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 BY 
 
 Rt. Rev. A. Cleveland Coxe, D.D..LL.D. 
 
 Bishop of Western New York 
 
 Rt. Rev. George F. Seymour, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 Bishop of Springfield 
 
 Rt. Rev. William Stevens Perry, D.D., LL.D., D.C.L. 
 
 Bishop of Iowa 
 and 
 
 Rt. Rev. William Croswell Doane, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 Bishop of Albany 
 
 TOif0 cm ppenbtjr 
 
 on Change* 3ncoqporafeo info t &e (prater (goo* 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Rev. Samuel Hart, D.D. 
 
 (goifeb imtfy cm 3nfroburfion 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Rev. C. Ellis Stevens, LL.D., D.C.L. 
 
 New York 
 
 JAMES POTT & CO., PUBLISHERS 
 
 "893 
 
 , - * , 
 
313 
 
 Copyright, 1892, 
 By C. ELLTS STEVENS. 
 
 Press of J. J. Little & Co. 
 Astor Place, New York 
 
TO 
 
 3o$tt TOttfiamB, <.<., g.<., 
 
 WHO AS 
 
 PRIMATE OF THE CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 AND AS A LEADER IN THE 
 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF A 
 
 STANDARD PRAYER BOOK, 
 
 HAS PROVED HIMSELF SO WORTHY A 
 
 SUCCESSOR OF THE VENERATED 
 
 TniS VOLUME 
 
 WHICn GOES FORTH FROM THE HISTORIC FANE 
 
 WHERE THE AMERICAN PRAYER BOOK 
 
 WAS FIRST ADOPTED AND WHERE 
 
 RESTS THE SACRED DUST 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FATHER OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH 
 
 18 
 
 AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 
 
 Mi8i980 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Primitive Liturgies. 
 
 By the Rt. Rev. A. Cleveland Coxe, D.D., LL.D., 
 Bishop of Western New York. 
 
 The Reformation Prayer Books. 
 
 By the Rt. Rev. Geoege P. Seymour, D.D., LL.D., 
 Bishop of Springfield. 
 
 Early American Prayer Books. 
 
 By the Rt. Rev. William Stevens Perry, D.D., 
 LL.D., D.C.L., Bishop of Iowa, and Historiographer 
 of the Church. 
 
 The Prayer Book Enriched. 
 
 By the Rt. Rev. William Croswell Doane, D.D., 
 LL.D., Bishop of Albany, and Chairman of the Joint 
 Committee of the General Convention on Liturgical 
 Revision. 
 
 Changes Incorporated Into the Standard 
 Prayer Book of 1 892. 
 
 By the Rev. Samuel Hart, D.D., Professor in Trin- 
 ity College, Hartford, Custodian of the Standard 
 Prayer Book, Secretary of the House of Bishops, 
 Secretary of the Joint Committee of the General 
 Convention on Liturgical Revision, etc. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The American Book of Common Prayer is 
 historically associated with one sacred spot. The 
 venerable fane of Christ Church, Philadelphia, 
 is, in a special sense, its birthplace. And on 
 that spot the American Church itself as an in- 
 dependent national body owing no allegiance, 
 save of love, to the Mother Church of England 
 came into organic being. 
 
 It was there that the first effort toward litur- 
 gical revision was made, at the first of the Gene- 
 ral Conventions of the Church a Convention 
 presided over by the then rector, William White. 
 Dr. White had been a moving spirit in the 
 measures leading up to this memorable council, 
 and himself had formulated the principles on 
 which the Church sought and attained organ- 
 ism. He and Dr. William Smith also inti- 
 mately associated with Christ Church were 
 chief promoters of the work of revision ; and 
 after the Convention they were left to complete 
 and issue the " Proposed Book." 
 
 It was on that spot that the second General 
 Convention met. in 1786, and the third in 1789. 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The last, which opened its sessions under the 
 presidency of Bishop White, and later organized 
 into a House of Bishops and a House of 
 Deputies, 1 completed the Constitution of the 
 Church, and formally set forth the American 
 Prayer Book. At that altar the Holy Eucha- 
 rist was celebrated by Dr. Smith, according to 
 the form in the first Book of Edward VI., as 
 adapted in the Scottish Use the adoption of 
 our present Communion Office immediately 
 following the celebration. Before the same altar 
 now rests the sacred dust of the Patriarch of the 
 American Church. 
 
 It was there in 1883, that the opening ses- 
 sion was held of that General Convention which 
 began the work of the new liturgical revision 
 and enrichment, now ended by the adoption of 
 the Standard Prayer Book of 1892. And as the 
 beginning of this latest revision was marked by 
 services in the ancient church, so the completion 
 of the revision was also marked. For during 
 October, 1892, while the General Convention 
 was in session in Baltimore putting final 
 touches to the new Prayer Book, Bishops of the 
 Church, held in reputation for liturgical scholar- 
 
 1 The Secretary of the House of Deputies the cele- 
 brated Francis Hopkinson, a vestryman of Christ Church 
 had been Secretary of Continental Congress. 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 ship and counting among them those officially 
 connected with the revision work, went from 
 the Convention, Sunday after Sunday, to Christ 
 Church, Philadelphia, and delivered an histori- 
 cal course of sermons intended to go forth in 
 published form, as, in some sort, a popular in- 
 troduction to the new Book. 1 
 
 Reference to such facts as these facts suffi- 
 ciently familiar to most Churchmen may not 
 be altogether amiss, as furnishing an explana- 
 tion of the present volume, and adding point 
 to its pages. Rather naturally, the course of 
 sermons was retrospective. For scarcely a more 
 fitting introduction of the new Prayer Book 
 could be given, than that supplied by a study 
 of origins. And the treatment of the theme 
 thus selected has not been limited to American, 
 or even English sources, but widens into the 
 liturgic past of the Christian Ages, and stretches 
 on and back, even to the day of Apostles and 
 Prophets. 
 
 The volume now given to the public is not 
 merely one of published preaching, but has 
 been carefully adapted for general readers so 
 
 1 In this course, Bishop Doane, of Albany, as chair- 
 man of the committee on revision, gave the first general 
 public announcement of the results of the liturgic action 
 of the Convention. 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 that it goes freshly forth. From the olden 
 sanctuary living forces reach out into the time, 
 from memories of events that live in the life 
 of the American Church forever. 
 
 There has been hope that widely differing 
 minds might find these pages that follow, help- 
 ful. Not merely among ourselves who claim 
 the Prayer Book, but among other many is the 
 Prayer Book loved. And there are those of 
 every Christian name, who, in this, are one 
 with us at heart, and more and more becoming 
 so in practice. Nor is such fact wholly strange. 
 For all who count themselves of English blood, 
 have in that blood a bond to bind them to the 
 Prayer Book used by all their English fore- 
 fathers before the days of sad division. Oth- 
 ers in our land, who, though not of English 
 blood, yet speak the old English tongue, have 
 common heritage in sacred forms which mark 
 its holiest utterance. And as the forms them- 
 selves are not merely English, but of the saintly 
 past of the Church of all the saints, surely 
 there is hope here for possible unities of the 
 future, for which God may be even now pre- 
 paring. In these days, at any rate, a widening 
 interest is felt, and very keenly felt, in what- 
 soever has to do with liturgic worship, and 
 with the Book of Common Prayer. And no 
 word that one may honestly speak, even though 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 with an earnestness running counter to anoth- 
 er's convictions, will go unheeded. The Prayer 
 Book of the Anglo-Saxon race is not for naught. 
 
 C. Ellis Stevens. 
 
 del phi 
 Advent, 1892. 
 
 Christ Church, Philadelphia, ) 
 
PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 
 
PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 
 
 The old Prayer Book of our fathers now 
 appears in a new edition. After a hundred 
 years of loving usage by them and their chil- 
 dren, and of steady gain on the affections of the 
 American people, it has been subjected to revi- 
 sion, and has been made not a new book, but, 
 on the contrary an older book than we have 
 had before. The only important changes are 
 restorations. We receive, anew, some precious 
 features of ancient worship, which were omitted 
 by our early revisers for reasons serious in their 
 day but long since obsolete. The Church de- 
 mands again, what was then reluctantly sacri- 
 ficed to external objections that exist no more. 
 
 Even where they were, perhaps, mistaken, I 
 reverence the revisers of 1792. Think what 
 difficulties they encountered, in days which 
 tried their spirits. The whole country was 
 impoverished. Travelling was so expensive, 
 and so tedious, as to forbid frequent gatherings 
 for conference. Even correspondence was sub- 
 ject to a heavy tax and to long delays in transit 
 to and fro especially the needful correspond- 
 
4 PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 
 
 ence with the Bishops of the Mother Church, 
 and with the learned in Oxford and Cambridge. 
 Libraries were scantily supplied, and liturgical 
 works of merit were very rare, and could only be 
 imported at great cost. All things considered, 
 I must regard the result of their labours with 
 astonishment, and as evidence that the Holy 
 Spirit was with them, and answered their 
 prayers. 
 
 When it was resolved to submit their work to 
 a fresh revision, fears were entertained, even 
 by supporters of this movement, lest the en- 
 deared devotions of our childhood should be 
 superseded by something new and strange. But, 
 after all that has been said and done ; after the 
 suggestions and discussions of long years and of 
 many local and some general councils what a 
 eulogy upon the past is the outcome. Very 
 little has been altered, after all. With the 
 more important changes we are already famil- 
 iarized by authorized use. Our services will go 
 on, with no shock upon our sense of continuity 
 and identity. Even the "flexibility" that has 
 been conceded, under the pressure of mission- 
 ary experience and because of services greatly 
 multiplied, is not designed to change the order 
 of the Morning and Evening Prayer, except 
 where it is necessary or entirely acceptable to 
 the people. It is limited by discretion, not 
 
PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 5 
 
 abandoned to caprice: and in all cases, is sub- 
 ject to the godly judgment and counsels of the 
 Ordinary. 1 
 
 1 The following extract is from the sermon as origi- 
 nally delivered in Christ Church, Philadelphia: "It 
 was a happy thought of your rector to institute a 
 i\ uir.se of lectures introductory to the new Prayer Book. 
 He wisely judged, that, here and now, such a course 
 might, for obvious reasons, bo made serviceable to the 
 whole Church. Now because a period of liturgic 
 study and of the practical adoption of our Cook by the 
 most devout and intelligent Christians of our country 
 is recognized as near. And here because with these 
 hallowed walls of Christ Church, Philadelphia, the his- 
 tory of the Prayer Book is identified. Here we are 
 worshipping, to-day, close by the reverend relics of 
 your illustrious rector, the apostolic White; with whose 
 life and labours, every page of the Prayer Book is so 
 intimately associated. As one of the few survivors who 
 remember his person and his ministrations, I deeply 
 feel the privilege of standing in this pulpit, where, for 
 more than half a century, he proclaimed the blessed 
 Gospel so faithfully and so well. And may I venture 
 to say, that this same pulpit is tenderly endeared to me t 
 by the reflection that here, in old Colonial days, has 
 stood an ancestor of my own, whose bones repose in 
 your own cemetery. He died the missionary rector of 
 New Castle, Delaware; in some degree a martyr to his 
 zeal for the Prayer Book, and one of the founders of 
 our national Church. 
 
 "Yes, this is the sacred spot where the revised 
 edition of this memorable year may be appropriately 
 introduced to the nation. For here, the Father of his 
 
6 PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 
 
 The grateful task assigned to me, is introduc- 
 tory to what will follow from able bishops in 
 the course of this book. It is my duty to speak 
 of the primitive liturgies of the Christian 
 Church, out of which the Prayer Book is com- 
 piled. In the first place, let me direct your 
 attention to a Scriptural view of the genesis of 
 liturgic worship ; and so prepare you, in the 
 second place, for what I must say of early 
 Christian worship, and of those treasures of 
 ages which it has bequeathed to us, in the Book 
 of Common Prayer. 
 
 I. For the elements of our liturgical system, 
 we must go back to the earliest years of human 
 history. We are told that by the faith and sac- 
 rifice of Abel, " he, being dead, yet speaketh." 
 Of what does he speak ? Of nothing less than 
 the Creed of all the faithful of the Atoning 
 Sacrifice of the Lamb of God, to which all the 
 typical sacrifices of the Patriarchal and the Mo- 
 saic worshippers pointed before the Incarna- 
 tion ; to which the sacrificial commemorations 
 
 Country was among the first of those who welcomed the 
 American Liturgy. Imagine his emotions, when he, 
 who had been educated to pray for King George and 
 the High Court of Parliament, heard the fervent re- 
 sponses of his fellow-worshippers praying for him as 
 their President, and for the Senate and Representatives 
 of the young Republic in Congress assembled." 
 
PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 7 
 
 of Christian worship point backward in like 
 manner ; to which the liturgy of Heaven, now 
 and evermore, bears witness in the perpetual 
 anthem of the redeemed : " Worthy is the 
 Lamb that was. slain." 
 
 Sacrificial worship, inspired by faith in 
 Christ, is the only worship that God accepts. 
 Cain, the original of all unbelief, rejected such 
 worship ; and he with his empty tribute was 
 rejected as well. But, here, we must not forget 
 that the sacrifice of Calvary was the one offer- 
 ing, for the sins of the whole world, which 
 alone is propitiatory. Once offered, it was 
 anticipated beforehand and it is commemorated 
 until now ; but it cannot be repeated ; though, 
 thank God, it is applied to our souls in the 
 6acraments. To this great principle all Scrip- 
 ture bears witness ; more especially the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews, which expounds the liturgic 
 system, as it existed before the Incarnation, and 
 as it was instituted by the blessed Apostles 
 in the nobler worship of the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 And this brings me to St. Paul's remarkable 
 expression in the following text : "I have 
 written somewhat boldly to you, my brethren, 
 that I might put you afresh in remembrance, 
 concerning the grace which is given to me of 
 God ; that I should be a Liturge of Jesus Christ 
 
8 PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 
 
 among the Gentiles, 1 ministering as a priest, 
 the gospel of God ; that the oblation of the 
 Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified 
 by the Holy Ghost." In this close rendering of 
 the original I have been forced to deprive it of 
 the beauty of our Version, in order to direct 
 your attention to the following facts: (1.) 
 That the Apostle here adopts liturgical words 
 and ideas, in harmony with the sacrificial teach- 
 ing of the Epistle to the Hebrews, throwing 
 great light upon that Epistle. Not less does it 
 harmonize with the Epistle from which I have 
 quoted it, and to which, as he declares, it sup- 
 plied a key. (2.) That he thus asserts his 
 priesthood and the sacrificial character of the 
 Christian worship. (3.) That he does this, 
 glorying in the grandeur of the Catholic priest- 
 hood, among all nations, as contrasted with the 
 isolated and effete and purely typical priest- 
 hood of the Law. (4) That his language, 
 here, expounds the text from Malachi, with 
 which our Daily Service so properly begins, 
 when it immediately precedes the Eucharist ; 
 and (5) that it lends illustration to the words 
 of our blessed Master himself, at the well of 
 Samaria : ' ' Woman, believe me, the hour 
 cometh, when neither in this mountain nor in 
 
 1 Rom. xv. 16. 
 
PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 9 
 
 Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father " that 
 is to say, exclusively. For, when it comes to 
 the oblation of the Gentiles, a Catholic worship 
 is promised, according to Malachi : lti From 
 tho rising of the sun, even unto the going down 
 of the same, my name shall be great among the 
 Gentiles, and in every placo incense shall be 
 offered unto my name, and a pure oblation of 
 bread and wine ; for my name shall be great 
 among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts." 
 For a view of this Apostolic system of worship 
 let me recall the first pages of your Prayer 
 Book. Have you ever reflected upon the sig- 
 nificance of those tables which meet your 
 eyes as you open it ? They are (1) the Tables 
 for the Daily Prayers and Lessons, with the 
 Psalter, for the weeks and months of every year, 
 and then (2) the "Tables to find Easter," 
 pointing to the great Paschal system of the 
 Church ; the Eucharistic worship and great 
 festive Communion of Easter, with those of 
 every Lord's day or weekly Easter, and of all 
 the satellite feasts that surround the Easter 
 sunshine. Grasp, therefore, with respect to 
 public worship, these two great ideas of the 
 Prayer Book and of the Holy Scriptures : (1) 
 The perpetual Scriptural ministering of the 
 
 ' Mai. i. 11. 
 
10 PKIMITIVE LITURGIES. 
 
 Gospel which Malachi predicts, and concerning 
 which St. Paul asserts his own priesthood, just 
 as elsewhere he speaks of the Christian altar ; 
 and (2) the auxiliary and dependent Common 
 Prayer to which all the faithful are entitled 
 daily wherever two or three may meet together 
 in the Master's name. 
 
 But to learn how ancient is this divine plan 
 of worship let us take another step, and advance 
 from the fundamental truth inscribed on Abel's 
 altar to that which was revealed to the Father 
 of the faithful, and which was made more and 
 more explicit, age after age, as the great epoch 
 of the Gospel was drawing nigh. In the Book 
 of Genesis we read of Melchizedek, and for the 
 first time we meet the word "priest." This 
 mysterious personage comes before Abraham as 
 "the priest of the Most High God;" not a 
 priest, but the priest. St. Paul declares that 
 his is the only priesthood. It had its types in 
 the Law and has its ministerial representatives 
 in the New Covenant. He only abides forever, 
 the " Priest upon His throne." His commis- 
 sioned servants, ministering in His Name, rep- 
 resent His priesthood to all believers and apply 
 its benefits to their fellow-men. All Christians, 
 in their divers relations, are 2 " a holy and a 
 
 1 Heb. viii. 10. 2 I, Pet. ii. 5-9. 
 
IMMMITIVK [JTU&GI] 11 
 
 royal priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices 
 acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." But over 
 all, lie is "the Great High Priest/* the 
 true Melchizedek ' who, " when he had offered 
 one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the 
 right hand of God." 
 
 Now, St. Paul argues that this apparition 
 was vouchsafed to Abraham, not only to give 
 the Father of all believers clearer ideas of the 
 promised Messiah than had been vouchsafed 
 before, but to put upon everlasting record 
 His true Priesthood ; in order that the Mosaic 
 priesthood might understand their position as 
 bare types, a foreshadowing symbol for a tran- 
 sient period, interposed till He should come 
 who should put them away forever. This He 
 was to do by offering Himself as the true 
 Paschal Lamb, and then establishing a better 
 priesthood to commemorate His sacrifice on 
 earth, while He presents it in heaven. Thus, 
 then, the bloody sacrifices of the Law being 
 put away, what takes their place? St. Paul 
 tells us, as Malachi had predicted it. It was the 
 oblation which Melchizedek showed to Abra- 
 ham when " he brought forth bread and wine." 
 St. Paul, therefore, abrogates the Levitical 
 priesthood, and asserts the superior antiquity 
 
 1 Heb. x. 12. 
 
12 PKIMITIVE LITURGIES. 
 
 of that which was thus foreshown four hundred 
 years before Moses established his typical priests. 
 Our Lord Himself says : u Your father Abra- 
 ham rejoiced to see my day : and he saw it, and 
 was glad." 
 
 Thus I have shown that the Liturgy of the 
 Gospel was asserted and provided for nearly two 
 thousand years before the Incarnation, and that 
 the Christian Eucharist was " the sacrificial 
 ministering of the Gospel" which St. Paul 
 claimed ; something he might boast of as better 
 than the priesthood which the Eternal Priest 
 abolished forever when He said, "It is fin- 
 ished." He had seen Melchizedek. 
 
 Reflect that by a provision of the Law it was 
 foreordained that when this which is perfect 
 should come, then that which was incomplete 
 should be done away. 1 It was commanded 
 that the sacrifices of the Law should be offered 
 only in Jerusalem. So then, when the Temple 
 was destroyed in that very generation, there 
 remained only the divine system of the New 
 Covenant. Out of the Law had appeared, in 
 consummate beauty, the whole system which it 
 presignified. It, therefore, was decayed, 2 and 
 u waxing old, was ready to vanish away." 
 
 1 Compare Heb. vii. 19, and I. Cor. xiii. 10. 
 9 Heb. viii. 13. 
 
PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 13 
 
 And now turn to tho divino provision for the 
 daily office of prayer and praise with reading of 
 the Scriptures, which are the auxiliary services 
 preparatory for the right use of the Holy 
 Eucharist. For the origin of these, one must 
 go back to the " Institutions of Samuel/' a 
 thousand years before the Advent. 1 This 
 prophet, who was himself a very striking type 
 of Christ, stands forth as the founder of a 
 new and more evangelical series of those holy 
 prophets, " which have been since the world 
 began." We find him founding " schools of 
 the prophets," and instituting a new order of 
 public worship, dependent upon the service 
 of the Temple, but bringing home to every 
 Israelite in the villages of Palestine opportu- 
 nities of evangelical devotion, and of hearing 
 the Law and the Prophets "read in course, 
 with prayer." At the Passover and other 
 festivals they went up to the Temple for 
 sacrifice. In the synagogues they enjoyed the 
 offices of prayer and psalmody, and the hearing 
 of the Scriptures, at least every Sabbath day. 
 
 It was after Samuel's time that synagogues 
 were multiplied, adorned with carved work, 
 and with goodly cedars. To provide for the 
 edification of the people,' in these " houses of 
 
 1 Compare I. Sam. x. 5, 10, 11, and xix. 24. 
 Ps. lxxiv. 6-9. 
 
14 PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 
 
 prayer," we find Samuel establishing what we 
 now call divinity schools. In these colleges 
 they were instructed in sacred music and the 
 chanting of such hymns as those of Moses and 
 Miriam, or those of Deborah and Hannah. 
 Thus we read of the "hill of God," 1 where a 
 company of prophets met Saul u coming down 
 from the high place with a psaltery " and other 
 instruments, and prophesying, apparently by 
 divine inspiration. Here it may be well to 
 note the earliest reference to the Psaltery, from 
 which the name of the Psalter comes into our 
 devotions. Again, 3 after many years, we read : 
 " Saul sent messengers to take David : and when 
 they saw the company of the prophets proph- 
 esying, and Samuel standing as appointed 
 over them, the spirit of God was upon the 
 messengers of Saul." Here Samuel appears as 
 a leader, overseer or bishop among the prophets, 
 presiding over their solemnities; and this was 
 at Naioth, which, the learned tell us, was a 
 collection of dwellings for the schools, such as 
 continued to the times of Elisha ; although 
 under Solomon's son, Eehoboam, we read of 
 the invaders from Egypt, that "they burnt 
 up all the houses of God in the land." 8 The 
 
 I. Sam. x. 5. 2 1. Sam. xix. 20. 
 
 8 Ps. lxxiv. 9. 
 
IKIMITIVE LITURGIES. 15 
 
 synagogue worship had, therefore, been largely 
 established, and in these synagogues, as in the 
 Temple also, the Psalter was the very life of the 
 public worship of the Most High. For now 
 ome to the great act of Samuel's life and 
 mission. He anointed David not only to be 
 king, in the room of Saul, but also to be " the 
 sweet psalmist of Israel." 1 " The spirit of the 
 Lord came upon David from that day forward." 3 
 In brief, the Psalter was created by his inspired 
 genius. It vertebrates the entire worship of 
 the Church of this day. And so our Common 
 Prayer comes to us from the prophet Samuel. 
 Thus we derive that miracle of devotional 
 poetry, which for nearly three thousand years 
 has been dear to all believers, in all lands ; 
 which was sung in the synagogues of the He- 
 brews, and more majestically chanted by the 
 singers of the Temple in their courses ; which 
 the daughters of Jerusalem could not sing in a 
 strange land, when they sat down by the rivers 
 of Babylon and wept to remember Zion ; which 
 our Divine Lord so often referred to and quoted, 
 as did His Apostles afterwards ; which the 
 Holy Church throughout all the world, in 
 divers tongues, has used perpetually since their 
 day ; which has consoled the saints in the times 
 
 1 II. Sam. xxiii. 1. a I. Sam. xvi. 13. 
 
16 PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 
 
 of persecution, and which they have sung at 
 the stake, amid flames of fire ; which has 
 refreshed millions of the faithful upon their 
 death-beds, and which has made part of the 
 offices of their burial. These are the psalms 
 which the early Christians intoned as they 
 pushed the plowshare through the furrows, or 
 with which they solaced their daily toil at the 
 anvil or the loom. The maiden sung the 
 Psalter as she twirled the thread of her distaff ; 
 and not less, holy men rose at midnight to sing 
 psalms, as it were, with Paul and Silas in the 
 stocks. And, in our own time, how many 
 among us who have grown old and have recited 
 the Psalter, month after month, from the days of 
 youth, can bear witness to the marvellous adap- 
 tation of its oracles to the changing conditions 
 of life; to prosperity and tribulation, to joy and 
 sorrow, to health and to infirmity, to moments 
 of rapture and to moments which but for its 
 comfortable words would darken to despair. 
 It is true, there are words in the Psalter which 
 remind us of God's retributive dealings with 
 those who rejected the Messiah ; but they may 
 be profitably used by all who would not become 
 "as a man that heareth not, and in whose 
 mouth are no reproofs." 1 With words from the 
 
 1 Ps. xxxviii. 14. 
 
I'KIMITIVK LITURGIES. 17 
 
 Psalter our Divine Lord prayed to the Father 
 on the cross ; with like words He resigned His 
 spirit as He gave up the ghost; and, quoting 
 the same Psalm which foretold His death, He 
 first saluted His disciples as His "brethren" 
 when He rose from the dead. This same 
 Psalter lends its imagery to the words of 
 Jesus : " I am the Good Shepherd ;" and again 
 to the language of the Apocalypse : u He shall 
 feed them, and shall lead them unto living 
 fountains of waters." There seems to be a 
 reference to the title of the greatest of the Pas- 
 chal Psalms, and to its entire prediction of the 
 Atonement and Redemption, when our Lord, 
 among His last words to the Church, ex- 
 claimed : "lam the root and the offspring of 
 David, and the bright morning star." 
 
