shelter them, and a strengthening spirit to support them, they will know and feel for what important boon they pray-at the hands of what Almighty and Omniscient Being they ask assistance and relief. Believe me to be Your affectionate Father. In reading the beautiful service which formed the subject of the foregoing letter, there is one object which you must always endeavour to have before you, and one error which you must as constantly endeavour to avoid. The first, to impress your congregation with the feelings of devotion which the liturgy inspires ;-the second, to abstain from all appearance of consciousness of your own impressive delivery, that the man may be forgotten in the minister. The consequences of your non-observance of these cautions will be most serious G in either case, namely, the absence of all earnestness in the prayers of the congregation, and the probability that those prayers will be ineffectual at the throne of grace. Unless the heart be in the sacrifice, the incense is an abomination to the Lord. In giving you this necessary caution, I would guard you against possible abuses; the example of your brethren of the present day will, I trust, furnish you with but infrequent instances of this want of due devotion in the one case, and self-sufficiency in the other. To be able so to manage and modulate the voice that the varying beauties may be seen in every varying prayer, is a gift of nature, the enjoyment of which is not the fortunate lot of many amongst us; but there is an irreverence, the growth of inattention in some, and of indifference in others, which is well nigh fatal to the hal |