[1] First printed in the _American Church Review_, April, 1881.
[2] Much confusion of thought and speech in connection with our
ecclesiastical legislation grows out of not keeping in mind the
fact that here in America the organic genetic law of the Church,
as well as of the State, is in writing, and compacted into definite
propositions. We draw, that is to say, a far sharper distinction
than it is possible to do in England between what is constitutional
and what is simply statutory. There is no function of our General
Convention that answers to the "omnipotence of Parliament." This
creative faculty was vacated once for all at the adoption of the
Constitution.
[3] _Conferences_, p. 461.
[4] _Principles of Divine Service_, vol. i. p. 390.
[5] _Church Quarterly Review_, London, October, 1876.
[6] The votes of the House of Bishops are not reported numerically.
In the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies the vote stood as
follows: "Of the Clergy there were 43 Dioceses represented--Ayes,
33; nays, 9; divided, 1. Of the Laity there were 35 Dioceses
represented--Ayes, 20; nays, 11; divided, 4."--_Journal of
Convention of_ 1880, p. 152.
[7] _Church Eclectic_ for November, 1880.
[8] Remembering the deluge of "centennial" rhetoric let loose
upon the country five years ago, another critic may well feel
justified in finding in the language of the resolution what he
considers "an unnecessary _raison d'etre_." But it is just possible
that centennial changes rest on a basis of genuine cause and effect
quite independent of the decimal system. A century covers the range
of three generations, and the generation is a natural, not an
arbitrary division of time. What the grandfather practises the son
criticises and the grandson amends. This at least ought to commend
itself to the consideration of the lovers of mystical numbers and
"periodic laws."
[9] The real argument against the "driblet method" (by which is
meant the concession of improvement only as it is actually conquered
inch by inch) lies in what has been already said about the
undesirability of frequent changes in widely used formularies of
worship.
It may be true, as some allege, that a revision of the Prayer Book
would shake the Church, but it is more likely that half a dozen
patchings at triennial intervals would shatter it. After twenty
years of this sort of piecemeal revision, a _variorum_ edition of
the Prayer Book would be a requisite of every well furnished pew.
The late Convention has been twitted with inconsistency on the
score of having negatived outright the proposal for a Commission
to overhaul the Constitution of the Church while consenting to
send the Prayer Book to a committee for review. Discernment would
be a better word than inconsistency, for although on grounds of
pure theory the Constitution and the Prayer Book seem to stand in
corresponding attitudes as respects methods of amendment, in
practice the difference between the two is very wide. Triennial
changes in the letter of the Constitution (and these have often
been made) involve no inconvenience to anybody, for the simple
reason that that document must of necessity be reprinted with every
fresh issue of the Journal. Old copies do not continue in use,
except as books of reference, but old Prayer Books do hold their
place in parish churches, and the spectacle of congregations trying
to worship in unison with books some of which contained the reading
of 1880, others that of 1883, and still others that of 1886 would
scarcely edify. Theoretically, let it be freely granted, the
"driblet method" of amendment is the proper one for both Prayer
Book and Constitution, but the fact that the Convention had eyes
to see that this was a case to which the maxims of pure mathematics
did not apply should be set down to its credit, rather than its
discredit.
[10] Reprinted together with a supplementary Letter in the Journal
of the Convention of 1868.
[11] Dr. Coit's Letter of 1868, also reprinted in Journal of that
year.
[12] See _Book of Common Prayer according to the use of King's
Chapel, Boston_. Among the rhetorical crudities of this emasculated
Prayer Book (from the title-page of which, by the way, the definite
article has been with praiseworthy truthfulness omitted) few things
are worse than the following from the form for the Burial of
Children, a piece of writing which in point of style would seem
to savor more of the Lodge than of the Church: "My brethren, what
is our life? It is as the early dew of morning that glittereth for
a short time, and then is exhaled to heaven. Where is the beauty
of childhood? Where is [sic] the light of those eyes and the bloom
of that countenance?" . . . "Who is young and who is old? Whither
are we going and what shall we become?" And yet the author of
this mawkish verbiage probably fancied that he was improving upon
the stately English of the Common Prayer. It is a warning to all
would-be enrichers.
[13] A list of the more noticeable Anglican works on Liturgies
published during the period named, arranged in the order of their
appearance, will serve to illustrate the accuracy of the statement
made above, and may also be of value to the general reader for
purposes of reference.
