The Prayer Book Explained Part 1

The Prayer Book Explained.

by Percival Jackson.

PREFACE.

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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d through Christ weakens, I must go to Him, speak with Him, seek a return of the old confidence and love.

In the belief that G.o.d 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.

May 1901.

CHAPTER I.

EXTEMPORE WORSHIP AND FORMS OF WORSHIP.

There is no such special merit in monotony as to require that the worship of G.o.d 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.

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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 circ.u.mstances.

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 a.s.sume 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.].

(_b_) Variety in Singing. There were of old four methods of singing the Psalms:

1. Direct or Choral. 2. Antiphonal. 3. Responsorial. 4. Continuous.

1. The _Direct_ or Choral Singing was done by the whole choir:

2. The _Antiphonal_ by the two halves of the choir alternately:

3. The _Responsorial_ by the Priest and choir alternately:

4. The _Continuous_ by the Priest alone.

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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.

(_c_) Variations in the Component Parts of Services.

1. Praise and Prayer.

2. Variations; from Service to Service, " Day to Day, " Week to Week, " Morning to Evening, " Season to Season.

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CHAPTER II.

ORIGIN OF MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.

The Services in the Prayer Book may be roughly cla.s.sed as (1) those which are used every week: and (2) those which are used more rarely.

The princ.i.p.al 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_.

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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 a.s.sembling 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).