3. THE ORDER.--Order in the topics has many advantages. It concentrates attention on one subject at a time, thus increasing the interest of both minister and people. It aids the memory, thus avoiding the omission of necessary subjects, and leaving the mind unconfused in recalling them. An unarranged, confused prayer, in which the mind utters at haphazard whatever may first enter it, must always fail of the true ends of public worship. A natural and common order is this: invocation, adoration, thanksgiving, confession, petition, and intercession. Invocation recognizes dependence on the Divine Helper, the Holy Spirit, and implores His presence and aid. In adoration the character, perfections, and works of God are celebrated, usually employing largely for this the language and imagery of the Scripture, which in variety and beauty has here a wealth simply inexhaustible. Thanksgiving naturally comprehends the whole range of providential mercies which attend our earthly life, personal, local, and national, and also all those spiritual blessings which spring from the Gospel in the experiences and hopes of the personal life, and in the associations and helps and prospects of the church of God. Confession presents alike the individual soul, the church as a body, and the community in the attitude of penitence, acknowledging its sins and failures and humbly recognizing the rectitude of the Divine judgment. Petition is prayer offered in behalf of our own needs, imploring for the individual soul and for the church, not only providential favors, but also Divine illumination, penitence for sin, faith in Christ, victory in temptation, support in trial, growth in all the graces of Christian character, and success in all the efforts of Christian labor. Intercession relates more distinctly to those without us--the families represented in the congregation, the Sunday-school and its work, the afflicted, the unconverted, other Christian congregations in the vicinity, the community with its varied interests, the nation and its rulers, and the great missionary work in its various departments and spheres of effort. Each of these topics furnishes within itself a wide range of subjects for prayer, and the pastor whose soul is in living sympathy with his people and his work, if he makes proper preparation, may give to this part of worship an endless variety and make it an exercise of immense power. No one order, however, should be invariable, for it leads to sameness of thought and language, and thus has all the disadvantages of a stereotyped form, with none of the advantages of a liturgy. The order, with the selection of leading subjects in it, should be a matter of careful premeditation, so that there may be variety in the general plan of the prayer, while yet there is no omission of necessary topics and no confusion. Within such a general plan of prayer, mentally prearranged, there will still be the amplest