Such, in strange days, the weapons of Heaven's grace :-
When, passing Levi's proud-emblazoned line,
He forms the vessel of His high design;
Fatherless, homeless, reft of name and place,
Freed of time's gifts, and careless of its wreck,
Born through long woe His rare Melchizedek.

3.-ABRAHAM.

THE better portion didst thou choose, Great Heart,
Thy God's first choice, and pledge of Gentile-grace!
Faith's truest type, he with unruffled face
Bore the world's smile, and bade her slaves depart;
Whether, a trader, with no trader's art,

He buys in Canaan his first resting-place,—
Or freely turns from Siddim's ample space,-
Or braves the rescue and the battle's smart,
Yet scorns the heathen gifts of those he saved.

O happy in their soul's high solitude,

Who commune thus with GoD and not with earth!
Amid the scoffings of the wealth-enslaved,

A ready prey, as though in absent mood

They calmly move, nor hear the unmannered mirth.

4.-ISAAC.

MANY the guileless years the Patriarch spent,

Blessed in the wife, a father's foresight chose;
Many the prayers and gracious deeds, which rose
Daily thank-offerings from his pilgrim tent.
Yet these, though written in the heavens, are rent
From out truth's lower roll, which sternly shews
But one sad trespass at his history's close,
Father's, son's, mother's, and its punishment.
Not in their brightness, but their earthly stains
Are the true seed vouchsafed to earthly eyes.
Sin can read sin, but dimly scans high grace,
So we move heavenward with averted face,
Scared into faith by warning of sin's pains,
And saints are lowered, that the world may rise.

5.-ISRAEL.

“And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted."

O specious sin and Satan's subtle snare

That urges sore each gentlest meekest heart,

When its kind thoughts are crushed, and its wounds smart,

Worldsick to turn within and image there

Some idol-dream, to lull the throbbing care!

So felt reft Israel, when he fain would part

With living friends, and called on memory's art

To raise the dead, and sooth him by despair.

Nor err they not, although that image be
God's own, nor to the dead their thoughts be given,
Earth-hating sure, but yet of earth enthralled;
For who dare sit at home, and wait to see

High heaven descend, when man from self is called
Up through this thwarting outward world to heaven?

6. JOSEPH.

"And they cried before him, Bow the knee."

O purest semblance of the eternal SON!

Who dwelt in thee as in some blessed shrine,
To draw hearts after thee and seal them thine;
Not parent only by that Light was won,
And brethren crouched who had in wrath begun,
E'en heathen pomp abased her at the sign

Of a hid GOD, and drank the sounds divine,
Till a king heard, and all thou badst was done.
Then was fulfilled nature's dim augury,
That, "Should the Living WORD on earth descend,
"All knees of men in ready awe must bend ;'
Lest it might seem, what time the substance came,
Truth lacked a sceptre, when it but laid by
Its beaming front, and bore a willing shame.

CORRESPONDENCE.

The Editor begs to remind his readers that he is not responsible for the opinions
of his Correspondents.

THE FEAST OF ST. MATTHIAS.

SIR,-Your correspondent, who is "AN OBSERVER OF THE FESTIVALS," (a rare character in these times,) has pointed out an error in Gilbert's Clerical Almanac, for the present year,† in which the feast of St. Matthias is placed on the 25th instead of the 24th of February. I agree with your correspondent so far as to think it highly probable that the last revisors of our Liturgy intended the feast of St. Matthias to be always observed on the 24th; but still it appears to me that the error of the Almanac consists chiefly in the bold decision of a very doubtful point, and in the recognition of what your correspondent very justly calls a schismatical council, which council, moreover, had nothing to do with the matter. Perhaps the following short sketch of the history of this point, so far at least as our service books are concerned, may prove interesting to some of your readers :—

In the first place, it is to be remarked, that unless some express direction interfered, the feast of St. Matthias would, in leap-year,

naturally fall on what we now call the 25th of February. For the 6th of the Kal. of March is always St. Matthias's-day; but in leapyear the intercalary day being inserted between the 7th and 6th of the Kalends, occasions the 6th to fall on the 25th instead of on the 24th of the month.

