are bestowed ever as He wills and ordains. A service commemorating the dead would be an equally public avowal of our practical belief in the Communion of Saints, as well as the expression of a firm conviction that death, though the end of our time of probation, is but the door of Eternity; and would give the lie to the deadly dogma of Indifferentism, now current and so popular, which is summed up in that dark declaration of the self-satisfied sceptic-" Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." In truth, when, as a National Church, we have duly measured our loss through the influence of enfeebled statements in our public services regarding Prayer for the Departed, we shall be better able to effect a needful change, and complete a constructive reformation, as most necessary for the times in which we live. If this volume should in any degree contribute to the promotion of such an object, the Author's aim and hope will have been more than satisfied. It now remains for him publicly to acknowledge his obligations to Dr. Littledale, not only for having drawn his attention to the very early Jewish inscriptions in the Crimea, containing Prayers for the Dead, but also for providing him with examples of the most remarkable of those existing, which are embodied in a note at pp. 33 and 34. He is also specially indebted to an essay on the general subject from the pen of the Rev. Malcolm MacColl, M.A., Rector of St. George's, Botolph Lane, from which a lengthy quotation will be found in the twelfth chapter. Mr. De Lisle, of Garendon Park, Sir Alfred Slade, and Sir Charles L. Young, have likewise afforded him acceptable information. As regards the catena of post-Reformation inscriptions provided in Appendix No. XI., more than fourfifths have been copied by the Author from monumental memorials personally inspected from time to time during the past twenty years; collected, in the first instance, for use in the preparation of a Paper on "Christian Epitaphs," which he had the honour of reading before the Oxford Architectural Society in the year 1853. For the rest he is indebted to the Rev. Thomas Hugo, M.A., F.S.A., Rector of West Hackney; to the Rev. Prebendary Walcott, B.D., F.S.A., Precentor of Chichester Cathedral; to the Rev. J. T. Fowler, M.A., F.S.A. of the University of Durham; to John Gough Nichols, Esq., F.S.A., of Holmwood Park, Dorking; to H. W. King, Esq., of Tredegar Square; to W. Consitt Boulter, Esq., b F.S.A., of Hull; and to several correspondents of The Church Times; to each and all of whom he gratefully returns his thanks. 6, LAMBETH TERRACE, LONDON, Nov. 16, 1871. F. G. L. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE. IV. THE ORDER FOR THE BURIAL OF INFANTS, ACCORDING TO THE ROMAN RITE (TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH) VI. EXTRACT FROM THE COMMUNION SERVICE IN EDWARD VI.'S. FIRST PRAYER BOOK; TOGETHER WITH THE CELEBRATION OF THE IX.-GRACES USED AT THE COLLEGES OF OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE, AND |