 II. Such, by pre-arrangement and gradual 
 introduction, was the divine plan of love and 
 mercy for supplying the infant Church with 
 systematic forms of worship, from the moment 
 of Christ's ascending to His throne and send- 
 ing forth His Vicar Spirit to abide with her for- 
 ever. The synagogue worship restored under 
 Ezra, and supplied with the Psalter, the Law 
 and the Prophets was also enriched with other 
 prayers and devotions. Much is implied in the 
 fact, that John had taught his disciples how to 
 pray in accordance with the new revelations of 
 
18 PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 
 
 his mission. His requirements of acts of peni- 
 tence and faith, and the public confession of 
 sins, as qualifications for his baptism, suggest 
 this inference. And when the disciples asked 
 the Lord for further instructions, we may be- 
 lieve that, with His incomparable prayer, He 
 gave them many other teachings, which the 
 Spirit afterward brought to their remembrance. 
 His own sublime summary of devotion seems to 
 be referred to as the very corner-stone of this 
 fabric of Common Prayer, when the Apostle 
 speaks of the Spirit, "whereby we cry Abba, 
 Father." ' The responsive Amen is familiarly 
 mentioned as following Eucharistic praise. 8 A 
 French author s very suggestively imagines that 
 the prophetic gifts which St. Paul en- 
 deavours to subordinate to uses of public 
 worship, made the common prayers of the 
 primitive believers an "office of the Holy 
 Ghost ; " and to this our own Matins and 
 Evensong correspond, in the abundant use 
 which they include of the words of Inspiration; 
 " the lively oracles " of God. When, after the 
 day of Pentecost, Christian doxologies were 
 added, by the inspired gifts imparted so freely, 
 even to laymen and godly women ; when the 
 
 1 Rom. viii. 15-17. 2 1. Cor. xiv. 16. 
 
 3 Origines du Gulte, par L'Abbe Duchesne, Paris, 
 1889. 
 
PRIMITIVE LUTRGIES. 19 
 
 Evangelical Hymns, preserved by St. Luke, 
 v brought into use ; when M forms of sound 
 words" became familiar including, we may 
 safely suppose, what we now call the Creeds, at 
 least in their elemental forms it wanted only 
 what came so soon, the writings of the Evan- 
 gelists and Apostles, to supply the Common 
 Prayer of Christians in all the fullness requisite 
 to their constant assemblings. " With one ac- 
 cord n they lifted up their voices in their con- 
 gregations. And, as the Apostles immediately 
 took order for the great central act of worship, 
 we see that everything which we regard as 
 necessary to Divine Service came into existence, 
 out of the elements of the Law even as our 
 Lord Himself came forth from the sepulchre in 
 His Resurrection from the Dead. 
 
 It is written, therefore, of the Apostolic 
 Church at the very beginning : u They con- 
 tinued stedfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and 
 fellowship, in the breaking of Bread, and in the 
 Prayers." ' Observe the significance of these 
 four particulars. The Prayers, the Eucharistic 
 Oblation, the Apostolic fellowship, and the 
 Apostolic Creed, arc recognized as something 
 definite, organized, understood, received and 
 steadily maintained by all. Here is essentially 
 
 1 Acts ii. 42. 
 
20 PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 
 
 the Prayer Book in its original. The matured 
 system is referred to, not infrequently, by St. 
 Paul, who " ordained * one system " in all the 
 churches." ' He praises those who u held fast 
 the traditions" as he delivered them; 3 he com- 
 mends a like stedfastness with respect to the 
 " form of sound words," which Timothy had 
 heard from the Apostle himself ; 8 and he says 
 to the Thessalonians : " We command you in 
 the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye 
 withdraw yourselves from every brother that 
 walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition 
 which he received of us." 4 Even what we 
 now call " the rubrical system " is here implied, 
 and seems more especially recognized in the 
 words, " Let all things be done decorously and 
 in order : " 6 where this word order is the Greek 
 taxis of which the root idea is familiarized 
 among us in the word tactics, whereby artificial 
 arrangement, or prescribed method, is univer- 
 sally understood. 
 
 It agrees with all that seems here implied, 
 when we not only find evidence, that the Apos- 
 tolic ordinances were delivered with unity of 
 plan throughout the whole Church from India 
 to Britain, even before the death of St. John ; 
 
 1 I. Cor. vii. 17. a Or " ordinances," I. Cor. vii. 2. 
 8 II. Tim. 1-13. 4 II. Thess. iii. 6. 
 6 1. Cor. xiv. 40. 
 
PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 21 
 
 but that the Liturgies which have come down 
 to us from remote antiquity, are marked by 
 uniformity and variety, in proportions nearly 
 equal. And here we use the word Liturge in 
 its strict sense, as the name of the Eucharistic 
 Service ; to which St. Paul seems to point, 
 when he couples his claim to be a Liturgy with 
 the assertion of his Hierurgic, or priestly minis- 
 tration. The ancient Liturgies bear the name 
 of Churches founded by the Apostles ; or of 
 the Apostles themselves who are supposed to 
 have founded them. And it is to be noted 
 that they all originated in the East, even the 
 Liturgy of Rome bearing marks of Greek au- 
 thorship. We must keep in mind, however, 
 that we have no very ancient manuscripts of 
 these Liturgies a fact for which it is not diffi- 
 cult to account. Yet we can trace their essen- 
 tial features to a very early date ; and nothing 
 but a primitive antiquity can account for their 
 harmonies, or even for their diversities. It 
 would otherwise be hard to explain the truth, 
 that they are all reducible to three families of 
 ritual, classified by their family features and 
 birth-marks. (1) We have the great Oriental 
 family, bearing the names respectively of St. 
 James of Jerusalem, St. Mark, St. Paul and 
 St. Chrysostom. The two last named are so 
 nearly the same as to be practically one, and 
 
22 m PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 
 
 they are in use at this day in Russia and else- 
 where disfigured, it is true, by interpolations. 
 To them may be added the Liturgy of Eastern 
 Syria. But superlatively beautiful, scriptural 
 and rich in devotional expression is the Liturgy 
 of St. James. Its incrustations and corruptions 
 are comparatively slight, and may be easily de- 
 tected by comparison with ancient writings. 
 (2) The Gallican family is derived from Eph- 
 esus, and is supposed to represent the tradition 
 of St. John. The originals were undoubtedly 
 brought to Lyons by Pothinus ; of whom we 
 know something from the writings of Irenaeus, 
 his successor in the bishopric. With this 
 family, the early Liturgies of Britain were near 
 of kin ; for the Churches of the Britons and 
 the Gauls were closely allied from the begin- 
 ning and were practically one down to the time 
 when the Saxons invaded the British isle. (3) 
 The Roman rite, which was singularly devoid 
 of Oriental warmth, included, nevertheless, 
 the essential characteristics of its parentage. 
 And, as improved by the Patriarch Gregory, 
 in the sixth century, it became, in time, pre- 
 dominant in the West ; though not entirely so 
 in France and Spain, and never in England. 
 It must not be forgotten, that the ancient 
 Church of Britain was planted by the disciples 
 of St. Paul, who himself had preached to Britons 
 
PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 23 
 
 while they were captives in Rome. And this 
 Church is the first that appears in history in the 
 form of nationalized Christianity. Separated, by 
 its insularity, from frequent contact with South- 
 ern Europe, it was forgotten in the Roman 
 capital, and Gregory heard of its existence with 
 surprise. His missionary, Augustine, asked 
 him what he should do with those original 
 Christians of Britain whose liturgic system 
 differed, in so many particulars, from his 
 own. Gregory was not a pope, for he abhorred 
 the very thought of a Universal Bishop, as anti- 
 Christian; and his answer is in entire harmony 
 with his character. He instructed Augustine 
 in the following words : " You were bred 
 in the Roman Church and know its custom. 
 . . But if you have found anything 
 in the Gallican, or any other Church, more 
 acceptable to God, carefully make choice of the 
 same and teach the (Saxon) Church of the Eng- 
 lish, which is new in the Faith, whatsoever 
 you may gather from the several Churches. 
 For things are not to be loved for the sake 
 of places, but places for the sake of good 
 things." 1 
 
 1 The Abbe* Duchesne (p. 94, ut supra) is so amazed 
 at these instructions, that he thinks they must be a 
 forgery, "because no pope could have written such 
 
24 PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 
 
 Now, the Liturgy of these primitive Britons 
 was full of the Oriental features which came to 
 them from Ephesus. And it must be borne in 
 mind, that, with some differences that had 
 been gradually introduced, its rites and usages 
 were observed from Cornwall and Wales, north- 
 ward to Northumberland and even to Scotland, 
 and westward to Ireland. It is now common 
 to speak of this wide-spread communion as " the 
 Celtic Church," and of its rites and usages 
 as those of the " Celtic Liturgy." It is thus 
 described by a learned writer of our own day : l 
 " The facts present to our view a vast Celtic 
 communion ... sending its missions 
 among Teutonic tribes on the Continent and to 
 distant isles like Iceland ; Catholic in doctrine 
 and practice . . . with a long roll of saints, 
 every name and note of which is either that of 
 one like St. Columbanus taking a line wholly 
 independent of Rome, or like Bishop Colman, 
 directly in collision with her ; having its own 
 Liturgy, its own translation of the Bible, its 
 own mode of chanting, its own monastic rule, 
 its own cycle for the calculation of Easter, and 
 
 words." Very true ; he was not a pope, and the words 
 by which he rejected the " Universal Bishopric," are 
 much less like a pope. 
 
 1 Liturgy of the Celtic Church, by F. E. Warren, 
 B. D Oxford, 1871. 
 
PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 25 
 
 presenting both internal and external evidences 
 of complete autonomy. " It was* on account of 
 this autonomy, or national character, that 
 Rome, as she herself declined from her Catholic 
 character and created her schism with the 
 Churches of the East, saw fit to "ignore 
 or impugn" the superior claims of the Celtic 
 Church to Catholicity : but this, because sho 
 forgot the maxims of Gregory, and the great 
 Canon of Catholicity which permits diversity of 
 usages so long as everything is preserved which 
 not only "everywhere and by all the Churches" 
 has been accepted ; but which they have ac- 
 cepted always, from the beginnings of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 The Roman Missal was improved by the Pa- 
 triarch Gregory, and it came into England in 
 a condition well-suited to the wants of the 
 newly-converted Saxons. It was not a Mass 
 Liturgy as that word is now understood a 
 liturgy, that is, in which the people have no 
 share and are not bidden to Holy Communion. 
 There was Communion in both kinds, and non- 
 communicants were excluded. The heresy of 
 transubstantiation had not been invented, and 
 hence the host was not lifted up to be adored. 
 Unfortunately, the Saxon dialect was regarded 
 as barbarism ; and as the missionaries of Greg- 
 ory could only celebrate in the Latin tongue, 
 
26 PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 
 
 this violation of the Scriptural injunction led 
 to the unhappy departures from Scriptural 
 truth which followed. The liturgical prin- 
 ciple perishes when the priest takes it all to 
 himself, and robs the laity of their ability and 
 their privilege of responding an intelligent and 
 fervent Amen to his " giving of thanks." 
 
 So then, there were in the British Isle, after 
 Gregory's mission to the Saxons, two distinct 
 Churches, with their respective Liturgies the 
 ancient British Church, which had been there 
 from the Apostles' times, and the Church of 
 the evangelized Saxons, who had driven the 
 Britons out of the southern and southeastern 
 coasts. 
 
 Gradually, under the pressure of circum- 
 stances, the people of Britain became fused into 
 one nation and one Church. In a word, 
 Britain became " England," and the stronger 
 race of the Anglo-Saxons predominated. The 
 Norman Conquest introduced the next great 
 era in the history of our forefathers, and the 
 greatest liturgical diversities. 
 
 For the Normans brought into England those 
 debased and heretical ideas which had been 
 propagated after the days of Charlemagne. The 
 schism of Nicholas I. was the source of all these 
 evils, and he must be regarded as the founder 
 of the Papacy, as it was understood in West- 
 
PRiMiTivj: i.rn k<;ies. 27 
 
 era Europe in those Mediaeval Ages, which are 
 justly denominated M Dark Ages." Even the 
 most bigoted Ultramontane authors are forced 
 to admit the awful wickedness which over- 
 whelmed the See of Rome in the ninth and 
 tenth centuries, when the Papacy had become 
 established by means of the fraudulent De- 
 cretals, and, favoured by the almost universal 
 ignorance of the times, was able to extend its 
 abominations over "the Roman Empire" of 
 Charles the Great. Of those popes who im- 
 mediately succeeded Nicholas, even Moehler 
 exclaims " hell hath swallowed them up." ' 
 But hear the testimony of Genebrard, Arch- 
 bishop of Aix, who used these words : "During 
 a hundred and fifty years about fifty popes 
 have fallen away from the virtues of their pre- 
 decessors, being apostates, or apostatical rather 
 than apostolical." 9 It was just when the Papal 
 power had culminated in Hildebrand, who first 
 commanded the name of "Pope" to be ex- 
 clusively ascribed to the Roman bishop, 8 that 
 the Normans broke into England and introduced 
 mediaeval doctrines and usages, wholly unscrip- 
 tural and in conflict with the Catholic Councils. 
 
 1 (A. D. 1537-97.) 
 
 5 Littledale's Plain Reasons, p. 209. 
 
 * Anciently all bishops were called papa. 
 
28 PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 
 
 Hildebrand was all the more mischievous, be- 
 cause he was honest and in his way a reformer ; 
 but his errors arose from his supposition that the 
 Decretals were genuine records, and his belief 
 that by assorting their false claims in the most 
 absolute way, he could improve the condition of 
 things in the Latin Churches. 
 
 Never, for a moment, however, did the 
 Church of England lose her identity by absorp- 
 tion with the established Church of the so-called 
 "Holy Eoman Empire," which Charlemagne 
 had set up. She maintained that stubborn inde- 
 pendence of spirit which the Celtic Church had 
 imparted to her. By usurpation, persistently 
 introduced, and not less persistently resisted, 
 the pontiffs domineered, more or less, for five 
 hundred years, over the Church of England; 
 but their " supremacy " was never for a moment 
 acknowledged, nor was it ever successfully 
 enforced upon the Anglican or the Gallican 
 Church. How few understand these facts or 
 their immense significance ! 
 
 These remarks are made necessary if we would 
 comprehend, what I must next introduce, the 
 subject of the variety of Liturgies that existed 
 in England all through the period of the Papal 
 ascendency. The Roman Liturgy was never 
 admitted as the Liturgy of the Church of Eng- 
 land. Turn to the Preface of the Book of 
 
PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 29 
 
 Common Prayer, when it first appeared in 1549, 
 and we find in it these notable words : u Here- 
 tofore there hath been great diversity in laying 
 and singing in churches within this realm, 
 some following Salisbury use, some Hereford 
 use, some the U6e of Bangor, some of York, and 
 some of Lincoln ; now, from henceforth all the 
 whole realm shall have but one use." Thus we 
 owe to this blessed book, not only the creation 
 of uniformity in Anglican worship, but its dis- 
 semination through all the world, among all 
 English-speaking people, as a bond of unity, 
 such as no other people in the world enjoy. 
 
 Of these various Uses, suffice it to say that 
 u Salisbury Use " was in the ascendant down to 
 the times of our restorers they must not be 
 confounded with mere " reformers " who gath- 
 ered out of it much wealth of material, but who, 
 in so doing, were forced to remember the words 
 of Scripture, " Thou shalt be as my mouth 
 . . . if thou take forth the precious from 
 the vile." 
 
 And most conspicuously were these two ele- 
 ments compounded in the "Use of Saruin" 
 for greatly was it enriched beyond the ' * Roman 
 Use ; " and yet even more did it embody the cor- 
 ruption and the novelties of the Hildebrandine 
 era, as they multiplied through those dark 
 times and changed the whole idea of the Catholic 
 
30 PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 
 
 Eucharist into that of the ceremonial Mass, at 
 which nobody but the priest was a communi- 
 cant, which took away the chalice from the 
 people when they were permitted to receive at 
 all, and which educated them to receive only 
 once in the year. But, in all this, observe 
 again, the overruling Providence of God. Had 
 the barren Missal of Rome predominated, there 
 would have been little of the precious to take 
 forth from its poor material. It was less adul- 
 terated than the Sarum Use, but the latter was 
 like ore that yields an enormous percentage of 
 gold, when tried in the fire. That Use was 
 introduced by Bishop Osmund, in less than 
 twenty years after the Norman invasion; and 
 it prevailed because of its "special beauties, " 
 in spite of the novelties of mediaeval supersti- 
 tion, and the strange and anti-Catholic cere- 
 monies whereby it gradually overlaid, and 
 almost smothered, the Scriptural worship of 
 the ancient Churches. Such were marketable 
 Masses for souls in purgatory, which wholly 
 deprived the sacrifice of the "pure oblation. " 
 Its terrible fault was its destructive operation 
 on the great principle of Holy Communion, 
 and its crime against the one sacrifice of the 
 Cross, as the only propitiatory sacrifice for 
 sin. 
 
 In bringing so great a subject to a conclusion, 
 
PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 31 
 
 we must not fail to note those important spe- 
 ( ialtus of the Eastern Liturgies, the Oblation 
 and Invocation, which, by the inestimable ser- 
 1 of Bishop Seabury, were restored to our 
 American Use, from the Scottish Liturgy of 
 1604 ; but not less from the first Anglican 
 Prayer Book of the previous century. With- 
 out anticipating what others will more fully 
 illustrate for your edification, in the chapters 
 that are to follow, it is due to my own task to 
 remind you that these ennobling usages come 
 to us with the seal of an antiquity which mounts 
 up to the age nearest to that of the Apostles. 
 St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, regards them as origi- 
 nating in that Maternal See of the whole 
 Church, in the days of St. James. That these 
 features give special honour to the prophecy of 
 Malachi which I have compared with the cor- 
 responding text from St. Paul, must be obvi- 
 ous ; but that is a small matter compared with 
 the tribute they pay to the whole spirit of Scrip- 
 ture, as it bears on the Atonement of Christ, 
 His vicarious sacrifice, His everlasting priest- 
 hood, and His one oblation of Himself, once 
 offered, to take away the sins of the world. 
 No longer bleed the turtle-doves, or the young 
 pigeons ; no more the lambs of the Passover 
 supply the typical blood of sprinkling. The 
 Lamb of God is come, and has made all things 
 
32 PEIMITIVE LITURGIES. 
 
 new. Nor is it less important, possibly, to note 
 that in the Invocation we glorify the Holy Spirit 
 for His efficient work and His essential opera- 
 tion in the Sacraments. Let me, also, remind 
 you of that feature of the Eucharist which 
 raises into rapture the grand idea of the com- 
 munion of saints, and which is found in all the 
 Liturgies of Apostolic Christendom, from the 
 beginning until now. I speak of the Prefaces 
 and the Tersanctus : " Therefore with Angels 
 and Archangels, and with all the company 
 of heaven," etc. Of this many ritual writers 
 have ventured to say, that it has never been 
 unheard whenever, in a true Church" the Eu- 
 charist has been celebrated. On the great festi- 
 vals of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, when 
 I stand at the altar and recite these heavenly 
 formulas, I seem, like the Apostle, to be caught 
 up into Paradise, and to hear, among saints 
 made perfect, " unspeakable words " which cor- 
 respond with ours. Surely, it is something 
 that must minister to the soul the most elevat- 
 ing and the purest emotions the thought of 
 those, the millions gone before us, " the great 
 cloud of witnesses," whose lives and deaths have 
 been uplifted to God by these same devotions, 
 by anthems and alleluias that anticipate the 
 joys of heaven. "Who is sufficient for these 
 things ? * Who is worthy to minister before 
 
PRIMITIVE LITURGIE8. 33 
 
 tho Lord in Buch a heaven brought down to 
 earth ? Blessed be He, who, unworthy as we 
 are, " makes us able ministers of the New 
 Covenant, " by the gifts of His anointing, so 
 that we offer "acceptable sacrifices " God- 
 ward ; while manward wo bear to our breth- 
 ren the food of angels, and the cup of blessing 
 which is filled from the heart of Jesus 
 from the water and tho blood of His wounded 
 side. 
 
 Welcome, then, anew, that Book of Common 
 Prayer, made more precious than ever, which 
 comes from the Council ; from our apostles, 
 presbyters, and brethren, convened under tho 
 Invocation of the Spirit, and remembered in 
 the supplications of all our churches. Reflect 
 when you devoutly unfold its pages, like the 
 Bride in the Canticles, you open to the be- 
 liever " that spring shut up, that fountain 
 sealed." You offer the fragrance, also, of 
 ardent love, the smell of "spikenard and all 
 trees of frankincense and myrrh and all tho 
 chief spices ; * you draw from the " fountain of 
 gardens ;" you drink from a "well of living 
 waters and streams from Lebanon. " 
 
 For the Prayer Book is not only a poem, or 
 an oratorio from beginning to end, a choral- 
 song, and a perpetual feast; it is not merely 
 a well undefiled, of our mother-tongue, and, 
 8 
 
34 PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 
 
 hardly excepting the English Bible, the first 
 standard and classic of the language. To the 
 anointed eye and ear it is infinitely more. Its 
 " streams from Lebanon" are nothing less than 
 the "fresh springs" that gush from Holy Writ, 
 as from the Smitten Rock of Moses ; from its 
 Patriarchs and Prophets, its sweet singers, its 
 Apostles and Evangelists. Those "gardens" 
 and fountains of chaste delights, are, as you 
 have been reminded, the litanies and hymns of 
 all Saints ; the Liturgies of the martyrs and 
 confessors who have handed down to us the 
 Holy Scriptures and the gifts that come by the 
 Laying-on of hands. 
 
 Oh ! infinite privilege of the devout worship- 
 per, who, when he uses this Book, brings him- 
 self into spiritual communion with those faithful 
 ones of old times, with every land and speech, 
 with millions of his brethren praying with him, 
 in all parts of the world. "Look upon the 
 city of our solemnities ; thine eyes shall see 
 a quiet habitation." In crowded cities I often 
 turn aside from the noisy thoroughfare, where 
 some consecrated church stands open all the 
 day and invites me to a moment of private 
 prayer, like that of the publican in the Temple. 
 I exclaim, " How awful is this place ; none 
 other than the gate of Heaven ! " I see the 
 altar where faithful priests "minister unto 
 
PRIMITIVE LITURGIES. 35 
 
 the Lord * as of old in Antioch, 1 and the sacred 
 pale where the family of Christ kneel at tho 
 Holy Table to gather immortality" from the 
 broken Bread and the chalice of the true Vine. 
 There, too, is the "Volume of the Book" en- 
 throned upon the lectern ; the Everlasting 
 Gospel borne, as on eagle's wings, to every 
 kindred, and nation, and tongue ; " whose 
 leaves are for the healing of the nations." " And 
 there, in " the seat of the elders," and every- 
 where, ready for the hands of worshippers, I 
 see the Book of Common Prayer ; that treasure 
 of "gold, frankincense and myrrh," which we 
 still open daily before the Lord, like the wise 
 men who followed the Star of Bethlehem those 
 first fruits of the Gentiles who worshipped the 
 Holy Child. 
 
 God send the day when in the unity of a 
 restored Christendom, "one Lord, one Faith, 
 one Baptism," we shall all be partakers of that 
 " one Bread," and once more lift up our voices 
 " with one accord," albeit with many tongues, 
 in that incomparable language of the Creed : 
 " I look for the Resurrection of the dead : and 
 the Life of the world to come." 
 
 > Acts xiii. 1. " St. John vi. 53-60. ' Rev. xxii. 2. 
 
THE KEFOEMATION PKAYER 
 BOOKS. 
 
THE REFORMATION PRAYER 
 BOOKS. 
 
 The line of thought which will guide me in 
 discussing the subjects of precomposed prayers 
 in general, and the Reformation Prayer Books 
 in particular, is admirably laid down in the 
 following words of the Acts of the holy 
 Apostles ; Acts ii. 42 : 
 
 '.' And they continued stedfastly in the 
 apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in 
 breaking of bread, and in prayers. " 
 
 This description is given of the first believers 
 by the Holy Ghost. This description supplies 
 the criteria which accredit all believers, in 
 every generation and in every age, who can 
 justly lay claim to full communion with the 
 company of the faithful, the Body of Christ, 
 the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. 
 
 The tests are few ; only five in number. 
 
 First. Under Apostolic government. 
 
 Second. Holding " the faith once delivered 
 unto the saints, " without addition or de- 
 pravation. The Apostles' Doctrine. 
 
 Third. In official association, in public 
 
40 THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 worship and spiritual life and conduct, with 
 the Apostles or their representatives. Apos- 
 tolic Fellowship. 
 
 Fourth. In scrupulous attendance upon, 
 and reception of, the Blessed Eucharist as 
 administered under the authority of the 
 Apostles. Apostolical Breaking of the Bread. 
 
