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sort of morality was considered decent ; but the very idea of the Church was (save among the Nonjurors and the elder part of the parochial Clergy, such as principally formed the Lower House of Convocation) gradually effaced. Daily Services ceased,-chaplains were discarded as unnecessary, and the middle class daily increased in numbers and influence. All these things were favourable for the developement of the system of Family Devotion.

Thus, in like manner as, at the same time, because the Church would not be the One Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in foreign lands, and the Promotion of Christian Knowledge in her own, societies arose within her pale for these two objects; so, because she would not provide her children with the Daily Service, they supplied themselves with the best imitation of it that they could. Men like Patrick and Gibson promoted the half measure as better than nothing; men like Tillotson and Burnet welcomed it as a fresh step towards a "liberal comprehension": men like Bull must have the more earnestly desired to rejoin, in a better place, the fellow Churchmen and friends of their youth. It was a curious change. In the time of King Charles II. we find Thoresby, the Leeds Antiquarian, (though so much a Puritan in heart as to dislike the Cathedral Service,) attending his parish church twice or thrice a day, and (apparently) quite unconscious of the possibility of Family Prayers. In the time of George II. we find Sir Charles Grandison represented as entertaining a chaplain indeed, but neither attending the Church prayers abroad, nor having them said in his own house.

In that which is called the Evangelical movement of the middle of the last century, Family Devotion began to assume a prominent place. How completely it was intended to supersede Daily Service, the life of Mr. Venn (the best, doubtless, of the leaders of that movement, and one who is not for a moment to be confounded with the Closes and the Bickersteths of the present day,) amply proves. If any of his servants had been guilty of a fault, he used to excommunicate them, by forbiding them to come in to prayers. Half an hour daily he spent in private devotion in his church; but (though it stands close to the parsonage of Yelling) he never threw it open to his people excepting for a weekly lecture. Again, we all know what influence has been predominant, for the last few years, in the S. P. C. K. Look through their tracts, you will find the duty of Family Prayer asserted again and again,—that of attending Daily Service, where practicable, scarcely once hinted at.

men.

To look, now, practically at this question. We find, at the present time, Family Prayer in use among a large portion of professing ChurchIts absence is considered, by all parties, as a proof of but small care for religion. Daily Service is springing up, but only here and there, and slowly not more than one hundred and fifty churches are yet blessed with it. Wednesday and Friday Services are also increasing. In what way then are we to reconcile the symptoms of returning health, with the stay and support of long sickness? If Daily Service ever become general, will Family Prayer cease? If it will, how is it to be performed, in what light is it to be regarded, till that time shall come?

Now we have already said,-and we believe it from our hearts,that Family Prayer has been the occasion of incalculable evils to our

cast out.

Church, But never let us forget that its prevalence proves the prevalence of a religious spirit, such as it is. God forbid that it should be checked or treated rudely! The English Church has lost enough from that cause already. Men like Paley she retained in her fold: men like Wesley and Whitfield, who were capable, had she trained them, of working wonders in her favour, by winning in the masses of the people, she The spirit that causes the love of Family Prayer, so far as it is religious, is to be cherished: so far as it is schismatical, it is to be shown a more excellent way. In time, and with patience, and by longsuffering, and through prayer, people will be led to see that all they think they have in Family Devotion, all, and ten thousand times more, the Church provides them in her Daily Service. But, were the latter universal, till we return to the seven fold Daily Office, we are provided by the Church but with Matins and Vespers. Family Prayer must certainly supply Compline, and perhaps Prime.

In the meantime, what is a layman to do to whom Daily Service is impossible? And this leads us to a consideration of the books that we have placed at the head of this article. They may be divided into two classes, each of which we will consider separately.

The first is, Where the master of the family reads first a chapter from the Bible,—then a long prayer,—and concludes with the LORD's Prayer. The objections to this system are manifold. The Church, by her universal use of short prayers, has, from the earliest ages, taught her children their right course. A long prayer is an additional temptation to wandering thoughts. It is almost necessarily irreverent,-it seems as if a sinner, in addressing his Maker, would eschew any approach to that oratorical, homiletic character, which a long prayer is almost certain to assume; and would confine himself to the simple earnestness of repeated ejaculations or collects. Where these prayers are the composition of a modern writer, the case is lamentable indeed. If we consider that the forty or fifty years' devotion of Saints in past ages, cast into the Liturgical treasury of the Church but one or two short collects each-what must we think of modern writers, who will compose, in a few months, fifty or sixty long prayers, and without a show of submitting them to any authoritative quarter for revision, inflict on the Church their crude and undigested, well if not also heretical notions? Well said the Fathers of Carthage, Quascumque sibi preces aliquis describit, non eis utatur, nisi prius cum instructioribus fratribus contulerit. And again;- if these prayers are merely a fusion, or rather confusion together of the Collects of the Church, the case is even worse; because unsound doctrine, thus taught, seems to come with authority; and because the new context will continually attach itself, with most pernicious effect, to the old prayers.

