should be the means of inducing you to worship God "in spirit and in truth," to honor God" with your body as well as your spirit," they will be of the most inestimable service to you both here and hereafter. If they shew to you that you are members of a Church which is "built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone," they may help you forward in your passage to the heavenly Jerusalem, "whose maker and builder is God." Let me only impress upon your minds that the services of the Church are not mere forms, but that they possess a life, and a soul, and a spirit of health, which they would fain impart to every sincere Christian. If they appear cold or formal to us, it is because we do not pay that attention to them, or take that interest and delight in them, which we ought to do, and which they are so well calculated to inspire. Our Liturgy touches upon every imaginable point of Christian doctrine and of Christian practice-if you are fond of Sermons, it is a constant Sermon throughout, and that too on every point of doctrine which you can desire or reasonably expect. In using it properly it is well suited to every circumstance and condition of life-well has it been observed, when talking of the valuable and truly scriptural Book, and when comparing the

Church to the King's daughter as described by the glorious pen of the Psalmist, and while surveying her arrayed in her splendid attire of Prayer, Praise, and Thanksgiving, "HER Clothing is of WROUGHT GOLD.”

LECTURE III.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

St. Matthew, vi. 7, 8, 9.

WHEN YE PRAY USE NOT VAIN REPETITIONS, AS THE HEATHEN DO; FOR THEY THINK THAT THEY SHALL BE HEARD FOR THEIR MUCH SPEAKING-BE NOT YE THEREFORE LIKE UNTO THEM: FOR YOUR FATHER KNOWETH WHAT THINGS YE HAVE NEED OF BEFORE YE ASK HIM. AFTER THIS MANNER THEREFORE PRAY YE.

OUR Morning and Evening Service having commenced with some passages of Scripture, an Exhortation to Repentance, a Confession of Sins, and the Minister having pronounced God's Absolution of all penitent sinners-so that having prepared ourselves for Prayer properly so called -we begin to pray. And most suitably too with

using our Lord's Prayer-the model, and the pattern, by which we should regulate all our devotions.

The Rubric gives this direction—“Then shall the Minister kneel, and say the Lord's Prayer with an audible voice, the people also kneeling, and repeating it with him, both here, and wheresoever else it is said in divine service"-so that we find that whenever the Lord's Prayer is used in the Liturgy the people should repeat it aloud after the Minister.

The Lord's Prayer is used twice in what is called the form of Morning and Evening Prayer -it is used also once in the Litany, and once at the beginning of the Communion Service. In all it is usually repeated four times in the Morning Service. We are therefore sometimes asked what is the use of so much repetition? are not "vain repetitions" expressly forbidden by our Lord? and would not saying the same prayer once over be sufficient?

These are all very reasonable inquiries, and I hope to consider them more at length as I proI will only say

ceed further in these discourses.

at present that one great object of our having any repetition at all, is principally to give those, who were not present, or who were not attentive, at one part of the service, an opportunity of joining

at another. While, with respect to the Lord's Prayer in particular, from a sense of reverence to our Lord Jesus Christ who taught it, it has ever been a practice of the Church to use it in every Service. Now you should remember that the Morning and Evening Prayer, the Litany, and the Communion, are all distinct Services, and in some places are used separately. Therefore it would not be right that there should be any Service in which this sublime Prayer is not used.

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An ancient Christian writer calls the Lord's Prayer "an Epitome of the Gospel;" and the early Churches always began and ended their services with it. Being the foundation," says one, "upon which all our prayers should be built, we begin with it;" and "being the perfection of all prayer," says another, "we also end with it.”

Yet still the passage in the text, which was spoken by our Lord Himself, does certainly forbid "vain repetitions." Before I proceed therefore, as is my intention, to explain to you the meaning of the Lord's Prayer generally, it may be of service to examine what is meant by the "vain repetitions" which our blessed Saviour forbids.

In considering this subject, I must observe, in the first place, that the heathens, and most people of ancient times, were accustomed to worship their Gods in a very different manner from what we do

in Christian countries. Indeed this is generally the case with those nations of modern times who do not worship the true God.

You must be aware that whenever we address ourselves to God, it is generally in some way suitable to the majesty of so great a Being, with a due sense of our own humility. We pray Him to forgive us our sins, and to grant us those things that are necessary for us. Very frequently also we communicate the most secret and intimate thoughts of our hearts in prayer to God. This is one of the privileges of man-it ought to be considered one of his greatest blessings. The worship of heathen nations however the worship of those people who knew not the true God-was totally different from this.

Instead of holding that communion with the great Father of Spirits which we do when we pray, their devotional exercises principally consisted of cries, shrieks, screams, which they poured forth to their false Gods in the most superstitious and unmeaning manner possible. A truly pious, rational, and consistent form of Prayer was to them a thing almost unknown. Their religions were false and ridiculous, their modes of worship were false and ridiculous also.

Thus we read of the priests of Baal in the time of Elijah crying out from morning till noon nothing

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