gotten that whatever prayers the people are to follow is for them a form, whether made at the moment or beforehand. The decision is therefore to be made only between the kind of form which they may choose to follow. Let the man, who would settle the mode of performing all public Christian exercises, consider simply their general religious bearing-their relation to the awful, invisible Majesty in Heaven and would he, guided by any such considerations, direct that prayer should be made as each minister's "extemporal wit," as old Hooker says, should give him taste, judgment, knowledge-not to say sense of propriety and decency? But let us refer, briefly, to the special purpose and bearing of public prayer. It is a most obvious, yet very important, distinction, that Christian services consist of two main parts:-in the one, the preacher, standing under circumstances of peculiar solemnity and responsibility, declares and illustrates religious truth, and enforces it upon his fellow-men there present; in the other, the congregation, (in some way, whether taking part with the minister or simply altogether by deputy, so to speak,) offer prayer, praise, and thanksgiving directly to the Deity himself. Such is the admitted force of the former relation, that it modifies very essentially the character of the intellectual effort so made. To convince and persuade men being the main object, we not only tolerate, but we demand illustration, argument, eloquence-every thing (not interrupting the sacred relations of the discourse) that can adorn and recommend the subject presented. We expect the preacher (the more sacred conditions being fulfilled) to stand before us as an Orator. Hence, even a Christian sermon may not differ materially, in its external features in its characteristics as a work of Art-from those finished orations, which originally swayed to and fro the cultivated population of Athens, and now live on an immortal page the wonder and study of all time. But it is perfectly obvious, that the minister, in addressing solemn prayer to God in behalf of a Christian congregation, has no end of conviction or persuasion in view, and therefore does in no respect stand before them as an Orator. Not a single grace that is proper to an oration or sermon has any place here. Though the preacher must present himself personally in a sermon — though he appears then (so to speak) as an Author, yet the slightest token of authorship in the devotional service, is felt at once to be out of place, if not profane. Yet he who prays extemporally in public is particularly apt to provoke us to think of him as an author, either by almost inevitable looseness in the

structure of his effusion, by blunders in language, by stumbling and hesitating, and by giving us half sentences, now and then, which we perceive to be an unmeaning but forced completion of a beginning too hastily ventured upon; or else by his evident playing the orator-by his recognising himself as, in some sense, a proper subject for those frequent but profane commendations: "What an eloquent prayer!" "What a splendid effort!" Now this would be much less likely to happen were the minister to pray from a precomposed form even of his own making. In his closet, while he would write under circumstances more favorable to profound meditation, he would be free from that impulse to oratory and authorship, which one is always apt to feel when he is thrown entirely upon the power and readiness of his intellect before an audience. He kindles as he goes but too often, we suspect, with the excitement of composition; and it is with that feeling, we may therefore reasonably judge, that a congregation, who profess to have "enjoyed the prayer," have all along been unconsciously moved in sympathy. But if any minister's precomposed form would be better, for these reasons, than extemporizing if it would be more truly a high and appropriate work of mind, and therefore produce a corresponding, insensible effect, as a mere agent of culture - much better would that form bid fair to be, which should be composed by the united meditation, judgment, wisdom, and devotional spirit of many holy men, and subjected to repeated revision at various subsequent periods.

Coming now to our own particular Form of Prayer, we can say of it, that it was composed by such men and in such a manner. They were competent in learning; for they had been brought up in a Church, in which Rituals had received a disproportionate share of attention, and had been refined upon to the greatest extent. They had been trained in a school of philosophy and theology that could not but accustom the mind to the nicest and most discriminating examination of every subject within their sphere. Withal they had been led, as Protestant controversialists, to a diligent study of the earliest Fathers and the primitive liturgies, thus enabling them to apply the standard of that ancient simplicity to the later refinements and subtilties with a liveliness of knowledge never since possessed. As to their competency as men of piety and prayer, the reader needs not surely to be reminded, that the faith and devotion which breathe through those pages had been cherished in the midst of the dangers of dissent from Rome, and were finally tried in fire.

Hence the directness, the filial freedom and earnestness, the resolute and simple faith, of which we are so sensible, the characteristics of men whom daily dangers brought into peculiar closeness of communion with God.

Here, then, if any where and ever, we have the prime qualifications in the most eminent degree. We have the soundness in Gospel truth, the firm religious character, and the earnest devotedness of martyred Reformers, with high gifts of mind, cultivated under peculiar advantages, and familiar with the ancient and later models. Do we find in the work produced an answerable fulfilment of the necessary and desirable conditions?

