The Prayer Book Explained Part 6

( _death_ ... ... ... . Life is something more than ( _turn and live_ ... ... the absence of death.

( _power_ . . The Priest . . may p.r.o.nounce.

( _commandment_ . . must "

( _Absolution_ ... ... . . unloosing.

( _Remission_ ... ... . . putting away.

( _pardoneth_ ... ... . . (Fr. _pardonner_) G.o.d forgiveth.

( _absolveth_ ... ... . . (Lat. _absolvo_) G.o.d looseth the sinner.

( _repent_ ... ... ... . looking at Self.

( _believe_ ... ... ... " " G.o.d.

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( _pure_ ... ... ... . . absence of evil.

( _holy_ ... ... ... . . presence of good.

( _repentance_ ... . . that our present lives may ( please G.o.d.

( _G.o.d'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 G.o.d with much sorrow and concern and tears, every man p.r.o.nouncing his own confession with his own mouth."

So Ezra (ix. 5, 6, &c.) and Daniel (ix. 1-19) approached G.o.d with Confession.

[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 t.i.tle of the Sarum Breviary makes Pie equivalent to Breviary or Portiforium. The most attractive derivation is that which a.s.sociates it with the Greek word for a chart or map.

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CHAPTER V.

PRAISE.

I. The Psalms.

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 G.o.d's Being and Work except the will to recite them devoutly, its praise-termination is _Amen_.

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The first Lord's Prayer.

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, G.o.d is Love.

Which art in heaven, G.o.d is a spirit.

Hallowed be Thy Name, G.o.d's Holiness.

Thy Kingdom come, G.o.d's Power.

Thy Will be done, G.o.d's Perfectness.

In earth as it is in heaven, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord G.o.d Almighty.

Give us this day our daily Every good gift is from bread, above.

Forgive us our trespa.s.ses, 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 Ladder of Praise.

The various parts of the Praise portion of the Service are not repet.i.tions of the same ideas. We {39} have first, in the Psalms, the simpler thoughts about G.o.d. 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 G.o.d 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.

Versicles and Psalms.

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.

Ps. lxx. 1 supplies the second couplet.

The _Gloria Patri_ follows these Psalm verses.

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.