it does not "catch the beginning." Now, the most we can do is to begin with a cheerful and appropriate hymn, and immediately drop back into the stereotyped Confession, etc., beautiful indeed, but not quite in harmony with the day.

We require also, now that services for Church workers are so frequent, some short and appropriate form for them.

The Ember days too are now very commonly observed.

Could not a service be compiled which should bring back to our minds the solemn times of our own ordination: the one published by the S.P.C.K. does not seem to do this sufficiently?

Who does not need to be reminded of the answers we then made-of the duties we then undertook-of that strength by which alone we can fulfil our weighty office of "never-ceasing our labour, our care, and diligence, until we have done all that lieth in us to bring all such as are or shall be committed to our charge unto that agreement in the faith and knowledge of God, and to that ripeness and perfectness of age in Christ, that there be no place left among us, either for error in religion, or for viciousness in life?"

Other services will no doubt suggest themselves to many, as one for the Rogation days and a really good Children's service.

Do we not also need a few additional Prayers and Thanksgivings? For instance, for "A blessing on daily work?” "A prayer for our families and friends." "For those at sea" when the Litany is not used. "For the beginning of the year." "Thanksgiving for the end of the year," which might be used at the midnight services so

common now.

And in order to avoid confusion, let all the services be placed at the end of the Prayer Book in an appendix, and if the Prayer Book be paged, there need be no difficulty in finding them when required.

A further amended Act of Uniformity sanctioning any re-arrangement, and authorising any Special services as an appendix, would probably meet our present wants.

Only would it not be well for any committee appointed by Convocation to do this work, that it should submit the results of its labours to public criticism before the sanction of Parliament be sought?

We much need also a simple book of Family Prayer. I had hoped for great things from the one published by Convocation, and looked forward to using it, but found it far too complex.

There is, however, one particular service which is perhaps more needed than any other, and that is a Mission Service.

Missions are common now-a-days, consequently, there is a real demand for a service that shall be appropriate to such occasions.

The best known one is, I suppose, that published by the S. P. C. K.; it is the one I have always used; but it has always seemed to me that in these Mission services we proceed on rather a strange principle.

Usually, such a service begins with a hymn, and then we proceed to Confession of sin and Absolution, or the 51st Psalm, a lesson, and another hymn, then the sermon. The earnest and wise missioner at once proceeds in dependence on the Spirit of God to convince of sin; but the people have already confessed their sins-and after the sermon comes the after meeting.

Ought not a mission service rather to consist of two parts, the one before the sermon leading to conviction of sin: the one after to confession of that sin, which we may trust has, by God's Holy Spirit, been brought home to the heart.

The first part might well begin with a special hymn sung kneeling for the Holy Spirit. Then, after a short interval of silent prayer (which we ought to use more

frequently), a solemn recitation of the Ten Commandments, with the last two verses of the 139th Psalm, said as a prayer between each. "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Then a short lesson, a hymn, and the sermon. After the sermon might come another short interval of silent prayer, and then the General Confession, or the one in the Commination service An Absolution, the Lord's Prayer, and the Benediction.

The people would thus, it seems to me, be best prepared for the appeal of the missioner, enter with more understanding into the confession of sins after, and be better prepared for personal and special dealing in the after meeting and instruction. May I end with stating a few things which have struck me from my own experience would tend to make our services at once more popular and comprehensible.

First, as regards our Prayer Book. Canon Venables has numbered every paragraph, and, no doubt, that will be a great help, but why should that not be paged as welland paged, not as some are at the middle of the space at the bottom-but in the right hand corner of the top, as all ordinary books are? Then on certain occasions, or to find certain prayers, both page and paragraph could be given out.

At once comes the difficulty. All our Prayer Books are not alike.

But why not? What is to prevent the S.P.C.K., or the University Presses, or any firm, printing the Prayer Book as Bagster's Bibles are printed?