1832. Origines Liturgicae, William Palmer. 1833-41. Tracts for
the Times. 1840. Conferences on the Book of Common Prayer, Edward
Cardwell. 1843. The Choral Service of the Churches of England and
Ireland, John Jebb. 1844. The Ancient Liturgy of the Church of
England, William Maskell. 1845. Pickering's Reprints of the Prayer
Books of 1549, 1552, 1559, 1603, and 1662. 1846. Monumenta
Ritualia, William Maskell. 1847. Reliquiae Liturgicae, Peter
Hall. 1848. Fragmenta Liturgica, Peter Hall. 1849. Book of Common
Prayer with Notes legal and historical, A. J. Stephens. Manuscript
Book of Common Prayer for Ireland, A. J. Stephens. Tetralogia
Liturgica, John Mason Neale. 1853. Two Liturgies of Edward VI.,
Edward Cardwell. 1855. Principles of Divine Service, Philip
Freeman. History of the Book of Common Prayer, F. Proctor. 1858.
History of the Book of Common Prayer, T. Lathbury. 1859.
Directorium Anglicanum, J. Purchas. 1861. Ancient Collects,
William Bright. 1865. Liber Precum Publicarum, Bright and Medd.
1865. The Priest's Prayer Book. 1865. History of the Book of Common
Prayer, R. P. Blakeney. 1866. The Prayer Book Interleaved, Campion
and Beaumont. 1866. The Annotated Book of Common Prayer, J. H.
Blunt. 1870. The Liturgy of the Church of Sarum, Translated,
Charles Walker. 1870. The First Prayer Book of Edward VI. with
the Ordinal, Walton and Medd. 1872. Psalms and Litanies, Rowland
Williams. 1872. Notitia Eucharistica, W. E. Scudamore. 1875-80.
Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Smith and Cheetham. 1876.
First Prayer Book of Edward VI., compared with the successive
Revisions, James Parker. 1877. Introduction to the History of the
successive Revisions of the Book of Common Prayer, James Parker.
1878. Liturgies--Eastern and Western, C. E. Hammond. 1880. The
Convocation Prayer Book.
[14] Tract No. 3. _Thoughts respectfully addressed to the Clergy on
alterations in the Liturgy_.
[15] One of the most curious illustrations of the spread of
Anglican ideas about worship now in progress is to be found in
the upspringing in the very bosom of Scottish Presbyterianism of
a CHURCH SERVICE SOCIETY. Two of the publications of this Society
have lately fallen in the present writer's way. They bear the
imprint of Wm. Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh, and are entitled
respectively, _A Book of Common Order_, and _Home Prayer_. With
questionable good taste the compilers have given to the former
work a Greek and to the latter a Latin sub-title (_Evxolioyiov_
and _Suspiria Domestica_). Both books have many admirable points,
although, in view of the facts of history, there is a ludicrous
side to this attempt to commend English viands to Northern palates
under a thin garniture of Scottish herbs which probably has not
wholly escaped the notice of the compilers themselves.
[16] See _The Guardian_ (London), February 9, 1881.
[17] Unless "finally to beat down Satan under our feet," be
reckoned an exception.
[18] _Lectures on Justification_, p 380.
[19] The rationale of this curious lapse is simple. The American
revisers, instead of transferring the Commination Office _in toto_
to the new book, wisely decided to engraft certain features of
it upon the Morning Prayer for Ash-Wednesday. In the process, the
fifty-first Psalm, which has a recognized place in the Commination,
dropped out, instead of being transferred, as it should have been,
to the proper psalms.
[20] See the Convocation Prayer Book.
[21] _Prayer Book Interleaved_, p. 65.
[22] A curious illustration of the sensitiveness of the Protestant
Episcopal mind to anything that can be supposed even remotely to
endanger our doctrinal settlement was afforded at the late General
Convention, when the House of Deputies was thrown into something
very like a panic by a most harmless suggestion with reference to
the opening sentences of the Litany. A venerable and thoroughly
conservative deputy from South Carolina had ventured to say that
it would be doctrinally an improvement if the tenet of the double
procession of the Holy Ghost were to be removed from the third of
the invocations, and a devotional improvement if the language of
the fourth were to be phrased in words more literally Scriptural
and less markedly theological than those at present in use. Eager
defenders of the faith instantly leaped to their feet in various
parts of the House, persuaded that a deadly thrust had been aimed
at the doctrine of the Trinity. Never was there a more gratuitous
misconception. The real intrenchment of the doctrine of the
Trinity, so far as the Litany is concerned, lies in the four
opening words of the second and the five opening words of the
third of the invocations, and these it had not been proposed to
touch. In confirmation of this view of the matter, it is pertinent
to instance the _Book of Family Prayers_ lately put forth by a
Committee of the Upper House of the Convocation of Canterbury.
