Doctrine and History, is not to restore and observe its Festival Days? Who that passes on from Advent to Christmas, with any piety in his soul, does not feel himself met and saluted by wonders at least, as confounding as the "Seven Wonders" of the world? What now are the Pyramids of Egypt, the Mausoleum of Artemisia, the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the Walls and hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Colossus at Rhodes, the Statue of Jupiter-Olympus and the Watch-tower of Alexandria-all these, when compared with the miracles of Christianity, even before its Founder moved beyond His manger in Bethlehem? But in order to transfer them out of the misty nebulæ of mere imagination and fancy, we contend that a local habitation must be afforded them. And how might this be more happily done, than by observing those memorial days, which are mustered along the line of Christian history, like so many living, speaking sentinels, challenging us to adoration, and thereby solidifying our faith?

But, we are admonished to pass over to the "Movable Feasts," which we must not think of undervaluing, for the reason, that they are not stationary, since they are, if comparisons may be drawn, even more significant. We meet them, as it were, in clusters, hanging from the living vine.

1. Epiphany Sundays, or those Lord's days following next after the Epiphany. Their number varies from one to six, as Easter occurs earlier or later. We find them simply indicated as I, II, III, IV, V and VI Sundays after Epiphany.

2. Septuagesima: The seventieth day, and Ninth Sunday before. Easter.

3. Sexagesima: The sixtieth day, and Eighth Sunday before Easter. 4. Quinquagesima, or, Esto mihi: The fiftieth day before Easter. It is sometimes known as Lenten-Sunday, as the season of Lent commences during this week

Ash- Wednesday intervenes here, and its very name savors of a degree of humiliation and penitence, such as we may well wonder whether we have ever experienced it. "Surely it is not necessary to sprinkle oneself with ashes!" Well, but a willingness must be at hand, whether it is then executed or not. There seems to be some earnestness in repenting in dust and in ashes.

Let us now reach after another cluster, we mean The Six Sundays in Lent.

tare.

1. Quadragesima, or, Invocavit. 2. Reminiscere. 3. Oculi. 4. Læ5. Judica. 6. Palmarum. They cover the forty days and nights, which are to be devoted to Fasting, as a preparation to solemn facts following it, and are a counterpart to our Saviour's fasting in the wilderness. We never could affect contempt for this ordeal. We can agree with Luther herein, and believe it to be an excellent exercise, if engaged in from right motives. The first five terms under which those Sundays are known, are initiary words to Latin Collects or Scriptural Quotations. The last in the series derives its name from the Palm-branches which were cast before the Saviour, during His triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. "Floral Sunday" was likewise applied to it, and the Germans knew it likewise as "Der Blaue Ostertag."

We come now to Moundy Thursday, a name expressive enough too,

if we ouce understand it. We are told the Saxon term, "Maund," means basket, and came to be applied, from the circumstance that kings gave alms to their poor subjects from baskets on that day. Others tell us that it relates to the fact, that our Saviour issued that great new Mandate, that we should love one another, on that day. In the latter view it may well be regarded as a dies Mandati-a day of command. But the German idea pleases us best of all, which sees the Holy Supper instituted and enjoined on that day. In the latter tongue it is called "Der Grünedonnerstag," either because, in view of the near prospect of Christ's death, their diet should only now consist of a few green herbs, or, because God's ancient people were commanded to bring the "first fruits" as an offering. Only so a name is not without an idea.

And lo! there stands Good Friday, the bloodiest day in the Christian year! Yet its name reconciles us, as wonderful benefits flow out of its transactions. But here we again plead for the German tongue-“ Karfreitag." "Kar" is a Saxon term, signifying propitiation, martyrdom, satisfaction, punishment. It becomes transparent now, does it not? The same term is applied to the entire week-Kar- Woche! And, as if not content with what seems to us so expressive, they denominated the day also, "Der Stille Freitag!" Is that not an eloquent admonition for us to spend the day in quiet contemplation and silent meditation over the sufferings of Our Lord!

But, Hallelujah! We come to the triumphant Easter Festival! Now we may break our fasting and our silence too; for Christ is risen and hath put Death, the Grave and Hell under His feet. All nature rejoices with the Church to-day-flowers, birds and men!

But we may not stop yet. Reach out after another cluster, and pluck

six more.