 Fifth. And in faithful participation in the 
 public worship of the churches, as directed and 
 guided by the forms prepared and enjoined by 
 the Apostles. Apostolic Prayers. 
 
 These tests, or criteria, are very simple in 
 character. The Apostolical ministry is an 
 historical fact as fully and strongly confirmed 
 by evidence as any fact in human experience. 
 It involves, as embodying the gift of official 
 spiritual life for all time to come, the prin- 
 ciple of succession; since, so far as we know, 
 all life in nature and in grace is continued in 
 this way. The seed which we hold in our 
 hand to-day is the product of last year's 
 planting, and so we go back step by step, 
 through seeds innumerable, to the gracious 
 hand of the Great Parent of Life in the 
 creation. You and I represent parents two 
 in number, and they in turn each bring two 
 into view,, and thus in succession we traverse 
 the centuries until we come to those whom 
 God made as the crowning act of creation. 
 
THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 41 
 
 Tho same principle perpetuates government 
 of whatever kind, while it lasts, in tho succes- 
 sion of its chief officer, holding and handing 
 on tho supremo office which embodies tho 
 gift of national life. This principle, so famil- 
 iar as meeting us everywhere in the field, 
 in the home, and in the state is appropriated 
 by Almighty God in perpetuating His Church. 
 The Apostles and their successors, immediately 
 under Christ as their head, bring the gifts of 
 grace to men, in an official ministry. 
 
 But as the treasure is so precious, as tho 
 gifts are of such transcendent importance, 
 God guards their transmission with especial 
 care. He overrules His Church to arrange 
 that the parentage in the sacred ministry must 
 be more than in natural descent. An earthly 
 son counts two parents, a Bishop in the Church 
 counts at least three. The security thus 
 provided is complete. Humanly speaking, 
 it is impossible that in such a succession there 
 should be a failure. 
 
 The Apostolical government has been over- 
 thrown by Rome in an act of revolution. 
 She put down and set aside the government 
 of the Apostles as a corporation, and substi- 
 tuted the rule of one Apostle and his alleged 
 successors, the Popes, as a monarchy. 
 
 The Apostolical government since tho six- 
 
42 THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 teenth century has been rejected by many 
 who name the name of Christ, and they are liv- 
 ing under systems of polity of their own inven- 
 tion. The Apostles, not one, but all, ruled the 
 one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of 
 Christ. The test is simple, and we challenge its 
 application to ourselves. 
 
 We have brought this fundamental truth 
 into view and emphasized it thus, because this 
 test, " the Apostles " the plural, not one, nor 
 none, tut all this test gives validity and value 
 to all the others : Doctrine, Fellowship, the 
 Breaking of the Bread, and the Prayers. These 
 are all the possession, so to speak, of the 
 Apostles. We may read the passage quoted 
 from Acts, to bring out its full meaning in 
 this regard, as follows : " They continued 
 stedfastly in (1) the Apostles' Doctrine, and 
 (2) the Apostles' Fellowship, and (3) the 
 Apostles' Breaking of the Bread, and (4) the 
 Apostles' Prayers." 
 
 These features of the Gospel dispensation, 
 the Kingdom of Christ or, as we would say, 
 of the Church were all placed by the Divine 
 Head under the government of the Apostles. 
 And to qualify them to take the supervis- 
 ion and settle forever these necessary things, 
 they were filled with the Holy Ghost, they 
 were specially enlightened, strengthened and 
 
THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 43 
 
 guarded, bo that they could act, and teach, 
 and formulate and establish what was neces- 
 sary, without the possibility of mistake. They, 
 the Apostles, were, for the purpose of prescrib- 
 ing the necessary things upon which the 
 divine life of the Church depends for its 
 continuance and perpetuation, infallible. The 
 Holy Ghost made and kept them so. And in 
 recognition of this fundamental truth, the 
 appeal of the faithful, when they have felt 
 themselves oppressed with tyranny or dis- 
 tressed by false teaching, has always been to 
 the undivided and primitive Church and ulti- 
 mately to the Word of God, as interpreted by 
 those in the first age who continued sted- 
 fastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, 
 and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. 
 
 Committed then to the Apostles' jurisdiction 
 by their Divine Master were doctrine, practice, 
 sacraments and worship. And of these they 
 took charge, and gave us in substance what we 
 know as the Apostles' Creed ; the communion 
 of the faithful in religious life and association ; 
 the celebration of the Blessed Eucharist, and 
 the Liturgy which voices the celebration 
 and allied offices and prayers. These are their 
 gifts under Christ to us ; and the Holy Spirit 
 puts upon these gifts His imprint, and stamps 
 them as " Apostolical." Living men, from 
 
44 THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 generation to generation and from age to age, 
 hand those gifts on and down to ns. They are 
 an historical legacy just as our life is a bequest 
 from the past flowing down into us from our 
 ancestors. These gifts are just as fresh and 
 precious now as they were when the Apostles 
 first conveyed them to men, even as our natural 
 life now abiding in us is essentially what it 
 was when it started on its career from Adam. 
 
 Our assigned duty is to discuss within cer- 
 tain limits of time, say between A.D. 1547 and 
 1662, the fortunes and vicissitudes of the 
 Apostolic Prayers in our Anglican Commun- 
 ion. 
 
 My venerable predecessor in this course has 
 told you the story of the Primitive Liturgies, 
 flowing like the river of Paradise from one 
 fountain in fourfold channels, and making 
 glad the City of God. 
 
 It is my privilege to take up the narrative 
 where he dropped the thread, and follow the 
 fortunes of this divine gift, the Apostolic 
 Prayers, through a period of little more than 
 a century. The extremes of our survey are 
 the accession of Edward VI., in 1547, and the 
 first years of the reign of Charles II., in 1662. 
 
 The interval covers five complete reigns of 
 kings and queens, the rebellion under Oliver 
 Cromwell, and the beginning of a sixth reign, 
 
THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 45 
 
 that of Charles II. Tho times were restless, un- 
 settled, full of change. All things seemed liko 
 the troubled sea tossed to and fro. In Church 
 and State, in manners and customs, at homo 
 and abroad, it was the same. The rejection of 
 Papal domination in the reigns of Henry VIII. 
 and Edward VI.; the return to it again in 
 that of Mary ; its rejection for a second time 
 and finally when Elizabeth came to the throno 
 in 1558 ; and then the repudiation of historic 
 Christianity in the days of tho Commonwealth 
 mark changes, not a few, in religion. In 
 civil affairs, the transition from the absolute 
 monarchy of Henry VIII. to constitutional lib- 
 erty, secured by the Bill of Eights in 1688, was 
 characterized by many and conflicting vicissi- 
 tudes. The oppression of the Tudors was 
 scarcely as intolerable as the selfish greed and 
 cruelty of tho factions who ruled the land 
 under the boy King from 1547 to 1553 ; and 
 the tyranny of the Stuarts was less odious than 
 the canting hypocrisy of the Protector and 
 his followers. Social and domestic life in these 
 hundred years moved from old surround- 
 ings to new. The mediaeval features which 
 marked the home, the citizen, the soldier when 
 the last Henry died, were all gone when the 
 Savoy Conference gave us the last revision of 
 the English Prayer Book in 1662. 
 
46 THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 In such an age of changes what are we to 
 expect, or rather what are we to dread will 
 take place in the Church of God ? There are 
 elements in her which must remain unaltered 
 if not, she ceases to exist. And we may well 
 tremble for her safety, when we see the fabric 
 of ecclesiastical government shaken to its 
 foundations, and transitions rapid and start- 
 ling from Roman to Reformed, and back again 
 to Roman, and then reverting to Reformed 
 once more to pass beyond the metes and 
 bounds of Catholicity into individualism and 
 negation we may well tremble for the 
 Church's safety, nay for her very existence, un- 
 der such circumstances. She must preserve 
 her polity, her faith, her loyal submission to 
 authority, her sacraments and her prayers. 
 Can she do this when such vicissitudes pass 
 over the land ? We answer she can, and she 
 did ; and the way in which this came about, 
 guided by the protecting care of God, we 
 proceed to show. On the preservation of the 
 polity of the Church depended absolutely the 
 preservation of all other necessary things, 
 which are sheltered by that polity. 
 
 The English episcopate in the line of Can- 
 terbury knew no lapse during this unsettled 
 period of transition and change. Cranmer 
 succeeded Warham, and Pole, Cranmer, and 
 
THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 47 
 
 Parker, Polo ; and then the succession follows 
 without a break to our own Archbishop Benson 
 of to-day. There was no interruption, and 
 the Apostolic government continued through 
 all the chances and changes of the eventful 
 century and a quarter, during which the 
 Prayer Book of our Mother Church was in 
 the process of assuming its present form. 
 
 If the suggestion arises in your minds, that 
 among the contingencies which might have 
 occurred, was the adoption of extempore 
 prayers, dismiss it at once and forever. Such 
 a thing as extempore prayer in public worship 
 is absolutely unknown to the historic Church 
 of God. It is irreconcilable with the test 
 of primitive discipleship, " continuing stead- 
 fastly in the Apostles' prayers." For it is not 
 possible to continue in extempore prayer. 
 The sound dies upon the ear, and the words 
 are no more, except as a memory. And every 
 repetition of extempore prayers on a fresh 
 occasion of worship would only increase the 
 difficulties, by confusing the impression with 
 variations of the forms, and additions to the 
 amount of matter. 
 
 The essential idea of " extempore " is, that 
 it is fresh and new at the moment and springs 
 spontaneously from the occasion. So that as 
 time ran on, the Apostles' prayers on the 
 
48 THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 assumption that they were extempore would 
 accumulate and tax the memory of any one 
 to recall them ; and if he did, and continued 
 stedfastly in them by using them, he would 
 cease to follow the example of the Apostles, 
 since he would reverse their practice, by recit- 
 ing precomposed forms of prayer, while they 
 poured forth their prayers without book or 
 the aid of memory. It is impossible to con- 
 tinue stedfastly, we say, in extempore prayers. 
 Prayers must be precomposed and be set down 
 in some permanent form, for the use of those 
 who are to continue in them. 
 
 And again, extempore prayer in public under 
 the condition which our Lord prescribes that 
 "two or three " as a minimum must agree 
 as touching what they ask is absolutely ex- 
 cluded from the Church, unless the worship- 
 pers surrender themselves entirely into the 
 hands of him who offers prayers. For, con- 
 sider, in extempore prayer, if it be really ex- 
 tempore, the hearer cannot know what the 
 speaker is about to say. Hence if he truly 
 prays he must accept without reserve what is 
 offered up to God by another, as his own. 
 Prayer touches the deepest and most sacred 
 things of our hearts; it covers the field of 
 conscience, and gathers and presents to God 
 the needs and cravings and fears of our moral 
 
THE REFORMATION PBA.YBB BOOKS. 49 
 
 and spiritual nature. How can we bo sure 
 that another and a stranger cau know us as 
 we know ourselves, and rightly represent us to 
 the ear of God ? We cannot, and hence we 
 must listen and judge of what wo hear, before 
 we pray. But this is practically impossible. 
 No two states of mind are more diverse than 
 the critical and the devotional. In the former 
 we are on the bench of the judge, we are 
 weighing and considering, separating and de- 
 ciding ; in the latter we are on our knees as 
 penitents and petitioners, the mind is in sub- 
 jection to the spirit. As critics the mind 
 rules ; as devotees the spirit. We cannot, if 
 we would, keep passing as sentence after 
 sentence falls upon our ears from the critic's 
 stool, if we approve, to our knees in devotion, 
 and then in an instant back again as critics, 
 to the seat of judgment. Such rapid and 
 constant transitions from opposite poles of 
 personal condition are impossible for any 
 man. If it bo urged in reply, " Oh ! we 
 know beforehand what our leader in devotion 
 will offer in prayer ; n then the answer is 
 immediate prayer in that case ceases to bo 
 extempore. And if we must have precomposod 
 forms, the Apostles' prayers are better. The 
 substance must be better, and the form as well. 
 As to the substance, there i3 no need of change 
 4 
 
50 THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 or variation except within very narrow limits ; 
 and these exigencies can easily be provided for, 
 and are in all liturgies. The deep things of 
 man's nature, the necessities of body and soul, 
 are ever the same ; they alter not from age to 
 age. And hence the language of prayer is uni- 
 versal for all time and all men. God teaches 
 us how to pray directly in the Lord's 
 Prayer, and indirectly in the primitive liturgies 
 through the Apostles ; and we shall do well if 
 we continue stedfastly in their prayers. The 
 form is better, since devotion has its technical 
 language as well as science, and the original 
 mould in which the form of prayer and praise 
 is cast was prepared by the hand of God. 
 Extempore prayer, therefore, in public, in 
 the Church of Christ, is an incongruity so 
 great, that it is not to be reckoned as a possi- 
 bility that can happen, by those who remem- 
 ber what our Lord has said, and what His 
 Apostles, as guided by the Blessed Spirit, have 
 taught. The continuity of the Church, under 
 the government of the Apostles and their suc- 
 cessors in office, runs along the lines of faith, 
 morals, sacraments and worship. The prayers 
 form one of the strands which bind and hold 
 the Church as one and identical from the day 
 of Pentecost to the present hour, and every- 
 where throughout the world. 
 
THE REFORMATION PRATER BOOKS. 51 
 
 In the reign of Henry VIII. (1509-1547) 
 when our survey begins, the English Church 
 was still in her mediaeval condition. In her 
 ecclesiastical relations she was a national 
 Church in association with other national 
 churches of the West subject to the Patriarch 
 of Rome. 
 
 Her insular position and distance from the 
 centre of power had helped her sovereigns and 
 people to assert and keep alive their independ- 
 ence to a degree that was elsewhere unknown, 
 and prepared the way when occasion offered to 
 lead them to break absolutely from the obedi- 
 ence of the Pope. 
 
 This occasion occurred when Henry was 
 bent upon securing his divorce from his wife 
 Katharine of Aragon. The Pope was person- 
 ally ready to comply with Henry's wishes as to 
 divorce, but he was coerced into refusal by 
 Katharine's mighty nephew, the Emperor 
 Charles V. of Germany. The English King, 
 a thoroughly bad man, would not brook delay 
 or endure contradiction ; and so he led the 
 estates of the realm to do what they were 
 educated and ready to do declare themselves 
 as a national Church, free. 
 
 The pivot on which the English Reforma- 
 tion turned was the assertion of the principle of 
 national independence in ecclesiastical juris- 
 
52 THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 diction and administration. The question 
 proposed to the two Convocations of Canter- 
 bury and York the legislative and governing 
 body of the English Church was this, "Hath 
 the Bishop of Rome by divine right (jure 
 divino) any more jurisdiction within this realm 
 of England than any other foreign Bishop?" 
 To this inquiry, after deliberation, the Convoca- 
 tions answered, with scarcely a dissenting voice, 
 "No." The principle here asserted is univer- 
 sally true, and applies with equal force to every 
 national Church, which either has been, or is, 
 or may be subjected to the, usurpation and 
 tyranny of some exterior power. This is the 
 great principle of the English Reformation, 
 the principle which explains it and justifies it. 
 It happened to be applied and successfully 
 asserted in the reign of a selfish, sensual, bad 
 King. His lust and brutality were the accident 
 which prompted him, and spurred him on to 
 suggest and sanction the measures which set 
 his Kingdom ecclesiastically free from Rome. 
 Without this liberation from the thraldom of 
 the Pope, reformation in any true sense would 
 have been impossible. Henry was the instru- 
 ment in the hands of Divine Providence, to 
 enable the English people, as a nation, to pro- 
 claim their autonomy in ecclesiastical affairs, 
 and secure this independence by canonical 
 
THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 53 
 
 enactment in Convocation, and legal statute in 
 Parliament, with the consent of the Crown. 
 The wrath of man was thus overruled to praise 
 God. 
 
 The course of events in Henry's reign 
 simply marks the process of legislation, which 
 severed the connection, that was the growth of 
 centuries, uniting England in a net-work of 
 many strands with the See of Rome. Thus 
 far, and thus far ouly, the Reformation 
 advanced in the days of the eighth Henry. It 
 was a preparation for reformation, rather than 
 the Reformation itself. It was a clearing of 
 the decks, and a cutting of the cables, which 
 would enable the ship to be navigated and to 
 sail away under the direction of her own law- 
 ful master and officers. This was done, and 
 effectually done, prior to the accession of 
 Edward VI., January 28th, 1547. 
 
 If we ask, what was the condition of the 
 English Church when Henry breathed his 
 last, we answer generally, it was mediaeval 
 still, save and excepting that it had renounced 
 allegiance to the Pope. Its continuity with 
 the past was unbroken. Cranmer had suc- 
 ceeded Warham as Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 with the sanction of the Bishop of Rome ; 
 and under him the Church remained essen- 
 tially the same in doctrine, fellowship, sacra- 
 
54 THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 ments and prayers. No change was percep- 
 tible in service of worship ; and the people 
 gathered as they had been accustomed to do in 
 their cathedrals, parish churches and chapels, 
 to join in the same prayers and participate in 
 the celebration of the same sacraments, as had 
 been their habit since the Norman Conquest. 
 The legislation of Henry VIII., as regards 
 doctrine and public worship, had promised 
 change, but effected little. Its course was 
 marked by these enactments : 
 
 1. The Ten Articles touching religion, 
 passed in the summer of 1536. 
 
 2. The Institution of a Christian Man, " the 
 Bishops' Book," sent forth in 1537. 
 
 3. The Six Articles' law, enacted in 1539. 
 
 4. A Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for 
 any Christian Man, known as "the King's 
 Book," adopted in 1543. 
 
 5. The Litany in English, Jane 11, 1544. 
 
 These publications were attempts to pop- 
 ularize the teachings of the Church by expo- 
 sition of some of her formularies, and to 
 familiarize the people with certain portions of 
 the service by translation. They varied in 
 detail as to theological character, but not 
 sufficiently to affect the truth of the general 
 statement, that they were all thoroughly medi- 
 aeval in their character. Their bearing upon 
 
THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 55 
 
 the especial subject, which we have in hand, 
 the history of the English Prayer Book, lies in 
 this, that they rendered into English and 
 explained tho Lord's Prayer, the Ten Com- 
 mandments and the Creeds, and other matters 
 deemed necessary for a Christian man to know. 
 They constituted a preparation, therefore, for 
 the great achievement of the next reign, the 
 compilation and setting forth by authority of 
 the English Book of Common Prayer. 
 
 The essentials of public worship in our 
 approach to God in prayer and praise in the 
 Catholic Church, must continue always the 
 same. The form may vary in language and 
 arrangement ; and indeed a moment's reflection 
 will show that this must have been inevitable 
 during a period of transition such as marked 
 the settlement and formation of the nations of 
 Europe in the greater part of the Middle 
 Ages, say from A. D. 500 to A. D. 1300. For 
 then nothing was fixed, nothing was settled. 
 Language, customs, the surroundings and acci- 
 dents of life at home and abroad were in a 
 state of constant change. Hence the Church, 
 as a matter almost of necessity, made use of 
 the venerable language which enshrined the 
 literature of the Western world in the public 
 offices of religion. 
 
 The Churchman of the Middle Ages and of 
 
56 THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 Henry the Eighth's time, had no one book 
 which would carry him through the entire ser- 
 vices of the day, as is the case with us in our 
 Book of Common Prayer. He must have, for 
 example, his Breviary for daily offices ; his 
 Missal for the sacrament of the Altar ; his 
 Manual for the occasional offices which a 
 priest could administer ; his Pontifical for the 
 services especially belonging to the office of a 
 Bishop ; and other books for minor offices, 
 and the arrangements of the sacred seasons. 
 He was, however, for the most part, at less 
 disadvantage than we would at first suppose, 
 when thus deprived of the constant aid of a 
 guide in his devotions, since the scenic char- 
 acter of the services and the object lessons of 
 the ritual kept him in close companionship 
 with the holy rites of his religion. 
 
 The reign of Edward VI. (1547-1553) 
 gives us, we may say, our present Book of 
 Common Prayer since the Book which we 
 now use, just revised and enriched, is essen- 
 tially the same Book which was set forth by 
 authority in Edward's first act of uniformity, 
 passed January 21, 1549. The successive 
 revisions in England since that date have been 
 four in number, those namely of 1552, in 
 this same reign ; of 1559, in the reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth ; of 1604, in the reign of James I.; 
 
THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 57 
 
 and the final revision at the Savoy Confer- 
 ence in 1662. This final revision emphati- 
 cally brings into view, by its initial rubric, 
 the ecclesiastical legislation of Edward VI., 
 in 1548, as the guide in ritual for all time 
 to come. The second year of that sovereign 
 from January 28, 1548, to January 28, 1549, 
 is selected as furnishing in rite and ceremony, 
 in vestments and adornment, the example, 
 which we must follow if we are obedient to 
 authority in the celebration of public worship, 
 
 As preliminary to the setting forth of the 
 Prayer Book in English, which was in course 
 of preparation, M The Order of Communion " 
 was authorized by royal proclamation, March 
 8, 1548, and continued in use until Whitsun- 
 day, 1549. In this Order the portions addressed 
 to and for the use of the people were in their 
 mother tongue, while the priest's part remained 
 as before in Latin. 
 
 The first Prayer Book of Edward VI. was 
 compiled and arranged and set forth by men, 
 advanced in years in 1549, whose lives had 
 been passed hitherto under the old regime, 
 and who were imbued with the spirit of litur- 
 gical worship as they had known it from 
 childhood. The Book was prepared for the 
 use of a people, who had never known aught 
 else than liturgic worship, and whose educa- 
 
58 THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 tion and training had ever been in the use 
 of the old service books. There go with this 
 first Prayer Book of Edward VI., therefore, 
 traditions and associations of the past which 
 must be kept in view and taken into account 
 in estimating its character. We must remem- 
 ber what the past had been as touching public 
 worship, both on the part of those from whose 
 hands we receive the precious gift, and of 
 those for whose use it was primarily designed. 
 This consideration and it cannot be set aside 
 furnishes an interpretation to what else might 
 be doubtful, and emphasizes with greater 
 force what is clear, in its directions for prac- 
 tical use and its theological statements for 
 instruction in doctrine. 
 
 The second Prayer Book of Edward VI. , 
 which was in use for only a few months 
 (November 1, 1552, until the death of the 
 young King, July 6, 1553), was due in its 
 production to two facts, first the flight into 
 England of numerous foreign refugees from 
 Switzerland and Germany and the consequent 
 strengthening of the extreme protestant or 
 Zwinglian party ; and secondly the depriva- 
 tion and imprisonment of conservative Bish- 
 ops and others, who would have opposed the 
 radical spirit which was now in the ascend- 
 ant. 
 
HIE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 59 
 
 Martin Bucer, Peter Martyr and others 
 from the continent led the attack upon the first 
 Prayer Book of Edward VI. The factions 
 which ruled the land the Somersets and the 
 Northumberlands cared for nothing save self- 
 aggrandizement, and hence were ready to sanc- 
 tion anything which would subserve their 
 personal ambition and their greed for wealth. 
 
 The chief grounds of assault against the Book 
 were found in the Eucharistic Office, and the 
 vestments. In the end the malcontents tri- 
 umphed, and a second act of uniformity was 
 passed in January, 1552, authorizing and en- 
 joining a revised Book of Common Prayer ; 
 which was to come into use in the succeeding 
 autumn, on the feast of All Saint3. This Book 
 records the low-water mark of the English Re- 
 formation; and hence, if we find, that with all its 
 changes in the direction of Zurich and Geneva, 
 it drops no essential principle of Catholicity, we 
 may rest assured that the continuity of our 
 Mother Church in the prayers as well as in the 
 episcopal succession was never broken. This is 
 the undoubted fact. First, the act of uniform- 
 ity, which establishes the second Book, indorses 
 the first in these words : " It is a very godly 
 order, agreeable to the Word of God and the 
 primitive Church, very comfortable to all good 
 people desiring to live in Christian conversation 
 
60 THE REFORMATION PRATER BOOKS. 
 
 and most profitable to the estate of this realm." 
 Second, the many changes which appear in this 
 Book in variation from its predecessor, are due 
 to omission and transposition, rather than te 
 substitution of new matter. There is, it is 
 true, much in this Book, which a loyal Church- 
 man laments, but there is nothing which need 
 make him tremble for the preservation of the 
 orthodoxy of our communion. It has been 
 suggested, that Cranmer brought under the 
 notice of the revisers the Mozarabic Missal, 
 which is closely allied to the old Gallican use, 
 and that thus the changes in the arrangement 
 of the Communion Office, and of other parts 
 of the new Book, can be explained. This is a 
 reasonable conjecture, but whether true or 
 not, the fact remains, that there is a likeness 
 between our Prayer Book of to-day and the 
 Gallican Liturgy. 
 
 The replacing an old Book with a new was 
 not so rapid a process in those days (1552) as it 
 is now, and as the feast of All Saints (Novem- 
 ber 1), 1552, was the date of the introduction 
 of the second Book, and Edward VI. deceased 
 on the 6th of July of the following year, there 
 was scarcely opportunity for this revision to 
 have reached the parish churches before the 
 great change came when the Princess Mary be- 
 came Queen, July 6, 1553. 
 
THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 61 
 
 The importance of the Book, however, lies 
 not in the length of time it was in use, but in 
 the fact, that it was chosen as the model after 
 which the revision in the reign of Queen Eliz- 
 abeth was made, in 1559 ; and in consequence 
 it has influenced all subsequent revisions, and 
 our own American Prayer Book. 
 
 The reign of Queen Mary (1553-1558) is a 
 blank as regards our English Prayer Book, 
 since she brought back the status of ecclesias- 
 tical affairs to what it was at the close of her 
 father's (Henry VIII.) reign, 1547 save and 
 excepting the rehabilitation of the monasteries, 
 which Henry had dissolved, and the restoration 
 to their owners of the Church lands, which her 
 father and half-brother had forcibly alienated. 
 But Mary's reign chronicles one fact which must 
 be noted, namely, that the Church's continuity 
 was not broken although she brought England 
 back to its mediaeval position of submission to 
 the Pope. The Roman authorities waited until 
 Archbishop Cranmer was executed, before Car- 
 dinal Pole was placed in the See of Canterbury. 
 There was no break the Pope, even after all 
 that had occurred, recognized Cranmer's posi- 
 tion ; and Pole succeeded when his predeces- 
 sor was dead, and not till then. The Church, 
 in her flow of life, had passed thus far without 
 interruption, from the episcopate of Archbishop 
 
62 THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 Warham to that of Pole. The conflict had been, 
 and was, between the old and new service books 
 in use in the land. There were as yet not two 
 rival Churches in England. There were two 
 schools in the one national Church ; and now 
 for five years the cause of the old triumphed 
 over the new. The submission to Rome was 
 an accident, deplorable of course, but still an 
 accident which did not destroy the Church's 
 life. She lived on and carried the nation with 
 her as one communion until the twelfth year 
 of Queen Elizabeth, when Rome by formal act 
 withdrew her subjects from the Church's altars 
 and set up rival and schismatic altars of her 
 own. Then, in 1571, the English people 
 became divided; and formal schism from the 
 Church of England for the first time appeared 
 when the Pope excommunicated the Queen, 
 released her subjects from their allegiance, and 
 commanded those who were willing to obey to 
 forsake their Mother Church which alone held 
 canonical jurisdiction in the land and submit 
 to his usurped authority. While Henry, and 
 Edward, and Mary reigned, there was but one 
 Church in England. Nor were there two until 
 Elizabeth had been upon the throne for twelve 
 years, and then the sin of schism was begun by 
 Rome, and has been continued by her ever 
 since. Meanwhile Cardinal Pole had died, 
 
THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 63 
 
 within a day of Queen Mary, in 1558, and 
 Archbishop Parker had succeeded, and all the 
 functions of ecclesiastical life had passed with- 
 out interruption to him, to bo transmitted by 
 him to others until, wo trust, the end of time. 
 
 With Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603), came 
 the final triumph of the new service books over 
 the old. Her act of uniformity carrying with it 
 her Prayer Book, was passed in 1559. The sec- 
 ond Book of Edward VI. was chosen as the 
 basis of revision. This pacified the extreme 
 Protestants, while the changes in the direction 
 of primitive and Catholic use reconciled the 
 conservatives and the third English Prayer 
 Book was established by law, June 24, 1559. 
 
 The changes were few but important. Tho 
 Ornaments Rubric brought the Church back in 
 externals to the second year (1548) of Edward 
 VI. The combination of the words of admin- 
 istration of tho Holy Communion employed in 
 the two Books of Edward, and the omission of 
 the Black Rubric upon kneeling at reception, as- 
 serted doctrinal truth which had been obscured 
 in the Book of 1552. This Book, with very 
 slight changes which were made at the Hamp- 
 ton Court Conference and enjoined by James 
 First's act of uniformity in 1604, remained in 
 use for nearly one hundred years, until the 
 reign of Charles II. in 1662 with the excep- 
 
64 THE REFORMATION PEAYER BOOKS. 
 
 tion, of course, of the period of the Protect- 
 orate of Cromwell, when all liturgical services 
 were banished from the land. 
 
 The settlement under Queen Elizabeth estab- 
 lishes and fixes the uninterrupted continuity of 
 the English Church, from the remotest antiq- 
 uity to that date, upon a basis of historic evi- 
 dence which cannot be shaken. This continuity 
 in office, in doctrine, in prayers, is the first and 
 great principle of the English Reformation. A 
 national Church the English Church had ever 
 been. Magna Charta in its first article pro- 
 claimed her free, and she had not been back- 
 ward in making good this proclamation of her 
 freedom, in her relations with the Patriarch of 
 Rome. She had acknowledged him as the 
 administrative head of Christendom, but be- 
 yond that point she would not go ; and when 
 his demands exceeded what was reasonable 
 and just she successfully resisted them. At 
 length, as we have seen, the occasion was sup- 
 plied on the part of Henry VIII. to sever 
 absolutely her connection with Rome, and the 
 three estates of the realm Parliament, Con- 
 vocation and the Crown concurred in the 
 action, and the English Church was free. The 
 temporary return to submission to papal author- 
 ity under Queen Mary (1553-1558) did not in 
 the least compromise the national character and 
 
THE REFORMATION PKAYKU BOOKS. G5 
 
 constitution of our Mother Church of England. 
 Indeed, up to tho Vatican Council of 1870, the 
 national autonomy of the Churches owning 
 obedience to the Roman Patriarchate was never 
 in essence lost. The Gallican liberties, for ex- 
 ample, were not a myth, but a reality, even 
 within the century now closing ; and the Uniat 
 Churches on the eastern borders of Europe 
 illustrate tho truth of this statement. 
 
 The English Church reformed herself from 
 within, on constitutional and canonical lines. 
 Archbishop Parker was as truly the successor 
 of Augustine as were Pole, Cranmer and War- 
 ham. And under him, as representing Apos- 
 tolical polity, were sheltered and sanctioned 
 doctrines, morals, sacraments and prayers. 
 
 The Apostolical succession, so scrupulously 
 guarded and preserved through the reigns of 
 Henry, Edward, Mary and Elizabeth, furnishes 
 an irrefutable answer to the charge of schism; 
 and the retention of the three creeds and the 
 explicit endorsement and recognition of the 
 four ecumenical councils constitute a sufficient 
 reply to the allegation of heresy. 
 
 Our fortunes are bound up with those of our 
 Mother Church ; and hence we may look back 
 with satisfaction to her foundations exposed 
 to view through discussion and contention for 
 full thirty years (1529-1559) in the heart of 
 
66 THE REFORMATION" PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 the sixteenth century. Polity, doctrine, sacra- 
 ments and prayers survive the violent convul- 
 sions and vicissitudes of these stormy days ; and 
 the continuous flow of the Church's life, in her 
 fourfold channels, is never interrupted or dried 
 up, but runs right on and down to more peace- 
 ful years when dangers are past. And now it 
 comes to us, with its treasures of priceless worth 
 for time and for eternity. 
 
 The last revision of the English Prayer Book 
 occurred in 1662, on the accession of Charles II. 
 at the Eestoration. The basis of revision was, 
 of course, Elizabeth's Prayer Book of 1559. 
 This was strengthened, in the direction of the 
 explicit assertion of positive truth. The 
 Bishops and theologians of 1662 had learned 
 wisdom from their ancestors of 1552, and from 
 the terrible experience of the last eleven years 
 under the Commonwealth ; and they naturally 
 turned away, with stern resolve, from Geneva, 
 and faced Catholic antiquity. For example to 
 be specific in a few instances. In the title to 
 the Absolution, and in other places where the 
 priestly office is necessary for the valid perform- 
 ance of rite or act, the word "Minister" is 
 replaced by the word " Priest." In the Com- 
 munion Office the first oblation of the bread 
 and wine was enjoined ; the rubrics relating to 
 the manual acts in the consecration of the 
 
THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 67 
 
 Blessed Eucharist were inserted ; and the ru- 
 brics which direct the Priest how ho shall con- 
 secrate more bread and wine, and how he shall 
 reverently care for what remains of the conse- 
 crated elements, were added. And the Orna- 
 ments Rubric, which was borrowed from Eliza- 
 beth's act of uniformity, and which stands as 
 the general law governing the externals of the 
 Church of England in her fabrics and clergy, 
 was amended to make it more clear and explicit, 
 and was retained in its place at the beginning 
 of the Book. It reads as follows : " And here 
 is to be noted that such ornaments of the 
 Church and of the Ministers thereof at all 
 times of their ministrations shall be retained 
 and be in use as were in this Church of 
 England by the authority of Parliament in the 
 second year" [January 28, 1548 January 28, 
 1549] "of the reign of King Edward the 
 Sixth." These illustrations will serve to show 
 the spirit of the teaching embodied in the pres- 
 ent Prayer Book of our Mother Church of 
 England. 
 
 The revision of 1662 may be justly called the 
 last, because no changes of any moment have 
 been made since by the orders-in-council ; 
 which have necessarily been issued, on the 
 accession of successive sovereigns and by the 
 Amendment to the Act of Uniformity passed in 
 
68 THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 the reign of Queen Victoria. The Church of 
 1662, therefore, has been from that date and is 
 to-day the ecclesia docens of England. When 
 we took our departure as an independent 
 daughter Church, we brought our Mother's 
 Prayer Book with us, and used it, as far as 
 local circumstances would allow, as our own. 
 This fact we explicitly declare in the Preface 
 of our Prayer Book, since we affirm in unmis- 
 takable language as follows : " This Church is 
 far from intending to depart from the Church 
 of England in any essential point of doctrine, 
 discipline or worship, or further than local 
 circumstances require." 
 
 Our Prayer Book, therefore, is a blessed 
 memorial of the past, replete with interest which 
 centres in, and gathers around, no other book 
 save the Bible. Indeed, the Prayer Book gives 
 expression to the Bible. It is the Bible's voice ; 
 it is the Bible in action. The Prayer Book, in 
 the use of the congregation, makes the Word 
 of God vocal in supplication and praise. The 
 Prayer Book, in the hands of the Priest and 
 people, is the instrument for the celebration of 
 sacraments and holy rites, the performance of 
 acts which the Bible enjoins as of perpetual 
 obligation. The heart of the Prayer Book is the 
 Communion Office, because in the celebration 
 of that holy sacrament we "do show forth the 
 
THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 69 
 
 Lord's death till Ho come ; " and this exhibition 
 of Calvary carries us back to the sacrifice of 
 Abel, and forward to the vision of " the Lamb 
 slain from the foundation of the world," the 
 Lamb in the midst of the throne. This service 
 is the centre around which all else is grouped. 
 The other services lead up to it, and are related 
 to it, in the ideal of the Christian life. Baptism, 
 Catechism, Confirmation, are steps to the Lord's 
 Table. The daily offices are a lesser commun- 
 ion, and Holy Matrimony and the Visitation 
 of the Sick and the Burial of the Dead, lack 
 something if the Blessed Eucharist does not 
 crown them with its benediction. 
 
 The sacrifices of the law the burnt offering, 
 the peace offering and the sin offering looked 
 forward to the one "full, perfect, and sufficient 
 sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins 
 of the whole world," which was offered upon 
 the cross. "The Apostles' prayers" enshrined 
 the service which commemorated the sacrifice 
 of Calvary, and applied, by the power of the 
 Holy Ghost, the benefits of the Atonement to 
 the worthy recipient. The Law passed into the 
 Gospel, in the Breaking of the Bread and in 
 the prayers of the Apostles ; and these we have 
 in our Office for the administration of the Holy 
 Communion. This is the heart, therefore, of 
 our Book of Common Prayer, as it has ever 
 
70 THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 been in essence the heart of all worship. Here 
 we have, beyond all doubt, the echo of the 
 voices of those who had heard our Lord say, 
 " Take, eat ; this is My Body. Drink ye all of 
 it; for this is My Blood." And in succession 
 ever since, without intermission, at stated inter- 
 vals living men, authorized to act and speak in 
 the Lord's name, have continued to break the 
 Bread and to pray, down to our own time and 
 to us. What a wonderful book our Common 
 Prayer Book is ! It lies upon our tables or is 
 held in our hands like any other book ; but, 
 unlike any other book, it springs into life and 
 has voice and action when God's people pray 
 to Him and praise Him, and when priest and 
 congregation join in the celebration of sacra- 
 ments and sacred functions. What a wonder- 
 ful book our Common Prayer Book is ! It 
 connects us by hand joined to hand of living 
 men who have used the essentials of its offices, 
 to the birth day of the Church of Christ, when 
 the Apostles began, with the first believers, to 
 celebrate the holy mysteries in the breaking of 
 the Bread, and to offer the prayers. What a 
 wonderful book our Common Prayer Book is ! 
 It brings the future into view, in some details, 
 even to the end of time. Changes many and 
 great may take place, and almost all things may 
 wear a different aspect, but here in our Book 
 
THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 71 
 
 of Common Prayer wo have fixed realities, we 
 have things which will not, which cannot 
 change. We have Baptism, and Confirmation, 
 and the Holy Communion. We may look for- 
 ward into the dim and distant future, and 
 though we may bo certain of very little on 
 other lines of prophecy and promise, yet along 
 those which our authorized spiritual guide-book 
 lays down, wo are sure of what will come to 
 pass. Our children are within view, and their 
 children may appear before our eyes close in 
 death ; but in imagination we may go on pictur- 
 ing to ourselves unborn generations, filling with 
 life the centuries yet to be, and among them 
 and for them, our posterity however remote, 
 will abide the blessings treasured up in our 
 Book of Common Prayer. Let us then be 
 loyal to its teaching, and faithful in its use. 
 Let us not compromise the priceless truth, 
 which it puts in our possession as a sacred 
 trust, for our own instruction and a legacy for 
 our children. Let us remember, that those 
 who form the front rank of believers in Christ, 
 and on whom the light of the Blessed Spirit 
 shines in the Word of God, revealing them to 
 us as examples, are described as continuing 
 " stedfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fel- 
 lowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in 
 prayers." 
 
72 THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 This word stedfastly belongs to those Pente- 
 costal believers. Let us strive to make it ours 
 as well. Let us hold our Prayer Books firmly 
 in our hands. Let us refuse to listen to voices 
 which would fain persuade us to play fast and 
 loose with truth, to evade it, and explain it 
 away. Let us ever bear in mind that our Book 
 of Common Prayer is a positive Book. It 
 affirms truth in the spirit of love clearly and 
 explicitly. It teaches us to say "I believe, I 
 believe." All around us the air is full of eva- 
 sions, interpretations, negations : all around us 
 men are saying " I don't know," " I doubt," 
 " I don't believe," " I can't accept this." Alas, 
 stedfastness was never born of doubt, evasion, 
 negation ; it is made of sterner stuff ; it is the 
 essence of true manhood ; it must rest on solid 
 foundations and these foundations our Prayer 
 Book places beneath our feet in the creeds and 
 sacraments and means of grace. Our founda- 
 tion is Christ, and He is the subject of our Book 
 of Common Prayer. Let us then be stedfast, 
 like the first believers, and uphold the teaching 
 and practice enjoined by our Prayer Book, by 
 leading lives answerable to our profession. You 
 have yet to read and learn how our American 
 Prayer Book was revised a century ago, and 
 how in the present year it comes to us once 
 more revised, and enriched, and completed, 
 
THE REFORMATION PRAYER BOOKS. 73 
 
 and, so to speak, sealed for use without further 
 change we trust for a very long time to come. 
 As you read the chapters which succeed, the 
 conviction will deepen within you, I am sure, 
 that as a Church we have hitherto continued 
 stedfastly in the Apostles' prayers. 
 
EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER 
 BOOKS. 
 
EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER 
 BOOKS. 
 
 It is most fitting that, in connection with 
 the consideration of the Standard Prayer 
 Book of 1892, we should consider the litur- 
 gical work our fathers did, and the guiding 
 principles which gave us the Prayer Book of 
 our first hundred years of life and growth. 
 Within the walls of Christ Church, Philadel- 
 phia, there gathered, day after day, the 
 Churchmen of 1785 and 1789, debating, first, 
 the changes rendered necessary to make the 
 services u conformable to the principles of the 
 American Revolution and the Constitutions of 
 the several States"; and, secondly, the further 
 alterations in the Book of Common Prayer 
 which took shape in the u Proposed Book ; " 
 and then, in 1789, the practical return to the 
 English Prayer Book as a model and guide in 
 forming our present book. We may well and 
 wisely review the work thus done. At our en- 
 trance upon a second century of autonomous 
 existence; at the period in our history when 
 the labours of a decade and more of years of 
 
78 EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 liturgical study and legislation haye resulted in 
 the adoption of a new Standard; we may profit- 
 ably recall the story of the earlier revisions, and 
 review in the light of a century's experience 
 the measures and men of 1785 and 1789. 
 
 A score or more of foolscap sheets, soiled and 
 stained with age, largely in the handwriting of 
 William White, and displaying the cramped, 
 abbreviated style of writing he so uniformly 
 employed, record the "Acts of the Conven- 
 tion of 1785." Of these, " The Alterations 
 agreed upon and confirmed in Convention for 
 rendering the Liturgy conformable to the Prin- 
 ciples of the American Kevolution and the 
 Constitutions of the Several States," afford us 
 the results of the first attempt of our fathers 
 at a revision of the Book of Common Prayer. 
 It is certainly characteristic of the patriotic 
 White, as well as thoroughly consonant with 
 the environment of the revisers of 1785, that 
 this first American liturgical document should 
 begin with words such as these : 
 
 " That in the Suffrages, after the Creed, in- 
 stead of Lord, save the King be said, 
 Lord, Mess and preserve these United States." 
 
 The Churchmen of 1785 were patriots; and 
 the shaping of our services as we have them in 
 the Book of Common Prayer we have used for 
 a hundred years, was done by the very men 
 
EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 79 
 
 who, iu the halls of Congress or on the field of 
 battle, won for us our independence. It was 
 the first expression of the autonomy of the 
 American Church this breathing to the God, 
 who had given us our nationality, of the 
 Church's prayer for the benediction and preser- 
 vation of the United States ! 
 
 Following this patriotic aspiration were di- 
 rections for the omission of the prayers for the 
 reigning family of Great Britain, in the morn- 
 ing and evening services ; the omission of the 
 suffrages of the Litany for the king and royal 
 family ; and the substitution, in place of the suf- 
 frages on behalf of parliament, of the petition, 
 " That it may please Thee to endue the Congress 
 of these United States, and all others in au- 
 thority, legislative, executive, and judicial, 
 with grace, wisdom, and understanding, to ex- 
 ecute justice and to maintain truth." For the 
 Prayer for the High Court of Parliament pre- 
 scribed in the English Office when the Litany 
 was not read, a Prayer for Congress was set 
 forth. The Collect for the King's Majesty was 
 changed so as to comprehend w all in authority, 
 legislative, executive, and judicial, in these 
 United States." The Collects for the king in 
 the Communion Office were omitted, or simi- 
 larly changed. In the answer in the Catechism 
 to the question u What is thy duty towards thy 
 
80 EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 neighbour ? " the words, " To honour and obey 
 the king," were changed so as to read : " To 
 honour and obey my civil rulers." In place 
 of the observance of November 5th, January 
 30th, May 29th, and October 25th, a Service 
 was appointed to "be used on the 4th of July, 
 being the anniversary of Independence." In 
 the Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea, the 
 " United States of America" took the place 
 of the reference to "our most gracious Sov- 
 ereign Lord King George and his kingdom," 
 and the word "island "gave place to "coun- 
 try." The words, "0 Almighty God, the 
 Sovereign Commander," were omitted, and 
 ? ' the honour of our country " was substituted 
 for " the honour of our sovereign." 
 
 These changes were a necessity. At the 
 breaking out of the war, the clergy who con- 
 tinued to use the state prayers in the service 
 were subjected to interruption and insult, and 
 often to personal peril. As the wish for inde- 
 pendence took shape in the minds of the peo- 
 ple, the clergy were forced to face the problem 
 of ceasing their public ministrations, or of 
 omitting these obnoxious prayers. In Christ 
 Church, Philadelphia, the first formal and au- 
 thoritative change in the services took place, ere 
 had ceased the echoes of its chimes, ringing 
 in responsive to the pealing of the State 
 
EARLY AMERICAN 1 81 
 
 House bell the proclamation of liberty to the 
 world. On the 4th of July, 177G, the vestry 
 of this church, from among whoso worship- 
 pers and pew-holders fully half a dozen of the 
 " signers" were furnished, met, and ordered 
 the omission of the prayers for the king and 
 royal family. 1 The Virginia legislature, by 
 formal vote, took the same step the following 
 day. The vestry of Trinity Church, Boston, on 
 
 1 The action of this Vestry, taken at a meeting held 
 at the house of the Rector, the Rev. Jacob Duch6, 
 D.D., on the night of the fourth of July, 177G, was the 
 first official recognition, given by any public body, to the 
 nationality of the United States. It may be truthfully 
 said, that the American Church was thus foremost in 
 recognizing the American State. The original record 
 of this event, in the minutes of the Vestry, is carefully 
 preserved in the archives of Christ Church. The 
 resolution adopted reads as follows : " Whereas, the 
 honorable Continental Congress have resolved to declare 
 the American colonies to be free and independent 
 States, in consequence of which it will be proper to 
 omit those petitions in the Liturgy, wherein the King 
 of Great Britain is prayed for, as inconsistent with the 
 said declaration, Therefore, resolved that it appears 
 to this Vestry to bo necessary, for the peace and well 
 being of the Churches, to omit the said petitions ; and 
 the rector and assistant ministers of the united 
 Churches are requested in the name of the Vestry and 
 their constituents, to omit such petitions as are above 
 mentioned." Ed. 
 
82 EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 the receipt of the news of the Declaration of 
 Independence, requested their rector the ex- 
 cellent Parker, afterward the second Bishop 
 of Massachusetts to omit the same prayers. 
 Elsewhere this course was followed, either by 
 vestry-vote or in glad recognition of the fact 
 so often asserted by our fathers, and expressed 
 in their own language in the preface to our 
 Book of Common Prayer, that, " When, in the 
 course of Divine Providence, these American 
 States became independent with respect to 
 civil government, their ecclesiastical independ- 
 ence was necessarily included." We may then, 
 in this connection, seek to emphasize the his- 
 toric statement, that in Christ Church, Phila- 
 delphia, and by the formal act of its con- 
 stituted authorities, the Prayer Book of our 
 fathers was first adapted to the change in 
 the civil relations of the people, and the free- 
 dom of the American Church from the duty 
 of recognizing an alien ruler and a foreign 
 domination first fully asserted to the world. 
 Honour, then, is rightly due to the vestry and 
 people of the united congregations of Christ 
 Church and St. Peter's, who were thus the 
 pioneers in the work of American liturgical 
 revision. 
 
 Bishop White tells us that at the assembling 
 of the Convention of 1785 in Christ Church, 
 
EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 83 
 
 Philadelphia, few if any of the delegates 
 contemplated other or further changes in the 
 Prayer Book than were necessary to make its 
 language conform to the altered condition of 
 civil affairs. The fundamental principles first 
 formulated in White's own statesman-like essay 
 on Hie Case of the Episcopal Churches Consid- 
 ered, and clearly enunciated at the preliminary 
 Convention of 1784 held in New York, and 
 more generally attended than the meetings 
 prior to the second Convention of 17S9 ex- 
 pressly limited the alterations of the liturgy to 
 those rendered necessary by the civil independ- 
 ence already secured. In Connecticut and 
 throughout New England, and, in fact, to a 
 large extent in New York and New Jersey, 
 the clergy and laity deemed themselves incom- 
 petent to undertake the revision of the liturgy 
 while destitute of the episcopal order. So 
 widely did this principle obtain that the 
 Assembly of Virginia restrained the clergy by 
 specific enactment from consenting directly or 
 indirectly " to any alterations in the order, gov- 
 ernment, doctrine, or worship of the Church." 
 It was but natural then, that the earliest repre- 
 sentative gathering of American Churchmen 
 from the various States laid down as a prin- 
 ciple of the Church's organization, that it "shall 
 maintain the doctrines of the Gospel as now 
 
84 EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 held by the Church of England, and shall 
 adhere to the liturgy of the said Church, as far 
 as shall be consistent with the American Bevo- 
 lution and the Constitutions of the respective 
 States." 
 
 Even as late as May, 1785, the Convention 
 of Virginia, untrammelled by the " fundamen- 
 tal principles M of the meeting in New York 
 in 1784, gave an unwilling sanction to a review 
 of the Prayer Book, accompanying its assent 
 with the requirement of the use of the English 
 book " with such alterations as the American 
 ^Revolution has rendered necessary." 
 
 In the interval between the preliminary meet- 
 ing of 1784, in New York, and the gathering in 
 Christ Church, Philadelphia, of the Conven- 
 tion of 1785, Seabury had been consecrated by 
 the Scottish Bishops for Connecticut, and had 
 been enthusiastically welcomed to his see by 
 the representative Churchmen of New Eng- 
 land and New York. At his first Convocation, 
 held a few weeks before the meeting in Phila- 
 delphia, in the autumn of 1785, the Bishop of 
 Connecticut, with the Kev. Samuel Parker, 
 of Trinity Church, Boston, afterward Bishop 
 of Massachusetts ; the Eev. Benjamin Moore, 
 afterward Bishop of New York, and the Eev. 
 Abraham Jarvis, Seabury's successor in the see 
 of Connecticut, gave careful consideration to 
 
EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 85 
 
 the matter of Prayer-Book alterations ; but 
 their action was confined to the changes deemed 
 necessary to accommodate the Prayer-Book ser- 
 vices to the civil constitution. " Should moro 
 be done," writes Seabury to White, in giving an 
 account of the Middletown Convocation, M it 
 must be a work of time and great deliberation. " 
 A Convention of the churches of Massachusetts, 
 New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, held in 
 September, 1785, ratified the omissions and al- 
 terations agreed upon at Middletown, and 
 postponed action on other proposed changes 
 till after the Convocation appointed to meet at 
 New Haven, and the Convention about to con- 
 vene in Philadelphia. 
 