This manual provides no fewer than six different Litanies, all of
them opening with addresses to the three Persons of the adorable
Trinity, and yet in no one instance is the principle advocated by
the deputy from South Carolina unrecognized. Every one of the six
Litanies begins with language similar to that which he recommended.
[See also in witness of the mediaeval use, which partially bears
out Mr. McCrady's thought, the ancient Litany reprinted by Maskell
from _The Prymer in English_. Mon. Hit. ii. p. 95.] If the Upper
House of the Convocation of Canterbury, fondly supposed by us
Anglicans to be the very citadel of sound doctrine, be thus tainted
with heresy, upon what can we depend?
Polemical considerations aside, probably even the most orthodox
would allow that the invocations of the Litany might gain in
devotional power, while losing nothing in august majesty, were
the third to run--_O God the Holy Ghost, Sanctifier of the
faithful, have mercy upon us miserable sinners_. And the fourth
as in Bishop Heber's glorious hymn, _Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God
Almighty, have mercy upon us miserable sinners_. But all this is
doctrinal and plainly _ultra vires_.
[23] A very natural explanation, by the way, of the fact, often
noticed, that there is no petition in the Litany for an increase
of the ministry.
[24] Here, _i_. _e._, in connection with Saints' Day services,
would be an admirable opportunity for the introduction into
liturgical use of the Beatitudes. What could possibly be more
appropriate? And yet these much loved words of Christ have seldom
been given the place in worship they deserve.
They do find recognition as an antiphon in the _Liturgy of St.
Chrysostom_. To reassert a usage associated in the history of
liturgies with the name of this Father of the Church and with his
name only, would be to pay him better honor than we now show by
three times inserting in our Prayer Book the collect conjecturally
his--a thing the Golden-mouthed himself, when in the flesh, would
not have dreamed of doing. "Once," he would have said, "is enough."
[25] The Priest's Prayer Book has 688 (!!) mostly juiceless.
[26] In connection with this clause there sprang up an animated
and interesting debate in the House of Deputies as to the wisdom
of thus seeming to cut off every opportunity for extemporary prayer
in our public services. Up to this time, it was alleged, a liberty
had existed of using _after_ sermon, if the preacher were disposed to
do so, the "free prayer" which _before_ sermon it was confessedly
not permitted him to have--why thus cut off peremptorily an
ancient privilege? why thus sharply annul a traditional if not a
chartered right?
At first sight this distinction between before and after sermon
looks both arbitrary and artificial, but when examined there is
found to be a reason in it. The sermon, especially in the case of
emotional preachers, is a sort of bridge of transition from what
we may call the liturgical to the spontaneous mood of mind, and if
the speaker has carried his listeners with him they are across
the bridge at the same moment with himself. The thing that would
have been incongruous before, becomes natural after the minister
has been for some time speaking less in his priestly than in his
personal character.
The notion that the points at issue between the advocates of
liturgical and the advocates of extemporaneous worship can be
settled by a promiscuous jumbling together of the two modes, is
a fond conceit, as the Reformed Episcopalians will doubtless confess
when they shall have had time enough to make full trial of the
following rubrics in their Prayer-book:
_Then shall the Minister say the Collects and Prayers following in
whole or in part, or others at his discretion_.
_Here may be used any of the occasional Prayers, or extemporaneous
Prayer_.
This is bad philosophy. It need not be said that such directions
are undevotional--for doubtless they were piously meant; but it
must be said that they are inartistic (if the word may be allowed),
at variance with the fitness of things and counter to the instinct
of purity. Formality and informality are two things that cannot
be mingled to advantage. There is place and time for each. The
secret of the power of liturgical worship is wrapped up with the
principle of order. A certain majesty lies in the movement which
is without break. On the other hand the charm of extemporaneous
devotion, and it is sometimes a very real charm, is traceable to our
natural interest in whatever is irregular, fresh, and spontaneous.
