its Creator. This is an act to be performed by every individual, the duty of which depends upon the bare fact of personal creatureship, and wholly independent of any other consideration. Our blessed Lord went apart into a mountain to pray, and He was there alone: and for us it is written, "What is a man profited though he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" "When thou prayest enter into thy closet and shut the door about thee, and pray to thy Father which is in secret, and He shall reward thee openly." Such are the directions given to every one for the benefit of his own soul: and every intelligent creature is bound by duty and interest, and ought to esteem it to be a high privilege, to speak in private to his heavenly Father, when he first awakes in the morning, and before he closes his eyes for the night, or at any other time; telling to Him all his inmost wants, feelings, and sorrows, acknowledging his sins, and praying for faith in the sacrifice which has blotted them out of the book of God's remembrance.

When a solitary individual, however, ascends higher in the scale of usefulness, and finding it not good to be alone," unites another to his

66

7

state and fortunes; and when consequent upon this union he has a wife dependent on him, children to be nourished and defended, and servants hired for the help and assistance of those whom he is bound to protect, he has connected with himself persons united in their several degrees in the same body or family, and dependent on each other and on him, who is bound in all ways to consider them under his charge, and who is responsible for their moral conduct. In order to ensure the blessing of God upon them, his first duty is to gather them together before they commence their daily work, and, as their head, to offer up the joint worship of the whole as one, to the great common Head of all the families of the earth. Thus he fulfils his part as Christ fulfils His; as Christ is King and Priest over the whole creature, ruling it and heading up its worship to the Father, so does the head of the family rule over it and offer up its worship. The duty, therefore, of family prayer is in addition to, and does not supersede, the duty of private prayer and as the duty of private prayer has reference to the man as an insulated being, so the duty of family prayer has reference to the family alone as a family, and should be confined

to objects and subjects appropriate to it. Many subjects of which it is proper for an individual to speak in secret to his heavenly Father would be improper to mention before the family; many subjects appropriate to the family would be improper to speak of in the public congregation; and many subjects fitting to the public congregation of the Catholic Church are not convenient for the house of a private individual.

A family, indeed, is the embryo from whence is expanded the union of many families which compose a kingdom, and which amongst baptized people constitute also the Catholic Church. Each of these has its officers and ordinances peculiar to itself, and which must in no wise interfere with each other; kings, judges, and magistrates, generals, officers, and soldiers, admirals, captains, and sailors in the one; apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, bishops, priests, and deacons in the other: the former for the preservation of the people in peace and safety from ungodly men; the latter for the worship of God and the instruction of mankind in holiness and duty.

The form of the worship of God has varied in different dispensations according to the various

positions in which man has been placed. At the beginning, the head of the family was of necessity king and priest, that is, ruler, instructor, and leader of the worship. Next followed the gathering of families into a nation and church, when the plan of the house of God, "whose house are we," was shown to Moses in the mount, after which plan he constructed the tabernacle as the model of the house of God, the Christian Church. The Catholic Church being the dwelling-place of God by the Holy Ghost, is, consequently, the highest grade into which man can be lifted, and therefore it is in it alone that the highest worship can be offered to the eternal and incomprehensible God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: and while every man, as an individual, or as the head of a family, previous to the incarnation of the Son of God, on which the Church is founded, might worship God as a creature adoring his Creator, he being now brought into a higher relationship and standing before God, is taught a more perfect way of worship which he can perform, not merely as an intelligent creature, nor merely as the head of a family, but now as a member of the body of Christ, and as the head of a family of

baptized persons, who have been all made partakers of the Holy Ghost in the Church.

The services which are performed in the Church are so framed, as that in the course of the cycle of a year, they may celebrate and commemorate the great facts which are to be declared by the Church to the world. The principal points on which all others depend, and round which they turn, are the three great facts connected with man's salvation; namely, first the day on which God became man, by the Son of God, God of God, very God of very God, taking upon Him our nature, and being made incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the blessed Virgin Mary. The second is that on which He was crucified and slain for our transgressions, and died a ransom for all, the great sacrifice for the sins of mankind. The third is that on which He rose from the dead; and to this may be added a fourth, consequent upon it, even that on which He shed down from the right hand of the Majesty on high the Holy Ghost, to dwell in the members of His body the Church, and so making man one with Him for ever.

In all ages and in all circumstances men have found it necessary to observe times, and days,