Page images
PDF
EPUB

THE

UNIVERSALIST MANUAL,

OR

BOOK OF PRAYERS

AND OTHER

RELIGIOUS EXERCISES:

ADAPTED TO THE USE BOTH OF

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DEVOTION

IN

CHURCHES, SUNDAY SCHOOLS, AND FAMILIES.

BY MENZIES RAYNER.

"O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness."-Ps. xcvi. 9.
"Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples."-Luke xi. 1.

NEW-YORK:

P. PRICE, NO. 130 FULTON-STREET.
BOSTON:-A. TOMPKINS, 32 CORNHILL.

UTICA: GROSH & HUTCHINSON.

BX 9953

R3 1839

Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1839,
BY P. PRICE,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York,

THIS LITTLE VOLUME

OF

DEVOTIONAL EXERCISES

IS

HUMBLY SUBMITTED AND RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED

TO THE

DENOMINATION OF UNIVERSALISTS

IN

THE UNITED STATES,

BY

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

THAT the public worship of God is a duty incumbent on all men, is universally admitted; at least, by all who acknowledge His existence as the intelligent and wise Creator and Governor of the world. Hence, in some form, religious worship has been practised among all nations: often, indeed, very ignorantly, with absurd and barbarous rites and ceremonies; and often, also, not much less ignorantly, even under the light of Divine revelation. To such, the language of our Saviour to the woman at Jacob's well, in reference to the religious devotions of the Samaritans, might perhaps be justly applied"Ye worship ye know not what;" or the similar sentiment expressed by St. Paul to the idolatrous Athenians, when he charged them with ignorantly worshipping an "unknown God."

To imagine that human worship, or the profoundest adoration of any, or of all created intelligences can add anything to the essential glory or felicity of the Creator who is "blessed for evermore," would be an ignorant and vain presumption. Equally fallacious is the supposition that prayers and intercessions, or religious devotions of any sort, can prevail to effect

« PreviousContinue »