lence, and Famine_ form a group in which we see that
Famine is the most serious, because it attacks the whole community.
Plague is a disease which befalls us as a blow (_plege_); Pestilence is
a disease which spreads from one to another. Science tends to enlarge
the host of pestilences, and diminish the number of death-blows which
cannot be explained. It is apparent that a disease which spreads
through a community is more dreadful than one which singles out one
person or many.

{164}

_battle, murder, and sudden death_, are blows which may fall upon us;
it is not prayer that we may be delivered from being soldiers, and from
the crime of murder.

6. _sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion_: sedition is the
thought; conspiracy, the plan; and rebellion, the action--of a subject
against the Government.

_false doctrine, heresy and schism_: false doctrine is the thought;
heresy, the plan; and schism, the action--of a Churchman against the
Church, and its Lord.

_hardness of heart_, is a disposition to disobey what we know to be the
command of God. If not checked, it grows into actual _contempt of His
Word and Commandment_.

Obsecrations. (Entreaty mentioning the plea.)

7 and 8. _Incarnation_: S. John i. 14; Rom. i. 3.

_Nativity_: S. Luke ii. 11. Circumcision: S. Luke ii. 21.

_Baptism_: S. Matth. iii. 16.

_Fasting and Temptation_: S. Luke iv. 1, 2.

_Agony and Bloody Sweat_: S. Luke xxii. 44.

_Cross and Passion_: S. Matth. xxvii. 41-46; Heb. v. 7.

_Death and Burial_: S. Mark xv. 44, 45.

_Resurrection_: S. Matth. xxviii. 5-7.

_Ascension_: Acts i. 9; 1 Tim. iii. 16.

_The Coming of the Holy Ghost_: Acts ii. 32, 33.

9. _Tribulation, Wealth, Death, Judgment_ are the four times of special
need.

Tribulation is derived from threshing, or crushing.

{165}

Wealth is well-doing, or welfare. Prosperity and Adversity are both
times of temptation.

Intercessions. (Prayer for others.)

10. _Universal_ is equivalent to Catholic.

11. _Governor_ refers to the relation of the Sovereign to the Church.

12. _faith, fear, and love_, an ascending order of submission to God.
_affiance_=trust.

11, 14. The names of the Sovereign, and of the Royal Family, vary in
these petitions. A Prayer Book of 1682 has King Charles, Queen
Catherine, and James Duke of York. In 1801, King George, Queen
Charlotte, George Prince of Wales, and the Princess of Wales. In 1850,
Queen Victoria, Prince Albert,