latitude, that he may alter, add to, or subtract any prayer from the appointed offices.

It is the minister's bounden duty, and a prominent part of his ordination engagements, to use the acts of prayer and praise, just as he finds them prescribed in his Prayer Book. If this were not the case, acts of prayer being fixed, and act's of praise being at the discretion of the minister, would stand upon different authorities. But this were a contradiction in terms; for the rubrics specify the various acts of praise which appertain to every service, and the exhortation designates them as fixed and unalterable, and annexes to them the honourable epithet-" his (God's) most worthy praise." Therefore they are the appropriate psalmody of the Church, and alone afford a sufficiency of praise: whereas the metrical psalms and hymns, left at the discretion of the minister, are no part of the public worshipnor even necessary to it as concomitants.

When it is considered that metre psalms and bymns are no constituent part of the Book of Common Prayer, it is obvious to the meanest comprehension, that they are not "the most worthy praise," which we are invited to set forth. And indeed to this truth all our congregations bear ample testimony, by their sitting whilst they sing the metre psalms and hymns; they would certainly stand, whilst they are sung, if they considered them as acts of worship; for

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every one knows that sitting is no suitable posture either for prayer or for praise.

By persons not possessed of correct information on this subject, it may naturally be imagined, that metre psalms and hymns are really constituent parts of public worship; as our clerks and choristers generally give them out in these or similar magisterial forms;-Let us sing to the praise and glory of God, &c.-Let us continue the solemn worship of Almighty God, by singing to his praise, &c.-Let us conclude the solemn worship of Almighty God, by singing to his praise, &c. This is the very cant that was used in the hottest times of puritanism.

Hearing so frequently these and similar pedantic forms of giving out the metre psalms and hymns, the generality of our people are unwarily led to consider them as a kind of praise superior to prosaic psalmody. But, let it be asked, where do our clerks and choristers find these editorial prefaces to the portions of metre psalmody, which they invite the people to sing? By what authority are they warranted to use any prefatory address at all?

The rubrics of the Prayer Book give no allowance for a single word to be used at the enunciation of a metre psalm or hymn-the psalm, verse, and quantity are simply to be named. Every invitatory formula of giving out the metrical psalmody is verily an invasion of the priest's of

fice; of which, I trust, no well informed clerk or chorister would intentionally be guilty. But the tyrant custom has perpetuated the use of these introductory forms, whilst most of our people remain ignorant of their origin and intention.

They were first adopted by the avowed adversaries of our Mother Church, for the express purpose of depreciating the use of prosaic psalmody, and of impressing a belief, that metrical psalmody only was acceptable to God, and the only true way of vocally promoting his glory and honour in the assemblies of his saints. Were the origin of these forms unrecorded on the page of history, the bombast and self-sufficiency of the diction might teach us, that they did not originate in that family, whose simple and reverend form of announcing its vocal acts of gratitude and jubilation is expressed in the language of scripture; "Praise ye the Lord."+

In the Morning and Evening Prayer, there is both a certain and a sufficient measure of the incense of praise; which, in the exhortation, is

*It is the duty of the minister to give out the ecclesiastical psalm or hymn, which he intends to be chanted; and this is done by reciting the first strophe thereof. But it is incorrect in the minister to give out the metre psalms and hymns, because they are foreign 10 his office, being no part of the Prayer Book. To a laic only this duty belongs.

Psalm cl. 1. Rev. xix. 1, 3. In all the reformed Prayer Books antecedent to the second of Edward VI. the minister pronounced the word Hallelujah as prefatory to the succeeding act of praise, and the people responded Hallelujah; but in that book the word is translated into-Praise ye the Lord; and, The Lord's name be praised.

called God's most worthy praise. This measure of praise is commensurate to the measure of prayer, which embraces all those things which are requisite and necessary as well for the body as the soul; and is therefore the exclusive measure of psalmody recognized by the Church. The individual portions of this aggregate measure of praise are called, Psalms, Hymns, and Canticles; and when sung, they correspond with their titles; but when read, or merely recited, they do not that is, when we read a psalm or hymn, we use it as we would any other part of scripture, whether historical, prophetical, or didactic, for our own benefit; but when we sing a psalm or hymn, we use it as scripture offered up to God as a form of praise of his own inditing.

The practice of reading or saying any psalm or hymn in opposition to its title, and the nature and import of its subject, is certainly a contradiction in terms;-and, to argue that it ought to be read and not sung, because there is supposed to exist already a sufficiency of vocal praise arising from metre psalmody, implies a total want of information on the subject. This supposition is a non-entity, and unworthy of being advocated by any churchman, who is capable of discrimi nating what is essential to Episcopal worship, from what hath been derived from its adversaries,

OBJECTION V.

"Chanting takes up too much time."

REPLY.

...This is not a rational, but a mere physical objection.

By actual experiment it hath been ascertained that the difference of time between the reading and the chanting of all the hymns of morning prayer, does not exceed eight or nine minutes at the utmost. And is this sufficient ground whereon to build an objection to the primitive way of “setting forth God's most worthy praise ?"

Time is the most precious of all the terrestrial gifts of God to the children of men. There is but a single moment of it in the world at once, which, when withdrawn, is instantly succeeded by another. The present moment only is ours; the future lies hidden in the abyss of eternity. Wisely do we appreciate the fleeting moments, if we employ them so as to make them passports to the glory which is yet to be revealed. Our bodies and our souls have each of them claims upon our time; but we must not forget that God has a superior claim. Every part of the Christian's duty requires a portion of time commensurate to its nature and its final consequences. The ob