| stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within | thy gates. Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the | Lord thy God in the place which the Lord shall choose: because | the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in | all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice. | | THE GOSPEL. St Matth. vi. 28. | | Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, | neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon | in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, | if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and | to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe | you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, | What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal | shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles | seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of | all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and | his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto | you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow | shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto | the day is the evil thereof. | | SOLEMNIZATION OF MATRIMONY | | THE COLLECT. | | O heavenly Father who didst join together in marriage our first | parents, Adam and Eve: Sanctify and bless these thy servants; | and grant that those whom thou by matrimony dost make one, may | stedfastly keep the covenant betwixt them made, and ever remain | in perfect love and peace together; through Jesus Christ our | Lord. _Amen_. | | THE EPISTLE. Ephes. v. 25. | | Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, | and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it | with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it | to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or | any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. | So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that | loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his | own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord | the Church: for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and | of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and | mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall | be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning | Christ and the Church. Nevertheless let every one of you in | particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see | that she reverence her husband. | | THE GOSPEL. St Matth. xix. 4. | | Jesus answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he | | which made them at the beginning made them male and female, | and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, | and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one | flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What | therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.