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. NEW-YORK: P. PRICE, NO. 130 FULTON-STREET. UTICA: GROSH & HUTCHINSON. BX 9953 R3 1839 Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1839, 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 |