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Copyright,

AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION,

1875.

SIXTH EDITION.

UNIVERSITY PRESS:

JOHN WILSON & SON, CAMBRIDGE.

IN

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N these brief services of devotion, the purpose has been, not to restrict each page to a single topic, but so far as possible, while preserving harmony, to give to every day some expression of the soul's varied experience and need.

The introductory sentences are from the Bible. The poetical selections have been gathered from all accessible sources, having less regard for novelty than for the choicest utterance of faith and piety. While the new may charm by freshness, the old grows richer by tender and precious association. For the prayers, these pages are indebted largely to ancient liturgies, reproduced in many modern service-books; also, to many of the living and the dead, whose names are not given, since the material they furnish has sometimes been altered, or condensed to adapt it to the required brevity and simplicity. To the Hymn Book and Service Book prepared by Rev. James Martineau, acknowledgments are especially due. The stanzas taken from Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, and Holmes are used by permission of James R. Osgood & Co., from their copyright editions.

The spirit shrinks from too weighty an encumbrance of letter and form; and the neglect of daily prayer in the home is doubtless partly due to the formalism with which it has been burdened. The trellis is not the vine; much less is it the fruit. Yet the trellis has its value if it serves to lift the vine from the earth into the fresh air and gracious sunlight that shall quicken it to bear more ample and luscious fruit. With its slight framework of ritual, may this book of "Praise and Prayer" help our souls to rise "Daily" into the celestial atmosphere, where the Holy Spirit shall inspire that life more abundantly, the best expression of which is found in richer, sweeter fruits of daily living.

R. R. S.

Nothing less than the majesty of God, and the powers of the world to come, can maintain the peace and sanctity of our homes, the order and serenity of our minds, the spirit of patience and tender mercy in our hearts. Then only shall we wisely economize moments when we anticipate for ourselves an eternity; and lose no grain of wisdom, when we discern the glorious and immortal structure its successive accumulations shall raise. Then will even the merest drudgery of duty cease to humble us, when we transfigure it by the glory of our own spirit. Seek ye, then, the things that are above, where your life is hid with Christ in God.

JAMES MARTINEAU.

THE
HE LORD is my shepherd: I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he
leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me: thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil: my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for

ever.

FROM all that dwell below the skies

Let the Creator's praise arise;
Let the Redeemer's name be sung

Through every land, by every tongue.

Eternal are thy mercies, Lord,

Eternal truth attends thy word;

Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore,

Till suns shall rise and set no more.

UR Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

OUR

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

To prayer, to prayer! for the morning breaks,
And earth in her Maker's smile awakes;

His light is on all below and above,
The light of gladness, and life, and love;
Oh, then, on the breath of this early air,
Send upward the incense of grateful prayer.

Awake, awake! and gird up thy strength,
To join God's holy band at length;

To Him who unceasing love displays,

Whom the powers of nature unceasingly praise,
To Him thy heart and thy hours be given;
For a life of prayer is the life of heaven.

HENRY WARE, Jr.

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