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ous and strange as many of them now seem, they kept alive the better part of man, and saved the masses from degenerating into a grovelling materialism. The mind of New England was kept awake and active. All over the colonies, men were dealing with the great problems of life and death- with duty to man and duty to God , and this habit of mind has inspired and moulded the civilization of New England, and helped to make it what it is." A service with a sermon in it of such length and strength as I have indicated was not unlikely to include also a long prayer. The prayers mentioned by Lechford measured a quarter of an hour ; but this was nothing compared with the length which some prayers afterward attained to. The prayer was sometimes as long as the sermon, and was listened to with the same kind of intellectual exertion ; while the physical effort must have been considerable, as it was the uniform custom not to kneel or bow forward, but to stand. It was inevitable that prayers of so great length must have taken a wide range, and must sometimes have been occupied with rather trivial details. There were those in the old times who, like the late President Finney of Oberlin, indulged in strong personalities in prayer, and some who were inclined to dictate to the Ruler of the worlds. It is related, for example, of the Reverend Mr. Miles-and the story seems to be authentic-that in praying for rain he said, "We do not want Thee to send us a rain which shall pour down in fury, and swell our streams, and sweep away our haycocks and fences and bridges ; but, Lord, we want it to come drizzle-drozzle, drizzledrozzle, for about a week." Another brother was equally precise, in his recognition of benefits received, when he said, "We thank Thee also for the many barrels of cider Thou hast vouchsafed to us"-a thanksgiving which no one (let us hope) would be reckless enough to utter to-day ! But there can be no doubt that amidst some formality and Phariseeism there was a great deal of genuine worship in those days. The forefathers of New England were pre-eminently men