_THE CLERGYMAN AND THE PRAYER BOOK._
_Dear pages of ancestral prayer,
Illumined all with Scripture gold,
In you we seem the faith to share
Of saints and seers of old.
Whene'er in worship's blissful hour
The Pastor lends your heart a voice,
Let his own spirit feel your power,
And answer, and rejoice._
In the present chapter I deal a little with the spirit and work of the
Clergyman in his ministration of the ordered Services of the Church,
reserving the work of the Pulpit for later treatment.
THE PRAYER BOOK NOT PERFECT BUT INESTIMABLE.
Let me begin by a brief reminder of the greatness of the spiritual
treasure which we possess in the Book by which we minister. How shall I
speak of it as I would? "The Prayer Book isn't inspired, I know," said
an old coast-guardsman some years ago to a friend of mine, "but, sure
and certain, _'tis as bad as inspired_!" "I find the Liturgy," said
another veteran, Charles Simeon, "as superior to all modern compositions
as the work of a philosopher on any deep subject is to that of a
schoolboy who understands scarcely anything about it." "All that the
Church of England needs to make her the glory of all Churches," said
Simeon's friend, the late Rev. William Marsh, "is the spirit of her own
services."
I am not so blind as to maintain that our Book is ideally perfect, and
that its every sentence is infallible. It is not quite literally "as bad
as inspired." After using it in ministration for nearly five-and-twenty
years I own to the wish that here and there the wording, or the
arrangement, or the rubrical direction, had been otherwise in some
detail, perhaps in some important detail. I do certainly wish very
earnestly indeed that the Revisers of 1661-2 had expressed themselves
more happily in that Rubric about "Ornaments" which within recent years
has proved--little as they expected it, or intended it, to do so--such a
fertile field of discord. But for all this, my five-and-twenty years'
ministerial use of the Prayer Book has only deepened my sense of its
inestimable general value and greatness.
If a temperate and equitable revision were possible at the present time
I should welcome the prospect on most accounts. But it seems to me
plain that it is _not_ at present possible. And meanwhile I thank God
from my inmost heart for the actual Prayer Book as a whole.
Let me point out a very few of the claims of the Book on our love and
gratitude; and now specially in view of what we may sometimes hear said
about it by Christians not of our own Church.
i. Observe its profound and searching _spirituality_. It is quite true
that in a certain sense the Book takes all who use it for granted; it
assumes them to be worshippers in spirit and in truth; it does not pray
for them, or lead them in public worship to pray for themselves, as for
those who do not know and love God, who have not come to Christ. But
then what form of public, common prayer can well do this? And meantime
the Book does, especially in the service of the Communion, and
particularly in that too often omitted part of it, the "longer
Exhortation," beginning _Dearly beloved in the Lord_, throw the
worshipper back upon himself for self-examination. This is just the
method of St Paul in his addresses to the Christian community. He
writes to all as "saints," "faithful," "elect," "sanctified." What does
he mean? Does he mean that those glorious terms are satisfied by the
fact that all have been baptized, or even that all are communicants at
the sacred Table? Not at all. He takes all for granted as being what
they profess to be, when he greets the community. [Rom. viii. 9; 1 Cor.
xvi. 22; 2 Cor. xiii. 5; Gal. v. 6.] But he says also, "If any man have
not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His"; "If any man love not the
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema"; "Examine yourselves, whether ye
be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not that Jesus Christ is
in you--except ye be [Greek: adokimoi], counterfeits?" "In Jesus Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith
which worketh by love." Such sentences throw a flood of holy and
searching light on the sense in which St Paul "took them all for
granted." And the Prayer Book is in true harmony with both parts of the
Apostle's method.
WHAT IT TAKES FOR GRANTED IN THE WORSHIPPER.