To suppose that we can secure at any given time the good effects of
both methods by some trick of combination is an error--as well
attempt to arrange on the same plot of ground a French and an
English garden. If indeed Christian people could bring themselves
to acknowledge frankly the legitimacy of both methods and provide
amicably for their separate use, a great step forward in the
direction of Church unity would have been achieved; but for a
catholicity so catholic as this, public opinion is not yet ripe,
and perhaps may not be ripe for centuries to come. Those who
believe in the excellency of liturgies, while not believing in
them as _jure divino_, would be well content in such a case to
wait the working of the principle of the survival of the fittest.
[27] The able and fair-minded jurist who first hit upon this
ingenious scheme for patching the Ratification has lately, with
characteristic frankness, said substantially this under his own
signature.
"The proper place for the amendment," he writes, "is at the end
of the first rubric preceding the sentences of Scripture for both
Morning and Evening Prayer, after the word Scripture, as everyone
can see by looking." He adds: "This, however, is only a question
of form, and ought not to interfere with the adoption of the
amendment at the next Convention. It is to be hoped that the
resolution for enrichment, so called, will present a variety of
additions out of which an acceptable selection can be made; and
when they are finally carried that the Book of Common Prayer will
be not only the standard book, but a sealed book, so to speak, for
as many generations as have passed since the present book was
adopted."--Letter of the Hon. J. B. Howe of Indiana in _The
Churchman_ for January 29, 1881.
[28] See page 578 of _Evangelical Catholic Papers_. A collection
of Essays, Letters, and Tractates from "Writings of Rev. Wm.
Augustus Muhlenberg, D. D." during the last forty years.
The failure of this devout and venerated man to secure sundry
much desired liturgical improvements (although it yet remains to
be seen whether the failure has been total) was perhaps due to a
certain vagueness inherent in his plans of reform. A clear vision
of the very thing desired seems to have been lacking, or at least
the gift of imparting it to others. But even as no man has deserved
better of the American Episcopal Church than he, so it is no more
than right that his deeply cherished wishes should be had in
careful remembrance.
[29] Now a "black-letter day" in the English Calendar.
[30] The Convocation Prayer Book, _in loc_.
[31] Originally only an explanatory rubric. See Procter, p. 397.
[32] Let us hope that before long there may be devised some better
way of providing relief for our Widows and Orphans than that of
the indirect taxation of the singers of hymns.
[33] The Greek Office Books, it is said, fill eighteen quartos.
[34] In that naive and racy bit of English (omitted in our
American book) entitled _Concerning the Service of the Church_,
one of the very choicest morsels is the following: "Moreover,
the number and hardness of the Rules called the Pie, and the
manifold changings of the Service, was the cause, that to turn
the Book only was so hard and intricate a matter, that many times
there was more business to find out what should be read than to
read it when it was found out."
[35] It may be wise to buttress the position taken with a
quotation out of Dr. Coit.
"We really, however, do not see any necessity for either of
these Services in American Books, as with us the Ordinal always,
now, makes a part of the Prayer Book in all editions. It would
be a saving to expunge them and no change would be necessary,
except the introduction of such a litanical petition and suffrage
with the Services for Deacons and Priests, as already exists in
the Service for Bishops. The Church of England retains the Litany
in her Ordinal, for that, until latterly, was printed in a separate
book, and was not to be had unless ordered expressly. And yet with
even such a practice she has but one Communion Service. We study
cheapness and expedition in our day. They can both be consulted
here, _salvafide et salva ecclesia_."--Report of 1844.
[36] First printed in _The Church Review_, 1886.
[37] The Rev. Dr. Orlando Hutton.
[38] _Priest's Prayer Book_, Fifth edition, pp. 238, 243, 281.
[39] The _Prayer for Imprisoned Debtors_ is believed to be the
only formulary actually dropped.
[40] _The Church Quarterly Review_ for April, 1884, and July,
1884. _The Church Times_ for August 29, 1884; also July 31, August
7, 14, 21, 28, September 4, 1885. _The Guardian_ for July 20, 1885.
[41] Recall the "Additional Hymns" of 1868.
[42] This proposal of arbitration has occasioned so much innocent
mirth that, in justice to the maker of it, attention should be
called to the ambiguity of the language in which it is couched.
