“We have thankfully availed ourselves of the New Table of Lessons,
which now forms part of our Church’s Prayer Book, having been issued
on the same authority as the Prayer Book itself. We have never been
among those who wish to see the Prayer Book itself revised, and we
rejoice to find that in such divided and controversial times as
these, that work is not likely to be taken in hand. But in regard to
the reading of the Scriptures in Church, the case is wholly
different. At the time of the Reformation, the Bible had been so
long kept back from the people, that it was most desirable that the
whole of it should be brought within their reach. And in an age when
but few persons could read and still fewer possessed copies of the
Scriptures, there was no better way of making God’s Word known, than
the frequent and public reading of the whole of it in the Church.
This was accordingly done, and hence the Table of Lessons contained
nearly the whole Bible, with the exception of certain portions of
unfulfilled Prophecy, which in the excited state of the public mind
were liable to be misunderstood. The case, however, is different
now. Those who worship in the Church are, for the most part, able
and willing to read the Bible also at home, and are not likely to be
misled by the visions either of Ezekiel or St. John. These Books are
therefore read among the rest, and the Lessons in general are so
selected as to be more appropriate in subject to the days on which
they are read; and from their brevity more likely to be retained in
memory. The Old Table of Lessons provided Lessons only for Morning
and Evening Prayer, but it is now found that not a few persons attend
both an Afternoon and an Evening Service; it has therefore been
arranged that there should be two sets of Evening Lessons for every
Sunday, one of which may be used in the afternoon, and the other in
the evening. There are also many persons, especially among the poor,
who are able to attend but one Service on Sunday, and that an Evening
Service. Formerly they could hear no second Lesson except those from
the Epistles; but now they hear the Gospels alternately with the
Epistles; for in the former half of the year the Gospels are read in
the morning, the Epistles in the evening; while in the latter half
this arrangement is reversed. Much has been said about the
difficulty of finding the proper Lessons, and the necessity of
purchasing new Prayer Books. There is, I believe, no such necessity.
A few days will make the new arrangement as familiar as the old, and
a copy of the new Calendar and Table of Lessons, to be fastened in
any Prayer Book or Bible, may be purchased at any shop for one
halfpenny, having been printed by authority at the smallest possible
price. I would hope that none will omit to provide themselves with
such a Table of Lessons, and I think that in the use of it they will
find great advantage. And let me here suggest that the advantage
will be far greater to those who attend the daily services than to
those who are able to attend on Sundays only. Let me therefore
suggest to these last that if they wish to study their Bible
systematically, the New Table of Lessons will form an excellent guide
for the reading of the Holy Book at home.”