Wie Mlesrat ite thes pier "hey take Min doen at Vesperstide, prove ut Complin lave Wat henceforth bids Hie churel hours alway.
Now Matins was said soon after midnight and no doubt had its rise when the Church suitored porce tions and Christians met for the golden altar: the smoke rises n with the prayers of th people. Without the courts are sitent as the people pray': the priest also ug. Suddenly there of him on the right fide of the aller where mo man should be, an angel of the Lord.
having' fears fereatly but is reassured by ole "Pear not Zacharias, thy prayer Thoant, ant thy wife Fi th shall hear thee a son, and thou shalt call hie The name mean-me Jehovah" will be empty title, hut describes his, char eter and wivsion. We ig to be one ial, who shall turn many Von and he the forerunner Messiah Himself, But Zach-doubts the promise and It ship at dead of night to avoid their enemies. Who knows therefore, perhaps the Benedictus was first sung in the services of the Church at dead of night in the catacombs Rome.
The Performance of the Promise According to the first Prayer-Book, the Benedictus was to be used "after the Second Lesson in Morning Prayer aut the whole year" In 1652 the Jubilate was added as an alternative but the occasions when it was to he used were not added until 1662, The intention of the Church would thus appear to be not that the Benedictus and the Jubilate should be used as alternative chants, but that the Benedictus should always be used except when it "shall happen ty be ead in the chapter for the day" or for the Gospel on St, John Bapt sign, how shy fable to xpenk until the day there things shall he performed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.