The wording of the passage is vague. It is just possible that by
"the question" which he would be content to submit to the judgment
of the four specified men of letters, he means, not, as he has been
understood to mean, the whole subject-matter of _The Book Annexed_,
but only the abstract question whether verbal variations from the
English original of the Common Prayer be or be not, on grounds of
purity of style, desirable. Even if this be all that he means there
is perhaps still room for a smile, but, at all events, he ought to
have the benefit of the doubt.
[43] _Discussions and Arguments_, p. 341.
[44] "The list might be brought down as late as the authorities
pleased to bring it, even to include, if they chose, such names
as John Keble, James De Koven, and Ferdinand Ewer."--_The Church
Times_ for August 14, 1885.
[45] This form of absolution suggested as an alternate in _The
Book Annexed_ is taken from the source mentioned.
[46] The paper read by the Dean of Worcester dealt exclusively
with the legal aspects of the question as it concerns the Church
of England.
[47] The Rev. Edgar Morris Dumbleton (Rector of St. James's,
Exeter).
[48] The Rev. George Venables (Hon. Canon of Norwich and Vicar
of Great Yarmouth).
[49] The Rev. Arthur James Robinson (Rector of Whitechapel).
[50] See letter of "J. L. W." in _The Southern Churchman_ for
August 6, 1885.
[51] See letter of "Ritualist" in _The Standard of the Cross_
for July 2, 1885.
[52] See the "Report of the Committee of the Council of the
Diocese of Wisconsin," _passim_.
[53] The evident intention of the Joint Committee in the
introduction of this Canticle was to make it possible to shorten
the Morning Prayer on week-days, without spoiling the structure
of the office, as is now often done, by leaving out one of the
Lessons. It is certainly open to question whether a better
alternate might not have been provided, but it is surprising to
find so well furnished a scholar as the Wisconsin critic speaking
of the _Benedictus es Domine_ as a liturgical novelty, "derived
neither from the Anglican or the more ancient service-hooks." As
a matter of fact the _Benedictus es Domine_ was sung daily in the
Ambrosian Rite at Matins, and is found also in the Mozarabic
Breviary.
[54] See Wisconsin Report, p. 5.
[55] See the precautions recommended in _The Living Church Annual_
for 1886, p. 132, art. "Tabernacle."
[56] In this respect _The Book Annexed_ may be compared to _The
Convocation Prayer Book_ published by Murray in 1880, for the
purpose of showing what the English Book would be like if "amended
in conformity with the recommendations of the Convocations of
Canterbury and York, contained in reports presented to her Majesty
the Queen in the year 1879."
[57] The Report was adopted.
[58] In addition to the Maryland Report we have now a still more
admirable one from Central New York.
[59] Strangely enough the Elizabethan period, so rich in genius
of every other type, seems to have been almost wholly barren of
liturgical power. Men had not ceased to write prayers, as a stout
volume in the Parker Society's Library abundantly evidences; but
they had ceased to write them with the terseness and melody that
give to the style of the great Churchmen of the earlier reigns so
singular a charm.
[60] The liturgical manuscripts of Sanderson and Wren, made
public only recently by the late Bishop of Chester, ought to be
included under this head.
[61] Many of these "Treasuries," "Golden Gates," and the like,
have here and there something good, but for the most part they
are disfigured by sins against that "sober standard of feeling,"
than which, as a high authority assures us, nothing except "a sound
rule of faith" is more important "in matters of practical
religion." Of all of them, Scudamore's unpretentious little
"Manual" is, perhaps, the best.
[62] For a _conspectus_ of the various title-pages, see Keeling's
_Litugiae Britannicae_, London, 1842.
[63] The question of a change in the name of the Church is a
constitutional, and in no sense a liturgical question. Let it be
considered at the proper time, and in a proper way, but why thrust
it precipitately into a discussion to which it is thoroughly
foreign?
[64] By the Maryland Committee.
[65] This paragraph was written before the author had been
privileged to read Prof. Gold's interesting paper in _The
Seminarian_. It is only proper to say that this accomplished
writer and very competent critic does object emphatically to
the theory that the opening Sentences are designed to give the
key-note of the Service. But here he differs with Blunt, as
elsewhere in the same paper he dissents from Freeman and from
Littledale, admirably illustrating by his proper assertion of
an independent judgment, the difficulty of applying the Vicentian
rule in liturgical criticism. Such variations of opinion do,
indeed, make against "science," but they favor good sense.
[66] Chambers's Translation.
