PREFAC E. ORDER and Freedom would seem to be the two points most desirable to be attained in the arrangement of any form of Family Prayer. This has been attempted in the following Offices: there will be found in them a regular Order, which will carry a family through the whole Christian year; but there is also provided in the Rubrics a large Freedom, which each Master may use daily in the conducting of his own family worship: the Psalm, Lesson, and Hymn are left always to his selection; and there are two places appointed in the Rubrics of each Office, where he may introduce any Thanksgiving, or Prayer, of his own; the first being more especially appropriate for thanksgiving, and the second for intercessory or other prayer. There is also always the power of contracting, or extending, the Service, as occasion may require, without interfering with the regular order of the Rubrics in their shortest form each would occupy about ten minutes; in their longest, about half an hour. The "Proper Order for Days and Seasons" alluded to in the Rubrics is not yet printed: should another edition be required, it is purposed to publish it with that. It consists of Texts and Responses, Canticles from Holy Scripture, and Psalms with Antiphons: it will contain also special Offices for Holy Week, and a Morning and an Evening Litany. It will form a separate part, in order that it may at any time hereafter be bound up with this present edition. |