enough. But with some-we hope with many-the season is truly consecrated. Repentance is deepened, and devotion quickened. With the livelier sorrow for sin in the past comes its more utter abhorrence for the future. Every Lent may see its pious observer advanced on the road to holiness and he passes from its saddened shade into the light of Easter with the fuller rejoicing. : And yet we do not keep Lent. It is not that we refuse, like our Nonconformist brethren, the holy days and seasons of the Christian year. We keep them heartily: we invest them with infinite variety and dignity: we count them a part of the Divine order of the Church. Nor is it that we shrink from fasting, and are impatient at the call to humiliation. Let the sorrowful solemnities of Good Friday and of the Eve of Pentecost answer this. God forbid that we should stand aloof from the Divine sorrow, whether it be in the Christ bearing on the cross the sin of the world, or in the Spirit sighing like a nightwind through His ruined Temple. If our Lord desired that we should watch and fast with Him awhile;-if He wished that what He did once in His life at its critical turning-point His Church should repeat as a matter of course every year,-we are not of those who would refuse Him. But we do not keep Lent. We call it indeed the Quadragesima: but this name, like the Septuagesima, and Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima which have preceded it, is but a milestone, as it were, on the road, to tell us how near we are to Easter. Why do we differ in this respect from the Church at large? Why do we not keep Lent? It is of course sufficient to know that the Apostles whom God has given have not enjoined it. But the Apostles give us reasons for what they do and would have us follow them intelli : gently, and not as blind machines. Let us see, then, what they teach us about the observance of Lent. In the first place, they point out that it does not come to us with Apostolic authority from the beginning. It was originally a fast of one day, or two days, or forty hours, immediately preceding Easter. To this answers the period we actually observe, when after the Eucharist of Holy Thursday the altar is stripped, and the lights extinguished; when thenceforward no Sacrament is proposed and no incense burned, until on Easter morning the suspended tide of life bursts its flood-gates again. But it is unquestionable that the Primitive Church knew nothing of a fast of forty days' duration,-still less of its being in commemoration of that forty days of our Lord's life of which we read in the Gospel of this week. And moreover, the very justification of the institution as now developed makes it inapplicable to us. "Let it be clearly understood," says a teacher of the fifth century,* *that this observance of Quadragesima had no place, so long as the perfection of that primitive Church remained inviolate. But when it had departed from the devotedness of apostolic times, the universal priesthood saw it good to recall men to the work of holiness by the imposition of fasts by rule." God is seeking to revive in us that primitive perfection, that devotedness of apostolic times. He is filling us with joy in the Holy Ghost. He is quickening in us the blessed hope of the speedy appearing and kingdom of His Son our Lord. He is leading us to forget ourselves, to leave our own interests and our own fates in His hands; to enter into His work, and give up ourselves for the Body's sake the Church. An annual fast of forty days' duration, * See Readings on the Liturgy, vol. I., p. 57. which we are to spend in repenting our personal shortcomings, would be strangely out of place in such an Order as this. It is the same question which arose on an analogous occasion of old. Judah had returned from captivity in Babylon, and was rebuilding the temple of God, and restoring His worship. And certain men came to the priests and to the prophets, saying, "Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?" Then came the word of the Lord to Zechariah the prophet, saying, "I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth and the mountain of the Lord of hosts the holy mountain. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Israel joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts." So is it with us. We have returned from captivity in the mystical Babylon, the city of confusion. The Temple of God is rising from its ruins, and the services of the altar are being restored. Shall we weep and separate ourselves, as we have rightly done during the years of our captivity? Nay! For when the ransomed of the Lord return to Zion, it is with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads. The mystic numbers which erst reminded of loss and failure now evoke gladness and thanksgiving. The four, and the five, and the seven, and the ten are full of joyful meaning to us. "Gathered by the Five" (so it has been said to us in the word of the Lord), “and shielded by the Seven, and perfected by the Four, we shall at length attain unto the Ten." SECOND SUNDAY IN QUADRAGESIMA. The Transfiguration. 2 Pet. i. 16-21. Matt. xvii. 1—9. It seems appropriate that our Lord's Transfiguration, as His Temptation, should be specially brought before us on some one day in the year. In the Latin Church this is done on August 6th, when the Epistle and Gospel are those which in our Prayer Book are appointed for to-day. But the Roman Gospel for this Second Sunday in Quadragesima also tells the story of the Transfiguration. And the Apostles have here followed the ancient Western use, instead of (as commonly) the Anglican variations of it. By giving us, moreover, the Epistle which contains St. Peter's reference to the event, and-later-by providing special Hymns for the day, they have plainly shown their mind that the Transfiguration of our Lord is the occurrence of to-day's commemoration, the topic of to-day's meditation. Let, then, the circumstances of this wondrous event rise before our minds. It is night. Jesus goes up to a mountain, as is His wont, to pray. Craving for companionship and sympathy, He takes with Him Peter and James and John: but, as on a later and sadder occasion, finds that human help fails Him, and that His burden must be borne alone. Suddenly their eyelids, heavy with sleep, are raised, and they behold a vision of exceeding glory. Their Lord's face is bright as the sun : His raiment is white and glistering. Beside Him, also in glory, stand Moses and Elias,-the giver of the Law, the greatest of the Prophets. These speak with Him of His decease, which He is to accomplish at Jerusalem. Sore amazed, and knowing not what to say; feeling only that it was good to be there, they propose to make three tabernacles in which these glorious ones may abide and be honoured. Then came down upon them the bright cloud of the Divine Presence, such as Ezekiel saw by the river Chebar. It overshadowed and enveloped them all: and out of its excellent glory came forth a voice which said, "This is my beloved Son: hear Him!" When they heard that Voice -which who can hear, and live?-they fell on their faces in awe. Their Master's touch aroused them: and when they looked up, lo! the glory had faded, and the bright cloud departed, and in the moonlight stood Jesus alone. Where were Moses and Elias, to whom they would have made tabernacles? Nay! the Law and the Prophets were until Christ: but now their work was done. The answer to Peter s proposal was—“This is My beloved Son: hear Him!" The Transfiguration strikes for us a well-known note of hope. It exhibits-as St. Peter says-" the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ;" it fulfils His own word to His disciples six days before "Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom." And the glory it shows is one which shall be revealed also in us, when He shall appear and we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. As we sing in the Hymn |