And then, think what the Book _does_ thus searchingly and helpfully
"take for granted." It assumes a deep sense of sin, such a sense as is
indeed "grievous unto us." It takes for granted our deep desire both for
pardon and for spiritual victory. It assumes our desire to be "kept this
day without sin"; to "follow the only God with pure hearts and minds";
to "be continually given to all good works"; to "be enabled by the Lord
to live according to His will"; to have "all our doings ordered by His
governance"; to have "such love to Him poured into our hearts that we
may love Him above all things." It assumes our desire to "read, mark,
learn, and inwardly digest all the Holy Scriptures." It assumes our
readiness to "suffer on earth for the testimony of the truth, looking up
steadfastly to heaven, and by faith beholding the glory that shall be
revealed." It assumes our adoring devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ, and
that we present "ourselves, our souls and bodies, a reasonable, holy,
and living sacrifice," to our God.
I heard a few years ago of a remarkable case of secession from the
Church of England. A thoughtful and conscientious man left us because,
as he said, he could no longer seem to concur in such words of intense
spiritual reality and surrender _while he did not fully mean them_. On
his principles, I fear there ought to be a large exodus from our Church.
But that is not the fault of the Church, or of the Church's Book. It is
the fault of the worshippers, and it is a solemn call to us not so much
to criticize the Liturgy as to "examine _ourselves_."
THE PRAYER BOOK AS A WEAPON.
In this connexion I am reminded of a characteristic saying of an
honoured friend of mine, now at rest with the Lord after a long and
faithful ministry. He was one of those men who instinctively speak
strongly, perhaps sometimes roughly; but such roughness is often useful.
"The Prayer Book," said he, "is always handy to throw at people's
heads"; figuratively, of course, not literally. He slung it out in
vigorous quotations from his pulpit, point blank at the unreality, and
formalism, and pharisaism, and love of this present evil world, which
too often underlies the most precise "churchmanship" and the most
punctual church-going.
My old friend's strong word may carry a suggestion to some of my younger
Brethren; though I would advise their deferring a _projectile_ use of
the Book till they are seniors in the Church. But the youngest Minister
of Christ, in all loving modesty, may reach many a conscience (beginning
with his own) by well-timed words from the Prayer Book, showing what the
Book takes for granted in the worshipper.
SCRIPTURALITY OF THE BOOK.
ii. Next I point to the abundant and loyal _Scripturality_ of the Prayer
Book. I venture to say that no Service Book in the world is quite like
ours in this. This characteristic lies on the surface; in the wealth of
Scripture poured out in every service before the people; Psalms,
Lessons, Canticles, Epistle, Gospel, Introductory Sentences, Decalogue,
Comfortable Words. At the Font, in the Marriage Ordinance, at the Grave,
it is still the same; Scripture, in our mother tongue, full and free,
runs everywhere. And below the surface it is the same. Take almost any
set of responses, or any single prayer, and see the strong warp of the
Bible in it all.
*"THE PREFACE" ON THE BIBLE.
And then go for a moment from the Services to the Preface of the Book,
and see what the Fathers of our English Liturgy thought and intended
about the place of the Holy Scriptures in worship. I hope my Brethren
have all read that "Preface" with care; I mean, of course, the whole
length of introductory matter which precedes the Tables of Lessons;
nothing of it later than 1662, most of it (indeed all but the first
section, written by Sanderson) dating in substance from 1549.[26] I hope
it has all been read by you; but I am not quite certain of it, so little
attention is at present called to those important and authoritative
statements of principle. But however well you may already know them,
they will repay another reading; and so you will be reminded again that
the really first thought in the minds of the men who gave us our Prayer
Book in English was to let "_the Word of God_ have free course and be
glorified" in all the worship of the people. [2 Thess. iii. 1.] Those
men were learned in the past, and they reverenced history and
continuity. But they reverenced still more the heavenly Word, and where
they found the ample reading and hearing of it impeded by even
immemorial usage, the usage had to give way, without reserve, to the
Bible.
[26] I do not forget that some modifications in detail, as to the
Lectionary, are quite recent.
Yes, the Prayer Book is, whatever else it is, searchingly, overflowingly
Scriptural; full of the Bible, full of Christ. Let us drink its
principles and its manner in, that they may come out in our life and our
preaching.
And now for a few simple practical suggestions on our ministerial use of
the Book.
