manner as to emphasise the fact that the Church of England repudiates the Presbyterian theories that a priest has the same authority as a bishop, and that Episcopacy is not necessary in the Church of Christ. After the fall of the Stewart dynasty and the arrival of William III., some of the English bishops themselves tried to make the Book of Common Prayer agreeable to the convictions of the Presbyterians and the Calvinistic King. The Church refused to sanction their proposals, and the Book of Common Prayer remained intact. The eighteenth century was marked by a growing deterioration in English public worship, and by the year 1800 an intelligent appreciation of the Book of Common Prayer was almost extinct. In Scotland and America there were effected some changes which are both interesting and important. In 1689 William III. disestablished the Church in Scotland, and Presbyterianism was established in its place. The Church was subjected to a series of penal laws, and its numbers steadily diminished. It retained, however, a strong affection for Catholic tradition, and revised the Communion Office of 1637 so as to bring it into still closer conformity with primitive practice. The authentic version of this fine liturgy was published in 1764, and is unquestionably superior to any other Anglican service except the Litany. It was carried to America by Dr. Seabury, who was consecrated by Scottish bishops at Aberdeen in 1784 to be the first bishop of the Church in the United States. Seabury and other American churchmen resisted an insidious attempt which was ostensibly made to fit the Book of Common Prayer for American use, but was really intended to remodel it on sceptical and Unitarian lines. The sceptical revision was a failure, and Seabury succeeded in introducing into the Communion Office some of the most important parts of the Scottish service. At the present time the growth of the English people and the spread of the English language seem to foretell that the Book of Common Prayer will have an influence in the world as great as that of the early Roman Service Books which it so frequently resembles. But it certainly cannot fulfil its true function unless it is employed in the best possible manner. Our common prayers are often recited with a zeal destitute of knowledge, and sometimes with neither zeal nor knowledge. We are familiar with deviations from the spirit of the Book of Common Prayer for which excuses are sometimes found, but for which no adequate defence can be made. Such novelties from Belgium or Zürich formed no part of the religion which S. Augustine brought to England, and they injure the unity and the charity of his spiritual children. The law of worship is the law of faith, and any disloyalty to faith or discipline in public worship must rob our common prayers of that power to edify the believer and convert the wandering which has been granted by Jesus Christ to worship offered in His Name. The author has used the word 'mediævalist' to describe those members of the Church of England in the sixteenth century who preferred the mediaval English worship, while often rejecting various mediaval corruptions. The differences between these men and modern English Romanists make it unjustifiable to American use, but was really intended to remodel it on At the present time the growth of the English We are familiar with deviations from the spirit of The author has used the word 'mediævalist' to describe them as Romanists. The author has used |