The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Prayer Book Explained, by Percival Jackson

To those who believe in One Holy Catholic Church wherein dwelleth the Holy Spirit, it will always be difficult to distrust the Service Book of any Branch of it. The old claim made at Jerusalem with regard to the vexed questions of the Church's infancy, It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us (Acts xv. 28), rested not on the presence there of the good and wise, on the prudence or self-sacrifice of those who had hazarded their lives for the Name, but on the reality of the Lord's promised Presence. Not because there were Apostles there, but because those there were the Catholic and Apostolic Church, they asked and received the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

It was a living and lasting Presence, touching with saving grace the treatment of such questions as the observance of Mosaic precepts, {vi} the eating of bought meat, as well as Purity of Life. We cannot doubt, then, that many Services which have been criticised on afterthoughts were essentially constructed in accordance with the Faith once for all delivered to the Church.

To renounce this conviction with regard to our own Church of England is to surrender its inheritance. Men of various tastes may prefer diverse rites: reasonable sequence may suggest one method, and glowing impulse another, fear of misunderstanding a third; but that which has seemed good to the Holy Ghost and His Temple, the Church, demands that we shall endeavour to believe it to be good, and use it in the temper of faith.

The critical spirit, as we now use criticism, is not the spirit of worship. For the spirit of worship is moved by Faith—Faith supremely in God, but also faith in the words which we use, and in the people with whom we use them.

Thus the truest cure for Doubt is Worship. If my faith in a friend weakens I must go to see him, to speak with him, to restore our mutual {vii} confidence and love. In like manner, if my faith in God through Christ weakens, I must go to Him, speak with Him, seek a return of the old confidence and love.

In the belief that God is calling us to know Him more perfectly by the Worship which we offer in heart and life, and in the confidence that our Branch of the Church has the guidance of the Indwelling Spirit, this book is dedicated to His glory.

P. J.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

  Extempore Worship and Forms of Worship . . . . . . . . . . 1
  Variations of words and phrases:
    a. Variety of Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
    b. Variety in Singing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . —
    c. Variations in the component parts . . . . . . . . 4

CHAPTER II.

  Origin of Morning and Evening Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  The Day Hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  General Scheme of the Day Hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
  Names and Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

CHAPTER III.

  The Model—The Lord's Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
    a. Two kinds of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
    b. Praise and Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
    c. Intention and Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
    d. The Key-note of Prayer and Praise . . . . . . . . 16
    e. Forms of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
    f. Worship-Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
  Table of Worship Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
  Appendix A. Hooker on the use of Worship-Forms . . . . 22

CHAPTER IV.

  Morning and Evening Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
  The two headings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
  Map of the two Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
  Sentences, Exhortation, Confession, Absolution . . . . . . 29
  Rubrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
  Duplication of Phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

CHAPTER V. PRAISE I.

  The Psalms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
  The first Lord's Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
  The Ladder of Praise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . —
  Versicles and Psalms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
  Psalms in Daily Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

CHAPTER VI. PRAISE II.

  The Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
  A. The Study of the Bible a help to worship:
     The Old Testament—1. Its agreement with the New . . . 48
                        2. Its teachings . . . . . . . . . —
                        3. Its 3 parts—(a) The Law,
                             (b) The Psalms, (c) The
                             Prophets . . . . . . . . . . . —
     The New Testament—4. Its 3 parts—(a) The History,
                             (b) The Epistles, (c) The
                             Revelation . . . . . . . . . . 49
     The Apocrypha— 5. Its place in the Prayer Book . . 51
  B. Lessons and Lectionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . —
     Jewish Lectionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
     Early Christian Lectionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
     Our own Lectionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
     The Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
  Appendix B. Justin Martyr's description of Holy
               Baptism and Holy Communion . . . . . . . . 58

CHAPTER VII. PRAISE III.

  Hymns in the Daily Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
  The Day Hour Hymns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . —
  The Canticles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
  Map of the Lessons and their Canticles . . . . . . . . . 64

CHAPTER VIII. PRAISE IV.

  Te Deum Laudamus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
  The Latin original. Its three stanzas . . . . . . . . . . 66
  Notes on the words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
  Note on the Doxology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

CHAPTER IX. PRAISE V.

  The Canticles, continued . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
  Magnificat, Benedicite, Cantate Domino . . . . . . . . . . 77
  Canticles which follow the Second Lesson: . . . . . . . . 82
  Benedictus, Nunc dimittis, Jubilate Deo, Deus misereatur . 83

CHAPTER X. PRAISE VI.

  The Creeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
  The Apostles' Creed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
  Uses of Creeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
  History of the Apostles' Creed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
  Creeds in the Bible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
  Primitive Creeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
  Close of the Praise Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

CHAPTER XI.

  Reason, History, and Revelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
  I. About God, a. What Reason has to say . . . . . . . . 101
                b. What the Bible Revelation has to say . 104
  II. About Jesus Christ, a. What the outside world said . 106
                          b. What the Bible says . . . . . 107
  III. About the Holy Ghost. What the Bible says . . . . . . 111

CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XIII.

  The Service of Prayer. I. Preces and Collects . . . . . . 127
  Worship-Forms in the Prayer Service . . . . . . . . . . . 128
  The Prayer Service Rubrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
  A. Preces, 132; B. Collects, 134; C. The other Prayers . . 142

CHAPTER XIV.

  The Service of Prayer. II. Anthems . . . . . . . . . . . 146
  a. Simple Anthems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
     Example. Advent setting of Venite . . . . . . . . . . —
  b. Compound Anthems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
     Example. The Easter Anthems in their original form . . —
  Praise and Prayer Anthems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
  Hymns as Anthems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

CHAPTER XV.

  The Service of Prayer. III. The Litany . . . . . . . . . 153
  Ancient Litanies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
  Rogation Litanies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
  Structure of the Litany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
    i. Our cry to Christ, 159. ii. Our cry to the Father, 170.
    iii. Appeal for help, 171. iv. Pressing anxieties of
    the moment, 172. v. Final Commendation of our
    prayers to Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Appendix C. Lessons in the Day Hours . . . . . . . . . . 173 Appendix D. Pliny's Letter to Trajan . . . . . . . . . . 174 Appendix E. The addition of Filioque . . . . . . . . . 176 Appendix F. Greek origin of Litanies . . . . . . . . . . 177 Tables of Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

CHAPTER I.

EXTEMPORE WORSHIP AND FORMS OF WORSHIP.

There is no such special merit in monotony as to require that the worship of God should be conducted wholly in one method rather than in several. Rather it must be acknowledged that there is merit in variety if it be subjected to dignity and order. For a certain measure of variety arrests and engages the attention of the worshippers and sustains their interest.

VARIATIONS OF WORDS AND PHRASES. Much has been said from time to time concerning Extempore Prayers and Extempore Praise, as opposed to those which are more carefully prepared and agreed upon.

The discussion has been somewhat confused by the misuse of the word Extempore. Prior to the invention of Printing every one who had to conduct Services was required to know them by heart, so as to be able to say them without book. The fact that he used no book did not make the prayers extempore. In like manner one who is about to conduct the prayers of a Congregation may carefully prepare his subjects, phrases, and words, so as to avoid disorder in the subjects and unfitness in the words. His prayers in that case are not strictly extempore.

If however he determines to leave the order of subjects and the choice of words and phrases to the impulse of the moment, his thoughts may travel too fast, or too slowly, or too irregularly for the essential result: for the blessing which Christ promised is to those who unite in worship. (S. Matth. xviii. 19, 20.)

When a few people gather together with the same difficulties, temptations, dangers, sins, successes, a truly extempore prayer may be made by one of them without creating any discord of desire amongst the rest: but as soon as the congregation begins to include men and women of different occupations, tempers, ideas, talents—if moreover the persons for whom intercessions should be made are widely scattered and very variously employed—it becomes necessary to supplement by careful preparation the impulses of any one who leads the worship of a congregation. There is also great advantage in choosing the best phrases for expressing and including the worship of all.

We cannot doubt that the earliest prayers of the Collect form had local colouring; but those which have survived for our use are so expressed as to include many local applications, and a very great variety of circumstances.

Further, it will be clear that an extempore prayer may be part of a form of Service, just as much as a printed prayer. If the Service is composed of, The short Prayer, a Lesson, the long Prayer, the Sermon and several Hymns at fixed, or unfixed, places, the Service is a form. The description of the Holy Communion in the time immediately after the death of S. John the Evangelist (Justin Martyr, Apology i. 65-67, {3} see p. 58) shows us a form which provided for the essentials of such a service, with prayers, praises, lessons, offertory, Consecration, Communion, in order, although he who conducted the Service had a certain amount of liberty in using parts of it.

We may assume then that forms are good, and that it is good to have preparation and order and chosen phrases. The next question is how to provide for that Variety which shall sustain interest and engage the mind of the worshipper in the great business of his Service.

We may consider Variety of method, Variety of singing, and Variations in the component parts of the Service.

(a) Variety of Method. The worshippers are divided into two or more parties who take up their parts alternately, or together. It is evident that such a division may be made in many ways. Those which have been adopted in former times have resulted in the survival of five Varieties for general Congregations [see chap. III. f.].

A careful study of the Rubrics will show that great liberty is allowed in the Prayer Book in respect to the singing.

There is a Rubric in the Morning Service which prescribes the manner of saying or singing Gloria Patri, viz. that it is to be Responsorial. The order is that after the Morning and Evening Canticles As it was in the beginning, &c. is to be an answer to Glory be to the Father, &c. And this order may be found also after the Versicles of Mattins and Evensong, O Lord, open thou our lips. It might be inferred from this that the Psalms and Canticles were intended to be sung in the same way. But it is more likely that it was designed to continue an ancient freedom of choice which is now represented in our custom of using the Antiphonal Method when we sing, and the Responsorial when we say them. The division of Gloria Patri into two verses was, no doubt, intended in any case. The Prayer Book does not recommend the fourth method; many rubrics indicate that the congregation should take a substantial share in the services with voice and heart.

  1. Praise and Prayer.
  2. Variations;
     from Service to Service,
      " Day to Day,
      " Week to Week,
      " Morning to Evening,
      " Season to Season.

CHAPTER II.

ORIGIN OF MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.

The Services in the Prayer Book may be roughly classed as (1) those which are used every week: and (2) those which are used more rarely. The principal service is the Holy Communion; which is provided with a special Collect, Epistle and Gospel for each week, and for Holy Days of special importance as being connected with the Lord's life on earth, or with His immediate disciples.

The weekly Collection, enjoined by S. Paul in the churches of Galatia and Corinth (1 Cor. xvi. 2), suggests that the Holy Communion was from the first the usual Sunday Service. And this is confirmed when we find S. Paul making a rapid journey from Greece to Jerusalem (Acts xx. 16), but waiting seven days at Troas so as to be with the disciples there upon the first day of the week, when they came together to break bread (Acts xx. 6, 7): cf. also a similar sojourn at Tyre on the same voyage (Acts xxi. 4). But the Holy Communion was not the only regular Service. Peter and John went to the Temple (Acts iii. 1) at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. Peter went up upon the housetop to pray (Acts x. 9) about the sixth hour.

Cornelius saw the vision about the ninth hour (Acts x. 3). They were all together in one place (Acts ii. 1) upon the day of Pentecost—and it was the third hour of the day (Acts ii. 15). These hours may have been suggested to them as Christians by the solemn scenes of the crucifixion of our Lord (S. Mark xv. 25, 33, &c.)[1].

The constant sense of responsibility and danger tended, of course, to the frequent assembling for united prayer. It was natural to adopt some such method as that in Psalm lv. 17, evening, morning and noon (cf. Daniel vi. 10).

To these were added others: in the 3rd century for example we hear of one at dawn and one at sunset: the former, being especially a praise service, came to be known as Lauds or Mattin-lauds; the latter was soon called Vespers (vesper=evening).

In the 4th century we hear of two more, making up the seven times a day of Psalm cxix. 164. During this growth of daily services there is sometimes a {7} doubt whether the night Service is included in the reckoning: but eventually we find for the daytime Mattin-lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline.

The precise time of each is not defined by its name. If Mattins (i.e. Lauds) was not finished when Prime was due, these two Services were united.

But the office for Terce might be said at the 2nd hour or at the 3rd: and in like manner Sext belonged to any of the three hours before 12; and None to the three hours between 12 and 3.

Thus the day was divided into portions of three hours each: each portion had its own Service, named from its close, but said at a variable time according to the appointment of the Ordinary[2]. The tendency was to appoint an early part of the three hours for the Service; and this is visible in the word 'noon,' if it is true that 12 o'clock is so named from the custom of saying None at that time.

Compline (completorium) is so called from its completing the services of the day.

It will be noted that many of the names of Church Officers and many other terms having a technical Church meaning are Greek in their derivation. Archangel, Angel, Bishop, Priest, Deacon, Church, Ecclesiastical, Apostle, Prophet, Martyr, Baptism, Epistle, Evangelical, are instances of this; and many languages show by these and other terms that Christian Churches derive much of their organization from times and places where the Greek tongue was prevalent.

It might be thought perhaps that the Latin derivation of the names of the Day Hour services would imply a more local and a Western Source for these Hours of Prayer. But some of them are, as we have shown, very early in their origin, and indeed there is evidence from books that something of the same order was very early observed in the Eastern parts of Christendom also.

This frequency of Services had a great charm for men who lived together and worked together in communities, with no great distance between their work and their Church, and who were able to fit their day's tasks and necessary meals to the intervals between the Services.

It was not so suitable for mixed occupations or for isolated houses: and as populations increased, it became evident that a less frequent assembly would be more conducive to united worship.

GENERAL SCHEME OF THE DAY HOURS.

We will not enter into the minute differences of structure which are found in one or other of the Day Hours. The following list will show the order of a Service which is nearly identical with each of them.:

  Our Father, &c.
  Versicles.
  Hymn.
  Several Psalms divided into portions by
    Glorias and Antiphons.
  {9}
  Several Lessons divided by Responses.
  Canticles.
  Lesser Litany. Our Father, &c.
  Versicles.
  Creed.
  Versicles.
  Confession.
  Collects.

Thus they followed the general division of worship into Praise and Prayer. By enlarging one portion and diminishing another a special character was given to certain Services. Thus Lauds was made joyful by having many psalms.

The chief Lessons from the Bible were read in the Mattins Service when it was said before Lauds. The union of those two Services resulted in the omission of many of the Psalms. (See Preface "Concerning the Service of the Church" in our Prayer Book.)

The Day Hour Services were not precisely alike even in their outline: but they had a certain similarity which suggested the plan which has been adopted in the Morning and Evening Services of the Book of Common Prayer.

[3]Each of these parts began with the Lord's Prayer. The Praise part always had something of the nature of Psalms and Lessons: the Prayers always had Collects. The Praises had Praise-versicles and the Prayers had Prayer-versicles. Also as time went on Litanies became usual for special days of the week.

It was easy therefore to recast the seven Services in the shape which they now have.

  Praise. The Lord's Prayer.
              Versicles.
              Psalms.
              Lessons.
              Creed.
  Prayers. The Lord's Prayer.
              Versicles.
              Collects.
              Thanksgivings.

NAMES AND TITLES.

The Services of our Church were translated into English in 1549. Many alterations were made at that time.

The seven Day Hours were combined into two Services—Mattins and Evensong: the Holy Communion Service was assimilated in some respects to Eastern Liturgies: the rules of variation for days and seasons were simplified: interruptions were avoided by the omission of many Verses and Responds, Antiphons, &c.: better provision was made for continuous reading of Holy Scripture.

The change from Latin, which had once been a commonly-spoken language, to the language spoken in England is the alteration which produced the greatest effect upon congregational worship, and the smallest amount of difference in the worship itself: for if you understood both languages it would not matter to you which of them you used.

The Latin prayers had been known by their first words. Just as we now know a prayer as Our Father, or a doxology as Glory be to the Father, so formerly they were known as Pater Noster, and Gloria Patri. Some of these titles have survived. Credo (I believe) has been shortened into Creed. We use as a Creed the Hymn Quicunque vult (Whosoever will). The Canticles still are known by their first words in Latin, Te Deum, Benedicite, &c., and so is the 95th Psalm, Venite, exultemus Domino.

  Lord, have mercy upon us.
    Christ, have mercy upon us.
  Lord, have mercy upon us.

The model bequeathed to us by Our Lord is known to us as The Lord's
Prayer, often called "Our Father" from the first words.

[1] Haec sunt septenis propter quae psallimus horis:
    Matutina legat Christum qui crimina purgat.
    Prima replet sputis. Causam dat Tertia mortis.
    Sexta cruci nectit. Latus ejus Nona bipertit.
    Vespera deponit. Tumulo Completa reponit;

    Seven are the hours at which we sing and pray;
    Mattins for Christ who takes our sins away,
    Prime shows Him mocked, and Terce says why He died.
    Sext shows His Cross, and None His pierced side.
    Vespers His taking down commemorates,
    And Compline how they buried Him relates.
    Thus day by day we sing and pray Christ and Him crucified.

CHAPTER III.

THE MODEL.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

The pronouns used in the Lord's Prayer are 'Thy,' 'us,' 'our.' It is the voice of a people speaking to God. Even in private we may not pray for self alone; we must include our friends, neighbours, and all others.

For this reason the Lord's Prayer is singularly adapted to the services of a congregation. Its petitions are short and direct, and therefore easily thought by every one at the same moment. This is an important point, because unity of intention is the essence of congregational worship. (S. Matth. xviii. 19, 20.)

           ( Hallowed be Thy Name.
  Thy. ( Thy Kingdom come.
           ( Thy Will be done.

           ( Give us this day our daily bread.
           ( Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive
  Us, our. ( them that trespass against us.
           ( Lead us not into temptation.
           ( Deliver us from evil.

There are, it appears, two motives which prompt a man to worship God.
One of these is God; Man himself is the other.

Worship means 'worthiness,' and thence 'regarding anyone as worthy.' For this reason a magistrate is called 'his worship'; and a guild or company is called 'worshipful.' In the Marriage Service the man says to his wife "I thee worship" because he sets her before all else. In Wyclif's Bible (S. Matth. xix. 19) we find "Worschipe thi fadir and thi moder." In old days any act of mind or body acknowledging the worthiness of another was an Act of Worship. In later days the word 'Worship' has been limited.

Limitation 1. Since God alone is perfectly worthy, worship is now ascribed usually to God alone: any act of mind or body acknowledging the worthiness of God may still be called an Act of Worship. For instance, in Col. iii. 17-iv. 1, the duties of mankind in daily life are set forth as a constant acknowledgment of the presence of God. The repetition of the word (kurios) meaning 'Lord' and 'master'—10 times in 10 verses—falls on the ear like a peal of bells, calling us to make daily life an unbroken Worship of God.

Limitation 2. We ought not to forget that life is all one piece; and that the word Worship should describe what we do and say outside our prayers, as well as what we say and think in prayer and praise. The word is, however, more commonly limited to words and thoughts. These two limitations lead us {14} to a second definition of worship as words and thoughts which acknowledge the worthiness of God. We have nearly abandoned the word as describing the honour paid by one creature to another, and but rarely use it of acts of the body.

God is always the object of Worship: but the subject of worship is two-fold—we may speak of ourselves or we may speak of our God. When we chiefly think of God in worship we call it Praise: when we chiefly think of ourselves we call it Prayer.

These are then the two kinds of Worship—Praise and Prayer. It is evident that the Lord's Prayer teaches us to put Praise in the higher place.

Praise. There are two ways in which respect is paid to a man, viz. (1)
Outspoken praise, (2) Deference to his words. In like manner we praise
God (1) by dwelling with joy and gladness on His perfections; and (2)
by listening with reverence to His Word.

Prayer, on the other hand, is that kind of worship which acknowledges God as the Source of all our help. Our needs are necessarily in our minds when we pray. We think of them in order to ask Him to help us; and we think of them again when we thank Him for the help which we have already had.

Thanksgiving might be coupled with Praise because its aim is to glorify God: but as its motive is the thought of human wants which have been already supplied, Thanksgiving is placed with the Prayers, which also relate to human wants.

II. Prayer (3) Petitions for grace and help.
(4) Thanksgivings for grace and help.

The same words may serve for Praise and for Prayer. The plainest meaning of "Hallowed be Thy Name" is Praise to God. But it may be also a Prayer to Him to cause His Name to be hallowed. If we have no reason to the contrary, we shall use the Lord's Prayer as an act of Praise and Prayer—Praise in its first three petitions, Prayer in its last four. If, however, we want to ask Him to cause His Name to be hallowed and His Kingdom to come and His Will to be done, we can turn it all into a prayer.

We have already said that Unity of Intention is the essence of congregational worship. Hence the Intention must be the same in all the worshippers if they use words suitable for both Praise and Prayer. If one is saying "Hallowed be Thy Name" and thinking chiefly of God's holiness, his Intention will be different from that of a neighbour who is thinking chiefly of the wickedness of sin. We need some agreement, that our intention may be the same.

This agreement might have been left to the knowledge of those who take part in the Service. They might have been expected to learn what the intention is, at each place when the Lord's Prayer is said. Or it might {16} have been stated in a Rubric, or direction, at the head of the Prayer. Neither of these methods is adopted in the Book of Common Prayer. Instead of them, the Prayer itself is so arranged as to proclaim the Intention.

When it is to be used for Praise, the words "for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever" are placed at the end: when it is to be used for Prayer, the Lesser Litany "Lord have mercy upon us, Christ have mercy upon us, Lord have mercy upon us" is placed at the beginning.

When the Lord's Prayer is 'set' for Praise, every petition in it is to be said with that intention. We shall then unite in praising God for the glory of His holy Name, the majesty of His Kingdom, the power of His Will, and also as the Giver, the Forgiver, the Leader and Deliverer. The thought of our weaknesses will be as much as possible left out, that we may rejoice in the perfections of God.

In like manner, when the Lord's Prayer is 'set' for Prayer, the thought of human wants will be present in every petition. We have great need to pray that God will cause His Name to be hallowed, His Kingdom to come, and His Will to be done, on earth as in heaven, as well as to ask Him for the necessaries of life, the forgiveness of sins, guidance, and deliverance from evil.

We can now understand why the Lord's Prayer is used twice in the same Service. The Praises begin with it and the Prayers begin with it. The setting of {17} the Lord's Prayer will always proclaim what kind of Service is beginning[1]. Thus the Lord's Prayer is made to strike the key-note of the Service, or part of a Service, to which it is prefixed.

We have seen that Unity of Intention is necessary to congregational worship. When a few people, animated by the same sentiments, are drawn together by one motive, and incur the same dangers, it matters little whether they use a form of worship or not. Whatever words are used in their name, their unity of intention is secured by the fact that they have no diversity of desires.

If the small body becomes a large one and times grow peaceful, diversity of desires will destroy unity of worship unless they adopt a form.

Forms of worship should, if possible, unite the most diverse features of character, occupation, danger, trial, suffering, joy, &c. in the expressions of Praise or Prayer which are common to them all. Local colouring and personal references are admissible only when they arouse a common emotion. The Lord's Prayer {18} is in this, as in other respects, an ideal Form of Worship.

Christian Worship began amongst people who were already accustomed to
Forms. The Jews had Psalms for Worship (1 Chron. xvi. 4-43), and two
Lessons in their Synagogue Service (Acts xv. 21, First Lesson: Acts
xiii. 27, Second Lesson). The two Lessons were followed by the
Exhorter (Acts xiii. 15; St Luke iv. 16, 17).

The word Amen, being Hebrew, gives further evidence of the derivation of the first Christian forms from the Synagogue Services, with, of course, a Christian character infused into them (1 Cor. xiv. 15, 16; cf. Deut. xxvii. 15-26).

Amen, as a Hebrew adjective, means firm, faithful; and, as an adverb, verily, or, as the Catechism explains it, so be it. "Its proper place is where one person confirms the words of another, and adds his wish for success to the other's vows and predictions" (Gesenius). Each of the first four Books of the Psalms ends with it—see Psalms xli., lxxii., lxxxix., cvi.

For some time the first Christians were able to resort to the Temple and Synagogues, and both worship and teach there (Acts ii. 46, iii. 1, 3, 8, 11, v. 12, 21, 25, 42: xiii. 5, 14, xiv. 1, xvii. 1, 2, xix. 8). They were joined by a number of the Priests (Acts vi. 7) whose help in arranging the services would bring a considerable influence in the same direction. At Ephesus (Acts xix. 9) a division arose in the Synagogue, causing S. Paul and the Christian disciples to remove into a school. At Corinth, for a similar {19} reason, they set up the Christian worship in the next house to the Synagogue, and the Ruler of the Synagogue went with them (Acts xviii. 7, 8). It is not very surprising that under these circumstances they derived some of their forms of Worship from the Synagogue.

Forms assist the mind to take its due part in the worship which we offer to the Almighty. Worship is offered with body, mind and spirit. If one of these encroaches on the others, their share is in danger. If the tongue and the knees and the hands are too much engaged in it, the mind grows weary or idle. If the mind is too busily employed, the spirit has a diminished share, or the body is indolent. It is necessary to provide occupation for the mind, but not to occupy it in following great mental efforts for which it is unprepared. If the mind is unprepared, it no sooner reaches one point than it has to follow the speaker to another; and thereby the spirit loses its power of speeding the utterance to the throne of God.

We find that, in the Services, shares are distributed to the worshippers in five different ways, which may be called Worship-forms. The Table on p. 21 should be carefully studied. Hooker's description of them (E. P. v. xxxix. 1) is a little difficult to make out; but it will be found to verify our table. (See Appendix A, pp. 22, 23.)

Walter Travers was Reader at the Temple Church in London, when (1585) Richard Hooker was appointed to be Master of the Temple. Travers had been a friend and favourite of Thomas Cartwright, a severe critic of the Order and Discipline of the Church of England. Travers took up the criticisms, and so attacked Hooker that the latter in self-defence wrote his Books on The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1592), wherein he replies to Cartwright's and Travers' criticisms.

The Worship-forms have been in use for so long that it is scarcely possible to discuss their origin. The traces of them in the Bible are interesting:

The Prayer Book furnishes examples of Praise and Prayer in each Form, excepting the Litany Form, which is used only for Prayer. But there is no reason why that also should not be used for Praise: the 136th Psalm will show how this might be done.

