some six months we kept up a pretty lively correspondence with prominent men in different parts of the country, extending it even across the water to England and Scotland, plying at the same time our investigations in such other directions as gave any promise of success. The letters we received, as a general thing, contained more encouragement to us "to go forward and accomplish the beautiful work," than materials which might serve to make it possible. As for instance, one of the most prominent divines of New England, beautifully says: "I am glad you have undertaken to do this great and good work for "Now I lay me." You call it one of the little things,' but it may be truly said of this, as of those little ones' who say it, that its 'angels do always behold the face of our Father which is in heaven.' I hope that you will pursue the beautiful plan."

All right. A beautiful thing it would surely be, if it were accomplished. There the trouble lies. Let the reader understand, that we are not now about to write said little book; but are only telling him what was once proposed to be done, and what might perhaps be done, if there wore a sufficient number to work at it. What we at present design is to present, in several successive numbers of the "Guardian," some materials and thoughts, we have gathered, pertaining to this little prayer, so that if hereafter any one should undertake to complete the task he may have the benefit of our little trouble and success. Besides, if any of our readers should have on hand any facts, incidents, or memories pertaining to this prayer, we will be happy to receive them; and they shall be faithfully embodied in the series we propose here to contribute. This is a rare chance to any one who wishes to aid in making a little book! Let him that hath a prophecy on this interesting subject utter it. We will gladly be editor for all. Send in your facts,

and incidents.

II.

WHO IS THE AUTHOR OF THIS LITTLE PRAYER?

Echo answers-who? On this point the Rev. Dr. Bullard of the Massachusetts Sunday School Society says: "I really do not suppose there is any living person who can throw any light on the Bubject of, who is the author of, 'Now I lay me down to sleep.' For thirty years I have tried to keep my eyes and ears open to ascertain, and have not yet succeeded." After such an endeavor, by a man so favorably situated to ascertain the fact, who can hope to solve the mystery?

So far as we know, its first appearance has not been traced farther back than the "New England Primer." We saw some years ago an article, in which it was traced to this source; but whether it was said to have appeared in the first edition, or only in a subsequent one, we are not able to remember. Its authorship has been ascribed to Dr. Watts; but this, so far as appears, is not based on any historical facts; it has been rather supposed, as its simplicity and spirit naturally reminds one of Watts. It is not found in any of his works.

To know the author of this beautiful prayer would seem to be desirable. Yet that knowledge would only satisfy curiosity, without conferring any benefit. True, the author of it has won for himself an honor which one would hardly exchange for that of being author of "Paradise Lost," yet he enjoys it no less in heaven for its being unknown on earth. If the author is ever to be discovered in that happy place, the millions of "little ones," who uttered their first devotions in its language will find him out; and it will be a happy thing for him, that he will then be beyond the danger of being made vain by their praises!

Is there not a beautiful and significant providence in the fact, that its authorship is on earth unknown? It is only the more purely a true and catholic form of devotion as being entirely dissociated from its human source. It now belongs wholly to piety and the Church. It speaks now from the heart of the Church, and is the voice of her general life, and is not the utterance of any one of her organs. It seems to be the way and the habit of the life of Christianity to make human names and individualities disappear in her devotions. Hence her sublimest. Creeds, Hymns and Prayers cannot be definitely traced to any precise time at which they originated, or to any particular individuals from whom they proceeded. Who is the author of the Apostles' Creed? Who of the Nicene Creed? Even the Athanasian Creed, cannot be shown to have as its author the father whose name it bears. It has been attributed to St. Hilary, and to Vigilius, as well. Who is the author of the glorious old Litanies? That sublime ancient Angelic Hymn, the Gloria in Excelsis, has also been attributed to various authors-to Telesphorus, to Symmachus, to St. Hilary. Not even the time of its origin, much less the author, is known. The same is true of the "Te Deum." Some ascribe it to St. Ambrose; some to him and St. Augustine, and others to St. Hilary, and still others to Nicetius, Abundius, and Sisebatus. The fact is, that no one knows when it originated, or who is its author. The same obscurity hangs over the origin and authorship of many other of the most excellent Hymns used in the devotions of the Church.

We lose nothing by this mystery. It aids rather in making these devotional forms more sacred to us. The fact that the names and circumstances connected with their origin have disappeared, is an evidence rather of their truly Catholic spirit and character. The piety of the Church produced them by the genius of its modest and retiring children, and in its devout love of them, it thought not permanently of those gifted fellow heirs of the common faith, who were not only willing, but anxious that their own humble names might disappear on earth to shine in heaven.

On this principle we have always been averse to the practice of having the names of their authors appended to hymns in the Hymn Books of the Church. Those forms of devotion which furnish true pious utterances to our heart, are to us truer and better in the sweet forgetfulness of all human instrumentality in their production. The mystery which hangs around the Gloria in Excelsis and

Te Deum, make them seem to us as if they had come from heaven, and had only been caught up in some glorious hour of sublime sanctuary Jubilee, by "the glorious company of the Apostles, the goodly fellowship of the Prophets, the noble army of Martyrs, and the holy Church throughout the world."

In like manner, this little prayer has no one to claim it. It belongs to mothers and to children. In using it, there is nothing to think of but its own blessed sense. It comes to the couch of infancy like an angel visit, giving no account of itself other than in the blessing it imparts to the trusting heart of childhood.

However, if any one knows, where it comes from, let him tell it for the satisfaction of the curious. If not, it shall be all the more dear and interesting to us for the mystery that hides its source. Like the "Letters of Junius," or the Ossianic Poems of McPherson, wise men shall study more carefully its contents, with the hope of finding reflected in it some features of the great stat in umbra. Meanwhile, little children may regard it, as they do the beautiful things on their Christmas tree, as a gift presented by the unseen hand of the CHRIST-CHILD Himself.

