do it in so proper a style as in that of the Holy Scriptures."-SPECTATOR, No. 405. I confess it will be a pleasant thought to me, should this Volume obtain any circulation, that I am directing the orisons of many whom I know, and that I may excite those of families which I can never know. My only attempt is to assist those Heads of Households who cannot or will not offer Free Prayer: Where such a sweet task is performed, let not This, or any Kindred Manual, interrupt or supersede it! Compositions of the highest order, the noblest Rituals, are imperfect substitutes for its ministration, and doubtful apologies for its neglect. I hope that a thoroughly EVANGELIC Tone is sustained in these Services. It has been my purpose to make very prominent the Doctrines of the Trinity, of Mediation by Atonement and Intercession, of Divine Influence, of Practical Sanctification. In most, there is reference to the Cause of Missions, the special Vocation of the Church in these latter days. I have seldom omitted a petition for unconverted Relatives and Friends. For continuing instant in these things, --for all such repetitions,-I must be held deliberately responsible. The Forms may be too long for some. But the circumstances of Families vary. Several expressions will be proper in one, and not, in another. My advice to the Person who conducts the worship is to peruse each Prayer previously to its utterance, and then, with pencil or otherwise, to mark the omissions which the case of his Domestic Circle suggests. It seemed better to be too full than defective. They who may favour these Offices, have thus laid before them their History, their Plan, their Motive, and their only legitimate or wishedfor Use. I have prefixed, as Motto, the beautiful Scale of Moral Obligation adopted and graduated by the ancient Greeks, to express and urge my deep sense of the importance of Family Worship. Its Practice does not necessarily constitute a Family, Christian; but its habitual disregard demonstrates that it is not. |