THE HOME PRAYER BOOK. A Book of Common Prayer for Household Worship. CONTAINING PRAYERS FOR FOUR WEEKS-MORNING AND EVENING, And also Prayers for the Christian Seasons and Special Occasions, Model of the Prayers in the Book of Common Prayer. BY HENRY T. DIX, Author of Our Old Prayer Meeting, etc., etc. 'The Church that is in thy house.' PHILEMON 3. LONDON: ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. GEORGE HERBERT, 117, GRAFTON STREET, DUBLIN. PREFACE. A WORD of explanation is perhaps necessary from anyone who attempts to offer to the Church another book of Family Prayer, when so many such books of devotion have already been written. My apology for the present book is that in its form and method it is different from the books of Family Prayer hitherto published, and is an attempt to illustrate and exemplify an opinion which I have long entertained, namely, that the Word of God contains a mine of wealth for those who seek to utilize it to the purpose of liturgical prayer. I ventured to put forward this theory at the Church Congress in the year 1868, and to contend that we Churchmen who have set our seal to the principle of liturgical worship should not be at a standstill and dependent solely upon the Church of the past for our forms of prayer, but should seek to leave to posterity some liturgical inheritance. I grounded this statement upon the assertion which I have just made, namely, that the Scripture is rich in resources for this purpose, if we would but use them. The work now offered to my fellow Churchmen is an attempt to support my theory; with what success, they must determine. |