SUNDAY.

[The following beautiful lines were found in MS. among the papers of a lady, lately deceased. The author is not known.]

THOUGHTS FOR NEW-YEAR'S DAY.

How long did it seem this time twelvemonth, to look forward to this day! Yet now it is here, and holy Church once more reminds us of the many solemn lessons which it brings with it. As always, our Blessed SAVIOUR is the object proposed to our faith, our hope, our love; and if we have in any degree entered into the teaching of the Church, we shall not, amid the innocent festivities and recreations of this joyous time, forget this truth—

"The year begins with Thee,

And Thou beginn'st with woe."

Let us then try to collect our thoughts, and listen to some at least of the lessons which the commencement of a new year brings with it.

The year of grace 1851 has closed. It has departed, and is of the past. All that was done in it is matter of history alone, and can never be recalled. How do all kinds of thoughts crowd upon us when we look back upon it! During its course, hundreds of men and women have passed to judgment—hundreds of immortal souls have been "taken" to their account, while we are "left." When it opened, they were perhaps as merry, as light hearted, as little thinking of death as we may be, yet the earth has closed upon them, and 1852 dawns upon their graves.

Considerations such as these would naturally make thoughtful persons think each new year a solemn time, and proportionably so, as each had been personally affected by the events of the last twelve months. But besides these general grounds for reflection which this day brings with it, there are others more specially affecting our Church and country, to which 1851 in particular gave birth, and which therefore seem to have the greater claim upon our attention at the present time.

Reader! do you remember how darkly 1850 closed and 1851 opened upon the Church? Do you remember how in every county, city, town, and village great multitudes assembled together, to rail at things dear to the minds of earnest Churchmen? how in the metropolis rude crowds, composed of the most degraded ruffians, burst into God's holy temple, and interrupted the services of the sanctuary with their hoarse cries and jests? Do you remember how the hearts of many failed with fear-for strange rumours were afloat-we were told that our

Prayer Book was to be wrested from us, expurgated, changed, amended; its life destroyed, its witness to the faith erased, and every thing that suited not the opinions of the day torn from its pages.

Amid such darkness and confusion did 1850 close. It seemed scarcely possible to guess the future. Prayer after prayer went up on high that GOD would turn away His anger, and not give up His Church to the "tender mercies of the wicked!" preparations were made for coming conflict, and men girded themselves in haste, for none knew when the trumpet's sound would tell the warfare had begun.

And now 1851 has closed, and by God's great mercy none of the evils we dreaded have come upon us. The malice of man has been brought to naught. Much was threatened-but nothing done. We can still worship GoD in the beauty of holiness; we have still our Book of Common Prayer intact.

Blessed then be His great Name for this sign of His love to us. Our bark has weathered that fearful storm; we need not fear for her future course.

So again with regard to that greater evil than the angry ravings of ignorant men, viz., the intrusion of the sword of Cæsar into the things of GOD, and the denial of Sacramental grace; even with regard to this grievous scandal, though the clouds are not cleared away, yet the atmosphere is brighter. When 1851 opened, we had scarcely recovered from the stunning effects of the blow inflicted on us. We scarcely knew what to do, or where to turn. One thing, indeed, there was to comfort From the distant hills of Scotland came, wafted on the northern breeze, the voice of her holy Bishops, repeating, with no faltering tongue, their belief in the "one Baptism for the remission of sins," and offering, if the worst came, a home in their faithful, much enduring Church.

us.

But now, in 1852, Scotland does not stand alone. The words that issued thence have found an echo in the far distant islands of the Pacific; and our hearts have been cheered this year by hearing that the Bishops of that young and flourishing Australasian Church had re-affirmed, in solemn synod, the great doctrine which was here impugned. Nay, and our own eyes have seen the same spectacle, when the noble-hearted Bishop of the West summoned his Clergy to meet him in his Cathedral city, and after reception of the "holy mysteries," the diocesan synod of Exeter declared its adherence to the Catholic faith, and formally vindicated itself from connivance at the heresy which had sprung up in the land.