[67] This is not to be understood as an acknowledgment that
the doctrinal and philological objections to the formulary as
it originally stood were sound and sufficient. On the lips of
a Church which declares "repentance" to be an act whereby we
"forsake sin," a prayer for time does not seem wholly inappropriate,
while as for this use of the word "space" of which complaint was
made, it should be noticed that King James's Bible gives us
nineteen precedents for it; and the Prayer Book itself one.
[68] In _The Book Annexed_, as originally presented, there
stood in this place the beautiful and appropriate psalm, _Levavi
oculos_. But the experts declared that this would never do, since
from time immemorial _Levavi oculos_ had been a Vesper Psalm, and
it would be little less than sacrilege to insert it in a morning
service, however congruous to such a use the wording of it might,
to an unscientific mind, appear. Accordingly the excision was made;
but upon inquiry it turned out that the monks had possessed a larger
measure of good sense, as well as a better exegesis, than the
Convention had attributed to them, for _Levavi oculos_, it appears,
besides being a Vesper psalm, stood assigned, in the Sarum Breviary,
to Prime as well; the fact being that the psalm is alike adapted to
morning and to evening use, and singularly appropriate both to the
"going out" and the "coming in" of the daily life of man.
[69] See p. 6.
[70] "O Lord, bow thine ear," has been suggested as a substitute.
It is in the words of Holy Scripture, it is the precise metrical
equivalent of "O Lord, save the queen," and it is directly
antiphonal to the versicle which follows.
There being no Established Church in the United States, it is
doubtful whether any prayers for "rulers" are desirable, over and
above those we already have. And if this point be conceded, the
other considerations mentioned may be allowed to have weight in
favor of "O Lord, bow thine ear."
[71] _The Seminarian_, 1886, pp. 29, 30.
[72] It may be well to throw, into a foot-note a single illustration
of what might otherwise be thought an extravagant statement. The
Rev. W. C. Bishop, writing in _The Church Eclectic_ for February,
1884, says:
"The service of the Beatitudes proposed by the Committee is just
one of 'fancy-liturgy making,' which ought to be summarily rejected.
We have more than enough of this sort of thing already; the
commandments, comfortable words, _et hoc genus omne_, are anything
but 'unique glories' of our Liturgy. Anything of which we have
exclusive possession is nearly certain to be a 'unique _blunder_,'
instead of anything better, because the chances are a thousand to
one that anything really beautiful or edifying would have been
discovered by, and have commended itself to, some other Christians
in the last two thousand years." If such is to be the nomenclature
of our new "science," Devotion may well stand aghast in the face
of Liturgies.
[73] See the Commination Office in the Prayer Book of the Church
of England.
[74] Daniel's _Codex Liturgicus_, vol. iv. p. 343. Quoted in
_Dictionary of Christian Antiquities_. The translation of makapismoi
has been doubted; but Dr. Neale and Prof. Cheetham agree that the
reference is to the BEATITUDES of the Gospel.
[75] _Church Eclectic_ for April, 1884.
[76] The following will serve as an illustration:
_The Anthem_;
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall get mercy; blessed are the
clean in the heart, for they shall see God.
_The Versicle_:
Lord hear my prayer.
_The Answer_:
And let my cry come to thee.
_Let us pray_.
Lord Jesu Christ, whose property is to be merciful, which art alway
pure and clean without spot of sin; Grant us the grace to follow
thee in mercifulness toward our neighbors, and always to bear a
pure heart and a clean conscience toward thee, that we may after
this life see thee in thy everlasting glory, which livest and
reignest God, world without end. _Amen_.
[77] It is interesting and suggestive to observe with how much
less frequency our attention is called to this paragraph of the
Preface than to the later one which asserts historical continuity
with the Church of England.
[78] _Essays on Liturgiology_, p. 226.
[79] The response proposed by the Commissioners ran, "Lord have
mercy upon us, and make us partakers of this blessing," a prayer
unobjectionable for substance, but painfully pedestrian in style.
[80] Notably one in which the responses are all taken from Psalm li.
[81] See Note at the end of this Paper.
[82] _E_. _g_.: "That it may please thee to send forth laborers
into thy harvest, and to have mercy upon all men."
[83] See Report, pp. 6-9.
[84] "Strike it out," said the literalist of a certain committee
on hymnody, many years ago, as he and his colleagues were sitting
in judgment on Watts's noble hymn, "There is a land of pure delight."