THE FIVE KINDS OF WORSHIP FORMS

  1. The Minister AMEN form The Collects Prayer of
     offers and the Consecration
     People endorse in Holy
     it Communion (see
                                                       1 Cor. xiv. 16)

2. Minister and Responsorial, Hymn at Sursum Corda People pursue or Ordination of in Holy different lines INTERJECTIONAL Priests Communion interrupting form Preces before Versicles one another Collects before Psalms

  3. The Congregation Antiphonal, "From our The Psalms
     form two or ANTHEM enemies, &c." in Mattins
     companies which form —8 verses in and
     reply to one the Litany Evensong
     another

  4. The Minister LITANY The main body
     names the subject form of the Litany
     and the People
     offer the prayer
     (or praise)

  5. A portion of PRECEDED The Lesson and
     Holy Scripture prayer or Commandments Canticle
     is read and the praise in Holy
     prayer or praise Communion
     completes it as
     an Act of Worship

APPENDIX A.

"For the singing of Psalms by course and side after side, although it be very ancient yet it is not commendable, and so much the more to be suspected for that the Devil hath gone about to get it so great authority, partly by deriving it from Ignatius' time, and partly in making the world believe that this came from heaven, and that the Angels were heard to sing after this sort," &c.

"And if the prophet David did think that the very meeting of men together and their accompanying one another to the House of God should make the bond of their love insoluble, and tie them in a league of inviolable amity (Ps. lv. 14); how much more may we judge it reasonable to hope that the like effects may grow in each of the people towards other, in them [Sidenote: Anthem] all towards their pastor, and in their pastor towards every of them, between whom there daily and interchangeably pass, in the hearing of God Himself, and in the presence of His holy Angels, so many heavenly acclamations, exultations, provocations, petitions, songs of {23} comfort, psalms of praise and thanksgiving: in all which [Sidenote: Amen] particulars, as when the pastor maketh their suits and they with one voice testify a general assent thereunto; or when he joyfully beginneth, and they with like alacrity follow, dividing [Sidenote: Interjection] between them the sentences wherewith they strive which shall most show his own and stir up others' zeal, to the glory of that God whose name they magnify; [Sidenote: Litany] or when he proposeth unto God their necessities, and they their own requests for relief in every of them; or when he lifteth up his voice like a trumpet to proclaim unto them the laws [Sidenote: Preceded] of God, they adjoining, though not as Israel did by way of generality, a cheerful promise, 'All that the Lord hath commanded we will do,' yet that which God doth no less approve, that which savoureth more of meekness, that which testifieth rather a feeling knowledge of our common imbecility, unto the several branches thereof several lowly and humble requests for grace at the merciful hands of God to perform the thing which is commanded; or when they wish reciprocally each other's ghostly happiness, or when he by exhortation raiseth them up, and they by protestation of their readiness declare he speaketh not in vain unto them; these interlocutory forms of speech, what are they else, but most effectual, partly testifications, and partly inflammations, of all piety?"

[1] There are two or three apparent exceptions which on examination prove the rule. At the beginning of the Communion Service the intention is so plain and the Lord have mercy is repeated so often with the Commandments, that it is left out before the Lord's Prayer. At Baptism and Confirmation there is no setting, probably because the Thanksgiving close of those services has the character of both Praise and Prayer: and this certainly is the effect of the double setting in the Churching Service.

CHAPTER IV.

MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.

It must not be supposed that these Services were composed suddenly in their present shape. They are indeed formed on the pattern given by the Lord's Prayer; and they make use of the methods which we have described—Intention, Setting, Key-note, Worship-forms—which have always been the methods used by the Church as far back as we have any evidence. But from time to time alterations have been made in the details. The Lord's Prayer has, for example, been used as a key-note for Praise without its Doxology; or Confession has been placed amongst the Prayers; or Psalms have been more used, and Lessons less used. In spite of such variations, the general principles may be traced in all Church Services; and much interesting study may be spent on the comparison of our Services with those which preceded them.

We have already said something (Chap. II.) about this, and when we study these two Services in detail, it is very important to remember that they grew out of the older Services. The daily Psalms and Lessons {25} might be rearranged, the number of versicles increased or diminished, the rule about varying the saying of a Creed, or an Alleluia, might be altered: but it is the same pattern with the same methods of worship now, as it was when the Services were all said in Latin and when each Diocese in this country had some differences from all the other Dioceses.

THE ORDER FOR MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER, DAILY TO BE SAID AND USED THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.

The Morning and Evening Prayer shall be used in the accustomed Place of the Church, Chapel, or Chancel: except it shall be otherwise determined by the Ordinary of the Place. And the Chancels shall remain as they have done in times past.

And here is to be noted, that such ornaments of the Church, and of the Ministers thereof, at all times of their Ministration, shall be retained, and be in use, as were in this Church of England, by the authority of Parliament, in the second year of the reign of King Edward the Sixth.

The importance of the above heading has been lost sight of, through the manner of its printing. In most Prayer Books it will be found on a page by itself or at the foot of a Table of the Golden Numbers. It is really the heading of a chapter which contains both {26} Morning and Evening Service. Until the last Revision of the Book in 1662, the chapter containing Morning and Evening Prayer was closed after the Athanasian Creed with a Rubric Thus endeth the Order of Morning and Evening Prayer throughout the whole Year. Although that Rubric has been omitted, this heading includes both Services in one Chapter.

EVENING PRAYER] This part of the chapter, prior to 1662, was not printed out in full; only the variations from Morning Prayer were set forth.

DAILY TO BE SAID AND USED] See Preface—And all Priests and Deacons are to say daily the Morning and Evening Prayer, either privately or openly . . . the Curate . . . shall say the same in the Parish Church or Chapel where he ministereth.

ornaments of the Church] The Canons of 1604 order a number of things to be provided at the charges of the parish, which may be included under this head, such as Communion Table, Pulpit, Reading-desk, Font, Alms-chest, Alms-basin, Vessels for Holy Communion, Bible, Common Prayer Book, Book of Homilies, Parchment Register Book and Coffer. It would not be easy to make a complete list of things authorised by this Rubric and elsewhere.

and of the Ministers thereof] The discussion of the meaning of the
Ornaments of the Ministers belongs chiefly to the Communion Service.
There has been no question that for Morning and Evening Service a
Surplice and Hood are ordered to be worn.

the second year of the reign of King Edward the Sixth] The reference is to the {27} statute of the year 1548-9, whereby the first (English) Revision was enabled to be enforced by law. Edward VI.'s reign began on Jan. 29, 1547. This statute passed the House of Lords on Jan. 15th, 1548-9, and is referred to in the statute of 1552 as belonging to the second year of King Edward VI., although the session lasted into his third year.

THE ORDER FOR MORNING PRAYER, DAILY THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.

This fresh heading is necessary because the former included the Order for Evening Service. Morning and Evening Prayer (called also Mattins and Evensong: see Table of Proper Lessons) are two divisions of the same chapter.

These two Services are very much alike. The map on the next page shows their construction.

An examination of this map will show that the plan of the Lord's Prayer is closely followed. There are two parts and an introduction. Of the two parts Praise comes first, as in the Lord's Prayer.

Each of the two parts begins with the Lord's Prayer, which is arranged with a setting so as to mark the character of what follows.

Every piece of the Praise portion is set with a Praise-Termination, or Doxology: and this portion includes both kinds of Praise, viz. Outspoken Praise, and Reverent Hearing of God's Word. In like manner the Prayer portion includes the two kinds of Prayer, viz. Petition for the wants of men, and Thanksgiving for what they have received.

Thus these two Services are formed in obedience to the rule that we are to take the Lord's Prayer as our model (S. Matth. vi. 9).

INTRODUCTION.

  TEXT and SERMON on Confession.
  The act of CONFESSION.
  GOD'S ANSWER to Confession.

PRAISE.

          ( 1. Interjected Verses )
  PSALMS ( 2. xcv. (at Mattins) ) Gloria Patri.
          ( 3. Special, i.—cl. (as )
          ( appointed) )

LESSONS ( 1. Old Testament . . . Canticle 1 or 2,
( 2. New Testament . . . Canticle 3 or 4.

PRAYER.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

           ( 1. for spiritual needs,
  COLLECTS ( ANTHEM or Choral Prayer uniting the
           ( two kinds of Collect,
           ( 2. for physical needs and earthly relations.

In 1552 the Introductory portion was prefixed. Confession, which formerly occurred in the Prayers, had been omitted in 1549. It now forms the Introduction.

The reason for this beginning is set forth in a short sermon which is usually known as the Exhortation, and has, like other sermons, a Text, commonly known as a Sentence (see Rubric at the head of the Sentences). This is in accordance with very ancient custom[1], and with the very natural sense that man must receive permission before he approaches God.

As an illustration of this we may think of Esther, when she went to make her petition of the King (Esther iv. 2, v. 1-3). The King extending his sceptre gave her permission to speak.

are 11 verses, chosen, 5 from the Psalms, 4 from the Prophets, 2 from the Gospels, 1 from the Epistles. They represent either man's cry to God (Nos. 2, 3, 7, 9, 10) or God's call to man (Nos. 1, 4, 5, 8, 11) or both (No. 6).

The Scripture moveth us] The Sentences supply 11 such places, but there are many more to be found in the Bible. The word "moveth" has the same meaning as when a resolution is moved at a meeting.

When we assemble and meet together in Church] Four reasons are given, viz. the four great occupations of Worship, without regard to their order in the Service. We have already pointed out that Thanksgiving and Prayer spring from the sense of man's wants and his dependence on God; and that the Reading of God's Word in these Services is not for study but for Praise. We shall therefore find the Thanksgiving after the Prayers, and the Lessons (or Lections) of Holy Scripture amongst the Praises.

The capital letters indicate that this was to be, as it were, dictated to the people, sentence by sentence: and the Rubric implies the same. It will be remembered that books were scarce when this Rubric was prepared. Literal obedience to it is often very impressive, and a real addition to the solemnity of the act. On ordinary occasions in some Churches, the Minister leads the Confession without the formal separation of each clause from the next.

The expressions, used here to acknowledge the wickedness of sin and the defects of human life, will seem to be excessive whenever we are making light of {31} our faults. But in proportion as we realise the perfection of God's holiness, we shall find them suitable to every shade of defect and sin.

The comprehensive humility of this Confession is designed to include both modified faults and grave offences—whether by commission, omission or indolence. The full acknowledgment of the different forms of sin is followed by prayer for mercy and recovery, relying upon the promises declared in Jesus Christ.

As God's answer to Confession, this is pronounced by God's own messenger. The messenger must have full credentials; i.e. a Deacon must not say the Absolution.

Both here and in the Confession, the Titles and Attributes of God should be noticed. His power and mercy were made the grounds of our appeal to Him. His mercy and authority are now made the grounds of His answer. The fulness of the declaration of them gives emphasis to the declaration of pardon which follows.

Before the invention of printing (15th century), the directions in Law Manuscripts had been written in red, in order to distinguish them from the Statutes. This distinction had been made also in Service Books and it has been continued to our own time. But every sheet which contains both black and red letters requires to be twice passed over a printing press. Hence, for cheap books, italics are used instead of red letters to distinguish the directions from the prayers, &c. The directions are called Rubrics (from Lat. ruber=red) whether the distinction is made by the colour or the type.

The rubrics about the Confession and the Absolution were in 1662 made more clear. The habit had grown up in some churches for the Priest to say the Absolution kneeling. The word all was therefore inserted in the rubric about Confession, and the words standing, the people still kneeling were added to the rubric about Absolution. Thus all kneeling includes the minister.

This Introductory Part of the Service was composed for the Revision of 1552, and was then printed only in the Morning Service, with a rubric ordering it to be used at the beginning of Morning Prayer, and likewise of Evening Prayer. In 1662 it was first printed out in full in the Evening Service, and the rubric was altered to agree therewith.

Simplification of rubrics. One aim of the Revisers was simplicity of rules. As they sought Variety of worship without excess, so they desired Order of {33} worship without complexity of regulations. Anyone, looking casually over the Prayer Books of the Sarum and other Uses before 1549, will be struck at once by the redness of many of the pages. This redness indicates rubrics, and helps us to realise what is meant in the Prayer Book Preface (Concerning the Service of the Church, Section 2) by the number and hardness of the rules called the Pie, and the manifold changings of the Service[2].

In order to provide for the many occasions when a difference was to be made, rubrics had been multiplied and inserted at the places to which they applied. The Revisers (1) collected as many as possible at the beginning of each Service, or at the end; and (2) reduced the number of rubrics thus collected together, by reducing the number of variations which were to be provided for.

It has often been noticed that pairs of words having nearly the same meaning frequently occur in the Prayer Book. This doubling of an idea may be called 'Duplication'.

Duplication is of two kinds: either the words coupled together are so nearly identical in meaning that one is but a repetition of the other; or else the {34} second word shows an advance upon the first. The former kind may be called 'parallel duplication' and is used for emphasis: the latter kind may be called 'progressive duplication', because it is used to represent the living idea which advances even while it is being uttered. Instances of both abound in this part of the Service, as well as in the Collects and other prayers which we shall notice later on.

( acknowledge . . . . . suggesting reluctance. ( confess . . . . . . . " willingness.

( sins . . . . . . . . . the outward act.
( wickedness . . . . . . the inward fault.

( dissemble . . . . . . pretend they are not there.
( cloke . . . . . . . . cover them up.

( requisite . . . . . . what we should like.
( necessary . . . . . . what we must have.

( pray . . . . . . . . . ask earnestly.
( beseech . . . . . . . " more earnestly.

    ( humble, lowly ( attitude with regard ) Distrust
    ( ( to the past ) of Self.
    (
    ( penitent ( attitude with regard ) Shame for
    ( ( to the present ) sin.
    (
    ( obedient ( attitude with regard ) Resolution
    ( ( to the future ) to leave
    ( ) the sin.

( device . . . . . . . . . . an act of the mind. ( desire . . . . . . . . . . an act of the heart.

( left undone . . . . . . . Omission. ( done (wrongly) . . . . . . Commission.

( spare . . . . . . . . . . with regard to the past. ( restore . . . . . . . . . " " " the future.

( godly . . . . . . . . . . duty to God. ( righteous . . . . . . . . " " man. ( sober . . . . . . . . . . " " self.

Parallel. declare and pronounce. truly (with truth), unfeignedly (without pretence).

( death . . . . . . . . . . Life is something more than ( turn and live . . . . . . the absence of death.

( Absolution . . . . . . . . unloosing.
( Remission . . . . . . . . putting away.

    ( pardoneth . . . . . . . . (Fr. pardonner) God forgiveth.
    ( absolveth . . . . . . . . (Lat. absolvo) God looseth the
                                     sinner.

( repent . . . . . . . . . . looking at Self. ( believe . . . . . . . . . " " God.

( pure . . . . . . . . . . . absence of evil. ( holy . . . . . . . . . . . presence of good.

( repentance . . . . . that our present lives may ( please God. ( God's Holy Spirit " our remaining lives ( may please Him.

It will be clear that if we keep from sin repentance is more intimately connected with our present lives than with the future. Yet both repentance and the gift of the Holy Spirit are required for life now and hereafter.

[1] S. Basil, ad Clerum Neoc. Ep. 63, Tom. 2, 843 D, quoted by Wheatley, says that "the primitive Christians in all Churches, immediately upon their entering into the House of Prayer, made a confession of their sins to God with much sorrow and concern and tears, every man pronouncing his own confession with his own mouth."

[2] The Pie. Three explanations are offered of this word. (1) pi=the first letter of the word pinax a chart, i.e. the Table of Lessons, &c. (2) Pie,—as in magpie, piebald,—from the two colours of the page. (3) Litera picata—the pitch-coloured letter—which began each several order in the rules.

The title of the Sarum Breviary makes Pie equivalent to Breviary or Portiforium. The most attractive derivation is that which associates it with the Greek word for a chart or map.

CHAPTER V.

PRAISE.

Every part of the Praise portion of the Service has a
Praise-Termination. We have already seen that the "intention" of the
Lord's Prayer is marked for praise by a Termination, viz. for thine is
the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever and ever.

This praise-termination belongs to the Lord's Prayer, and is not used for anything else. In like manner, other forms of praise have their own terminations. Thus Psalms and Lessons are used for praise and have praise-terminations.

When a Psalm is used for praise, its termination is Glory be to the father, &c.

When a Lesson is used for praise, its termination is a Canticle—i.e. one of the Bible songs of praise (from the Latin canticulum, a little song, a sonnet).

When the Creed is used for praise, since nothing can be added to the facts of God's Being and Work except the will to recite them devoutly, its praise-termination is Amen.

The Lord's Prayer may be regarded as a brief summary of the acts of worship which come after it. Much care is required in order to use its familiar words with due devotion. When it is used, as here, for Praise, the following may be taken as examples of the thoughts which should accompany its several phrases.

    Our Father, God is Love.
  Which art in heaven, God is a spirit.
  Hallowed be Thy Name, God's Holiness.
  Thy Kingdom come, God's Power.
  Thy Will be done, God's Perfectness.
  In earth as it is in heaven, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord
                                        God Almighty.
  Give us this day our daily Every good gift is from
    bread, above.
  Forgive us our trespasses, The mercy of the Lord
                                        is from everlasting to
                                        everlasting.
  Lead us not into temptation, Thou art about my path
                                        and about my bed.
  Deliver us from evil, With power He commandeth
                                        the unclean spirits, &c.

The various parts of the Praise portion of the Service are not repetitions of the same ideas. We {39} have first, in the Psalms, the simpler thoughts about God. The First Lesson, taken from the Old Testament, advances to higher or more complex thoughts in Praise of Him. The next stage is reached in the Second Lesson; and the Apostles' Creed crowns the whole. Thus a Ladder of praise is made whereby we climb up to the thought of God in His Perfect Being, which is the very essence of Real Worship.

The first steps in this ladder are made by the use of the Book of Psalms, which is divided into sections for these daily Services, and so arranged that they supply different Psalms for 30 mornings and 30 evenings. If there are 31 days in the month, those for the 30th day are repeated on the 31st: in February, the (29th and) 30th are omitted.

There are many words which originally meant a Song, but in course of time have come to mean a special kind of song, or the music which belongs to a song. Thus Cantus, a song, gives us Chant, the music of a psalm verse; and Canticle, a psalm after a Lesson. psalmos, a song, gives us psalm, a hymn, but not metrical, hymnos, a song, gives us hymn, a song in metre.

Before the Psalms begin there is an injunction to praise the Lord exchanged between the Minister and the People. Four other Versicles and Gloria Patri are interposed after the Lord's Prayer—all in the form of Verse and Respond.

{40} Ps. li. 15 is the Psalmist's grateful cry when his sin was forgiven and his praises began to break forth.

The Venite exultemus Domino, briefly called Venite, is the 95th Psalm. The Rubric provides that it is to be said every day, but not twice on the 19th day[1]. It is the first of the Morning Psalms, and formerly was sung with an Anthem (see Chapter XIII.) which was known as the Invitatory, and varied with the Season.

Antiphonal, i.e. alternate, singing dates from the services described in 1 Chronicles vi. 31-33, 39, 44, from which it appears that there were three choirs of singers—one in the centre, and one on either hand. Thus the interchange of replies from either side and a chorus of all the voices were provided, 1 Chron. xvi. 7-9 makes it clear that the Psalms were sung, as indeed the word Psalm (from Gr. psallo, I sing) implies. See also Neh. xii. 24.

The Authorised Version (A.V.) of the Bible is a translation made at the beginning of James I.'s reign, after the Hampton Court Conference (Jan. 1604). It was published in 1611 with a title-page stating that it was "appointed to be read in churches." There is, however, no evidence of any formal adoption of it until the statement made in the Preface of the {41} Prayer Book (1662) that "such portions of Holy Scripture as are inserted into the Liturgy," "in the Epistles and Gospels especially, and in sundry other places . . . are now ordered to be read according to the last Translation." It is evident that this "last Translation" is the Version of 1611: for the Epistles and Gospels are quoted from it in the Prayer Book of 1662. The Translation of 1611, then, is that from which are to be taken "such portions of Holy Scripture as are inserted into the Liturgy." This appears to be the general rule of the Prayer Book of 1662. But that Prayer Book gives authority to various exceptions. The most notable of these is the provision, in a footnote to The order how the Psalter is appointed to be read, "that the Psalter followeth the division of the Hebrews and the translation of the great English Bible, set forth and used in the time of King Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth."

If it be asked why the words of the Psalms should be sung as in the Great Bible when other translations have superseded it for Lessons, there is an easy answer. Books were not cheap or common in the 16th and 17th centuries. Many people had sung them so often as to know them by heart. A comparison of the Bible and Prayer Book translations will show that there was no large gain to be set against the loss of congregational worship which must have resulted from changes. The Bishops' Bible supplanted the Great Bible in 1568, and the Authorised Version was made in 1611. Both in 1604 and in 1662 the Revisers decided to retain the Version of 1539-40 (the Great Bible) so far as the Psalms and Canticles {42} were sung in the Churches. This is plainly not an oversight in 1662, for the Revisers altered the words of the note in the Preface, without changing the sense.

The Preface, "Concerning the Service of the Church," states that "the ancient Fathers have divided the Psalms into seven portions, whereof every one was called a Nocturn," and that "the same was . . . ordained . . . of a good purpose and for a great advancement of godliness"; but "of late time a few of them have been daily said and the rest utterly omitted." A writer of the ninth century says that S. Jerome, at the bidding of the Pope on the request of Theodosius, arranged the Psalms for the Services of day and night in order to avoid the confusion arising from variety of uses[2]. S. Ambrose was a contemporary of S. Jerome but died more than 20 years before him. There are considerable differences between the plan which S. Ambrose gave to his diocese of Milan, and the plan which we may believe was generally given at the same time to the Churches of the rest of Western Europe. But they are similar in many respects. In both, a division was made between the first 109 psalms,—which were mainly allotted to the night services, i.e. to those which were afterwards called Mattins,—and the rest which were mainly allotted to the Evening Service (Vespers). We suppose that the division, mentioned in the {43} Preface, "into seven portions" refers to those 109 Psalms.

Of these 109, 18 were used at other Services, leaving 91 for Mattins, viz. 19 on Sunday and 12 each for the week days. The Ambrosian arrangement of them was for a fortnight.

The Greek Church divides the whole Book into 20 portions and takes them, two portions at Mattins and one at Vespers, beginning on Saturday night, omitting Sunday Vespers, and taking, on Friday, the 19th, 20th and 18th portions.

Thus we see that a weekly singing of the Book of Psalms is derived from a very ancient time, when the division of the Eastern and Western Churches of Europe had not occurred.

The Sarum order, which we suppose was that which is referred to in the Preface as having been "corrupted" by omissions, had the 109 Psalms allotted to Mattins, as above described. For Vespers, there were five each day from cx.-cxlvii., omitting the 118th and 119th, 134th, 143rd and, as explained below[3], reckoning the 147th as two. All these were taken in order as they stand in the Bible. Those which were left out were allotted to other Services, as, for instance, iv. to Compline, lxiii. to Lauds, &c., &c. Psalm cxix. was to be said through every day, 32 verses at Prime, and 48 verses each, at Terce, Sext and None.

Lauds was the great Praise Service of the day, and had a very beautiful arrangement of its Psalms which always ended with one of the O.T. hymns followed by Psalms cxlviii.-cl. The O.T. hymns on the seven days of the week were Benedicite: Isaiah xii.: Isaiah xxxviii. 10-20: 1 Sam. ii. 1-10: Exodus xv. 1-19: Hab. iii.: Deut. xxxii. 1-43.

The beauty of many of these arrangements is undeniable: but they were rather intricate; and in practice they broke down.

Our revisers retained the underlying principles. By spreading the course over 30 days they made it possible to use it all. They retained the 95th Psalm as the first Psalm of every day; and also the principle of having two daily Services at which Psalms occupied an important place.

There are Special Psalms for six days in the year—the four great Festivals, Christmas, Easter, Ascension, and Whitsun Day, and the two great prayer-days, Ash-Wednesday and Good Friday. The Preface explains that these Special Psalms are to be sung instead of the ordinary Psalms on those days; and authorises the use of Special Psalms approved by the Ordinary on other days.

In using the Book of Psalms as a book of worship we must remember what was said of the Intention of our minds in respect to parts of the Services. There are many Psalms which supply us with the best Prayers in trouble, penitence or any anxiety. But when using them in these Services our Intention is not Prayer but Praise, and the thought of God must inspire our devotions.

It will often help us if we remember that God's Righteousness is infinite, as well as His Mercy. It is impossible for man in his present state to reconcile perfect Righteousness and perfect Mercy: for Righteousness will have nothing to do with sin, while Mercy forgives it. These two characteristics of God are revealed to us through Christ in Whom Righteousness and Peace are united; cf. Ps. lxxxv.

The Psalms, composed by various people at different times, very frequently are the utterances of men in trouble: and they often sketch the thoughts or actions of the Ideal Man, in one or other of the four characters which answer to God's Righteousness and God's Mercy. For, in response to God's Righteousness, man must be (1) perfectly penitent, and (2) in imitation of God, must detest sin: in imitation of God, (3) he must be perfectly forgiving, and in response to God's mercy, (4) he must have trust and peace. The Psalmists exhibit human nature at its best, but it is human nature all the time—human nature finding God and associating itself with the Ideal Man.

Thus the Psalms often rise to the conception of the Messiah; and, even when that is not their thought, they proceed from other thoughts to Rest in God and Praise of His Holy Name.

The most difficult Psalms for worship are those which regard sin with horror, but express the horror without mercy. Man is unable to hold the two qualities of Righteousness and Mercy simultaneously. We find it difficult in these days to detest sin because we are learning the quality of mercy.

Much of the poetic force of these songs depends on the local incidents of Israel's history and the scenery of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. While we use the words, we must also use our imaginations to transfer the great thoughts to our own experience: for those local colours are the clothing of thoughts which belong to all men in their relation to God.

Over all these endeavours to use the Psalms properly in the Praise part of our Services, the ruling idea is that which we have already stated, viz. that God in these things is to be glorified.

[1] A practice is found, in some churches, of singing this Psalm on Sundays but not when it is read in the ordinary course of the Psalms. We believe that this is due to a misinterpretation of the Rubric. There is just as much reason for singing it on the 19th as on any other day.

[3] The "division of the Hebrews" (see Note in Preface on the Order of the Psalter) is followed in our Prayer Book and Bible. The Septuagint and Vulgate unite Psalms ix. and x. and divide cxlvii. into two psalms, viz. vv. 1-11, vv. 12-20.

CHAPTER VI.

PRAISE.

The Bible is read in Church as an incentive to the praise of God. It supplies thoughts of God which are then offered up to Him, as Praise, in the words of the Canticles. It is therefore necessary that we should understand the Bible Lessons as well as our abilities will allow, and that we should endeavour to find in those Lessons everything which will inspire us to honour and love God.