1. The First Sunday after Easter-Quasi modo geniti or Dominica in rebis. 2. Misericordias Domini. 3. Jubilate. 4. Cantate. 5. Rogate. 6. Exaudi. All these are again the initiatory words of various Latin Collects and Psalms, which were and are still suitable to be sung on those day. The common reader knows them as I, II, III, IV, V and VI Sundays after Easter.

But, lest we forget it, between the last two Lord's days, The Ascension is celebrated. We sometimes wonder, whether we ought to weep or rejoice then? Still, the Church bids us, feast and not fast, and we must then be glad.

Whitsunday or Pentecost stands boldly out. Happy must have been the sight, when, in former ages, a host of Catechumens surrounded the altar of God, as candidates for Christian fellowship, or the Christians of those times would not have been moved to call that day, White-Sunday, merely because those suppliants were arrayed in white garments. But let it become typical of the innocence and purity of the soul when washed in the blood of Christ, and we wonder no longer. We prefer "Whitsuntide" to "Pentecost,' as the latter is but a dry arithmetical term, showing us how many days intervened between the Resurrection of Christ and the Outpouring of the Holy Ghost. An infidel can say, "Pentecost;" but the Christian alone may truly say, "Whitsuntide!"

The Festival of the Holy Trinity or Trinitat's follows one week after. There may follow as high as "Twenty-Seven Sundays after Trinity;"

but seldom does the number swell so high. These having all passed before us, we stand at the door of Advent season again. Men may travel with the telescope from one planet to another; they may call Jupiter, Mercury, Herschel and all the other mammoth bodies by name; they may tell us how the heavens declare the goodness of God and the firmament shows His handiwork, and we will admit it all. We do not question the music of the spheres, nor, that the observer is lost in the profundity and immensity of God's creation. But if there be any reality in our common Christianity, the glories of the "new heavens and the new earth" must surpass them all. The gorgeous Temple of Jerusalem was but an apology in comparison with that eternal structure, of which Jesus Christ is the Chief Architect.

Why then only regard as realities, the accidents of the Civil or Natural year-its cycle, its epochs and cardinal divisions; its history its major and minor details, and treat all the glorious paraphernalia of the Churchyear as phantoms and illusions? The rising and setting of the natural sun is in no sense more real, than the waxing and waning of that brighter Sun, than ever gilded the horizon, or illuminated the mountains and valleys of earth. The stars of the first magnitude even darken before the "Morning-star." What is the nebulous "milky way," if contrasted with the ladder, erected already in the Patriarch's time, on which angels as— cend and descend?

But in order to realize all this grandeur, we dare not pass along the galleries of spiritual wonders, as though they were akin to the remains in the Catacombs of Rome, or with the Egyptian mummies. The Christian year must surround us as a spiritual economy, teeming with life, because that Divine luminary shines throughout its entire limits, Who is Himself the Light of Life.

Such a Calendar we would have revived, since the naked skeleton is yet in the Church-it needs but a clothing over with flesh and blood, by the Spirit who can stir the dry bones. We wish to make earnest with it, however, and have the Christian year as effectually and as substantially indicated in the Almanac, as the Natural year is incorporated therein. If this be a phantom, never to be laid hold on, then do we close as we opened:-Can there be a religion without Festivals? Jew and Heathen; Christian, Mohammedan, Scandinavian, Hindoo and Mormon, nor any other ever attempted to originate such an anomaly in the annals of the world.

EARLY RISING.

Health and long life are almost universally associated with early rising; and we are pointed to countless old people as evidences of its good effect on the general system. Can any one of our readers, on the spur of the moment, give a good, conclusive reason why health should be attributed to this habit? We know that old people get up early, but it is simply because they cannot sleep. Moderate old age does not require much sleep; hence in the aged, early rising is a necessity or convenience, and is not a cause of health in itself. There is a larger class of early risers, very early risers, who may be truly said not to have a day's healthy

in a year-the thirsty folks, for example, who drink liquor until midnight and rise early to get more. One of our earliest recollections is that of "old smokers" making their "devious way" to the grog shop or tavern bar room, before sunrise, for their morning grog. Early rising, to be beneficial, must have two concomitants: to retire carly, and, on rising, to be properly employed. One of the most eminent divines in this country rose by daylight for many years, and at the end of that time became an invalid, has travelled the world over for health, and has never regained it, and never will. It is rather an early retiring that does the good by keeping people out of those mischievous practices which darkness favors, and which need not here be more particularly referred to.