In Bagster's Bibles, as we all know, any text you like to name is found in exactly the same place of the page in all their editions, whether large or small. So, too, why should we not be able to find say, the Collect for Quinquagesima, on page 85, in all our Prayer Books, and occupying the identical position in that page in every edition? Secondly, as to rubrics and responses, I often wish they were printed in bolder type. An elaborate rubric printed in small italics strikes no one--but "all stand "all kneel" in bold type would catch the eye at once. This may not seem to be needed in the ordinary morning and evening services, but I am sure it is needed in the Baptismal Service, and in that for Churching of Women.

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I always underline these responses in red, Amens and all, and the prayers that are to be said with the clergyman as well; but I think the responses all through might be made more prominent with great advantage.

Let me also say that my own conviction is, that in every poor parish, and I would also add, in all our sea-side towns, and places of resort for the summer, we must provide Prayer Books, Bibles, and Hymn books, and these ready in the pews.

I would press this especially as regards Hymn books.

One Church has Ancient and Modern, another Church Hymns, a third Hymnal Companion. It would be a great blessing if, to whatever Church one went, one was sure to be able to join in the hymns.

If it once gets thoroughly known that all books are provided, and if these books are in good print, and not the twopenny edition of the Prayer Book, and the cheapest and worst printed Bibles and Hymn books: if the greatest possible care is taken that everybody shall, as far as we can do it, understand where we are reading, and what part of the service we are in, I think our services would be more popular.

Whatever we do with our services, or whatever supplementary ones we may have given us to use, we cannot, I am sure, take too much care to induce the people to take their part.

It might be thought that with the advance of education, much that has been said is needless: but is this the case?

I believe education will and does lead to a desire for a Liturgy rather than

extempore prayer: but we know that thousands go through the Board Schools with no instruction in the Prayer Book, so that in the matter of worship much simple and plain dealing will still be needed.

The details enumerated may seem very small, but no detail can be beneath our notice, for, of course, our aim must ever be to make our prayers in reality what they are in name, Common Prayer.

DISCUSSION.

The Rev. R. W. RANDALL, Vicar of All Saints', Clifton.

THERE is one thing that strikes me especially in this Congress, and that is the remarkable wisdom of the speeches that have been delivered. One comes to a Congress full of certain ideas upon particular subjects which one fancies had occurred to oneself alone, and then as one speaker after another brings out each of one's own pet ideas one cannot but be struck with the wisdom of the man that so agrees with all that one has thought. That has been my case to-day. But I shall be glad if I can bring out what has been suggested by previous speakers a little more strongly; and knock some of their nails in a little deeper. First, then, as to the regular services already provided for us in the Prayer Book-let them be used in their fulness and completeness, and I shall be greatly surprised if it is not found that they come up to the requirements of our people very much more than seems to have been admitted to-night. I should specially recommend that by the giving out of notices, and more particularly at the celebration of the Holy Communion, we should appeal to our people, and ask the prayers of the Church in any special necessity, whether public or private, and so teach them to use those prayers with special application to any matter that touches them deeply. As I came into the room I heard one of the speakers, the Dean of Worcester, speaking of the desirability of making the services of the Church more helpful, but a cold shiver ran over me as I understood him to tell us that we were prevented by the Act of Uniformity from making additions to the regular and authorised services of the Prayer Book. I was comforted, however, by remembering that a Dean had asked me to preach in his cathedral next week on the occasion of the harvest thanksgiving, and that he had sent me a copy of a most beautiful form of the service to be used, and one that was wholly outside the lines of the Prayer Book, and that Dean was no other than the speaker, the Dean of Worcester, the Prolocutor of the Convocation of Canterbury, Whenever I have taken part in that particular service, the harvest thanksgiving, I have always felt that the Church of England had struck straight at the hearts of her people in inviting them to join in it. Wherever you go throughout England, in towns or country, you find that the service has taken hold of the people, and I do not believe that the clergy who have used that service have broken the law. I cannot agree with those who think that our hands are tied so tight that we are not at liberty to use such services. I would not for a moment alter the services provided for us in the Prayer Book in a single point. We are not at liberty to do so; but when we have said our daily Matins and Evensong, we are quite at liberty to use other supplementary services. At least I know that it was the opinion of the late Sir Robert Phillimore, that, even under the old Act of Uniformity, before the Act of Uniformity Amendment Act was passed, we had full liberty to use such additional services. And so we might have special services for the time of sowing, at Rogation-tide, for confirmation, and for first communion preparation, for anniversaries of confirmation and first communion, and of marriages, for home and foreign missions, for men and for women separately, and of course for children. Such services are being widely used, and if our Bishops could enter our Churches during such services, they would see how the people are being drawn to the Church through the use of this liberty. May I venture to tell you a story which will serve to show the absurdity of denying such freedom to us. Perhaps I may be allowed to do so, as the story was told to me by a Bishop. A gentleman has been gored by a bull, and narrowly escaped with his life. He had a great wish to return thanks for his escape, and asked leave of his clergyman to be allowed to do so. The clergyman applied to his Bishop, who was no less a person than the great Archbishop Laud.