 Few more notable gatherings than that 
 assembled in Christ Church, Philadelphia, in 
 September, 1785, are recorded in our ecclesi- 
 astical annals. Sixteen clergymen and twenty- 
 one laymen, of whom five clergymen and thir- 
 teen laymen were from Pennsylvania, and one 
 clergyman and six laymen from Delaware, 
 formed this body, which organized under the 
 presidency of William White, with the Rev. Da- 
 vid Griffith, of Virginia Washington's friend 
 and rector as Secretary. It is safe to assert 
 that whatever may have been the results of 
 this meeting, the rector and representatives of 
 Christ Church, Philadelphia, certainly shaped 
 
86 EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 its measures and largely influenced its decis- 
 ions. Within these very walls, consecrated to 
 Church and country where, a year before, the 
 first ecclesiastical convention or council com- 
 posed of laymen as well as clergymen known 
 in ecclesiastical history had convened, it was 
 fitting that the organization of the Church 
 at large should be attempted. In this ven- 
 erable church, after deliberations and dis- 
 cussions occupying the careful thought and 
 the earnest prayer of some of the foremost men 
 of the time in Church and State, the foun- 
 dations of the autonomous American Church 
 were laid broad and deep. On these founda- 
 tions was wisely, firmly, prayerfully, built the 
 City of our God. Of these shapely stones was 
 erected the fair structure, compactly fashioned, 
 of the American Church. Within Christ 
 Church walls, and under the overarching roof 
 of this sacred fane, the corner-stone of our ec- 
 clesiastical system was laid. 
 
 The Convention of 1785 ratified and adopted 
 the alterations of which we have already 
 spoken, as required by the changed conditions 
 of civil affairs. But while this was the limit 
 of its liturgical revision, so far as any formal 
 or authoritative legislation was concerned, the 
 Convention at the very outset assigned to the 
 committee appointed to report the alterations 
 
EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER B00K8. 87 
 
 contemplated by the fourth fundamental prin- 
 ciple, adopted by the New York meeting in 
 1874, the consideration of "such further alter- 
 ations in the liturgy as may bo advisable for 
 this Convention to recommend to the consid- 
 eration of the Church here represented." The 
 names of this committee are those of the lead- 
 ing churchmen of the time. The clergymen 
 were Provoost, of New York, afterward bishop; 
 Abraham Beach, of New Jersey, one of the 
 earliest to move in the matter of the organ- 
 ization of the American Church ; White, of 
 Pennsylvania, whose duties as president of the 
 Convention practically prevented his service 
 on the committee ; Wharton, of Delaware, the 
 first convert of the American Church from 
 the Roman obedience ; William Smith, removed 
 from the charge of the College and Academy of 
 Philadelphia, and now President of Washing- 
 ton College, Chestertown, Md., and Bishop- 
 elect of the Church in that State; Griffith, 
 afterward Bishop-elect of Virginia ; and Pur- 
 cell, a brilliant but erratic clergyman of South 
 Carolina. Of the laity there were the Hon. 
 James Duane,ofNew York, a patriot and states- 
 man ; Patrick Dennis, of New Jersey, a man of 
 character and note ; Richard Peters, of Penn- 
 sylvania, a scholar, a jurist, and a vestryman 
 of Christ Church ; James Sykes, of Delaware, 
 
88 EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 who had won distinction in the war ; Dr. 
 Thomas Craddock, of Maryland, a man of 
 high character and wide influence ; John 
 Page, one of Virginia's most noted sons ; and 
 the Hon. Jacob Read, of South Carolina, a 
 leading patriot and publicist of his native 
 State. 
 
 The pages of the Journal contain little in- 
 formation as to the debates in committee 
 or in Convention attending the preparation 
 of what is known in liturgical history as 
 the "Proposed Book." Bishop White, in 
 his Memoirs of the Church, adds but brief 
 details to the scanty information which may 
 be gathered incidentally from the manuscript 
 memoranda and the unpublished or printed 
 correspondence of the time. The changes 
 finally agreed upon, comprising a thorough 
 review of the Liturgy and Articles of Religion, 
 were "proposed and recommended " for adop- 
 tion at a subsequent Convention. The altera- 
 tions were reported to the committee we have 
 named by a sub-committee, of which the Eev. 
 Dr. William Smith was the leading spirit. 
 We have the testimony of Bishop White that 
 they were not reconsidered in the committee 
 to which they were reported, and that even on 
 their presentation in Convention " there were 
 but few points canvassed with any material 
 
IARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 89 
 
 difference of opinion." They were chiefly the 
 work of the Rev. Dr. William Smith, whose 
 preeminent part in this task of revision re- 
 ceived the grateful acknowledgments of the 
 Convention. To him, in connection with the 
 Rev. Drs. White and Wharton, the publication 
 of the Proposed Book was assigned. A wide 
 liberty in the matter of further emendations 
 or corrections was entrusted to, or certainly 
 exercised by, the committee, and the published 
 correspondence of its members carefully pre- 
 served by Smith and issued within the last 
 few years by authority of the General Conven- 
 tion is the chief source of our knowledge of 
 the principles guiding the proposed revision, 
 and the changes adopted as the volume passed 
 through the press. 
 
 With only marginal notes of the omissions 
 and additions which had been approved ; cor- 
 recting in manuscript the English books 
 already in use, and with the manuscript 
 schedule of changes suggested and proposed 
 a document still extant, and in its cramped 
 chirography, with all its interlineations, cor- 
 rections, erasures, fac-similed as one of our 
 earliest liturgical authorities the Convention, 
 as a body, concluded its work of revision. There 
 was no time or opportunity during the progress 
 of the work of revision by the Convention, for 
 
90 EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 putting these changes authoritatively in print. 
 Still, the Daily Morning Service, as proposed 
 by the committee, was used on the closing day 
 of the Convention. The Journal records, un- 
 der date of Friday, October 7, 1785, as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 " The Convention met, according to adjourn- 
 ment, and attended Divine Service in Christ 
 Church ; when the Liturgy, as altered, was 
 read by the Eev. Dr. White, and a suitable 
 sermon was preached by the Eev. Dr. Smith, 
 after which the Convention adjourned, etc." 
 For this sermon Dr. Smith received the thanks 
 of the Convention. In referring to the work of 
 revision, he alludes in his discourse to the work 
 of the Convention as that " of taking up our 
 Liturgy or Public Service where our former 
 venerable Reformers had been obliged to leave 
 it ; and of proposing to the Church at large 
 such further alterations and improvements as 
 the length of time, the progress in manners 
 and civilization, the increase and diffusion of 
 charity and toleration among all Christian de- 
 nominations, and other circumstances (some 
 of them peculiar to our situation among the 
 highways and hedges of this new world) seem 
 to have rendered absolutely necessary." 
 
 In this hasty revision, as adopted in Con- 
 vention or published to the world by the 
 
EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 91 
 
 Committee, additional sentences were prefixed 
 to the Order for Morning and Evening Prayer ; 
 the word " Absolution " was omitted from the 
 rubrics in the Daily Office ; grammatical 
 changes were made in the Lord's Prayer ; the 
 use of the Gloria Patri was limited to its 
 recital at the end of the " Reading Psalms ; " 
 in the Te Deum in place of " honourable " was 
 substituted "adorable, true, and only Son," 
 and for the phrase "didst not abhor the 
 Virgin's womb" was inserted "did6t humble 
 Thyself to be born of a pure Virgin;" the 
 choice of Psalms and Lessons was left at the 
 discretion of the minister; in the Apostles' 
 Creed the article " He descended into hell " was 
 omitted; the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds 
 were omitted ; the suffrages after the bidding to 
 prayer were abbreviated ; the lesser Litany was 
 shortened ; for archaic words modern equiva- 
 lents were substituted; verbal changes were 
 made in the various Offices; parents were 
 allowed to be sponsors ; the omission of the sign 
 of the cross in baptisms, when particularly 
 desired, was authorized ; the phrases "I plight 
 thee my troth," and "With my body I thee 
 worship, " and " pledged their troth either to 
 other" in the Marriage Service were omitted ; 
 in the Burial Office the restriction as to the use 
 of the service in the case of those unbaptized 
 
92 EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 was removed ; the form of absolution in the 
 Visitation Office was omitted and the "declara- 
 tion" in the Daily Offices substituted in its 
 place; a form of prayer, etc., for prisoners, 
 agreed upon by the Irish archbishops, bishops, 
 and clergy in 1711, was adopted with modifica- 
 tions, such as the substitution of the " declara- 
 tion " for the absolution, and the omission of 
 the short collect, "0 Saviour of the world," 
 etc. ; in the Catechism the reply to the question, 
 "When did you receive this name?" was 
 changed as follows : u I received it in baptism, 
 whereby I became a member of the Christian 
 Church ; n instead of the words " verily, and 
 indeed taken" in the explanation of the sacra- 
 ments, was substituted the phrase ' ' spiritually 
 taken ; " the number of the sacraments was 
 expressly limited to "two, Baptism and the 
 Lord's Supper ; " a special prayer was substi- 
 tuted to be used after the General Thanksgiving 
 instead of the Service for the Churching of 
 Women ; the Commination Office was omitted, 
 the three collects being placed among the occa- 
 sional prayers; twenty only of the XXXIX. 
 Articles were retained, and these were pruned 
 and modified in their language ; for the Psalter 
 there were inserted selections arranged for the 
 morning and evening services for thirty days ; 
 some of the Psalms were wholly omitted and 
 
\RLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 others considerably abbreviated, the design be- 
 ing to obviate the necessity of reading in public 
 the " imprecatory " passages; a service was pic- 
 pared for the Fourth of July ; eighty-four selec- 
 tions of Psalms in metro were added, and fifty- 
 one hymns ; four leaves of tunes, with the notes 
 engraved, were added at the close of the work. 
 The title of this rare volume, of which four 
 thousand copies were issued, but of which only 
 a few still exist, is as follows : 
 
 " The Book of Common Prayer, And Admin- 
 istration of the Sacraments, And other Rites 
 and Ceremonies, As revised and proposed to the 
 Use of the Protestant Episcopal Church, At a 
 Convention of the said Church in the States 
 of New- York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela- 
 ware, Maryland, Virginia, And South-Carolina, 
 Held in Philadelphia, from September 27th to 
 October 7th, 1785. Philadelphia : Printed 
 by Hall and Sellers : MDCCLXXXVI." 
 
 This work was reprinted in London in 1789, 
 and was highly praised in a critical notice in 
 the Monthly Review (vol. 80, p. 337). It was 
 reprinted in the Rev. Peter Hall's ReliquicB 
 Liturgicce, and within the last few years again 
 and again as one of the documents of the 
 " Reformed Episcopal Church." The original 
 is one of the costliest as well as rarest of the 
 ecclesiastical " Americana " of the period. 
 
94 EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 The Proposed Book, after many and vexa- 
 tious delays, at length appeared in print. Its 
 reception, complete and in binding, is recorded 
 by Dr. Smith in a letter addressed to Dr. 
 White under date of April 29, 1786. Its 
 publication awakened no enthusiasm, and it 
 was soon evident, to quote the testimony of 
 Bishop White, u that, in regard to the Liturgy, 
 the labors of the Convention had not reached 
 their object." Even the committee entrusted 
 with the preparation of the volume for the 
 press felt and confessed the imperfection of 
 their work. u We can only, in the different 
 States," writes Dr. William Smith to the Rev. 
 Dr. Parker, of Massachusetts, under date of 
 April 17, 1786, u receive the book for tempo- 
 rary use till our churches are organized and 
 the book comes again under review of Con- 
 ventions having their bishops, etc., as the 
 primitive rules of episcopacy require." South 
 Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsyl- 
 vania proposed amendments to the com- 
 mittee's work. No Convention met in Dela- 
 ware, and consequently no action respecting 
 the book was taken. New Jersey formally 
 rejected the proposed revision, and memori- 
 alized the General Convention of 1786 with 
 respect to " the unseasonableness and irregu- 
 larity" of the alterations made by the com- 
 
EARLY AMERICAN PRATER BOOKS. 95 
 
 mittee of publication without the "revision 
 and express approbation of the Convention 
 itself. " 
 
 The Convention of New York postponed 
 the question of the ratification of the Proposed 
 Book, " out of respect to the English bishops, 
 and because the minds of the people are not 
 yet sufficiently informed. " The prospect of the 
 success of the efforts of the Convention of 1785, 
 for securing the episcopate in the English line 
 of succession, served materially to hinder the 
 ratification and general use of the Proposed 
 Book. The objections urged by Bishop Sea- 
 bury and the New England Churchmen to its 
 adoption seemed cogent and convincing when 
 echoed by the English archbishops and bish- 
 ops. Some of the most glaring defects in this 
 hasty and ill-considered revision were obviated 
 by the action of the "Wilmington Conven- 
 tion of 1786. The mutilation of the Apos- 
 tles' Creed, and the rejection of the Nicene 
 Symbol were now no longer insisted upon. The 
 omitted clause, " He descended into hell," was 
 restored to the Apostles' Creed, and the Nicene 
 Creed was replaced in the Daily Offices. The 
 temper of the times was becoming conservative. 
 Catholic truth, as held by Seabury and the 
 Churchmen at the North, was no longer de- 
 cried. The crudity and incompleteness of the 
 
96 EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 proposed revision was confessed by all. It 
 practically died in the effort that gave it birth. 
 The action of the Wilmington Convention 
 in removing the objections of the English arch- 
 bishops and bishops to imparting the succes- 
 sion to the American Church, sealed the fate 
 of the Proposed Book. Its use had never been 
 general, and in all but a few churches it was 
 now forever laid aside. In New England, its 
 adoption by Trinity Church, Boston, was only 
 temporary. At Trinity, Newport, R. L, the 
 attempt to introduce it, we are told by Bishop 
 Seabury, was productive of consequences 
 threatening the very life of the parish. Con- 
 necticut never admitted its use in any of its 
 churches, and in New York the influence of 
 Provoost was insufficient to secure its general 
 introduction. It was used for a time in 
 Christ Church, Philadelphia, as in numerous 
 churches in the Middle and Southern States, 
 but its omissions and alterations were gen- 
 erally distasteful, and it was, in all cases, 
 after a brief time laid aside. The clergy re- 
 turned to the use of their old office books, 
 the changes being noted in manuscript, as 
 in the case of the Christ Church Prayer Books 
 of the day, still religiously preserved, and 
 showing the alterations made to render the 
 service conformable to our civil independence 
 
EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 97 
 
 and the constitutions of the independent 
 States. 
 
 On the eve of the Convention of 1789, under 
 date of June 20 of that year, Bishop Seabury 
 gave fully and without reserve his criticisms on 
 the Proposed Book to his episcopal brother of 
 Pennsylvania : 
 
 Was it not that it would run this letter to an unrea- 
 sonable length, I would take the liberty to mention at 
 large the objections here made to the Prayer Book pub- 
 lished at Philadelphia. I will confine myself to a few, 
 and even these I would not mention but from a hope they 
 will be obviated by your Convention. The mutilating 
 the Psalms is supposed to be an unwarrantable liberty, 
 and such as was never before taken with Holy Scriptures 
 by any Church. It destroys that beautiful chain of 
 prophecy that runs through them, and turns their 
 application from Messiah and the Church to the 
 temporal state and concerns of individuals. By dis- 
 carding the word Absolution, and making no mention 
 of Regeneration in Baptism, you appear to give up 
 those points, and to open the door to error and delusion. 
 The excluding of the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds has 
 alarmed the steady friends of our Church, lest the 
 doctrine of Christ's Divinity should go out with them. 
 If the doctrine of those Creeds be offensive, we are 
 sorry for it, and shall hold ourselves so much the more 
 bound to retain them. If what are called the dam- 
 natory clauses in the latter be the objection, cannot 
 these clauses be supported by Scripture? Whether they 
 can or cannot, why not discard these clauses, and 
 retain the doctrinal part of the Creed? The leaving 
 7 
 
98 EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 out the descent into Hell from the Apostles' Creed 
 seems to be of dangerous consequence. Have we a 
 right to alter the analogy of faith handed down to us 
 by the Holy Catholic Church ? And if we do alter it, 
 how will it appear that we are the same Church which 
 subsisted in primitive times ? The article of the 
 descent, I suppose, was put into the Creed to ascertain 
 Christ's perfect humanity, that he has a human soul, 
 in opposition to those heretics who denied it and 
 affirmed that this body was actuated by the divinity. 
 For if when he died, and his body was laid in the grave, 
 his soul went to the place of departed spirits, then he 
 had a human soul as well as a body, and was very 
 and perfect man. The Apostles' Creed seems to have 
 been the Creed of the Western Church ; the Nicene of 
 the Eastern, and the Athanasian to be designed to 
 ascertain the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, against 
 all opposers. And it always appeared to me, that the 
 design of the Church of England, in retaining the 
 three Creeds, was to show that she did retain the anal- 
 ogy of the Catholic faith, in common with the East- 
 ern and Western Church, and in opposition to those 
 who denied the Trinity of Persons in the Unity of 
 the Divine Essence. Why any departure should be 
 made from the good and pious example I am yet to 
 seek. 
 
 There seems in your book a dissonance between the 
 offices of Baptism and Confirmation. In the latter 
 there is a renewal of a vow, which in the former does 
 not appear to have been explicitly made. Something 
 of the same discordance appears in the Catechism. 
 
 Our regard for primitive practice makes us exceed- 
 ingly grieved that you have not absolutely retained 
 the sign of the Cross in Baptism. When I consider 
 
EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER B00K8. 99 
 
 the practice of the ancient Church, before Popery had 
 a being, I cannot think the Church of England justifi- 
 able in giving up the sign of the Cross, where it was 
 retained by the first Prayer Book of Edward the VI. 
 Her motive may have been good ; but good motives 
 will not justify wrong actions. The concessions she 
 has made in giving up several primitive, and I sup- 
 pose, apostolical usages, to gratify the humours of 
 fault-finding men, shows the inefficacy of such con- 
 duct. She has learned wisdom from her experiences. 
 Why should not we also take a lessou in her school ? 
 If the humour be pursued of giving up points on every 
 demand, in fifty years we shall scarce have the name 
 of Christianity left. For God's sake, my dear sir, let 
 us remember that it is the particular business of the 
 Bishops of Christ's Church to preserve it pure and 
 undefiled, in faith and practice, according to the model 
 left by apostolic practice. And may God give you grace 
 and courage to act accordingly ! 
 
 In your Burial Office, the hope of a future resurrec- 
 tion to eternal .life is too faintly expressed, and the 
 acknowledgment of an intermediate state, between 
 death and the resurrection, seems to be entirely thrown 
 out ; though, that this was a Catholic, primitive and 
 apostolical doctrine, will be denied by none who attend 
 to this point. 
 
 The Articles seem to be altered to little purpose. 
 The doctrines are neither more clearly expressed nor 
 better guarded ; nor are the objections to the old Arti- 
 cles obviated. And, indeed, this seems to have been 
 the case with several other alterations : they appear to 
 have been made for alteration's sake, and at least have 
 not mended the matter they aimed at. 
 
 That the most exceptionable part of the English book 
 
100 EARLY AMERICAN" PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 is the Communion Office may be proved by a number of 
 very respectable names among her clergy. The grand 
 fault in that Office is the deficiency of a more formal 
 Oblation of the Elements, and of the Invocation of the 
 Holy Ghost to sanctify and bless them. The Consecra- 
 tion is made to consist merely in the Priest's laying his 
 hands on the elements and pronouncing, " This is my 
 Body" etc., which words are not consecration at all, 
 nor were they addressed by Christ to the Father, but 
 were declarative to the Apostles. This is so exactly 
 symbolizing with the Church of Rome in an error; an 
 error, too, on which the absurdity of Transubstantia" 
 tion is built, that nothing but having fallen into the 
 same error, themselves, could have prevented the en- 
 emies of the Church from casting it in her teeth. The 
 efficacy of Baptism, of Confirmation, of Orders, is as- 
 cribed to the Holy Ghost, and his energy is implored 
 for that purpose ; and why he should not be in- 
 volved in the consecration of the Eucharist, especially 
 as all the old Liturgies are full to the point, I cannot 
 conceive. It is much easier to account for the altera- 
 tions of the first Liturgy of Edward the VI., than to 
 justify them ; and as I have been told there is a vote 
 on the minutes of your Convention, anno 1786, I 
 believe, for the revision of this matter, I hope it will 
 be taken up, and that God will raise up some able and 
 worthy advocate for this primitive practice, and make 
 you and the Convention the instruments of restoring it 
 to His Church in America. It would do you more 
 honour in the world and contribute more to the union of 
 the Churches than any other alterations you can make, 
 and would restore the Holy Eucharist to its ancient 
 dignity and efficacy. . . . 
 Hoping that all obstructions may be removed by your 
 
EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 101 
 
 Convention, and beseeching Almighty God to direct us 
 in this great work of establishing and building up the 
 Church in peace and unity, truth and charity, and 
 purity, I remain with great regard and esteem, 
 Your affectionate Brother and very humble Servant, 
 
 Samuel Bp. Connect. 1 
 
 No more able or convincing arguments could 
 have been prepared. The words of Seabury in 
 this critique are worthy of the closest reading, 
 the most careful consideration. They give us 
 in calm and temperate language the plea of the 
 New England churches, and their spiritual 
 head, for the primitive faith and order, and the 
 Catholic use. 
 
 In 1789 the General Convention of the 
 churches in the Middle and Southern States 
 again convened in Christ Church, Philadelphia, 
 but the desire for unity dominated in every mind 
 the wish for liturgical changes or omissions. 
 To the episcopate of Seabury, secured in 1784 
 from the Catholic remainder of the Church in 
 Scotland, had been added the English succes- 
 sion conferred on White and Provoost at Lam- 
 beth, in 1787. The churches of the New 
 England States recognized Seabury as their 
 head. The churches of the Middle States 
 
 1 First printed in Perry's Hist. Notes and Documents, 
 pp. 386-388, forming Vol. III. of The Reprint of the 
 Early Journals, 1785-1835. 
 
102 EARLY AMERICAN PRATER BOOKS. 
 
 and those at the southward were united in 
 their acceptance of the episcopate as received 
 from the Mother Church of England. To 
 bring together the long-parted and oft-times 
 contending Churchmen of the North and 
 South was the desire of well-nigh every heart. 
 Through the mediatorial offices of Parker, 
 of Massachusetts seconding and furthering 
 measures recommended and approved, if not 
 first suggested, by William White this blessed 
 union and comprehension were happily effected. 
 The steps taken at the first Convention of 1789, 
 held, as so many of our noteworthy ecclesiastical 
 assemblages have been from the first, in Christ 
 Church, Philadelphia, resulted, on the occasion 
 of the second gathering of the Church in Con- 
 vention in the same place and the same year, in 
 the welcoming of Seabury and the New England 
 deputies to what was now in its fullest, truest 
 sense a General Convention of the Church 
 in the United States. In the State House, in 
 the apartments of the General Assembly of the 
 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to which the 
 General Convention had adjourned the day be- 
 fore, on Friday, October 2, 1789, by the signing 
 of the amended Constitution, changed with 
 this end in view, by Seabury and the New Eng- 
 land deputies, the American Church was at 
 length at unity in herself. 
 
EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 103 
 
 The revision of the Liturgy was now a 
 primary duty. The Proposed Book does not 
 appear as a factor in the revision of 1789, 
 which gave us the Prayer Book we now, after 
 a century's use, lay aside for the Standard of 
 1892. Bishop White had also written to Sea- 
 bury under date of May 21, 1787, that "if it 
 should be thought advisable by y e general 
 body of our Church to adhere to y* English 
 Book of Common Prayer (y e political parts 
 excepted), I shall be one of y e first after y* 
 appearance of such a disposition, to comply 
 with it most punctual^. 
 
 "Further than this, if it should seem y # 
 more probable way of maintaining an agree- 
 ment among ourselves, I shall use my best en- 
 deavours to effect it. At y e same time, I must 
 candidly express my opinion, that y* review of 
 y* Liturgy would tend very much to y a satis- 
 faction of most of y* members of our com- 
 munion, and to its future success and prosper- 
 ity. The worst evil which I apprehend from 
 a refusal to review is this, that it will give a 
 great advantage to those who wish to carry y* 
 alterations into essential points of doctrine. 
 Reviewed it will unquestionably be in some 
 places, and y* only way to prevent its being 
 done by men of y* above description, is y* 
 taking it up as a general business." 
 