USE THE BOOK WITH DILIGENCE.
i. First, I would entreat my younger Brother to resolve in the Lord's
name that his own use of the Prayer Book in his ministration be to him a
thing of sacred importance and personal reality. We _need_ to form such
a resolve deliberately, and to watch and pray over it. Do we not know
what strong temptations lie in the other direction? We have to use these
forms over and over again; before many years are over perhaps we could
"take" a whole service, except the appointed Scriptures, without looking
at the book: is it not too easy under such conditions to read as those
who read not, and to pray as those who pray not? And all too often the
Clergyman, younger or older, allows himself almost consciously, almost
on principle, to form an inadequate estimate of his Prayer-Book work.
Perhaps he regards the prayers as in such a sense "the voice of the
Church" that he is willing to be little more than a machine through
which the Church offers them. Or perhaps on the other hand he lets
himself forget their immense importance, under a strong, and just, sense
of the sacred importance of the Sermon. He is alive and awake in the
pulpit, and seeks his Lord's presence there, and realizes it as sought;
but in the desk--he goes by himself, and much of his precious time there
is spent in thought which wanders to the ends of the earth while his
voice does its decent but somnambulatory part alone.
*USE IT WITH LIVING REALITY.
I can only appeal with all my heart to my younger Brother not to let it
be thus with him. And the only effective recipe against the trouble is
faith, exercised in prayer and watching, with a full recollection of the
urgent importance of the matter. For indeed it _is_ all-important that
the servant of God should be "given wholly to" his work, at the reading
desk, at the lectern, at the Table, at the Font.
PRAY THE PRAYERS.
It is easy to say, as it is often said, that we "must not preach the
prayers," must not obtrude our personality in leading the devotions of
the congregation; that our part is to be regular and audible, and
otherwise to "efface ourselves." Most certainly we ought not to _preach_
the prayers, in public any more than in private. But then, we ought to
_pray_ them. Most certainly we ought not to obtrude our personality upon
the thought of the worshippers. But then, we ought to serve them with
our personality, and we can best do this, surely, by a spirit and a
manner which is unmistakably that of the fellow-worshipper, who feels
_himself_ to be in the presence of the King, and knows that the
petitions and the promises are for him at least a holy reality. I am
perfectly well aware that it is not _easy_ to steer between a more or
less mechanical manner and a demonstrative one, and that perhaps of two
evils the former is the less. But I am sure it is _possible_ to steer
the right line, by using sanctified common-sense, and asking for a
little candid counsel from those who hear us, and above all by being
what we seek to seem--true worshippers, spiritually awake and humbly
reverent.
As long as man is man, so long will the law of sympathy hold good. And
by that law it is certain that the way to promote, so far as we can, a
spirit and tone of true worship in our people is to possess--and to
show--that spirit ourselves, as we lead, and also join, their worship.
Never declaim the prayers, but always pray them, from the soul and with
the voice.
"GIVE ATTENDANCE TO THE READING" OF THE LESSONS.
ii. I spoke just now of what we should do at the lectern. Let me
earnestly press upon my Brethren the great duty of rightly reading the
Lessons. Do you want to carry out the will and purpose of the Church of
England? As we have seen, that purpose is above everything to glorify
the Word of God. See then that the Lesson, as read by you, is as
audible, as intelligible, as impressive as you can make it. Take care
beforehand that you understand its points, its arguments, its emphasis.
Take counsel with yourself, and perhaps with others, about ways and
means for bringing these things out in your public reading. Remember
that for very many of your people (I fear I am right in saying so) the
Church Lessons are the most solid pieces of Scripture they ever hear,
or ever read. Many years ago it was not uncommonly said that in "these
days of universal reading" we might perhaps abbreviate our Church
Lessons. But since that time it has been more fully and sadly realized,
by very many of us at least, that universal reading does not mean
universal Bible reading by any means, but much rather universal
newspaper and novel reading. The heavenly Book is _terribly unfamiliar_
to multitudes of churchgoers, as you will find, if you ask, when you go
about your parish; of this we have already thought. Therefore, make all
you can of the reading of the Lessons in public worship. [Greek:
Proseche tÍ anagnÙsei], says the Apostle to Timothy, "Give attention to
the reading" [1 Tim. iv. 13.]; does he not mean, be diligent in reading
the Scripture to the people? The precept is as much as ever in point in
our day.
