after the second lesson, the present writer offers no opinion.
There are some who warmly advocate the replacement, and there is,
unquestionably, much to be said in favor of it. It is unlikely
that any doctrinal motive dictated the abbreviation.

Pausing a moment at the Creeds for the insertion of a better title
than "_Or this_" before the confession of Nicaea, we pass to the
versicles that follow.

Here again it would be enrichment to restore the words of the
English book, although the task of finding an equally melodious
equivalent for _O Lord, save the Queen_ might not be easy.

Happily the other versicles are such as no civil revolution can
make obsolete. It will never be amiss to pray,

_Endue thy ministers with righteousness_.

Answer. _And make thy chosen people joyful_.

These are all the alterations for which the present Morning Prayer
considered as a form of Divine Service for Sundays would seem to
call. It will be observed that they are far from being of a radical
character, that they affect the structure of the office not at
all, and touch the contents of it but slightly.

The case is altered when we come to the Order for Evening Prayer.
Here there is a demand, not indeed for any structural change, but
for very decided enrichment by substitution. The wording of the
office is altogether too exact an echo of what has been said only
a few hours before in Morning Prayer. It betokens a poverty of
resources that does not really exist, when we allow ourselves thus
to exhort, confess, absolve, intercede, and give thanks in the
very same phrases at three in the afternoon that were on our lips
at eleven in the morning.

Doubtless liturgical worship owes a good measure of its charm to
the subtle power of repetition; but the principle is one that must
be handled and applied with the most delicate tact, or virtue goes
out of it. We must distinguish between similarity and sameness.
The ordered recurrence of accents is what makes the rhythm of
verse; but for all that, there is a difference between poetry and
sing-song, just as there is a difference between melody and monotony.
Moreover, the taste of mankind undergoes change as to the sorts of
repetition which it is disposed to tolerate. No modern poet of
standing would venture, for instance, to employ identical epithets
to the extent that Homer does, making Aurora "rosy-fingered"
every time she appears upon the scene, and Juno as invariably
"ox-eyed." People were