104 EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 Seabury had written to Parker, of Boston, 
 under date of February 13, 1788: "I never 
 thought there was any heterodoxy in the 
 Southern Prayer Book, but I do think the true 
 doctrine is left too unguarded, and that the 
 offices are some of them lowered to such a 
 degree that they will, in a great measure, lose 
 their influence. " 
 
 It was, therefore, with the full approval of 
 the men who certainly occupied representative 
 positions in the churches both of the Northern, 
 the Middle, and the Southern States, that the 
 u Proposed Book " was laid upon the shelf at the 
 meeting in 1789. The New England deputies, 
 under the lead of Dr. Parker, of Massachu- 
 setts, who voiced the views and wishes of Sea- 
 bury, " proposed that the English book should 
 be the ground of the proceedings held, without 
 any reference to that set out and proposed in 
 1785." Others contended that a liturgy should 
 be framed de novo, " without any reference to 
 any existing book, although with liberty to 
 take from any, whatever the Convention should 
 think fit." The result of this discussion, so 
 far as the House of Deputies was concerned, 
 is seen in " the wording of the resolves as they 
 stand in the Journal, in which the different 
 committees are appointed, to prepare a Morn- 
 ing and Evening Prayer, to prepare a Litany, 
 
EARLY AMERICAN PRAY1.R BOOKS. 105 
 
 to prepare a Communion Service/' and the 
 same in regard to the other offices of the Prayer 
 Book. The phraseology employed in 1785 was 
 to alter the services respectively. The latitude 
 of change this action of the House of Deputies 
 seemed to justify, was essentially modified by 
 the general disposition of the Convention to 
 vary the new book as little as possible from the 
 English model, and the further circumstance 
 that the House of Bishops u adopted a contrary 
 course." 
 
 To -this House of Bishops, meeting in the 
 Committee Room of the House of Assembly, 
 and later, when "the public service" required 
 the use of this apartment, in the Apparatus 
 Room of the College of Philadelphia, after di- 
 vine service each day in Christ Church or at the 
 College Chapel, and consisting only of Seabury 
 as Presiding Bishop, and William White Pro- 
 voost being absent is due much of the conserv- 
 atism and Catholicity of the revision of 1789 
 as contrasted with the abortive attempt of 1785. 
 The alterations, other than those of a political 
 nature which had been earlier agreed upon, were 
 mainly verbal, with the omission of repetitions. 
 Additions were made to the Occasional Prayers ; 
 Selections of Psalms were inserted ; and the 
 Office for the Visitation of Prisoners, from 
 the Irish Prayer Book, was retained. A Form of 
 
106 EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 
 
 Prayer and Thanksgiving for the Fruits of the 
 Earth was adopted thus, first of all Christian 
 bodies in this land, nationalizing the Thanks- 
 giving observance. Forms of Prayer for Family 
 Use, condensed from those of Bishop Gibson, 
 were inserted. Besides these changes, Bishop 
 Seabury obtained the restoration to the Prayer 
 of Consecration in the Holy Communion Office, 
 of the Oblation and Invocation found in King 
 Edward VI.'s first Prayer Book and retained 
 in the Scotch Office. 
 
 In this notable improvement of the Liturgy, 
 Seabury secured for the American revision of 
 1789 a closer conformity in the Eucharist ic 
 Office to primitive models, and fully met the 
 requirement of the Concordat he had signed 
 with the Scottish bishops on his elevation to 
 the episcopate. 
 
 It is thus that there has come down to us from 
 the primitive days, the prayers of the saints, in 
 the form and manner we have used them in 
 our public devotions for a hundred years. Ours 
 is the heritage of prayer coming from the his- 
 toric past, and the very history of revisions 
 and changes has an interest and value all 
 will confess. ' ' The prayers of my mother 
 the Church," cried the dying George Her- 
 bert "there are no prayers like hers." And 
 we, conscious of what was secured to us by the 
 
EARLY AMERICAN PRAYER BOOKS. 107 
 
 men and measures of 1789, may thank God for 
 the gift to us of that incomparable book of 
 devotion which, with the slight changes and en- 
 richments of our own revision, will, as we fondly 
 believe, be to us in the years to come what our 
 fathers' book of 1789 has been to us for the first 
 century of our independent life. For the re- 
 vision of 1789 both for what it was and for 
 what it superseded we may ever thank our 
 own and our fathers' God. 
 
THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 
 
THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 
 
 The subject which is assigned to me is in a 
 way the easiest, and in a way the most diffi- 
 cult, of the four subjects. It is the easiest, be- 
 cause it deals with questions so recent and so 
 fresh in all our minds as to require only the 
 recall of things with which we are virtually 
 familiar. It is the most difficult, because it 
 lacks the charm of antiquarian research, and 
 has to do rather with surface matters than 
 with questions that lie in the deeper waters of 
 history and doctrine. 
 
 It will be remembered, that in the Conven- 
 tion of 1880 a resolution was introduced into 
 the House of Deputies in the following lan- 
 guage : "Resolved, That a joint committee, 
 to consist of seven bishops, seven presbyters, 
 and seven laymen, be appointed to consider, 
 and to report to the next General Convention, 
 whether, in view of the fact that this Church 
 is soon to enter upon the second century of 
 its organized existence in this country, the 
 changed conditions of the national life do not 
 demand certain alterations in the Book of 
 
112 THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 
 
 Common Prayer in the direction of litur- 
 gical enrichment and increased flexibility of 
 use." 
 
 It is a very striking fact, that the Conven- 
 tion of 1889 at which a considerable number 
 of changes were finally adopted, and at which 
 all changes that have now been made were 
 acted on for the first time synchronized en- 
 tirely with the beginning of the second century 
 of the organized existence of the Church in 
 this country. For it was on October 2d, 1889, 
 the actual centennial anniversary of the day 
 when the three bishops met first in Christ 
 Church, Philadelphia, and organized the Up- 
 per House of the General Convention, that the 
 opening service of the late General Convention 
 was held in St. George's Church, New York, 
 and the two houses met for organization. 
 
 And it is a coincidence not to be omitted 
 from our thoughts, that the completed Prayer 
 Book is established in what is called the " Co- 
 lumbian " year : so that it becomes us, I think, 
 to bear in mind that a service in the English 
 tongue, after the manner of the English 
 Church, was the first that consecrated to God 
 the soil of this North American continent. In 
 the name of his sovereign, Henry VII., Sebas- 
 tian Cabot took possession of the new-found 
 land, which he called Prima Vista the first 
 
THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 113 
 
 seen and held a religious service there, and 
 sailed from that northern point perhaps as far 
 as Florida, -the Prima- Vera lands of constant 
 Spring. So that neither to Roman nor to Span- 
 ish influence in speech or faith, but to the 
 religion and the language of the Anglo-Saxon 
 people, are due the opening of the new world 
 in which we live, and the bringing of that new 
 land into subjection to Christ our Lord. 
 
 It is inevitably suggested by the language of 
 the resolution, that we appointed the joint com- 
 mittee to trace out the course of action along 
 the three lines : the changed conditions of the 
 national life, liturgical enrichment, and in- 
 creased flexibility of use. 
 
 The changed conditions of our national life 
 would make sufficient theme in themselves. 
 In this Columbian year, when we are observ- 
 ing that which approaches most nearly to 
 antiquity in this new world, the hundred 
 years of ecclesiastical existence seem com- 
 paratively short. And yet not only has the 
 national life grown from the sparse rootings 
 of the great Puritan settlement in New 
 England, and the small and scattered seed 
 of Church of England people and Roman 
 Catholics in Maryland and Virginia, into our 
 great and seething mass of only partially assim- 
 ilated nationalities; but the Church herself 
 8 
 
114 THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 
 
 has grown from a very " little one," straggling 
 with every possible "hindrance and antagonism, 
 into a position where, not perhaps in numbers, 
 but certainly in influence ecclesiastical and 
 religious, and in power of both intellect and 
 wealth, it is almost the dominant religious 
 feature in our national life. And this Church 
 stands to-day, I believe, before a vista of in- 
 creasing influence, which adds intense solem- 
 nity to every action that is proposed in regard 
 to her formularies of order and worship. It 
 seems to me, that the changed conditions of 
 our national life, so far as they affected the 
 action of the committee on the revision of the 
 Book of Common Prayer, ran in two direc- 
 tions. In the first place, the time had come 
 when certain timidities that marred the action 
 of the Convention which set forth the first 
 book, had grown into the courage of taking 
 what was good which had been left out then, 
 and restoring it to its rightful place. Perhaps 
 the most marked illustration of this was in 
 the honesty which withdrew all right to omit 
 from the old Creed the article, " He descended 
 into hell " ; and the reconsideration of the 
 curious and unreasoned fear which had omitted 
 from Evensong the hymn Magnificat, lest, 
 somehow or other, it should seem to imply a 
 worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
 
THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 115 
 
 These two great gains in truth and worship 
 mark progress in our national and ecclesias- 
 tical life. Other than this, I do not think wo 
 have accomplished all that we might have 
 done. I think there should have been a 
 service appointed for the Fourth of July, the 
 keeping of which ought certainly to be ob- 
 served more generally than it is, with more 
 religious recognition of the great Christian 
 duty of patriotism ; and in some better way 
 than by the imitation and importation of the 
 barbarous noises of a barbarous nation. We 
 have gained a special service for the "Harvest 
 Home " ; I wish we might have had some 
 prayer for the country as well. But I am glad 
 that in the Evensong, in the prayer for those 
 in authority, we have got back the statement 
 which impresses upon rulers " Whose author- 
 ity they bear," and upon the ruled, the recog- 
 nition that is due to the powers which " are 
 ordained of God." The careful provisions for 
 dividing and shortening the services, are no 
 unimportant concession, beside, to the changed 
 conditions of our modern life. 
 
 It has been my privilege to be associated 
 with the work of the committee on the revis- 
 ion of the Book of Common Prayer during the 
 twelve years of its existence, serving first 
 under the always inimitable chairmanship of 
 
116 THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 
 
 our Presiding Bishop, and afterwards as chair- 
 man of the committee since 1886. And I desire 
 to bear witness to the fact, that the members 
 of the Commission have approached their work 
 with the fullest sense of its difficulty and deli- 
 cacy ; with the deepest possible reverence for 
 the marvellous compilation they were called 
 to revise ; and with an earnest purpose not to 
 mingle any common clay with its pure gold, or 
 to weave any threads of coarse and common 
 stuff into the exquisite embroidery of Holy 
 Scripture, and of words that have been, not 
 only selected by trained liturgical scholars, but 
 also hallowed by the reverent use of so many 
 centuries. We felt what Stedman has so 
 strongly said, that the ritual of our Episcopal 
 Prayer Book is " the most wonderful symphonic 
 idealization of human faith, certainly the 
 most inclusive, blending in harmonic succes- 
 sion all the cries and longings and laudations 
 of the universal human heart invoking a pater- 
 nal Creator. . . . Upon its mystic tide of 
 human hope, imagination, prayer, sorrows, and 
 passionate expression it bears the worshipper 
 along, and has sustained men's souls with con- 
 ceptions of Deity and immortality throughout 
 hundreds, yes, thousands, of undoubting years. 
 . . . In various and constructive beauty as 
 a work of poetic art it is unparalleled . . . 
 
THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 117 
 
 as a piece of inclusive literature it has no 
 counterpart, and can have no successor." 
 
 The very first thought that occupied the 
 minds of the Commission was to restore lost 
 treasures, because there could be no such litur- 
 gical enrichment as that which would reset old 
 jewels in the crown. And while the last Com- 
 mission has not felt itself bound to follow out 
 the resolution adopted at the very first meeting 
 of the original Commission, to touch nothing 
 that could seem to affect doctrine, it must be 
 plain to anybody who studies the result as it 
 is now finally presented, that neither in the 
 way of diminution nor addition have any doc- 
 trinal changes been introduced. 
 
 The first proposition in 1880, as I remember, 
 struck almost everybody with a sense of sus- 
 picion and alarm. There are great numbers 
 of people in this world to whom any large and 
 strong proposition of this sort suggests at first 
 sight one or the other of two things. And it has 
 been rather curious to notice how this suspicion 
 and alarm have lingered on for twelve years in 
 minds of very different constitution, and for 
 reasons very widely apart ; have hindered and 
 hampered more or less the progress of the work, 
 by a combination of entirely opposite opin- 
 ions against certain phases of it ; and have 
 succeeded, not in preventing the general 
 
118 THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 
 
 purpose, but in seriously marring its perfect- 
 ness. 
 
 The suspicion which haunted the minds of 
 many men, certainly until the first report of 
 the committee was made, was that some secret 
 gall of vagueness and vapidity was concealed 
 under the language of the resolution. And in 
 spite of all the evidence of results, in spite of 
 an acknowledgment all round that the work 
 has been done in no narrow and partisan inter- 
 est, a certain number of individuals in the 
 Church held aloof for a long while from, what 
 I believe that now even they acknowledge in 
 the main to have been, a sound progress in the 
 direction of liturgical improvement. The 
 alarm which filled the minds (not unnat- 
 urally) of the most respectable and venerable 
 body of men, to whom the mere fact of long 
 attachment and association had so endeared 
 the precise shape of the American Book of 
 Common Prayer, that they could not brook 
 the thought of the dotting of an undotted i, 
 or the crossing of an uncrossed t, was that 
 they feared the change would make unfamiliar 
 the beloved features of what had come to be 
 linked in with all the holiest memories of their 
 lives. 
 
 We had to contend at first, also, with a 
 third element smaller, but not therefore less 
 
THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 119 
 
 loud in its utterances of people who desired 
 larger and more sweeping changes, and op- 
 posed the more moderate proposals of the 
 various committees, in the hope that this move- 
 ment being made a failure, room would be 
 made for them, by and by, to carry out their 
 views. In spite of all this, and more and 
 more as the work went on, agreement with 
 wonderful unanimity has been reached in re- 
 gard to the most important changes which the 
 committee proposed. 
 
 We owe, I think, to a combination of feel- 
 ings of this sort, the loss of certain things 
 which, if they could have been secured, would 
 have made the book more perfect than it is. 
 I speak of them first, because, if this is to be 
 historic record, I should be glad to have it 
 known, that not only the Commission but the 
 House of Bishops are on record in favor of the 
 introduction of the English Versicles after 
 the Lord's Prayer at Matins and Evensong ; of 
 the change of the expression in the Prayer for 
 All Conditions of Men, to read, "the good 
 estate of the Catholic Church "; of the per- 
 mission to use the Ninety-fifth Psalm as an 
 alternative form for our present Venite ; of 
 the right to use the thanksgiving, " Thanks 
 be to Thee, Christ/' after the Gospel. More 
 serious, even, I think, than these, was the fail- 
 
120 THE PRAYER BOOK EXRICHED. 
 
 ure to adopt the authorized Collect, Epistle, 
 and Gospel for use when the Holy Communion 
 is celebrated at the time of a burial. And it is 
 greatly to be regretted, it seems to me; because 
 in the growing use of the Holy Communion in 
 connection with burials, which will not and 
 cannot be arrested by this negative action of 
 the House of Deputies, we have failed to seize 
 the opportunity of giving ecclesiastical author- 
 ity and suggestion for the kind of service 
 that is to be used. I think it matter of very 
 serious loss, that the Prayer of Humble Access 
 was not transferred to its much more natural 
 position, which it holds in the Scottish Com- 
 munion Office, namely, immediately before the 
 act of administration of the consecrated Ele- 
 ments, instead of immediately before the act 
 of Consecration. 
 
 There is no need, of course, to argue these 
 things now ; because the wise conclusion has 
 been reached to make no further change, but 
 to take the book as it is now and leave it, as 
 I think it will be left, for many a year. But 
 both as matter of history, and for the credit 
 of the Commission that had the work in charge, 
 it seems to me just and right to make the 
 simple statement of these facts ; and I think 
 it ought to go on record also, that both in the 
 Conventions of 1886 and 1889, whatever was 
 
THK IKAYKR BOOK ENRICHED. 121 
 
 adopted in the House of Bishops was adopted 
 with practical unanimity, and in the House 
 of Deputies with only a very small minority 
 opposed ; that out of thirty-three resolutions 
 proposed by the Commission in 1883, only nine 
 were lost entirely ; that of the one hundred 
 and forty-eight separate propositions which 
 they contained, one hundred and nine were 
 either finally adopted in 1886 or approved. 
 And I go back with infinite thankfulness to 
 the closing scenes of the Convention of 1883, 
 when, in the crowded church, and with the 
 largest representation of dioceses continued 
 to the end that I have ever seen, the vote on 
 the adoption of the committee's amended re- 
 port was made most emphatic in its practical 
 unanimity, as diocese after diocese was called, 
 and answered aye. 
 
 Of the fifty-two resolutions approved in 1889, 
 only seven were not adopted in 1892 ; and two 
 of these losses are real gains, because one of 
 them secures the use of the great Messianic 
 Sixty-ninth Psalm on Good Friday ; and the 
 other removes even the appearance of approv- 
 ing the thought of evening ordinations and cele- 
 brations of the Holy Communion. And it is 
 to be added, here, that the spirit of this last 
 Convention in dealing with the final adoption 
 of the Standard Book of Common Prayer has 
 
122 THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 
 
 been more admirable than ever before, the 
 concurrent action of the two houses more 
 uniform, the majority of votes approaching 
 more nearly to unanimity. And the book 
 itself, with the accessories of printing so 
 perfectly done as to make even the out- 
 ward appearance worthy of its invaluable 
 contents, will stand as a monument of that 
 sort of reverence to the worship of our Blessed 
 Lord which hesitates not to break the "ala- 
 baster box" of precious ointment, "very 
 costly/' so that its richest and its best may 
 be offered as a token of adoring love. 
 
 For the first time in the history of the 
 American Church the Standard Book is really 
 a look, and not an edition; and the shrine is 
 not unworthy of the jewel which it contains. 
 
 It would be very easy to make a sort of cata- 
 logue resume of the results of the revision of 
 the Book of Common Prayer. I am disposed 
 rather to go on the principle of selection and 
 classification. 
 
 Clear out above other gains, to me, stands 
 the reparation we have made, in completing 
 the list of the festivals of our dear Lord, by 
 making full provision of services for the keep- 
 ing of the great Feast of the Transfiguration 
 marred not a little, and diminished somewhat 
 in its value, by the unreasoning and unfortu- 
 
THE PRAYER BOOK ENBICHED. 123 
 
 nate position it is made to occupy in the 
 Christian year; becauso it surely ought to 
 have come somewhere in Epiphany time, and 
 surely ought not to have come at a time of 
 the year, when so many of our congregations 
 are scattered to the four quarters of the world. 
 Nevertheless it is true, that it has been vouch- 
 safed to us in the American Church, to dig- 
 nify this marvellous manifestation of our dear 
 Lord's deity, into its due position of ritual ob- 
 servance in the Christian year. It completes 
 the round of the marked events in the Master's 
 life. It brings into prominence all the blessed 
 lessons connected with it ; the complete un- 
 veiling of the Divinity shining through the 
 flesh in which our King was pleased to taber- 
 nacle while He was here on earth ; the splendid 
 intimation of the character of the Lord's risen 
 body to-day, into whose glory the bodies of 
 our humiliation are one day to be changed ; 
 the witness of the Law and the Prophets to 
 Christ ; the communion in the future world 
 among the living and the dead, and between 
 both quick and dead with Him ; the seal set 
 upon the power of the habit of real fasting 
 and true prayer, to transfigure the coarseness 
 and commonness of our natures here, and to 
 bring us into closer communion with the dear 
 Lord. All these are truths of infinite value 
 
124 THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 
 
 and consolation, which on this feast, as its 
 constant keeping among us will more and 
 more go on, are emphasized and enforced in 
 ways that cannot but be helpful to a fuller 
 and more perfect acceptance of the faith. 
 
 Next to this, it seems to me, has been the 
 great gain of the restoration of the three evan- 
 gelical canticles to our Matins and Evensong. 
 The mutilated Benedictus no longer jars upon 
 our reverent sense of the completeness of in- 
 spired words; and the Magnificat and Nunc 
 Dimittis have come back to their time-honored 
 place in the evening worship of the Church of 
 God. I am bound to say, too, in this same 
 connection, that I think a great step forward 
 has been taken in teaching people the rightful 
 reverence that is due to Holy Scripture, in the 
 complete wiping away from our liturgical use, 
 of those curious mosaics of Psalms which were 
 singularly unauthorized, unmusical, and un- 
 edifying ; and in substituting, for the ten Selec- 
 tions in which equal liberty was taken to 
 mutilate the Psalms as they stand in Holy 
 Scripture a fuller set of Selections, in which 
 the Psalms are all complete, except in the single 
 instance of the old Compline Psalm. I believe, 
 too, that the very admirable selection of Proper 
 Psalms, for other days than the six for which 
 they were appointed before, is a step in the 
 
THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 125 
 
 direction of opening up to people what often 
 has seemed hidden the Christian application 
 of the Psalter, and the power of its adaptation 
 to meet, not only the various incidents in the 
 story of the Christian year, but also the vary- 
 ing demands and necessities of our individual 
 lives. 
 
 In dealing with the Creeds, the Church has 
 planted herself upon strong and unmistakable 
 ground. In the first place she has put back 
 into the Apostles' Creed the word " again," 
 which is not only the true translation of the 
 Latin word, but is the emphasis of the reality 
 and identity of the resurrection body ; and, in 
 the next place, she has removed all accusation 
 which lay, not altogether unjustly, against her 
 once of tampering with an article of the Cath- 
 olic faith, by removing the permission, which 
 had been guardedly given, to omit from the 
 Creed the article of the descent into hell. 
 Not less clear and not less Catholic is the new 
 rubric, which requires that the Creed com- 
 monly called the Nicene, shall be used after the 
 Gospel on the five great feasts of Christmas, 
 Easter, Ascension, Whitsunday, and Trinity 
 Sunday ; carrying with it the implication, cor- 
 rect in ritual and growing in use, that the 
 Nicene Creed should be reserved for the Com- 
 munion Office, and that the Apostles' Creed 
 
126 THE PRATER BOOK ENRICHEfi. 
 
 is the baptismal symbol and the right form to 
 be used in Morning and Evening Prayer. 
 
 The removal of the Gloria in Excelsis from 
 Morning Prayer, is a case of conformity to 
 what I think has become the habit of our con- 
 gregations. Its retention in the Evening Office, 
 is in the line with certain Oriental uses of con- 
 siderable antiquity and authority ; but the true 
 meaning of it is, I think, that the great hymn 
 is relegated to find its most rightful and correct 
 use in the Office of the Holy Communion. The 
 same rule, I trust, will grow more and more 
 into observance as applied to the shorter 
 which is, of course, the stronger absolution ; 
 that it should be reserved for the faithful in 
 the course of their preparation for the reception 
 of the Blessed Eucharist. It is a most curious 
 instance of mistaken choice, that because the 
 Declaration of Absolution contains the posi- 
 tive statement of the power and command- 
 ment given to the priest to forgive the sins of 
 the penitent which some people do not like to 
 believe or to say therefore that which is a 
 mere statement has more doctrinal significance 
 and more actual power than the shorter form, 
 which is the direct conveyance of the gift. 
 
 One must recognize, too, in the revised 
 Prayer Book, distinct and definite gains in the 
 restoration of the old idea of the vigil of cer- 
 
THE PRATER BOOK ENRICHED. 127 
 
 tain Holy Days, by the authorized use of the 
 Collect on the eve of the feast ; in the pro- 
 vision of alternate Collects for the two great 
 Feasts of Christmas and Easter ; in the per- 
 mission to omit the Decalogue at either of two 
 celebrations ; in tho new Offertory Sentences, 
 which seem so beautiful, that one only wonders 
 that they have not been used before ; in the 
 Kyrie after the Summary of the Law; and in 
 the change of the Prayer of Consecration, 
 which makes a good grammatical sentence out 
 of what certainly could not have been consid- 
 ered such before. 
 
 The story of the new rubric is one that is 
 rather long to tell. The original proposition, 
 forbidding any celebration without the presence 
 of communicants, which was adopted by the 
 House of Bishops, was not concurred in by the 
 House of Deputies. I do not think that any 
 particular theological opinion is to be argued 
 from this want of concurrent action, because 
 there was immediate and almost unanimous 
 action in the House of Deputies, upon the ru- 
 bric which the Bishops sent down "And suffi- 
 cient opportunity shall be given to those pres- 
 ent to communicate. " The single desire, so far 
 as I know, either of tho committee or of the 
 bishops, was to prevent the separation of two 
 things, which, by the very revealed description 
 
128 THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 
 
 of the Blessed Sacrament, are two sides of the 
 one'great truth ; namely, that it is something 
 to be eaten as well as offered; and that the Sac- 
 rifice must be partaken of, if those by whom 
 it is, and for whom it is offered, are to derive 
 the benefits for which the Holy Communion 
 was instituted by our Lord. 
 
 To have secured the relegation of the preface 
 in the Confirmation Office to its original and 
 proper position of a rubric, by making its read- 
 ing permissive and not obligatory ; and to have 
 thrown into the Office the Scriptural authority 
 for Laying on of Hands, in the reading of the 
 appointed Lesson, are two points of gain in 
 the right direction ; not all, perhaps, that 
 could have been desired ; but tending certainly 
 to impress upon people the truth, that the 
 confirming of vows is only the preliminary, 
 human, and conditional part of the being con- 
 firmed by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Nor do I feel that I ought to stop here, in 
 the catalogue of enrichments, without noting 
 that we have gained some opening Sentences 
 with reference to the seasons of the Christian 
 year ; an Offertory anthem at the presentation 
 of the alms and oblations ; the Versicles 
 adapted somewhat from the English Book in 
 the Order for Daily Evening Prayer ; the Col- 
 lect for the Unity of God's People; Collects for 
 
THE TRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 129 
 
 Rogation Sunday, the Rogation Days and for 
 Missions; the Thanksgiving for a Child's 
 Recovery from Sickness ; and the penitential 
 office for Ash Wednesday, giving the Fifty- 
 first Psalm its proper place, as the great peni- 
 tential psalm; and adding the beautiful Collect 
 from the English Book, asking the pitifulness 
 of the great mercy of God to loose those who 
 are tied and bound with the chain of their 
 sins. 
 
