280 HENRY KIRKE WHITE's KEJIAlNS. 



Galatia, Thessalonica, &c., &c. Now, we are not cer- 

 tain that they used forms of prayers at all in these 

 churches, much more that any part of ours was used in 

 their time ; but it is certain, that in the year of our 

 Lord 286, there Avas a general liturgy in use through- 

 out all the churches of Christ. Now, if in that early 

 time, when Christians were much m.ore like the apostles 

 than they are now, they used a form of prayer in the 

 churches, it is fair to conclude that the practice was not 

 unscriptural : besides, at this very time, St John the 

 Evangelist had not been dead above 100 years, and one 

 of his disciples, though at a very great age, was actually 

 living, St Chrysostom, who lived above 354 years after 

 Christ, wrote some of our prayers, and the greater part 

 of them have been in general use for a thousand years. 

 About the year 286, about one thousand five hundred 

 years ago, immense multitudes of savages, the Goths 

 and Vandals, being enticed by the fertility of the Italian 

 country, and the riches of its possessors, came down from 

 Germany, Hungary, and all the northern parts of Europe, 

 upon the Roman Empire, then enfeebled with luxury, 

 and endeavoured to gain possession of the south. They 

 were at first repulsed ; but as fast as they were de- 

 feated or slain, new hordes, allured by the accounts 

 which their countrymen gave of its opulence and abun- 

 dance, succeeded in their stead ; till the forces of the 

 Romans grew unequal to the contest, and gradually gave 

 way to the invaders, who, wherever they came, reduced 

 everything to a state of barbarism. The Christians 

 about this time were beginning to prevail in the Roman 

 territories, and under the Emperor Constantine, who 

 was the first Christian king, were giving the blow to 

 idolatry. But the savage intolerance of the invaders, 

 who reduced the conquered to abject slavery, burnt 

 books wherever they found them, and even forbade the 

 cultivation of learning, reduced them to the utmost dis- 

 tress. At this time they wrote and used in their 

 churches all that part of the litany which begins with 

 the Lord's Prayer, and ends with the Praj^er of St 

 Chrysostom. Thus you see how venerably ancient are 



