_The Introductory Portion_.
(a) _Table of Contents_.--The suggestion[64] that all entries
after "The Psalter" should be printed in italics, is a good one.
(b) _Concerning the Service of the Church_.--This substitute for
the present "Order how the Psalter is appointed to be read" and
"Order how the rest of the Holy Scripture is appointed to be read"
is largely based on the provisions of the so-called "Shortened
Services Act" of 1872. The second paragraph relating to the use
of the Litany appears to be superfluous.
The enlarged Table of Proper Psalms and the Table of Selections of
Psalms, which come under this same general heading, would be a very
great gain. Why the Maryland Committee should have pronounced the
latter Table "practically useless, since the psalms are not to be
printed," it is hard, in the face of the existing usage with
respect to "Proper Psalms," to understand; nor is there any special
felicity in the proposal emanating from the same source that the
number of the Selections be cut down to three, one for feasts and
one for fasts and one for an extra service on Sunday nights.
On the other hand, the Maryland Committee does well in recommending
that permission be given to the minister to shorten the Lessons at
his discretion, though the hard and fast condition, "provided he
read not less than fifteen consecutive verses," apart from the
questionable English in which it is phrased, smacks more of the
drill-room than of the sanctuary. Far better would it be (if the
suggestion may be ventured) to allow no liberty of abridgment
whatever in the case of Proper Lessons, while giving entire freedom
of choice on all occasions for which no proper lessons have been
appointed. So far as "ferial" days are concerned, it would be much
wiser to let the Table of Lessons be regarded as suggestive and
not mandatory. The half-way recognition of this principle in the
new Lectionary, in which such a freedom is allowed, _provided_ the
Lesson taken be one of those appointed for "some day in the same
week," seems open to a suspicion of childishness.
The rubrical direction entitled "Hymns and Anthems" requires
verbal correction, but embodies a wholesome principle.
Under this same general head of "The Introductory Portion" come the
new Lectionary and the new Tables for finding Easter. Of these, the
former is law already, except so far as respects the Lessons
appointed for the proposed Feast of the Transfiguration. The Easter
Tables are a monument to the erudition and accuracy of the late
Dr. Francis Harison. The Tables in our present Standard run to the
year 1899. Perhaps a "wholesome conservatism" ought to discover a
tincture of impiety in any proposal to disturb them before the
century has expired.