"the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God, they cried out with a loud voice and ran upon him "with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and "stoned him."

Among the works of CHRYSOSTOM and GREGORY of Nazianzum, are Homilies to his memory, which were delivered on the anniversary of his martyrdom. In allusion to the name of STEPHEN, which in the Greek language signifies a Crown, the former of these writers calls him the "Crown of the Church;" and the latter "the great STEPHEN, whose temples were "bound with the Crown of martyrdom." From these two quotations we may form an idea of the occasional sportiveness of some of the Greek Fathers, and infer the antiquity of the observation of the festival of St. STEPHEN.

The Collect, which in 1661 was improved, is directly addressed to Christ, to whom the Martyr during his suffering prayed, saying, "Lord Jesus, receive

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my spirit," and, "Lord, lay not this sin to their

charge*." The Epistle and the Gospel being peculiarly applicable to the occasion, were retained from the ancient Offices.

ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST'S DAY.

JOHN was a fisherman of Bethsaïda in Galilee, brother of the elder James and the beloved disciple of our Lord, who on the cross committed to him the

care of his mother. After dwelling in Judea, where she is supposed to have died, about fifteen years after. the Crucifixion, during which period he twice suffered imprisonment in Jerusalem, he travelled into Asiaminor; and was probably the founder of the seven Churches mentioned in the Revelation. From Ephesus he was sent prisoner to Rome, by command of the Emperor Domitian, and as Tertullian reports, was there cast into a caldron of boiling oil, but miraculously preserved. After this he was, "for the word "of God and the testimony of Jesus," banished to the Isle of Patmos, where the Revelation was written. Being recalled by the Emperor Nerva, A.D. 96, he returned to Ephesus, where at an advanced age he published his Gospel, by desire it is said of the Christians, and Pastors of Asia. He is thought to have been the youngest of the Apostles, all of whom he survived.

The Collect was a little altered at the Restoration, and at the Reformation a part of one of his own Epistles was very properly placed in the room of an Apocryphal Lesson. The Epistle and Gospel are now both taken from his own writings. In the former, the Disciple bears testimony to the divinity of his Lord; and in the latter, the Lord obscurely intimates, that the Disciple should not die till the dissolution of the Jewish Polity; a prophecy which was punctually fulfilled.

THE INNOCENTS DAY.

THE Holy Innocents, the children of Bethlehem, slain soon after our Saviour's birth, are uniformly regarded by the ancient writers as Christian Martyrs. They are styled "the flowers and the first-fruits of "the Martyrs ;" and ORIGEN observes, that their memory was always celebrated in the Christian Church, a sufficient proof of the antiquity of this festival. But whether this was at first a festival distinct from the Epiphany, or celebrated on the same day with it, is perhaps still doubtful,

The Collect was re-composed and improved at the Restoration. The passage from the Revelation, read for the Epistle, describes the happy state and the employment of the Redeemed, and of the Innocents in heaven and the Gospel records the history of the massacre of all the children that were in Bethlehem, and the coasts thereof.

Every one may observe that this, and the two preceding festivals, immediately follow the grand festival of the Nativity; but the reason of this arrangement is not so obvious. It is not to be presumed, that these were the days on which St. Stephen, St. John, and the "Holy Innocents," respectively suffered. But the Innocents and St. Stephen, to adopt the words of HILARY, were the first that were "advanced to eternity by the glory of martyr

* Salvete, flores Martyrum,
Quos lucis ipso in limine, &c.

"dom" and St. John was "the beloved disciple." These festivals therefore the Church celebrates at this time, considering them as proper attendants upon the feast of the Nativity. L'Estrange well remarks, that "Martyrdom, Love, and Innocence, are "first to be magnified, as wherein Christ is most "honoured."

SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS.

THE Collect for the Nativity is repeated on this day. The Epistle, by an apt similitude, shews the superiority of the Christian over the Jewish dispensation; and the Gospel relates some of the particular circumstances that attended the birth of Christ.

THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST.

CIRCUMCISION was a ceremony observed both by Jews and Pagans. Whether it was originally a divine or human institution, whether it was first practised by the Hebrews or the Egyptians, remain at this day questionable points. This is certain, that God ordained the use of it to Abraham and his posterity, as a token or sign of the covenant made between him and them. In Exodus the command is repeated; and in Leviticus the time of the operation is fixed to the eighth day after birth, agreeably to the original institution.

At what period the feast of the Circumcision was first admitted into the Christian Church, all our Ritualists, who have treated of the festivals and holi

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days, seem to have been either ashamed to acknowledge, or afraid to enquire. They have not at least determined its date with any thing like tolerable accuracy. Bishop SPARROW, one of the earliest and best, says in his Rationale: "The feast of the "Circumcision is affirmed by learned men to to be of "later institution. For though many of the an"cients mention the Octave of Christmas and Newyear's Day, yet they do not mention or seem to keep it, say they, as a feast of the Circumcision †. "But suppose it to be so; yet surely it cannot be "denied that there is reason enough for the keep

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ing of this day solemn, as it is the feast of Christ's "Circumcision. For as at Christmas, Christ was "made of a woman, like us in nature, so this day " he was made under the Law, Gal. iv. 4. and for us "took upon him the curse of the Law; being made "sin for us, and becoming a surety to the offended "God for us sinners. Which suretyship he sealed "this day with some drops of that precious blood, "which he meant to pour out whole upon the cross."

L'ESTRANGE, in the Alliance of Divine Offices, gives us the following annotation: "I dare not "affix any remote antiquity to this holiday. The "first mention of it under this title occurreth "in Ivo CARNOTENSIS, who lived about the year 1090, a little before St. BERNARD, and who hath

* The word is, perhaps, purposely ambiguous. See the context. + Some of the ancients do.

The feast, and under this title, is mentioned nearly 500 years before Ivo.