There are two distinct requirements. A book may help us to understand, but the endeavour to find God in the Bible depends on ourselves: our Lord has described it in the words He that hath ears to hear let him hear.

In order to understand the Bible when we hear it read, we should study it at home. Some elementary aids to the study of it may be useful here; for further help we shall want books specially prepared for that {48} purpose, such as the Cambridge Companion to the Bible and The Cambridge Bible for Schools, &c.

1. The Old Testament and the New Testament agree together: they have the same principles of morality, worship and doctrine. God's guidance of the writers is seen in this—the Old Testament, written at different times in the centuries before our Lord was Born, was such that the Gospel of the Revelation in Jesus was able to fit into it. As S. Augustine says,

2. The failure of man to live well is shown in the Old Testament. Though he had favourable conditions and a holy law of life, a pure system of worship, and the discipline of warning and correction, the Israelite failed. Hence the Old Testament continually teaches (a) that God governs, (b) that man needs a Saviour.

3. The Old Testament consists of 3 parts (a) the Law and History, (b) the Psalms and Proverbs, (c) the Prophets.

(a) The Law and History part includes the books from Genesis to Esther, and relates the progress of the people of God from its separation as a family and its growth to be an important nation, to the downfall of its independence, and its partial recovery. The writers were a succession of prophets, who continually point to the hand of God in the events which they record.

(b) The Psalms and Proverbs part includes the books from Job to the Song of Solomon, and contains {49} many Hymns of prayer and praise; also discussions of deep problems of human nature and our relation to God (Job and Ecclesiastes); together with other things which stir us to a life of goodness and worship.

(c) The Prophets are not arranged in order of time at which they lived. The four Books which come first are called the Four Greater Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel: and are followed by the Twelve Lesser Prophets. To find the place in the Lesser Prophets it is sufficient to remember Hosea, Joel, Amos as the three which are placed first; and Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi as the three prophets after the Captivity, and therefore placed last. Isaiah should be read with parts of Kings and Chronicles, and Haggai and Zechariah with the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah; and others in like manner according to their period.

4. The New Testament consists of 3 parts—(a) The History, (b) The Epistles, (c) The Revelation of St John.

(a) S. Luke's History is in two volumes—the Gospel, which recounts our Lord's Life from His Birth to His Ascension (note here the number of His Parables): and the Acts of the Apostles, which continues the history from His Ascension to the (first) imprisonment of S. Paul at Rome. S. Matthew's Gospel corresponds to S. Luke's Gospel, recounting our Lord's Life from His Birth, with many of His sayings about the Kingdom of Heaven, and especially the Sermon on the Mount. S. Mark's Gospel is similar to the two former. It recounts particularly the details of the various scenes of our Lord's Life, {50} and shows how frequently He retired for meditation,—"a living picture of a living man[1]." S. John's Gospel, written long after the others, shows the three witnesses—the spirit and the water and the blood—that bear record that Jesus is the Son of God (1 S. John v. 8).

(b) The Epistles are not in chronological order. S. Paul's Epistles are placed first, then S. James, S. Peter, S. John and S. Jude. Of S. Paul's Epistles, those to Churches come before those to Timothy, Titus and Philemon. Of his Epistles to Churches, the order in the Bible is Rom., Cor., Cor., Gal., Ephes., Philip., Col., Thess., Thess. They fit into the History in the following groups: (I) Acts xvii.,—1 and 2 Thess,, (II) Acts xix. 22 to xx.,—1 and 2 Cor., Gal., Romans, (III) Acts xxviii.,—Philip., Col., Ephes., Philemon, (IV) after the imprisonment described in Acts xxviii.,—1 and 2 Tim. and Titus. The Epistles to Colossians, Ephesians and Philemon (a Colossian Christian) seem to have been sent by the same messenger. The Epistle to the Hebrews may have been written by S. Paul; but, as that is doubtful, it has been placed after those which are surely his. The Epistles which follow are called "General," because they are addressed to Christians scattered about in various countries. S. James and S. Peter have many references to the Sermon on the Mount. S. John dwells upon Love as the foundation upon which a Christian builds his life—the Love which God has shown us, and the Love which we have for Him and for one another.

(c) The Revelation of S. John, written perhaps before the time when Jerusalem was besieged (A.D. 68-69), carries our thoughts away from the glories of the Jerusalem which was about to be destroyed, to the New Jerusalem and its glories, in Jesus Christ and His Church.

5. The Apocrypha supplies First Lessons for 21 days between Oct. 27 and Nov. 18; and also for the evenings of Innocents' Day and S. Luke's Day. Article VI. quotes S. Jerome's description of the Apocrypha, where he says "the other books the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine."

These notes will, we hope, prompt the reader to make a study of the Bible not only for the guidance of his life, but also for the amendment of the offering which he makes to God in the Services of the Church.

Acts xv. 21. "Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath Day." The reference is to the Mosaic regulations which were to a certain extent to be observed by all Christians, out of consideration for those Christians who were also Jews: be sure that thou eat not the blood, for the blood is the life was a precept which would create a difficulty in a Jewish Christian's mind if a Gentile Christian disregarded it. Similarly as to meats offered to idols (cf. 1 Cor. viii. 10-13).

There was then in the Synagogues of the first century a "First Lesson" from the Law.

{52} Acts xiii. 27. "The voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath Day." There was then in the Synagogues a "Second Lesson" from the Prophets.

Acts xiii. 15. "After the reading of the Law and the Prophets the rulers of the Synagogue sent unto (Paul and his companions), saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on."

The passage selected from the Law was associated with a passage
selected from the Prophets—there was a Lectionary for Sabbath
Services. The present Jewish Lectionary associates Isaiah i. 1-28 with
Deut. i. 1-iii. 22 as the Lessons for the Sabbath of Temple
Desolation[2].

In S. Paul's Exhortation which followed (vv. 16-41) there are, in vv. 17-19, three words rarely found in the Bible, but of their rare use one ("exalted") is found in Is. i. 2, and the others in Deut. i. 31, 38 ("suffered their manners" and "gave for an inheritance").

The reference, in v. 20, to "judges" is also to be noted in connection with Is. i. 26. Bengel reasons that we may safely conclude that the two Lections on that day were those which we have just mentioned as associated together in the present Jewish Lectionary[3].

S. Luke iv. 15-20. Jesus . . . taught in their Synagogues—came to Nazareth—"entered, as his custom was, into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood {53} up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias." It appears from what follows (vv. 17-20) that the Lord read Isaiah lxi. 1, 2, either instead of the appointed passage from Isaiah, or after He had read the appointed passage. For Isaiah lxi. does not now appear in the Jewish Lectionary, and we know no reason for its omission now, if it was included before. In any case what He said about it, He said as the Exhorter[4]. They divided the Law into 53 or 54 portions, and read the whole of them between one Feast of Tabernacles and the next, whether the Sabbaths were 50 or more. Each portion was divided into seven parts, read by seven different Readers (a Priest and a Levite being the first two). This Lesson apparently stood alone until in B.C. 163 Antiochus Epiphanes forbade the use of the Pentateuch. Lessons from the Prophets were used instead, and were not discontinued when the use of the Pentateuch was restored. Thus arose a practice of having a First Lesson from the Law, which they called Parascha (or, Division), and a Second Lesson from the Prophets, called Haphtarah (or, Conclusion). The word Holy was said before and after the First Lesson and a Doxology before and after the Second Lesson—an arrangement similar to our own. We may, indeed, believe that we derived from the Jews this and other uses of our Services. For we read in Acts vi. 7 that a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith, and {54} in Acts xviii. 7, 8 that at Corinth, when they ceased to be able to go to the Synagogue, the ruler of the Synagogue himself went with them to the worship and teaching which they carried on in a house hard by. It would not be surprising, then, if the worship thus begun was arranged after the old pattern to which they were all accustomed. For there are, not a few, proofs in the Acts of the Apostles that in those early days they attended the Services of the Temple at Jerusalem, and of the Synagogues in other places.

Justin Martyr[5], writing in defence of Christianity to the Emperor of Rome, describes the Holy Communion Service of his time as comprising two Lessons—one from the Prophets and the other from the Apostles, i.e., we suppose, the Gospels; a stage nearer to the two New Testament Lessons which are read at the Communion now. The use of an Old Testament and a New Testament Lesson at Daily Prayers may be a survival of the intermediate stage as described by Justin.

A Lectionary is a Table of Lessons arranged for a year. Our Table of Epistles and Gospels is derived from one which has been attributed to S. Jerome. The Sermons of his age show that there were stated Lessons for particular days[6]. Moreover, certain variations in the manuscripts of the New Testament are explained by the early use of books in {55} which the Lessons for the days were written out in full[7], called Lectionaries or Evangelistaria.

The principle which governs our own Lectionary is that the Bible shall be read through[8]. The books are taken in order, beginning with Genesis, S. Matthew, and Acts on January 2, and going straight on, with two exceptions. First exception: Isaiah's clear prophecies of Messiah are deferred to Nov. 18 &c., so as to be read in Advent. Second exception: Revelation is read in the latter half of December.

The effect of beginning the New Testament in two places on Jan. 2 is that it is read twice through in the year—once at Morning Prayer and once at Evening Prayer.

For Sundays a different arrangement is made with regard to the Old Testament. The Sunday year begins with Advent, which is the season occupying twenty-eight days before Christmas. Selections from Isaiah are read on these four Sundays, on Christmas Day, and on the four or five Sundays which usually follow Christmas before Septuagesima. At Septuagesima we are anticipating Lent and the Passion: Genesis therefore supplies the Lessons, followed by Exodus at Passion-tide, and the other books in regular course.

To this brief description we may add that Proper Lessons, specially chosen from Old and New Testament, are appointed for special Sundays and special {56} Holy Days. These take the place of those which appear in the regular list for the same days. If two special days coincide, the minister may read the Lessons of either, except that, on Advent Sunday, Easter Day, Whitsunday and Trinity Sunday, the Lessons for those days are to be read.

The principles of this arrangement have been in use since 1549; alterations in its details were made in 1559, 1604, and 1871.

In 1559 the Apocrypha was appointed for many of the Saints' Days, which nevertheless were left with their Old Testament Lessons in the Calendar. Thus these latter were invariably unread.

In 1604 this defect of the Calendar was corrected by moving the Lessons forward to make room for the Proper Lessons, and omitting some few of those which "might best be spared."

Until 1871 the New Testament was read through thrice in the year, the
Lessons being usually whole chapters. And the Gospels were always
Morning Lessons, and the Epistles and Acts always Evening Lessons.
Revelation was almost altogether omitted.

From 1604 till 1871 the First Lessons from Sept. 28 until Nov. 23 were from the Apocrypha—eight weeks. The Apocrypha Lessons continue now only from Oct. 27 to Nov. 18.

The principle of selection has in all these changes been recognised; but always subordinate to a larger principle of reading in Church the whole Bible. Prior to 1871 the two Books of Chronicles were not read, being regarded as sufficiently represented by the corresponding chapters from the Books of the Kings. In {57} 1871 eighteen Lessons from the Chronicles were introduced in place of the corresponding passages in the Kings.

We shall find in the next chapter that all these Lessons in Church are to be thought of in connection with their attendant Canticles—so that a Lesson and its Canticle form an act of Praise: "as after one angel had published the Gospel (S. Luke ii. 10-12) a multitude joined with him in praising God, so when one minister hath read the Gospel, all the people glorify God" (S. Luke ii. 13, 14)[9].

Rubric. Then shall be read distinctly, &c.] The words of this rubric were altered to some extent in 1662, the only notable change being the alteration of "The minister that readeth" to "He that readeth." The object of the change seems to be that one who is not 'the minister' may read the Lessons. The minister is still directed to declare where they begin and end.

He is to turn himself so as to be heard: and Canon 80 requires the churchwardens to provide a "Bible of the largest volume." A desk or Lectern is therefore implied as one of the 'Ornaments of the Church.'

It is usually assumed that the Congregation sits during the Lessons except when the Gospel is read in the Communion. Probably there were not seats for them when the rubrics were drawn up: custom has authorised their addition to the list of 'ornaments.' The movable seats, bequeathed by incumbents to their successors or others as they thought fit, are not recognised by any words in the Prayer Book.

APPENDIX B.

61. * * * We bring them where there is water; and after the same manner of regeneration as we also were regenerated ourselves, they are regenerated; for, in the Name of God, the Father and Lord of all things, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Ghost, they then receive the washing of water: for, indeed, Christ also said, Except ye be born again, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. * * * *

65. But after thus washing him who has professed, and given his assent, we bring him to those who are called brethren; where they are assembled together, to offer prayers in common both for ourselves, and for the person who has received illumination, and all others everywhere, with all our hearts, that we might be vouchsafed, now we have learnt the truth, by our works also to be found good citizens and keepers of the commandments, that we may obtain everlasting Salvation. We salute one another with a kiss when we have concluded the prayers: then is brought to the President of the brethren, bread, and a cup of water and wine, which he receives; and offers up praise and glory to the Father of all things, through the Name of His Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and he returns thanks at length, for our being vouchsafed these things by Him. [Here follows a brief description of this special Eucharist after a Baptism which we omit in order to give the longer description below.]

67. * * * And on the day which is called Sunday, there is an assembly in the same place of all who live in cities, or in country districts; and the records of the Apostles, or the writings of the Prophets, are read as long as we have time. Then the Reader concludes: and the President verbally instructs, and exhorts us, to the imitation of these excellent things: then, we all together rise and offer up our prayers; and, as I said before, when we have concluded our prayer, bread is brought, and wine, and water; and the President, in like manner, offers up prayers, and thanksgivings, with all his strength; and the people give their assent by saying Amen: and there is a distribution, and a partaking by every one, of the eucharistic elements (ton eucharistethenton); and to those who are not present, they are sent by the hands of the deacons * * *.

[Antoninus Pius, to whom Justin addressed his two Defences, was Emperor of Rome from 138 to 161. The first of the two is that from which the above quotation is taken: its date has been placed as early as A.D. 139, and as late as A.D. 150. Justin's Martyrdom has been dated A.D. 166. His description of Services refers therefore to the 50 years which followed the death of S. John the Apostle.]

[3] etropophorese and etrophophorese. These two rare Greek words differ from one another by a single letter which is p in one and ph in the other. The former has the best MS. authority: the latter ('bore as a nurse') is probably right. But, in either case, S. Paul must have had the Deut. passage in his thoughts.

[6] Thus S. Chrysostom regards Genesis as belonging to Lent, and preached a homily to explain why the Acts are read in public between Easter and Whitsunday. He also advises that the Saturday and Sunday Lessons should be privately read during the previous week.

[7] Thus a few MSS. read "The end is enough" in S. Mark xiv. 41; "the end" having been placed in a Book of Lessons, after the word "(It) is enough," because the Lesson ended there. See Prebendary Scrivener's Art. in Dict. of Christian Antiq. s.v. Lectionary.

CHAPTER VII.

PRAISE.

We are about to explain how Hymns are attached to Lessons for purposes of worship. It will be well therefore to consider what a Hymn is, and how we arrived at the present arrangement. We will defer to the chapter on Anthems the consideration of those Hymns that may be described as Prayers set to music. Many Psalms may be described in this way, and in the Commination the 51st Psalm is used as a Prayer (see the Rubric there). But if our intention be Praise, most of those Prayer-psalms lend themselves to Praise, and are so used in this Service before the Lessons, as we have just seen. In like manner metrical Hymns are to be found in our Hymn-books which are in their plain sense prayers rather than praises.

In the Day Hour Services we find metrical Hymns—at Lauds, Vespers and Compline after the Bible "Chapter," and, at the other Services, before the Psalms. They were in Latin, and some of them have been translated and are known to us in our Hymn-books.

Of the Office Hymns well known in modern Hymn-books, Now that the daylight fills the sky is a good example.

We have, moreover, in the Prayer Book itself, two translations of the Hymn Veni, Creator Spiritus formerly sung at Lauds throughout Whitsun week.

The longer form of it, more a paraphrase than a translation, appeared in the Ordination Services in 1550; the shorter translation, which is so well known, in a Book of Devotions made by John Cosin in 1627, where are found also translations of other Day Hour Hymns, the book being designed from the Breviary.

When in 1661 Cosin had become Bishop of Durham and was taking a leading
part in the last revision of the Prayer-Book, his translation of Veni,
Creator Spiritus was placed before the older paraphrase in the
Ordination Services.

It is interesting to compare the Day Hour Hymns with the translations which are to be found in Hymn-books.

In Hymns Ancient and Modern, the following examples are found:—1, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 38, 45, 47, 55, 75, 85, 87, 88, 90, 95, 96, 97, 125, 128, 144, 152, 153, 156, 157, 158, 430, 483, 509, 622. The renderings are not equally close; but they give a good idea of the place in worship which they occupied in the Day Hours. They will be found to dwell on the thoughts of praise to God called forth (a) by the sunshine and the beauties of nature, (b) by the work of the Holy Spirit. When the Hymn followed the Capitulum, a Canticle came next. The Capitulum, or Little Chapter, was one or two verses from the Bible specially {62} chosen for the day; and the Hymn was directly connected in subject with it.

Thus, at Lauds on Whitsunday, the Capitulum was, When the Day of
Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place
(Acts ii. 1), and the Hymn which followed immediately was Come, Holy
Ghost (H. A. and M. 157); and Benedictus, which came next, had an
Antiphon, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, &c. (S. John xx. 22, 23).

These beautiful combinations show us that the Canticle after a Lesson is designed to respond to the message of the Lesson, and to make with it an act of Praise. We must dismiss from our minds all idea that our Services were put together in a zigzag fashion, introducing something different as soon as any Psalm or Lesson has been said. The Service-makers valued variety of expression and method within reasonable limits; but the Service itself proceeds from point to point in a regulated progress. When the metrical Hymns were struck out, the Canticles and the Lessons were left united together.

The word Canticle means "little song" or "little chant," just as versicle means "little verse," and particle "little part."

It has long been used to signify the Hymns from the Old and New
Testaments which were introduced into the Christian Services.

It will be seen that these Bible hymns are affixed {63} to the Lessons. They are commonly known by the words with which they begin in Latin: thus

The 1st and 2nd chapters of S. Luke supply three of these; viz. Magnificat, Benedictus, and Nunc dimittis. The Psalms supply three, viz. Jubilate (100th), Cantate Domino (98th), and Deus misereatur (67th).

Benedicite, omnia, Opera is part of the Hymn given in the Apocrypha as sung by Shadrach (Ananias), Meshach (Misael), and Abed-nego (Azarias), when they walked in the burning fiery furnace.

Te Deum laudamus is a very ancient Latin Hymn which may have been already very old when it became associated with the name of S. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (375-397). We show its Bible origins in Chapter VIII.

Benedictus and Benedicite are found in the Holy Communion Service—supposed to date about 600—of the Gallican Church; in the Day Hours Benedictus was sung at Lauds; Magnificat at Vespers; Nunc dimittis at Compline; Te Deum at Mattin-Lauds; Benedicite and Jubilate at Lauds on Sundays.

The rearrangement of the Day Hours in 1549 gave an opportunity to associate the Canticles more closely with the Lessons.

We show in another chapter the connection which exists between the Lessons of the Old and New Testaments, and the alternative Canticles provided for each, both at Morning and Evening Prayer.

MAP OF THE LESSONS AND THEIR CANTICLES.

THE TE DEUM PRINTED SO AS TO SHOW ITS STRUCTURE.

[Transcriber's note: In the original book, each of the following 13 items was printed on a single line. In this e-book, they have been split at a logical point, usually a colon (:).]

1. TE Deum[1] laudamus, TE Dominum confitemur:
TE Aeternum Patrem[1] omnis terra veneratur.

2. TIBI omnes angeli, TIBI caeli et universae potestates:
TIBI Cherubim et Seraphim[2] incessabili voce proclamant.

3. SANCTUS SANCTUS SANCTUS DOMINUS DEUS SABAOTH[2]: PLENI SUNT CAELI ET TERRA MAJESTATIS GLORIAE TUAE[2].

4. TE gloriosus Apostolorum chorus, TE Prophetarum laudabilis numerus:
TE Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus.

5. TE per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur ecclesia:
         Patrem immensae majestatis.
         Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium.
         Sanctum quoque Paracletum Spiritum.

7. TU ad liberandum suscepturus hominem non horruisti Virginis uterum:
TU devicto mortis aculeo aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum.

9. TE ergo quaesumus famulis tuis subveni quos pretioso
sanguine redemisti:
Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria munerari.

10. Salvum fac populum tuum Domine et benedic haereditati tuae[3]:
et rege eos et extolle illos usque in aeternum[3].

11. PER SINGULOS DIES BENEDICIMUS TE[4]: ET LAUDAMUS NOMEN TUUM IN SAECULUM ET SAECULUM SAECULI[4].

12. Dignare Domine die isto sine peccato nos custodire:
miserere nostri Domine, miserere nostri[5].

13. Fiat misericordia tua Domine super nos quemadmodum
speravimus in TE[6]:
in TE Domine speravi, non confundar in aeternum[7].

[1] Isaiah ix. 6. [2] Isaiah vi. 3, cf. Rev. iv. 8. [3] Psalm xxviii. 9. [4] Psalm cxlv. 2. [5] Psalm cxxiii. 3. [6] Psalm xxxiii. 22. [7] Psalm xxxi. 1 and lxxi. 1.

Note. Some readers will at first sight be afraid of the Latin form of the Te Deum. It is however so important to the clear understanding of this beautiful Hymn that we hope they will piece together the English words and their Latin equivalents.

The task will not be really difficult, for most of the words are almost
English already.

It will not surprise them to find that Tu is Thou, and Te Thee, that Tibi is To Thee, and Dominum Lord, and so on. We think that most of the words will be understood by any one who is familiar with the English.

Aculeo, in line 7, means sting, and crederis esse venturus means Thou-art-believed to-be about-to-come.

CHAPTER VIII.

PRAISE.

This ancient Latin Hymn of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ has in many Service-books been attributed to S. Ambrose and S. Augustine. One of the stories is that they sang it in alternate verses when the latter was baptized by the former, A.D. 386. We shall presently show that it is composed on a very elaborate plan, and is very far from being an extempore Hymn. Its earlier verses are founded on expressions in Isaiah (vi. 3, ix. 6).

Its concluding part has not always been in the form which has become familiar to us: in its present shape it may be regarded as the survival of the best of the different forms. The verses of this part as they now stand are obviously taken chiefly from the Psalms (xxviii. 9, cxlv. 2, cxxiii. 3, xxxvi. 22, xxxi. 1 or lxxi. 1).

The following lines of an early morning hymn, found in the Alexandrine MS. of the Bible, are very similar to the verses which we have numbered 11 and 12:

"Day by day will I bless Thee and praise Thy name for ever, and for ever and ever. Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin."

{66} There is a sentence in S. Cyprian also (De Mortalitate, p. 166, ed. Fell) quoted in the notes in illustration of line 4, which must have been borrowed from the Te Deum, or lent to it.

It is not easy to determine whether an elaborate composition of this description, designed evidently for worship, is more likely to lend or to borrow any particular phrase. The Psalm verses, and verses &c. from Isaiah, are evidently borrowed by the Hymn. Perhaps this suggests that the composer was likely to have borrowed, rather than lent, the other passages. On the other hand, a Hymn founded on Scripture, carefully composed, and well known in worship, is precisely the source most likely to be quoted in other Hymns and in books.

We said that Te Deum is a Hymn of the Incarnation, and that it is an elaborate composition.

It is necessary to examine these points at some length. And first we must get rid of the modern way of printing it out in 29 verses. Many of them are half-verses quoted from the Psalms and Isaiah: and when we have begun to restore these with their colons, we find that the other verses answer to the same treatment. In short, most of the verses should be read two together with a colon to separate them for singing purposes. Having thus restored the Hymn to its original lines, we find that it consists of 13 verses in 3 Stanzas, the first and third having five lines each, and the middle Stanza having three lines. The three lines of the Middle Stanza correspond to the three divisions of our Saviour's Existence—(1) before He was made Man—(2) when He {67} lived on Earth—(3) after His Ascension (see the Latin Form). The Saviour's Existence, from the Eternal Beginning on to the Eternal Future, is the central thought of the Hymn. The dual form of each line in this Middle Stanza proves it to be a separate Stanza. The Incarnation is its theme—The Incarnation and its Antecedents and Consequences.

  Tu Rex . . . . . . . . . . Tu Filius . . . . . .
  Tu non horruisti . . . . . Tu aperuisti . . . .
  Tu in gloria . . . . . . . Judex venturus . . .

The prominent place, in each line, of the pronoun Tu—Thou—is here to be noticed. It is characteristic of this middle Stanza that each of the three phases of the Saviour's existence is expressed by two thoughts which are included in one line. The pronoun Tu introduces each of the thoughts in each line, except the last of the three. The completeness of the summary of the Lord's Existence is a strong argument for treating these three lines as a Stanza: and the use of the pronoun Tu confirms the argument.

For turning to the First Stanza, we find each line has three thoughts. The prominent word in the first line is TE—Thee—and occurs three times. Similarly in the second line TIBI—to Thee: and in the fourth line TE. The last line of this Stanza varies, it is true, as the last line of the middle Stanza does, but retaining a triple thought, viz. the Holy Trinity. The third line has the Ter-Sanctus.

Thus the 1st Stanza, by its form, is separated from the 2nd Stanza, and the 2nd from the 3rd in like manner.

For, in the Third Stanza although TE is still {68} prominent as the first word, it is very sparingly introduced afterwards—once in the 11th line, and twice in the 13th. Here again we notice a variation with the object of marking the Stanza's last line, for in the last line TE occurs twice. The word Domine supplants Te in the 10th and 12th lines, and appears with Te twice in the 13th line.

The elaborate arrangement of the Hymn has been exhibited so as to eliminate the notion of an extempore composition. Its method however is worthy of some further consideration.

It will be evident that it proceeds on the idea of a centre thought in each Stanza, with thoughts balanced on each side. Thus in the 1st Stanza the centre thought (line 3 Latin Version) is the praise of Heaven and Earth (Isaiah vi. 3), addressed to Christ (see S. John xii. 41) by the Seraphim. The Choirs of Heaven are mentioned in the 2nd line, and those of earth in the 4th. The 5th line recurs to some of the thoughts of the 1st and the 3rd lines. Thus the 1st and 5th, the 2nd and 4th lines are balanced about the Song of Praise which forms the middle line.