We find this, at least, at the outset — that our English Ritualists had an idea to work out sufficiently comprehensive to admit of the employment of the higher powers of production. They had a sphere in which something could be done. Mind could be called forth in power and extent enough to produce some effect upon the mind that should come fairly into contact with it. They had what no one could ever have derived from acquaintance with the Directory alone they had a conception of Prayer as a Service a wide and comprehensive whole, full and complete in itself. Such a conception had its difficulties, of course. A great variety of distinct elements were to be properly blended in an order that should still preserve a fitting simplicity; the relations to be considered and adjusted were numerous and delicate; the occasions for stepping out of their true position, of giving the judgment place before the heart, and of appearing as authors and orators, were proportionably increased; and in such multifarious subordinate exertions of mind, the preservation of the higher feelings and wider views, on which the unity of the work depended, became a harder task. But a triumph over these difficulties, although never showing itself prominently as such, would, of course, impart a higher worth to the result, that would in some way make itself felt. Indeed, the mere bestowing so much exertion of superior minds upon the work could not fail of securing one valuable quality, at least that so necessary setting apart and separating from things common and worldly; just as a like effect is produced, with respect to the church-edifice, itself, and the sacramental vessels, when peculiar pains and expense have been bestowed upon them, although without answerable perfection in style and form. But besides this, by giving the prayers a proper extent, and by making them the result of such previous care and study, the proper keeping is preserved with the other parts

of Church services. They alone do not appear as the only crude and formless element, the product of the moment, while the sermon shows careful preparation, and the poetry, the music, and the architecture, are the labored and finished results of the higher efforts of Art.

We might also expect - what we certainly find in a form composed in such a spirit and with such ability, those negative and subordinate merits, which we are likely to find, to some extent, in any precomposed form. Here is no playing the oratorno appearance of authorship no departing, even for a moment, from the proper position of prayer. Here is neither the violence that springs from fanatical excitement, nor the looseness and blundering of haste and ignorance, nor the worse impropriety of overstrained pietism of language. But it is the positive merits of the work that we should rather look at, not less in its character as an instrument of cultivation, than as a guide to devotion. Look at the scheme of the Christian Year, as it stands in connexion with the Communion Office, and at its blending with the Order for Morning Prayer. There is no slight exertion of the higher creative power of mind in the construction of these schemes, whether considered by themselves, or as a whole. They are eminenly beautiful in their Ideal, as works of Art. For if we perceive at once beautiful order and simple variety in the arrangement of the Christian Year, we shall find, on a closer examination, that it embraces, likewise, a full and lively display of Gospel facts and events in studied relation to Gospel doctrine, and a special exhibition of the most prominent Christian virtues. The individual acts and eras of the work of atonement are made to pass before us, separate and distinct, like the course of the heavenly bodies, beautiful in their progress, but all this is done in order that their vital significance may be more clearly seen and felt. Yet the Christian Yearwith all its beauty, and all its doctrinal and practical value—is but a picture (so to speak) set in the Communion Office as its frame. That Office itself has an order and form of parts constructed with the fittest relation to the Sacramental Service. From the best help to general self-examination, the Ten Commandments, and from the general instruction of the daily portion from the Christian Year, we pass to special exhortations and confession, and to special prayers connected with the administration itself, which is succeeded by a song of praise set apart for this Office. The mind that dwells upon the features of this Office alone will find itself called upon to admire, under its simple and unobtru

sive appearance, the exquisite propriety of the relation which its peculiar and separate construction bears to the peculiar and separate station of the Sacrament itself, and the well-weighed order and exact propriety of all its parts. Its devotional and doctrinal worth is even more evident. And, with respect to the Order for Daily Prayer, all are so familiar with its features, that we need not dwell on points so obvious. Yet we must not suffer our familiarity with that service to lead us to suppose, that the fit order, judicious variety, and graceful succession of the parts, as well as their easy blending with the other Offices of the Prayer Book, are less to be considered as the result of rare powers exerted with rare success. We must add, however, that if any one will deliberately reflect on all that was to be doneon the connexion of the daily service with the daily order of reading the Psalter and the rest of the Scriptures, — with the Christian Year, and the Communion Office, -on the multiplicity of parts, and the call for sound judgment in making use of the ancient and later materials, and on the perfect harmony and likeness that was produced between the Liturgy and the Bible, and then see with what well-ordered simplicity and utter absence of all apparent art the result stands before us, it is impossible that he should not recognise its most eminent worth as a monument even of intellectual production alone, that is, merely as a work of Art.

Here, then, is a work, such as we have described, a work proceeding from the proper religious spirit, if any book ever did, and presenting the best results of united learning and judgment, guided by sound rules of selection and composition, and employed upon all the necessary materials and under favorable circumstances a work comprehensive in its plan, embracing a suitable variety of detail, yet all arranged in a graceful, simple, and grave order a work, which, besides maintaining the most perfect propriety of thought and expression, contains more positive marks of the various exercise of the most various powers of mind, from mere knowledge of materials up to the most delicate sense of beauty;- here we have such a production of mind as this presented, at each holy time, to a congregation, some members whereof use it with love, as the devotional guide of their childhood and youth, and others as the book of the parents by whose side they kneel, or of ancestors whose virtues

How far the original IDEA of the Communion Office, in this respect, has been preserved in the American Prayer Book, we shall have occasion to inquire here

after.