y and the Holy
Communion in full, but why allow these superfluous pages to crowd
out others that are really needed?[35]

It has already been explained how the room now occupied by the
"Selections" might be economized, and by the same simple device
the space engrossed by divers psalms here and there in the Occasional
Offices, _e_. _g_., Psalm li in the Visitation of Prisoners, and
Psalm cxxx in the Visitation of the Sick could be made available
for other use.

Again, why continue to devote a quarter of a page of precious
space to the "Prayer for imprisoned debtors," seeing that now,
for a long time past, there has been no such thing in the United
States as imprisonment for debt? By availing ourselves of only a
portion of these possible methods of garnering space, all that is
desired might be accomplished, without making the Prayer Book
bulkier by a single leaf than it is to-day.

But would a Prayer Book thus enriched be accepted by the Church
at large? Is there any reason to think that the inertia which
inheres in all large bodies, and to a singularly marked degree
in our own Communion, could be overcome? The General Convention
can give an approximate answer to these questions; it cannot settle
them decisively, for it is a body which mirrors only to a certain
extent the real mind and temper of the constituencies represented
in it. One thing is certain, that only by allowing fullest possible
play to the principle of "local option" could any wholly new piece
of work on the part of revisionists, however excellent it might be
in itself considered, find acceptance. To allow features introduced
into the body of an existing service to be accounted optional,
would indeed be impossible, without gendering the very wildest
confusion. Upon such points the Church would have to decide
outright, for or against, and stand by her decisions. But as
respects every additional and novel Office proposed, the greatest
care ought to be taken to have the indefinite An rather than the
definite _The_ prefixed to it. Before such new uses are made binding
on all, they must have met and endured the test of thorough trial
by some. This is only fair.

But there is a limit, it must be remembered, in the Church's case
to the binding power of precedent and prescription. The social
order changes, and of these tides that ebb and flow it is our
bounden duty to take note. Had mere aversion to change, dogged
unwillingness to venture an experiment always