ning Prayer is of itself a sufficient reward for years
of effort, but this is only a small part of our harvest. The new
opening sentences for Morning and Evening Prayer, which have so
"adorned and beautified" our observance of great festivals, the
remodelling of the Ash-Wednesday service, the recovered Feast of
the Transfiguration, the various provisions for adapting the
Church's worship to the exigencies of times and seasons, the
increased freedom in the use of the Psalter, all these go to make
up an aggregate of betterment the measure of which will be more
fully understood as time goes on. "_Parturiunt montes_" is an easy
verdict to pronounce; it remains to be proved whether in this case
it is a just one to render. If there are some (as doubtless some
there are) who hold that the sample book presented at Philadelphia
in 1883, faulty as it confessedly was, is still, all things
considered, a better book for American needs than the standard
finally adopted at Baltimore, week before last, if there are some
who deeply regret the failure to include among our special offices
one for the burial of little children, and among our prayers
intercessions for the country, for the families of the land, for
schools of good learning, for employers and those whom they employ,
together with many other forms of supplication gathered from the
wide field of English liturgiology--if, I say, there arc some who
are of this mind they must comfort themselves with the reflection
that, after all, they are a minority, that the greater number of
those upon whom rested the responsibility of decision did not wish
for these additions, and that the things which finally found
acceptance were the things unanimously desired. For, when we think
of it, this is perhaps the very best feature of the whole thing,
looked at in its length and breadth, that there is no defeated
party, no body of people who feel that they have a right to fret
and sulk because unpalatable changes have been forced upon them by
narrow majorities. It is a remarkable fact, that of the many scores
of alterations effected, it can be truly said that, with rare, very
rare exceptions, they found, when it came to the decisive vote,
what was practically a unanimous consent. They were things that
everybody wanted.

As to the annoyance and vexation experienced by worshippers
during the years the revision has been in progress, perhaps the
very best thing that can be done, now that the end is so