"Either strike out the whole hymn or alter that word, 'living.'
"'Bright fields, beyond the swelling flood,
Stand dressed in living green.'
What sense is there in '_living_' green? It is the grass that
lives, not the green." Happily the suggestion failed to find a
seconder. But revisers, whose work is to be passed upon by ballot,
may well be shy of idiomatic English. Take such a phrase as,
"Now for the comfortless trouble's sake of the needy"; Lindley
Murray, were he consulted, would have no mercy on it: and yet a
more beautiful and touching combination of words is not to be
found anywhere in the Psalter. It is the utter lack of this
idiomatic characteristic that makes "Lambeth prayers" proverbially
so insipid.
[85] See Report, p. 12.
[86] Quoted in _The Church Eclectic_ for August, 1886.
[87] Prof. Gold in _The Seminarian_, p. 34.
[88] The Rev. Dr. Robert in _The Churchman_ for July 17, 1886,
[89] Specious, because our continuity with the Church life of
England is inestimably precious; impracticable, because there is
no representative body of the English Church authorized to treat
with us.
[90] This Prayer has been gathered from the _Dirige_ in _The
Primer set forth by the King's Majesty and his Clergy_, 1545; the
same source (it is interesting to note) to which we trace the
English form of the _Collect for Purity_ at the beginning of the
office.
[91] 1 Cor. iii. 9.
[92] Born into life!--man grows
Forth from his parents' stem,
And blends their bloods, as those
Of theirs are blent in them;
So each new man strikes root into a far foretime.
Born into life!--we bring
A bias with us here,
And, when here, each new thing
Affects us we come near;
To tunes we did not call our being must keep chime.
_Empedocles on Etna_.
[93] "Parliaments, prelates, convocations, synods may order forms
of prayer. They may get speeches to be spoken upward by people on
their knees. They may obtain a juxtaposition in space of curiously
tessellated pieces of Bible and Prayer Book. But when I speak of
the rareness and preciousness of prayers, I mean such prayers as
contain three conditions--permanence, capability jot being really
prayed, and universality. Such prayers primates and senates can no
more command than they can order a new Cologne Cathedral or another
epic poem."--_The Bishop of Berry's Hampton Lectures_, lect iv.
[94] The following _catena_ is curious:
"Salute one another with an holy kiss."--Rom. xvi. 10.
"Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity."--1 Pet. v. 14.
"_And let the bishop salute the church, and say_: Let the peace of
God be with you all.
"_And let the people answer_, And with thy spirit.
"_And let the deacon say to all_, Salute one another with a holy kiss.
"_And let the clergy kiss the bishop; and of the laity, the men
the men, and the women the women, and let the children stand by
the Bema. _"--_The Divine Liturgy of St. Clement_ (Bretts's
Translation, corrected by Neale).
"_At Solemn High Mass, the deacon kisses the altar at the same
time with the celebrating priest, by whom he is saluted with the
kiss of peace, accompanied by these words_, PAX TECUM."--Rubric of
the Roman Missal.
"PAX OR PAXBREDE. A small plate of gold, or silver, or copper-gilt,
enamelled, or piece of carved ivory or wood overlaid with metal,
carried round, having been kissed by the priest, after the Agnus
Dei in the Mass, to communicate the kiss of peace."--_Pugin's
Glossary_.
_St. George's Chapel, Windsor_. "Item, a fine PAX, silver and gilt
enamelled, with an image of the crucifixion, Mary and John, and
having on the top three crosses, with two shields hanging on either
side. Item, a ferial PAX, of plate of silver gilt, with the image
of the Blessed Virgin."--_Dugdale's Monasticon_ quoted in above
Glossary.
"Ye who do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins, _and are
in love and charity with your neighbors_, and intend to lead a new
life . . . Draw near with faith, and take this holy sacrament to your
comfort."--Shorter Exhortation in the Communion Office of the Prayer
Book.
[95] A friend who heard the sermon preached has kindly sent me the
following apt illustrations. They do not, indeed, come from history
technically so-called, but they report the mind of one to whose eye
the whole life of the Middle Ages was as an open book.
"There was now a pause, of which the abbot availed himself by
commanding the brotherhood to raise the solemn chant, _De profundis
clamavi_"--_The Monastery_, chap, xxxvii.
