Sursum Corda. A HANDBOOK OF INTERCESSION AND THANKSGIVING. ARRANGED BY W. H. FRERE AND A. L. ILLINGWORTII. Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving. THIRD THOUSAND. A. R. MOWBRAY & CO. TH 'HIS little book needs, I think, no recommendation. It will both explain and commend itself, and I hope and augur for it a very grateful reception from very many. But as the writers think that a prefatory word from one who bears my office may help it, I give this, with a deep sense of unworthiness to touch such a thing, but willingly alike for friendship's sake and from much gratitude for their gift to the Church. For such a book as this comes to us as one encouraging sign the more, amidst our difficulties and controversies, of the deepened life of our Church, and of those spiritual forces out of sight to which perhaps we owe it that in spite of all our faults and follies the Church's work is allowed to continue and to go forward. From two of the quiet places which remain in our noisy time—from a country parsonage and a religious community-it comes to us for our help. New and old meet in it: the fragrant treasures of devotion bequeathed to us by the centuries of the Church's past, together with the stress and complexity of the modern struggle, and the practical desire to pray requickened by the blessed revival of life and work. We cannot but have good hope for the Church in which such work is doing, and such worship is being offered. Devotion which is heart-language must needs take many moulds, suited to differences of temperament and training, and the same forms will not suit all equally. But in this book there is room for considerable variety. There is fulness in the number and detail of special collects; greater swiftness and concentration in the litanies; extreme brevity for the very busy in the general" prayer for each day; and freedom with guidance, in the schemes or heads of intercession, for those who wish only to be reminded methodically what to pray for, and then to be left to pray in their own words, or without words. 66 Particularly do I wish to ask attention to the treatment here given to Thanksgiving and to what is said. about it. I think there are some to whom this may come almost as a discovery of a new and sunny country near their home: I am sure that all of us have need in this as much as in any matter to grow in grace. I hope that the little book may travel a way of peace. I think that there is nothing in it that should offend, and that it may be widely accepted, even if here and there some omit what others delight to use. The Prayers for the Departed in particular are taken chiefly from ancient sources, and have the reserve and modesty which becomes those who remember our great ignorance, and in the lack of open revelation can do little more than mutely put before the mercy and care of GOD those whom, behind the veil, we think of, in that "holy keeping," to which we must so soon trust ourselves. The book, it will be remembered, is one of private devotion, and private devotion, guided by the precedents of antiquity, the practice of many loyal sons of the Reformed Church, and the instincts of the Christian heart, need not and will not bind itself by the austere rule of reticence which, under the strong stress of reaction from mediæval abuse, the Church thought well to impose upon herself in this respect in public worship. The matter is eminently one for the Apostolic rule of mutual toleration. The Kalendar (itself again for private use) claims no authority, and no two people would draw exactly the same list. May GOD of His grace give us less controversy and more devotion, and draw more of His people into that nearness to Himself in which there is indeed boldness and access with confidence through JESUS by the SPIRIT, but also the reserve of the veiled face, and the kept foot, and the tongue that fears to utter what it understands not, things too wonderful for it which it knows not ! And may each to whom this book comes gain from it some treasure, greater or less, of help, to be returned through prayer to the Treasury of the Church! EDW. ROFFEN. BISHOP'S HOUSE, KENNINGTON, S. E., EXPLANATORY PREFACE. THE HE following scheme of Intercession is not intended to be used by any one person in its entirety. The endeavour has rather been to provide for the varying needs of different minds, or of the same mind on different occasions. Thus, some may prefer simply to use the outline prefixed to each day, as a guide and reminder to their own mental prayer. Others will doubtless find it more helpful to use the collects as allotted, word for word, dwelling carefully on them until they become the natural expression of their own thought and desire. While there are others again to whom a litany more especially appeals, and for their use each day's intercessions have been thrown into that form. A division has been made in each outline as a suggestion to those who may prefer to make the scheme a fortnight's rather than a week's exercise; and the whole of this first part has been interleaved in the belief that, if each person will insert the names and needs best known to himself, the supplications for the whole world will become more real and concrete. The Thanksgivings which form the second part of the book have also been arranged for a week, and follow a threefold order, each day having one distinct idea embodied in it. But they may, as has been suggested for the Intercessions, be fitly spread over a fortnight, or even three weeks, rather than a week. This part of the book has not been interleaved, but there is room in the margin for such personal notes as may serve to |