and terrible day," the day of the great and general judgment, may be reasonably taken as a definite prayer for the departed, because similar expressions, corresponding exactly to this, are found in other portions of the writings of the first followers of our Lord.*

Here we see then that it was evidently far from the apostle's intention to limit the work of God in the soul to the narrow period of man's probation below. Death, as his teaching so clearly declares, does not stop the influence of grace. The weak, those who were cut off in their weakness, will go from strength to strength, panting for God as the hart desireth the water-springs, until, their time of cleansing, purifica

be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day (v rýǹμipa ikivy)." (2 Thess. i. 9, 10.)

(a) "Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall also confirm you unto the end (og' xai Beβαιώσει ὑμᾶς ἕως τέλους ἀνεγκλήτους ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ) that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. i. 7, 8.)

(B) "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who

(7) "That ye may be sincere, and without offence till the day of Christ." (Phil. i. 10.)

(d) "I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ (μέχρι τῆς ἐπιφανείας τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ).” (1 Tim. vi. 13, 14.)

All of which passages indicate that the time of sanctification extends, and the work of sanctification goes on, until the great Day of Judgment.

tion, and preparation past, they appear every one of them in Sion. Those who silently cry to their Lord and Hope "out of the deep" will find that the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Those who, with the creeping years, are nearing the consummation of that happiness, purchased for them by the precious blood of God's dear Son, and won by themselves through a ready co-operation with the will of the Most High, will not forget others of the One Family who are still in the background, amid the shadows and darkness of the great deep out of which they cry. Those who, by the merciful goodness of their Creator, are being prepared for the glories of heaven, as well as the souls of the martyrs under the celestial altar, ever send up their sweet plaint because of what seems to be their waiting, and are bidden be patient until the beautiful breaking of the everlasting day. And the saints of the Old Testament, as we know, cannot be made perfect until the work of the new creation is finally consummated,* and God becomes all in all.

Thus much may be reasonably gathered from Holy Writ, more especially from the teaching of the Apostles.

"God having provided some better thing for us, that they without

us should not be made perfect." (Heb. xi. 40.)

CHAPTER V.

TESTIMONIES OF THE LITURGIES TO THE USE OF

PRAYERS FOR THE DEPARTED.

VERY fresh investigation, each new discovery,

EVE

leads the student of Christian antiquity to rank the various ancient Liturgies in the highest position as sure witnesses and unerring guides of the faith and practice of the early church. The Liturgies of St. James, St. Mark, and St. Clement are known to have been in existence and use*-in the main as they have come down to us from the early part of the third century; while portions of them, especially those most sacred and essential parts common to all, in great probability had the apostles themselves for their authors. It has been recently shown that St. Paul quoted from the Liturgy of St. James, and some critics have dis

As regards the Liturgy of St. Clement, some writers have affirmed their belief that it has never been used, but, as others consider, on inadequate grounds, and with no

direct and sufficient evidence on the point.

+ " Liturgical Quotations," No. xv. of "Essays on Liturgiology," by J. M. Neale. London, 1867.

covered in the works of Hermas* passages parallel with the exact and express language of that venerable and precious document, as also in the first and second Epistles of St. Clement† and elsewhere.

This being so, the testimony of the Liturgies, whether those of the Catholic Church or of ancient heretical sects which broke off from her communion in generations long gone by, becomes of the greatest importance in serving to determine the plain historical fact that prayers for those departed in God's faith and fear were universally used in the first ages of the church; and that this devout and holy custom was, as a matter of course, current with many of the earliest separated communities, unless their avowed ground of separation was based on the denial of some Christian doctrine, to which prayer for the dead was intimately allied, or from which its practice was necessarily deduced.

Here then are set forth such extracts from those

* "Shepherd of St. Hermas," lib. iii. 3; "First Epistle of St. Clement," Xxxiii.-xxxv.

"Second Epistle of St. Clement," ii. 11.

+ Vide the Greek "Anthologium," 4to. Venice, 1621. The author would specially commend to the Liturgical scholar Dr. Henry Den

E

zinger's "Ritus Orientalium, Coptorum, Syrorum, et Armenorum," etc. (Wirceburgi, 1863), in two volumes, from which he has gained considerable assistance, and to the writer of which he is under obligations. Also Dr. Daniel's "Codex Liturgicus," in 4 vols. Lipsiae, 1847-1854.

Liturgies as bear upon the subject. However much their language may differ in detail, the substance of all is identical, and each one provides a practical testimony on the question of Prayer for the Departed, which is of marked and deep interest :

1. LITURGY OF ST. JAMES.*

"Remember, Lord, the God of the spirits and all flesh, the orthodox whom we have commemorated, from righteous Abel unto this day. Give them rest there in the land of the living, in Thy kingdom, in the delight of paradise, in the bosom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, our holy fathers, whence pain, and sorrow, and groaning is exiled, where the light of Thy countenance looks down, and always shines. And direct, O Lord, in peace the ends of our lives, so that they may be Christian and well-pleasing to Thee, and blameless; collecting us under the feet of Thine elect, when Thou wilt and as Thou wilt, only without shame and offence through Thine only-begotten Son, our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ: for He alone hath appeared on the earth without sin."

2. THE LITURGY OF ST. JAMES. (Now used by the Christians of St. Thomas.)†

"We implore of Thee, O Almighty Lord, to unite us without delay to the company of the first-born, who are written in heaven. We remember them so that they also may remember us before Thee, and may communicate with us in this spiritual sacrifice for