nine first commandments, should be changed into the plural number, and read only at the conclusion of the whole; and that the second petition, "Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech thee," should be read immediately after the words of our Lord. As the Collects for the king in the Communion Service appear to be superseded by one of the petitions in the prayer for the Church Militant, they might appropriately be omitted in this part of the Service, and used in the place of the Political Prayers in the Evening Service. It seems, indeed, desirable that the Evening Prayers should not retain so close a resemblance to the Morning Prayers as they do at present.

By the Rubric it is appointed that the sermon should precede the Offertory, and that if there be no Communion, the Prayer for Christ's Church Militant, together with one or more of the last Collects and the Benediction, shall afterwards be read. By general custom, though without any authority, the Offertory and the Prayer for the

Church Militant, are almost universally omitted, except when the Sacrament is administered; and on the latter occasions, the congregation, with the exception of the communicants, is dismissed immediately after the sermon. It is therefore proposed that the Offertory should be read, (during which time collections might be made for the poor from the whole congregation,) as well as the Prayer for the Church Militant, previously to the sermon. According to this arrangement the Sacramental Service would most appropriately commence with the Exhortation ;* and, with the exception of the following alterations, might be conducted as at present.

The first alteration proposed, consists merely of a slight abridgement of the different exhortations, similar to that which is adopted in the American Liturgy. The second, though equally simple in itself, is of far greater importance. Its object

* "Dearly beloved in the Lord ye that mind to come to the Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of our Saviour, Christ," &c.

is to remove the fatigue and weariness experienced by both minister and people, as well as a certain tendency to superstition, which may occasionally be generated in the minds of the ignorant, by the repetition of the same words to every communicant. This might be obviated by suitable persons being appointed to deliver the elements after the words had been audibly read by the minister; or, should such an inroad on longestablished customs, "hallowed to the feelings, and interwoven with the habits of the nation," excite painful sensations, the minister might be directed to pronounce the words only once, to as many as could conveniently kneel together at the rails of the communion-table, as is frequently done by our bishops at confirmation, and then deliver the elements to the different communicants. This usage has long prevailed in many populous parishes, and would doubtless have been much more extensively followed, had not conscientious motives deterred numbers of the clergy from deviating, even in this slight manner, from the express directions

of the Church. Praiseworthy, however, as the motives of such clergy may have been under our existing regulations, it ought never to be forgotten, that the object of all ritual appointments is to subserve the cause of religion, and that when actual experience or change of circumstances renders them liable to produce the opposite effects, the sooner they are legally abolished, the better.

A proceeding, of a somewhat similar nature to the foregoing suggestion, appears to have been adopted in the primitive Church. In St. Luke's Gospel, (xxii. 17,) we read that our Lord took the cup and said "Take this, and divide it among yourselves." The command in the original (λάβετε τοῦτο καὶ διαμερίσατε ἑαυτοῖς,) implies such a mutual distribution of it, as should allow to each his due portion. Indeed, throughout the New Testament Scriptures, where allusion is made to the celebration of the Lord's Supper, the expression is invariably the same; (λαβετε, φάγετε,) addressed in the plural number to the com

municants, collectively, and not individually. It may therefore be gathered from a collation of the different passages, that the sacramental words were but once used upon every occasion; and the elements after consecration sent among the persons who appeared at the sacred table, not given to each in succession by him that ministered, but passed along by the act of the company, and partaken together as it were "inter se mutuo," or, from hand to hand.

THE WEEK-DAY SERVICES.

Before the writer quits the consideration of the public services of the Church, a short observation may be requisite respecting the Week-day Prayers. In some parishes these are enjoined, and in others completely voluntary, emanating from the desire of the clergyman to afford additional means of instruction to his people. In the latter case, the evening has generally been selected, as affording the most convenient season for assembling a congregation. Might it not then be desirable that in all cases the