lines, this arraignment of the Americans for their lack of
docility to the teachings of the Priest's Prayer Book is not devoid
of drollery.

It will happily illustrate the peculiar difficulties that beset
liturgical revision to close this resume of the censures of
_The Church Times_ by printing, side by side, the reviewer's
estimate of the changes proposed in the Confirmation Office and
the independent judgment of a learned evangelical divine of our
own Church upon the same point.

The Confirmation Service, as one of the very poorest in the Anglican
rites, stood particularly in need of amendment and enrichment,
especially by the removal of the ambiguous word "confirm" applied
to the acts of the candidates, whereby the erroneous opinion that
they came merely to confirm and ratify their baptismal promises,
and not to be confirmed and strengthened in virtue of something
bestowed upon them, has gained currency.

Thus far the English Ritualist. Here follows the American
Evangelical:

I still hope you will see your way clear to modify the present
draft of the proposed Confirmation Office, as it gives a much
higher Sacramentarian idea of it than the present, a concession
which will greatly please the Sacerdotalists, to which they are
by no means entitled.

The critic of _The Guardian_ is a writer of different make,
and entitled every way to the most respectful attention. His
fault-finding, which is invariably courteous, is mainly confined
to the deficiencies of _The Book Annexed_.

He would have had more done rather than less; but at the same
time clearly points out that under the restrictions which controlled
the Committee more could not fairly have been expected. He regrets
that in restoring the lost portions of _Venite_ and _Benedictus_
the Convention did not make the use of the complete form in every
case obligatory; and of the eight concluding verses of the latter
canticle, which under the rubric of _The Book Annexed_ are only
obligatory during Advent, he says, "Imagine their omission on
Christmas Day!"

To this criticism there are several answers, any one of which may
be held to be sufficient. In the first place, it should be remembered
that into the Committee's plan of enrichment there entered the
element of differentiation. The closing portion of the _Venite_
has a special appropriateness to Lent; the closing portion of the
_Benedictus_ a special appropriateness to Advent. Moreover, if any
congregations de