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THE SO-CALLED PRAYERS OF ST. JAMES AND ST.

ᎷᎪᎡᏦ.

Among the earliest collections of prayers in the early church are tvo which are traceable in their general form and substance to the 2d century; one of which had its supposed origin in the Christian church at Jerusalem, and the other in the church at Alexandria. As the name of St. James is conspicuously associated with the beginning of the church at Jerusalem, and St. Mark with the beginning of the church at Alexandria, these two collections are commonly known in the East as the Prayers (or Liturgies) of St. James and St. Mark; not from any certain association with the pens of these evangelists, but from the supposed connection with the churches that respectively bear their names.

The following fervent, majestic and inspiring prayer is from the collection which bears the name of St. James, and had its origin in the early church at Jerusalem:

"O God, the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Lord, whose name is great,

whose nature is blessful, whose goodness is inex haustible, thou God and Maker of all things, who art blessed forever:

"Who sittest upon the Cherubim, and art glorified by the Seraphim:

"Before whom stand thousands of thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand, the hosts of holy Angels and Archangels :

Sanctify, O Lord, our souls and bodies and spirits, and touch our apprehensions and search out our consciences, and cast out of us every evil thought, every base desire, all envy and pride and hypocrisy, all falsehood, all deceit, all worldly anxiety, all covetousness, vain glory and sloth, all malice, all wrath, all anger, all remembrance of injuries, all blasphemy, and every motive of the flesh and spirit that is contrary to thy holy will.

"And grant us, O Lord, the lover of men, with freedom, without condemnation, with pure heart and a contrite soul, without confusion of face, and with sanctified lips, boldly to call upon Thee our holy God and Father, who art in heaven."

A PRAYER FROM THE EASTERN LITURGY OF ST.

MARK.

"Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, Co-eternal word of the Father, made like to us in all but sin, for the salvation of our race:

"Enable us to be not only hearers of thine oracles, but also doers of the word; and to bring forth good fruit, thirty-fold and an hundredfold, that we may attain the kingdom of

heaven.

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Speedily may thy compassion overtake us:

"In Thee are our glad tidings, O Saviour and Guardian of our souls and bodies, and to Thee we ascribe all the glory.”

VI.

EASTERN EVENING PRAYERS.

EVENTIDE.

The following beautiful evening prayer, the burden of which is guardianship from sin, and deliverance from the power of temptation, is from an ancient service called the Pentecost Vespers of the Eastern church.

"Blessed art thou, Almighty Master, who hast granted us to pass through this day, and to reach the beginning of the night.

"Hear our prayers and those of all thy people; and forgive us our sins voluntary and involuntary, and accept our evening supplications, and send down on thine inheritance the fulness of thy mercy and thy compassion.

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Compass us about with thy holy angels. "Arm us with the armor of thy righteous

ness:

"Fence us around with thy truth:

"Guard us with thy power.

"Deliver us from every assault and every device of the adversary, and grant us to pass this evening and the ensuing night, and all the days of our life, in fulness of peace and holiness, without sin and trembling.

"For it is thine to pity and save, O Christ, our God."

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