PREPARATION FOR THE LORD'S SUPPER.

BY THE EDITOR.

Proper preparation for participating in the Holy Supper of the Lord is a very important matter. God will not only be worshiped, but He will be worshiped aright. He has instituted His ordinances, not that they should be desecrated by us through an improper use of them, and thus turned into a savor of death unto death; but He has graciously furnished us with them as means and helps to a holy life. This they will be whenever they are used in accordance with the will and direction of Him who has instituted them.

How is it then that there is so much worship and yet so little apparent benefit to the worshipers? Why is there so much hearing, so much praying, so much singing, so much communing, and yet so much hardness of heart, so great want of love and devotion, so little heavenly-mindedness, so little living near to God, and joy in Ilis fellowship and service? Why is this? Is not God willing to bless, and to bless through and in the use of His ordinances? Has He not instituted them for this very purpose, and adapted them by an unerring wisdom to this end? Have they not, in the sweet experience of thousands, proved to be all that God has promised to make them? Why then is there so much service and so little excellent and gracious effect? The answer must be plain to ail. The means of grace are not used by us as God designed they should be.

We propose to answer the question, What preparation is necessary, in order to appear at the table of the Lord with acceptance to Him, and with profit to us?

The first thing that must necessarily go before partaking of the Lord's Supper is a formal profession of religion, and an orderly attachment to the Church.

We know that there are persons who consider connection with the Church of no real importance. They suppose that God can be pleased, and His eternal favor secured, without a formal connection with His Church. Of these kind of persons there are two classes. The one class consider the ordinances themselves, which the Church dispenses, as of no account in obtaining the favor of God. The other class, though they consider the ordinances indispensable as means of grace, still think that any one who feels so disposed ought to be permitted to partake of them whether he is attached to the Church by a regular profession or not.

As to the first class-it is exceedingly strange, that any one should have sufficient nerve to charge God with folly in instituting means of grace which are not necessary. Get thee behind us, foul spirit! We know thy voice. Thou who of old didst say, "Yea hath God said, ye shall surely die: ye shall not surely die :" art the same, who art now crying in the hearts of the children of disobedi ence, "yea, hath God said, ye shall keep mine ordinances, ye shall not surely keep them."

As to those who confess the importance of ordinances, but think a profession of religion by connection with the Church not necessary, they do err not knowing the Scriptures.

These sin against order. God is a God of order, and not of confusion, and on this He insists on all the Churches. He to whom order is the first law, who has written order on all the workmanship of His hands, cannot endure disorder in the sphere of grace. Suppose, however, that the use of the ordinances is allowed to persons who are loosely everywhere and bound nowhere, there will at once be an end of order. There is a postulate of true philosophy which says, that no one should consider himself free to do what he would not be willing should be done by all others. Let this rule be applied to the case before us. Let all do so, and where would be the Church, where would be the ordinances, who would preserve and administer them? Nothing like a flock would remain; every sheep would wander alone; and instead of a Church "compact together" growing up a living and holy temple in the Lord, we should soon find no Churches, no ministers, no ordinances, and no order.

That a public profession of religion by a connection with the Church is necessary before partaking of the Holy Supper, is evident from the history of the early Church as recorded in Acts 2: 41, etc. After Peter's effectual preaching, it is said: "Then they that gladly received his word, were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls." What kind af adding this was, is plain from what is said afterwards; "And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved:" i. e., Those being saved he added (See Greek). Then it is said of these that were added: "And they continued steadfastly in the

Apostles' doctrine and in fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

We see in this example, that the same grace which brings repentance unto life, urges the person at the same time to an immediate profession of his religion by attaching himself to the Church ; and this as preparatory to breaking of bread in the Holy Supper. Further, Christ says: "Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." Matt. 10: 32, 33. Here those who do not confess Him are declared as unfit for heaven; and He declares that He will deny them! Are such then fit for the table of the Lord? If they are not fit for heaven, they are not fit to commune with Him on earth.

None then should dare to partake of the blessed feast, which is set in the Church, as long as he is out of the Church. God wants none at His table but such as are willing publicly to profess themselves His children. The invitation is regular, the way is regularly open, and whosoever will, can regularly come and partake of the water of life freely. But let no one come, like the servant who refused to put on the wedding garment, without having come according to the king's order, lest he be thrust out before all the guests and it be shame unto him. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber."

This regular, and orderly connection with the Church by an external profession is not of itself sufficient. It must also be done in a right spirit.

This profession in itself does not constitute him an acceptable guest. If this was all, it would be an easy thing to come acceptably before the Lord. Though the form is important and cannot be dispensed with, as we have seen, yet it is nothing unless it is filled out, animated, and pervaded with the power. The form of a tree, the bark, roots, limbs and the whole outward organism is important, but it is not the tree without the life. The order and mechanism of a machine belong to it, but it is nothing without the power. The limbs, muscles, bones, organs, and all that joins and compacts our body into such harmonious order and regularity, are all indispensable, but are nothing but dust without the life and power of the soul. So it is in church-membership. All the outward order and duty belonging to a public profession of faith by an outward and visible introduction into the Church, are necessary and dare not be dispensed with, but they are nothing without the life, the spirit, the power.

There is, therefore, something necessary to be done in the spirit of the person himself. The other part is done by the ministry of the Church to him; this must be done in him, in order that the outward profession may not be empty, but filled with a spiritual life and power. In one word, the soul must be in the profession; the life of religion must live in the form of profession.