ing inflection. The natural law of feeling in expression dominates the law of merely intellectual utterance. Earnest supplication takes naturally the falling inflection in enumeration. Hence the clauses take the falling slide, with the exception of the last, which has the suspended slide, sufficiently to connect the words of supplication, in the response, with the enumeration of the particulars of the preceding clauses. This suspended or sustained use of the voice is, however, different from the defined rising slide, which would seem to make the mind more intent upon the grammatical structure of the language than upon the earnestness of the feeling which it describes. In the third of the Deprecations the emphasis falls upon the word "uncharitableness." In the fourth, attention is called to the increasing use of the full sound of the last syllable of "devil." There is as yet, however, no standard authority recognizing its use. It came into vogue, undoubtedly, from the singing of the syllable, which, with the final vowel elided, would make the singing of the word almost impossible. In this division the word "deceits" requires special emphasis, together with "the world, the flesh, and the devil."

In the next, care should be taken to avoid sinking or hurrying the voice on the words "sudden death." In the sixth Deprecation every important word receives marked and distinctive emphasis.

Finally, the passages in this division should be delivered as genuine Deprecations, with a keen sense of being alive to the fatal dangers and the dreaded evils from which we pray to be delivered. The careless and perfunctory reading seems to imply not only indifference to the result, but also imperfect apprehension of the evils which are named, and from which we should urgently pray to be delivered.

3. The Obsecrations.

The objection brought against these forms, on the score of their sounding like incantations, seems groundless. These

events in the life of our blessed Lord are certainly a part of His mediatorial work, and the enumeration of them can be no unmeaning form; nor the prayers, to be heard because of their efficacy, superstitious incantation. Simplicity and godly sincerity must be the law which guides to reverent expression, where these incidents of the Saviour's life, and the awful mystery of His passion and death, mingled with thoughts of our own last hour, and the solemn reckoning in the Day of Judgment, are made the heart-burdened pleas by which we cry, "Deliver us!" While avoiding excessive emphasis upon "by," the long and not the short sound of the letter should be given. The solemnity of the feeling deepens as the historical recital of the awful mysteries proceeds, culminating in the Death and Burial, succeeded by the expression of the triumph of the Resurrection and Ascension. The deep solemnity and the directness of the personal thought of our own death and judgment should chasten and subdue the utterance.

4. The Intercessions.

The heart naturally lifts itself up in greater freedom after the oppressive thought of death and the judgment contained in the preceding passage. It would be natural to raise the voice correspondingly to a higher key, and to quicken the movement. Mark especially, with discriminating emphasis, the different degrees of earnestness which the petitions relatively demand. Mark also the sympathetic tenderness of the three paragraphs immediately preceding the last of this division. Contrast this with the more general intercession for "magistrates," etc., etc. It should be noted that the punctuation changes in this division, and the order is reversed from the last, the separate clauses being chiefly pointed with commas, and the entire suffrage with a semicolon. Irrespective of the points of punctuation, the same law, relating to earnestness of supplication, obtains as above. As the connection is not so immediate

with the response as before, a falling slide is heard more frequently than the suspended. The more condensed the expression, the more frequent is the use of the falling inflection, and the use of the semicolon-e. g., "That it may please Thee to strengthen such as do stand; and to comfort and help the weak-hearted; and to raise up those who fall; and finally to beat down Satan under our feet." Contrast this with the more narrative form of "That it may please Thee to give to all Thy people increase of grace to hear meekly Thy Word, and to receive it with pure affection, and to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit.' Observe the sympathy in the suffrages, "That it may please Thee to succor, help, and comfort all who are in danger, necessity, and tribulation", "all sick persons and young children, and to show Thy pity upon all prisoners and captives"; "" for fatherless children, and widows, and all who are desolate and oppressed." "Kindly fruits of the earth" means, of course, fruits of the earth after their kind. It, therefore, does not require the gentle expression upon "kindly."

5. The Supplications.

Care must be exercised to avoid any diminishing of the fervor. This caution is a very necessary one, when we consider the tendency to lessen the ardor of our devotion, through physical fatigue. There are but few whose reading would be characterized as sufficiently sustained in fervor to the close. We are victims of habit in this, as in all other matters pertaining to the reading of the Service. In the supplication, "Son of God, we beseech Thee to hear us," the reverential earnestness should be strongly marked, and a faulty emphasis upon "Thee" should be avoided, which would imply that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity had not before been invoked, whereas the form of Obsecrations would show that the greater part of the Litany was primarily addressed to the eternal Son. And, for this reason, when we pass to the prayer, "We humbly beseechi

Thee, O Father," etc., the emphasis is upon "Thee," to indicate the change in the address. The deepest fervor should characterize the passage, with its repetition, "O Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world." As in earnest entreaty, especially in the ejaculatory form of expression, the tenderest and deepest emotions are uttered, so should the voice indicate it.

In conclusion, the reader of the Litany should consider profoundly whether he is uttering this august portion of the Church Service according to its own solemn and sublime character, or whether it is rendered in the sing-song style of a school-boy, or with the apathetic utterance of a heart untouched, or a mind incapable of appreciating its beauty and its power.

CHAPTER V.

THE LESSONS, ANTE-COMMUNION SERVICE, AND BURIAL

SERVICE.

THE term "Lessons" is suggestive. They should be read as if the people were to be taught something by them. Further, the Lessons are inspired. This gives a different character to the utterance from that appropriate to any other style of reading. Expression which makes the language in any sense ordinary is out of character. The attempted naturalness in the manner of the utterance of some readers is simply degrading to all ideas of inspired thought and language. And then their instructive character as Lessons can never be appropriately represented unless the thought of the end of the teaching of all Holy Scripture is kept in view. It is language to reach the very souls of men for their spiritual welfare, their salvation. And even if it appears for the time, in any passage, to be purely intellectual, yet should the voice plainly carry with its every utterance the recognition that the subject-matter is the

very Word of GOD, conveying truth which commends itself to every man's conscience in His sight. It should be enough to impart gravity, sincerity, and reverential earnestness to the manner of reading, as we consider that what we are uttering is the savor of life unto life, or of death unto death, to the hearer. The truths so read will reach some hearts with the melody which is from on high, while others, on the contrary, will unconsciously respond: "Ah, doth he not speak parables?" In every utterance we are sowing the seed-some by the wayside, some on rocks, some among briers and thorns, and some in honest and good hearts, where it will produce fruit. There are some readers who seem to appreciate this ideal of a Divinely inspired Lesson, containing truths of GOD for the salvation of souls; and there are others who seem to have had no such thought in connection with the Sacred Scriptures, and certainly no such manner in delivering them as would harmonize with any high estimation of their value. Even the outward act in opening or closing, or turning the leaves of the Bible, may be found suggestive. The well-known anecdote of Garrick's inquiry of a clergyman as to what books he had with him on Sunday is applicable: "I have the PrayerBook and Bible, of course," was the reply. "Oh! I thought from your manner of handling them that they were a ledger and a day-book." And, if outwardly the action may express a great deal, how much more the voice!

In forming a standard for study and propriety of expression, it is of primary importance that the reading be relevant in its tone. This is necessary in recognition of the inspired character of the language. It implies that the expression is deliberate; that we read with a heedful thoughtfulness which ponders the truths that are uttered; that there be no violence done to the ear, no shocking effect to the sensibilities; but a composed, grave, and earnest delivery, as though we reverenced the language we uttered, valued its precepts, heeded its counsels, rejoiced in its truth,