PREFACE.

In the year 1833, I printed "A Manual of Devotion, arranged chiefly from the Book of Common Prayer," as a parting gift to the inhabitants of my first parish.

I now publish a selection from those prayers in a more convenient form for general use. My aim is to furnish a set of Services so comprehensive as to take in all the great subjects of family prayer; and yet each so short, that the busiest household may have time for its devout utterance: - without which, all attempt at prayer is in vain. I have, moreover, endeavoured to admit no expression, but what may be heartily used by every sincere Christian, however humble his spiritual attainments'. Perhaps the introduction of family worship may thus be facilitated into houses where it is still unknown.

I believe many heads of families, who live in the constant omission of this duty, are far from being irreligious men. They think lightly of the matter, only because they have never clearly seen their true position and its awful responsibilities. Should this

1 This is of the highest importance. To put emphatic declarations of contrition, or faith, or love, into the mouths of all indiscriminately, would, in many cases, be converting prayer into falsehood, to the mockery of that God, who will be "worshipped in spirit and in truth.”

Manual fall into the hands of such an one, he is intreated to consider how the case really stands between him and his Maker. I would say to him:

Wherever God gives largely the opportunity to glorify Him and to benefit the souls of others, there negligence is a fearful sin. It robs the King of Heaven of his honour, and cruelly withholds from souls, whose salvation is at stake, the help which God in mercy had intended them.

Now, in your authority as the head of a family, God has given you incalculable means of benefiting the souls of those under you, and, in so doing, of promoting his glory. Here in fact is your chief duty as a Parent and a Master; compared with which, all else is of small importance. No affection for your children, no care for their earthly interests, no culture of their minds, will make up for your neglect of their souls and their eternity. In like manner no kindness towards your servants will excuse your inattention to their great claim upon you, as so many immortal beings placed by Providence under your roof and influence for their everlasting welfare.

Accordingly, as you hope to meet their Creator in peace, you are bound to set a godly example to your household, to reprove sin, to encourage piety, to provide for their instruction in religious knowledge; above all, to be regular and fervent in family worship. Without this you will otherwise effect little. It must be the support and the crown of all your endeavours. And surely you need but glance at its singular blessedness to be won to its constant practice. See then what family prayer truly is.

On earth is the assembled household: in their hearts that blessed Spirit, who "helpeth our infirmities, who know not what we should pray for as we ought'." In heaven above, on the throne of grace, is God the Father, ready to hear: at his right hand the Lord Jesus, the loving Intercessor.

The family meekly kneel around the Parent and the Master. With the deepest reverence he offers up their common supplications to the Almighty Father, in the name of Him, whose mediation alone can bring the voice of sinful man acceptably to the ear of the holy God; all present taking to themselves and seconding each prayer with their humble and earnest Amen. Thus they proceed, prayer after prayer, until every tongue joins in that divine prayer, which is the sum and completion of their devotions. Then, with the Lord's blessing invoked upon all, they arise to the works of the day or the repose of the night.

What a beautiful scene is this! what an union of heaven and earth! what a near communion of man with the Godhead! Yet this is the sight which angels witness at the daily prayers of every godly family.What good thing can such a family seek in vain from the Father of love and God of all grace?

And then what a holy charm streams from this family worship into the feelings and relations of life. It is not here the bare accident of birth that links child to parent and parent to child: nor is it the mere bargain of labour and wages that connects master

2 Rom. viii. 26.

and servant. They are a group of souls brought together by a gracious Providence; which, in dealing out various ranks and duties for the present, leaves them still all children of one common Father, all travelling to the same heaven, through the atonement of the same Saviour, by the help of the same Spirit.

Thus knit together in Christian faith and love and hope, what a different thing is such a family from a worldly household. Imperfections there will be; but how are these kept under by the strong force of religious principle, felt and acknowledged by all. "The sun" can never "go down upon wrath," where evening brings the offended no less than the offender to the mercy-seat of their common God. Irritation and bitterness must there sink, when the heart utters "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us." No ungodly practice, no worldly vanity, no unseemly amusement, can long maintain its ground amidst the holy sounds of God's word and the household's prayer. The child, moreover, will feel a deeper reverence for the parent, who thus for him ministers day by day before the Lord. A heartier respect will touch the servant for the master, with whom he daily prays, as well as for whom he daily labours. And how much more truly will the parent and master do his duty to the child and servant, whom he has daily to present before the Lord of all.

A family so bound together and guarded and blessed in the fellowship of daily devotion, may boldly face this world of change and trial. If all is well, united is their voice of thankfulness to Him

If misfortune

who gives them peace and comfort. comes, they meet it hand in hand; hand in hand they bow to their Lord's will and seek his help: and what all join to bear, falls the lighter upon each. Sin and Satan will assail this little band of pilgrims, as they journey on to eternity; but mightier is He that is with them, than they which are against them. The God to whom they pray, is able to answer their prayers by complete salvation. One by one they pass from earth to heaven; until, all once more assembled, the anxious supplications of time burst into the rapturous praises of immortality.

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Such are the glorious results of family prayer. Do not perversely fling them from you, nor yet idly put off the commencement to a more convenient season." If you are convinced of the duty, if you believe in its reward, begin your family prayers at once, in the humble hope that God will bless them also.

To assist you there are many books of devotion. In this Manual I offer you one compiled chiefly from your Prayer Book; and, that you may rightly value these prayers, let me remind you of their origin.

Forms of Prayer were used in the Christian Church, at a period so early and under such circumstances, as to indicate perhaps an Apostolical source. To these primitive Forms additions were made, from time to time, by men eminent for their learning and holiness in the different Churches. In this way were framed the Services of the ancient Roman ritual, which Augustine brought into Saxon England, at the close of the sixth century. For more than nine