THE REVISED PRAYER BOOK. FOR THE USE OF THE CONGREGATION ASSEMBLED AT ST. GEORGE'S HALL, LANGHAM PLACE. St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, and late Vicar of Healaugh. LONDON. 1871. Price One Shilling. 138. f. 124. PREFACE. THIS Form of Prayer is not compiled with the expectation of its being permanent. It is essential to sympathetic interest in liturgical prayers and praises that they should not be inexorably settled as to form and expression. At the same time, it is to be hoped, on many grounds, that this Form will receive a fair and patient trial, and that those who may take objection to any portion of it will remember that others may like that very portion best; and that if any number of people join in public worship, they can only do so by making mutual concessions. This Prayer Book was compiled under the conviction of the Editor's inability to adopt the old Nonconformist worship, with its long extempore prayer, even had it been preferred by the congregation. He believed however that, as some form must be used, the form most likely to find acceptance would be one which was already partly familiar to English ears, and yet stripped of all that has become obsolete and out of harmony with a pure Theism. He commends the "Revised Prayer Book" to the consideration of those who may be called upon to take an active part in the reformation of the English Church and Liturgy. The Psalms are retained, after being relieved of those maledictions and mournful complaints which had only or chiefly a temporary and local value. Some expressions have been retained simply for their poetry or quaintness, and others have not been excluded for fear of marring their context. What has been aimed at is to provide a reasonable Service with the smallest degree of departure from familiar forms, which was necessary in order to exclude of what the Editor considered to be erroneous or superstitious. The two new Services of Duty, and of Praise and Thanksgiving have been introduced, for occasional use, in place of the old Litany, and of the old Communion Service. They are at best but experiments in this direction, and though time and custom may make them more acceptable than they can be at first, the Editor hopes that they will be some day replaced by productions far more worthy of their noble purpose. CAMDEN HOUSE, DULWICH, October 1st, 1871. THE ORDER FOR MORNING PRAYER. At the beginning of Morning Prayer the Minister shall read with a loud voice some one or more of these Sentences of the Scriptures that follow. And then he shall say that which is written after the said Sentences. WE HEN the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Ezek. xviii. 27. I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Psal. li. 3. Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. St. Luke xv. 18, 19. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us: but, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, The sacrifices of God are a and to cleanse us from all unbroken spirit: a broken and a righteousness. 1 St. John i. 8, 9. contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Psal. li. 17. Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. Joel ii. 13. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws which he set before us. Dan. ix. 9, 10. I will arise, and go to my father, and will say unto him, EARLY beloved, the loving DE kindness of God moveth us to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness; and that we should not dissemble nor cloke them before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father; but confess them with an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart; to the end that we may obtain deliverance from the same, by his infinite goodness and mercy. And although we ought at all times humbly to acknowledge our sins before God, yet ought we most |