Now of this kind are the first, third, fourth, and sixth works, which we have placed as a heading to this article. And of these, one has attained an eighteenth, and one a twenty-second edition!

We will begin, as is fitting, with the Bishop of London's. They embrace two weeks;—the first, of original prayers,—the second, a conglomeration of sentences, and words from the offices of our Church.

In the first place, there is not one allusion throughout this work, to

the peculiar commemorations naturally suggested by the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of every week; namely, the Betrayal, Ascension, Passion, and Burial of our LORD. Surely a mind imbued with the system of the Church, must delight in such allusions to the Actions and Sufferings of her Head,—the rather, because for the present our Communion, as a Communion, is debarred from the sevenfold daily celebration of them. Joined with this, we might also expect some more particular reference to the Friday, as a day of penitential observance : and to Wednesday and Friday, as days wherein there is a probability, to say the least, that every family may have an opportunity of joining in the public office of the Church. In the same spirit, while there is a prayer for the commencement of the New Year, (which has been already anticipated by the Church in Advent,) there is nothing for Saints' Days, nothing for Lent, nothing even for Holy Week.

We cannot express the repugnance we feel to such centos as the following because the Church is made to speak whatever language the compiler chooses (p. 139).

Almighty and everlasting GOD, Who dost Coll. 2nd Sunday after Epiph. govern all things in Heaven and earth,

Who of Thy tender Mercy didst give Thine

only SON JESUS CHRIST, to suffer Death Prayer of Consecration. upon the Cross for our redemption;

Hear us, O merciful FATHER, we most humbly beseech Thee;

And for the glory of Thy Name, turn from us all those evils that we most justly have deserved.

Absolve, we beseech Thee, Thy People from

their offences:

And as Thou knowest us to be set, &c.

The same.

Altered from the Litany.

Coll. 24th Sunday after Trinity.
Coll. 4th Sunday after Epiph.

Now the beautiful context in each of these several collects is totally destroyed; and their parts are reduced to an unconnected string of inconsequent petitions. It is much the same thing as if a man were to displace the various pieces of a mosaic and stick them in again after another fashion; the parts, to be sure, remain, but beauty is converted into deformity. In like manner, by this system of eclecticism, any doctrine which happens to be obnoxious to the age is easily got rid of; "not put prominently forward,"-to use the language of the Tract Committee of the S. P. C. K. Our Prayer-Book, GoD be thanked, breathes almost in every Collect the blessed doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration in the Bishop of London's book, there is not a reference to it from beginning to end. What, again, are we to say to such a context as this? "Spare us, O LORD most Holy, O GOD most mighty; O Holy and Merciful SAVIOUR, wash our souls, we pray Thee, in the Blood of that Immaculate Lamb, That was Slain to take away the Sins of the world." Or again, on Wednesday Evening, "Give us grace to use such abstinence, that our flesh being subdued," &c.

There is an earnestness in Mr. Thornton's Family Prayers, that sufficiently accounts for their popularity among those of his own school. Of Baptism, of the Church, of the Altar, they, of course, say nothing: No. IV. APRIL, 1846.

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and lamentable indeed is it to think of the multitudes of English families— for such there must be, from the extended sale of this work,-who are (so far as all social devotion is concerned) in a state of heathen forgetfulness of these vital principles of the religion they profess.

Much the same thing may be said of Mr. Cotterill's and Mr. Knight's forms of Prayer. Had they been written by dissenters, no one would have a right to quarrel with them,-nay, they might have been said to show something of a longing for a more excellent way. But, taken as the composition of Priests,-of men who talk, too, of trying to "approach the standard of excellency which our Liturgy affords,"-they are, indeed, a witness in the hands of enemies against our Church.

