'The sixth week in Lent is, in all the Romance languages, as with us, Holy Week. The title Passion Week, so often bestowed improperly on it among ourselves, is in Russia given to it by right, Strastnoe Nedevie. The Latin term, the Greater Week, Hebdomada Major, does not seem to have come into vernacular use In old French it was called, as it sometimes is still, La Semaine Peneuse. So Hildebert begins a sermon on the Passion: 'Septimana ista, fratres carissimi, ex re nomen habens, vocatur laboriosa, vel, ut vulgo loquuntur, a pœnâ, verbo rustico, pœnosa. The most beautiful term, however, as setting forth its abstraction from worldly labours, and its holy quiet, is that by which it is known in Germany and Denmark, the Still Week. In Germany it is also the Marterwoche, and Car or Charwoche, Suffering Week. In the East it is the Great Week, and each day has the same epithet, Great Monday, Great Tuesday, etc. Finally, in many medieval writers it is the Authentic Week; in the sense, we suppose, of the week-the week that is a week indeed; and so we have found it named in a Mayence Missal of 1519. The Welsh call it Wythnos y Grog, the Week of the Cross. Tuesday was in Germany, for an unknown reason, called Blue Tuesday, Wednesday, Krumm Mittwoche, from the confusion (they say) of the Pharisees' Counsel. In Ireland, Spy Wednesday, with reference to Judas's mission."*

A week so sacred and so momentous could not, of course, long be restricted to an aggregate commemoration; and the piety of the faithful was prompt to individualize its several days, and to associate with each its own special event. It is, however, from the Wednesday in Holy Week that the commencement of the Passion is dated, as it was on this Wednesday that the Jews in their great Council agreed on their design to take away the life of Christ, by impeaching Him before Pontius Pilate. And from that circumstance it arose that every Wednesday, as well as Friday, was formerly kept as a fast-day.

We proceed to speak of the Thursday before Easter, or, as it is popularly called,

MAUNDY THURSDAY.

Of this day, Dr. Neale, in his Essays on Liturgiology, remarks that, 'it is rather singular that it should not have derived its vernacular name from its great institution, the Blessed Eucharist. It had, indeed, in medieval Latin, the name, The Birthday of the Chalice. So Hildebert :

'Hoc in Natali Calicis non est celebratum,

Quando Pascha novum vetus est post Pascha dicatum.

* Dr. Neale's Church Festivals and their Household Words.

NAMES OF MAUNDY THURSDAY.

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'But in modern languages, this did not obtain. In Dansk we have the name of Skiertorsdag, as, in some parts of England, that of Sheer Thursday, from the old root Skier, signifying pain or affliction. In France it was simply Jeudi Saint, a term likely to be confounded with Ascension Day. In German it is Grüne Donnerstag, Green Thursday; the origin of the term is much disputed. It is probable, however, that the epithet is here to be taken in the sense of unripe, inasmuch as in Slavonia and Carinthia the day is called Raw Thursday, with what reference we are quite unable to explain. In Spain, as with us, it is Jueves del Mandato, from the performance of the mandatum, the washing of the feet. In Portugal it is Quinta Feira de Endoenças, Sickness Thursday, on account of the consecration of the chrism for the unction of the sick. In Welsh, with reference to the mocking of our LORD, it is Iau y Cablyd, Thursday of Blasphemy. In Brunswick it was Good Thursday, and so Boniface IX. in a Bull, speaks of "Bonam quintam feriam in Cœnâ Domini.” The Swiss call it High Thursday. In some parts of Germany, and in France, White Thursday, from the white colour of that day only in Holy Week. In Austria, finally, it is Antlatz-tag, Remission Day, from the re-admission of penitents into the Church."*

Although, as we have just said, by deputy of Dr. Neale, the modern vernacular names of Maundy Thursday are not derived from its great institution, the Blessed Eucharist,' it was far otherwise with the names by which it was anciently designated; for, as Mr. Riddle shows, 'this day has been distinguished by several appellations alluding for the most part to the history or ceremonies attached to it. Such are (1) Dies Cœnæ Dominica; Feria quinta in Cana Dominica, or in Cana Domini. (2) Eucharistia, or Dies Natalis Eucharista, with reference to Matt. xxvi., 26, 27; 1 Cor. xi. 24. (3) Natalis Calicis. (4) Dies Panis. (5) Dies Luciswith allusion to the lights used at the institution of the Lord's Supper, or to the light of religious knowledge. (6) Dies Mandati-with reference to our Saviour's command to His disciples concerning the perpetual commemoration of His death, or to His “new commandment," to love one another." (7) Dies Viridium. This title appears to have been adopted during the middle ages, but antiquarians have been much perplexed in their attempts to account for it. Perhaps it may have been given with reference to the appearance of Spring.'†

The Thursday before Easter was a day occupied and crowded with momentous events, in the front of which, it may be repeated, was the celebration of the Passover by our Saviour with His disciples, and his institution of the Holy Eucharist. After the supper

*Church Festivals and their Household Words.
+ Manual of Christian Antiquities.

followed the washing of the feet of the disciples by their divine Master, who prayed for them and for all succeeding generations of the faithful. Then He instructed and edified them, warning them of the things which should come to pass in their experience, and of the circumstances which should attend His own death and resurrection. Withal He vouchsafed the promise of the Comforter. Then retiring to the garden of Gethsemane, He poured out His soul in prayer to His Father, and while so doing, was overtaken by that stupendous agony in which His sweat was, as it were, of blood. From this agony He recovered only to be betrayed by Judas, and forsaken in His extremity by all His disciples.