So again, in the and Stanza, the centre thought is our Lord's Earthly Life with His Eternal Pre-existence on one side and His Eternal Glory now and hereafter on the other.

And further, the centre thought of the 3rd Stanza is the Praise expressed in the 11th line, Day by day we magnify Thee, and we worship Thy name ever world without end. This line corresponds to the 3rd line, the Ter-Sanctus, which is the centre of the 1st Stanza. The first and third Stanzas are hereby made {69} to balance one another around the middle Stanza, both in the number of their lines and the plan of their arrangement.

Noting now that the plan and method of the Hymn are governed by the centre line and the centre thought in all the respects to which we have referred, we cannot fail to notice afresh that the Redeemer's Earthly Life is the centre thought of the whole Hymn—the centre line of the centre Stanza around which everything is grouped.

The division of the Hymn into Stanzas is, we suppose, conclusively proved. We may further infer that the Te and Tibi of Stanza i. are addressed to the same Person as the Tu of Stanza ii. and the Te of Stanza iii. i.e. to Christ. Stanzas ii. and iii. are evidently so addressed, and Stanza i. could not, we think, have made the pronouns so prominent without having the same reference.

It may however be objected that lines 1, 3, and 5 cannot be addressed to Christ. A little consideration will show that they can.

(a) Te Deum laudamus may be translated we praise thee O God. But the more obvious translation is we praise Thee as God, especially as it comes with we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord. The two Latin phrases are exactly parallel, so that if it is to be We praise Thee, O God, it should also be we acknowledge Thee O Lord.

Now the acknowledgement of the Godhead and Lordship of Christ was very likely to be stated in an early Hymn, far more than the acknowledgement that God is God. The Titles—God, Lord, Father {70} everlasting—which are here acknowledged, appear to be suggested by Isaiah ix. 6. For there the Lord of Hosts which is wonderful in counsel (Isaiah xxviii. 29) is expressed as Wonderful, Counsellor, and is followed by The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father. It is a passage acknowledged to refer to Christ, who is therefore recognised as Lord of Hosts (being wonderful in Counsel), Mighty God, Everlasting Father.

(b) Line 3. S. John (xii. 39-41), referring to our Saviour's rejection, quotes Isaiah vi. and adds These things said Isaiah when he saw His glory, and spake of Him. This reference to Isaiah's vision, when he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne and heard the Seraphim sing the Ter-Sanctus, will be a sufficient justification of the use of line 3 in an address to Christ.

(c) Line 5. As to the inclusion of the three Persons of the blessed Trinity in a doxology at the close of this Stanza, it is quite usual in Christian Hymns of all ages to guard the thought of the equality of the Persons of the Godhead by means of a doxology. As an instance we may quote Conditor alme siderum (Hymns A. and M. 45).

The position of the doxology in this Canticle should be noticed. We know of no other instance of its being placed at the close of the first, or anywhere but at the close of the last, Stanza. The reason for this variation seems to be that the last Stanza here has to some extent the nature of a prayer.

The following Greek hymn, attributed to St Basil, was printed by Archdeacon France in Preces Veterum {71} cum Hymnis Coaevis as of the 2nd, or at latest the 3rd, century:

  phos ilaron agias doxes
  athanatou patros
  ouraniou agiou makaros
  iesou Christe
  elthontes epi tou eliou dusin
  idontes phos esperinon
  umnoumen
  patera kai uion kai agion pneuma theou
  axios ei en kairois umneiothai
  phonais osiais
  uie theou zoen o didous
  dio o kosmos se doxazei
  AMHN.

Keble's well-known translation (Hail, Gladdening Light) is to be found in Hymns Ancient and Modern, No. 18, as well as in Lyra Apostolica. The transition in the address from Christ to the Holy Trinity, and back again, presented no difficulty: rather it is a very suitable recognition of the Divine nature of Jesus.

Te Deum is evidently a Latin composition, and the exact meaning of its words and phrases must be sought in the Latin form of it.

Aeternum Patrem is substituted for the Vulgate reading, Patrem futuri saeculi.

The English Bible accepts it as the best rendering of the Hebrew in Isaiah ix. 6, but R.V. gives Father {72} of Eternity in the margin. The thought of Christ as Father to us is to be found in Isaiah viii. 18, quoted in Heb. ii. 13, where the writer is showing the complete human nature of Christ.

4. Prophetarum laudabilis numerus. Cyprian (De Mortalitate) has the words "There the glorious company of the apostles, there the fellowship (numerus) of exulting prophets, there the innumerable crowd of martyrs." It will perhaps be questionable whether laudabilis should not be taken as equivalent to exulting—full of praise (to God) rather than worthy of being praised.

Venerandum, trans. 'honorable,' is to be understood as 'deserving to be reverenced.'

5. Immensae. Here translated infinite, in the Creed of S. Athanasius incomprehensible. Literally unmeasured.

8. Sedens, 'sitting,' is the reading in two MSS., and would agree with the absence of the second Tu in this line. Sedes means 'Thou sittest.'

9. Numerari or munerari. In the Old English character it is sometimes difficult to distinguish where the seven strokes of the letters mun are to be divided into letters. A MS. at Exeter looks more like m u n, which is the reading of the two Irish MSS. referred to {73} above, and the reading of my own black letter Breviary (1524).

Heb. xi. 6 has the thought that God rewards a man who loves Him. Cf. also Jer. xxxi. 16, 'thy work shall be rewarded'[1].

The word numerari means 'to be counted, enrolled in a numerus or fellowship.' Cf. Prophetarum numerus, above.

12. Die isto, translated this day. It may be thought that the reference is to 'that day' as in 2 Tim. i. 12, 18, iv. 8, viz. the Judgment Day. Several of these lines would favour that reference.

13. "Lighten" is used in the Prayer Book in two senses, both derived from Anglo-Saxon words,—to illuminate, as in the 3rd Evening Collect, Lighten our darkness, and in the Ordination Hymn, Lighten with celestial fire:—but here, to "alight" or come down, cf. Deut. xix. 5; Gen. xxiv. 64 and xxviii. 11; 2 Kings v. 21 and x. 15, &c.

Non confundar in aeternum. This might more obviously be translated, "I shall not be confounded for ever." It is not inconsistent with the prayerful tone of this Stanza, that most of its lines express more hope than fear. That the closing words should be at once humble and confident would suit well with the character of this Hymn of praise.

On the other hand the words themselves are borrowed from two Psalms (xxxi. 1 and lxxi. 1), where they must be rendered as a prayer. It is therefore {74} preferable to take them here in the same sense. Latin scholars know that the use of non with the imperative occurs elsewhere, being apparently regarded as though compounded with it.

Te Deum is the only one of the Psalms and Canticles which is not provided with Gloria Patri at the end of it.

The obvious reason for this exception is that it is the only one which contains a Gloria Patri in the middle of it.

We have already said that an ascription of Praise to the Holy Trinity is in this case more appropriate at the end of the first Stanza than at the end of the third, because the third Stanza has a prayerful character introduced into its words of praise.

The steps by which the doxology grew in Te Deum may be conjectured. The sentence which was required in the fifth line to complete the ascription of Praise to Christ would be an acknowledgement of His Sonship. For such an acknowledgement has not yet occurred. Using the words of the Hymn, we should expect

Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur ecclesia
Patris venerandum verum unigenitum Filium.

and of epithets to express the majesty of the Father {75} would complete the sentence and express the equality of the Persons.

  Te per orbem sancta confitetur ecclesia
    Patris immensae majestatis
    Venerandum verum unigenitum filium,
    Sanctum quoque paracletum spiritum.

But the two genitives, Patris, majestatis, suggest the accusative Patrem; and already the addition of Spiritum has suggested the inclusion, under Te, of the Three Persons.

[1] The word 'reward' is frequently to be found in the English Bible where the Vulgate has reddo.

CHAPTER IX.

PRAISE.

The position which the _Te Deum _occupies in the morning is that of Respond of the whole people to the message of the Old Testament. We have found that the Te Deum is a Hymn of the Incarnation; hence it is especially appropriate as a Respond to those Old Testament Lessons which contain, or imply, the promise of the Saviour's Birth and Work on Earth. Gen. iii., Isaiah viii., Malachi iii. may be taken as examples: but there are very many which relate the doings of men in such a way as to leave the hearers waiting and wishing for the adoption which comes to us through Christ.

Some of them set forth the facts which show our miserable state without Christ. Others contain predictions of the life which He came on Earth to lead. Thus the Christian worshipper seeing the Christ wanted, promised, foretold, or the world waiting, groaning in pain, suffering, responds to such Lessons with this Hymn of the Incarnation.

In the evening the place is occupied by another Hymn of the
Incarnation—Magnificat (doth magnify)—the Song of the Blessed
Virgin when the Birth of the Saviour was assuredly promised to her.

The Blessed Mother's words of greeting to the promise and assurance are very sacred, and may be regarded as the most suitable possible for any human being very near the Lord. The words of Isaiah, Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given will often come to the worshipper's mind, when he uses her words to express his praise after the 1st Lesson.

Sometimes however the connection of the Old Testament Lesson with the Incarnation may with advantage be omitted in favour of another line of thought and praise.

Lessons which declare the great acts of Creation, Providence, and Government by God sometimes contain but remote reference to the Redeeming work of Christ: and for such Lessons another Canticle is provided, viz. Benedicte omnia Opera (Bless ye all works) for the morning, and Cantate Domino (O sing unto the Lord) for the evening.

Jesus is known to us as the Son of Man: hence His people can use the words of the Blessed Virgin. When she looked forward to His coming, she used words which we can say after reading the Old Testament promises of a Saviour who should come into the world.

1. God my Saviour. This is the meaning of the name Jesus. The names Jesus and John were given designedly: naturally, therefore, they supply leading thoughts to the two Hymns which are especially associated with our Lord's Birth, and the birth of His forerunner (cf. Benedictus throughout, but especially vv. 4, 5, 6).

9. In this verse we can trace Zacharias=God hath remembered; John=God's mercy; and Elizabeth=God's oath.

The Song of Hannah in 1 Sam. ii. exhibits many points of similarity and contrast, when compared with this Hymn.

The Canticle Benedicite omnia Opera is so called from Latin words meaning Bless ye, all Works.

Our Services were translated from the Latin Services used in our Church for centuries before 1549: for Latin was the common language of civilised Europe.

Benedicite shares with other Canticles and with many parts of the Services the custom of being known by its first words in the Latin books.

We said that Te Deum laudamus not only had its name from the Latin Service Books, but is of Latin origin whether composed by Hilary of Arles, Hilary of Poictiers, or Ambrose and Augustine. But Benedicite, {79} though it has now a Latin name, is of Greek origin. It is a translation of part of the Greek additions to the Book of Daniel. In Daniel iii. the 23rd verse records how the Three Children of Israel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (i. 6), having come to great office in Babylon (ii. 49), and refused to fall down and worship the golden image of Nebuchadnezzar (iii. 18), were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. The 24th verse proceeds thus:

"Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished and rose up in haste," and told his counsellors that he saw four men walking in the fire without hurt.

At this point, between verses 23 and 24, there is a sort of pause in the action. It might be filled up by a mark indicating that some short time elapses. The Greek Version inserts 68 verses: consisting of a prayer of Azariah (Abed-nego), a few verses of narrative, and 40 verses of praise including the 32 verses which have been sung in the Church Services of many countries and many centuries.

The Hymn calls upon all God's creatures to worship Him—collectively in the first verse, afterwards in groups.

Notice first the leading verse of each group: 2. Angels—9. Winds (spiritus)—18. Earth—26. Children of men. The classification in the groups is evidently influenced by the 1st chapter of Genesis. In v. 4 the Waters above the firmament (Gen. i. 7) are {80} divided from the Wells, Seas, Floods of vv. 21, 22. The former appear here as Heavenly Powers, the latter as creatures of God in the Earth.

The Showers and Dew of v. 8 are regarded as coming from Heaven. They appear therefore in group 1, but in its last verse, so that the transition is easy to the earthly powers amongst which they might have been placed.

The second group includes the forces of Nature which more distinctly surround us on earth. There is some uncertainty in the various versions of this section. The Prayer Book, following, as usual, the Great Bible of 1539, has Dews and Frosts in v. 10, meaning probably Dews and Hoar Frosts. The Bible (A.V.) has Hoar Frosts coupled with Snows. It has Fire and Heat and also, in some Versions, Cold and Heat, but omits Winter and Summer. Sometimes there is contrast in the couples and sometimes the forces coupled together are of the same sort.

In group 3, Earth is called up first as including the rest, which progress from that which does not move to that which does, ranging through the inanimate moving things, such as budding things and water, and the animate creation, such as move in the sea, the air and, whether wild or tame, upon the earth.

Group 4 begins, like group 3, with an inclusive term "Children of Men": and proceeds through Israel, as God's People, and Israel's Priests, as God's special choice, to those who really serve God whether in this life or after it; concluding with the specially present service of the holy and humble, and, in particular, Ananias, Azarias, and Misael.

All these Creatures of God's hand, whether animate or inanimate, or the
Forces which are behind both, are challenged to praise their Maker.
They are called up in twos and threes, a great army, representing all
the visible and invisible hosts of Heaven and Earth.

In connection with this Hymn we should read Gen. i., Psalm civ., and
Psalm cxlviii.

Passing now to the corresponding Canticle at Evensong, we find Cantate Domino, the 98th Psalm, which, though much briefer, and nearly free from elaborate detail, makes the same acknowledgement of the Almighty Maker, and calls upon His creatures to praise Him in their various orders in very similar fashion. Here however the climax is reversed. Beginning with human beings and God's mercy to them, and notably to Israel, we pass on to the sea, the world, the floods, the hills and all the inhabitants, returning at the end to the people and God's justice and judgment.

In both these Canticles, the thought is present that those, who do what God designs that they should do, are thereby praising Him. Hills, and valleys, and seas, are thought of as if they were human beings: they rejoice, and sing, and clap their hands, when ungrudgingly and with all the beauty and generosity of their best nature they carry out the Will of God. When man does the like, of his own will and in his {82} own place, he also sings, and makes great the praise of God.

v. 2. With his own right hand, and with his holy arm. Several passages in Isaiah (li. 9, lii. 10, lix. 16, lxiii. 5) use this figure to represent God's invincible might.

Other phrases of Isaiah (lii. 7-10) are to be traced in this Psalm. The Lord the King, "Thy God reigneth": declared his salvation, "publisheth salvation": all the ends of the world have seen the salvation of our God, "all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God." O sing unto the Lord . . . let the hills be joyful, "Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places."

CANTICLES WHICH FOLLOW THE SECOND LESSON.

We have seen that the Gospel is frequently hidden[1] in the Old Testament Lessons. The unfolding of this hidden thought comes by natural sequence in the Second Lessons. They are chosen from the Gospels, which tell the History of our Lord's Earthly Life, or from the other parts of the New Testament, which carry on the History from His Ascension. The Acts of the Apostles is the second volume of the Gospel History, and the Epistles form a book of correspondence commenting on the first, or illustrating the second, volume. Lessons from the Gospels are records of the Gospel Spring-time, Lessons from the {83} Epistles and the Acts are records of the Summer; the Revelation of S. John carries us on to the Autumn, or Harvest time. To adopt a different metaphor, one kind of Second Lessons are chapters from the Wars of our Leader, another kind are chapters from the Wars of His lieutenants. There is in the one kind the Gospel thought, pure and simple; in the other kind there is the Missionary thought.

Since the Lessons have place in the Services as parts of an Act of Praise, we must always consider each Lesson in combination with its attendant Canticle. We saw that the First Lesson, when combined with the Respond of the Congregation in Te Deum, is an Act of Praise to God, for His Promise of Salvation by His Son. In like manner the Second Lesson, when combined with its Responding Canticle, may be an Act of Praise to God, for the Coming of the Saviour, or for the Spread of the Gospel. We must therefore now discuss the connection between the Second Lessons and their attendant Canticles.

Benedictus and Nunc dimittis praise God for the Coming of His Son—Jubilate Deo and Deus misereatur praise Him for the Spread of the Gospel.

Benedictus is the Hymn of Zacharias upon the first beginning of the actual Coming of Messiah. "The horn of salvation was virtually raised up when the Incarnation became an accomplished fact" (Godet). The birth of S. John the Baptist was foretold to his father Zacharias, and the name by which he was to be {84} called. Zacharias showed his faith in the Angel's message by giving him this name—John—which means God's mercy. Benedictus is a Hymn upon that name. There is a Psalm, well-known, we are to suppose, to Zacharias, upon the same theme. It is number cvi. in our Bible. From it a very large proportion of the leading words of this Hymn are taken. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel (v. 48), visited (v. 4), redeemed (v. 10), salvation (v. 4), spake (v. 2), since the world began (v. 48), from our enemies—from the hands of all that hate us (vv. 10, 41), mercy (vv. 1, 7), remember, remember the covenant (vv. 4, 7, 45), being delivered (v. 43), righteousness (v. 3), all the days of our life (=at all times, v. 3). Some of these come twice in the Hymn, or in the Psalm, and leave comparatively few leading words unaccounted for.

There are, however, two verses in the Hymn which require further notice. The word anatole is translated dayspring in the last couplet, because it is treated here as giving light to those who sit in darkness. But in Zech. iii. and vi. it is used of Joshua the son of Zerubbabel and translated Branch. The thought of Joshua the High Priest as prefiguring Jesus our High Priest suggested the idea of the Branch, but its other meaning suggested the star of the East ushering in the day.

Distinguish between the Zacharias who speaks and the Zechariah of the Old Testament, the prophet whose words he uses. Note that Joshua and Jesus are the same word, and that the prophet's words about Joshua are used by John's father about Jesus. {85} Also there are references to Psalm cxxxii., where vv. 1 and 11 mention God's remembrance and God's oath, and v. 17 has the horn of David and I will make to flourish, using a word akin to the word for dayspring (exanatelo, anatole).

v. 2. A mighty salvation. In S. Luke (A.V.) horn of salvation: see Psalm xviii. 2. The horn is used as the symbol of strength.

v. 6. The oath is in Gen. xxii. 16, 17, 18, By myself have I sworn—that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven—and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. It is explained (Gal. iii. 16) that Abraham's seed is Christ: in Him all nations are blessed. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise (Gal. iii. 29). Thus the oath to multiply Abraham's seed is fulfilled in the increase of the Christian Family.

v. 11. The Dayspring is Jesus. The word for dayspring in Greek means "springing up," and is translated Branch in Zech. iii. 8 and vi. 12, and Jer. xxiii. 5.

v. 12. Read Isaiah ix. 2 (to give light, &c.) and Isaiah xlix. 9-11 (to guide, &c.). Also 2 Pet. i. 19 and Rev. xxi. 23 and xxii. 16.

It will be noticed that although the occasion was the Birth of John, yet his father's Hymn is directed to the Coming of Jesus. Jesus is the Dayspring or {86} Branch—John is to be the herald of the Saviour. Not till the 9th verse does the father address his infant son: his mind is turning upon the greater Birth which was to come six months later.

In verses 5, 6 and 7 there is a complex reference to the birth of
Christ's forerunner. By a play on the names Zacharias, Elizabeth and
John he sings that God's remembrance was wedded to God's oath, and
thence was born God's mercy: for as we said above the 'text' of the
Hymn is John—God's mercy.

This Hymn may be called a Hymn of the Advent; whatever is read in the Gospels as the Second Lesson will be sure to excite, in those who listen, Praise to God for the Advent of His Son.

The Evening Service is supplied with a different Hymn of the Advent for its Second Lesson—that of the aged Simeon, when, having waited through his long life for it, he was blessed at last with the sight of the Infant Jesus. Holding Him in his arms when He was brought to the Temple, he used these words of praise. God was letting him depart in peace: notice the words Thou lettest: it is not the imperative, praying for release; but the indicative, praising God for His mercy. The other chief thoughts of this short Hymn are that Jesus is God's Salvation—before the face of all people—a Light to Gentiles—and the glory of Israel. Comparing these with the Hymn of Zacharias, we shall be struck with the correspondence of two very different compositions.

Lighten: not as in Te Deum 'to come upon,' but as in 3rd Collect at Evening Service, 'to give light.'

It is scarcely necessary at this time to show that the 100th Psalm is suitable as a Canticle after a Missionary Lesson; for it seems to be assumed that the Old Hundredth, in its metrical form, is an integral and necessary part of a Missionary meeting. "In its breadth and simplicity it is fit for all occasions of access of the redeemed to God, and naturally it has become (both in its original form and its metrical rendering) the regular hymn of unmixed thanksgiving in the Church of Christ. It is in vv. 1, 2 an invitation to joy, because we know that we are God's people[2]."

4. The wide extent of His mercy is made the ground of praise and thanksgiving at this place in the Service, because the spread of the Gospel has been called to mind by the Second Lesson.

Ps. lxvii., styled by Dr Kay The Spiritual Harvest-Home Song of Israel, is to be applied by us to the Harvesting of Missionaries, when set before our minds in the Second Lesson. It especially refers to the gathering-in of the Gentiles ('all nations'), and extends the threefold blessing of Num. vi. 24-26 to them; see vv. 1, 6, 7. Cf. the description which is placed at the head of this Psalm in the Bible, A prayer for the enlargement of God's kingdom—to the joy of the people—and the increase of God's blessings.

In the Sarum Use it was a special Sunday Psalm at Lauds (see p. 44); together with Psalm 63, it followed Jubilate Deo and preceded Benedicite.

CHAPTER X.

PRAISE.

The discussions which arose upon the Revelation of Himself, which God gave in His Son Jesus Christ, were carried on between people who lived far apart round the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Nature of Almighty God could not possibly be easily understood by man. We might as well expect a horse to understand the nature of man. When a man tries to make a horse understand kindness, he is often disappointed with the lower nature which seems unable to appreciate it: but he perseveres, and expects some response to his efforts.

In like manner we may believe that God expects us to respond when He reveals something of His own Nature to us.

Assuming that He is perfectly Wise, we must own that what He tells us about Himself it is good for us to believe, and to try to understand. The Revelation is itself a claim upon our Worship. We start with a grain of Faith: that is, we believe that there is a Revelation—an unveiling of the mystery of God's Being.

It was necessary that argument should just fail to prove this; because it is God's Will that men should be equal before Him: the man who can argue very cleverly was not designed to have an advantage over the stupid or ignorant man in their dealings with God. The meaning of our Lord's words, The poor have the Gospel preached to them, is not to be confined to poverty in money and clothes: the man who is poor in opportunities, learning, intellect, can believe if he makes the needful effort: the intellectual man who is poor in humility has also to make an effort, and to endeavour to believe. They and all others are made equal when God makes His Claim upon them. Moreover, the difficulties of Faith are in proportion to the Aids to Faith. There is no compulsion of Reason, any more than there is compulsion of Authority, or of Imprisonment. We are all free; we all have difficulties; and we all have the call of God to Believe in Him.

Reason is one of God's best gifts. Reason shows nothing contrary to Faith, when the balance comes to be struck. The Intellectual argument is with us all, and is slightly in favour of Belief. But Faith is the atmosphere in which we must move, if we are to see the Invisible God.

Revelation, then, appeals to Faith, and is not opposed to Reason. The Summary of Revelation which is found in the Christian Creeds is compiled from the Bible. Reason is incapable of assuring us that God has a Son, and equally incapable of assuring us that He has not a Son. The Revelation assures us that He has a Son: and Reason cannot, in the {91} nature of things, contradict that assurance. Reasoning can tell us, and does tell us, that the Epistles (say) of St Paul to the Galatians, Romans, and Corinthians were written, as they claim, by St Paul; that the Gospels and other New Testament books are compositions of the first century; that Christianity was accepted as true by multitudes of the people of that century, and so on. But the acceptance of the Faith was then, and still is, left to your choice—a choice whether you will listen to God's Call to be His faithful son, or reject it.

The Apostles' Creed is a summary of those things which the Bible tells us of God's Being. There can be no higher act of the soul of man than to dwell Upon the Being and Attributes of God. It is a great step upwards, to purify one's life from evil. But plainly it is a further and higher step, to purify the soul: for the man who refuses to do evil is not so far on as the man who refuses to feel and think evil. It is however possible for him to reject evil only because it is bad for himself. A life of selfishness may be wonderfully free from the doing of evil. The Revelation in Jesus Christ is the Revelation of God as the highest Aim, and of the Unselfish Life as the path to God.

A summary of what God has told us of His Being is most perfect for use in Worship, when it is most free from discussion. A courtier is most courtly when he is freest from doubts and suspicions of his king. {92} The presence of discussion in a creed implies that there has been a doubt.

The Apostles' Creed has no discussion in its clauses, and has been called "The loving outburst of a loyal heart." (Harvey Goodwin.) It is therefore the Creed of Worship and Praise.

The Nicene Creed is the Creed of Self-Examination. Discussion is implied in some of its clauses.

The Athanasian Creed is a Guide to Thought concerning the nature of God. It appeared on the scene at the close of many controversies—when the Church had debated the various explanations of Revelation which had been proposed, and was prepared to declare what God's children may reverently say and think of their Father in Heaven. [See Chapter on the Athanasian Creed.]

"I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy Name because of thy lovingkindness and truth: for thou hast magnified thy Name and thy Word above all things" (Ps. cxxxviii. 2). When used in Church Services a Creed must always be regarded mainly as an Act of Praise to God.

The most evident characteristic of a Creed is that it says what we know of God by His Revelation of Himself in the Bible.

Now, that which speaks of God must of necessity be a declaration of His
Worthiness—an Act of Worship.

We have already defined Praise as that kind of Worship wherein we think of God, and not of ourselves.

Forasmuch as a Creed contains, chiefly or entirely, {93} the proclamation of God's Nature and Being, it is the form in Worship which is most entirely Praise.

The Apostles' Creed is so placed in the Morning and Evening Prayer as to be the highest of several kinds of Praise.

The Psalms have a considerable mixture of thoughts of man, and of human dependence on God.

The Old Testament Lesson, with its Respond, draws from Man's History the joyful thoughts of God's mercy.

The New Testament Lesson, with its Respond, carries our Praise a degree nearer to Perfect Peace and Joy in the Goodness of God through Christ.

The Apostles' Creed entirely omits the human element that we may rejoice in God's Existence.

Other uses of Creeds. Creeds have been used for various purposes, which may be classed as follows:

(a) Symbolum, or Examination. (b) Self-Examination. (c) Guide to Thought and Basis of Argument. (d) Praise or Worship.