What was the Archbishop's answer? "I would gladly meet the gentleman's wishes, but I have no power to authorise the use of any service except that for the thanksgiving of women after childbirth." Does any one think that it could ever have been meant that we should be so tightly tied up as this. For one, I, at least, do not believe it, and I think we shall be doing our people a great service if we try to let them see how the religion of the Church can be brought to bear upon their daily life, and if we give them opportunity for expressing both their joys and their sorrows, in times whether of blessing or of trouble, in the services of the Church.

The Rev. CHAS. R. HALE, D.D., Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

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IN 1880, the General Convention of the American Church appointed a committee consider and report to the next General Convention whether, in view of the fact that this Church is soon to enter upon the second century of its organised existence in this country, the changed conditions of the national life do not demand certain alterations in the Book of Common Prayer in the direction of liturgical enrichment and increased flexibility of use.' The committee could hardly do otherwise than report, in 1883, that there was need of such enrichment and increased flexibility, and proceeded further to specify the additions and changes which seemed to them desirable. After long discussion, their report, with some modifications, was adopted by the Convention, and in order that the effect of what was proposed might be clearly seen, a Prayer Book was printed, by authority of the Convention, incorporating the -proposed changes in the text. This book is called "The Book Annexed," ie. the book annexed to the report of the committee. Some of the changes made are in the direction of conformity to the Prayer Book of the Church of England. When our Prayer Book was revised a century ago, some needless and undesirable changes were made. For instance, the Venite and the Benedictus were shortened, the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis left out. When I have been asked why we made such changes my reply is, "Thank God that worse changes were not made. It was the fault chiefly of the times.' I believe that had you, in England, revised your Prayer Book one hundred years ago, you would have done worse than we did. American modesty prevented our ancestors going further. They knew that they were not great liturgical scholars, and so they hesitated where your forefathers, with greater knowledge, would have gone ahead more rashly, and made a revised Prayer Book almost, if not quite, as bad as that drawn up in the time of William and Mary, by commissioners appointed for that purpose. Happily the work of those commissioners remains little more than a literary curiosity. Not all our changes, I am bound to say, were for the worse. In our office for the Holy Communion, following the example of the Scottish Church, we went back, in an important particular, the express Invocation of the Holy Spirit upon the elements, to the earlier practice of the English Church, to the use of the Church Primitive. Perhaps some day you will follow our example in this respect. The committee resolved to propose to the General Convention no change that had any doctrinal significance, and in all that they added to assimilate everything, so far as they could, to the existing Prayer Book, so that the new book should contain no incongruities, and be worthy to stand beside the old. To enumerate some of the proposed additions, the Venite and Benedictus are restored to their proper forms, the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis brought back. In the Apostles' Creed, in the clause "The third day He rose again from the dead," the word again, which had been dropped, is restored. of the versicles after the Creed have been omitted, they are now, with slight changes (one of them obviously necessary) re-inserted. A short additional service, based upon our Lord's Beatitudes, is provided to be used in connection with Evensong, or by itself as a separate service. In addition to the days in which the Litany is directed to be used according to the present rubric, the Rogation days are mentioned, while on Christmas Day, Easter Day, and Whit Sunday it may be left unsaid. A short office of prayer is arranged for noon-day services, missionary meetings and catechis ing, and a special office for the Harvest Festival, which, under the name of "Thanksgiving Day," has long been held on the same day (a Thursday in November) throughout the length and breadth of our land. We have already a larger provision of special prayers and thanksgivings than you have, and you make it so pleasant for us to come to our mother country by giving us so hearty a welcome here, that one of those prayers, that for "persons going to sea," is in almost constant use in our larger