We could say much more, but space will not allow. True it is, all has not been done which ought to have been done; very

far from it. We are still prisoners, but surely "prisoners of hope." Wherever the Church has synodically assembled, the truth has been re-affirmed. This is a great fact, and it cannot be denied; Scotland, Australasia, Exeter, are its witnesses. Then look at the defeat sustained by those who would have thrust into the pulpits of our Church men uncommissioned to preach CHRIST's Gospel-the self-constituted ministers of France or of Geneva; look at the noble churches which are rising, purposely for the more splendid and careful celebration of holy rites; look at the building now being reared in the metropolis, as a habitation for a sisterhood of mercy, the first the capital has seen belonging to our Church for three hundred years; look at the great works which are going on on all sides of us, and say, have we not ground to hope that He is with us still, Whose Presence is all we need, and which, if we have, we possess all things?

Surely, then, 1852 opens more brightly for our Church than 1851; surely we have made some way. We have successfully opposed the fury of the multitude; we have made the first step towards the formal re-assertion of "the faith." And if the past year has been important to the Church, how interesting has it been in its worldly aspect! It is not our place to dilate here upon the manner in which everything that was rare and costly, which the wit and skill of man could devise or execute, was gathered together from every quarter of the globe, to please the eye and gratify the taste of our countrymen. Wonderful testimony was it to the vastness of the human intellect; but it spake from one end to the other of man, and the powers of man. And strange and inconsistent surely was it, that, where everything so clearly reflected human glory and human wisdom, the loud anthem should have ascended, at its opening, in such strains as these,- -"The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our GOD, and of His CHRIST." Where was this taught us? What was there to remind us there of the heavenly kingdom of the SAVIOUR?

We must not be dazzled by the splendour of the show. Wonderful, grand, and mighty, and interesting as it was, it was still of earth. Let us not be led astray by the many foolish things which were uttered. It had its own work to do, its own lessons to teach; and valuable and important were they to those who could read aright: but to expect it to do the Church's work, or to imagine that to gaze upon such wonders will, of itself, make men better Christians, or teach them the great commandment of love, is to lose sight of the true constitution of human nature, and to indulge a foolish sentimentalism.

But with 1852 that scene of enchantment has vanished away. "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." "I see that all things come

no more.

to an end." All its glories are faded; its costly magnificence is "The mirth of its tabrets ceaseth;" the busy hum of the thronging thousands is still. Its walls re-echo no longer with the laugh, the jest, the merriment, the surprise, or the wonder of the brilliant crowds who flocked beneath its roof. Where is "the merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat ?" where are all these?-scattered, dispersed to the four winds of heaven, never to be collected in one place again.

And surely 1852, in its temporal aspect, teaches us,—when we remember, that that which, as last year opened, was looked forward to with such interest by thousands, no longer exists,—“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world; for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, passeth away."

Turn, then, which way we will, 1851 is fraught with events most important and interesting to us, as Churchmen and as citizens. To the one it says "hope;" to the other, "set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth." The former it has to a considerable extent lifted up from the midst of doubt and uncertainty; the latter it would keep within bounds, by reminding them that there is a brighter world than this present one, and that the fairest things of earth are only shadows, very faint and dim, of the glories of heaven.

But whilst we thus think of ourselves, as we are about to enter upon this new period of existence with lighter hearts than hitherto, let us not forget that to-day is sacred to Him Whose Name we bear, and commemorates a mystery. It was as to-day He was "circumcised, and became obedient to the law for man;" it was to-day the first drops were shed of that precious Blood, which was afterwards poured forth abundantly on the Cross. Not even His childhood was free from that suffering, of which His after life was so full. Let us not, then, enter upon our new year thoughtlessly, or as men who think they have nought to do but "eat, drink, and be merry." Let us rather remember the mystery which is involved in "the year beginning with our LORD, and our LORD with suffering." It seems natural, therefore, to be prepared for trial; and tried we probably shall be, in one way or another. The times are full of trial, and who can tell what a year may bring forth, for good or for evil, to our Church, or ourselves? We must not think that either her conflict is over, because the heavens are rather brighter than they