or a long period prosecuted with an energy that frequently arose
to bitterness. The vexed questions of hymn-singing and the use of
instruments in Churches being settled, there followed, or perhaps it
may be said there arose out of these, the further question of the
elaboration and improvement of other parts of worship.

In 1858 the Assembly of the Church of Scotland recommended to
congregations that were without a minister, the use in worship of a
book prepared by its authority, in which were embodied the prayers of
the Book of Common Order, together with much material from the
Directory of Worship. This action on the part of the Church was
regarded by some as indicating the existence of a spirit which
warranted the formation of "The Church Service Society." This Society
was formed by certain ministers of the Established Church who were
strongly impressed with the desirability of the adoption by the Church
of certain authorized forms of prayer for public worship, and of the
use of prescribed forms in the administration of the Sacraments. By
the publication of its constitution, in which it announced its object
as "The Study of the Liturgies ancient and modern of the Christian
Church, with a view to the preparation and ultimate publication of
certain forms of prayer for public worship, and services for the
administration of the Sacraments, the celebration of Marriage, the
Burial of the Dead," etc., it very early aroused vigorous opposition on
the part of many who saw in its organization an evident intention to
introduce into the Church a liturgical service. Such a purpose the
Society emphatically disavowed, and insisted that there was no desire
on the part of its members to encroach upon the simplicity of
Presbyterian worship, but claimed rather the desire to redeem the same
from lifelessness and lack of a devotional spirit with which they
declared it is so likely to be characterized. So effectively have the
fears of those who first uttered their objections been allayed, that
the Society is said to comprise in its membership, at the present time,
more than one-third of the ordained ministers of the Established
Church. The results of this Society's labors have been published in a
volume which is now in its seventh edition. It is a book of more than
400 pages, and is entitled, "Euchologion--A Book of Common Order." Its
contents seem to harmonize more with the views which were charged
against the originators of the