth; ashes were cast upon their heads; holy water was sprinkled upon them; and the seven Penitential Psalms were said, all the clergy lying prostrate on the ground. The penitents thus dressed and barefooted, were then driven forth out of the church, and

were not suffered to return, till Maundy Thursday, or Thursday in Holy Week, when they were admitted to the blessing of absolution.

This ceremony of expulsion was very significant, and must have been very impressive. The clergy followed the penitents to the door, with the cross in their hands, saying the solemn words,—" In the sweat of thy face, shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for, dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." As GOD cast Adam and Eve out of Paradise for their transgression, so were these offenders cast out of the Church. The doors were then closed, and the Blessed Sacrament was administered to the faithful.

This discipline was at first intended for, and confined to notorious sinners, whose crime was as public, as their offence. But, the ceremony of sprinkling ashes on the foreheads of the faithful on Ash-Wednesday followed upon it, and is still retained, in the Roman and French Churches. The forehead is also signed with the cross, and the solemn warning is added," Remember, O man, that thou art dust, and unto dust shalt thou return."

That the primitive and wholesome discipline of the Church is retained, in these branches, any more than in our own, there is much reason to doubt. The very rigour of certain forms, and the force of cherished superstitions have, in Italy and elsewhere,

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swallowed up all the abiding spiritual fruit of discipline, just as disregard, and unbelief, and indifference, in our own land, have eaten it away.

Nevertheless, the pure, wholesome, and ancient rule of the Church is that "godly discipline," the restoration of which, as we, in England, annually desire, so it is our duty to labour and pray fervently, that God, in His own good time, would grant. Year by year, as we have more abundant need, so, praised be God, we have more abundant cause to rejoice, that it is a need which earnest souls are, more and more, learning to feel.

The Commination Service is a valuable witness which the Church of England possesses, and will not -let go, not only to the vigour of life, which she once had, but to that which she intends (God helping her) to have again.

I will make no apology for inserting in this place, the plain words which the same friend of Bishop Hickes, whom I have already quoted, addressed to his country congregation a hundred and fifty years ago :

A DISCOURSE UPON ASH-WEDNESDAY.

I am to acquaint you that, in obedience to the commands, in conformity to the practice, and in submission to the wisdom of the holy Catholic Church in almost all ages, but especially of our own dear and