WHEN FIRST THINE EYES UNVEIL, GIVE THY SOUL LEAVE
TO DO THE LIKE; OUR BODIES BUT FORERUN

THE SPIRIT'S DUTY: TRUE HEARTS SPREAD AND HEAVE
UNTO THEIR GOD AS FLOWERS DO TO THE SUN;

GIVE HIM THY FIRST THOUGHTS THEN; SO SHALT THOU KEEP
HIM COMPANY ALL DAY, AND IN HIM SLEEP.

WALK WITH THY FELLOW-CREATURES; NOTE THE HUSH
AND WHISPERINGS AMONG THEM. NOT A SPRING
OR LEAF BUT HATH HIS MORNING HYMN; EACH BUSH
AND OAK DOTH KNOW I AM. CANST THOU NOT SING!
O, LEAVE THY CARES AND FOLLIES! GO THIS WAY,
AND THOU ART SURE TO PROSPER ALL THE DAY.

Preface.

THE late lamented Rev. THOMAS J. YOUNG, assistant minister of St. Michael's church, Charles ton, S. C., among the last of his most faithful and earnest labors for "Christ and the Church," prepared the present volume for the press, with she brief and modest introductory note which follows:

"The American Editor, in 1evising this volume for publication, has had occasion to make very few alterations, excepting such as are called for by the nature of our political institutions and the phraseology of the American Prayer Book. Uccasionally, an expression, liable to be misun derstood and therefore to interfere with the general circulation of a most unexceptionable and evangelical Book of Devotions,' has been changed; but this has been deemed necessary in not more than two or three instances.

"The additions to the volume have been so few, as scarcely require to be mentioned. Several sentences from Bishop Cosin's 'Collection of Private Devotions,' have been added to the 'Directions concerning the Method of Daily Devotion:' and, in an Appendix, have been introduced Daily Devotions for the third, sixth, and ninth hours of the day, taken from a little vol ume, entitled 'The Hours.'

"These are all the additions which the Editor has deemed it advisable to make at the present time. It was in contemplation to throw into the form of an Appendix, brief instructions for those preparing for Baptism, Confirmation, and the Supper of the Lord; but the fear of adding too much to the size and cost of the volume, has prevented this. Should the work meet with the success which it merits as a Book of Private Devotions deserve, these additions may be made in a second edition. In the mean time, he heartily commends it to all the members of the Church, being well assured that the constant use of it will be for their souls' health. T. J. Y."

To write a recommendatory preface to a book of devotions is a somewhat perplexing task; it is a subject on which so much may be said, and yet so very little, need be said. If there is a work which can recommend itself, one which it seems almost presumptuous to speak for, it is a manual of this sort,-a book of prayers-a guide to the presencechamber of the Almighty-a collection of "words" for sinners to take with them, and turn to the Lord: -and though much may be written, and very profitably too, on the subject of prayer, its blessedness, its dignity, its efficacy, the comfort of using it, the danger of neglecting it, yet this is hardly the proper place for such an essay to be introduced; this is not a book to sit down and read, but to kneel down and use; there is no need to describe and recommend what we are actually about to feel and to enjoy: no one would keep children from their parents' arms with a lecture on filial affection, or detain hungry guests from a promised banquet by a long invitatory

harangue. The few words, therefore, which I shall venture to prefix to this work shall consist simply in a short account of the object with which it was compiled, and one or two remarks on certain peculiarities of its construction.

In the first place, no apology is required for its appearance, or rather reappearance: many works of a similar nature were indeed already published when the "Horæ Sacræ" first offered itself to notice; but it soon met with such acceptance that the first edition was presently exhausted; and the only fault objected to it was the smallness of its size, and it was very generally suggested, that the same work enlarged would be still more approved. This requirement has now been complied with; and it is confidently hoped that its present larger bulk will not be found more than in proportion to its increased utility.

It is, indeed, one of the most favorable features of the present time, in a spiritual point of view, that there should be so rapid a demand for books of a devotional character, such as are intended to assist the Christian in the work of private prayer, and confession, and self-examination: this must surely prove that there is much real good going on; that piety is increasing not only in extent but in sounduess and simplicity; she is retiring from the corners of the streets, to which some would have thrust her, to the closet and the silent sanctuary, so as not to be