(a) In order to understand the word Symbolum, from which a Creed is often called a Symbol, we must go back to the days when, for persecution's sake, and lest they should unnecessarily cause their own deaths, Christians met in secret, and required pass-words that they might know one another.

To be admitted freely to the Christian assemblies a man had to know the
Creed as his pass-word (symbolum); which at Milan, and in other
Churches, was taught to the Catechumens, some three weeks before
Easter, and not written down. They recited it a {94} week later, and
then were taught the Lord's Prayer, in the time of S. Augustine. On
Easter Eve they recited it again, and were baptized. This use of the
Creed survives in the Baptism Services.

(b) Whereas we believe most firmly those things which we most frequently remember, it is needful that we remember frequently the Articles of the Creed. Hence Self-Examination requires not only the consideration of our Conduct, but also the examination of our Faith. In the Visitation of the Sick, and in Holy Communion, the Creeds are used for Self-Examination.

(c) Since other thoughts are built up on those which we have about God, it is usual amongst Christians to use the Articles of the Creed as a Guide to what they are to think about themselves, and about the World, and about the Evil and Good which are in the World. Their arguments with one another rest upon the Creeds which are acknowledged amongst them.

(d) But apart from all inferences and arguments, the facts about God's Existence call forth from the heart of man joyful praise and adoring worship.

The name by which God is declared to His People in Exodus is I AM. The thoughts by which we too come nearest to Him are thoughts which declare what HE IS. Thus the Apostles' Creed in Morning and Evening Prayer is a Hymn of Praise.

The similarity of the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed, as they stand in the Prayer Book, {95} suggests the reflection that disputes about the Human and Divine Natures of Jesus caused the enlargement of those parts which refer to Him: and that similar enlargements were caused by disputes about the Holy Spirit, and even about the Father. We cannot certainly say that the Apostles' Creed as it now stands is older than the Nicene Creed. But we know that Eusebius brought to the Nicene Council (A.D. 325) a form simpler than the Nicene Creed; and that briefer forms were used in the second century by Tertullian (A.D. 200) and Irenaeus (A.D. 170).

Having already considered the various uses of a Creed, we are prepared to acknowledge that something of the sort was a necessity from the beginning. Justin Martyr's writings, about the middle of the 2nd century, record the arguments about the Existence of God, and of Jesus Christ, which had influenced him and others for many years, inducing them to live and die for the Faith. (See Just. M. Apol. and Dial. Trypho, passim.)

The death of S. John the Apostle must have occurred during Justin's lifetime. We are led therefore to examine the Bible for traces of a Creed. The following are some of the passages which supply an answer to our examination.

Col. i. 4-22 is an exposition of Faith in God through Christ, with a reference to the Holy Spirit: {96} but especially concerning the Being of Christ, who is declared to be

1 Cor. xv. 3-8. References by a preacher to what he has taught to any whole congregation must, almost of necessity, be references to what he was in the habit of teaching. The articles mentioned here are part of S. Paul's Creed, viz. the articles which he is about to use as the basis of an argument about Resurrection.

Acts xix. 2, 3. The ignorance about the Holy Spirit displayed by the 12 men at Ephesus revealed to S. Paul that they had not been baptized as Christians; for (S. Matth. xxviii. 19) that would have involved Teaching about the Holy Trinity.

Acts viii. 37. This verse, though not now believed to be part of the original text, was so believed by Irenaeus (A.D. 170).

It therefore shows us that a confession of faith at Baptism was (1) expected in Irenaeus' time, (2) expected by someone much earlier, who being accustomed to it, wrote it in the margin, or between the lines of a copy of the Acts.

2 Tim. i. 13, 14. The form of sound words was a good deposit which Timothy was to hold fast.

There are other passages which contain references to the Holy Trinity: suggesting that the earliest Christians, when thinking of the Godhead, were prone to include the Three Persons, as we by reason of our Creeds are also disposed to do. Thus our investigation leads us to suppose that a Creed was early used as a Basis of Teaching, and as a Password at Baptism: that it soon settled down into a form very like the Apostles' Creed: that in A.D. 325 the controversy about our Lord's Divine Nature led to the expansion of those Articles which referred to Him.

To these we may add that in 381 the Council of Chalcedon expanded the Article I believe in the Holy Ghost, or formally adopted an expansion which had become usual: and so gave to the Nicene Creed the form which it now has.

It is difficult to say exactly where the Apostles' Creed is most likely to have come as a link in the historic chain.

THE APOSTLES' CREED AND THE CREED OF IRENAEUS (A.D. 170).

  I believe in God the Father I believe in one God
    Almighty, the Father Almighty,
  Maker of heaven and earth: Who made heaven and earth:
  And in Jesus Christ his only And in one Jesus Christ the
    Son our Lord, Son of God,
  Who was conceived by the Who was made flesh.
    Holy Ghost,
      Born of the Virgin Mary,
  Suffered under Pontius Pilate, And (I believe) in His Suffering,

  He ascended into heaven, and And in His Ascension in the
                                       flesh,
  Sitteth on the right hand of
    God the Father Almighty;
  From thence he shall come to And in His Coming from
    judge the quick and the heaven that he may execute
    dead. just judgment on all.

  I believe in the Holy Ghost; And in the Holy Ghost.
    The Holy Catholic Church;
    The Communion of Saints;
    The Forgiveness of Sins;

  The Resurrection of the Body, And that Christ shall come
                                       from heaven to raise up all
                                       flesh . . . and to adjudge the
                                       impious and unjust . . . to
                                       Eternal fire and to give to
                                       the just and holy immortality
  And the life everlasting. and eternal life.

The Articles of the Creed rest upon the proper understanding of what
God has revealed to us of Himself. The Bible is the record of His
Revelation. The references in Chapter xi. are amongst the vast number
of such passages which might be adduced.

The days mentioned in the rubric as days on which the Confession of our Christian Faith, commonly {99} called The Creed of Saint Athanasius, is to be sung or said at Morning Prayer, instead of the Apostles' Creed, are 13. Four of these days are in the Easter and Ascension groups of days; when the doctrine of our Lord's Divine and Human Natures is most taught. The other nine days are chosen so as to fall, one in each of the nine months, between June and February. So the Praise Service ends, with the Highest Thoughts of God and His Being.

Answer. And with thy spirit.] This may be taken as the mutual salutation of Minister and People at the close of the Praise Service. It is therefore to be said before they kneel. In the Confirmation Service, the Laying-on of Hands is concluded with the same words. Compare the close of our Lord's words to the Apostles, S. Matth. xxviii. 20: S. John xiv. 27: and the close of S. Paul's Epistles without exception; also, close of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 1 Peter, 3 John, and Rev. In the Old English Services (Sarum Use), it closed the Preces. In 1549 it was entirely omitted there, but replaced as it now stands, when, in 1552, the Creed was taken out of the Prayers, and placed immediately after the Canticles.

CHAPTER XI.

REASON, HISTORY, AND REVELATION.

It may be said with truth that the Bible is a book which reads History, and the perplexities of Man, in the light of one great postulate, viz. that there is a God. The natural sequences, which are now partially explained by scientific discoveries, are in the Bible attributed to God's guidance: and of course there is no contradiction between the two. Science explains something of the ways of God's working: from it we learn something of His principles, and also of His methods: when we are surest of scientific laws, we are then confronted with the assumption that there is, or that there is not, a God. The Bible is the Book of Faith—Faith that there is a God. But, since it interprets History, it plainly recognises History, as one of God's Lesson Books. Also, since it appeals to Reason, and is consistent with Reason, it recognises Reason, as another of the Lesson Books. In the present chapter we indicate some of the Lessons to be learnt in these three Books of God.

Much has been written, especially in recent times, showing the marvellous working of what we call, at one time, the Laws of Nature, and at another time, Laws of God. There is infinite interest, to a thoughtful {101} mind, in the reading of Bell On the Hand, Argyll's Reign of Law, Maury's Physical Geography of the Sea, even when further discovery has improved upon their explanations. It must always be remembered that God has given us Reason and Knowledge, as well as Faith. Reason leads us to the threshold of Heaven, and Faith admits us to the Presence. History assures us that Jesus Christ lived in Judaea, founded Christianity as a Kingdom not of this world, and transformed the Kingdoms of this world: Faith admits us to Personal Communion with Him through the Holy Spirit.

The Athanasian Creed distinguishes between the teaching of the Catholick Religion and the teaching of the Christian Verity. A moment's thought shows that many who do not hold the Christian Verity, i.e. the Truth as revealed in Christ, do nevertheless hold the Truth as to the Unity of God. For amongst those who believe in The One God are Jews, Turks and many Hereticks, besides those Agnostics whose hesitation, about accepting the Revelation in Christ, is united to a readiness to believe in God. The Belief in One God therefore is more Universal than the Belief in the Holy Trinity. The word Catholick is used within the Church of those who hold the doctrine of the Church. But it may be also used in a more general sense of those who hold the supreme Truth of Godhead.

In order to illustrate the evidence which has been used concerning this prime article of the Christian Faith, we might refer to many interesting books. The {102} following argument is attributed to Socrates by Xenophon (Mem. 1. iv.).

"We admire great poets—great dramatists—great sculptors and painters: which is more worthy of admiration—he who makes images without mind and motion, or he who makes things which live and move and act?

"The latter, if he makes them of purpose. Then purpose is shown by the obvious usefulness of things: men from the beginning have had the benefit of senses suited to their environment—eyes to see what is visible, ears to hear what is audible. Smells are of use because we have noses; things that we eat are sweet or bitter or agreeable in the mouth, because we have palates. Then again the eye is a delicate organ, but is fitted with an eyelid to keep guard over it, eye-lashes to strain off small particles, eyebrows to carry the sweat away from it. Further, the ear receives sounds but is never overfull of them: front teeth are adapted to cutting, back teeth to grinding: the mouth is near the eyes and nose, which watch over what goes in: these and other arrangements indicate a Maker, who adapts the organs to their uses, and has a wise and loving design. Parents love their children naturally, and naturally people want to live, and dislike death. Hence the Maker shows that He has a design, and that His design is that His Creatures shall live.

"Moreover, we have a certain amount of matter, a certain amount of moisture, while there is a vast amount of those things elsewhere: similarly we have a certain amount of intelligence. Why then should we suppose that intelligence is the only thing which {103} is an exception—the only thing of which we have the whole? why suppose that all these adaptations have been made, so wonderfully, without a controlling mind?

"You say you would believe it if you could see the controlling Creator? But you believe in the existence of your own mind without seeing it: on that principle, you ought to say that all you do yourself is done by chance.

"The next question is whether God is too great to require our service? The answer is that God has shown a special kindness to men, as compared with other animals. Their upright walk, their possession of hands, their articulate voices, their superior minds, their powers of self-protection—and the adaptation of these powers and qualities to one another, constituting an altogether higher existence—all these show a special kindness in a wise Creator who has all the qualities and powers in a far higher degree. By serving one another we learn to know our friends; by asking advice we find who are wise: so if we make trial of God, we shall find that He is All-seeing, All-present, and Watchful over all." This argument does not enter upon the question whether there is one God or more; but it deals with the previous question of Godhead; and with all that is implied in 'Maker of Heaven and Earth'.

It must also be observed that (assuming the notion of many Gods to be excluded, and that our Belief is to be either in One God, or in no God), the argument of Socrates has gone far towards the Bible conception of God's Being. Cf. Article 1.

Reasoning of the kind which Socrates used comes near to proof. But it can never actually prove the existence of God. The mind of man is so constituted that it dislikes the notion of Laws without a Lawgiver. Evolution is a law which is found to hold in many cases, and is often assumed, with much probability, to hold in other cases. And it is a Law which exhibits the most beautiful adjustments in its working. We naturally are impelled to ask further back for the maker of this Law. The Revelation which is written in the Bible, and which has been held true from distant ages by good men, is a Revelation which appeals to a higher quality in man than even his intellect. It appeals to his faith. The Bible evidence of God's existence is consistent with reason, and grounded on faith.

We should be able to find many texts which state God's existence, His Unity, His Omnipotence, His Omniscience. We prefer however to refer the student to whole Books and long passages: such, for instance, as the training of Israel to worship God—the awe and reverence which appear in all the language about God—the consistent Holiness of His character as presented in all the Books. From the first words of the Bible, In the beginning God created, to its last chapter (Rev. xxi. 5), Behold I make all things new, it is a Revelation of the Creator.

Deut. iv. (35) 39 Know therefore this day, and consider it in thy heart, that the LORD he is God in {105} heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else. 1 Kings viii. (Solomon's Prayer). Isaiah xl. 12-31, xlv. Job xxxviii-xli.

The argument of Socrates pointed to a Creator who loves men. The Bible declares God to be a Loving Father. Deut. xxxii. 6. Is not he thy father that bought thee? Deut. i. 31. The LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went. Acts xvii. 22-31. S. Paul at Athens. vv. 24-28. The God that made the world . . . made of one every nation . . . that they should seek God . . .: for in him we live, and move, and have our being; . . . as certain even of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Further He is revealed as the Father of Jesus. S. John xx. 17. I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. S. John xiv. 12, 13 . . . I go unto the Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. S. Matth. xi. 27. All things have been delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.

The Love of the Father towards men is shown by His tenderness towards them. Rom. viii. 39, (nothing) shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. v. 8, God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Psalm ciii. describes this tenderness, showing (v. 6) that God's judgments against oppression are a kindness to the weak. So in {106} many other places. Note also that vice and crime are an injury to the wicked, and a burden to others. Hence God's hatred of sin is a sign of His Love.

Thus the first paragraph of this Creed is an Act of Worship, from children towards their Father, as well as from the creatures of God's hand towards their God.

The foundation of Christianity was not laid with outward marks, but in the hearts of those who, by one, and by two, united themselves together to serve the Lord Christ. As He had said, The Kingdom of God came not with observation. Not with notice from the rulers and the mighty of this world, but in the quietness of homes, and the darkness of prisons, the Church became so wide as to take a foremost place, without much record in the chronicles of kingdoms. We must therefore look to Christian books for the history of early Christianity. At the close of the first century after the Saviour's Birth there were living three great writers who were united in close friendship, viz. the younger Pliny, and the historians Tacitus and Suetonius. Suetonius wrote lives of the first twelve Caesars, and, in his history of Nero (A.D. 54-68), mentions the punishment of Christians, "a set of men of a new and mischievous superstition." Tacitus, describing the same reign[1], and the burning of Rome (A.D. 64), {107} shows that Nero tried to throw the blame from himself, by accusing and punishing the Christians. He adds a few words about them. "The founder of that name was Christ, who was put to death, in the reign of Tiberius, under Pontius Pilate: which temporarily crushed the pernicious superstition, but it broke out again, not only in Judaea, where the evil originated, but in Rome also." Tacitus has the idea that Christians were guilty of many crimes: but their tortures and Nero's cruelty caused them to be pitied. Pliny, on the other hand, made careful enquiries; and gives a very different account of their personal character[2].

Thus we see that almost silently—'without observation'—the Christian
Life grew into its great place in outside history.

S. Matth. i. 21. Thou shalt call his name Jesus. xvi. 16 Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. S. John i. 14 the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, 1 Cor. xvi. 23 our Lord Jesus Christ. S. Matth. i. 18 his mother Mary was found with child of the Holy Ghost. S. Luke i. 35 that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. S. Matth. xxvi. 39 O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. S. Mark xv. 15 Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified. 25 and they crucified him. 37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up {108} the ghost. 44 And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead. 45 And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. 46 And he . . . took him down . . . and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre. xvi. 1-6 And when the sabbath was past . . . very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of sun . . . the stone was rolled away . . . entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side . . . And he saith unto them . . . Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here. S. John xx. 20 he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Acts i. 10, 11 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. 1 Pet. iii. 22 (Jesus Christ) is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. S. Mark viii. 38 when the Son of Man cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels, S. Matth. xxv. 32 before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another. Rom. ii. 16 God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. Acts x. 42 it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead. Rom. xiv. 10 we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

Note i. Quick=living. Cf. S. John vi. 63, it is the spirit that quickeneth, A.-S. cwic.

Jesus=God the Saviour; or God is my Saviour: the same word as Joshua.
S. Matth. i. 21.

Note ii. Death is the separation of soul and body: the body returns to earth as it was (Eccl. xii. 7), and the spirit, or soul, returns to God who gave it. Resurrection is when the soul and body are reunited. While we are alive there is a continual change of particles which form the body; yet it is the same body. Similarly after death the particles decay, but the body of the Resurrection will be in that sense the same body (1 Cor. xv. 38). When we say that Christ was buried, we mean that His Body was buried, and in this Creed we add that He descended into hell: and we mean that His Soul went to the place of departed spirits, which are waiting for the Judgment. The word, Hell, has no meaning here of punishment. In Anglo-Saxon, helan=to cover, and hell=a covered place. In some parts of England we still hele (=cover) over roots to keep off the frost. Thus hell is used to translate Gehenna in S. Matt. v. 22, and also Hades in Acts ii. 27, 31, which last is the meaning here. This Creed should be compared in parallel lines with the Nicene Creed, in order to see what phrases are here which are omitted there. We shall notice the following: conceived, born, dead. He descended into hell, from the dead. It is clear that the Nicene Creed was framed to express more clearly the Godhead of Jesus, which had been denied {110} by Arius. The Apostles' Creed, on the other hand, expresses more clearly the true human nature of our Lord: His Birth and Death are more definitely stated—either because His Resurrection from the dead had been doubted, or because the verity of His human nature was not well understood. The words, He descended into hell, complete the statement that he died as truly and completely as other men die.

The passage, 1 Peter iii. 19, 20 has often been quoted as indicating that, in His death, He had a work to do amongst those who had died before He came on earth—viz. to carry to the blessed dead the glad tidings of His Conquest of Sin, whereby they, as well as others after them, are saved.

Note iii. Among early heretics were some who thought that Jesus, being truly God, could not have died except by a substitute—that he seemed to die. They were thence called Docetae (from dokein to appear). In like manner, many people have since attributed His Perfect Holiness to His Godhead only, and not to His human victory over real temptations. This Creed sets forth the Bible doctrine of His Manhood more particularly. But it also declares His Godhead—partly because the words, I believe in God, belong to all three paragraphs of it; and partly by the words, his only Son. See S. John i. 1-4, 14, 18; 1 S. John i. 3; S. Matth. xvi. 16. The Nicene Creed was prepared at a time when His Perfect Manhood was universally believed, but some thought that He was not God. It is therefore much fuller in the statement of His Godhead.

The third paragraph of this Creed is a summary of the teaching of the Bible concerning Him whom we often call the third Person of the Godhead—whom Jesus described as the Comforter (S. John xiv.-xvi.). He there promised to His disciples the presence with them of One, who should be closer to them than He had Himself been, xvi. 7: xiv. 16, 17: who should unite them more closely to Himself, xiv. 18, 23: who should teach them, and help them to remember His words, xiv. 26: who should testify of Him, xv. 26: and guide them into all truth, xvi. 13: when they should be accused and persecuted, the Holy Ghost would guide their speech, S. Matth. x. 19, 20: S. Mark xiii. 11: S. Luke xii. 11, 12: xxi. 14, 15.

Consistently with these promises we find all good impulses, thoughts, and actions, in man, ascribed to the Holy Ghost—Comfort, Acts ix. 31: Joy, Rom. xiv. 17: Baptism, S. Matth. iii. 11: 1 Cor. xii. 13: Fellowship, Phil. ii. 1: Power, Acts i. 8: Sanctification, Rom. xv. 16: Teaching, 1 Cor. ii. 13: xii. 3: Resolution, S. Luke iv. 1: Acts xv. 28: Vocation, xiii. 2, 4: xx. 28: He is ranked with the Father and the Son, S. Matth. xxviii. 19: Eph. iv. 4-6: 2 Cor. xiii. 14.

His Presence is imparted through the Laying on of Hands, Acts viii. 15, 17: xix. 6: ix. 17: and before it, x. 44, in the exceptional case of Cornelius. Thus, individually we are temples of the Holy Ghost, 1 Cor. vi. 19.

But further, the Holy Ghost unites us in one Body—the Church, Eph. iv. 2-4: wherein the work of each is allotted by Him who in 1 Cor. xii. 28 is called God, and in vv. 4-11 is called the Spirit, and in v. 3, the Holy Ghost. By virtue of this, the Church is Holy, 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17, even though individual members are unworthy. And this Church was to be One for all the world, Acts i. 8, S. Matth. xxviii. 19, 20: 1 Cor. i. 2: Eph. i. 22, 23: iii. 9, 10: S. John xvii. 20, 21. Thus it is the Holy Catholick Church. Catholick=Universal, for-the-whole. Also the Holy Catholick Church is the Society of Saints, the Communion or Fellowship of Saints. S. Paul writing to the Corinthians (1 Cor. i. 2) addresses them as the Church, called to be Saints, and (after referring to the distribution of various duties amongst the members by the Holy Spirit) he says (xii. 25-27) that there should be no schism in the body, but all the members should care for one another, suffer with one another, and rejoice with one another: indeed his argument is that the Church is a body, and that this sharing of joy and sorrow is an existing fact. So in 2 Cor. i. his whole argument turns upon this thought of a society, wherein the comfort of one is the comforting of the rest, and the prayers of the rest a help to the one, the gift bestowed upon one, a cause of the others' thankfulness; and all stablished together by God. In Heb. xii. 22 mount Zion is taken as the symbol of Christ's Church; and the readers are addressed as members thereof, together with the spirits of just men made perfect, who are enrolled in heaven as the general assembly and church of the firstborn. Thus the {113} Church, or Society of Saints includes the imperfect, and those who are made perfect; those who are alive there, and those who are alive here. The condition of membership is briefly described in Acts ii. 38, 42 Repentant, Baptized, having the Gift of the Holy Ghost, Apostolic Doctrine and Fellowship, Communicant, Stedfast in Prayers.

Since then, Repentance and Baptism, Acts ii. 38: iii. 19 "for the Remission of sins," "that our sins may be blotted out," are thus associated with the gift of the Holy Ghost—see also S. John xx. 22, 23—this second great privilege of Christians is stated in the Creed; we believe in the Forgiveness of Sins. It is preached unto us through Christ, Acts xiii. 38: it is granted to us for His Name's sake, 1 S. John ii. 12: the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, S. Mark ii. 10: it is especially associated with the Presence of Christ in the assembly of the Church, S. Matth. xviii. 17-20: 1 Cor. v. 4: S. John xx. 22, 23. The union of the Faithful with Him in whom they have Faith brings, through Jesus, Rom. iii. 25, remission of their sins, through the forbearance of God.

The third great privilege, which comes to members of Christ through the Holy Ghost, is the Resurrection of the Body, a most prominent doctrine of the Gospel: as in the case of other articles of the Creeds, so here, we only give representative verses. Acts xvii. 18 S. Paul is stated to have been misunderstood, because he preached at Athens Jesus and the Resurrection, and in vv. 31, 32 it is shown that he preached the Resurrection of men to be judged. So those who {114} knew Jesus best (S. John xi. 1-3) believed, as of course, in the Resurrection of all men vv. 23, 24: in S. John v. 25-29 the Lord states the doctrine: 1 Cor. xv. shows how S. Paul taught it, and, vv. 37, 38, declares that the body of the Resurrection will be a nobler and higher body, as the plant is nobler and higher than the seed—see Phil. iii. 21: 1 Cor. xv. 43, 48, 49. Further, it is likened to the gift of Life in Baptism, Rom. vi. 3-5, which is the work of the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. xii. 13: hence it is expressly stated to be His work, Rom. viii. 10, 11. The fourth great privilege is Life everlasting. S. John i. 12 to those who received Jesus, He gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name: S. John xvii. 2, 3 and this is life eternal: S. John v. 24 which begins here on earth: but, S. Mark x. 30, is, in a higher sense, the promise of the world to come, where, Rev. xxi. 4, 1 Cor. xv. 26, 54, there shall be no more death.

In connection with this Creed we should read the Nicene Creed, the first Four Commandments, Articles I. to V., XI. and XV., Gloria in excelsis in the Communion Service, and the Proper Prefaces in the Holy Communion for Christmas, Easter, Ascensiontide and Whitsuntide. Also, note that Gloria Patri, and The grace of our Lord, are founded upon the Faith which is expressed in the Creed: and that the Collects not unfrequently have endings similarly founded.

CHAPTER XII.

EXCURSUS ON THE CONFESSION OF OUR CHRISTIAN FAITH, COMMONLY CALLED THE CREED OF SAINT ATHANASIUS.

A learned Professor once attacked the use of Creeds in Worship with the bitter words, that "they combine the maximum of offence with the minimum of worship." This utterance might be discussed by comparing the use of a Creed in the worship of God, with the statement of the merits and action of a great man.

I have often heard people praise the Professor whose words we have just quoted. Suppose that a number of people were assembled together, and one in the name of the rest were to speak to the Professor of his great talents, his immense usefulness, his upright life, his loveable character, his services to education, we should not be offended, even if we were not fully aware of all that he had done for humanity. We should not say that there was any minimum of praise, nor any maximum of offence. It would not be an act chargeable with these faults, unless we did it in the midst of those who disputed his eminence.

The House of God is a place where we ought to assume that the revelation of God is the foundation of worship. Hence a Creed which recites the substance of that revelation should fairly be assumed to express the convictions of all present.

The two Creeds, known to us as The Apostles' Creed and The Nicene Creed, are evidently free from the charge of offence or lack of worship. They take so little account of matters of opinion,—they deal so entirely with the facts of Revelation, that it is hard to conceive any other kind of words so free from the kind of charge which the Professor brought against Creeds in Worship.

But it will be necessary to examine more at length the position of the Creed which is called Athanasian, and to enquire what defence may fairly be made, if it is the form against which the Professor really brought this charge. For it must be acknowledged that many thoughtful men do stumble at this Creed. To them it is an offence, because it is often assumed that it is the expression of opinion about those who do not accept the doctrines which it contains.

1. Now in reciting the Athanasian Creed, a congregation is not attempting to deliver its opinion: we are reciting the assertions which are implied in the Bible, concerning the Being of God, and the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.

Let us emphasize this point. The Athanasian Creed has a different form from the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. You could not fairly describe it as "a loving outburst of a loyal heart," as Bp Harvey Goodwin described the Apostles' Creed. Gloria {117} Patri is indeed added at the close, thereby marking it as a Psalm or Hymn in its use in Church[1].

