Lamb of God, to thee I cry! By the blood thy flesh distill'd; Man of sorrows, hear me cry! By thy gentle spirit fled To the mansions of the dead; By the wound, whence issuing flow'd By thy breathless body laid Prince of life, to thee I cry! By thy glorious majesty ; 1 By the earthquake's powerful shock; Lord of glory, God most high, God and man, to thee I cry! ALL SAINTS. The spirits of just men made perfect. HEB. xii. 23. HISTORICAL NOTICE OF ALL SAINTS' DAY. THE Church, having in the course of her annual services commemorated those individuals whom she esteems worthy of singular honour, and having now arrived nearly at the end of the ecclesiastical year, brings her series of commemorative festivals to a close, by devoting one to the memory of "All Saints." The Saints, intended to be commemorated on this occasion, are those holy persons, who having been sanctified by their admission into the Christian Church, and having under the influence of the Spirit of holiness endeavoured to serve God on earth in a manner corresponding to their holy vocation, are removed hence in order to their admission into a state of superior holiness and happiness. For the term "Saints" is commonly used in the New Testament, particularly in St. Paul's Epistles, to denote Christians in general, because they are set apart and separated from the world for sacred purposes, and consecrated to the service of God, and so lie under a necessary obligation to be true and real saints: so that in this comprehensive sense it is as large as the word "Christians;" and stands opposed not to the unsound members of the Church of Christ, but to the world in general. In a more limited sense however it signifies those persons, who are "holy," not by profession only, but in practice: who are Christians, not only in name but in deed. And in a sense still more limited it is confined to those, who having fulfilled their part in the Church militant here on earth, are gone, in the character of "the spirits of just men made perfect," to increase the number of the Church triumphant in heaven. It is for the commemoration of these holy persons, that the festival of this day is intended. That we may have a clearer view however of the intention of the Church in this provision, as well as of her admirable moderation and judgment in making it, we will take an historical survey of the circumstances which led to this appointment, thus supplying the place of our biographical notices on former oc |