 We have made gains, too, in the addition of 
 prayers which may be used in the Burial Office ; 
 one of which ties a new knot between our 
 Prayer Book and the first book of Edward VI., 
 and between the American Church and the 
 dear old Mother Church of Scotland, to whom 
 we owe not the episcopate only, but the primi- 
 tive and un-Roman fullness of the Consecra- 
 tion Prayer in the Communion Office. 
 
 To me, the insertion in the Marriage Office 
 of the words from the English book is not 
 only a great enrichment, but a most valuable 
 emphasis and endorsement of what seems, at 
 any rate, to be an almost forgotten fact, 
 namely, that in both the Jewish and the 
 Christian dispensations, Almighty God has 
 set His seal upon the honorableness and in- 
 dissolubleness of the estate of marriage. 
 
 In these days, when marriage is degraded to 
 9 
 
130 THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 
 
 an unsanctified and unbinding civil arrange- 
 ment, every public statement that asserts its 
 Divine and primitive origin, and keeps about 
 it all its sacred sanctions, is worth preserving. 
 As we have had it hitherto, it might seem to 
 be an Apostolic institution, originating with St. 
 Paul, or with the author of the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews ; whereas it has its three great seals 
 from the Father, the Word, and the Holy 
 Ghost; from God, and Christ, and the Church 
 in the primeval Paradise, in our Lord's human 
 ministry, and in the Apostolic days. And when 
 men have learned that it is not only honorable 
 but a u mystery " which is the Greek word for 
 a sacrament in which the oneness of the flesh 
 of the twain is involved, and which sets forth 
 the organic and mystical union of Christ and 
 His Church, there will be found some holy 
 ground to stand on, against the theory of a 
 mere civil contract in marriage, and against 
 the degrading and disgraceful frequency and 
 facility of divorce. 
 
 The question of increased flexibility of use, 
 which was the other matter referred to the 
 Commission, has been dealt with in various 
 ways. We have in many instances only made 
 lawful that which had become habitual, al- 
 though with no other law than that of fre- 
 quent use and of unwillingness on the part of 
 
THE PRAYER ROOK ENRICHED. 131 
 
 the ecclesiastical authority to interfere with 
 such use. 
 
 The absolute separation into three distinct 
 parts, of the Morning Prayer, the Litany, and 
 the Holy Communion ; the authority to use 
 the Litany in the evening ; and the freedom 
 given to the minister, subject to the direction 
 of the Ordinary, to compile, out of the Book 
 of Common Prayer, special offices on any day 
 when Morning and Evening Prayer shall have 
 been said, are the first instances of making 
 flexible that which has been rigid, without 
 opening the way to the license of mere pa- 
 rochial or individual selection. In the same 
 direction, the permission to shorten Evensong 
 by the omission of the Exhortation, and of all 
 the prayers after the Collect for Grace; and 
 while retaining the essential features of our 
 Morning Prayer, to use only a sentence and 
 the Lord's Prayer before the Venite, ending 
 the Office with the Prayer for the President ; 
 these, with the authority at either celebration 
 of the Holy Communion, when there are two 
 celebrations, to omit the recitation of the Ten 
 Commandments always providing that the 
 Summary of the Law be read when the Com- 
 mandments are not are steps in the direction 
 of a flexible use which will not lead to the dis- 
 use of the Prayer Book. 
 
132 THE PRAYEB BOOK ENRICHED. 
 
 In connection with this shortened Order for 
 Morning Prayer when it immediately precedes 
 the celebration of the Holy Communion, atten- 
 tion ought to be called to what Bishop Sparrow 
 denned as the ' e rationale " of the Prayer Book. 
 It involves, it seems to me, the teaching that 
 the especial features of Morning Prayer are ob- 
 served when the Lord's Prayer, the Invitatory 
 Psalm, the Psalter for the day, the two Les- 
 sons, the Te Deum and Benedictus, the Creed 
 and the three Collects have been used. And, 
 next, it involves the principle that the rest of 
 the service may safely be omitted, because the 
 Office for the Holy Communion contains its 
 own Confession and Absolution, its own high- 
 est act of thanksgiving, and, in the Prayer for 
 Christ's Church Militant, the supplication for 
 rulers and for "all conditions of men." 
 
 I am by no means clear that the time is not 
 coming, when this Church will find itself wise 
 in rising to the necessities of its great national 
 possibility, to deal a little more freely even 
 than we have with our Offices of Morning and 
 Evening Prayer. If the question arises, as it 
 seems likely to almost at any time, how we 
 can meet the desire of the great Protestant 
 bodies about us for some communion with 
 us in the matter of worship ; if, for instance, 
 the day should come when we shall not only 
 
THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 133 
 
 receive, as we are receiving, ministers trained 
 in the various denominations into the Ministry 
 of this Church, but when their congregations 
 shall follow and come with them, it will get to 
 be a serious question, whether we ought not 
 to allow for such as these and if for these, of 
 course for those among us who may desire it 
 some larger liberty in the matter of the Offices 
 which do not directly affect the sacramental 
 doctrine and the sacramental grace. 
 
 It does not seem to me that it would be any 
 breach, or would involve the risk of any breach, 
 of our maintenance of the faith, in the only 
 way in which it can be maintained, by the 
 constant and quickening breath of definite 
 liturgical worship, if we left ourselves somehow 
 free, only to insist upon such Offices or parts 
 of Offices as contain the essential sacramental 
 elements of service. If we anchored ourselves 
 firmly to the Offices for Holy Baptism and the 
 Holy Communion and for Confirmation, the 
 Ordinal, and the Marriage Service so far as 
 it asserts the Christian doctrine on the subject 
 I cannot but think, that, to those who are 
 not trained to the majestic dignity of our Daily 
 Order of Matins and Evensong there might be 
 relaxation as to their use. I should greatly 
 hope that such a course might tend to im- 
 press upon those to whom the Church's 
 
134 THE PRAYER BOOK EKRICHED. 
 
 system ought to be more of a reality than it is, 
 that we, who have by birthright the inheritance 
 of this great system of prayer and praise, should 
 practise it far more thoroughly than it is 
 practised now. 
 
 And I cannot but believe that the time is 
 coming, when even more than we have done 
 now in the printing of the Book of the Ar- 
 ticles with its separate heading may be done, 
 to show that the XXXIX Articles, valuable as 
 many of them are, are not intended even for 
 our own lay people ; much less for those 
 who, from other religious bodies, are looking 
 toward some recognized relation to us. 
 
 So far as this chapter is meant to be, and 
 had to be, a somewhat dry historical resume 
 of results, I might well stop here ; but there 
 are two points which it seems to me need 
 urging. In the first place, however one may 
 have been at times distressed by the momen- 
 tary differences or by outbreaks and evidences 
 of warm opposition, I do not think any 
 one of us can fail to thank God infinitely, 
 not merely for the results, but, in the main, 
 for the spirit and the manner in which these 
 results have been attained. It seemed at first 
 sight to many people dangerous to the last 
 degree, to trust such a body as our General 
 Convention has grown to be, with the delicate 
 
THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 135 
 
 and difficult duty of altering the Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer. But the outcome has proved that 
 those fears were groundless. The amount of 
 time and thought and intense sense of respon- 
 sibility; the intelligent interest, not more of 
 the clergy than of the laity ; the process 
 of education in Liturgies ; the unusual una- 
 nimity with which the main results have been 
 secured ; the great patience of the Church 
 at large during the transition period, which has 
 been prolonged beyond the first intention ; and 
 the emergence from the difficult and anxious 
 questions which were connected with such a 
 movement, with no effect produced but in- 
 creased unity, intensified love and reverence for 
 our precious heritage ; the absence of any mar- 
 ring of its beauty, and the restoration of much 
 treasure that had been temporarily laid aside : 
 all these, certainly should make us feel most 
 deeply that the time had come when the 
 movement was not only needed, but when the 
 work could be done. And while I think it is 
 true, that what is commonly called the jus li- 
 turgicum does rest with the bishops ; so that if 
 any work of this kind is to be undertaken again 
 it would be wise to provide by canon for what 
 has been the fact by courtesy namely, that the 
 finished scheme should be prepared by the 
 Bishops and then presented to the House of 
 
136 THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 
 
 Deputies it has been very plain that, dealing 
 under the solemn sanctions of the only author- 
 ity under which we could act, and under the 
 solemn surroundings of the marked presence 
 of God, all has been overruled to His greater 
 glory and His highest service. 
 
 And the second thing that needs, it seems 
 to me, to be said, is that there ought to be 
 more thoroughness and more faithfulness in 
 the use of this book about which we talk so 
 much, but which, it seems to me, too little 
 forms and fashions either the teaching of the 
 clergy or the religious character of our lives. 
 There can be no question but that St. Paul 
 meant to teach us a wholesome and important 
 lesson when he said, not that the form of sound 
 words was delivered to us, but that we were 
 delivered into a form of sound words ; that the 
 object, that is to say, of Creeds and liturgies 
 is to mould the devotional and doctrinal, and, 
 consequently, the religious character of us 
 all. 
 
 The Book of Common Prayer is, in itself, a 
 system not only of worship but of training. It 
 sets us poles apart from all modern theories 
 about the education of a Christian child. Be- 
 ginning with the implanted life of regenera- 
 tion, the child is held steadily and step by step, 
 along the plainly marked way of teaching and 
 
THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 137 
 
 of worship, by which its whole life shall be 
 moulded. It is never left in any doubt as to 
 the certainty of its sonship of God. It is 
 never left to any uncertainty as to its training 
 for the kingdom of Heaven. And it is never 
 without the constant reminder that, whether 
 birth and inheritance ever are to meet, depends 
 entirely upon the character, which we form by 
 the grace of that birth, and which only can fit 
 us for the enjoyment of that inheritance. The 
 taught Catechism, the habit of prayer and 
 church-going, the early Confirmation, and, con- 
 sequently, the early coming to the Holy Com- 
 munion, frequent worship, and the forming of 
 the lines of religious thought and expression 
 upon the very definite mould and model of the 
 Prayer Book all these are things that ought 
 to enter, far more than they do, into the home 
 life and training of our households. 
 
 In the same way it seems to me, that the 
 clergy are at fault in not obeying the old Eng- 
 lish canon of the daily saying of the Offices 
 for Morning and Evening Prayer, publicly if 
 they may, and if not, privately ; that people 
 ought to learn the duty and desirableness of 
 framing their lives upon this theory, so that 
 instead of now and then coming to church 
 when they can, they should rather make the 
 order of their lives turn toward the benediction 
 
138 THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 
 
 of the day, opening and closing with the public 
 worship of the House of God. 
 
 I am concerned, too, I confess, about our 
 faithfulness in using the Book of Common 
 Prayer. There has been a certain recognized 
 license about many things, tolerated partly be- 
 cause of a perpetual expectation of some 
 change which it seems to me ought to stop 
 now. 
 
 This Church has absolutely decided, for in- 
 stance much to my regret not to take the 
 English rendering of the Te Deum, in spite of 
 the fact that certain favorite settings of music 
 for that noble hymn seem to require the words 
 " honorable " instead of "adorable", and "let 
 Thy mercy lighten upon us." I think we ought 
 to adapt whatever music we may use, to the 
 American version of this hymn. And the 
 " Thanks" after the Gospel, has been definitely 
 decided against also to my great regret and 
 ought, therefore, it seems to me, to be given up. 
 The singing of the Benedictus before the Con- 
 secration in the Communion Office is plainly 
 against the law of this Church, and, conse- 
 quently, ought not to be done ; and so I might 
 go on. It is enough to say, that with the added 
 liberty of use and the added richness of change, 
 it becomes loyal and faithful priests to adhere to 
 and abide by the final decisions of the highest 
 
THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICIIED. 130 
 
 authority that can speak to them upon this 
 subject. 
 
 In this historic year, rich with venerable 
 memories of the men who made the Book, 
 and the Book that made the men, we may 
 well make thankful recognition to Almighty 
 God, of the grace and guidance of His 
 Holy Spirit through the one hundred years 
 and more of our ecclesiastical and liturgical 
 growth. The Book of Common Prayer, not 
 an utterance of our devotions merely, but 
 the moulding power of our characters and 
 lives, is the noblest possible expression of the 
 religion of Jesus Christ. It stands beside the 
 Holy Scriptures in the Authorized Version, 
 resonant with the same stirring " English 
 undefiled " that marks the vast superiority of 
 the King James Biblo over all other efforts at 
 translation. It holds up before all men in its 
 Creeds, its Catechism, and its sacramental Offi- 
 ces, the roundness and completeness of the 
 Catholic Faith. It is almost like a great cathe- 
 dral echoing with the songs of centuries. The 
 old Psalter that made up the worship in which 
 the Blessed Lord united with the Church of the 
 older Dispensation ; the hymn, perhaps at least, 
 of Ambrose, which we call Te Deum; the in- 
 spired songs which broke from the full heart 
 of the Blessed Mother of the Son of God and 
 
140 THE PRAYER BOOK ENRICHED. 
 
 of the father of His forerunner; the prayers 
 of the " golden-mouthed " bishop, and the 
 thrice holy hymn of the angels these make it 
 almost true to say that it is a temple, richly 
 decked with the carvings in stone, and the 
 figures radiant with sunlight through the win- 
 dows, of martyrs, and prophets, and apostles, 
 and angels, and the saints of the holy Church 
 throughout all the world. It finds its way, by 
 frequent and familiar use, into the heart and 
 conscience of the child ; and as its " heavenly 
 notes" fix their sweet harmonies upon the 
 memory of childhood, they make the indelible 
 impression of their truth upon the whole life 
 afterwards. It is the password of that fellow- 
 ship among English-speaking people, which 
 makes us akin with all the wide-spread families 
 of this great conquering race, and at home 
 everywhere in the old fatherland across the 
 sea, and in the new lands which own the sov- 
 ereignty of England or the sweep of our Amer- 
 ican civilization. It is the silent preacher, the 
 silent teacher sent of God, as we believe in 
 the copies multiplied by millions through the 
 restless energy of the press, thick as the leaves 
 of Vallombrosa. It gathers and keeps all sacred 
 memories of separate souls. It is the heritage 
 and heirloom of an ancestry which carries us 
 back to the upper room in Jerusalem, and to 
 
Tin: NULYBB HOOK BVBIOH1 1 11 
 
 the underground churches where the dead 
 slept, while the living sang hymns of victory 
 over death. And it lifts us up and links us in 
 with t ho worded glory, the articulate praise 
 of the worship of the Paradise of God. 
 
 Surely, it is in the hearts and minds of all 
 to thank God for the inestimable privilege of 
 a share in the perfecting, possession, and 
 preservation of that which so " procures rever- 
 ence in the worship of God," and "promulgates 
 the truths of the Gospel to mankind in the 
 clearest, plainest, most affecting and majestic 
 manner, " to the glory of God through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Changes Incorporated into the Standard 
 Prayer Book of 1892. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Changes Incorporated into the Standard 
 Prayer Book of 1892. 
 
 I. IN THE PRELIMINARY PORTION. 
 
 1. The Table of Contents has been made to conform 
 to the actual contents. New Tables have been pro- 
 vided for finding Easter-day, the Dominical Letter, 
 etc., with a Note as to the Ecclesiastical Full Moon. 
 
 2. Under the general title Concerning the Service 
 of the Church, the following paragraphs have been 
 prefixed to the Order how the Psalter is appointed to be 
 Head: 
 
 " The Order for Morning Prayer, the Litany, and the 
 Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper or 
 Holy Communion, are distinct Services, and may be 
 used either separately or together ; Provided, that no 
 one of these Services be habitually disuse. 1. 
 
 " The Litany may bo used either in place of the Pray- 
 ers that follow the Prayer for the President of the United 
 States in the Order for Morning Prayer, or in place of 
 the Prayers that follow the Collect for Aid against 
 Perils in the Order for Evening Prayer. 
 
 "On any day when Morning and Evening Prayer 
 
 shall have been said or are to be said in Church, the 
 
 Minister may, at any other Service for which no form 
 
 is provided, use such devotions as he shall at his 
 
 10 
 
146 APPENDIX.' 
 
 discretion select from this Book, subject to the direc- 
 tion of the Ordinary. 
 
 "For days of Fasting and Thanksgiving, appointed 
 by the Civil or by the Ecclesiastical Authority, and for 
 other special occasions for which no Service or Prayer 
 hath been provided in this Book, the Bishop may set 
 forth such Form or Forms as he shall think fit, in 
 which case none other shall be used." 
 
 3. In the Order how the Psalter is appointed to be 
 read, there have been inserted a Table of Proper Psalms 
 to be used on certain days, sixteen in number, and a 
 Table of twenty Selections of Psalms which may be used 
 on days for which Proper Psalms are not provided. 
 
 4. The provision that the Minister may, under cer- 
 tain circumstances, appoint the Psalms to be used on 
 special days of Fasting and Thanksgiving has been 
 omitted; but it is still provided that he may, in his 
 discretion, appoint the Lessons to be used on such days 
 and also on occasions of Ecclesiastical Conventions 
 and of Charitable Collections. 
 
 5. The following paragraph has been inserted with 
 reference to Hymns and Anthems : 
 
 "Hymns set forth and allowed by the authority of 
 this Church, and Anthems in the words of Holy Scrip- 
 ture or of the Book of Common Prayer, may be sung 
 before and after any Office in this Book, and also before 
 and after Sermons." 
 
 6. In the Table of Feasts, the title the Apostle has 
 been added to the name of St. Barnabas, and The 
 Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ has been 
 inserted. In the Calendar, the Transfiguration has 
 been assigned to the sixth day of August, with proper 
 lessons, and certain changes have in consequence been 
 made in the Tables of Lessons. 
 
APPENDIX. 14? 
 
 II. IN TIIE ORDER FOR DAILY MORNING 
 PRATER 
 
 1. It has been provided by rubric that, on any day 
 not a Sunday, instead of the General Exhortation, the 
 Minister may say: 
 
 "Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty 
 God." 
 
 And it has been further provided that, on any day 
 not a Sunday, the Minister may end the Morning 
 Prayer with the Collect for Grace and 2 Cor. xiii. 
 14, 
 
 2. It has been also provided by rubric that, on any 
 day when the Holy Communion is immediately to follow, 
 the Minister may, at his discretion, pass at once from 
 the opening Sentences to the Lord's Prayer, first pro- 
 nouncing, " The Lord be with you. Answer. And with 
 thy spirit. Minister. Let us pray." 
 
 Slight changes have been made in the order of the 
 opening Sentences ; and special Sentences have been 
 added for the Church seasons. 
 
 4. The Gloria Patri is printed after the rubric which 
 provides for its use after the Psalms and Canticles; and 
 the Gloria in excelsis is not printed here, but a rubric 
 provides that it may be used at the end of the whole 
 Portion of the Psalms or Selection from the Psalter, as 
 heretofore. 
 
 5. The Benediclus, to be sung or said after the Sec- 
 ond Lesson, has been inserted in full before the Jubi- 
 late, a space being left after the first four verses, with a 
 Note, That save on the Sundays in Advent the latter 
 portion may be omitted. 
 
 6. A change has been made in the rubric before the 
 Apostles' Creed, so that it reads as follows : 
 
148 APPENDIX. 
 
 IT " Then shall be said the Apostles' Creed by the Min- 
 ister and the People, standing. And any Churches may, 
 instead of the words, He descended into hell, use the 
 words, He went into the place of departed spirits, 
 which are considered as words of the same meaning in 
 the Creed." 
 
 7. In the Apostles' Creed the word again has been 
 inserted in the latter part of the fifth article, so that it 
 reads : 
 
 " The third day he rose again from the dead." 
 
 8. A change has been made in the rubric after the 
 Prayer for the President of the United States, so that it 
 reads as follows: 
 
 U " The following Prayers shall be omitted here when 
 the Litany is said, and may be omitted when the Holy 
 Communion is immediately to follow ." 
 
 9. In the Prayer for All Conditions of Men, after 
 the words, in mind, body, or estate, there have been 
 added in brackets the words, especially those for whom 
 our prayers are desired, a note providing that this may 
 be said when any desire the prayers of the Congrega- 
 tion. 
 
 10. In the General Thanksgiving, after the words, 
 and to all men, there have been added in brackets the 
 words, particularly to those who desire now to offer up 
 their praises and thanksgivings for thy late mercies 
 vouchsafed unto them, a note providing that this may 
 be said when any desire to return thanks for mercies 
 vouchsafed to them. 
 
 III. IN THE ORDER FOR DAILY EVENING 
 PRAYER. 
 
 1. It has been provided by rubric that, on days other 
 than the Lord's Day, the Minister may, at his discre- 
 
APPENDIX. 148 
 
 tion, pass at once from the opening Sentences to the 
 Lord's Prayer. 
 
 & It has been also provided by rubric that, on any 
 day, instead of the General Exhortation, the Minister 
 may say: 
 
 "Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty 
 God." 
 
 8. The word Amen is printed at the end of the Dec- 
 laration of Absolution, without any rubric; and the 
 rubric before the Lord's Prayer ends with the words, 
 repeating it with him. 
 
 4. Slight changes have been made in the order of the 
 opening Sentences ; and special Sentences have been 
 added for the Church seasons. 
 
 5. The Gloria in excelsis is printed after a rubric 
 which provides that it may be used at the end of the 
 whole Portion or Selection of Psalms. 
 
 6. The hymn Magnificat has been inserted before the 
 Cantate Domino, to be sung or said after the First 
 Lesson. 
 
 7. The hymn Nunc dimittis has been inserted before 
 the Deus Misereatur, to be sung or said after the Second 
 Lesson. 
 
 8. The same change has been made in the rubric be- 
 fore the Apostles' Creed as in Morning Prayer ; and the 
 word again has been inserted in the Creed. 
 
 9. The following versicles and responses have been in- 
 serted between the response, And grant us thy salvation, 
 and the versicle, Ood, make clean our hearts within 
 us: 
 
 " Minister. Lord, save the State. 
 Answer. And mercifully hear us when we call upon 
 thee. 
 Minister. Endue thy Ministers with righteousness. 
 
150 APPENDIX. 
 
 Answer. And make thy chosen people joyful. 
 Minister. Lord, save thy people. 
 Answer. And bless thine inheritance. 
 Minister. Give peace in our time, Lord. 
 Answer. For it is thou, Lord, only, that makest us 
 dwell in safety." 
 
 10. A new Collect for Aid against Perils, and Prayer 
 for those in Civil Authority have been inserted, and 
 also the following rubrics. 
 
 TT In places where it may be convenient, here followeth 
 
 the Anthem. 
 ff The Minister may here end the Evening Prayer with 
 
 such Prayer, or Prayers, taken out of this Booh, as he 
 
 shall think fit. 
 
 11. The Prayer for All Conditions of Men and the 
 General Thanksgiving are printed with the bracketed 
 clause and marginal note, as in Morning Prayer. 
 
 IV. IN THE LITANY. 
 
 1. The following Suffrage has been inserted after 
 that for Bishops, Priests, and Deacons : 
 
 " That it may please thee to send forth labourers into 
 thy harvest ; 
 
 We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord." 
 
 2. The General Thanksgiving has been printed as in 
 Morning and Evening Prayer. 
 
 3. The words Here endeth the Litany have been 
 omitted. 
 
 V. IN THE PRAYERS AND THANKSGIVINGS 
 UPON SEVERAL OCCASIONS. 
 
 1. It has been provided by rubrics that the special 
 Prayers shall be used before, and the special Thanks- 
 
APPENDIX. 151 
 
 givings shall bo used after, tho General Thanksgiving ; 
 ortli.it, if tho General Thanksgiving is not said, both 
 the social Prayers and the special Thanksgivings shall 
 be used before the final Prayer of Blessing or the Bene- 
 dution. 
 
 2. The Prayer to be used at Meetings of Convention, 
 with the following rubric, lias been removed to a place 
 immediately after the Prayer for Congress; and changes 
 have been made in the Prayer and tho rubric. 
 
 3. There has been inserted after the Prayer to be used 
 at the Meetings of Convention, a Prayer for the Unity 
 of God's People. 
 
 4. There has been inserted after the Prayer for the 
 Unity of God's People, a Prayer for Missions. 
 
 5. There have been inserted after the Prayers for 
 those who are to be admitted to Jloly Orders, Prayers for 
 Fruitful Seasons, to be used on Rogation-Sunday and 
 the Rogation-days. 
 
 6. There has been inserted after the Thanksgiving for 
 a Recovery from Sickness, a Thanksgiving for a Child's 
 Recovery from Sickness. 
 
 VI. A PENITENTIAL OFFICE. 
 
 A Penitential Office for Ash Wednesday has been in- 
 serted after the Prayers and Thanksgivings upon Sev- 
 eral Occasions, containing the Psalm li. and the special 
 Ash- Wednesday prayers. 
 