And, accordingly we find that it was the uniform practice of the church of England, for centuries before the Reformation, and since that period down to the last review of the Liturgy, to keep this feast on the 25th of February in leap-year.

The rule observed in England, before the Reformation, will be found in the Calendar of the Salisbury Missal, where the following note is inserted at St. Matthias's-day-" Si Bissextus fuerit, quarta die a Cathedra S. Petri fiat Festum S. Matthiæ; et F. littera bis numeretur." Since, therefore, Cathedra S. Petri was observed on the 22nd, the fourth day (inclusive) or the feast of St. Matthias fell on the 25th.

So far then is it clear that conciliar authority had nothing to do with the matter; the point required no legislation-and until days of the month came to be used instead of Kalends, Nones, and Ides, there could be no doubt that the 6 Kal. Mart. was always the feast of St. Matthias, whether that day fell on the 24th, (as in common years,) or on the 25th of February, as in leap-years.

I proceed now to shew that the Reformation introduced no alteration of what had for ages been the practice of the church in this respect; in the two books set forth in the reign of Edward VI. we find the following rubric:

"

Thys is also to be noted concernyng the leape yeares, that the xxv daie of Februarie, which in leape year is compted for two daies, shall in those two daies alter neither Psalme nor Lesson; but the same Psalmes and Lessons which be sayed the first daye, shall also serve for the seconde daie."

There is an evident mistake in this rubric, the probable cause of which will be pointed out hereafter; for it is not the 25th of February, but the 24th, which in leap year is counted for two days; and it is singular enough that this mistake appears not only in every edition of both the prayer-books of Edward VI., but also in the edition printed in Dublin in 1551, for the use of the Irish church.†

The error, however, is more than a mere erratum, and had the effect of avoiding the difficulty about St. Matthias altogether, so that if this rubric ever was observed, the intercalary day was inserted after the 24th, and St. Matthias's-day fell always on the 24th of the month. These anomalies were removed in the prayer-book of Queen

* Booke of C. P., printed by Edw. Whitchurche, 1552.

A very fine and almost unique copy of this edition, which was the first book ever printed in Ireland, is preserved in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. Its title is "The Boke of the common praier and admi-nistration of the sacramentes, and other rights and ceremonies of the Churche; af-ter the use of the Churche of England. Dubliniæ in offi-cina Humfredi Povvelli. Cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum. Anno Domini. M.D.LI." The lines alternately red and black; the red are here printed in italics. See Cotton's Typogr. Gazeteer, Art. Dublin. VOL. IX.-April, 1836.

3 E

Elizabeth by the substitution of the following rubric, which continued to the reign of Charles II.

"When the years of our Lord may be divided into four even parts, which is every fourth year, then the Sunday letter leapeth, and that year the psalms and lessons which serve for the xxiii. day of Februarie shall be read again the day following, except it be Sunday, which hath proper lessons of the Old Testament appointed in the table serving to that purpose."

The exception proves that in leap-years the day following the 23rd was not regarded as the feast of St. Matthias, which had proper lessons as well as Sunday, and therefore would be a constant exception occuring every leap-year, while the occurrence of a Sunday on the intercalary day could only happen on those leap-years whose first Sunday letter was F. It is plain then, that down to the last review of the liturgy, the feast of St. Matthias was always kept in our church on the 25th of February in leap-years; and the ignorance of the assertion that "this was decided at the Council of Trent," is, I trust, sufficiently exposed.

But it is further to be observed, that in the old calendars there was no 29th of February, and, consequently, no psalms or lessons appointed for that day until the last review; therefore the rule followed in leap-year was this-on the 24th, the eve of St. Matthias was kept, with the psalms and lessons of the 23rd; on the 25th, the feast of St. Matthias, with the psalms and second lessons of the 24th; on the 26th, the psalms and lessons of the 25th; and so on. And this was the practice of the church from the reign of Queen Elizabeth to the last alterations in the book of common prayer.

