When Employed in Nursing the Sick.

blessed ministry didst most lovingly, and LORD Jesus Christ, Who during Thy

frequently, exert Thy Divine power in healing all manner of sickness and infirmity; I pray for Thy especial help in the holy duty of ministering to Thy diseased and afflicted members. Give me, I beseech Thee, a due sense of the responsibility and honour of my work. Fill me with heartfelt compassion for those whom I tend. Endue me with a gentle firmness of head and hand. Make me tender, and patient, and skilful in relieving discomfort and assuaging pain. Enable me to soothe the fretful and impatient, to cheer the desponding, to console the sad. [Help me to set an example of self-denial and watchfulness to my subordinates.] Make me courageous in difficulties, ready in emergencies, strictly obedient to the physicians and surgeons, punctual and careful in small things. And while I minister to the bodies of the sick, assist me, O Lord, constantly to endeavour, in all womanly gentleness and humility, to direct their thoughts upward, and inward, so that they may be prepared for the office of the Physician of the soul, and be healed and comforted both in body and mind. O Lord, grant that I may please Thee in all parts of this my service, and that it may be for the honour of Thy holy Name. Amen.

Before Reading the Holy Scriptures to Others.

GOD, I return Thee humble thanks for the great honour of directly helping in

the ministration of Thy holy Word. Make me diligent to read it plainly, and distinctly, and intelligently, to the conversion and edification of Thy people. May I never pretend to understand it when I do not. May I never misinterpret it in the smallest degree. May I never follow my own judgment therein to differ from the doctrine of the Church. And to this end make me heartily to love and reverence Thy holy Scriptures. I humbly beg that Thy Spirit may make me specially watchful against selfconfidence and self-pleasing in this ministration.

Lastly, O Lord, I desire to do it entirely for Thy glory, in all humility and faithfulness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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The Collects of the Book of
Common Prayer.

First Sunday in Advent.

LMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which Thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when He shall come again in His glorious Majesty to judge both the quick and dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through Him Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.

BL

Second Sunday in Advent.

LESSED Lord, Who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience, and comfort of Thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life which Thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Third Sunday in Advent.

LORD Jesu Christ, Who at Thy first coming didst send Thy messenger to prepare Thy way before Thee; grant that the ministers and stewards of Thy Mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready Thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the

wisdom of the just, that at Thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in Thy sight, Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Fourth Sunday in Advent.

LORD, raise up, we pray Thee, Thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, Thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through the satisfaction of Thy Son our Lord, to Whom, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, be honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

Christmas Day.

LMIGHTY God, Who hast given us Thy

upon Him, and as at this time to be born of a pure Virgin; grant that we, being regenerate, and made Thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by Thy Holy Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the same Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Ghere

Saint Stephen's Day.

here upon earth for the testimony of Thy truth we may steadfastly look up to heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed; and being filled with the Holy Ghost, may learn to love and bless our persecutors by

the example of Thy first Martyr Saint Stephen, who prayed for his murderers to Thee, O blessed Jesus, Who standest at the right hand of God to succour all those that suffer for Thee, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

Saint John the Evangelist's Day.

MERCIFUL Lord, we beseech thee to cast

Thy bright beams of light upon Thy Church, that it, being enlightened by the doctrine of Thy blessed Apostle and Evangelist Saint John, may so walk in the light of Thy truth, that it may at length attain to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Innocents' Day.

ALMIGHTY God, Who out of the mouths

Wling of the mounted

strength, and madest infants to glorify Thee by their deaths; mortify and kill all vices in us, and so strengthen us by Thy grace, that by the innocency of our lives, and constancy of our faith even unto death, we may glorify Thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Sunday after Christmas Day.

LMIGHTY God, Who hast given us Thy only-begotten Son to take our nature upon Him, and as at this time to be born of a pure Virgin; grant that we, being regenerate, and made Thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by Thy Holy Spirit ; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the same Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.