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INTRODUCTION.

HE word Collect, by which certain prayers in our offices are distinguished, is of doubtful derivation. It is held by some that the name arose from the fact that these prayers

were offered when the people were collected together for Divine worship, or when about to proceed from one church to another. By others, that Collect is so termed, because its subject matter is collected from certain passages in scripture, such as the Epistles and Gospels with which these prayers are associated. Again, it is urged by others, that Collect has acquired the title from collecting or gathering up the petitions of the people in a concise and summary form. There is much to be advanced in support of each of these derivations, but it would seem that the first-mentioned is the one to be pre

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ferred, though without invalidating the facts which are indisputably contained in the other

two.

Collects are of great antiquity in the Western Church. The ancient Liturgies of the Eastern Churches do not possess prayers that present the peculiar characteristics of the Collects. Palmer is of opinion that they were originally introduced from the Church of Alexandria into the West. Most of the Collects of our Church are taken from the old Sacramentaries of the Latin Church. The oldest, perhaps, of the Western Liturgies is that of Milan, called after the celebrated Archbishop of that place-St. Ambrose. By some this Liturgy is believed to have been composed by him, and probably, much of it was his work. By others it has been attributed to St. Barnabas, who is said to have preached the Gospel at Milan.

Leo the Great, who was Bishop of Rome from 440 to 461; Gelasius, who held the same episcopate from 492 to 496; and Gregory the Great, from 590 to 604, compiled Sacramentaries: the subject matter of these Liturgies might be, and most probably was, in many

cases, of even a greater antiquity. These were introduced into our country by Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, and so passed into the various Missals known as the "Use" of Sarum, York, Hereford, &c. The first-named of these was the most esteemed. It was drawn up by Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, in the eleventh century.

At the Reformation, the first Prayer book in the English tongue, generally known as the first service book of Edward the sixth, was set forth in 1549, when the ancient collects were translated and many new ones introduced.

The second Prayer book of Edward the sixth was published in 1552.

The Revision under James the first, in 1604, made no additions to our Collects.

But the last Revision in 1662, contributed several of great worth and beauty, that may fairly stand side by side with their more ancient companions. The notes attached to each Collect give the source from which they severally spring.

The characteristics of the prayers called Collects may be briefly alluded to. It would

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appear that as the Creeds were the expansion of the baptismal formula, so the Collects were based upon, and enlarged from, ejaculations, versicles, or responses, in use from the earliest times. These were appropriated fitly to the day or the occasion. The centre of the Collect is marked by a succint and concise, almost terse, way of presenting before the throne of grace the blessing desired or the evil deprecated. In this feature of combining brevity of expression with fulness of meaning, the Collects make a near approach to the oriental or rabbinical style; they exhibit a text-like character, the contents presenting a capability of amplification, and often suggesting by the poetry of the figures employed various ramifications of pious thought and holy desire. The appeal is invariably addressed to God the Father-this forms the

preface to the prayer. The Divine Being is distinguished by a name chosen with special suitability to the particular petition that follows, and the ground of appeal, through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, coupled very frequently with a doxology that involves the doctrine of the Trinity-forms the conclusion of the prayer.

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