ork, 1855, p. 190.)

The origin of only one of the minor offices of the Geneva liturgy
can be distinctly traced to another and older source. The form for
the celebration of marriage is taken bodily from the "Maniere et
Fasson" of Farel, with the omission of two or three unimportant
sentences, and the alteration of a very few words--a trifling
change, dictated in each case by Calvin's keener literary taste.
The form for baptism, Calvin tells us expressly, was somewhat
roughly drafted by himself at Strasbourg, when the children of
Anabaptists were brought to him for baptism from distances of five
or ten leagues around. (Adieux de Calvin, Bonnet, ii. 578.)

The liturgy of Geneva, composed with rapidity under the pressure of
the times, but with the skill and fine literary finish that are
wont to characterize even the most hurried of Calvin's productions,
has maintained its position undisputed to the present time, being
the oldest of existing forms of worship in the reformed churches.
The gradual change in the French language since the date of its
composition has rendered necessary some modernizing of the style
both of the prayers and of the accompanying psalms. These
modifications, much more radical in the case of the metrical
psalms, took place in the eighteenth century, and commended
themselves so fully to the good sense of all French-speaking
Protestants as soon to be everywhere adopted. The MS. records of
the French church in New York (folio 45) contain, under date of
March 6, 1763, a resolution unanimously adopted in a meeting of the
heads of families and communicants, to change "la vielle version
des Pseaumes de David qui est en uzage parmy nous, et de prandre et
introduire dans notre Eglize les Pseaumes de la plus nouvelle
version qui est en uzage dans les Eglises de Geneve, Suisse et
Hollande." The liturgy has always been printed at the end of the
psalter, and the change of the one involved that of the other. It
has been noted above that the "Confession of Sins" was the most
characteristic part of Calvin's liturgy. In fact, the initial words
of this confession, "Seigneur Dieu, _Pere Eternel_ et
Toutpuissant," came to stand in the minds of the Roman Catholics
who heard them for the entire Protestant service. Bernard Palissy
accordingly tel