We think that in its form, fairly considered, it is the reflective utterance of a Christian, who is meditating on the Being and Personal Nature of the Godhead. As I read or say it, I am, as it were, balancing the statements which limit my conception of the truth. On this side I may go so far, and no further; on that side I am limited to that expression. Between these two—including these truths—the fact of Godhead is to be considered, and my worship is to be directed. Hence we can see that, like the other Creeds, it deals with the revealed facts of God's existence.

2. Notice that in the Creed it is the existence of GOD which is defined. Faith does, in other forms, enter upon a consideration of doctrines which introduce Man to our view.

  Predestination and Election,
  Justification by Faith alone,
  Sanctification,
  Assurance and Perseverance,
  Original Sin,
  Sacramental Grace,
  Sin after Baptism,

{118} and other facts and truths, on which Revelation has thrown the only true light, are dealt with, for instance, in the Articles and Homilies. And the Bible is the Court of Appeal in all such perplexities. But it is no disparagement to the importance of those truths, if we acknowledge that they do not appear in our Creeds.

The Creeds are the respectful reply of the Christian to God's disclosure of Himself to His children. One (the Apostles' Creed) is the reply of the Christian as such. Another (the Nicene) is the reply of the Christian after careful self-examination. And this Third is the reply of the Christian Student, as he meditates upon the furthest extent of our knowledge of God.

3. But it will be said, "The Nicene Creed partly, and the Athanasian Creed altogether, are not, in their origin, utterances of peaceful meditation, but, rather, of polemical controversy. Heated contentions and bitter strife are called to our minds by their terms, and not the atmosphere of the heaven of heavens."

It may help us to a right use of the Creeds in worship, if we think of these controversies as the meditations of a very large family. When a deliberation can be held in a room, we can quietly put forward a suggestion, quietly find out what fault there is in it, and as quietly substitute a better statement than the first, guarded from the error into which we were likely to fall. But when the family which deliberates is distributed around such a space as the Mediterranean Sea, the voices are apt to become loud and harsh: instead of tentative suggestions, diffidently put forward, we are likely to hear dogmatic assertions, made with {119} all the energy of the human lungs. The voices which arose from the members of that Parliament of the Faith present a greater variety of languages than the tongues at Pentecost. In the Church's Meditation on the Being of God, and on the Person of Jesus, we hear the Spaniard, the Gaul, the Welshman, Italian, Greek, Syrian, Armenian, Alexandrian; there are voices from Arles, and from Carthage, as well as from Samosata on the Euphrates, and Jerusalem on its holy hill, and Caesarea on the sea-shore. We have to regard the Mediterranean Sea as the Council Table, with chairs at the back for such as could not find places on its shores. Three continents faced one another at an oval table, 13,000 miles in circumference. Even in thoughtful meditation, a voice must be raised to be heard in such a conference. This will to some extent explain how it happened that men, whom we account orthodox, are occasionally found uttering what we will call suggestions, unorthodox in character.

2. The Ebionite. Then Christ is but a Man divinely endowed—the only man so divinely endowed.

3. St John. No! He is the Word. By Him all things were made; the Word was God and was made flesh.

4. The Sabellian. Then perhaps,—God being One and being made flesh,—the Word, and the Holy Ghost, are but manifestations of God.

5. The Catholick Church. No! They are Persons. A Father and a Son are different persons.

6. The Arian. Then, if the Father is a real father, and the Son a real son, perhaps the Father was before the Son, and the Son was made.

7. The Catholick Church. This will not do; because the Sonship would not be real sonship unless the Godhead were equal. The Godhead of the Son must be the same Godhead as that of the Father.

8. Macedonius. But at any rate the Holy Ghost may be a creature, or a manifestation of God the Father.

9. The Catholick Church. That will not do either; for His Personal Being and Godhead are implied by some verses; and in various passages He is ranked with the Father and the Son.

10. The Semi-Arian. Then you really say that there is an actual equality of the Three Persons, and yet that there is but one God?

Of course this is but a rough specimen of the dialogue which was conducted by the Church with the various guessers at great Truths, who debated, disputed, and dogmatized, during the early centuries. I have left out all the other controversies, and some parts of this, in order to present a fairly clear view. But you will observe that the order followed in History has a good deal of the natural course of argument and meditation: and that it is not a very foreign idea that these heresies are the loud thinking {121} of a mighty host, as it outgrows its childhood, and comes to years of discretion.

I will yet more briefly indicate the course of Historical meditation on deep things, by treating similarly one of the other great controversies, viz. that concerning the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2. The Catholick Church. And we aver that He rose again from the dead, and was the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

3. The Gnostic. Probably He was one of the Aeons of whom our forefathers have told us—the leading emanation from the Most High.

4. The Catholick Church. He is no Aeon, Manifestation, nor Creature. He is God as truly as He is man.

5. The Manichaean. Then, of course, if He was God, He could have nothing really material about Him. Matter is evil.

7. The Docetae. No! That was only in appearance. You must leave out all about His Baptism, Circumcision, and Crucifixion. They were only pretence.

8. The Catholick Church. Not pretence at all, but real. He derived Very Manhood from the Blessed Virgin Mary, as truly as He derived Very Godhead from God the Father.

9. The Arians. Perhaps He took a human body, but not a human soul. "The Divine Word was in the place of the soul."

10. Nestorius. Perhaps if these things be so—since He derived the Person of God from God, and the Person of man from Mary—then we must not say that He was one Person, but two.

11. The Catholick Church. These ideas are contrary to the Truth: for (Council of Ephesus 431) Christ was but one Person, in whom two natures are intimately united, but not confounded.

12. The Eutychians. Granting there were not two Persons, we suppose that there were not two Natures. We hold that there was but one Nature mono physite (mono physis)—originally two distinct natures, but, after union, only one: the human nature being transubstantiated into the divine.

13. The Catholick Church. This also is faulty. For (Council of Chalcedon 451) in Christ, two distinct natures are united in one person without any change, mixture, or confusion.

14. Honorius Bishop of Rome and the Monothelites. Then perhaps the human will of Christ was subservient to the Divine Will, so as always to move in unison with it.

15. The Catholick Church. (3rd Council of Constantinople 680—6th General Council.) No! You would destroy the truth of His humanity.

It is obvious that we are here returning to some part of the earlier errors, and that everything possible {123} had been suggested, and settled. Even orthodox people, who incline to hold that Christ's human knowledge was divinely acquired, or His human temptations divinely resisted, are but repeating the errors of old days.

Thus the Controversies, however disfigured by excess of language and temper, &c. are the meditations of the Church on the Nature of Her Lord and Her God.

Some of them are perhaps too much of the disposition of S. Thomas, who must push his hands against the scars of the Lord's Body; but the Lord has ever been patient towards the devout and warm-hearted men, who share with S. Thomas, not only his doubt, but that devotion which destroys intrusive impertinence.

The following interesting argument as to the date of this "Creed" is worthy of study.

The Athanasian Creed appears on the scene at the close of these loud meditations. It is unconscious of the theory that Eutyches started, because it uses phrases which he might have perverted, e.g.

The same sort of argument may apply to Nestorius, who was condemned
431. But this is more doubtful. It insists on "one Son, not three
Sons"—but says nothing of "one Son, not two Sons" which was the
Nestorian error.

Monophysites (condemned 451 at Ephesus) insisted on One Nature, to defend One Person:

Nestorians (condemned 431 at Chalcedon), who insisted on Two Natures almost, if not quite, to the assertion of Two Persons.

[Transcriber's note: refer to Footnote 1 on page 176 referring to an error in the above two paragraphs.]

The date is limited in lateness by the above. It must have been before the middle of 400-500, i.e. before the complete development of the controversy condemned in 451.

And it could not be earlier than 416, because it plainly condemns Apollinarians, who denied a human Soul to Christ, and said the Godhead was in place of a human soul (360-373): and because several of S. Augustine's expressions appear in it, whose books on the Trinity appeared about 416, and later.

Moreover the 'Filioque[1]' appears in it, and S. Augustine was the first to give this prominence.

And it is Latin, in the construction of its Sentences, not Greek; and
Gallic, in its first reception, and chief, earliest, and most numerous,
MSS and commentaries.

The Roman Church did not adopt it till 930, though Charlemagne presented it to the Pope in 722.

Thus Waterland dates it in France between 420 and 431. Within those dates the authors possible are, not Athanasius, for he died about 373, but

  Hilary of Arles, Bp. 429-449.
  Victricius of Rouen.
  Vincentius of Lérins, 434.

These arguments apply, however, not to the Creed as it now stands, but to the documents from which it was compounded, and to the language which it has retained.

This Psalm, or Creed, or discussion of the Creeds, appears to be formed by the union of two documents, one of which was a discussion of the nature of God, and the other a discussion of the Person of Christ. An article by Professor Lumby in the S.P.C.K. Prayer Book will be accessible to all our readers. The former document occupies 28, and the latter, 14 verses.

The doctrine that there is a God, and particularly that there is but one God, may be called the Catholic Religion, in a very wide sense: for it is held by Jews, Turks, and many others who are not Christians.

The Christian Verity is the Truth that God was made man, that Jesus is God and Man, yet not two, but one Christ. This involves the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

The Catholic Faith includes both the Catholic Religion and the
Christian Verity.

vv. 9 and 12: the word incomprehensible is the Latin word immensus, elsewhere rendered infinite. (See Article I.) vv. 21-23 show that there are statements which can be made of each Person, which cannot be made of the other Persons of the Godhead: 6-18 have been showing that there are statements which can be made of each Person, which can also be made of the other Persons—statements involving Godhead. 24-27 state the inference which is to be drawn from the former verses, an inference previously stated in 3-5.

v. 31. The word Substance occurs frequently in the discussion of the Godhead of our Lord, and also in the debates about the Holy Communion. Substance is the Essential Existence: it has no necessary connection with ideas like 'hard' and 'soft,' 'heavy' and 'light'; if we are thinking of a spirit there is no question of Matter, for the Substance, i.e. the Essential Being, of a spirit is not of the nature of Matter. The phrase in the Nicene Creed Being-of-one-substance-with (the Father) is a translation of the word Consubstantial.

The name Quicunque Vult, by which this psalm is sometimes mentioned is from the first words of the Latin original Quicunque vult salvus esse=Whosoever will be safe. This phrase "be safe" occurs again in verse 28, and again in the last verse of the psalm, where quam nisi—salvus esse non poterit should be translated which except a man have believed faithfully and firmly, he cannot be safe. The substitution of another idea—"be saved,"—is of the nature of an addition to the meaning.

These verses are to be understood, like the Bible statements of similar character, as the warning which overhangs all our actions. They say nothing of what allowance God makes for involuntary ignorance, prejudice, difficult perplexities, and other infirmities. They declare our responsibility when we look up to God, and reflect on our own actions, or on God's Being.

[1] It was used as a Psalm at Prime following cxix. 1-32. Nor did it disturb the use of the Apostles' Creed. Bishop Barry has suggested that until 1662 this use of both was continued. But Bishop Cosin, whose notes and suggestions and personal influence had so much to do with the Revision of 1662, had a note 'though it be not here set down, yet I believe the meaning was that the Apostles' Creed should be omitted that day, when this of Athanasius was repeated.' And words were inserted in the rubrics to make this quite clear.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE SERVICE OF PRAYER.

If we have understood the Method of Praise which, in these Services, uses ancient forms in an ordered variety, we shall be prepared to find similar order, and similar use of variety, in the Prayers. The Map of the Services on p. 28 should be examined afresh, in order that we may grasp the unity of the Prayers, as well as the unity of the Praises.

There is the Lord's Prayer set for prayer (see p. 16), at the beginning of the Prayers, to strike the keynote. Verses and Responds follow next, asking for such things as will be again asked for, in the Collects which are to come after them. The Collects may be divided into two classes, viz.,

The Preces are Interjectional. The Collects are of the Amen form. The Anthem should be {128} Antiphonal. The Litany, when used, contains examples of four of the Worship-forms. Thus, the attention of worshippers is arrested, and their unity of heart and voice maintained.

Another purpose is served by the mutual relation in which these forms stand to one another. We shall show, in the Chapter on the Litany, that a Collect may be preceded by a Verse and Respond, which anticipate briefly the prayer of the Collect. Thus the Verse and Respond, which are Interjectional, belong to the Collect. This tie between Interjectional prayers and Amen prayers is very remarkable in the Morning and Evening Services. Six couplets of Interjected prayers, which for the sake of distinction are called Preces, anticipate the petitions of the six (or more) Collects which follow. They correspond Couplet and Collect, Couplet and Collect; and, being grouped so that all the couplets come first, the whole prayer Service is made one.

The Anthem is used to strengthen this unity. Unfortunately the Revisers stopped short of making an Antiphoner, or Anthem-book; but we may suppose that the provision made here for Anthems was intended as a promise of such a book. Our Hymn Books, which were recognised, when, in 1879, shortened Services were permitted, contain a good number of suitable hymns admitting antiphonal arrangement. They should supply some grave thought of God's help, or Christ's mediation, or our dependence on Him. The Anthem is a bond of union, not a musical interruption. (See Chap. xiv.)

THE PRAYER SERVICE.

The directions concerning the Services are to be found in the Rubrics: which are placed either (1) in the Prefaces and Tables at the beginning of the Prayer Book; or (2) at the beginning or end of a Service; or (3) at some break or pause in the Service. By the correction of mistakes, the later Revisions have left very little ambiguity; but some instances remain, which may usually be interpreted by the analogy of other parts of the Book. A plain instance is the omission of a direction that the Sermon is to be preached from the pulpit: but it is directed that after it the Priest shall return to the Lord's Table.

Bishop Cosin who took a leading part in the Revision of 1661-2, and had been preparing notes for it for about 40 years, made the remark: "the book does not everywhere enjoin and prescribe every little order, what should be said or done, but take it for granted that people are acquainted with such common, and things always used already."

The two Services, which are here considered together, are still printed together as parts of the same Chapter (see p. 25): and the Morning Service has always had rubrics which applied to both Morning and Evening: (see Rubrics, about the use of Gloria Patri after Canticles, cf. p. 4: and about the First Lessons).

Before 1662 a rubric, after the Canticles at Evensong, referred back to Mattins for directions &c. about the rest of the Service. The Second and Third Collects, being different from the Morning Collects, were, of course, printed in full: everything else was read from the Morning Service.

The words of the Evening rubric about the Collects were retained, and not made like the Morning rubric: also the words all kneeling, which were, at that time, added to the Morning rubric, were, through forgetfulness, not added to the slightly different Evening Rubric. The word all includes the Minister; for the people are already kneeling.

The amendment of rubrics in this part of the Services, which was effected in 1662, completed the directions for continuing the Service after the Collects. Until that time, the prayers for the Sovereign, for the Royal Family, and for the Clergy and People, were printed after the Prayer, We humbly beseech thee, in the Litany; and were followed by the second of our Ember Week prayers, and the Prayer of S. Chrysostom. But it was plain that the Services were not to end with the Third Collect: for, at the end of the Communion Service, six Collects were printed, as they still are, with the provision that they may be said "after the Collects" of Morning and Evening Prayer. Moreover, the inclusion, in the Preces, of prayers for the Sovereign and for the Clergy implied that Collects for {131} them would follow. We may infer that these Services used to end much as they do now. It was therefore a useful improvement to make the rubrics complete, and to print the prayers in this place. Perhaps the six Collects after the Communion Service would be more used, if they had, at the same time, been printed with the Occasional Prayers and Thanksgivings.

At the same time, a Rubric was inserted here providing for an Anthem, or musical prayer, to be sung (in places where there are singers), between the Three Collects and the other Prayers.

We have before explained that the Doxology is not added here, but the
Lesser Litany is prefixed to it. The thoughts will now be different
from those which occupied our hearts at the beginning of the Praises.
The following may be suggested:

  Hallowed be Thy Name . . . . . . Ask for Reverence.
  Thy kingdom come . . . . . . Devotion.
  Thy will be done . . . . . . Obedience.
  Give us our daily bread . . . . . . Support, Health,
                                        Teaching, Communion.
  Forgive us . . . . . . Forgiveness.
  Lead us . . . . . . Guidance.
  Deliver us . . . . . . Deliverance.

Then the Priest is directed to stand up: thus reminding us again that we are approaching the Majesty on High. The people, though still kneeling, {132} are included in his priestly action, and take an equal share of the petitions, which form the Preces (=prayers L.). Each verse is to be said by the Minister, and its Respond by the People.

These interjected prayers do not follow exactly the order of the Collects and Prayers, which are to come next to them. The second couplet belongs to the two prayers, for the King and for the Royal Family: the third and fourth couplets belong to the prayer, for the Clergy and People. The first, fifth, and sixth couplets belong to the first, second, and third Collects respectively. The Great Breviary of 1531, according to the use of Sarum, had the 5th of these couplets as an Antiphon for our 2nd Morning Collect for Peace, to be used at Lauds, and also as an Antiphon at Vespers, for our 2nd Evening Collect for Peace. The Student will find that this using of the old materials is characteristic of the Revision of 1549. All the Preces are from the Day Hours. With the exception of the Couplet just mentioned, they are verses of the Psalms: First Couplet from the 85th Psalm, verse 7: Second, from the 20th, v. 9: Third, from the 132nd, vv. 9 and 16: Fourth, from the 28th, v. 9: Sixth, from the 51st, vv. 10 and 11. The First couplet is that which anticipates the First Collect.

The Second couplet agrees with the Vulgate (Latin), and Septuagint (Greek) Versions of the Psalms. Our Bible and Prayer Book Psalms follow {133} the Hebrew division of the verse: Save, Lord: let the King hear us when we call. The couplet in this place, being taken from the Sarum Service, as a prayer for the King and people, was left in its old form, when the correction was made in the Psalms.

In the Fifth couplet the Respond appears to allege the want of earthly helps as the reason why we ask God to give us peace. Since it is obviously impossible that this is the meaning, it will be well to enquire what other meaning there may be. The last verse of the 4th Psalm has the same thought; I will lay me down in peace, and take my rest: for it is thou, Lord, only, that makest me dwell in safety. If the word only be omitted, the reason appears at once to be that God's protection suffices to assure us of safety. The introduction of the word, only, adds the thought that no other protection would suffice. The same two thoughts are united in the Respond Because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God. It is as though we said, 'Give us Peace, because thou hast the power; and we trust no other power.'

This couplet was the Antiphon, in the Day Hours, to both the collects for Peace; and must be taken as including both peace from "the assaults of our enemies," and "that peace which the world cannot give." It is suitable both to a time of External Peace, and also to a time when war, with Peace for its object, is raging round us: the assaults, also, of temptation are at times disturbing to our peace, in the sense which is involved in this couplet.

The Sixth Couplet belongs to the Third Collects {134} which ask for spiritual guidance, and spiritual light—Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

In a passage of the Prayer Book Preface of 1549, which was not struck out until the last Revision in 1662, it was said that "by this order the Curates shall need none other books for their public service, but this book and the Bible." The simplification of the Services has made it possible for everyone to find his way easily through the Prayer Book. The progressive inventions of printing, and of fine paper, have made it possible for him to have the books always with him.

Before the reign of Edward VI. the Services, though printed, were not contained in one book. Before the invention of printing the books were of necessity numerous. We may mention some of them.

A book of Lessons—Legenda; of Antiphons—Antiphonarium; of Psalms—the Psalter: these were required for the Day Hours. As an abbreviation of them, sufficient for practical purposes, the Breviary was arranged. A portable form of it was called Portiforium. The Breviary was printed in four volumes on the Continent, but in England had only a Winter Volume and a Summer Volume.

For the Occasional Services,—the Services which mark the great events of a Christian's life, beginning with Baptism and ending with Burial, they had the Manual.

For the Holy Communion, they had the Missal; including (1) the Gradual, which was an Antiphoner, or book of the musical parts of the Service; (2) the Lectionary, or book of the Epistles; (3) the Evangelistarium, or book of the Gospels; and (4) the Sacramentary. The Sacramentary contained, amongst other things, the Collects.

We have already referred to the combination and simplification of the
Breviary Services, which have given us our Morning and Evening Prayer.
We must now observe that many of our Collects come from the
Sacramentaries.

I. Gregory the Great, who was Pope of Rome from 590 to 604, was the author of one of them. The English Church owes him gratitude for sending missionaries to this country at a time when the older British Church was deficient in missionary zeal: and we must here notice our debt to him for a number of our best-known collects, as well as other improvements in the Services. Canon Bright gives a list of 32 or 33 taken from Gregory's Book. Some of them may perhaps have been added after Gregory's time; for it is often difficult to distinguish between the original passages of an ancient Service-book and the additions which were quickly made to it.

Twenty-eight Collects in that list are in our book amongst the Epistles and Gospels. Besides these there are: one in the Baptism Service—Almighty and {136} immortal God: the first part of We humbly beseech thee in the Litany: O God, whose nature and property in the Occasional Prayers: Prevent us, O Lord at the end of the Communion Service.

II. The Sacramentary of Gelasius (who was Pope of Rome 492 to 496) had provided much material which Gregory adopted. From this ancient source we have our Second Collect, for Peace in the Morning Service; and the Third Collect, for Grace: the Second Collect, for Peace in the Evening Service: the Third Collect, for Aid: the Collect for the Clergy and People: Assist us mercifully, at the end of the Communion Service: the Confirmation Collect, Almighty and everlasting God: a Collect in the Visitation Service: O Lord we beseech thee, in the Commination: and 21 of those which are placed with the Epistles and Gospels.

III. We go back still further for seven of the Sunday Collects, which are taken from the Sacramentary of Leo the Great (Pope of Rome, 440 to 461).

Thus, five-sixths of our Sunday Collects are from these three Service-books: although we do not purpose here to say much of the Collects used in the Communion Service, and ranking as the "First Collects" of Morning and Evening Prayer, we think it useful to note their derivation from the 5th and 6th centuries. Even those which are not so derived owe their form and manner to the same models.

This last remark applies to all the prayers which have the Collect form. We may suppose that, in the years which preceded Leo the Great, the Collects were being made. Perhaps the dignity of their {137} diction grew by the survival of the simplest and best; by the falling away of superfluous words; and of words of effort: in any case the absence of small auxiliary words, in Latin sentences, contributed much to their tone of modest dependence on God, as well as to their poetic force.

To take an illustration, our Second Collect at Mattins is translated from the following Gelasian Collect: Deus auctor pacis et amator, Quem nosse vivere, Cui servire regnare est, protege ab omnibus impugnationibus supplices tuos; ut qui defensione tuâ fidimus, nullius hostilitatis arma timeamus: Per &c.

These 27 Latin words are equivalent to the 51 English words which we use. We do not, however, suggest that the tone has been altered in the translation. On the contrary, our Translators had so learnt the right tone of the old prayers, that they not only translated them and the tone, into a language of a very different sort; they also composed new prayers, in English, which rank with the old ones, and have the same great excellences. The Collects for Easter Eve, and Christmas Day, may be taken as good examples of this.

1. It has three simple parts: (a) the Name of God; (b) what we ask; (c) our appeal to Christ's advocacy.

2. It makes no effort to instruct the congregation, but speaks with simplicity and directness, to Him who knows all things.

Other prayers imitate Collects in one or more of these respects; and may be called Collects, though not satisfying all the conditions.

Our Lord taught us (St John xiv. 13, 14; xv. 16; xvi. 23-26) to ask God in His name. A Collect is a prayer made on that model. It has three parts:

(a) God is addressed. This may be expressed in one word, or expanded into a sentence. It is always the reason for our prayer, that God is able and willing to hear us: every name of God when named by His children is an appeal to Him.

When we expand the address, we do so in order to include a claim, to be heard because some quality in God has a special relation to that which we are about to ask. Because God loves peace, we can ask Him for Peace: because He is merciful, we can ask Him for forgiveness: because He gave at Pentecost, we can ask Him for the same gift on Whitsun Day. Thus the name of God at the beginning of a Collect often includes some title upon which we build our hope.

(b) What we ask. This may be simple, or complex: it is Simple when we ask for something without saying anything of the means, or the results, {139} of our obtaining it: Complex, when we ask for some thing in order that we may also have something else.

(c) Appeal to Christ's Advocacy. Our claim upon God is "in the name" of Jesus Christ. Here again we vary the thought in agreement with the petition: sometimes it is His mediation, sometimes His might, or His love, which we mention: but not haphazard—the words are chosen to suit what has been asked for.

One variety of this part deserves special mention—when we claim the
Saviour's advocacy, by words which recognise Him as One of the Blessed
Trinity. When His Godhead is thus mentioned, an ascription of praise
is often added.

It is impossible to speak with confidence about the origin of the word Collect. We find in old Services both Collecta and Collectio. It might be conjectured that these were references to Books of Collects bearing those names as their titles. But the explanations which have been offered for a thousand years, though very various, do not include that as a possibility. Some derive it from people,

(1) collected for worship: (2) collected in the unity of the Church: (3) having collectedness of mind.

(4) the sense collected from Scripture: (5) the desires collected from the congregation.

Canon Bright[1] decides in favour of (1) as the explanation of Collecta, and (5) as that of Collectio, preferring the former as the source of our English word Collect.

Canon Bright quotes Alcuin the Northumbrian boy, the York Scholar (735-804), who became the most learned man in Europe, and the friend, adviser, and teacher, of the great Emperor Charlemagne. Alcuin derived the word from Collecta, an assembly for worship.

The First Collect is the Collect of the Day. The Preface (last rubric before the Table of Lessons) orders that the Collect "appointed for the Sunday shall serve all the week after, where it is not in this Book otherwise ordered." The Book 'orders otherwise' for Saints' Days, and at such special times as Christmas, Ash-Wednesday, Good Friday, Easter Even, but has omitted, by some accident, to provide for the two days after Ascension Day, for the week days between The Epiphany and the First Sunday after, and for the three days after Ash-Wednesday.

A rubric at the beginning of the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels provides that the Collect for a Sunday, or for a Holy Day having a Vigil or Eve, shall be said at the Evening Service next before.

We have said something of the source of these Collects: their detailed consideration belongs to a {141} book on the Communion Service, or on the Epistles and Gospels.

The Second Collect, both at Mattins and Evensong, is a Collect for Peace. Both are taken from the same chapter of Prayers for Peace in the Gelasian Sacramentary.

The Morning Collect, desiring that our trust in God, and our fearlessness, may be strengthened by continual knowledge of God's protection, addresses Him as the author and lover of peace, and also as the One whom we know and serve, and thereby have life and freedom.

