FOR CHURCH-HELPERS. BY B. COMPTON, RECTOR OF ST. PAUL, COVENT GARDEN. OTHE LONDON: BELL & DALDY, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1870. 138. g 449. PREFACE. HESE devotions are designed to meet a THES growing want in religious life. The church is supplied with devotions for the clergy, and for certain classes of her devout laity; for the sisters of mercy on the one hand, and for those fully engaged in secular life on the other. But the recent development of professional and semi-professional lay-work in the church has brought out a considerable class of persons, who give the whole or a part of their time to helping the clergy, and to preparing the way for them by various works of love towards the poor and afflicted. They are commonly prevented by the engrossing nature of their duties (such as nursing, teaching, &c.), or by the unavoidable avocations of secular life, from observing frequent and regular hours of public worship; and for their requirements devotions adapted to ordinary life are insufficient, while those which imply a consecration, or lifelong separation from secular work, are unwholesome. This collection is intended primarily for the highest classes of such church-helpers, viz., deaconesses commissioned by the bishops of our church, and female members of missions to the heathen, whether acting separately, or gathered together in communities. But parts of these devotions may be useful to those who cannot escape some of the labours of secular life, to men as well as women, to readers,* catechists, teachers, district visitors, &c., to church-helpers (diákovo), in short, of various degrees of efficiency. It will be seen from the meagreness of the general devotions, e. g., those for Holy Communion, for the seasons and holy days, that this work is not intended to supersede more general collections, but rather to provide The revival of this order of semi-professional church officers in several of our dioceses is, we may hope, a step to the revival of the primitive order of professional deacons. additional devotional help for those servants of God who breathe the atmosphere of active service in the church of Christ. Two features of the book seem to require some justification. In the first place, it contains no psalms in a complete form. When wanted, they are always at hand in the Prayer Book. But, edifying as they are for general devotion, very few of them are suitable in their entirety for special aspects of private devotion. Even the penitential psalms require very careful study before they can be tolerably appreciated; while to use a whole psalm for the sake of a single expression or allusion (as is very commonly recommended), savours of unmeaning speaking and unreality, inasmuch as the connection of the remainder of the inspired poem with the expression which has determined the selection is often not easy to be recognised. Secondly, the words of the Book of Common Prayer are very sparingly employed as material. To very many people it is distasteful to use them in a dislocated state. Moreover, those who use these devotions will probably enjoy the privilege of |