THE LECTIONARY OF THE CHURCH.

The Lectionary of the Church of England provides, with per­haps greater care than has been shown by any other Christian body, for the complete and orderly reading of Holy Scripture in Divine Service. Such reading, independently of its spiritual value both for instruction and exhortation to the individual hearer, tends for the Church at large to the continual maintenance of the Scriptural standard of truth, and to the preservation of the true " proportion of faith," exhibiting in right order and variety all the elements of Christian doctrine and practice.

It contains,( a) the Series of Proper Lessons for Sundays; ( b) the Proper Lessons for Holy days;( c) the Common Lessons of the year; to which may be added,( d) the Series of Epistles and Gospels.

( A) THE LESSONS PROPER FOR SUNDAYS.

The First Lessons are so ar­ranged, as to present striking and important chapters from the various books of the Old Testa­ment in order. In this arrange­ment, according to old practice ( see Preface" Concerning the Service of the Church"), Isaiah is read in Advent and Epiphany, except for the last three Sundays on which alone lessons are taken from the books of Job and Pro­verbs; and the book of Genesis on Septuagesima, beginning the regular series, first of the his­torical, then of the prophetical books, which is only broken in upon by special lessons for Whit­sunday and Trinity- Sunday.

Of Second Lessons there are but few- for Septuagesima, Palm­Sunday, Easter- Day, and the First Sunday after Easter, Whit­sunday, and Trinity Sunday: for all other Sundays the course of Common Lessons remain un­broken.

The general principle, there­fore, of the Sunday Lessons is REGULARITY, with a view to give

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to those who only attend Church on Sundays a course of Scrip­tural reading which is orderly, if not complete; and, as a rule, the lessons are rather longer than the average of the Common Lessons.

It may be noted that in the Prayer Books of 1549 and 1552, there were no Proper Lessons for ordinary Sundays. From 1561 onwards the series was made complete, and underwent but little change till the establish­ment of the New Lectionary in 1871.

The New Lectionary, by the provision of alternative Lessons, has largely increased the number of Proper Lessons from the Old Testament, keeping generally to the same order, and mostly including the old Lessons. It has added Proper Lessons from the New Testament for Septua­gesima and the First Sunday after Easter, and a Third Les­son for Palm- Sunday, Easter­Day, Whitsunday, and Trinity Sunday.