A Short History of the Book of Common Prayer Part 18

[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 un.o.bjectionable 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 n.o.ble 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 gra.s.s that lives, not the green." Happily the suggestion failed to find a seconder. But revisers, whose work is to be pa.s.sed 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 s.p.a.ce 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 G.o.d 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 Ma.s.s, 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 TEc.u.m."--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 Ma.s.s, 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 s.h.i.+elds 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 ill.u.s.trations. 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, x.x.xvii.

"'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 pet.i.tion 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 wors.h.i.+p 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 doc.u.ments 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 superst.i.tion 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 G.o.d 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 ill.u.s.trations of the statement ventured above:

"_For Guidance_--O G.o.d, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light riseth up in darkness for the G.o.dly; 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.