are a number of prayers suited to various occasions, taken from the proposed revision of the Reformed Dutch liturgy. The prayer "to be used at Sea," has been prepared for this work by the Rev. C. S. Stewart, U. S. N. Appended is the prayer for civil authorities, from the Protestant Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.

THE COLLECTS are short prayers, adapted to particular occasions, and designed to be introduced as may seem convenient, into the public services of the Church. Many of these prayers are of very early origin; some of them dating as far back as the year of our Lord 590, others still older, to the year 494; and a few have been traced to the year 483. The Collects here given are taken from the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, as revised in 1689 by the Royal Commissioners appointed in the reign of William and Mary. This revision was never completed, and indeed the results of it have but lately become public. Tillotson, Patrick, Stillingfleet, Tenison, and other eminent divines of the day, took a prominent part in the debates.

The Revised Liturgy of 1689, from which these Collects are taken, was prepared with a view to the satisfaction of the nonconformists, and the reconciling, as much as possible, of all differences between them and the Church of England. To this end, the objections and demands which at various times had been offered by opponents of the Prayer-Book, were collected, and made the basis of a careful revision. It had been a special matter of complaint, in reference to the Collects, that many of them were too brief, and not sufficiently scriptural, as to thought and expression. In these respects, as in others, the Commissioners sought to amend the various parts of the Liturgy; and so liberal and judicious was the course pursued by them, that the eminent nonconformist Calamy gave it as his opinion, that their scheme would have brought into the Church of England two thirds of the Dissenters. The certainty, however, that these changes, though approved by the Court, and by a majority of the bishops, would be rejected by the lower house of Convocation, prevented an actual adoption of the reforms contemplated by the Royal Commission; and their work remained under seal at Lambeth Palace, until, by order of the House of Commons, in 1854, it was published.

These Revised Collects have, therefore, a definite claim upon our regard, as prepared by some of the most pious and enlightened of the English divines, in express agreement with the views and requests of their nonconformist brethren. It would seem most fitting, that, after more than a century and a half, these prayers should be incorporated with a collection of the forms of worship that are peculiar to the Presbyterian Churches.