OPPORTUNITIES OFFERED BY THE OCCASIONAL SERVICES.
iii. As regards the occasional services, Public and Private Baptism,
Marriage, Burial, I would earnestly counsel my Brother to put
personality into his reading in them all, in the moderate sense
indicated above. The fact that such occasions are necessarily more or
less _special_ in their interest for some at least of those present
should never be forgotten; bring the power of a sympathetic interest and
earnestness to bear upon it. In administering Public Baptism I have
often realized this to a very peculiar degree. Who can feel the least
fondness for little children, and have the slightest insight into a
parent's heart, and not do so? Our service is undoubtedly long; very
long indeed when accompanied by a chorus of perhaps several little
crying voices. But let the servant of God "be in it," and he will find
himself much more touched than troubled by the babies' lamentations as
he speaks to the sponsors about the young helpless souls, and turns to
the Lord of all grace to dedicate them to Him and to invoke His blessing
on them for time and eternity, and then applies the watery Seal of all
the promises to their small foreheads. I have always found it very hard
to get through that service with a perfectly steady voice; and after
all, why should we be so careful to do so?
_Private_ Baptism is indeed a special occasion. There are reasons, no
doubt, why it must not be too readily administered; in some parishes
parents, for one reason or another, too often try to secure "a
christening" in private, on insufficient grounds, with no intention of a
public dedication afterwards. But when the case is clear, and you are at
the little suffering one's side, perhaps with a distressed mother close
beside it and you, see to it that you so minister the rite, so read the
few precious words, as both to sympathize and to teach. Let me add that
Private Baptism often brings the Clergyman into a house where religion
is utterly neglected; and the opportunity may be a priceless one, if the
power of love and spiritual reality is with you in the work.
And when you officiate at a Wedding, different as the conditions are
from those just remembered, still do not forget that for at least some
there present the hour is a deeply moving one. And is not the Marriage
Service a noble one to read, to interpret, with its peculiar mingling of
immemorial and archaic simplicity with a searching depth of scriptural
exhortation, and a bright wealth of divine benedictions? Throw the
power of a true man's solemnized sympathy into your reading of that
service.
PROBLEMS CONNECTED WITH THE USE OF THE BURIAL SERVICE.
Of the ritual of the Grave I hardly need to speak. I know only too well
that there are funerals and funerals. There are occasions of unrelieved
sadness. There are occasions when the Minister's heart is chilled by a
manifest and utter indifference. But the saddest, dreariest of burials
is an opportunity for the Lord. Whether or no you see your way to give
an address, let it be seen that you are dealing with God in the prayers,
and read the Lessons "as one that pleadeth with men."
A brief word in passing on the problem raised by some of the phrases of
our Burial Service. Let me call attention to the studied generality of
the words, _In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal
life_. Before 1662 this ran "in sure ... hope _of resurrection_, etc.,"
which, as you will observe, expressly applied the "hope" to _that_ case
of burial; the change was evidently made on purpose to relieve
conscience in the matter. Then remember that the whole service is
constructed, like all our services, for the member of the Christian
community taken on his profession; and that assumption, unless flagrant
facts withstand it, is to be made, in public ordinance, as much at the
grave as elsewhere. And do not forget that _hope_, be it ever so
"trembling," is _never_ forbidden at a grave-side. I am no advocate of
what is called "the larger hope"; I dare not be. But I am deeply
convinced that mercies of the Lord, in cases quite beyond our possible
knowledge, are experienced in the very act of departure.
"Betwixt the stirrup and the ground
Mercy I sought, mercy I found."
That instance has many parallels; and God only knows their limits. Never
should we say, whatever we may awfully fear, that such and such a soul
is _to our knowledge_ lost.
As regards the practical management of extreme cases, the young
Clergyman will of course act altogether under his Incumbent. And the
young Incumbent will remember that he can have recourse to his Bishop
for counsel.
