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Rh the object and character of the day's function, viz., the joyful celebration of Christ's entry as King and the sorrowful commemoration of His Passion. The Sub-Deacon then reads a lesson from Exodus in which, with an appropriate and consequently beautiful analogy to the festival, God, after Israel had rested beneath the palm-trees of Elim, promises complete redemption from the Egyptian bondage with the evidence thereof in the Manna. The choir sings a Responsory narrating dramatically and antithetically first, the assembly of the Jewish Priests deliberating whether they should destroy Jesus; and, then, the prayers and monitions of Jesus in the Agony. The Deacon finally chants a Gospel which explains the ceremonies, recounting the triumphal entry of our Lord into Jerusalem. The Bishop, then, standing at the throne and surrounded by his ministers, sings a prayer in which two scriptural allusions are made—one to Noah who received an olive branch after the waters had subsided; the other to Moses whose people after leaving Egypt camped under the seventy palm trees. In the solemn tone of the Preface he describes how the whole creation, creatures, saints and angels, praise the great name of the only begotten Son. The five prayers which follow explain the mystery of the Palms, and draw down the blessing of God upon them and upon the faithful who receive and keep them with proper dispositions (see Holy Week Book.) These prayers like all the prayers in the church offices, "possess an elevation of sentiment, a beauty of allusion, a force of expression, and a depth of feeling, which no modern form of supplication ever exhibits." (Wiseman Lect. II. p. 64.) The Bishop sprinkles the palms with Holy Water, thurifies them and distributes them to the clergy, the choir meanwhile singing two antiphons that recall the enthusiasm of the little children of Jerusalem, who, with their Palms in their hands sang their loud Hosanna to the Son of David. (Guéranger; Liturgical Year). Then the Bishop prays