146 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l/Sj 



Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. 



PHILAUELI'HIA, Octobcr 25, 1 785. 



Dear Sir : Owing to the press, I was a kw minutes too late for the 

 last post. 1 sent proof-sheets by the wagon, which I consider as an 

 uncertain mode of conveyance. 



In the letter which encloses the proof-sheets by this opportunity, 

 instead of three prayers read four ; I wrote from memory and forgot 

 that for the clergy. 



I enclose you extracts from the constitution ; to prevent errors of the 

 transcriber you will compare it with the originals ; I would do it now, 

 but am in great haste. 



Please to express at the head of the letter to the Bishops, that the 

 original goes by the " Harmony," Captain Willet, from Philadelphia. 



I wish my affectionate respects to such of our brethren at the Conven- 

 tion as I have the pleasure of being acquainted with. 



I am 



Yours, etc., 



Wm. White. 

 Rev. Dr. Smith. 



Rev. Dr. Smith to Rev. Dr. White. 



Ealtimore, October 28, 1785. 



Dear Sir : I gave you my thoughts so fully in my letter from 

 Chester last post concerning the alteration of rubric before the Litany, 

 that I need not add anything further on that head. As the number of 

 country congregations in America exceed those in towns, I may say fifty 

 to one, and cannot have the Litany but as part of the Morning Service 

 (and which, with the abridgments now proposed, would appear very 

 short and incomplete without the Litany), and as for these reasons the 

 Convention agreed that the Litany should be printed /«, and as a part 

 of, the Morning Service, it would not be proper for us to make so mate- 

 rial an alteration as to put four prayers just after the Litany, as a sub- 

 stitute for the same, and which will be considered as an invitation to 

 indolent or lukewarm readers of prayers to cut the people generally out 

 of their general supplication. Of these sentiments are the Convention 

 here, whom I consulted on this point, but without intimating to them 

 that any such change was proposed by us of the Committee, but that it 

 had been mentioned by some as a matter worthy of consideration at 

 some future general convention. 



The four prayers stand very properly where they now stand as an 

 essential part of the Evening Service at all times, and would not stand 

 so properly in the Morning Service, where they are only proposed as a 

 conditional part ; that is when the Litany is not used, and when that 

 condition takes place it is very easy to turn forward one leaf to read 



