and says, "I do not like this or that," or "This is a good
argument, but that is a bad one," or "I do not like this person so much
as that," and so on; I mean when a man acts in all respects as if he
was at home, and not in God's House,--all I can say is, that he
ventures to do in God's presence what neither Cherubim nor Seraphim
venture to do, for they veil their faces, and, as if not daring to
address God, praise Him to each other, in few words, and those
continually repeated, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.

What I have said has been enough to suggest what it is to serve God
acceptably, viz. "with reverence and godly fear," as St. Paul says. We
must not aim at forms for their own sake, but we must keep in mind
where we are, and then forms will come into our service naturally. We
must in all respects act as if we saw God; that is, if we believe that
God is here, we shall keep silence; we shall not laugh, or talk, or
whisper during the Service, as many young persons do; we shall not gaze
about us. We shall follow the example set us by the Church itself. I
mean, as the words in which we pray in Church are not our own, neither
will our looks, or our postures, or our thoughts, be our own. We
shall, in the prophet's words, not "do our own ways" there, nor "find
our own pleasure," nor "speak our own words;" in imitation of all
Saints before us, including the Holy Apostles, who never spoke their
own words in solemn worship, but either those which Christ taught them,
or which the Holy Ghost taught them, or which the Old Testament taught
them. This is the reason why we always pray from a book in Church; the
Apostles said to Christ, "Lord, teach us to pray," and our Lord
graciously gave them the prayer called the Lord's Prayer. For the same
reason we too use the Lord's Prayer, and we use the Psalms of David and
of other holy men, and hymns which are given us in Scripture, thinking
it better to use the words of inspired Prophets than our own. And for
the same reason we use a number of short petitions, such as "Lord, have
mercy upon us," "O Lord, save the Queen," "O Lord, open Thou our lips,"
and the like, not using many words, or rounding our sentences, or
allowing ourselves to enlarge in prayer.

Thus all we do in Church is done on a principle of _reverence_; it is
done with the thought that we are in God's presence. But irreverent
persons, not understanding this, when they come into Church, and find
no