The Churchman's

Monthly Companion.

MAY, 1844.

ASCENSION DAY.

THE general neglect of this great festival of our Lord's Ascension, is not only a very sad, but also a very strange thing; for the Church has marked out Ascension-day in every possible way as one of the very greatest of all the festivals; standing, as it were, in the same rank with Christmas-day, Easter-day, and Whit-sunday. In the first place, it has, like the other festivals, proper lessons with a collect, epistle, and gospel for the day: but it also has, in the second place, proper psalms, like those great days of joyful celebration which I have just mentioned, and the great days of sorrow and humiliation, Ash-Wednesday and Good-Friday. Nor is this all-it has a special preface for the Communion service; it has three days of preparation for it, called ROGATION DAYS (that is, ASKING-days); and it has a particular name to mark the sacred character that belongs to it, that of HOLY THURSDAY. You will find in your Prayer-books, that among the days of fasting and abstinence are 66 'the three Rogation days, or the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before HOLY THURSDAY, or the Ascension of our Lord." Is it not then strange as well as sad, that this holy day is almost utterly neglected, though it has a cluster,

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as it were, of special forms and ordinances attached to it?-proving that the Church intended it to be a day of solemn services-a great, joyful anniversary. And then think of its meaning and occasion: it is the commemoration of CHRIST's final triumph, His ascension into heaven, there to reign in glory as our Mediator and Intercessor, till every enemy is trodden down under His footstool. Was this last act of our blessed Lord's life a trifling or uninteresting one? Was it not the crowning act of the whole? Would not all that He had done before, have been incomplete without it? If He had died, what good would that death have done us, if He had not risen again? His death would have been our eternal death, if He had not afterwards broken its bonds. It would have sealed our fate for ever: every hope of man would have died with Him, and must have been buried in His grave. Good-Friday would have been a day, not of penitent, humble sadness merely, but of horrour and despair, if it had been followed by no Easterday and so Easter-day itself would not have been the queen of festivals, if no Ascension-day had followed. If CHRIST had risen merely to a glorious life on earth, death and sin would have gained a victory over Him-though a less complete one than if He had not risen at all. All things would not then have been possible to us through CHRIST. It was necessary that He should ascend to heaven: that He should go to THE FATHER to prepare a place for us: and in the meantime to make perpetual intercession for us,offering up in His own name our poor feeble prayers, and maimed services. If He had not gone to THE FATHER, He could not have sent us that Comforter from THE FATHER, the blessed SPIRIT, whom He has sent, and whose coming we shall commemorate on Whit-sunday. I do therefore most earnestly hope that this great festival will not long be so generally neglected as it has been.

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At all events, may you and I, reader, always observe

Holy Thursday as a festival, and fix our minds upon CHRIST as a present Saviour! the one living and reigning Saviour of His Church, who is preparing in Heaven a place for all who will love and obey Him. As certainly as CHRIST is gone to His FATHER, so certainly shall we go to Him and His Father, and dwell and reign with them for ever, if we obey CHRIST here, and strive to grow in grace by persevering in holy obedience! Heaven is our sure inheritance, if we remain faithful to CHRIST; but we shall not remain faithful to CHRIST, unless we think about Him; about who He was, what He did and suffered, what He is, and what He does now, and will do hereafter to and for His obedient servants. CHRIST has not died only for our sins; He has risen for our justification, He has ascended into Heaven in triumph to His FATHER and our FaTHER. And unless our hearts are His; unless the thoughts of our hearts are often in Heaven, where He is reigning over all creation in unutterable glory, we shall not love Him; nor desire the happiness and glory He has in store for us; nor love the brethren for His sake; nor mortify our corrupt affections for fear of displeasing Him, and losing Heaven. It is not enough to think only of the great, mysterious sacrifice of Good-Friday. If we think only of that, we shall be in danger of thinking of it as of a thing so done once for all, as to leave us little to do for ourselves. We must go on from the thoughts of our dying Saviour to the thoughts of our living and reigning Saviour, and to that constant daily expectation of His return AS OUR JUDGE, which the Angels foretold to the Galilean disciples, as they stood straining their eyes at the clouds that had just received the Lord out of their sight. "This same JESUS, which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven." Let us then live in the constant expectation of our Lord's re-appearing; the constant ex

pectation of that future judgement, for which the whole space of this life of ours should be one space of careful, anxious preparation!

LINES ON THE RESURRECTION.

O RISEN LORD, triumphant over sin,

And death, and hell, reign Thou my heart within!
Reign Thou, great Lord of life, within my soul;
Each passion rule, each roving thought control.
O grant, that ever with affection deep

Thee I may love, and Thy commandments keep;
So shall Thy promise be fulfilled to me;
So to this heart the UNDIVIDED THREE
Shall come, and make within it their abode,
To guide, and cheer, and help me on the road
That leads to glory and eternal joy,
Where perfect happiness knows no alloy;
Where never tear by pain or sorrow's smart
Is drawn from the deep fountain of the heart;
In that blest city, glorious to behold,
Whose walls are jewels, and her pavement gold,
The new Jerusalem, where sun and star,
Pale orbs of earthly light, unneeded are;
For God's own glory, to th' enraptured sight
Of saints in bliss revealed, bathes all things in its
light!

St. Peter was dead to grace through his unfaithfulness, and JESUS sends to tell him by Mary Magdalene, to go to seek Him in Galilee, in order to restore to him the life of grace which he had lost. St. Thomas was dead to grace through his obstinate unbelief in the resurrection, and JESUS comes to let him find the life of grace and of faith in His own wounds. The disciples at Emmaus were dead to grace, because they had lost both faith and hope; and JESUS makes Himself a way-faring man as soon as risen,

in order to convey to them the grace of the resurrection; to open the eyes of their soul, and to make the

burning of divine zeal succeed to their faint-hearted fear.

Entreat of JESUS to-day, with all the ardour whereof thou art capable, to favour thee with one of His all-healing visits, which may convey to thy heart a new life, and the grace of a perfect resurrection.-Avrillon.

DIALOGUE.

"Poor wanderers, ye are sore distrest
To find the path. . .

Lyra Apostolica. SOME time before service-time the next morning, Ellen had her bonnet on, and was watching at the window; a custom so unusual with her, that, though at the same time she had a book in her hand, Emily noticed it. Ellen, however, did not desist; and presently, with swift and gentle steps, she slipped from the room, and ran down. The next moment she was in the street, overtaking Constance, who was proceeding on her way with long and rapid steps.

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'Constance, Constance," said she gently; "I want to speak to you."

"Well, why now? Ellen, to-day is the Sabbath, you know, and I am in haste: will not to-morrow do?"

"Is

"Oh! no, it must be to-day; but I will walk with you, Constance, only I cannot walk as fast as you.' And she took her arm and walked on. it true, Constance, that you are going this morning to a dissenting meeting?"

"Yes, quite true," replied Constance, surprised: "but why do you ask?

"Oh! I wish you would not go!" exclaimed Ellen, earnestly; "only wait a little; do not go in such a hurry, and without thought."