(Upon placing the Elements upon the Altar.)

Vouchsafe to receive these Thy creatures from the hands of us sinners, O Thou self-sufficient GOD!

(Immediately after the Consecration.)

We offer unto Thee, our King and our God, this bread and this cup. We give Thee thanks for these and for all Thy mercies; beseeching Thee to send down Thy HOLY SPIRIT Upon this sacrifice, that He may make this bread the body of Thy CHRIST, and this cup the blood of Thy CHRIST; and that all we, who are partakers thereof, may thereby obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of His passion.

And, together with us, remember, O God, for good, the whole mystical body of Thy Son; that such as are yet alive may finish their course with joy; and that we, with all such as are dead in the LORD, may rest in hope and rise in glory, for Thy Son's sake, whose death we now commemorate. Amen.

May I adore Thee, O God, by offering to Thee the pure and unbloody sacrifice, which Thou hast ordained by Jesus Christ. Amen.

But how should I dare to offer Thee this sacrifice, if I had not first offered myself a sacrifice to Thee, my GOD? May I never offer the prayers of the faithful with polluted lips, nor distribute the bread of life with unclean hands.

I acknowledge and receive Thee, O JESUS, as sent of GOD, a Prophet, to make His will known to us, and His merciful purpose to save us; as our Priest, who offered Himself an acceptable sacrifice for us, to satisfy the Divine Justice, and to make intercession for us; and as our King, to rule, and defend us against all our enemies.

May I always receive the Holy Sacrament in the same meaning, intention, and blessed effect, with which JESUS CHRIST administered it to His Apostles in His last Supper.

Concerning Confirmation.

By faith we receive the Spirit, which is of GOD. “I will put My Spirit within you, saith God."

We are truly Christians by receiving the Spirit of CHRIST.

This is the great blessing of the Gospel, the fellowship of the

HOLY GHOST, with the desire of which we conclude our daily prayers, with the grace of our LORD JESUS CHRIST. . .

The effect and blessing of Confirmation.

It is to convey the inestimable blessing of the HOLY SPIRIT of GOD by prayer and the imposition of the hands of God's ministers, that He may dwell in you, and keep you from the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Confirmation is the perfection of baptism. The HOLY GHOST descends invisibly upon such as are rightly prepared to receive such a blessing, as at the first He came visibly upon those that had been baptized. . . .

As the HOLY SPIRIT is present in our baptism, to seal the remission of sins, and to infuse the seeds of Christian life; so is He present in confirmation, to shed further influences on those that receive it, for stirring up the gift of God bestowed in baptism, &c.

Prayer after Confirmation.

Matt. xix. 15. And He laid His hands on them.

O HOLY SPIRIT of grace! I make my humble supplication to Thee in behalf of those Thy servants on whom I have this day laid my hands. Be Thou their wisdom, to give them the knowledge of religion; their understanding, to know their duty; their counsel in all their doubts; their strength against all temptations; their knowledge, in what belongs to the state of life in which Thy Providence shall place them; their piety and godliness in all their actions; and be Thou their fear, all their life long, for JESUS CHRIST's sake. Amen.

OXFORD.

The Feast of St. Bartholomew.

These Tracts are published Monthly, and sold at the price of 2d. for each sheet, or 7s. for 50 copies.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON,

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE.

1834..

GILBERT & RIVINGTON, Printers, St. John's Square, London.

TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.

RICHARD NELSON.

No. IV.

"What a weariness is it!"-MAL. i. 13.

sons.

"O, they be blessed that may dwell
Within Thy house always:
For they all times Thy facts do tell,
And ever give Thee praise.

Yea, happy sure likewise are they

Whose stay and strength Thou art,

Who to Thy house do mind the way,
And seek it in their heart."

PSALM 1xxxiv. 5, 6.

