themselves. It is no slight advantage, if we derived no other from the attempt, to discover our own inability, and our need of divine guidance, both for the matter and manner of our petitions. A book of prayers and meditations in beautiful language excites a natural admiration, which may easily be mistaken for devotion; but genuine devotion is more likely to be kindled and sustained by an endeavour, however imperfect, to approach the throne of grace with confessions of sin and resolutions of amendment, conceived at the time in our own unpremeditated words. These words will not come so readily as from a book, and if overheard might be condemned by critics of fastidious taste; but being our own, they will convey more correctly our own feelings; and they are addressed to Him, who cares not for the eloquence that delights the ear of man, but values the genuine effusions of a penitent and grateful heart, though expressed in broken sentences, and repeated ejaculations. Forms of prayer, previously familiar to us, I allow to be preferable in public worship to a minister's extemporary addresses, which, because they are new to us, we find a diffi

culty in making our own, but this objection does not apply to the private devotions of an individual. In secret he would be fettered and restrained by what in social prayer he finds, if not indispensable, yet of the greatest advantage; for in private it is right and profitable to enter into details, which in public would not be expedient, if practicable. Then, we can only in general terms confess, that "we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and have left undone those things which we ought to have done;" but in secret we may confess our specific sins, in deeds, words, and thoughts; we may pray against the particular temptation which most endangers us, and for grace to correct the peculiar defects of our tempers and dispositions. We shall thus also advance more effectually in self-knowledge, while we lament our sins and express our wants in the terms our own feelings suggest3.

a "It would be very wrong to condemn a manual as such, but it cannot be wrong or hurtful to any one to shew that prayer is the natural language of the heart, and as such does not want any form. If manuals happen to be necessary to any one, or to be his most excellent way of praying, it is

Practice will render this more easy, and I am much mistaken if the good effect will

because the natural real prayer of his heart is already engaged after the things of this life, which makes him so blind and dead to the things of God, that he cannot pray for them but so far as the words of other people are put into his mouth. The chief use of a book of prayers for private devotion is to shew the heart at what a distance it is from the sentiments therein described, so that being touched with a view of its state, it may begin its own prayer to God for help. Our Lord said to one who came unto him, What wilt thou I should do unto thee? he answered, Lord, that I may receive my sight; and he received it. Another said, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean; and he was cleansed. What blessing of faith or love may not now be obtained in the same way, and with as few words? Every man therefore that has any feeling of the weight of his sins, or any true desire to be delivered from them by Christ, has learning and capacity enough to make his own prayer; for prayer is not speaking forth eloquently, but simply our real desires; and those who have accustomed themselves to make known their wants to God in such short but true breathings of the heart to him, will soon know more of prayer than any who have their knowledge of it only from books. If your prayer be only a form of words made by the skill of others, such a prayer can no more change you into a good man, than an actor upon the stage who speaks kingly language is thereby made a king. Whereas one word or thought towards God, proceeding from your own heart, can never be without its proper fruits, or fail of doing a real good to your soul. Again, another benefit of this kind of prayer is, that it is the only way to be delivered from the deceitfulness of our own hearts. Our hearts deceive

not prove the usefulness of the recommendation. When our own confessions and petitions are over, we may also express our wishes for the spiritual improvement of those who are administering and those who are receiving; that as the minister prays, they too may feed on Christ by faith, with thanksgiving; and while they drink, may be thankful that his blood was shed for them. On many occasions, indeed, we partake in company of near relatives and beloved friends, for whom we need no exhortation to pray; but we should always feel good will to the whole congregation; and I mention this, because we are apt to be absorbed in the consideration of the consequences to ourselves, forgetting that the Lord's Supper is a communion, not only with him, but with our brethren, whom we herein acknowledge to be united to us by the bonds of a common redemption. The very term adopted from

us because we leave them to themselves, and are absent from them, taken up with outward things. But the strength of every sin, the power of every evil temper, the weakness of any or all our virtues, is with a noon-day clearness forced to be seen, as soon as the heart is made our prayer books, and we pray for nothing but according to what we read and find there." Law's Works.

St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians reminds us, that it is, as the Article expresses it, a sign of the love which Christ's disciples should bear to one another. "The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? for we being many are one loaf, for we are all partakers of that one loaf." x. 16.

If any time remains after our devotions are completed, and our power of meditating upon redeeming love and sanctifying grace are exhausted, the word of God will, in any portion of it to which we turn, afford us abundant topics of instruction and edification.

In the Roman Church the priest puts the wafer whole and unbroken into the mouth of the communicants; in ours it is delivered, according to the ancient custom, into the hands. "The body of Christ," appears to have been all that was said on that occasion in the time of St. Ambrose. "Preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life," is first found in St. Gregory's Sacramentary. These words standing alone, seemed to favour the tenet of transubstantiation, and were therefore discarded at the revision for the second sentence, "Take, and eat this-drink this-in