FORMS OF PRAYER. 355 for some alteration in the mode of our devotiotis. The prayers ofyesterday and to-day will consequently be as different as the circumstances these are some of the advantages of private over public prayer. The great andgeneral topics are, hciw- ever, of a fixed, unalterable nature, on which, though we may be more or less diffuse, according to the state of the mind, yet the tenor and spirit will require little variation. This is more especially the case with respect to praise and thanksgiving ; and to express these, the use of stated forms may occasionally come in with much advantage, as the cardinal points to be expressed here must be ever the same. Invariably must the glory and honour of whatever is good be ascribed to the great source of light and life, the giver of every good and perfect gift ; and the addition in secret of particular clauses of praise for personal mercies will not be difficult to find where gratitude is really felt.
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