Of these events we select three for poetical illustration-the institution of the Lord's Supper, the washing of the feet of the disciples, and the agony in the garden. The following verses had their first publication in the Rev. Orby Shipley's 'Lyra Eucharistica,' and are a translation, in paraphrase, of a Sequence of the Sixteenth Century, which commences in the Latin original with the words, De Superna Hierarchia. Their author, the Rev. Arthur M. Morgan, has since reproduced them in a volume of original and translated poems, bearing the title of 'Gifts and Light : Church Verses' (1867).

From the most holy Place above,

In the world's latter day,

The Wisdom true of GOD came down

To guide us on our way.

Oh! we had ever longed for Him,

And He at last was given,
Mary-the-Virgin's blessed CHILD
JESUS, the mortal's Haven.

Great was He ever; great the name

The Holy Virgin won,

When by a miracle she rose

Mother to such a SON:

He takes this lost world's sin away,
Forward with might He goes,
And in the van of fainting men
Doth put to flight their foes.

There was no sorrow in His home,
There was no death on high;
He sought Him Flesh to sorrow in,
A cross that HE might die;

He was the righteous Lawgiver,
And yet Himself He gave

To the stern Law's most bitter scourge,

Us from its curse to save.

For, lo! the Lamb was lifted up

Upon the cruel tree,

And He for us was sacrificed,

Incarnate Charity!

THE LORD'S SUPPER.

And thus our life was built again,
Upon each infant brow

The Sign of Him Who saves is set,
And Heaven is open now.

It was the night He was betrayed,
When in the upper room,

With His loved Twelve He sate at meat,
Knowing what soon should come;
He blessed and brake the Holy Bread
And said-O hearken ye

Who doubt Him-'This My Body is;
Do this remembering Me.'

He ceased. Anon, He spake again,
GOD'S Holy SON and True,
And thus the Gift unspeakable
Came in the Chalice too;

It had made glad man's heavy heart,
But then His all it stood,

The drink of the New Paradise,

The Word Incarnate's Blood.

This mystery is hid in GOD,

This can none else explore;
Be thou content to wait awhile,
Believe, embrace, adore;

But be thou ware to eat and drink,
If slave to sin thou be,

Only the pure and guileless heart
Can take it worthily.

Say, canst thou love as Peter loved?
Behold the Love is here;

Art thou a Judas? in thy sins,
Come not, O traitor, near;
This is the just man's Aliment,
This arms him for the fray;
But whoso lacks a Wedding-robe
Is the foe's certain prey.

Oh, save us from eternal wrath,

Clothe us with chastity.

Thou hast restored the breach; to Thee

For health and Peace we come ;

Make us more worthy of Thy Gift,

Bring us more near our home.

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The poem in illustration of 'Christ washing the Disciples' feet' is adopted from a Transatlantic author, the Rev. Dr. George W. Bethune, and it occupies the first place in an interesting selection of Hymns, published in 1865, by the Religious Tract Society, under the title of Lyra Americana.'

O blessed Jesus! when I see Thee bending,
Girt as a servant, at Thy servants' feet,
Love, loveliness, and might, in zeal all blending,
To wash their dust away, and make them meet

To share Thy feast; I know not to adore
Whether Thy humbleness or glory more.

Conscious Thou art of that dread hour impending
When Thou must hang in anguish on the tree;
Yet, as from the beginning to the ending

Of Thy sad life, Thine own are dear to Thee-
And Thou wilt prove to them, ere Thou dost part,
The untold love which fills Thy faithful heart.
The day, too, is at hand, when, far ascending,

The human brow the crown of God shall wear,
Ten thousand saints and radiant ones attending,
To do Thy will, and bow in homage there;
But Thou dost pledge, to guard thy Church from ill
Or bless with good, Thyself a servant still.
Meek Jesus! to my soul Thy spirit lending,
Teach me to live, like Thee, in lowly love;
With humblest service all Thy saints befriending,
Until I serve before Thy throne above-
Yes! serving e'en my foes, for Thou didst seek
The feet of Judas in Thy service meek.

Thine is this marvel, blessed CHRIST,
Thine would its sharers be;

Daily my pilgrim feet, as homeward wending
My weary way, are sadly stained with sin;
Daily do Thou, Thy precious grace extending,
Wash me all clean without, and clean within,
And make me fit to have a part with Thee
And Thine, at last, in Heaven's festivity.
Oh, blessed name of SERVANT! comprehending
Man's highest honour in his humblest name;
For Thou, God's Christ, that office recommending,
The throne of mighty power didst truly claim;
He who would rise like Thee, like Thee must owe
His glory only to his stooping low.

The following lines on 'Christ's Bloody Sweat' are transcribed from the Mæoniæ' of Robert Southwell, to whom it may be forgiven that to so many of his expressions attaches more than a fair share of the quaintness of his time (1562-1595), when we consider that he among all modern Christian poets was, by reason of his own confinement, tortures, and execution, perhaps the best qualified to sympathize with his Master, and the best entitled to celebrate His unfathomable sufferings.

Fat soil, full spring, sweet olive, grape of bliss,

That yields, that streams, that pours, that doth distil;
Untilled, undrawn, unstamped, untouched of press,
Dear fruit, clear brooks, fair oil, sweet wine at will
Thus Christ prevents, unforced, in shedding blood,
The whips, the thorns, the nails, the spear, and rood,