ADVERTISEMENT. FROM the earliest ages of Christianity, it has been customary to introduce select portions of the Sacred Writings into the public forms of Divine Worship; and that this laudable practice was suggested by what took place in the latter days of the Mosaic Dispensation, may be collected from different passages in Holy Scripture. We cannot, indeed, trace the usage, with any precision, to a remoter antiquity, than the time of Ezra; but sufficient evidence is afforded us to ascertain that, after the captivity, the custom was generally observed. In the days of our Saviour and of his Apostles, we have several instances of the fact; the most stri. king, perhaps, of which is to be found in Luke, c. iv. where Jesus, standing up to read in the synagogue of Nazareth, opened the Sacred Volume at a passage referring to himself. The Ritual of our Church seems to have béen formed, almost exclusively, upon this principle: since, independent of the actual portions of Scripture so largely dispersed throughout the various Offices; it might easily be demonstrated, that the spirit of God's Word pervades even those parts, where the letter is itself absent. But such an undertaking would carry us beyond the limits of this little work; which professes, merely, to call the attention of Christians more seriously to those selections from the Old Testament, which compose the First Lessons appointed to be read on Sundays, and on some of the Holidays observed by the Church of England. |