 VII. IN THE COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND 
 GOSPELS. 
 
 1. The rubric prescribing that the Collect, Epistle, 
 and Gospel for the Sunday shall serve all the week after, 
 unless otherwise ordered, has been placed after the 
 general title ; and after it there has been inserted : 
 
152 APPENDIX. 
 
 IT The Collect appointed for any Sunday or other 
 Feast may be used at the Evening Service of the day 
 before. 
 
 2. The Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for Christmas- 
 day are ordered to serve for any days which there may 
 be between the Innocents' Day and the Sunday after 
 Christmas ; and those for the Epiphany, for Ash-Wed- 
 nesday, and for Ascension-day are ordered to serve for 
 every day after unto the next Sunday, except upon 
 Saints' Days. 
 
 3. After the Gospel for Christmas-day there have 
 been inserted a new Collect, Epistle and Gospel, which 
 may be used at the first Communion when there are two 
 celebrations of the Communion on that day. 
 
 4. The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels for St. 
 Stephen's Day, St. John the Evangelist's Day, and 
 the Innocents' Day, are printed after the Gospel for 
 Christmas-day. 
 
 5. The second rubric after the Collect for Ash- 
 Wednesday, with all that follows before the Epistle, 
 has been omitted. 
 
 6. The Gloria Patri is printed at the end of the 
 Anthems appointed to be used on Easter-day instead of 
 the Yenite. 
 
 7. After the Gospel for Easter-day there have been 
 inserted a new Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, which may 
 be used at the first Communion when there are two 
 celebrations of the Communion on that day. 
 
 8. The title The Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity 
 has been changed to 
 
 " The Sunday next before Advent; " 
 and in place of the rubric after the Gospel there has 
 been substituted : 
 JT If there be more than twenty-five Sundays after 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Trinity, the service of some of those Sundays that were 
 omitted after the Epiphany shall be taken in to supply 
 so many as are here wanting. And if there be fewer 
 than ticeniy-fwe Sundays, the overplus shall be omitted' 
 9. After the Gospel for St. James's Day, the Collect, 
 Epistle, and Gospel are inserted for 
 
 The Transfiguration of Christ. 
 
 VIII. IN THE ORDER FOR THE ADMINIS- 
 TRATION OP THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 1. At the end of the second rubric, for the words, 
 as soon as conveniently may be, have been substituted 
 the words, within fourteen days after, at the farthest. 
 
 2. The doxology has been omitted from the Lord's 
 Prayer at the beginning of the service, so that it ends 
 thus: 
 
 " But deliver us from evil. Amen." 
 
 3. The words, as followeth, have been omitted from 
 the rubric before the Ten Commandments, and the 
 following rubric has been inserted : 
 
 Hie Decalogue may be omitted, provided it be said 
 once on each Sunday. But Note, That whenever it is 
 omitted, the Minister shall say the Summary of the 
 Law, beginning, Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ 
 saith. 
 
 4. After the Summary of the Law, the following has 
 been inserted : 
 
 "Here, if the Decalogue hath been omitted, shall be 
 said, 
 
 Lord, have mercy upon us. 
 Christ, have mercy upon us. 
 Lord, have mercy upon us. 
 1[ Then the Minister may say" 
 
154 APPENDIX. 
 
 5. The rubrical direction as to the reading of the 
 Gospel has been put in the form, Then, the People all 
 standing up, he shall read the Gospel, saying ; and the 
 rubric before the Gloria tibi has been put in the form, 
 Here shall be said or sung. 
 
 6. In place of the first rubric after the Gloria tibi has 
 been substituted this rubric, followed by the Creed : 
 
 m \\ Then shall be said the Creed commonly called the 
 Nicene, or else the Apostles' Creed ; but the Creed may 
 be omitted, if it hath been said immediately before in 
 Morning Prayer; Provided, That the Nicene Creed 
 shall be said on Christmas-day, Easter-day, Ascension- 
 day, Whitsunday, and Trinity-Sunday. 
 
 7. For the first Offertory Sentence, there has been 
 inserted Acts xx. 35. 
 
 And there have been added to the Offertory Sen- 
 tences : Exod. xxv. 2 ; Deut. xvi. 16, 17 ; I. Chron. 
 xxix. 11 ; I. Chron. xxix. 14. 
 
 8. Permission has been given by rubric to use the 
 Offertory Sentences on any other occasion of Public 
 Worship when the alms of the people are to be received. 
 
 9. It has been provided by rubric that, when the 
 Alms and Oblations are presented, there may be sung a 
 Hymn, or an Offertory Anthem in the words of Holy 
 Scripture or of the Book of Common Prayer, under the 
 direction of the Minister. 
 
 10. The following note has been prefixed to the Ex- 
 hortation beginning, " Dearly beloved in the Lord " : 
 
 But Note, That the Exhortation may be omitted if it 
 hath been already said on one Lord's Day in that same 
 month. 
 
 11. After the Preface beginning, " It is very meet, 
 right, and our bounden duty," the Triumphal Hymn 
 with its rubrics reads as follows : 
 
APPENDIX. 155 
 
 1[ Here shall follow the Proper Preface, according 
 to the time, if there be any specially appointed ; or else 
 immediately shall be said or sung by the Priest, 
 
 Therefore with Angels and Archangels, and with all 
 the company of heaven, we land and minify thy glo- 
 rious Name; evermore policing thee* and saying, 
 
 HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, Lord God of hosts, iPrUst 
 Heaven and earth are full of thy glory : Glory and 
 be to thee, Lord Most High. Amen. ?">&* 
 
 12. In the Prayer of Consecration, the Oblation and 
 the Invocation are printed as distinct paragraphs. 
 
 13. In the Prayer of Consecration, instead of the 
 words, " he may dwell in them, and they in him," there 
 have been substituted "he may dwell in us, and we in 
 him." 
 
 14. A change has been made in the first rubric after 
 the Prayer of Consecration, so that it reads as follows : 
 
 Tf Here may be sung a Hymn. 
 
 15. The second rubric after the Prayer of Consecra- 
 tion has been amended by inserting the words : 
 
 " And sufficient opportunity shall be given to those 
 present to communicate.'''' 
 
 16. In the next to the last rubric, at the end of the 
 Office, the word though has been substituted for if. 
 
 17. The two Exhortations, giving warning of the 
 Communion, are printed at the end of the Office. 
 
 IX. IN THE MINISTRATION OP PUBLIC 
 BAPTISM OF INFANTS. 
 
 1. An addition has been made to the rubric before 
 the first Exhortation, so that it reads as follows: 
 
 Tf If they answer, No: then shall the Minister pro- 
 ceed as followeth, the People all standing until the 
 Lord's Prayer. 
 
156 APPENDIX. 
 
 2. A part of the first sentence of the rubric before 
 the Gospel has been omitted. 
 
 X. IN THE MINISTRATION OF PRIVATE 
 BAPTISM OF INFANTS. 
 
 1. The first form of certification has been changed. 
 
 2. The second form of certification ends with the 
 words "doth witness to our comfort." 
 
 XI. IN THE MINISTRATION OF BAPTISM TO 
 SUCH AS ARE OF RIPER YEARS. 
 
 1. The third rubric has been omitted; and the fol- 
 lowing has been inserted at and after the end of the 
 second rubric : 
 
 And standing there, the Minister shall say, 
 Hath this person been already baptized, or no ? 
 Tf If they answer, No : then shall the Minister (the 
 
 People all standing until the Lord's Prayer) proceed as 
 
 followeth. 
 
 2. The Thanksgiving after the Lord's Prayer has 
 been conformed to that in the Service for the Baptism 
 of infants. 
 
 3. In the closing Exhortation, and in the second 
 rubric at the end of the Service, slight verbal changes 
 have been made, and to the rubric a clause has been 
 added as follows : 
 
 "U And in case of great necessity, the Minister may 
 begin with the questions addressed to the candidate, and 
 end with the thanksgiving following the baptism. 
 
 4. The following has been placed as an additional 
 rubric at the end of the Service : 
 
 ^f If there be reasonable doubt concerning the baptism 
 of any person, such person may be baptized in the man- 
 
APPENDIX. 157 
 
 ner herein appointed ; saving that, at the immersion or 
 the pouring of water, the Minister shall use this form of 
 xcnrds : 
 
 If thou art not already baptized, N., I baptize thee 
 In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost. Amen. 
 
 5. For the words " these Persons " or " the Persons" 
 wherever they occur in the prayers, and for the words 
 11 these Persons," where they occur the second time in 
 the third of the rubrics at the end of the Service, there 
 have been substituted the words " these thy Servants" 
 
 XII. IN THE CATECHISM. 
 
 The word "again" has been inserted in the Creed, as 
 in Morning and Evening Prayer. 
 
 XIII. IN THE ORDER OF CONFIRMATION. 
 
 1. The first rubric has been changed, so that it reads 
 as follows : 
 
 IT Upon the day appointed, all that are to be then con- 
 firmed, being placed and standing in order before the 
 Bishop, sitting in his chair near to the Holy Table, he, 
 or some other Minister appointed by him, may read this 
 Preface following ; the People standing until the Lord's 
 Prayer. 
 
 2. The following has been inserted after the Preface : 
 TT Then the Minister shall present unto the Bishop 
 
 those who are to be confirmed, and shall say, 
 Reverend Father in God, I present unto you these 
 children [or these persons] to receive the Laying on of 
 Hands. 
 
 3. After the Preface and the Presentation of the 
 Candidates, there has been inserted : 
 
158 APPENDIX. 
 
 IT Then the Bishop, or some Minister appointed by 
 him, may say, 
 
 Hear the words of the Evangelist Saint Luke, in the 
 eighth Chapter of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. 
 [Here follows Acts viii. 14-18.] 
 
 4. The following rubric has been inserted after the 
 final Blessing : 
 
 TT The Minister shall not omit earnestly to move the 
 Persons confirmed to come, without delay, to the Lord's 
 Supper. 
 
 XIV. IN THE FORM OF SOLEMNIZATION OF 
 
 MATRIMONY. 
 
 A clause has been inserted in the Exhortation, so 
 that it reads as follows, after the words "holy Matri- 
 mony": "which is an honourable estate, instituted of 
 God in the time of man's innocency, signifying unto us 
 the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his 
 Church : which holy estate Christ adorned and beauti- 
 fied with his presence and first miracle that he wrought 
 in Cana of Galilee, and " 
 
 XV. IN THE ORDER FOR THE VISITATION 
 
 OF THE SICK. 
 
 The Commendatory Prayer has been changed by the 
 omission of the last clause. 
 
 XVI. IN THE COMMUNION OF THE SICK. 
 
 1. The following rubric has been inserted between 
 the second and the third of the rubrics after the Gospel : 
 
 TT In the times of contagious sickness or disease, or 
 when extreme weakness renders it expedient, the follow- 
 
APPENDIX. l.Vi 
 
 ing form shall suffice : The Confession and the Absolu- 
 tion ; Lift up your hearts, etc., through the Sanetus ; 
 The Prayer of Consecration, ending with these words, 
 partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood ; The 
 Communion; The Lord's Prayer ; The Blessing. 
 2. The following rubric has been added at the end : 
 If This Office may be used with aged and bed-ridden 
 persons, or such as are notable to attend the public Min- 
 istration in Church, substituting the Collect, Epistle, 
 and Gospel for the Day, for those appointed above. 
 
 XVII. IN THE ORDER FOR THE BURIAL OF 
 THE DEAD. 
 
 1. In place of the Rubric and Anthem after the 
 Sentences, there has been substituted this rubric, after 
 which are printed separately the parts of the former 
 Anthem, each followed by the Gloria Patri. 
 
 If After they are come into the Church, shall be said 
 or sung one or both of the following Selections, taken 
 from the 39M and 90th Psalms. 
 
 2. The following rubric has been inserted immedi- 
 ately after the Lesson : 
 
 Tf Here may be sung a Hymn or an Anthem ; and, at 
 the discretion of the Minister, the Creed, and such fit- 
 ting Prayers as are elsewhere provided in this Book, 
 may be added. 
 
 3. The Lesser Litany has been inserted before the 
 Lord's Prayer, with a new rubric, as follows : 
 
 If Then the Minister shall say, 
 Lord, have mercy upon us. 
 Christ, have mercy upon us. 
 Lord, have mercy upon us. 
 
 4. After " the grace of our Lord," etc., there have 
 been inserted three additional Prayers. 
 
160 APPENDIX. 
 
 5. The following rubric has been added : 
 
 ^T Inasmuch as it may sometimes be expedient to say 
 under shelter of the Church the whole or a part of the 
 service appointed to be said at the Grave, the same is 
 hereby allowed for weighty cause. 
 
 6. At the end of the Office has been added the form 
 to be used At the Burial of the Dead at Sea, slightly 
 modified. 
 
 XVIII. IN THE CHURCHING OF WOMEN. 
 
 A change has been made in the third rubric, so that 
 it reads as follows : 
 
 % Then shall be said by both of them the following 
 Hymn, the woman still kneeling. 
 
 XIX. IN THE FORMS OF PRAYER TO BE 
 USED AT SEA. 
 
 1. The title before the third Prayer has been changed 
 so as to read, Prayers to be used in all Ships in Storms 
 at Sea. The prayers that have reference to a storm 
 and those that have reference to the enemy have been 
 grouped separately ; and the Lord's Prayer has been 
 placed immediately after the Absolution. 
 
 2. The forms belonging to Thanksgiving after a 
 Storm and those belonging to Thanksgiving after a 
 Victory have been arranged under distinct headings. 
 
 3. The form of Committal at the Burial of the Dead 
 at Sea has been omitted here. 
 
 XX. IN THE VISITATION OF PRISONERS. 
 
 1. The words Minister and Answer have been omitted 
 before the Versicles ; and the Prayers have been placed 
 
APri.NDix. 161 
 
 together after the Miserere (the printing of which is 
 omitted), together with a new Prayer substituted for 
 the Collect. 
 
 2. After the title, A Form of Prayer for Persons 
 under sentence of death, the rubric r< 
 
 H When a criminal is under sentence of death, thr 
 Minister shall proceed to exhort Mm after this form, or 
 other like. 
 
 3. In place of the rubric after the Blessing the follow- 
 ing rubric and notice are inserted : 
 
 IT At the time of Execution, the Minister shall use 
 such devotions as he shall think proper. 
 
 Notice. It is judged best that the Criminal should not 
 make any public profession or declaration. 
 
 4. The Prayer for Imprisoned Debtors is omitted. 
 
 XXI. IN A FORM OF PRAYER AND THANKS- 
 GIVING. 
 
 1. The Anthem has been conformed to the Prayer- 
 Book version of the Psalter ; there has been inserted, 
 for the fourth verse of the Anthem, the seventh verse 
 of Psalm cxlvii., and the Gloria Patri is printed at the 
 end of the Anthem. 
 
 2. The special Thanksgiving has been changed to in- 
 clude an acknowledgment of the " blessings of Thy 
 merciful providence bestowed upon this nation and 
 people." 
 
 XXII. IN THE PSALTER, ETC. 
 
 1. The 141st Psalm has been assigned to the evening 
 instead of the morning of the twenty-ninth day of the 
 month. 
 
 2. In place of the ten Selections of Psalms, the Table 
 
 11 
 
162 APPENDIX. 
 
 of Proper Psalms and the Table of Selections of Psalms 
 are inserted, as in the Order Concerning the Service of 
 the Church. 
 
 3. The Selections of Psalms for Holy Days, which 
 immediately precede the Psalter, have been omitted. 
 
 4. The numbers of the Psalms are printed in common 
 numerals, and the verses of Psalm cxix. are numbered 
 continuously. 
 
 5. The verses of the Canticles and the Psalms are in 
 every case printed with the musical colon. 
 
 XXIII. IN THE FORM AND MANNER OF 
 MAKING, ORDAINING, AND CONSECRATING 
 BISHOPS, PRIESTS, AND DEACONS. 
 
 1. In the Ordering of Priests and in the Consecra- 
 tion of Bishops, provision has been made for the saying 
 of the Nicene Creed. 
 
 2. In the Consecration of Bishops, the longer para- 
 phrase of the Vent, Creator Spiritus, has been omitted, 
 and in place of the rubric Or this, there has been in- 
 serted : 
 
 If Or else the longer paraphrase of the same Hymn, as 
 in the Ordering of Priests. 
 
 3. In the Litany and in the Order for the Adminis- 
 tration of the Lord's Supper as printed in connection 
 with the Ordinal, the same changes have been made as 
 have been made in the same Services where they are 
 printed elsewhere; except that, in the Order for the 
 Administration of the Lord's Supper appended to the 
 Ordinal, the word "Bishop" has been substituted for 
 the word " Priest." 
 
APPENDIX. L68 
 
 XXIV. IN THE FORM OP CONSECRATION OP 
 
 A CHURCH OR (HUM L 
 
 1. The rest of the former title has been omitted. 
 
 2. The Gloria Patri is printed at the end of Psalm 
 24. 
 
 8. A slight change has been made in the Prayers. 
 
 4. Alternative Lessons have been provided, as fol- 
 lows: First Lesson, Genesis 28 v. 10; Second Lesson, 
 Revelation 21 v. 10. 
 
 5. In place of the four rubrics after the Gospel, a new 
 one has been inserted. 
 
 6. In the last Prayer before the Benediction, the 
 eleven words next following the words M the saints upon 
 the earth," are omitted. 
 
 XXV. IN AN OFFICE OF INSTITUTION OP 
 MINISTERS INTO PARISHES OR CHURCHES. 
 
 1. The rest of the former title has been omitted. 
 
 2. A change has been made in the first rubric after 
 the Letter of Institution, so that the part before the 
 words, the Wardens, reads as follows: 
 
 If On the day designated for the new Incumbenfs 
 Institution, at the usual hour of Morning Prayer, the 
 Bishop, or the Institutor appointed by him, attended by 
 the new Incumbent, and by the other Clergy present, 
 shall enter the Chancel. Then all the Clergy present 
 standing in the Chancel or Choir, except the Bishop, or 
 the Priest who acts as Institutor, who shall go within 
 the rails of the Altar ; 
 
 3. All reference to Institution by a Standing Com- 
 mittee, or to the Institution of an Assistant Minister, 
 has been omitted. 
 
164 APPENDIX. 
 
 4. The rubrics have been modified so as to provide 
 for the Bishop as Institutor, though he may appoint a 
 Priest to act for him in the Service, and the Letter of 
 Institution may be read by another. 
 
 5. In the rubric before the form of delivery of the 
 books, the word State has been changed to Diocesan. 
 
 6. The Anthem Laudate Nomen has been omitted ; 
 and it is provided that in its place Psalm lxviii. or 
 Psalm xxvi. shall be said or sung. 
 
 XXVI. THE ARTICLES OP RELIGION 
 
 are printed at the end of the book and have a distinct 
 title-page. 
 
 PREPARATION OF THE STANDARD BOOK 
 OF 1892. 
 
 It was the duty of the committee appointed 
 at the General Convention of 1889 " to prepare 
 a Standard Prayer Book," to incorporate into 
 the existing book the changes which had been 
 finally adopted in 1886 and 1889, and to pre- 
 pare for the incorporation of those which 
 should be finally adopted in 1892. And it was 
 also their duty to determine, as far as possible, 
 what is the exact text of the Book of Common 
 Prayer, to correct all typographical errors, and 
 to make arrangements for printing the book in 
 accurate form. The making of the additions 
 
APPENDIX. L66 
 
 and alterations, which had been constitutionally 
 ordered by the General Con vint inn in the pro- 
 cess of the work of Liturgical Revision, was 
 comparatively easy ; but it was necessary to 
 much study to matters connected with the 
 n of the exact text of the Prayer 
 Book, and the way in which it should be print.. I. 
 The committee, in punning their work, had 
 before them copies of the seven Standard edi- 
 tions of the American Book of Common Prayer, 
 and of other editions of value for illustrating 
 them ; English books of various dates, and in 
 particular the recently published fac-simile of 
 the manuscript book appended to the Act of 
 Uniformity of 16G2 ; Scottish and Irish books, 
 and copies of the English Bible dating from the 
 first edition of the Great Bible, in 1539 (a su- 
 perb copy of which was secured for their use), 
 to the best modern editions of the so-called 
 Authorized Version from the presses of the two 
 Universities and of the Queen's Printers, with 
 reprints of earlier versions. They had, of 
 course, the advantage of much excellent work 
 that had been done in the preparation of earlier 
 Standards, and in particular were under obi 
 tions to the Standard of 1793, edited by Bishop 
 White, and to that of 1845, edited with great 
 and painstaking learning by the Rev. Dr. T. 
 W. Coit. And they had at their disposal the 
 
166 APPENDIX. 
 
 results of much diligent labor which had been 
 given for many years to Prayer Book study, 
 and were specially indebted to the Kev. Fred- 
 erick Gibson, the Rev. H. A. Metcalf, and the 
 Rev. Dr. H. R. Percival for putting most valu- 
 able material at their disposal : while for accu- 
 rate examination of tables and correction of 
 final proofs they owed much to the Rev. Pro- 
 fessor Barbour, of the Berkeley Divinity School. 
 
 In glancing briefly at the work of editing the 
 new Standard, it will be well to speak sepa- 
 rately of the passages of Holy Scripture other 
 than the Psalter, the Psalter itself, and the 
 remaining portions of the Book of Common 
 Prayer. 
 
 I. The Epistles and Gospels in the Prayer 
 Book, and part of the other passages from 
 Scripture, are taken from the version of 1611, 
 commonly known as the " Authorized Version/' 
 In the years which have elapsed since 1662, 
 when the Epistles and Gospels in the English 
 book were taken from this " last translation/' 
 the punctuation and orthography of this version 
 have been greatly changed ; but the changes 
 have been made by the responsible representa- 
 tives of the King's Printers and of the two 
 Universities, with the assistance of competent 
 scholars. The first duty undertaken by the 
 committee was to correct the Epistles and 
 
APPENDIX. 167 
 
 Gospels by editions of this version which were 
 certified by the anthorund English publishers. 
 
 The Psalter, as will bo stated presently, is in 
 the translation which was mado for tho so-called 
 " Great Bible of 1539. From tho Great Bible 
 were also taken, but with some modifications, 
 most of the Offertory Sentences, the verse from 
 Job 14 : 1 in the Burial Office, and the 
 prayer of blessing from 2 Cor. 13 : 14. The 
 other passages of Holy Scripture contained in 
 the Prayer Book, are the Ten Commandments, 
 the Comfortable Words in the Communion 
 Office, and the verse beginning "I heard a 
 voice n in the Burial Office, together with the 
 three New Testament Hymns (Benedict us, 
 Magnificat, and Nunc dimittis) and the 
 Benedicite. These were not taken from any 
 version of tho Bible, but were translated for 
 the Services when they were compiled, prob- 
 ably by Archbishop Cranmer ; only the original 
 form of the last of the Comfortable Words was 
 nearly that of the Great Bible. These four 
 Words were inserted in the Order of Com- 
 munion of 1548, in a form somewhat different 
 from that which appears in tho present English 
 book ; and in our book they have been further 
 modified through the influence of Bishop Sea- 
 bury's Communion Ofli< . 
 
 II. The Psalter in the Prayer Book, as has 
 
168 APPENDIX. 
 
 been said, was taken, at the time when the 
 Services of the English Church were .put into 
 the vernacular or "vulgar tongue," from the 
 Great Bible, the later editions of which are 
 often known as Cranmer's Bible. It has been 
 generally believed that the actual Prayer Book 
 Psalter was taken from the fourth folio edition 
 of this version ; but the researches of the Rev. 
 Frederick Gibson have shown that in reality 
 it was from editions of a later date. There is, 
 then, no present text of the Psalter, with mod- 
 ern spelling and punctuation, which stands in 
 exactly the same position as the present text 
 of the Authorized Version of the Bible. The 
 committee followed the text of the Psalter in 
 Dr. Coit's Standard of 1845, correcting it 
 (when necessary) from the best available Eng- 
 lish Prayer Books, these in turn from the 
 manuscript book of 1662, and this again from 
 editions of the Great Bible itself. 
 
 III. The work upon the rest of the Prayer 
 Book was largely done by reading the whole 
 book, as if aloud, with the view of detecting 
 inaccuracies or infelicities of punctuation ; by 
 comparing one part with another, in order to 
 remove inconsistencies or lack of uniformity ; 
 and by the examination of all former Standards, 
 or editions illustrating Standards, that the ex- 
 act authorized text might be determined. It 
 
APPENDIX. L69 
 
 would not be possible, nor, if it were possible, 
 would it be of interest to the reader, to under- 
 take to mention at all in detail the results of 
 the labor which was bestowed upon this part 
 of the work. Most of them will never be seen 
 except by the few wh<> shall oompara the new 
 book with the old : hat it is confidently be- 
 lieved that they will contribute much to the 
 understanding and the intelligent use of the 
 offices in the Book of Common Prayer. 
 
 This outline of the work of the committee in 
 the Standard Book of Common Prayer may be 
 closed with a quotation from their official report 
 to the General Convention : 
 
 " Within the last forty-five years much study 
 has been given to the English and the Ameri- 
 can Prayer Books, as to their origins, their his- 
 tory, their interpretation, and their text. Wo 
 have felt that it would be a wrong to the Church 
 if a report presented in this year should not 
 show the results of this study, so far as it has 
 been made available ; and we have endeavored 
 to present these wherever, under the principles 
 already stated, they affect the determination of 
 the proper form of our book. ,, 
 
 THE END. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
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