These Prayers for the Country were used between the Morning Prayer and the Order of the Holy Communion.

PRAYER.

ALMIGHTY GOD, whose kingdom is everlasting and power infinite; Have mercy upon the whole Church and Country; and so rule the hearts of those who are in chief power and authority in this Nation, that they, knowing Whose ministers they are, may above all things seek Thy honor and glory; and that we, and all those who are subject to their administration of the Constitution and Laws by which they and we are governed, duly considering WHOSE authority they bear, may faithfully serve, honor, and humbly obey the law of the land by them administered and executed, in Thee and for Thee, according to Thy blessed Word and Ordinance; through JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, Who, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth ever, world without end. Amen.

MOST GRACIOUS GOD, we humbly beseech Thee, as for the people of these United States in general, so especially for all those who in Council are now called on to assist in restoring to peaceful and orderly course the affairs of this whole Nation; that Thou wouldst be pleased to direct and prosper all their consultations, and to guide and further their proceedings, to the advancement of Thy glory, the good of Thy Church, the safety, honor, and welfare of Thy people; that all things may be so ordered and settled by their endeavors, upon the best and surest foundations, that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety may be established among us for all

generations. These and all other necessaries, for them, for us, and Thy whole Church, we humbly beg in the Name and mediation of JESUS CHRIST, our most blessed LORD and Saviour. Amen.

O merciful God and heavenly Father, who hast taught us in Thy Word that Thou dost not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men; we humbly beseech Thee of Thy goodness to comfort and succor all those who are at this time suffering in the miserable calamities brought upon this Nation and City by violence and civil war. Mercifully vouchsafe supplies of spiritual strength and consolation to the wounded, sick, and dying, and raise up friends for them in their need. Be a Father to the fatherless and a Husband to the widow. Furnish shelter to the homeless, sustenance to the impoverished, support to the bereaved and destitute. Lighten the bonds of those who are captives or in prison. Give all, in their ́several visitations, a right understanding of themselves and of Thy threats and promises, that they may neither cast away their confidence in Thee, nor place it anywhere but in Thee, Relieve the distressed, protect the innocent, and awaken the guilty; and forasmuch as Thou alone bringest light out of darkness, and good out of evil, make the manifold forms of human suffering now darkening our land effectual for the conversion of many souls to Thee, that among us fruits meet for repentance may be abundantly brought forth, and that the glory of thy grace may be made known among all nations, now and forever

DISCOURSE.

"I am the Resurrection and the Life."-St. John xi. 25.

The words of the Burial service are the appropriate words of this troubled Easter morning. We had prepared to leave behind us the gloomier thoughts of the tomb, and decking it, as it were, with flowers and palm branches, to gaze with serene eye steadfastly on the glorious morning of the Resurrection; to forget for a while the instinctive repugnance of the human heart at the short interval of the grave; to look beyond it to the abodes of our expected reward, where tears shall be wiped from all eyes, and the disquieting fears which beset us here in the world of chances and changes would give way to eternal repose and joy. But we are called in the providence of God to look more at the sorrows than the joys that surround the Christian's hope; to weep with those who weep rather than dwell upon the topics of our exulting hope. On the night of that first Good Friday, the narrow tomb of the rich man of Arimathea, which he had hewn out in his little rocky garden spot, wherein he hoped himself, after a quiet departure from the troubles of earth, to sleep with his fathers, held the hastily buried remains of his Master. Violence and crime had done their work, and the One who came to bless our race had been slain by wicked hands; and a few trembling disciples, shocked by the overthrow of all their hopes, outraged by the horrible passions of their unbelieving countrymen, were hiding in retired places, and telling with scared faces, That this

was He Who, we had thought, would bring salvation unto Israel. Words would fail to picture their grief and horror. Perhaps nothing could communicate the sense of it to our hearts more effectually than the feelings which now weigh heavy upon all our hearts in common, as we mourn together in our national bereavement. There can, of course, be no proper comparison made between any mortal man and the Son of God. We need not be suspected of making it, after joining, as we have done, in the words of the ancient Creed, that Jesus Christ was "God of God-of the same substance with the Father." But He became a man and was found in the form of a servant, and stooped to the death of the Cross, with all its indignities and cruelties, that we might always draw together under the shadow of that Cross, and feel in Him our mutual sympathy in all sudden calamities, and draw from His religion the strength to do our common duties; the hope to sustain us under our common griefs. We gather now around an open grave, permitted to be opened on this Easter Day by the awful and wicked tragedy of this last Good Friday, to temper our pious gratulations as believers with the sorrow which has befallen us as citizens. The grave and gate of death opens before us as a people, and we mourn the sanguinary crimes which have made our Good Friday so marked an event in the history of the world. It becomes us to mingle the Easter-chant, with the minor wail of the Miserere, and to pray God not to forsake us, nor let the ungodly get the upper hand. We are an afflicted nation, horrified by the darkest crimes which can befall a people. Yet, even here, let us pass beyond the things which are seen; and our common faith at once opens to us its own lessons of trust in Him who is the Resur

rection and the Life, who ever liveth to make intercession for us. The frightfulness of the times may make the blood well nigh stop at the core of the heart; the success of crime appalls the reason of the bravest. That one horror, which had thus far been spared us, now to fall so suddenly, so unresisted, causes the mind to pass back in gloomy retrospect, to recall the like events in the past, and the miserable accompaniments that attended them. We are paralyzed. That our people-so free to debate their perplexities, so fair and manly in the almost unlicensed discussion of them, so patient in waiting for their normal solution-should be thus defeated of their hopes and robbed of their rejoicing in the very moment when we were all taking breath after the trials of the past struggle; when we were hoping that God's great boon of love and reconciliation was about to glide down upon bleeding hearts in all this land—it is the most tremendous blow, the most fearful calamity that has ever befallen us. We can only stand appalled. We can only gather in our homes, where tears and sighs have attested our instinctive sympathy with the afflicted, and bow before the Supreme Ruler of all events, and cry to Him, "Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach." We may wisely strive to gather such comfort as we may, by our faith, from the assured hopes of the Christian

covenant.

Christ is the Resurrection and the Life-not merely promises it, not only has sought out the causes of it, but Himself is it. He died that He might go down into the dark hopeless chambers of the grave, and there prepare a way for us-there get the victory over death-and rising again from the grave ascend on high, leading captivity