th in said book, or otherwise authorized by this Church,
shall be used before or after such sermon or lecture.[26]

"And note further also that on any day the Morning Prayer, the
Litany, or the Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper
may be used as a separate and independent service, provided that
no one of these services shall be disused habitually."

It may seem harsh to characterize this act as the mutilation of a
monument; but really it does seem to be little else. The old
Ratification of 1789 is an historic landmark; it is the sign-manual
of the Church of White's and Seabury's day, and ought never to be
disturbed or tampered with while the Prayer Book stands. The year
1889 might very properly see a supplemental Ratification written
under it; and testifying to the fact of Revision; but to write into
that venerable text special directions as to what may be done on
days other than Ash-Wednesday, and what must not be done without
2 Cor. xiii. 14, is very much as if the City Government of Cambridge
should cause to be cut upon the stone under the Washington elm which
now records the fact that there the commander of the American armies
first drew his sword, divers and sundry additional items of
information, such as the distance to Watertown, the shortest path
across the common, etc., etc.

Why the Convention after having entrusted to a Joint Committee,
by a decisive vote, the task of devising means for securing for
the Prayer Book "increased flexibility of use," should have thought
it necessary subsequently to take up with this compromise of a
compromise (for such the proposal to amend the Ratification really
is) it is difficult to say. Perhaps it was with the determination
to have, at any rate, something to fall back upon in case the larger
and more comprehensive measure should come to naught.

The rubric is confessedly the proper place for directions as to
how to use the services, and but for the very natural and defensible
objection on the part of some to touching the Prayer Book at all,
there never would have been any question about it.[27] This
objection having been at last waived, a straight path is now open
to the end desired, and it ought to be followed even at the cost
of three years more of delay.

Returning to the general subject, and still following the order of
the Table of Contents, we come to Prayers and Thanksgivings upon
several Occasions.

Here it would be well to note more intelligibly