AMONG all the boys of our Sunday-school, none have given me so much trouble as Absalom Plush, and two of farmer Yawn's They are almost always behind their time: at school they are very inattentive, and at Church their conduct has been repeatedly so disgraceful that it even attracted the attention of one of the Churchwardens, who gave them a severe reprimand, and threatened to send for a constable; since which, they have conducted themselves rather more decently. Perhaps my readers may be inclined to ask why I suffer them to remain in the school, their behaviour having been so bad. My answer must be, that as they are but little boys, (for Absalom is the eldest, and he is not more than eleven, if so much,) I still hope they may improve; and if I were to put them out of the school, I fear I should lose all chance of gaining any influence over them. However, I have made up my mind that if they behave in this sort of way again, they shall go.

There is, too, another consideration which has rather disposed me to be sorry for these boys in the midst of my displeasure, namely, that if they had been well instructed, and a good example had been set them at home, they would, perhaps, have behaved differently at school and in Church. For young Plush does not want for sense, though he is so unruly; and as to the little Yawns, they are not naturally of bad dispositions, but so determinedly indolent and unwilling to make any exertion for their own improvement, that it is a great trial of one's patience to endeavour to teach them. I am, however, sorry to say, the examples they have before them at home are not such as to encourage them to turn to good account the instruction they may receive at Church or at the school. This I was fully aware of from the first, and, accordingly, as it is my usual custom when the children behave ill at school to take the first opportunity of mentioning it to the parents and friends, with the hope of throwing in a word which may be for their good too, I determined that I would do so in these instances.

66

An occasion soon offered itself of speaking to farmer Yawn, whose house is very near to mine. But before I state what passed between us, I should say that I had, that same morning, talked the matter over with my friend Richard Nelson, in whose class Absalom was, as well as the elder of the two Yawns. "Sir," replied Richard, in answer to my question respecting the conduct of these boys, as to Lawrence Yawn, I cannot say that he applies much to his book, or, as I think, ever means to do so. Indeed, I have heard that he should say he likes to be at the bottom of the class, because then he has a chance of leaning against the wall, or of resting on the corner of my chair. Absalom Plush is much more untractable, and inclined to be impudent too. To give you an instance, Sir, what happened only last Sunday. He came in very late, as he frequently does, and when I spoke to him about it he only laughed, and said he could not come sooner, and under breath, as I thought, he should not, and he seemed to me occasionally to be humming to himself some kind of song."

But

"A song !" said I, "what in the school? that is something

new indeed."

"However," proceeded Nelson, "according to your advice to us in such cases, I took no notice at the time: but in the evening, as he happened to come along the path by our garden, I said to him, 'Absalom, I do wish you would pay a little more attention at school, I really fancied to-day you were singing something of a song.' 'Well,' said he, suppose I was-what then? 'twas only a bit of a tune that a man was singing in at father's, one night last week; and father said, that altering the words a little, it would just suit us boys of the Sunday-school. There is no harm (he continued) in the words, I will tell you what they were.' But they seemed to me, Sir, to be part of a very mischievous ballad, signifying that instead of Churches and Prayer Books, people had better sit in public houses and study newspapers; that Church-going is time-wasting, and so forth. it is plain that the boy is encouraged at home in his bad ways; and, as you ask me the question, Sir, I fear it is not much better with the two Yawns; for I dare say you must have observed that there are six or seven people, who always come late into Church, rain or shine, morning or evening, and amongst them Master Yawn comes in as regularly as possible just about the end of the first Lesson."

So

"Yes," I said, "I have observed it, and have long wished for an opportunity of inquiring into the cause of such a practice."

After some other observations we parted, and it happened, as I before observed, that on the same day my neighbour Yawn came to our house to borrow a milking bucket, which I very readily lent him, though not with my servant's good will, as such articles seldom returned from the farmer's in exactly as good a condition as they went.

Seeing him, then, go out of the yard with the bucket in his hand, I met him at the garden gate, and said to him at once, "I do wish, Mr. Yawn, you would speak to Lawrence and the little boy, for by their irregularity and extreme idleness, they vex me very much, and do harm to the other boys in the school."

"Sir," he replied, making a low bow, "I am very sorry indeed to come troubling again so soon for a bucket, but our people