PRAYER FOR LANDLORDS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3171, 23 April 1909, Page 3

PRAYER FOR LANDLORDS.

In the British House of Commons I recently, saya the "Daily Mail," Sir I John Benn raised a question as to the advisa'sleness of restoring to the Prayer Book a prayer from the Liturgy of Edward VI. having for its purport a petition that the hearts of those who possessed /-the grounds, pasture, and dwelling-places of the earth might be so touched that they should not "rack and stretch out the rents of their houses and lands, nor yet take unreasonable fines and incomes after the manner of covetous WDrldlings, hut so let them out to others, that the inhabitants thereof may both be able to pay the rent and also honestly to live, to nourish their families and to relieve the poor." Mr Asquith, to whom the question was directed, said that while Sir John Benn had no doubt done a public service by reviving the recollection of the remarkable i prayer, he did not think any advan- ! tage would be gained by his taking the steps suggested. Much interast and discussion subsequently gathered j round the question. Certain sections [ of the Press suggested that Sir John was in error as to the oricin of the supplication while the librarian of Sion College declared that it had never appeared in the Book of Common Prayer. Finally, it was ascertained that the petition was one of "Sundry Godly Prayers for Divers Purposes," given in "A Prymmer or boke of private prayer nedeful to be used of al faythfull Christianes. Which boke is auctorysed and setfourth by the Kinges' Maiestie, to be taughte, learned, redds, and used of al hys lovynge subjectes." It was published in London in 1553, and the reprint, referred toby Sir Jonh Benn, is taken from a volume of Liturgies, etc., of Edward VI., published by the Parker Society at Cambridge in 1843. The copy of the original "Prymmer" from which the reprint ! was made is in the Bodleian Library, / Oxford.