id before sleep,
should remind us of the great night, death.

CHAPTER II.

SHORT HISTORY OF DIVINE PRAISE IN GENERAL
AND OF THE BREVIARY IN PARTICULAR.

From all eternity the Godhead was praised with ineffable praise by the
Trinity--the three divine Persons. The angels from the first moment of
the creation sang God's praises. _Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Dominus
Deus, Sabaoth. Plena est omnis terra gloria ejus_ (Isaias vi. 3).

Cardinal Bona writes that Adam and Eve blessed and praised God, their
Creator. For God created the first human beings, and "created in them
the knowledge of the Spirit of God that they might praise the name which
He has sanctified and glory in His wondrous acts" (Ecclesiasticus xvii.
6-8), Every page of the Old Testament tells how the chosen race
worshipped God. We read of the sacrifices of Cain, Abel, Enoch, Noe; of
the familiar intercourse which the great patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob had with God. Recorded, too, are the solemn songs and prayers of
Moses thanking God for His guidance in the freedom from the slavery of
Egypt (Exodus xv.). David, under God's inspiration, composed those noble
songs of praise, the Psalms, and organised choirs for their rendering.
He sings "Evening and morning and at noon I will speak and declare and
He shall hear my voice" (Psalm 54, v. 18); "I rose at midnight to give
praise to Thee" (Psalm 118, v. 162); "Seven times a day I have given
praise to Thee" (Psalm 118, v. 164).

The Prophet Daniel, a captive in Babylon, prayed thrice daily, his face
turned to Jerusalem. The Israelites, captives in Babylon with Nehemias,
"rose up and read in the book of the Law of the Lord their God, four
times in the day, and four times they confessed and adored the Lord
their God" (II. Esdras ix. 3). Hence, the Jewish day, made up as it was
with sacrifices, libations, oblations, purifications, and public and
private prayer, was a day of prayer. In these public meetings they sang
God's praises, sang of His glory and of His mercy. Sometimes they spoke
with loving familiarity, sometimes they prayed on bended knee, sometimes
they stood and pleaded with outstretched hands, pouring out the prayers
inspired by God Himself.

In the New Law our Saviour is the model of prayer, the true adorer of
His Father. He alone can worthily adore and praise because He alone has
the necessary perfection. Night and day He set example to His followers.
He warned them to watch and pray; He t