But with these works our readers are not likely to have anything to do. We therefore turn to Dr. Hook's Manual. This cannot, and is not intended to be used where there is Daily Service. It is nothing but a cutting down of the Church Prayers for family use. And certainly they are cut down. First, the Lessons for the Day are read,-then follows the Confession,-LORD's Prayer,-the three Collects,-Prayer for all conditions of men,-General Thanksgiving,-Prayer of S. Chrysostom, and Benediction. The first Collect, it should be said, varies with each day of the week, according to a form introduced by the compiler. Now, the first remark that occurs is that here are confessions of a very unpleasant character. The Church prayers, it is tacitly allowed, are too long for every-day use. The Psalms are not an essential part of Christian devotion. We wish, ardently, for the time when daily prayers shall be said in every church of this kingdom. But till that time comes, we are by no means prepared to wish that the Church prayers should be said straight through in every family, by man, woman, or child, as the case may be. The effect would be somewhat that of an event which happened to a lady of our acquaintance. Detained from church one Sunday, she was attended by a female friend, whom, in process of time, she requested to read to her. "The Church Service?" inquired the friend. "If you please," replied the invalid, conceiving that the Lessons or Psalms were meant. But she was soon undeceived: for taking a Prayer-book in her hand, in a loud and solemn voice the reader commenced," Dearly beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us," &c. Something of this sort is the effect of Daily Service said in a parlour. Necessity may demand it; but, as a general rule, we should not wish to see it. A Priest, of course, is bound (if he have no cure) to say it in his study; but then he does it as a duty, and in the performance of a duty will find a blessing that others may have no right to expect. But Dr. Hook, by the very principle of his manual, confesses that he wishes for the Daily Service in houses, or rather should wish for it were it not too long. If we are to have it, let us have it whole. A family in the use of Dr. Hook's manual would probably be, of all persons, the most indisposed for the Daily Service, should it happen to be set up in the place where they live. The author of this work," so they might well argue," a Priest, who bears a high character as a Churchman, thought the Daily Service too long to be said in our own house. How much more is it too long, where we have all the additional expenditure of time involved in getting ready, going out, and coming home again," It is,

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certainly, also no small drawback from this book, that no Priest nor Deacon can use it in their families, without a very vain repetition of their own Daily Prayers. And yet even more,-the position of the Lesson or Lessons before any Prayer, shows a thorough deviation from all Liturgical rules; and is plainly drawn from the old "Evangelical" method of first a Lesson and then a Prayer. In families only where want of time-real, not imaginary-prevents attendance, can they be used with advantage.

Mr. A. H. D. Acland's Liturgia Domestica is, in our own opinion, (and we have had as much experience as most,) the best work of its kind. The Prayers employed are chiefly from the Prayer-book; but other sources have been laid under contribution (and they might have been used with great advantage more copiously). The system of prayer adopted in this work shall be explained in the compiler's own words. "By the same wonderful mercy the wants of the weak are amply supplied. He Who was content to shed His precious blood upon the Cross and die for us, has witnessed the fulfilment of His own prediction by the weekly commemoration of His sufferings in the Friday fast; while His Church has also rejoiced with Him in His Resurrection in the celebration of Sunday, His own most holy day, the day also of the descent of His Spirit. He has also sanctified the other days of the week, as Wednesday by His Temptation and Betrayal, Thursday by His Ascension and by the institution of the Holy Eucharist, Saturday by His repose in the grave, (with which our burial in baptism is mysteriously connected). The remaining days, Monday and Tuesday, are not without sufficient reason occupied by the remaining subjects of His Coming, and His Manifestation.

"This system of the Church has been borne in mind in this selection of Prayers and Collects; each Daily Service is compiled upon the model of the Common Prayer Book, such responses and prayers as will afford the required variety only being added; these have been chosen not at random, but with a perpetual reference to the leading idea above referred to, and in harmony with the tone of primitive Services. There are many places in which the principle of selection will probably pass unobserved, but unless the prayers are misapplied it may be plainly seen, in the opening sentences and in those which follow the LORD'S Prayer, and enters into many of the versicles and responses. The first Collect after the responses has also reference to the subject of the day, and so have some of the other Collects, for instance that for the ministry on Monday evening; the Benedictory Prayer on Tuesday; and that for Holiness on the same evening. The Collects for Grace against Temption, and for a Spirit of Mortification on Wednesday morning; and that for Pastors and People in the evening. The Morning Thanksgiving, and several of the Evening Collects on Thursday. The Thanksgivings and the Evening Prayer on the Passion on Friday; and almost the whole of the Saturday morning and evening services."

The sentences at the beginning, which are amply supplied for the various fasts and festivals, serve as Antiphons, or Key notes, to the whole service. The idea is happily conceived, and (in general) happily carried

out.

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