Standeth our eternal life. Notice the phrase standeth in as a substitute for is. We could not have said whose knowledge is eternal life, because of the momentary doubt whether it referred to the knowledge which God has, or to the knowledge which we have of Him. By the use of an idiom not now in common use, we express the belief taught by the Saviour's words S. John xvii. 3.

Notice also the phrase whose service is perfect freedom: here the Latin original has whom to serve is to reign. Our eagerness to do God's Will is, on the one hand, a service or bondage to Him; but, on the other hand, it is what makes us masters of ourselves, and, in the spiritual sense, kings (1 Cor. iv. 8; Rev. i. 6).

The prayer for defence from external assault has for its real motive the attainment of trust and fearlessness.

The Evening Collect for Peace asks more plainly for spiritual peace; in relation to (1) the tumults {142} occasioned in our consciences by disobedience to God's commands, (2) the tumults occasioned in our lives by outward interference. For (1), we appeal to God as the author of good and holy desires within us: for (2), we appeal to Him as the counsellor who helps us against our enemies. For both, we appeal to Him who enables us, and others, to do what is just.

The Third Collect in the Morning is styled a Collect for Grace. Because He is Almighty and Everlasting; because He is our Father and our God and Lord; and, in particular, because He has brought us to the beginning of the day; we ask Him to keep us from harm, and sin, and danger, as the day goes on.

The corresponding Evening Collect is styled a Collect for Aid against all Perils. Accepting the figure suggested by the close of the day, we ask God to defend us from the perils and dangers of darkness. The light which we seek is evidently inward and spiritual light; the defence, in like manner, a defence from spiritual perils, though not excluding the others: cf. Psalm xviii. 28: xxvii. i.

The change from the Three Collects to the Three Prayers which follow may be softened by the Anthem, (or Hymn), which comes between. The spiritual gifts, desired in the Collects, are the qualities which guide the lives of men. When we pray that we may have a good King, or a good Bishop, or a good People, we have evidently passed from the general to the particular; from that which is within us to that which is external.

Health and wealth=To be hale or whole, and to be well. They are Saxon words which include all prosperity of body and condition.

The Prayer for the Royal Family was inserted in 1604. The persons
mentioned by name have been the Consort of the Sovereign, the Queen
Dowager, and the next King and Queen. Thus in Queen Anne's reign,
Princess Sophia was mentioned until she died, eight months before the
Queen.

The Prayer for the Clergy and People. This is, in the Gelasian Sacramentary, a prayer in a Monastery; or, in a private house. Afterwards, the persons for whom it was said, were "an abbat or his congregation"; then Bishops and their congregations; and finally, Curates (i.e. the Clergy in charge of parishes) were introduced in 1544. In Titus ii. 11 The grace of God bringeth salvation, the word 'healthful' is translated differently, but the phrase is the same as here.

the continual dew of thy blessing: see Ps. cxxxiii. 3, where the consecration of Aaron suggested Hermon (=consecration), and called up thoughts of the dew and the clouds, running and floating from its sides. So the blessing received from on high is received in order to be transmitted to others.

The phrase who alone workest great marvels seems to be justified by the consideration that much is asked for in the prayer—God's spirit, and the dew of His blessing, for all the Clergy, and for all the People.

A Prayer of S. Chrysostom is so called because it comes to us from the Liturgy of S. Chrysostom. It is said to be older than A.D. 900 but not so old as to have been composed by S. Chrysostom himself (354-407). It addresses Christ as Almighty God, and reminds Him of His present gift of grace, and of His ancient promise. The two blessings claimed are—for this life, the knowledge of God's truth—for the life to come, the knowledge of God Himself (S. John xvii. 3).

2 Cor. xiii. This Benediction is not merely the ending of the worship in church: it is also the link between the Church Service and the Service of God which we perform outside. We go out of church to do our work with grace, and love, and fellowship, in the Name and Power of the Holy Trinity.

The more solemn part of the Holy Communion, in the Clementine Liturgy, S. Basil's, S. Chrysostom's and other Eastern Liturgies, began with this Benediction.

The occasional Prayers and Thanksgivings. Like the six Collects after the Communion Service, these may be used before the Prayer of S. Chrysostom in the Morning and Evening, and (with one exception) also when the Litany is said.

There are 11 Prayers: the first two were made in 1549: the next four in 1552: the first of the Ember prayers, in 1661: the second, in a slightly different form, was a prayer in the Ordination Services of 1549, where it still stands. The ninth is from Gelasius' Sacramentary. The Prayer for Parliament appeared in the last Revision (1661), but had been printed before, in Special forms of Service.

The Prayer for all conditions of men first appeared in 1661. There are eight Thanksgivings: the first, fourth, and sixth, were printed in 1661: the rest in 1604. In the first of these, if the petition were Send us, we beseech thee, such weather, the Prayer might be very frequently used during the spring and summer. Having these, we seem to want other, occasional prayers, and thanksgivings. The spread of Emigration, the enlargement of our Navy and Army, the multiplication of Municipal bodies, and other developments of the National life, demand occasional prayers in the Service, and especially, perhaps, a prayer to be used at times of anxiety for those at sea.

[1] See his Ancient Collects, Appendix: and his Paper in S.P.C.K. Prayer Book Commentary "On the Collects."

CHAPTER XIV.

THE PRAYER SERVICE.

Anthem=Antiphon, fr. antiphonon: so called because two choirs sing alternately.

Anthems are of two sorts—simple Anthems and compound Anthems. A simple Anthem is one or more verses (often from Holy Scripture), used to give character to a Psalm. A compound Anthem is a Hymn or Psalm followed by a Verse, Respond, and Prayer. A simple Anthem was used, for example, to give an Easter, Advent, &c. character to Venite. Thus Dec. 16 is marked in the Calendar as O Sapientia because on that day the following Anthem was used with Magnificat:

O Wisdom, which camest forth out of the mouth of the Most High, and reachest from one end to the other, mightily and sweetly ordering all things; Come and teach us the way of prudence.

These words are taken, with some alteration, from Wisd. viii. 1. On each of the seven days which follow, until Dec. 23, a different Anthem was used with Magnificat; and forasmuch as these eight Anthems begin with O (O Wisdom, O Lord, O Root of Jesse, &c.), they were known as the O Anthems. Similarly on The Epiphany, S. Matth. ii. 1, 2, 11 was sung as an Antiphon to Magnificat; and on Whitsunday S. John iv. 23. {147} These are instances of the use of simple Anthems in the Services before 1549. The following illustrates the purpose for which they were appointed. It will be observed that the Advent thought was made to pervade the whole Psalm.

ADVENT SETTING OF VENITE.

O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our Salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving: and shew ourselves glad in him with Psalms.

For the Lord is a great God: and a great King above all gods. In his hand are all the corners of the earth: and the strength of the hills is his also.

The sea is his, and he made it; and his hands prepared the dry land. O come, let us worship, and fall down: and kneel before the Lord our Maker, for he is the Lord our God: and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts: as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness. When your fathers tempted me: proved me and saw my works.

Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said; It is a people that do err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways. Unto whom I sware in my wrath: that they should not enter into my rest.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

THE COMPOUND ANTHEM.

  Litel child his litel book lernynge,
  As he sat in the scole in his primere,
  He O alma redemptoris herde synge,
  As children lerned her antiphonere:

From this we understand that O alma redemptoris was an "Antym" out of the Antiphonere, or Anthem Book. This Anthem has six hexameter lines followed by a Verse and Respond, and the Collect which we now use for Lady Day. This, then, is what we have called the Compound Anthem.

A good example of it is found in the Prayer Book of 1549 where the
Easter Anthems, as we still call them, were ordered to be used in the
Morning afore Mattins. Their "setting" was as follows:

Christ rising again from the dead now dieth not: Death from henceforth hath no power upon him. For in that he died, he died but once to put away sin; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. And so likewise count yourselves dead unto sin, but living unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Christ is risen again, the firstfruits of them that sleep. For seeing that by man came death, by man also cometh the resurrection of the dead. For as by Adam all men do die: so by Christ all men shall be restored to life.

O God who for our redemption didst give thine only begotten Son to the death of the cross; and by his glorious resurrection hast delivered us from the power of our enemy: Grant us so {149} to die daily from sin, that we may evermore live with him, in the joy of his resurrection; through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

The history of the transformation of this Anthem into a Psalm, as it is now used, may be given here. In 1552 its rubric was changed to the present form: that is, it was no longer to be used before Mattins; it was to be sung or said instead of Venite. The Verse, Respond and Collect were omitted. In 1662 Gloria Patri was added, and the words of 1 Cor. v. 7, 8 were inserted at the beginning.

The Easter Anthems, as now ordered, are most properly set as a Psalm. With similar propriety, when they were used before the Service of Mattins, they were set as a Prayer-Anthem—beginning with the jubilance which is expressed by the twofold Hallelujah, and gradually modulating the jubilance in preparation for the Service which followed.

Simple Anthems were so frequent, and their changes for special occasions were so many, that they created some confusion and intricacy in the old Services. We may, however, recognise the beauty and worshipfulness of the plan. In the Visitation of the Sick, the words O Saviour of the world &c. as used with Psalm lxxi. are a survival of it. The verse Remember not Lord &c. was introduced at the beginning of the same Service, as an Anthem to Psalm cxliii. The Psalm was omitted in 1552, but its Anthem remains.

The singing of the Psalm and Anthem will be understood from the example quoted above—the half choir which sang the Psalm was continually interrupted by {150} the half choir which sang the Anthem. The following illustration is quoted (by Martene) as of the 11th century. In this case a verse of Magnificat was sung after each verse of the Anthem.

EASTER EVE SETTING OF MAGNIFICAT.

[Transcriber's note: In the following section, in the original book, the material in the right-hand column was italicized. In standard Project Gutenberg practice, such text is (usually) surrounded by underscores ("_"), but for clarity, that underscoring has been omitted here.]

Now on the evening of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn My soul doth magnify the toward the first day of the Lord: week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the Sepulchre.

And behold, there was a And my spirit hath rejoiced great earthquake. in God my Saviour.

For the angel of the Lord For he hath regarded the descended from heaven, and lowliness of his handmaiden: came and rolled back the stone for behold, from henceforth all from the door, and sat upon it. generations shall call me blessed.

His countenance was like For he that is mighty hath lightning, and his raiment magnified me, and holy is his white as snow. name.

And for fear of him the And his mercy is on them keepers did shake, and that fear him, throughout all became as dead men. generations.

And the angel answered He hath shewed strength and said unto the women, Fear with his arm; he hath scattered not ye; for I know that ye the fraud in the imagination seek Jesus, which was crucified. of their hearts. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.

  Come, see the place where He hath put down the
  the Lord lay. mighty from their seat, and
                                     hath exalted the humble and
                                     meek.

And go quickly, and tell He hath filled the hungry his disciples, that he is risen with good things, and the rich from the dead. he hath sent empty away.

In Galilee shall ye see him: He remembering his mercy
lo, I have told you. hath holpen his servant Israel.

  Fear not ye; for he is risen As he promised to our forefathers,
  as he said. Abraham and his seed
                                     for ever.

And very early in the first Glory be to the Father, and day of the week, they came to the Son, and to the Holy unto the sepulchre at the rising Ghost: of the sun.

And they said among themselves, As it was in the beginning, Who shall roll us away is now, and ever shall be, the stone, and when they looked, world without end. Amen. they saw that it was rolled away.

We have now given examples of Anthems, which show that they have their name from the responding of two choirs to one another[1]. But Anthems were not of necessity hymns of Praise. The place provided at Morning and Evening Prayer, for the singing of an Anthem, is singularly ill-suited to the singing of a Praise-Anthem: for it is the place also of the Litany. It is sometimes pleaded that people grow tired of prayer, by the end of the 3rd Collect, and need a change: hence, after praying for three or four minutes, they rise up and sing praise for ten minutes, before kneeling again for seven or eight minutes. If we have grasped the reverent orderliness of the Services, we shall not easily be persuaded that this was the design of the order at this place. We have elsewhere shown that an Anthem here unites the Collects which precede it, to those which follow.

We must believe that there was an intention to provide an Anthem Book.
Until this is done by authority, it would be well to distinguish, in
Hymn Books, between those Hymns which are suitable in the midst of the
Prayers, and those which are appropriate as Hymns of Praise. The same
might also be done in the Anthem Books, so that a Praise-Anthem, or
Hymn, might be sung at the close of the whole Service. A
Prayer-Anthem, or Hymn, or one upon the Redeemer's Love, and His Work
as Mediator, suits well as a modulation to the Prayers after the 3rd
Collect. And it might be sung Antiphonally.

CHAPTER XV.

THE SERVICE OF PRAYER.

Origin of Litanies. Some of the Offices of Holy Communion—especially in the East—have had a portion after the Gospel very similar to what we call a Litany. Thus in the Liturgy (i.e. Holy Communion Office) of S. James, the Deacon says The Universal Collect, consisting of fifteen suffrages (see Appendix F), each ending with, Let us beseech the Lord: and the Response of the people is, Lord have mercy, which is said thrice at the end of the petitions. Similar to this is the Prayer of Intense Supplication, in the Liturgy of S. Chrysostom. Cf. also the modern Liturgy of Constantinople.

We should expect to find the further development of Litanies, in Churches where the Eastern influence was felt; it is therefore no surprise to us, that the history of them next takes us to the Churches of Southern France. "The South of Gaul had been colonized originally from the Eastern shores of the Aegaean. Its Christianity came from the same regions as its colonization. The Church of Gaul was the {154} spiritual daughter of the Church of proconsular Asia[1]."

Pothinus, Bp of Lyons and Vienne, had come probably from Asia Minor. When, at the age of more than 90, he was martyred (A.D. 177), his successor as Bishop was Irenaeus, who received part of his early education in Asia Minor from Polycarp, a disciple of S. John the Evangelist. Other martyrs, at Vienne and Lyons, in that year (A.D. 177), had come from Asia Minor. A map will show that Vienne is about 16 miles south of Lyons. Thus from the first days of the Church in France, a close connection existed between it and the Church in Asia Minor.

About A.D. 467[2], Mamertus, Archbishop of Vienne, ordered Litanies to be said in procession on the three days before Ascension Day; being moved thereto by a succession of calamities—earthquake, war, wild beasts invading the city itself—followed shortly by the destruction of the royal palace in Vienne by lightning. The practice spread to neighbouring dioceses, and was confirmed by the Council of Orleans (A.D. 511). The three days before Ascension Day are thence called 'Rogation Days'; and processions for purposes of prayer are called Rogations, or Litanies.

The Rogation Litanies were not adopted at Rome {155} until the time of
Leo III. (795-816): but in a time of pestilence at Rome, Gregory the
Great, A.D. 590, instituted the Sevenfold Litany of S. Mark's Day.

Gregory the Great has been called the Apostle of the English, because he intended to come as a missionary to convert the English; and, when prevented from so doing by his election as Bishop of Rome, sent Augustine in his stead A.D. 596. The yearly Synod of the English Church was appointed in 673 to be held at Cloveshoo—a place probably near London but in the kingdom of Mercia. In 747 at a great council held at Cloveshoo, March 12 was appointed as S. Gregory's Day; May 26 as the day of S. Augustine Archbishop of Canterbury[3]; and Gregory's Sevenfold Litany, together with the Rogation Services, was sanctioned for use in England, with a phrase which implies that custom had already introduced them.

The 2nd Book of Homilies (1562. See Art. xxxv). contains a Homily for Rogation Week in four parts—three of which appear to be designed for the three Rogation Days, and the fourth for The Perambulation of the Parish, or Beating of the Bounds—a custom which has survived into our own time. The parishioners walked along the outline of the parish, taking {156} care that at least one of them passed through any obstruction which was built, or erected, across the boundary. Thus, if a cottage were so built, a boy would be passed though the door and window of it. Trees at corners were marked with a hatchet: a note book was preserved as a guide for the next perambulation. From this useful and ancient ceremony, Rogation Days were called by the Anglo-Saxons Béddagas=Prayer-days, or Gang-dagas=perambulation-days. Boundary stones, dated May 4, 1837, are to be seen in the thickets of Buckland Woods, Devon, showing that Ascension Day was chosen in that year for the perambulation of Ashburton. More recently the perambulation of Exeter has been performed on Ascension Day. The steps by which the religious dedication of the year's work, at each centre of agricultural industry, passed into a municipal ceremony accompanied by social amenities, may be conjectured. It was still a religious service—partly in the church and partly in the fields, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and much later.

Litanies, however, have ceased to be processions. They are not said walking, but kneeling. The Litany is to be said at some different place from the Morning Prayer: for, in the Commination it is ordered, that part shall be said by the Minister in the Reading Pew, or Pulpit, and the rest "in the place where they are accustomed to say the Litany." Since this recognises an accustomed place, the kneeling desk or fald-stool[4], placed "in front of the chancel door," or "in {157} the midst of the Church" (Injunctions of Edw. VI.), appears to be intended.

For the order to kneel to say the Litany, we must refer back to the rubric at the head of the Collects in Morning Prayer, where the words, all kneeling, were added in 1662 (see p. 130).

The place of the Faldstool may have been suggested by Joel ii. 17, Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar.

The Litany is a series of prayers addressed mainly to God the Son. It has two breaks, or interruptions, which consist of prayers addressed to God the Father. Thus there are five sections.

Section i. from the beginning, to O Christ, hear us.

Thirty petitions to Jesus under the title Good Lord, with invocation of Holy Trinity at the beginning, and urgent entreaty at the end.

Section ii. from Lord, have mercy upon us, to world without end. Amen.

Earnest appeal to the Father, with Lesser Litany as preface to the
Lord's Prayer.

Section iii. From our enemies, to O Lord Christ.

Section iv. O Lord, let thy mercy, to end of occasional prayers and thanksgivings.

Section v. The Prayer of S. Chrysostom, addressed to Christ, and the Benediction 2 Cor. xiii.

NOTES.

i. The Invocation of the Holy Trinity in the 1st Section is very full, and should be compared with the Invocation which is used in Section ii. as a preface to the Lord's Prayer.

The words, Good Lord, are spoken to Jesus: as we may easily infer from the words, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood; and from, By the mystery of thy holy Incarnation, By thine Agony and bloody Sweat &c. Son of God, O Lamb of God, O Christ.

ii. The Lesser Litany is to be repeated, verse by verse, by the congregation; copying, in this respect, the setting of the Invocation at the beginning of Section i. The beginning of the Section being thus marked, the end of it is marked by the Gloria Patri.

iii. We shall show that these eight verses are probably intended for Antiphonal singing.

iii. and iv. The Sarum Litany had here 10 couplets of versicles and seven collects. Of these seven collects we may mention, O God, whose nature and property &c., the Prayer for Clergy and People, and the 2nd Evening Collect, O God, from whom &c.

The substitution of the two sections, as they now stand, may be quoted as an example of the improvements which were effected in the Revision period.

iv. The 4th Section includes various prayers of the Amen form. The first of these may be known as the Collect of Complete Confidence. It is made up of two older prayers, and the couplet which precedes it expresses each of those two older prayers in a brief sentence. Thus the couplet anticipates the Collect. [See also p. 128.]

The other prayers of this Section usually have equivalents in the first Section. The repetition is made because of some urgency due to the circumstances of the time. Thus, we have prayed for the Clergy already, but in Ember Weeks we add, in the 4th Section, a Collect for the Candidates for Ordination. Or again, we have prayed for sick people, but at this point we may add a Collect for the time of any common Plague or Sickness. Similarly, we have prayed for the preservation of the fruits of the Earth, but may add a prayer here for Rain, or Fair weather, or for cheapness and plenty.

Section i. Our cry to Christ.

The distinguishing feature of the Litany is that it uses a worship-form which is not used elsewhere in the Prayer Book. The Minister dictates briefly the subject of the Prayer, which is then made by the voices of the People. These are called Suffrages (from suffragium, Latin for a vote in favour, or approbation). That part of the Litany which is made in this way is very full and detailed. Students should also notice the variety of its phrases, and the beauty of its rhythm.

The use of such a form is ancient, and the Revisers in 1549 had the substance ready to their hand. Comparing the older Litany with that which we use, we note that the Revisers have frequently combined several suffrages to make one suffrage, as in the following instance:

  By thine Agony and bloody By thy Passion and Cross:
  Sweat; by thy Cross and deliver us, O Lord.
  Passion; by thy precious Death By thy precious Death:
  and Burial; by thy glorious deliver us, O Lord.
  Resurrection and Ascension; By thy glorious Resurrection:
  and by the coming of the Holy deliver us, O Lord.
  Ghost: By thy marvellous Ascension:
                                     deliver us, O Lord.
  Good Lord, deliver us. By the grace of the Holy
                                     Spirit the Comforter: deliver
                                     us, O Lord.

Here five suffrages are grouped into one. In like manner four are grouped in the suffrage, From all evil and mischief &c.

The number of petitions was further reduced by the omission of all the prayers to the Saints, entreating them to pray for us. These were very numerous—28 fixed; and 40 more, which varied according to the week-day.

The petitions which were then introduced present two features which should be carefully studied—Duplication and Wreathing[5]. Duplication has been already explained (see p. 33), and is here of the Progressive sort. We give numerous instances below. Wreathing is when two phrases have two members each, and are united by taking the two first members together, and the two second members together.

by their preaching they may set forth, and by their living they may shew accordingly

{161} the Word of God. These, being wreathed together, become that by their preaching and living they may set it forth and shew it accordingly.

In such combinations it is necessary that the ideas shall be in harmony with one another. God's truth is set forth in sermons, and shewn in the preacher's life: with rather less exactness, but with sufficient truth, and with admirable suggestion, we may say that God's truth is set forth in the good life of a preacher, and shewn in his sermons.

One of the best instances of Wreathing is in the combination of the three phrases

succour all that are in danger, help all that are in necessity, comfort all that are in tribulation.

Danger, Necessity, and Tribulation are in progressive order of calamity. In danger, the calamity may be avoided—we want support for our own strength: in necessity, the blow has fallen—we want help at once from outside: in tribulation, the disaster has come—we want comfort.

If we have understood Progressive Duplication, we shall at once see that Wreathing is used in unison with it.

It is convenient to describe the 1st section of the Litany, as consisting of four subsections, viz. Invocations, Deprecations, Obsecrations, and Intercessions. The Invocations are said by the Minister, and repeated by the congregation. The prayers of the other sub-sections formerly were also said twice; but, since 1549, are said in two parts, the congregation making the respond which contains the prayer. This is done {162} not only for variety, but to assist the blind, or unlearned, in uniting their voices with the rest of the people. It is moreover an exercise of the privilege of approach to God, granted by our Lord (1 Pet. ii. 5; S. Matth. xviii. 19, 20), which is sometimes forgotten in thoughts of the ministry which He appointed.

The groups of sins and sufferings from which we desire to be delivered supply instances of progress, from that which is less, to that which is more, serious. Most of these are obvious, and call for no further remark.

2. Crafts and assaults: The crafty enemy is one who cannot, or dare not, attack openly. Hence assaults imply greater strength, or greater courage, than crafts.

3. Of personal defects, Blindness of heart may be due at first to causes for which we are not responsible. Pride is that which is too well satisfied with itself: Vain-glory is that which seeks admiration from others; Hypocrisy is that which seeks admiration on false pretences.

Envy is the desire to injure, and grows into Hatred, which has perhaps a vestige of candour that is absent from Malice.

3 and 4. Deadly sin. All sin is deadly unless it is forgiven by God; on the other hand "after we have {163} received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and by the grace of God we may arise again, and amend our lives," "the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such" (Article xvi.). It should be remembered that our Lord has taught us to interpret the Commandments inclusively, so that they comprise all duties, and all sins—envy, hatred, and malice, as well as murder, for instance. The old distinction between deadly sins and venial sins has in it only an element of truth. Those named deadly sins were Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Anger, Sloth. Of these Pride, Lust, and Envy are mentioned here, being notable amongst sins which war against the Soul. Two phrases here include all sins: "all deadly sin," and, "the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil." It is not easy to decide whether such a sin as Idleness falls under the head of Covetousness, or Sloth, or Pride; nor whether it is a deceit of the World, the Flesh, or the Devil. These classifications do, however, help in self-examination, and sometimes suggest helps in the battle against our sins.

5. Plague, Pestilence, and Famine form a group in which we see that Famine is the most serious, because it attacks the whole community. Plague is a disease which befalls us as a blow (plege); Pestilence is a disease which spreads from one to another. Science tends to enlarge the host of pestilences, and diminish the number of death-blows which cannot be explained. It is apparent that a disease which spreads through a community is more dreadful than one which singles out one person or many.

battle, murder, and sudden death, are blows which may fall upon us; it is not prayer that we may be delivered from being soldiers, and from the crime of murder.

6. sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion: sedition is the thought; conspiracy, the plan; and rebellion, the action—of a subject against the Government.

false doctrine, heresy and schism: false doctrine is the thought; heresy, the plan; and schism, the action—of a Churchman against the Church, and its Lord.

hardness of heart, is a disposition to disobey what we know to be the command of God. If not checked, it grows into actual contempt of His Word and Commandment.

Wealth is well-doing, or welfare. Prosperity and Adversity are both times of temptation.

12. faith, fear, and love, an ascending order of submission to God. affiance=trust.

11, 14. The names of the Sovereign, and of the Royal Family, vary in these petitions. A Prayer Book of 1682 has King Charles, Queen Catherine, and James Duke of York. In 1801, King George, Queen Charlotte, George Prince of Wales, and the Princess of Wales. In 1850, Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and Albert Prince of Wales. The date of a Prayer Book is sometimes omitted from a title page, but may be learnt from these petitions more accurately than from the Table of Moveable Feasts. It is, I believe, left to the Sovereign to say who is to be mentioned, and by what titles.

15. Bishops: successors of the Apostles as Overseers of the Churches (1 Tim. i. 3; 2 Tim. ii. 2; Tit. i. 5, ii. 15). The word epirkopos(= overseer) is contracted into Bishop in many languages, with slight differences, e.g. Old English, Dutch, German, Swedish, Cornish. In Spanish it becomes Obispo; in Italian, Vescovo; in French, Évêque.

Priests: successors of the Elders, or Presbyters, who ministered in congregations (Acts xx. 17). As the Bishop has the Oversight of many congregations with their Priests and Deacons, so the Priest {166} has the Oversight of one congregation, or Parish. In this sense he might be called Overseer, or Bishop, of that Parish, and S. Paul's use of this word in 1 Tim. iii. has suggested that, while the Apostles lived, the word Bishop was used as much in this sense as in the other. When the word Bishop was required for the Apostolic office, the word Priest remained for the second Order of the ministry. Priest is contracted from Presbyter, and appears with slight variations in many languages.

