ejaculatory prayer by himself, then shall the people respond by another. When he utters the first part of the "Glory be to the Father," then shall the right of the people to participate in the worship be recognized by their responding audibly, "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be." In the Psalms, the people stand up, and read each alternate verse; and in the case of the Creeds, it is enjoined that they shall be sung or said by the minister and the people.

The Litany is another wonderful example of a form of supplication in which the priesthood of the people is practically recognized, in making them all draw near to the Throne of Grace, with liberty to speak out before God. Even in the reading of the Commandments, contrary to natural expectations, the congregational rights of the worshippers are secured, and there, as in every part of the service, the people take their part audibly and intelligently. Thus throughout the whole service this idea is distinctly emphasized, that the worship of God's people in His Church is the united offering of devotion. "Ye shall be named the priests of the Lord," Isa. lxi. 6. "Ye are a royal priesthood," I. Peter ii. 9. "He hath made us to be priests unto God," Rev. i. 6. Every prayer is the common prayer of priest and people; of the holy priesthood, the people; and their representative and mouthpiece, the priest.

And herein the Church is found to be on the lines of Scripture and the primitive Church. Our Lord expressly laid down a form of common prayer when He gave, for the use of His disciples, that incomparable petition, the Lord's Prayer. In itself it is a Liturgy in epitome, and carries with it our blessed Lord's imprimatur as an authority for using a form of prayer. More than that, it carries with it the highest authority in heaven or earth for using united and common prayer. It was His will that they should all pray together. Not that St. Peter should lead in prayer and allow

the others to follow as well as they could the extempore effusions of his imagination; or that St. John should pray instead of them all, and they, in silence, adopt as well as possible his language and thoughts, making them their own in the progress of the supplication; but that they should all use in common, as a united mouthpiece, voicing forth in unison, as common property, the one petition in the same words. "After this inanner therefore pray ye: 'Our Father,'" &c.

In the Acts of the Apostles, wherein is recorded the procedure of the primitive and apostolic Church, it is to be noted that not only once, but often, expressions are made use of which lead us to conclude that prayer was offered up unitedly by the whole people in common. Compare verses fourteen and twenty-four of the first chapter. It is not said in the latter verse that St. Peter or St. John alone uttered this sentence, but that they all did. The phrase used in the Revised Version of the forty-second verse of the second chapter, “they continued steadfastly in the prayers," points to a united and common form of supplication. The twentyfourth verse of the fourth chapter reveals to us, as through an open window, the body of the primitive Church all together lifting up their voices in one common form of praise and petition, just as we do in the Church service in the Litany, or the Ter Sanctus. In the sixth and eighth chapters, common or united prayer is again hinted at, and when, in the twentieth chapter, St. Paul prayed, he prayed with them all. Whether or not they prayed audibly with him, it is more than probable that, in accordance with the practice of the apostolic Church, they would at least audibly respond, Amen, at the conclusion of the petitions.

In fact, the whole question of liturgical versus extempore prayer lies just here. The question is not whether one man can express his thoughts better in a written form, or in

extempore utterance; or whether a man may or may not please God and the people better by uttering informally the burning petitions of the moment, or from a carefully prepared manuscript. The real question is, whether the people have the right, as God's priesthood, to participate constantly and practically in the worship of God in His house? And further, whether the people, as God's priesthood, can be said to participate practically and really in common worship and common prayer when they relegate to one man the duty of framing prayers which must of necessity, in great measure, be the reflection of his own views and of his own thoughts? The Church of England, in following the example of her Lord and His apostles and bringing back, at the Reformation, the early practice of common and united worship, has distinctly asserted that, as far as she is concerned, that only can be said to be common prayer and common worship, when not merely priest or minister speak audibly in prayer, but when, in every part of the service, all the priesthood of God join audibly in unison of heart and voice. It is a travesty upon the service of the Church of England when few or none but the minister and the choir participate in the service. It may be the method of the various Protestant religious bodies, or of Rome, but it is not the method of the Church of England. The teaching and practice of the Church of England is the union of minister and people in a form of common prayer. This participation of the people in the worship of the Church. is an anti-Roman note that is worthy of all emphasis. It is the second distinct bulwark and guarantee of the Protestantism of the Prayer Book.

(3) Next, and by no means least, the Protestantism of the Prayer Book is guaranteed by its complete scripturalness. Where the Word of God has free course and is glorified, Popery dies by a natural death. In the Book of Common

Prayer the Word of God is glorified. So completely is it saturated with the Word of God that there is scarcely one sentence which has not for its foundation and vindication some text of Holy Scripture. By far the greater part of all the prayers, petitions, and responses, are in the words of Scripture. The Canticles are all, with one or two exceptions, portions of Holy Writ. More than two-thirds of the Prayer Book, the Psalms, and the Epistles and Gospels, are literal transcripts of God's Word. In fact, for one who has never carefully considered this matter, it is simply startling to find how richly permeated with Scripture is every part of the Prayer Book. The Rev. H. Bailey, in his "Liturgy Compared with the Bible," takes the sentences of the Prayer Book one by one, from the "Dearly Beloved Brethren". of the Morning Service to the last word of the Thirty-ninth Article, and shows by a simple collation of texts that there is for every sentence in the Prayer Book either exact scriptural language, or else apparent authorization from similar texts of Scripture. In addition to this, it must be remembered that the whole tendency of the Liturgy is to exalt the inspired Word of God. Its Lessons, its Psalms, its Canticles, its Gospels and Epistles, all combine to bring God's Holy Word into great prominence in the hearing of the people. We question, indeed, whether any human composition could, without any straining or purposed effort, compress with as much discretion, and in so short a compass, so full and varied a presentation of the Scriptures as is to be found in the order for morning and evening prayer. It begins with Scripture. It ends with Scripture. It exalts Scripture. It is based on Scripture. It is Scripture, Scripture, Scripture, from beginning to end.

As to the mere portions of Scripture which are appointed to be read daily, to say nothing of those portions of God's inspired Word which are appointed as "hymns and spiritual

songs," it is wonderful what richness and fitness there is in the Church's daily provision for her children. As far as I am aware, among the various Protestant religious communions outside the Church of England, it is not customary to have more than four portions of God's Word read on Sunday, two in the morning, and two in the evening, chosen probably at random, or at the caprice of the minister. In the Church of England, six portions of God's Word is the very lowest possible number, eleven is the average, while sometimes as many as eighteen passages of God's inspired Word are read, not including those four portions of the Bible which are sung in the morning and evening services. If those are reckoned also, fifteen portions of God's Holy Word is the ordinary provision of the Church of England for her people. In other words, every person who attends the Sunday or daily services of the Church of England hears, or reads, fifteen passages out of the Bible. Surely this fact, if there were no other, would be sufficient to guarantee the thorough soundness and Protestantism of the Book. The pure Word of God is ever hateful to Rome. She knows its fatal power. She hates its life-giving energy. She knows that priestcraft and papistry totter when it has free course. But Protestants love the Word of God. It is to them the Word of Life, the instrument of regeneration, making wise to salvation. It is the charter of their spiritual liberties, the eternal bulwark of their spiritual life. Therefore the Reformers exalted the Scriptures. Therefore they declared that “ Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of the Faith." (Art. VI.) That "the three Creeds ought thoroughly to be received and believed, for they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture." (Art. VIII.) That “it is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything that is