FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP WITH EXTRACTS FROM THE PSALTER AND OTHER PARTS OF SCRIPTURE, BY ROBERT LEE, D.D. REGIUS PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL CRITICISM AND BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, MINISTER OF GREYFRIARS', ONE OF HER MAJESTY'S CHAPLAINS IN ORDINARY IN SCOTLAND, AND ONE OF THE DEANS OF THE CHAPEL ROYAL. Second Edition. EDINBURGH: JOHN MENZIES. LONDON: HOULSTON & WRIGHT. MDCCCLVIII. 138.0.298. PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. THE approbation with which these Prayers have been received has induced me to revise them with care; in consequence, some slight alterations, chiefly in arrangement, have been made. I have now also completed my original design, by adding a Fourth Sunday's Prayers to the Three contained in the former Edition, and by subjoining Services for the Administration of Baptism and of the Lord's Supper, for the Celebration of Marriage, and for the Burial of the Dead. In composing these additions I have availed myself, to some extent, of materials found in other works, ancient and modern. But several of these Prayers have been so long in hands, and have been so much corrected and altered, and so often rewritten, that it is not now easy for me to separate those portions which are derived or copied from the rest. Nor is it of much consequence. The substance of all prayers must, in the nature of things, be the same. Probably, however, the work would have been better if I had copied and appropriated more. In this Edition of the Extracts from the Psalter, those passages have been left out which are embodied in the Four Sundays' Prayers; and thus room has been made for a number of other compositions which are found scattered over various books of the Old and New Testament. These compositions, though not included in the Psalter, should be reckoned Psalms as much as any that are comprised in that collection; being not only poetical in spirit and devotional in sentiment, but metrical, and even in many cases lyrical in form. These Psalms, no less than those extracted from the Psalter, will be found admirably adapted for Christian worship, whether in public or in private. On the whole, I have spared no pains to render this work as perfect as I could, according to my idea. May God command His blessing; and may He bestow upon all His servants the Spirit of grace and supplication; without which the most perfect prayers are but empty formalities, dead words, unacceptable to God, unprofitable to ourselves. EDINBURGH, 20th October 1858. PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. THE following Prayers are a selection from a much greater number which the Author has composed at different times for his own use in public worship; and they are published in the belief that they will be acceptable to the members of his own congregation-and in the hope that they may prove useful to others, such as emigrants, colonists, and the like, who, being far removed from a church, may yet desire to celebrate Divine worship on the Lord's Day, with their neighbours and the members of their own families. This kind of composition, though it may appear at first sight extremely easy, will be found, by any . one who comprehends the qualities which should distinguish it, to be very difficult. Accordingly, it is remarkable that few eminently successful examples of it have appeared in modern times-fewer probably than in any other department of religious literature. The author of the following Prayers has done his best endeavour that they should not be declamatory, |