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churches in early summer, and the corresponding thanksgiving for "a safe return from sea," in the autumn. We have added a number of additional prayers and thanksgivings, prayers for persons on a journey, for missions, for use on Rogation days, etc., etc., thanksgivings for escape from accident, etc., so that it need no longer be suggested that if one would return thanks for rescue from drowning, the much used thanksgiving for a "safe return from sea "be employed. Following the example of the Church of Ireland, additional Collects, Epistles and Gospels, have been provided for Christmas, Easter, and Whit-Sunday. A Collect, Epistle, and Gospel have also been arranged for the Feast of the Transfiguration, with special Collect for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in Holy Week, and for the Monday and Tuesday in Easter and Whitsun-week respectively. Proper Anthems have been framed for the chief festivals, to be used instead of the Venite. In the Burial Office the custom is sanctioned, that has long prevailed, of saying the Apostles' or Nicene Creed after the Lesson. A special office has also been provided for use at the burial of infants. Of course I have, for lack of time, not enumerated all the proposed changes, but only some of the principal ones. Final action has not yet been taken by the General Convention, and it is hoped that such action may be deferred for some years, and that, meantime, the more important additions be printed by themselves, in a supplementary book, and be authorised for use under certain restrictions, so that they may be tried and approved, or, if necessary, amended, before being incorporated into the Prayer Book. Meantime, we should be thankful for suggestions from our English brethren who have studied such matters, that might tend to making our work more perfect, and we should give careful consideration to any such suggestion, realising, that in what concerns the Book of Common Prayer, all Anglican Christians have a common interest.

The Right Hon. A. J. B. BERESFORD HOPE, M.P.

ALL who have hitherto addressed the meeting are clergymen, and I hope I may be excused for speaking, as it would be a mistake if no layman were to take part in discussing the subject. It is a great mistake to think that we ought to hurry the revision of the services from any passive regard to the peculiar wants of the age. There has been a great increase of spiritual religion among us, but there has also been an increase of infidelity, vice, and worldliness, and, therefore, everything which this Congress does must be done with great care, especially as regards the Prayer Book, in view of the double social problem, for we have to consider both those who are within and those who are still without. I am glad to see that there is great caution and timely doubt growing up in the minds of men in the matter of the re-arrangement of services. Revised and re-arranged services are one thing, but supplementary services quite another one. So the healthy and sensible instinct of onwardness gains strength in the latter direction, and the feeling is more and more developing itself in favour of services supplementary to that Prayer Book, which is the sheet anchor of our worship. These when properly managed are invaluable. As to the modus operandi, the Prolocutor has taken a practical and statesmanlike view, and has given us an idea of what the legal difficulties of the case are, as well as of the remedy he would suggest. Prebendary Dumbleton has also referred to what the bishops might do, and has hinted that the episcopate might not be so particular if good came of what was to be done. The question is, first, what may be carried out in the present state of the law openly and fearlessly, and secondly, what may be done with connivance. The sugges tions made are, no doubt, good, but there are difficulties connected with them which must not be overlooked. I do not think the Dean of Worcester attached so much importance to the possibilities of successful enrichment even with the actual limitation as he might have done. Those limitations are that the new services must be taken from the Prayer Book or the Bible. But consider how far this carries you. When I was a boy I had to learn an arithmetical rule called permutations and combinations. Well, now, work by permutations and combinations and you will find this carries you a long way. All the collects, all the prayers, all the psalms, and every text is at your service, arranged as you like. Let me explain myself by an instance. You all know the Easter anthem which comes in place of the Venite. What is that? Why simply som texts strung together. What then is there to prevent your providing other similar anthems for different seasons, by a similar free handling of appropriate texts ? So much for what is legally permissible. Certain other things have to be done by connivance, and