LOVE YOUR PRAYER-BOOK.

Love your Prayer-book; yes, love it heartily, every page. It is an old saying, that next to the Bible the Prayer-book is the best book we have. So it is; and I trust at this time we may adopt that saying afresh and cling to our Prayer-book with increasing love. We may have been so used to have it, that we may sometimes have forgotten how good a gift it is. Just as when we are strong and well we often forget to give God hearty thanks for our health, and take it as a matter of course, as if it belonged to us, and could not be lost; then if we lose our health, if it is taken from our unthankful hands, we feel how great a blessing we have lost.

It is good for us then sometimes to pause and think of the excellence, of the value, of the beauty of the Prayer-book, that from such thoughts we may learn to bless God for having put so great a spiritual treasure into our hands, a treasure of sound doctrine, of pure devotions, suited to poor and rich, the weak and the strong, the happy and afflicted, the young and the advanced disci

ples of Christ. It would be a grievous thing to find out its value by losing it. You may have been accustomed to carry it with you to Church all your life; every Sunday you have been wont to use it from your youth up. It has seemed quite natural," as we should say, to have it; every part is so familiar to us, that it all seems quite to belong to us; we can hardly imagine ourselves without it. And yet though we have used it so long, is it impossible to lose it? May we not forfeit it? May not our very unthankfulness cause it to be wrenched out of our hands, and may we not learn to find the greatness of its value by its loss? When it is gone, we may then wake up and lament over its loss and yearn to have it back again, and reproach ourselves for not having prized and used it more. We may then feel as men once used to an abundance of water at their doors, when they journey through a sandy desert, a parched scorched wilderness, a "barren and dry land, where no water is."

And let me tell you, there are men rising up who want to deprive us of our Prayer-book; they want to have it so changed as to make it another book; they want what they call a "reform" of that holy, precious book. Beware of

hacked it to pieces

their plans; remember the proverb "let well alone." Many who are for mending a thing, end by spoiling it; and if we have been rash enough to trust a good thing to their hands, we find, when it is too late, that they have and cut off the finest parts. Do not then give up the Prayer-book to be mended; do not be rash enough to let the knife come near it. It has lasted long; it has been used by thousands of saints before us whose souls are now with Christ; it was deeply prized by our fathers, and has been well tried; it has helped to keep Christ's truth alive upon the earth; it has taught the ignorant, roused sinners, rebuked the vicious, consoled mourners, and been the blessed instrument of raising souls to God. Its very age sanctifies it; it is an old friend, and like an old friend is the more to be esteemed, not to be pushed aside for any thing that is new, not to be altered by their hasty hands who think themselves wiser than their fathers. O love the Prayer-book, for God has preserved it in the Church through so many years, through so many days of change; He has blessed it to the good of many souls; and woe be to us if we lightly let go even one jot or tittle of those good things which it contains. Do not be carried away by any cry of the day.

Part not with an old well-tried friend for some new and untried friend that may fail you after all, and after a few days may prove of little worth.

Some men will tell you now-a-days, " O, the Prayer-book is an old-fashioned book now; it is time to have a change in these enlightened days; we must not stand still when every thing is moving on." My friends, let us have new ways of travelling, new ways of farming, new ways of manufacturing or trading, if you will, but no new ways of religion. Keep in religion to "the old paths," for there is safety; Christ's truth is old; new errors spring up one after the other to dazzle men's eyes and lure them from the truth.

Others will say, Why are you frightened? We do not want to make a great alteration; we only want a few slight changes; we should like to take a little piece out in this part, and add a little piece in that, and change a few words here and a few words there, that is all." Beware of these little pieces left out or put in, and of these few words added or taken away. They may be slight matters; they may be even improvements; those who now plead for change may only wish for it in slight points; but remember the wedge;

once let the thin end of the wedge in, and who can say where changes will stop? Remember, I say, the wedge; from slight matters we may be led on to great, till the very pith of the Prayer-book is all gone, till the great Gospel truths which it contains are all strained out. Let the little finger once come in and we may expect the hand to follow, and after that the arm, the head, the whole body at last. Yes, these little changes do not satisfy; they create a thirst for change; if we have a Book of Prayer, beautiful beyond all words, a Book that has grown old in God's service, if I may so speak, with a godly jealousy let us cling to every word; let us not set a stone rolling which it may be impossible to stop.

But it may be said, "Suppose the whole Prayer-book is swept away at last, suppose change comes upon change till all is changed, shall we not have the Bible left? and is not that all that Christians can desire ?" Now the question is, are we sure that the Bible will remain un. touched after the Prayer-book is gone? If changes in the one take place, may not changes in the other come at last? At first perhaps the alterations may be slight; a few words here and a few words there; but at last the lovers of change