esent day would be superfluous; I shall
therefore, in speaking of it, confine myself to the distinctive
and characteristic points in which it differs from the Prayer
Books that have succeeded it.

It is worthy of note that in the title page of the First Book
there is a clear distinction drawn between the Church Universal,
or what we call in the _Te Deum_ "the holy Church throughout all
the world," and that particular Church to which King Edward's
subjects, in virtue of their being Englishmen, belonged. The book
is said to be "the Book of the Common Prayer and administration of
the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of _The Church_,
after the use of the Church of England." "_The Church_" is
recognized as being a larger and, perhaps, older thing than the
_Church of England_, while at the same time it is intimated that
only through such use of these same prayers and sacraments as the
English Church ordains and authorizes can English folk come into
communion with the great family of believers spread over the whole
earth.

The Preface is a singularly racy piece of English, in which with
the utmost plainness of speech the compilers give their reasons
for having dealt with the old services as they have done. This
reappears in the English Prayer Book of the present day under the
title "Concerning the Service of The Church," and so described is
placed after the Preface written in 1662 by the Revisers of the
Restoration.

The Order for Daily Morning Prayer, as we name it, is called in
Edward's First Book "An Order for Matins daily through the year."
Similarly, what we call the Order for Daily Evening Prayer was
styled "An Order for Evensong." These beautiful names, "Matins"
and "Evensong," which it is a great pity to have lost, for surely
there is nothing superstitious about them, disappeared from the
book as subsequently revised, and save in the Lectionary of the
Church of England have no present recognition. One of them,
however, Evensong, seems to be coming very generally into colloquial
use. The Order for Matins began with the Lord's Prayer. Then, after
the familiar versicles still in use, including two that have no
place in our American book, "O God, make speed to save me. O Lord,
make haste to help me," there followed in full the 95th Psalm, a
portion of which is known to us as the _Venite_. From this point
the service proceeded, as in the English Prayer Book of to-day,
through the Collect for Grace, where it c