LESSON (OF.. Fr. gran, It. iczionc, from Lat. iectio, reading, lesson. from legere, to read, Gk. 2.iyetv, legein, to say). In the liturgical sense, a portion of the Church service appointed to be read, chiefly with a view to instruction and exhortation. as distinguished train prayer and praise addressed to God. In this sense it in cludes the epistle and gospel (qq.v.), but the term is more commonly applied to the selections read in the ancient breviary office of matins and in the morning and evening prayer of the Angli can churches. The earliest notices we have of services of the first Christians describe them as maintaining a practice which had been tradi tional for centuries in the Jewish synagogues. Besides what we now know as the Old and New Testaments, the letters of various bishops, espe cially those of Saint Clement, the Nb•pherd of Hernias, and other edifying writings were read. When the canon of Scripture came to be defi nitely fixed, the reading during divine service was usually restricted to it. At first books were read
continuously from beginning to end; but with the gradual development of the liturgical year selec tions were made in order to have the reading appropriate to the mystery or event commemo rated. The arrangement of this order is com monly attributed to Saint Jerome.
The lessons in the breviary (q.v.) for matins on Sundays and greater festivals are nine—the first three from Scripture, the next three usually from the lives of the saints or some historical matter, and the last from a homily of one of the fathers on the gospel for the day. On smaller festivals and ordinary week-days only three arc read. Some monastic rites have four lessons in each nocturne. in the Anglican Prayer-Book two lessons, much longer than those in the bre viary. and of course in English. are appointed for morning and for evening prayer on each Sun day, festival. or week-day; the first, is always taken from the Old Testament, and the second from the New.