to grant us true repentance, and his holy Spirit,

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'Holy Spirit " in the same manner as recommended to be adopted before with the

words "holy gospel."

that those things may please him which we do at this present, and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy, so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Do not let your voice fall, or your delivery be in the least hasty, as you approach the conclusion of any of the prayers: this is too common a fault among the generality of Divines, and should be most carefully avoided*.

Now comes the Lord's. Prayer, and as it is customary for the congregation to repeat it with the Minister, Mr Garrick recommended the Clergyman to wait a considerable time

* The same rate of utterance should be carefully maintained while the same sentiment prevails. The loudness must be preserved to the end of each prayer, so that the remotest person may distinctly hear the whole. The fall is in the pitch, and should consist of a fourth in order to come to a cadence, and thus express conclusion.-R. C.

between the different clauses of the sentences, that the people may thereby be occasionally stopt in that confusion and indistinction of delivery, which they uninterruptedly practise, in common, from one end of the Prayer to the other, without hardly any resting. Pausing as long as you can with propriety, will check the continuation of this confused gabble, and the Minister reading with slowness and deliberation, the congregation will, without knowing it themselves, catch his manner of pronunciation, and the great object of public devotion will be thus considerably benefited.

Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed

Not, "hallow'd."

be thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done in 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.

The accentuation in the last clause, although the sense easily points out where it should be placed, is most shamefully neglected by many Divines.

And lead us not into temptation; But deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.

The latter part must be as distinctly and deliberately spoken as any other part of it. It is particularly necessary to point this out, as the contrary is usually adopted. To read the prayers movingly and fervently, you ought never to be in the smallest degree hasty in any part of them, but preserve an uniform and regular tenor of grave and deliberate pronunciation throughout the whole. This is sometimes so little attended to, that I have known the

prayers run over with as much ease and flippancy of expression, as if the reader were going through the news of the day*.

Priest. O Lord, open thou our lips;

Answer. And our mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

* Each petition of this prayer should be distinctly read: and the ascription of Majesty, Power and Glory, should be slowly read, as if each were given with a full knowledge of their scope and meaning.-R. C.

Priest. O God, make speed to save us.

Let the Minister be particularly devout, in these, as in all other, invocations.

Answer. O Lord, make haste to help us.

Priest.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son:

and to the Holy Ghost.

Answer. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen.

Priest. Praise ye the Lord.

Give these words a great body of dignified tone, in which let there be something of a commanding authority*.

Answer. The Lord's name be praised.

If those parts which alternately fall to the Minister are properly read by him, the difference between his manner of reading and that usually practised by the people, will forcibly strike them, and be the means of improving

* The expression of command is produced by a downward movement of pitch on the stressed syllables of the emphatic words.-R. C.

them in the mode of whatever they repeat, and, consequently, heighten the effect of public worship.

That part of the following psalm which is spoken by the Minister, ought to be given with an audible dignity of voice, and with a kind of satisfactory glow of joyful expression, taking care to preserve in the whole a certain look, voice, and manner befitting the sacredness of the occasion.

PSALM XCV.

O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.

Mr Garrick, in the beginning of this psalm, threw into his look, accompanied by an appropriate tone, an expression of great solicitation to praise the Creator, and of full conviction of the goodness and bounty of Providence in forgiving us our transgressions*.

* Joyfulness is expressed by bounding from syllable to syllable, with short quantities and some degree of abruptness on the stressed syllables. The melody of joy alternately rises and falls in pitch, but the rise is on the stressed syllables.-R. C.