Deacons. The Seven appointed in Acts vi. are not there called deacons, but they are assumed to be the first who were appointed to that office, or order of the Ministry. In some ancient churches they retained the practice of having seven deacons.

The word means Minister, and has come from the Greek into many languages with slight variations. Like the word Bishop, it is used in the N.T. of other orders of the Ministry (S. Paul, 1 Cor. iii. 5; 2 Cor. iii. 6; Eph. iii. 7, &c.: Epaphras, Col. i. 7: Tychicus, Eph. vi. 21: Timothy, 1 Tim. iv. 6: Archippus, Col. iv. 17). Although in 1 Tim. iv. 6 the word is used of Timothy, who was receiving commandment as overseer of all the Clergy at Ephesus, we find in 1 Tim. iii. 8-10 that Deacons were already Church Ministers, with official duties (1 Tim. iii. 10)[6].

shew it accordingly: i.e. shew it in accordance with their preaching. The "teaching" and "living" must agree together.

16. The Council of the King of England had, from of old, the duty of making, or approving, the choice of the King, and advising him on matters of state, and of law. Many of its duties have been deputed to Committees, to Judges, and to Parliament. The Cabinet of Chief Ministers of State may be regarded as a Committee of the King's Council.

In the reign of Charles II., when the Prayer Book was last revised, the Council was still the body whose advice guided the King, although it was growing too large for the secrecy which is often necessary in such weighty matters. It is still a very great honour to be made a Privy Councillor, but the Privy Council very seldom, or never, meets for business except by its Committees, which are not chosen by the Council.

When therefore we use this petition, we may think rather of the members of the Cabinet than of those whom the King has honoured with the title of Privy Councillor. A petition for the House of Commons might with advantage be introduced into the Litany.

17. to execute justice, in the case which is being tried, is the first duty of a magistrate; to maintain truth is also his duty, for he must have regard to other cases which will come before the Court.

18. This concludes the petitions for our own nation. We now go on to things which affect all nations alike.

19. Unity, peace, and concord. The general meaning of these words is the same, but there may {168} be unity without peace, and peace without concord: therefore we pray for all the three; and concord is placed last as being the inward temper which gives reality to unity and peace.

20. Here the order is reversed—proceeding from love which is the highest kind of bond, to dread which should keep us from disobedience, and coming finally to the outward result viz. a diligent life of obedience to the commandments.

The life of obedience is here traced from hearing to receiving, and so, to the fruits of the Spirit (see Gal. V. 22-24).

22. Erred is when the fault is in ourselves only; deceived is when we give way to the evil guidance of others.

23. Those who stand need strength: those who are weak-hearted need comfort and help: those who fall, restoration.

25. Emigration has become more common since this petition was prepared: those who settle in foreign lands should here be remembered. Captives are war-prisoners.

26. We may mentally supply the thought of motherless children. Widows may be supposed to include widowers. Both sexes are described as widows in some parts of England. All kinds of bereavement are of course included in desolate and oppressed.

27. Just as 19 concluded a section of petitions {169} for our own nation, so 27 concludes a section about the people of all nations. 28 adds a petition which the Lord particularly enjoined (S. Matth. v. 44).

28. enemies, persecutors, and slanderers—in ascending order of malignity. Similarly in the Commandments, where the worst sin of each sort is the one mentioned, we find false witness, or slander, named, in the Commandment which forbids all falsehood.

and to turn their hearts—a nobler prayer even than asking God to forgive them: for when we have asked Him for their forgiveness, we may still long to overcome their hostility, rather than to see it withdrawn. As Christ's disciples we here desire to forego our triumph, and to rejoice over their conversion from evil.

29. Kindly fruits of the earth. 'Kindly' means 'natural'; from an Old English word 'cynd' or 'gecynd,' meaning nature, kind, manner, condition. (Cf. Gen. i. 11, 12, 21, 24, 25.)[7]

30. Although forgiveness is granted through the death of our Lord, repentance is that condition of our souls wherein the forgiveness cleanses them. Repentance is therefore asked for first, then Forgiveness, Grace, and Amendment.

Sins, negligences, and ignorances: cf. General Confession, 'left undone'=negligence; 'done'=sins; 'no health in us' supplying the other defects, which are here set down to ignorance. We are called to a holy life, and therefore faults due to ignorance need {170} amendment and pardon, as well as faults which come of conscious disobedience to God's commands.

At the close of these petitions, the cry becomes more urgent. Our Lord warned us against vain repetitions—repetitions without meaning. The repetitions here are not vain—they express deep feelings, and anxious entreaty.

Section ii. Our cry to the Father in Heaven.

belongs to the Prayer of the Contrite Heart, and is a summary of it. It is taken from Psalm ciii. 10. It offers no excuse but owns that we have sinned and are in wretched plight, as does the prayer which follows. This prayer was taken from the Sarum Missal, where it stands in a Mass for Tribulation of heart.

Ps. li. 17 supplies the thought of, that despisest not—the contrite heart, which is interwoven with, sorrowful sighing, from Psalm lxxix. 12.

We base our claim upon our forlorn condition, and appeal to God's mercy. Note the repetition merciful—mercifully—graciously—goodness. The temper of the prayer is of kin to Psalm lxix. which—especially in verses 13 to 21, and in its final thankfulness, as sure of God's help—may have inspired its words and thoughts.

Psalm xliv. 1st and last verses. Doubtless an abbreviation of the whole psalm, which stood at the beginning of the 3rd Rogation Litany.

If it be thought that the Gloria Patri occurs as a surprise in the midst of these entreaties, we may notice (1) that all entreaties are more real when they recognise truly the Majesty of God; and (2) that S. Augustine's processional Litany when he came to Canterbury (A.D. 596) concluded with Alleluia. "We beseech thee, O Lord, in all Thy mercy, that Thy wrath and Thine anger may be removed from this city and from Thy holy house, for we have sinned. Alleluia." (Taken from the 2nd Rogation Litany), (3) the Gloria Patri is always said after a Psalm in the Services, and sometimes after parts of a Psalm.

Section iii. Appeal for help.

The eight versicles which follow next are addressed to Christ, and in most editions of the Prayer Book are separated by a small space from the Verse and Respond,

These eight versicles were, even in 1544, distinguished from those two, although they were then all marked to be said responsorially. In 1549 the direction for responsorial use was omitted for the eight verses, and retained for the couplet which anticipates the next collect. We may infer from this that it is intended that the eight verses should be said, or sung, antiphonally. In the Sarum Use (3rd Litany for S. Mark's Day), they were all to be said, first by the Minister, and repeated by the People.

The eight versicles form a section by themselves, and have a different setting from the sections which {172} precede and follow them. It was, no doubt, intended to make this 3rd Section a very solemn appeal to Christ, for help in all those difficulties and anxieties which have been recited in Section i.; and to make this appeal more earnest, because of the evil plight which is acknowledged in Section ii.

The phrases are freely translated from the Latin of the Sarum Use, suggested by a thorough knowledge of the Psalms, but not, we believe, to be regarded as quotations therefrom. O Son of David was substituted for Fili Dei vivi, in making the translation. There is not sufficient ground for supposing that it was done by accident. In the appeal for a merciful hearing, it is right to ground it first upon His Human Nature as Son of Man, and then upon His Divine Nature as Christ, and Lord.

Section iv. The pressing anxieties of the moment.

The Collect of Complete Confidence, with its Verse and Respond, is placed here to strike the keynote of the Section: and the Section is filled up from the Occasional Prayers, or from the Collects after the Communion Service.

This is obviously the place where other prayers may be introduced, when urgent needs require them.

The Verse and Respond: Psalm xxxiii. 22. The first half of the Collect was formerly a complete prayer, separated from the other half, in the Litany of 1544, by O God whose nature, &c., the prayer for {173} Clergy and People, and another prayer. The Verse contains the thought of the first half, the Respond has the thought of the second half.

Since the special prayers which are used in this Section are only occasional, and rarely more than one or two at a time, they were all placed (1662) in a chapter by themselves, after the end of the Litany.

Section v. The final commendation of our prayers to Christ, who makes them acceptable: See Morning and Evening Prayer.

[2] This date is variously stated. Hotham in Dict. Chr. Ant. vol. 11. says 477; Scudamore in the same vol. 452; Hooker 'about 450'; Burbidge 450; Maclear (S.P.C.K.) and Prayer Book Interleaved 460; Proctor 'about 460'; Daniel, J. H. Blunt, and Barry 467. The dates known of Mamertus are between 463 and 474. (Professor Collins tells me no others are known.)

[3] In some Churches this day was the Festival of Augustine, Bp of Hippo. The Calendar of Le Bec, however, sets it down to our Augustine, as our own Calendar does. I do not know whether this agreement between them was after, or before, that famous Abbey sent us Lanfranc and Anselm to be successors of Augustine at Canterbury.

[4] Fald-stool. Faudestola (whence French, fauteuil) is said by Martene to be adopted into Latin; and by Brachet is traced to a German origin, Falt-stuol. The idea of these derivations is, that the Prie-dieu, or kneeling-desk, was able to fold up and be made, perhaps, a chair. But the connection with Rogations suggests (A.S.) Feald-stól, or Feld-stól (German Feld-stuhl), i.e. a moveable seat (cf. camp-stool).

[6] The settlement of words of general meaning, into titles of office, is frequent enough to supply ample illustration of the process briefly indicated above. Pastor, General, Major, Mayor, and many other words, including Rector, Vicar, Curate, may be traced through changes which are often singularly similar to those of Bishop, Priest, and Deacon. It is a natural process—so natural as to be almost invariable.

[7] The Greek Translation of our Prayer Book has oraious, timely or seasonable: the German has "lieben," dear, beloved, or kindly in the other sense, which, though as old as Chaucer's time, is not the meaning here.

APPENDIX C.

The Preface to the Prayer Book Concerning the Service of the Church states that, prior to 1549, the old order, for reading the greatest part of the Bible through every year, had been "so altered, broken, and neglected, that commonly when any book of the Bible was begun, after three or four chapters were read out, all the rest were unread."

There was a First Lesson from the Old Testament, a Second Lesson from a
Commentary, and a Third Lesson from the New Testament.

On certain days, each Lesson consisted of three parts; and the second and third parts of the Third Lesson were from a Commentary.

The occurrence of Saints' Days was so frequent as to disturb many of these: for the special Lessons of a Saint's Day were read, instead of those of the regular course.

The theory of reading the whole books had been maintained; but it broke down in practice.

It is worthy of notice that these various Lessons, from the Bible, from Commentaries, and from the acts and martyrdoms of Saints, were all "set" with Verses, Responds etc. so as to be Acts of Worship, as well as a means of Instruction.

APPENDIX D.

[Pliny the younger was Governor of Pontus and Bithynia during some of the early years of the 2nd century. Trajan was Emperor from A.D. 98 to 117. The letter, from which we give some extracts, has been dated (Bp Lightfoot) A.D. 112. It shows that the marvellous spreading of the Faith took place in the face of laws which made it a crime to be a Christian: and that the closest enquiry on Pliny's part made him aware of their high moral standard, and of the stedfastness of their devotion.]

"* * * The method I have observed towards those who have been brought before me as Christians is this; I interrogated them whether they were Christians; {175} if they confessed, I repeated the question twice, adding threats at the same time; and if they still persevered, I ordered them to be immediately punished. For, I was persuaded, whatever the nature of their opinions might be, a contumacious and inflexible obstinacy certainly deserves correction. * * * An information was presented to me without any name subscribed, containing a charge against several persons; these, upon examination, denied they were, or ever had been, Christians. They repeated after me an invocation to the gods, and offered religious rites with wine and frankincense before your statue * * * and even reviled the name of Christ; whereas there is no forcing, it is said, those who are really Christians, into any of these compliances. * * * The rest owned indeed they had been of that number formerly, but had now (some above three, others more, and a few above twenty years ago) renounced that error. * * * They affirmed the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that they met on a certain stated day before it was light, and addressed themselves in a form of prayer to Christ, as to some god, binding themselves by a solemn oath, not for the purposes of any wicked design, but never to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery; never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up: after which, it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to eat in common a harmless meal. * * * Great numbers must be involved in the danger of these prosecutions which have already extended and are still likely to extend, to persons of all ranks and ages, and even of both sexes. In fact, this contagious superstition is not confined to the cities only, but has spread its infection among the neighbouring villages and country. * * *"

APPENDIX E.

The Nicene Creed (325) had the words "Proceeding from the Father": the Council of Ephesus (431[1]) decreed that no addition was to be made to the Creed, as there settled. When, however, the question was raised whether we ought not to say "proceeding from the Father, and the Son (Filioque)," various Scripture phrases were adduced in support of it: such as, the Spirit of Christ (Rom. viii. 9), the Spirit of His Son (Gal. iv. 6), the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. i. 19), the Spirit of Christ (1 Pet. i. 11). Also S. John xv. 26, xvi. 7, xx. 32, and the general similarity of expressions which, speaking of the Holy Spirit, refer to the Father, and to the Son.

The Eastern Churches were opposed to the addition of the words, "and from the Son." The Western Churches were, mainly, in favour of it. The controversy lasted from the 5th to the 11th century, and resulted in the schism which still separates the Eastern and Western Churches.

It is usually agreed that the difference is not one of doctrine. The Easterns prefer the phrase "receiving from the Son": the Westerns prefer to assert afresh the equality of the Father and the Son, by using the phrase, "proceeding from the Father and the Son." It may be {177} doubted whether the words should have been added without the assent of a General Council. But there is no denial of the equality of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in the Eastern, nor in the Western, Churches.

[1] On p. 124, we have accidentally written 'Chalcedon' for 'Ephesus': and vice versâ. The dates are correctly given on pp. 122, 123.

APPENDIX F.

lite means a prayer; whence (litanos) one who prays; litaneuo to be a person who prays; litaneia a continued prayer. Thus Litany has the meaning of "prolonged prayers."

In the (Greek) Liturgy of S. James, there are three Bidding Prayers (besides the "Diptychs"), which have something of the Litany Form. The following suffrages are selected from the one to which we have referred:

The Deacon. O God, by thy love grant us safety, mercy, compassion, and protection. The Laity. Lord, have mercy.

The Deacon. For the peace that is from above, for the love of God towards man, and for the safety of our souls, let us beseech the Lord. The Laity (after each suffrage). Lord, have mercy.

The Deacon. For the peace of the whole world, and the unity of all the holy churches of God, let us &c.

For those who bear fruit and do good in the holy churches of God, those who remember the poor, the widows, and fatherless, strangers and needy persons, and for those who have bidden us to remember them in our prayers, let us &c.

For those who are in old age and weakness, by disease or illness, for those who are oppressed by unclean spirits, for their speedy recovery and safety through God's help, let us &c.

For those who pass their lives in singleness, devotion, or meditation, for those in holy matrimony, those engaged in life's battle in mountains, and caves, and pits of the earth, our holy fathers and brothers, let us &c.

For Christian sailors, travellers, strangers, and those in captivity, in exile, those in prisons, and bitter slavery, being our brethren, for their return in peace, let us &c.

For the remission of our sins, and pardon of our faults, and for our deliverance from all tribulation, anger, danger, and necessity, and from the rising-up of enemies, let us &c.

For a mild season, gentle rains, and kindly dews, for plenteous crops, and a perfect year crowned (with His goodness), let us &c.

For those who are present and pray with us at this sacred hour and at any time, our fathers and brothers, for their earnestness, toil, and readiness of heart, let us beseech the Lord.

That our prayer may be heard, and may be acceptable before God; and that his mercies and compassions may be poured abundantly upon us, let us beseech the Lord."

DATES.

The principal dates which are of use in reading this book fall into four groups:

1. The Early Church. 2. The Discussion of the Creed. 3. The Growth of Services. 4. The Growth of the English Services.

There is of course a certain amount of overlapping: but this will be readily understood. The reader will also easily guess when the years mentioned are those of a life, or those of a reign.

A.D. A.D.

  Fourth century. Athanasius, Bp, Nicaea, 325. ) Nicene
                       (300)-371. ) Creed
                                                         )
                       Basil, Bp, )
                       329-379 )
                                                         )
  Apollinarians. Ambrose, Bp, Constantinople, )
                       340-397. 381. )

DATES CONNECTED WITH THE

A.D.

      112. Pliny's Letter.
      140. Justin Martyr's 1st Apology.
  340-397. Ambrose, Bp of Milan.
  347-407. Chrysostom, Bp of Constantinople.
  Before 400. Clementine Liturgy.
  463-474. Mamertus, Bp of Vienne. Litanies.
  590-604. Gregory, Bp of Rome. Litany: Sacramentary.
           Sacramentaries of 7th century, &c., representing
           work of
             440-461. Leo, Bp of Rome.
             492-496. Gelasius, Bp of Rome.
             590-604. Gregory, Bp of Rome.

742-814. Charlemagne. Abolition of Gallican Liturgy. 747. Great Council of Cloveshoo.

DATES CONNECTED WITH THE

  200. Christianity already established in Britain. (Tertullian.)
  314. Council at Arles in France. Three British Bishops signed.
  596-605. Augustine, Archbishop of Canterbury.
  664. Council of Whitby.
  747. The great Council of Cloveshoo.

1215. Magna Charta. 1279. Statute of Mortmain. 1351. Statute of Provisors. 1352. Statute of Praemunire.

INDEX.

  Absolution, 29, 31, 35
  Alcuin, 140
  Alexandrine MS., 65, 69
  Ambrose, Bp of Milan, 42, 43, 57 n., 63, 65, 78
  Amen, 18, 20, 23, 37, 127-8, 159
  Anthem, 20, 22, 28, 128, 142, 146-152
  Antiphon, 9, 10, 19, 60, 132, 133, 134, 146
  Antiphonal, 3, 40, 128, 157, 158
  Antiphonary, 128, 134, 135, 148
  Apocrypha, 51, 56
  Apollinarian, 124
  Arian and Arius, 110, 120, 122
  Athanasian, see Creed
  Athanasius, 124
  Augustine, Archbp of Canterbury, 155, 171
  Augustine, Bp of Hippo, 65, 78, 94, 124, 155
  Authorised, see Bible

  Basil, Bp of Caesarea, 29 n., 70, 144
  Benedicite, 11, 63, 77, 78-81, 88
  Benedictus, 62, 63, 83-6
  Bible, 47-57, 182
    — Authorised V., 40, 41
    — Bishops', 11, 41
    — Great, 41
    — Revised V., 182
    — Wyclif, 13
  Breviary, 59, 132, 134
  Bright, 135, 139, 140

  Calendar, 57
  Cambridge Companion, 47
  Canon, 57
  Cantate, 63, 77, 81
  Canticles, 4, 9, 37, 39, 41, 57, 59, 61, 88
  Capitulum, 61, 62
  Cartwright, 20, 22
  Catholic Church, 105, 107, 112, 120, 121-2
  Catholic Religion, 101, 125
  Chalcedon Council, 97, 122, 124
  Chant, 39
  Charlemagne, 124, 140
  Chaucer, 148
  Choral Singing, 3
  Christian Verity, 101, 125
  Chrysostom, Bp of Constantinople, 54 n., 143, 144, 153, 158
  Clementine Liturgy, 144
  Cloveshoo, 155
  Collecta, Collectio, 139, 140
  Collects, 9, 10, 28, 127-142
  Combination of Services, 9-10
  Communion, Holy, 5, 10, 58, 59, 131
  Communion of Saints, 112
  Compline, 7, 43, 60, 63
  Confession, 10, 24, 28, 30-32, 35
  Consubstantial, 126
  Continuous Singing, 3
  Controversy, 118-123
  Corinth, 18
  Cosin, Bp of Durham, 61, 117 n.
  Creeds, 89-94
  Creed, Apostles', 28, 39, 91-8, 104-114, 116, 118
  Creed, Athanasian, 92, 99, 101, 115-126
  Creed, Nicene, 92, 94, 110, 114, 116, 118, 126
  Cyprian, Bp of Carthage, 66, 72

  Daily Service, 25, 26
  Day Hours, 6, 8, 9, 10, 60, 61, 63-4, 132, 173
  Deus Misereatur, 63, 83, 88
  Direct Singing, 3
  Docetae, 110, 121
  Doxology, 24, 27, 37, 53, 70, 131
  Doxology in Te Deum, 74
  Duplication, 33, 34, 35, 160, 161, 162-4

  Ebionite, 119
  Edward VI., 26, 27, 41, 134
  Ember Prayers, 144
    — Week, 159
  Ephesus Council, 18
  Eusebius, 95
  Eutyches, Eutychian, 122, 123
  Evangelistarium, see Lectionaries
  Evensong, 10, 42, 141, 142, and see Mattins
  Excursus, 113
  Exhortation, 29, 30, 34
  Extempore worship, 1, 2, 17

  Gallican Church, 61
  Gelasian Sacramentary, 137, 141, 143, 144
  Gelasius, 136
  Gloria Patri, 4, 10, 11, 28, 37, 39, 40, 74, 114, 116-7,
    129, 149, 158, 172
  Gnostic, 121
  Gradual, 135
  Great Bible, see Bible
  Gregory the Great, 135, 155

  Hampton Court Conference, 40
  Haphtarah, 53
  Harvey Goodwin, 92, 116
  Hebrew, 18
  Henry VIII., 41
  Hilary of Arles, 78, 124
    — Poictiers, 78
  Homilies, 155
  Honorius, 122
  Hook, 57
  Hooker, 20, 22
  Hours of Prayer, 5-6
  Hymns, 9, 39, 44, 60-2, 66, 69, 76, 77
  Hymn, Greek, 71

  Intention, 15, 17, 24, 44
  Intercessions, 161, 165-9
  Interjectional, 20, 21, 23, 127, 128
  Introductory, 29, 32
  Invitatory, 40
  Invocations, 161
  Irenaeus, 95, 96, 97, 98, 154

  Jerome, S., 42, 51, 54
  Jew, 119, 121
  Jewish Influence, 18
    — Lectionary, 53
  Jubilate, 63, 83, 87, 88
  Justification, 117
  Justin Martyr, 3, 54, 58, 59

  Latin Services, 25
  Lauds, 6, 7, 9, 43, 44, 60, 61, 62, 63, 87, 132
  Lectern, 57
  Lectionaries, 51-7, 135
  Legenda, 134
  Leo the Great, 136
  Lessons, 9, 10, 18, 24, 28, 39, 41, 47-57, 76, 77, 82,
    83, Appendix C, 173
  Litany, 20, 23, 35, 153-173
    — Lesser, 9, 11, 131, 157
  Liturgy, 10, 40, 41
    — of S. James, 153
  Lord's Prayer, 9, 11, 12-17, 28, 37, 38, 131

  Macedonius, Bp of Constantinople, 120
  Magnificat, 63, 77, 78, 146-150
  Mamertus, Bp of Vienne, 154
  Manichaean, 121
  Manual, 134
  Manuscripts, 32
  Map of Lessons, 64
  Mattin-Lauds, 6, 7, 60, 62, 63
  Mattins, 6, 7, 10, 42, 43, 141
  Missal, 135
  Monothelites, Monophysites, 122, 124
  Morning Service, 8, 24, 25

  Names and Titles, 10
  Nero, 106, 107
  Nestorian, 122, 123, 124
  New Testament, 49
  Nicene, see Creed
  Nocturn, 42
  None, 7, 43
  Nunc Dimittis, 63, 83, 86, 87

  Obsecrations, 161, 164
  Occasional Prayers and Thanksgivings, 131, 144, 145, 158-9
  Office Hymns, 61
  Old Testament, 48, 62
  Ordinary, 7, 44
  Original Sin, 102
  Ornaments, 26, 57
  O Sapientia, 146

  Parascha, 53
  Pater Noster, 11
  Paul, S., 18
  Petitions, 14
  Pie, 33
  Pliny, 107, Appendix D, 174-5
  Polycarp, 154
  Portiforium, 134
  Pothinus, 154
  Praise Terminations, 8-14, 30, 37, 47, 58, 63, 78
  Prayers, 24, 112-144
  Preceded Form, 21, 23
  Preces, 21, 28, 128, 129, 130, 132-134
  Predestination, 102
  Preface, 33, 40-1, 43, 44, 119, 140, 165
  Prime, 7, 43, 117 n.
  Proper Lessons, 55
  Prophets, 29, 49
  Psalms, 18, 24, 28, 37-46, 100, 117 n., 132
  Psalms, method of singing, 3, 4
  Psalter, 41, 134

  Reading, 30
  Responds, 10, 39
  Responsorial, 3, 20
  Resurrection, 113, 114
  Revelation, 90, 100, 104
  Revision and Revisers, 26, 32, 33, 41, 129, 132, 134, 158, 159
  Rogation Days, 154-6
    — Litanies, 155, 172
  Rubrics, 4, 25, 32, 57, 129, 130, 131

  Sabellian, 119
  Sacramental, 112
  Sacramentary, 135-7
  Sanctification, 103
  Sarum Breviary, 33, 132, 133
    — Litany, 158
  Sarum Missal, 170
    — Use, 33, 43, 88, 171, 172
  Scripture, Holy, 10
  Seats, 57
  Self-examination, 93, 94
  Semi-Arian, 120
  Sentences, 29
  Septuagint, 43, 132
  Services, 42
  Setting, 15, 16, 17 n., 24, 147, 150
  Sext, 7, 43

  Socrates, 102, 103, 104, 105
  Special Psalms, 44
  Stanzas of Te Deum, 66-9
  Substance, 126
  Suetonius, 106
  Suffrage, 159, etc.
  Surplice, 26
  Symbolum, 93
  Synagogue Services, 18, 51, 54

Table of Worship Forms, 20 Tacitus, 106-7 Te Deum, 4, 63, 65-75, 76, 78, 83 Temple, 18 Terce, 7, 43 Tertullian, 95 Testament, O. and N., 62 Thanksgivings, 10, 14, 15, 28, 30, 144, 145 Theodosius, 42 Tiberius, 107 Translation, 41 Translators, 10, 173 Travers, Walter, 20

  Variations, 1-4
  Variety, 3
  Venite, 11, 40, 146, 147, 149
  Verity, Christian, 101, 125
  Verse and Respond, 127, 132-4, 146, 148, 172
  Versicles, 9, 10, 39
  Vespers, 6, 7, 42, 43, 60, 63, 132
  Vulgate, 43, 132

  Witness of Bible, 104, 105, 107-114
  Worship, 13, 18
    — Forms, 20, 11, 24, 127
  Wreathing, 160-1

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