THE HOLY COMMUNION.
iv. Let me say one special word on our administration of the precious
ritual of the Table of the Lord. I am not attempting here any
discussion of its doctrinal aspects in detail. For myself, as I have
said elsewhere, I make no secret of long-settled "Evangelical"
convictions. I regard the Holy Eucharist as above all things else the
Lord's way of sealing to His true Israel the unutterable benefits of the
New and Everlasting Covenant, rather than an occasion on which He
infuses into them His glorified Manhood. His sacred Body and Blood are,
for me, the Body and the Blood _as they were_, once for all, at Calvary,
and as they are not therefore literally now; and my participation in
them is accordingly my participation in the virtues of the Atoning
Sacrifice, there once and for ever wrought and offered. But this is by
the way. I speak now of our spirit and manner in the administration, in
respect of some principles which are little if at all affected, it seems
to me, by even grave differences of doctrinal theory. Alas, at the
present day it is too often the case that the communicant is fairly
bewildered by the varieties of Communion ritual, or by the complications
of it. Ought this to be so, on _any_ theory of the Eucharist? Did I for
one believe our adorable and beloved LORD to be locally present (I use
the words not technically but practically) on the Holy Table as nowhere
else here on earth, I think that all my instinct would go towards a
reverence whose depth was manifested not by an elaborate ceremonial but
by the most solemn possible simplicity of act. A ritual whose details
must be matter of careful practice, and which suggests almost the need
of a Spanish master-of-the-ceremonies--ought _that_ to be the natural
effect of an, as it were, invisible Presence?
SIMPLICITY AND REVERENCE.
But probably I write for readers whose inclinations or risks lie little
in that direction. And for them I say, let your administration of the
blessed Communion always combine a manifest reverence and a restful
simplicity. The Lord _is_ there, the Master of His own Table, the Prince
of His own Covenant, ready to give His people His royal Seal by your
hands. And His people are there, to have their sacred interview with
Him. Do not obstruct their view, their colloquy; humbly aid it. Be their
servant, as in HIS presence; obtrude yourself as little as you possibly
can.
ADDRESSES ON THE PRAYER BOOK.
As I draw the chapter to a close, I make one practical recommendation to
my younger Brethren. It is, to do what they can to interest their people
in the Prayer Book, and to promote its intelligent use, by taking what
opportunities they can to talk to them about it. Many a private occasion
for this will no doubt present itself. But if now and then a simple
lecture on the history of the Prayer Book can be given, and if possible
well illustrated, it will be very useful; and so will be a series of
week-night devotional addresses on the teaching of the Prayer Book. And
let not the need of plain matter-of-fact explanation of obsolete terms
and technical phrases be forgotten on such occasions. Of course the
Curate will carefully consult his Incumbent on the whole matter. But few
of my elder Brethren will not feel with me that such "talks upon the
Prayer Book," carefully considered and conducted, whether by Incumbent
or by Curate, may be of the greatest use, under our Master's blessing.
"MORE CEREMONIAL, LESS WORSHIP."
One last word, and I have done with these suggestions. An English Bishop
once told me that he had lately met a gentleman who, after ten years'
residence abroad, returned to England, and to his place as a worshipper
in our Churches. "Do you remark particularly any change or advance in
what you see there?" "I observe on the one hand much more ceremonial, on
the other hand, apparently, much less worship. Fewer kneel, fewer
respond, fewer around me seem devoutly attentive." Less worship! Is it
so indeed? Let the very opposite be the case, so far as our influence
and teaching can have effect, with our fathers' Prayer Book in our
hands, and in our hearts.
"_Lo, God is here; Him day and night
Th' united quires of angels sing;
To Him, enthron'd above all height,
Heaven's hosts their noblest praises bring;
Disdain not, Lord, our meaner song,
Who praise Thee with a stammering tongue.
"Being of beings, may our praise
Thy courts with grateful fragrance fill;
Still may we stand before Thy face,
Still hear and do Thy sovereign will;
To Thee may all our thoughts arise,
Ceaseless, accepted sacrifice._"
J. WESLEY, from TERSTEEGEN