Another important advantage of retiring early is, that the intense stillness of midnight and the early morning hours favors that unbroken repose which is the all-powerful renovator of the tired system. Without, then, the accompaniment of retiring early, "early rising" is worse than useless, and is positively mischievous. Every person should be allowed to "have his sleep out;" otherwise, the duties of the day cannot be properly performed, and will be necessarily slighted, even by the most conscieutious.

To all young persons, to students, to the sedentary, and to invalids, the fullest sleep that the system will take without artificial means, is the balm of life-without it there can be no restoration to health and activity again. Never wake up the sick or infirm, or young children, of a morning-it is a barbarity; let them wake of themselves; let the care rather be to establish an hour for retiring, so early that their fullest sleep may

be out before sunrise.

Another item of very great importance is: do not hurry up the young and weakly. It is no advantage to pull them out of bed as soon as their eyes are open, nor is it best to the studious or even for the well who have passed an unusually fatiguing day, to jump out of bed the moment they wake up; let them remain without going to sleep again until the sense of weariness passes from their limbs. Nature abhors two things: violence and a vacuum. The sun does not break out at once into a glare of the meridian. The diurnal flowers unfold themselves by slow degrees; nor fleetest beast, nor sprightliest bird, leaps at once from its resting place. By all which we mean to say, that as no physiological truth is more demonstrable than that as the brain, and with it the whole nervous system, is recuperated by sleep, it is of the first importance, as to the well being of the human system, that it have its fullest measure of it; and to that end, the habit of retiring to bed early should be made imperative on all children, and no ordinary event should be allowed to interfere with it. Its moral healthfulness is not less important than its physical.

Many a young man, many a young woman, has taken the first step toward degradation, and crime, and disease, after ten o'clock at night; at which hour, the whole year round, the old, the middle aged, and the young should be in bed; and the early rising will take care of itself, with the incalculable accompaniment of a fully rested body and a renovated brain. We repeat it, there is neither wisdom, nor safety, nor health in early rising in itself; but there is in all of them in the persistent practice of retiring to bed at an early hour, winter and summer.

-Hall's Journal of Health.

The Guardian.

VOL. XIX.- APRIL, 1868.-No. 4.

THE FESTIVAL OF DELIVERANCE.

BY THE EDITOR.

Eight times Pharaoh's hard heart had brought untold sorrow upon the people of Egypt. Again he drives Moses from his presence. "Take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face, thou shalt die." The ninth plague is sent. But e'er the destroying angel starts on his sorrowful mission, every Hebrew's house is marked-the head piece and the two side posts are sprinkled with the blood of a lamb. This is God's sacred mark; seeing which, the angel passes over the house, without harming the inmates. (Ex. xii.) At midnight he sweeps over the land. All the first-born are slain. Everywhere is heard the voice of lamentation. In Pharaoh's palace, and in the captive's dungeon, stricken. hearts bewail their woe and bleed in anguish. "There was not a house where there was not one dead." Every home was turned into mourning. Only in Hebrew dwellings there was peace. Against the children of Israel not a dog moved his tongue, against man or beast." The angel of death passed them over, because the blood was on their doors. That the children of Israel might never forget this deliverance, God commanded them to keep a yearly feast, called the Feast of Passover, the first and chief of the three annual Jewish feasts. As this was the day on which their first born were saved, and Pharaoh was compelled to let God's people go, they were to observe it in their generations by an ordinance forever. The Festival happened in the spring of the year, from the 14th to the 21st of Nisan, corresponding to our April. It was also called the "Feast of unleavened bread," because the use of leaven was strictly forbidden during this season. Many days before it commenced, every household was busy from morn till night. A large kettle, only used on this occasion, hung over the fire, filled with boiling water. All the silver, copper, and the utensils, used for the sacrifice and its meals, were scoured and polished, dipped alternately into the steaming kettle and into cold water. vessels were heated red hot in the fire. Those of wood were scrubbed by means of a red-hot stone. Earthen vessels had all to be new. The night before the Feast, the members, with lighted candles in hand, would search

VOL. XIX.-7.

Iron