hey profess to be, when he greets the community. [Rom. viii. 9; 1 Cor.
xvi. 22; 2 Cor. xiii. 5; Gal. v. 6.] But he says also, "If any man have
not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His"; "If any man love not the
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema"; "Examine yourselves, whether ye
be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not that Jesus Christ is
in you--except ye be [Greek: adokimoi], counterfeits?" "In Jesus Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith
which worketh by love." Such sentences throw a flood of holy and
searching light on the sense in which St Paul "took them all for
granted." And the Prayer Book is in true harmony with both parts of the
Apostle's method.

WHAT IT TAKES FOR GRANTED IN THE WORSHIPPER.

And then, think what the Book _does_ thus searchingly and helpfully
"take for granted." It assumes a deep sense of sin, such a sense as is
indeed "grievous unto us." It takes for granted our deep desire both for
pardon and for spiritual victory. It assumes our desire to be "kept this
day without sin"; to "follow the only God with pure hearts and minds";
to "be continually given to all good works"; to "be enabled by the Lord
to live according to His will"; to have "all our doings ordered by His
governance"; to have "such love to Him poured into our hearts that we
may love Him above all things." It assumes our desire to "read, mark,
learn, and inwardly digest all the Holy Scriptures." It assumes our
readiness to "suffer on earth for the testimony of the truth, looking up
steadfastly to heaven, and by faith beholding the glory that shall be
revealed." It assumes our adoring devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ, and
that we present "ourselves, our souls and bodies, a reasonable, holy,
and living sacrifice," to our God.

I heard a few years ago of a remarkable case of secession from the
Church of England. A thoughtful and conscientious man left us because,
as he said, he could no longer seem to concur in such words of intense
spiritual reality and surrender _while he did not fully mean them_. On
his principles, I fear there ought to be a large exodus from our Church.
But that is not the fault of the Church, or of the Church's Book. It is
the fault of the worshippers, and it is a solemn call to us not so much
to criticize the Liturgy as to "examine _ourselves_."

THE PRAYER BOOK AS A WEAPON.

In this connexion I am reminded of a characteristic saying of an
honoured frien