"'To be a guest in the house where I should command?' said the
Templar; 'Never! Chaplains, raise the psalm, _Quare fremuerunt
Gentes_? Knights, squires, and followers of the Holy Temple, prepare
to follow the banner of _Beau-seant_!'"--_Ivanhoe_, chap. xliv.
[96] So many good things are washed oat of men's memory by the lapse
of even a quarter of a century that possibly some even of those who
knew all about the "Memorial" in 1852 may be willing to be reminded
what its scope and purpose were.
The petition was addressed to the bishops "in council," and
prayed for the appointment of a commission to report upon the
practicability of making this Church a central bond of union
among the Christian people of America, by providing for as much
freedom in opinion, discipline, and worship as might be held to
be compatible with the essential faith and order of the Gospel.
The desired commission was appointed, Bishops Otey, Doane, A.
Potter, Burgess, and Williams being the members of it. Their
Report, subsequently edited in book form by Bishop Potter, is one
of the most valuable documents of American Church history. The
following extract from Bishop Burgess' portion of the Report will
be read with interest by all who ever learned to revere that
theologian for the largeness of his learning, the calmness of his
judgment, and the goodness of his heart. He has been speaking of
liturgical changes as contemplated and allowed for by the framers
of our ecclesiastical system. Then he says:
"There would seem to be five contingencies in which the changes,
thus made possible and thus permitted, become also wise and salutary.
"The first is simply when it is evident that in any respect the
liturgy or its application may be rendered more perfect. To hazard
for this result the safety or unity of the Church may be inexcusable,
and the utmost certainty may be demanded before a change of
this kind shall be practically ventured. But should it be once
established, beyond the smallest doubt, that any addition or
alteration would increase the excellence or the excellent influence
of the liturgy in any degree sufficient to compensate or more than
compensate for the inconveniences incident to all change, it seems
as difficult to say that it should not be adopted by the Church,
as to excuse any Christian from adding to his virtues or his
usefulness.
"The other 'contingencies' recognized are briefly these:
"(2) When in process of time words or regulations have become
obsolete or unsuitable.
"(3) When civil or social changes require ecclesiastical changes.
"(4) When the earnest desire of any respectable number of the
members of the Church, or of persons who are without its communion,
is urged in behalf of some not wholly unreasonable proposal of
alteration.
"(5) When error or superstition has been introduced; when that
which was at first good and healthful has been perverted to the
nourishment of falsehood or wickedness; or when that which was
always evil has found utterance, and is now revealed in its true
character."
The Memorial failed for the reason that the promoters of it had not
a clearly defined notion in their own minds of what they wanted--the
secret of many failures. Out of its ashes there may yet rise,
however, "some better thing" that God has kept in store.
[97] _Ancient Collects and Other Prayers selected for Devotional
Use from Various Rituals_. By William Bright, M. A. J. H. & Jas.
Parker, Oxford and London.
From the Appendix I take the following illustrations of the
statement ventured above:
"_For Guidance_--O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment,
and light riseth up in darkness for the godly; grant us in all our
doubts and uncertainties the grace to ask what thou wouldest have
us to do; that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false
choices, and that in thy light we may see light, and in thy straight
path may not stumble: through Jesus Christ our Lord.
"_For those who live in sin_.--Have mercy, O compassionate Father,
on all who are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin; vouchsafe
them grace to come to themselves, the will and power to return to
thee, and the loving welcome of thy forgiveness through Jesus Christ
our Lord.
"_For all who do the work of the Church_.--O Lord, without whom
our labor is but lost, and with whom thy little ones go forth as the
mighty, be present to all works in thy Church which are undertaken
according to thy will, and grant to thy laborers a pure intention,
patient faith, sufficient success upon earth, and the bliss of
serving thee in heaven, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
"_For grace to speak the Truth in love_.--O Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, who earnest not to strive nor cry, but to let thy words
fall as the drops that water the earth: grant all who contend
for the faith once delivered, never to injure it by clamor and
impatience, but speaking thy precious truth in love, so to present
it that it may be loved, and that men may see in it thy goodness
and thy beauty: who livest and reignest with the Father and the
Holy Ghost, one God, world without end."
Both as regards devotional flavor and literary beauty these prayers
will, I feel sure, be judged worthy, by such as will read them more
than once, to stand by the side certainly of many of the collects
already in the Prayer Book.
[98] Preached in Grace Church, N. Y., on the Twentieth Sunday after
Trinity, that being the Sunday next following the adjournment of the
General Convention of 1892.