is short, by reason of an impatient spirit, or dulness, or despite of holy things, or indiffer

ency of desires, is very often criminal always imperfect; and that prayer which is long out of ostentation, or superstition, or a trifling spirit, is as criminal and imperfect as the other, in their several instances. . . . In all forms of prayer, mingle petition with thanksgiving, that you may endear the present prayer and the future blessing, by returning praise and thanks for what we have already received. This is St. Paul's advice; Be careful for nothing; but in every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be inade known unto God."*

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Families are miniature churches, portions of the holy Catholic Church, and parts of the one family in heaven and earth, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and to suffer death upon the Cross. Families," says Bishop Jolly," are the little nurseries for the spiritual kingdom of the Church, and the temporal kingdom of the State, which, by their respective duties, and in their different capacities and powers, mutually promote the happi

# Phil., iv., 6; Taylor's Holy Living, chap. iv., sect. 7.

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ness of each other."* They are likewise little kingdoms, in which the father, or head, is the prophet, priest, and king; whose duty it is to exhort, rebuke, pray for and with, and reign over or govern, his family. These three attributes are the gifts of God, and belong of divine right to the father of every family. Whoever, therefore, neglects or transfers their duties to another, betrays his trust, neglects his duty, and must give an account of his stewardship to his Divine Head in heaven.

If we lift up holy hands with faith in Christ's word and promises, nothing doubting, he has promised to grant our requests, and to answer the petitions of two who shall agree together, touching what they shall ask. By the following selection from the authorized Liturgy, a whole family not only agrees together, but, at the same time, unites with the Reformed Catholic Church, touching what they shall ask. Although we pray in separate families, yet it is as members of, and in union with, the Church Catholic; and, therefore, the Liturgy is in every sense our best medium. GOD has commanded us to ask, and He has promised that it shall be given unto

* Introduction to Sunday Services.

us- to seek, and we shall find

- to knock, and Three of the

it shall be opened unto us.* evangelists have recorded Christ's gracious promise, ushered in by his solemn and emphatic verily, verily, that whatsoever we shall ask the Father in his name, believing, he will give it.† Although these promises are annexed to the public authorized prayers of the Church, yet they are also applicable to the social prayers of a family; because Christ promised that in whatsoever place two or three are gathered together in his name, there he will be in the midst of them, to bless, consecrate, and accept their united prayers. By thus offering daily the morning and evening sacrifice of our praise and thanksgiving, we learn from infancy to live in submission and obedience to his holy will and commandments, and to place our whole dependence on him in all the changes and chances of this mortal life. By confessing our sins morning and evening, our hearts will be softened and subdued by a daily sight and sense of our manifold trangressions. And by redeem

* Matt., vii., 7.

+ Matt., xxi., 22; Mark, xi., 24; John, xiv., 23.

Matt., xviii., 19, 20.

ing the time because of the evil days, and being daily renewed by God's Holy Spirit, our hearts will surely there be fixed where true joys are alone to be found. An apostle has assured us that it requires both faith and holiness to enable us to see the Lord; and our Saviour assures us that, if we will enter into life, we must keep the commandments; the best training for all which, under the divine blessing, is the constant devotional feeling produced by the daily exercise of family prayers; which ought always to be accompanied with faith, hope, and charity. Unless we believe that we shall receive his grace, hope for those things which we are permitted to ask, and love much, we only mock God, by drawing near with our lips, while our hearts are far from him.

Bishop Taylor recommends us to reduce our prayers into collects and short forms, to make voluntary interruptions and to begin again, that the want of spirit and breath may be supplied by short stages and periods. For this purpose, no form can be so appropriate as the authorized public prayers of the Church, which are both short and powerful, and approach nearest to the sublime simplicity and inspiration of Scripture.

"No church in the world," says Dr. Comber,

was ever blessed with so comprehensive, so exact, and so inoffensive, a composure as ours, which is so judiciously contrived that the wisest may exercise at once their knowledge and devotion and yet so plain that the most ignorant may pray with understanding so full that nothing is omitted which is fit to be asked in public and so particular that it compriseth most things which we would ask in privateand yet so short as not to tire any that hath true devotion. Its doctrine is pure and primitive, its method is exact and natural, its language significant and perspicuous, most of the words and phrases being taken out of the Holy Scriptures, and the rest are the expressions of the first and purest ages; so that whosoever takes exception at these must quarrel with the language of the Holy Ghost, and fall out with the Church in her greatest innocence."

Many forms of family prayers have been published, but they have almost all the objection of being one long continued prayer, which, although a form, yet they partake decidedly of the objections which are justly made to extemporary prayers, that they are the prayers of the