terrupt other people. But then I used to sit as near to the church door as I could; and, if the child would not be so quiet as one could wish, I could easily get out without making much disturbance. And then I had another way of managing sometimes. We had three or four kind sort of neighbours about us, who had little children as well as myself; and so we took it by turns to stay at home: I used to take care of all the children one day, whilst the rest of the neighbours went to Church; and another neighbour used to take care of them all another day and so, amongst us, we managed pretty well.

T. Well, wife, I think that was a very good way; and I guess you will not be long before you get hold of some of your neighbours to make that agreement.

But now I should be glad, William, if you would go on to tell me a little more about the Prayer-Book, as you promised. And first, I should like to know when the Prayer-Book was made, and who made it?

W. Why I wonder what that can signify! If the prayers be good, and suitable to your case and mine, what is it to either of us when they were made, or who made them?

T. Very true:-but yet, as I do not know much about these matters myself, I should like to be taught by them that do. Now, if these prayers were put together in times of great darkness and ignorance, or if they were put together by men who did not know much about the matter themselves, I should not feel as if I could depend on their being right.

W. Why no, that is true enough. And by the times of darkness and ignorance, I suppose you mean those times when there was nothing but the Popish religion in England; when there were no Bibles, nor Prayer-Books, in our own language; but every thing. was done in Latin.

T. Yes, those are the times I was thinking of; and they must have been times of wonderful ignorance: for, if the books were all in a foreign language,

how could such poor people as you and I ever understand a word about them? Why we might just as well have had no books at all. To be sure, great and learned men might know what they were about, and I dare say there might be many a good man even in such times as those.

W. To be sure. The learned understood the meaning of what they were doing; and, without a doubt, there were many good Christian men among them; and such sort of men were always wishing the people to be instructed as well as themselves; but they could not bring it about. At length, however, it pleased the Lord to let the light of the Gospel shine upon this kingdom; for, at the time of the Reformation, the Bible was put into the English language, so that every body might then have an opportunity of knowing what religion was.

T. Pray, William, what do you mean by the Reformation?

W. Why, I mean the time when all these things were reformed and set to rights; when the errors of Popery were laid aside. This must now be nearly three hundred years ago; this great change began in the time when Henry the Eighth was King of England. It was a great blessing that there were then so many holy, scriptural men, and so learned too, that they could take the Bible, and turn it out of those foreign languages into our own:-and then they were so fond of the work too! They seemed so desirous that all the people should have the Scriptures among them! And then, after Henry died, his son, Edward the Sixth, came to the throne;-an excellent young king! He encouraged every body to read the Scriptures, and bid all the holy and learned men to explain them to the people. It was a sad day for the godly people in England when this good king died: he was king, I think, only about seven years;-but he got a better crown in heaven. Then, after he was gone, came bloody Queen Mary; and she was always

trying to keep the people from the way of instruction; and to bring back the old days of ignorance again: but those godly men that the good young king had encouraged would not allow of it; they would never flinch from the true religion, and they were willing to be burned to death rather than that the people should be kept in darkness.

T. Yes, I have read about them in the Book of Martyrs. Latimer, and Cranmer, and Ridley, and many such holy men, were burnt to death, for the sake of the true religion of Christ.

W. Yes, and there would have been a great many more, I dare say, if it had not pleased God to take away this cruel queen in a very few years, and send us a better*. Then these good men, who had been so anxious to give the people the Bible, were likewise anxious that they should have a Book of Prayers according to the Bible; and they knew well what the Bible was; and this is the reason why the Prayer-Book has so much of the Bible in it, and that it is, as I may say, all over Scripture. The PrayerBook directs, that, every time we go to church, we shall hear two chapters of the Bible read: one out of the Old Testament, and one out of the New: besides the Epistle, and the Gospel, both commonly out of the New Testament; and then we have two or three chapters out of the book of Psalms, besides a great deal more out of the Bible; so that, even though a person cannot read, he may get to know a great deal about Scripture, if he goes constantly to church.

T. Well, I do not now wonder, at all, that there is so much of Scripture in the Prayer-Book, since you say that it was put together by such truly scriptural What a useful thing it was, to be sure, for the people to have a book of prayers in their own language, instead of going on with a book that they could not understand! But I should guess, that every

men.

Queen Elizabeth.

body was not pleased with all these amendments; I dare say that some of them would have rather kept to their old customs, and gone on in their ignorance.

W. O, yes; many, to be sure, were offended at these great improvements, and did not know what to think of them at first. But the wise and pious Reformers proceeded in their work by degrees. When first the young King Edward ordered a Prayer-Book to be made, it was not made just as it is now. But, in a few years afterwards, when the people got to think less of their old customs, and to see from the Bible, what was the right way of praying, then the rest of the old Popish ways were left off, and some more prayers were put into the book *. Many of the prayers were indeed used by the first Christians; I mean those godly believers that lived in the time when our blessed Saviour was in this world, or soon afterwards. These we may be sure would be kept. It is of great value to us to have the prayers which were used in those glorious times when the Gospel was first preached to the world, and before the ignorance, or craftiness, of men had tempted them to corrupt the truth..

T. Well, I thank you, William, for telling me these things. I see the value of the book now. To be sure, what a little benefit have I ever got from it! However, I see now where the fault lay; not in the Prayer-Book, but somewhere else rather nearer home. W. Well, neighbour, if you see the fault to be in yourself, that is the first step towards amendment. T. Well, I hope I shall find it so. The fault, to be sure, must have been in myself. What in the world could have ever been the matter with me, that I should have thought lightly of a book so full of treasures as this?-a book so according to Scripture, and so full of Scripture. Why, here we are taught to pray in the words of our Lord himself, and to The first book of King Edward VI. was published in 1548; the second in 1552.

worship in the way of his blessed Apostles. And these treasures were brought together for our use by those godly martyrs who knew so well what the. Gospel was, and who died for the sake of it. And they did not do the work in a hurried, careless manner, either; but took time about it, that they might do it well. To be sure, the Lord would bless the work of such men as these!

W. We cannot doubt it, Thomas.

T. And now, William, I should be much obliged to you, if you would show me a little of the plan of the book: for, when so much has been done for us, we ought certainly to give diligent heed to profit by it. W. To be sure;-and I'll try to show you some of the particulars, as well as I am able.

CHAPTER III.

THE SENTENCES.

William.

As soon as the Minister gets up to speak in the. church, the very first words he speaks come out of the Scripture: "When the wicked man turneth away. from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive." These words have been of great use to me. I know that I have often offended God, and so these words are very full of comfort to me. They contain, what we all stand in need of,―a message of pardon to repenting sinners.This, you. know, neighbour, is the Gospel message.

T. But does the Minister always begin with these same words?

W. No, not always the same. There are eleven sentences, as you will see, if you look into your Prayer