In the two books of Edward VI. there is a peculiar rubric for the psalms in February, which perhaps led to the anomalies about leapyear already noticed; and as I have not seen this remarked anywhere, it may perhaps be well to mention the matter here. On the 31st day of January the psalms for the first day of the month were read; on the first of February the psalms of the second day, and so on, one day always in advance; so that on February 28th the psalms for the 29th would be read. On the first of March the psalms for the 30th of the month were used; on March 2nd, those of the 1st; and so on, each day of March the psalms of the day before; thus the whole psalter was read twice between the 31st of January and the 31st of March. Nor was this arrangement disturbed in leap-years, because the psalms of the 25th February were then twice repeated. In the other months which consist of thirty-one days, the rule which we observe at present was enjoined-viz., to repeat on the 31st the psalms of the 30th. But this is further to be observed, that in the prayer-books of Edward VI. the psalter was not printed; so that the psalms were read, as I suppose, out of the Bible, as we now read the lessons. It was necessary, therefore, to have a separate table for the psalms, and this was referred to from the table of the lessons by a column headed Psalms, and containing a series of numbers which generally coincided with the days of the month; but in February and March differed from them in the way above explained: thus it happened that in the two books of Edward VI. the number xxv ap

peared in this column opposite to the 6 Kal. Mart., denoting that the 25th of the thirty portions into which the psalter had been divided, was on that day to be read; and I have little doubt that this circumstance was the cause of the error in the rubric, "that the xxv day of February in leape-yeares, is coumpted for twoo dayes," in which xxv was taken from the wrong column, and is therefore really a mistake for xxiv. To those who have not an old prayer-book at hand this may perhaps be made clearer by mentioning that the 24th of February is given thus:

f. vi kl. xxiiii. Mathias. XXV.

The third column contains the day of the month, and the fifth the reference to the table of psalms. It is also to be borne in mind, that in Edward's time there were no proper lessons, so that the substitution of xxiv for xxv in the rubric would be sufficient to render it consistent with the celebration of St. Matthias's-day on the 25th, or 6th Kalend.

But to return from this digression. Our present prayer-books omit the direction for repeating the psalms and lessons of February 23rd on the day following, and appoint special lessons for the 29th.

The question therefore is, whether this amounts to a change of the former practice with respect to the observance of the feast of St. Matthias in leap-years?

It is unquestionable that the feast of St. Matthias is not a moveable feast that it is fixed to the 6th Kal. Mart., and that in leap-year the intercalary day being inserted between the 23rd and 24th, the 6th Kal., and therefore the feast of St. Matthias, must fall on the 25th of the month. And since our present calendar has given no Sunday letter for the 29th February, it is plain that F. is the letter repeated, that is, that the intercalation was made in the same place as before; and, consequently, the feast of St. Matthias, unless some positive rubric can be quoted enjoining the contrary, must in leap-year be observed on the 25th, especially when we consider that this has been for ages the uniform practice of the church of England, and is still the practice of every other part of the catholic church.

I am therefore, I confess, slow to believe that the intention of our last excellent revisors of the book of common prayer was to depart, in a matter so indifferent, from a usage so long established, and so universal; yet I must confess that there is a difficulty which I know not how to solve otherwise than by admitting this to be the case. Our present calendar, by appointing lessons for the 29th, and omitting all further directions, plainly intimates that the lessons of the preceding days are to be read as they are appointed in the table; if, therefore, we observe St. Matthias on the 25th, the 24th is left without first lessons, at both morning and evening prayer.

This difficulty is solved in Gilbert's Almanack, on the principle recommended by Nichols, by reading the first lessons of the 25th on the 24th, and substituting on the 25th, for the lessons appointed in the table, the proper lessons for St. Matthias's-day. This, however,