The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-01 00:00:00

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LONDON:
SATURDAY MORNING. OCTOBER 1, 1842.

We are not much inclined to criticise the lan-
,guage of prayer, but the public has a right to
demand that the prayers ordained by authority,
azid to be repeated in all the churches and
chapels in England and Wales to-morrow, shall
express sentiments that are very generally felt.

To ordain prayers at all, seems to us a usurpa-
tion of the right of conscience ; at the same
tune it takes away all spontaniety from prayer,
ana destroys its merit. Nevertheless, if autho-
i-,:y will interfere in such matters, it ought to
/a'.:2 especial care to commit no mistake either
io sentiment or language.
The first part of the' prayer seems to us to sin
against good sense and good language. It says,
" 0 Goo, through whose good Providence the
earth yieldeth food for ithe sustenance of man,"

To pass over the degradation of Providence,
usuallyemployed substantively to signifyGoD, into
the denomination of one of his attributes, why is
the idea, suggested of the possibility of a bad
l'rovidence by using the epithet good ? Can
t.:ere be a bad Providence ? Is it possible for a
Providence, particularly the Providence of GOD,
to be other than good ? Is not the use of the
)rd good, then, intended—we presume, to en-
iluee the idea of GoDa—violation of good sense
a:.l good taste?
Again, the prayer says, " Give us grace, we
.c.unbly beseech Thee, that, whilst we receive
thy bounty with thankfulness, we may regard
t:.1? blessing; bestowed on us as a call to repent-
..;:ce, and turn from the evil of our ways." This
prayer, it must be recollected, is to be used by
ail the people, and especially by the poor, for
whose benefit the Church is said to exist; and
what must the poor think of being enjoined to
pr.ly that they may regard a bountiful harvest—
which makes it probable that they may, perhaps,
for the first time these four years, be able to get
a sufficiency of food—as a call to repentance ?
What have they to repent of in relation to food,
that this idea of punishment and sin should be
intruded on them by the priests, and by men in
authority, in conjunction with the blessing of a
goon harvest, with which GOD has gladdened
tlLe earth?

• The connection of a blessing with repentance
is .of itself a contradiction, and is contrary to the
whole tenor and scope of the Christian religion,
which connects punishments, not blessings, with
sin, and sends the former, not the latter, as mo-
:yes for repentance. It may be, indeed, that
those who drew up the prayer have many and
urgent reasons for repentance in relation to the
article • of food—repentance for having in-
dulged in it too largely, and repentance for
withheld it from the people ; but
right have they to make their feel-
ings the guide to the prayers of the true- '
hearted, patient, and suffering people? If
one thing be calculated more than another to
brillg the public worship of the ALMIGUTY
into . discredit, it is this meddling with,
by authority, and decreeing, prayers which
do not correspond to the feelings of the
people. Their hearts, we believe and hope,
overflow with gratitude to the Great Giver of
ail good, and it is totally at variance with such
feelings to regard theta in conjunction with a
good harvest as calls to repentance.
The prayer further says, g‘ Remove from
amongst us all cause of strife and contention,
put an end to our unhappy divisions." We pre-
sume.those words are used with a direct refer-
ence to the political disputes which exist, the
consequence of misgovernment, and to the
strife and contention which are generated by
Corn-laws; but the men who command the use
of that prayer, obstinately persevere in this
cause of*strife and contention. They enjoin the
people to pray for the removal of that which
they might remove to-morrow, and will not. To
it very humbly, but very earnestly,
us, speaking
the command to use such a prayer seems a
iaockery of the people and of the Great Being
whom they are instructed thus to address.
It is, however, satisfactory to find that our
rulers are of opinion that a plentiful increase of
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