57 
 
 181 
 
 THE PEAYEE BOOK 
 
 BASIS OF UNITY. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 RIGHT REVEREND GEO. D. CUMMINS, D.D., 
 
 ASSISTANT BISHOP OF KENTUCKY. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY RESOLUTION OF THE 
 
 CONVENTION OF THE DIOCESE OF KENTUCKY. 
 
 “ It is broad enough and comprehensive enough to embrace men who differ widely 
 in their interpretations and definitions of Scriptural truth” p. 10.- 
 
 ‘ ‘ Is it presumption then to claim for it a fitness to be the Prayer Book of all 
 Protestant Christendom , to bind together in one great Christian family those now 
 divided and discordant ? ” p. 13. 
 
 Oak Street 
 UNCLASSIFIED 
 
 LOUISVILLE, KT. 
 1867. 
 
 Re-printed 1876, by a Communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 
 
THE PRAYER BOOK A BASIS OF UNITY. 
 
 Jeremiah vi., 16. — Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways and see, and ask 
 for the old paths where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find 
 rest for your souls.” 
 
 “ The immediate present/’ says the latest historian of Eng- 
 land, “however awful its import, will ever seem common and 
 familiar to those who live and breathe in the midst of it. In 
 the days of the September massacre at Paris, the theaters 
 were open as usual; men ate and drank and laughed and 
 cried, and went about their common work, unconscious that 
 those days which were passing by them, so much like other 
 days, would remain the dies nefasti , accursed in the memory 
 of mankind forever. Nothing is terrible; nothing is sublime 
 in human things, so long as they are before our eyes. It is 
 only when time has done its work that such periods stand out 
 in their true significance.” 
 
 It may be doubted if this remark is true of the age in which 
 we live. The impression is deep and profound, in every 
 thoughtful mind, that the age in which our lot is cast, is no 
 common or ordinary age, but one ever to be remembered for 
 its great events, its strange characteristics. And among these 
 it may be doubted if there is any peculiarity more marked, 
 and indeed more momentous, than the spirit of change, nay 
 of rash and reckless innovation, which, under the noble name 
 of progress, deludes the minds of millions. In science, in 
 philosophy, in religion, it is a time marked by the casting off 
 of all the authority of the past, by an attempt to unsettle the 
 foundations on which successive generations have built and 
 dwelt in security and peace. 
 
 In the sphere of religious truth this tendency finds its widest, 
 
4 
 
 The Prayer Book 
 
 its most alarming development ; and there is nothing sadder 
 on this earth than the spectacle of a gifted mind like Robertson, 
 of Brighton, letting go at one time all the precious faith of his 
 childhood, and sinking into the darkest abyss of doubt, where 
 the only ray of light left him was the single truth, “ it must 
 at least be right to do right.” How precious at such a time 
 the inheritance of a faith whose cardinal doctrine is that it 
 admits of no change, but is like its great author, “ the same 
 yesterday, and to-day, and forever,” — which, rejoicing in all 
 progress in science, in philosophy, in freedom, earnestly denies 
 that in divine truth there can be any progress, and contends 
 steadfastly for the faith once delivered unto the saints, whose 
 utterance ever is, the old paths are the only true paths, the 
 only safe paths, and whose voice ever sounding amid the din 
 and strife of the present is, “ stand in the ways and see, and 
 ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, 
 and ye shall find rest for your souls.” 
 
 But not less marked than this is another peculiarity mark- 
 ing the religious character of our age. It is the longing for 
 unity. It is the profound feeling that the present state of 
 Christendom is not what its Divine Founder designed it to 
 be; that His prayer that His people may all be one, has never 
 yet been realized, and that the spectacle of a divided and 
 warring Christendom — Christ’s seamless robe torn and rent — 
 is a grief to the heart of the Divine Master, and a mighty 
 hindrance to the final triumph of His kingdom. 
 
 Under the influence of this conviction men are yearning 
 for unity, some blindly feeling after it, and willing for its 
 attainment to sacrifice even, vital truth. Rejoicing in this 
 tendency of men’s minds, and desiring to add my mite to its 
 safe direction, I propose to-day for my theme the fitness of the 
 Book of Common Prayer to be the bond of unity , the manual of 
 worship for all the confessions which divide Protestant Christen- 
 dom , the golden chain to restore the ancient unity of the kingdom 
 of the Redeemer . 
 
 I. And first, the special fitness of the prayer book to fulfill 
 this office arises from the fact that it embodies , as no other un- 
 inspired volume does , the ancient and primitive catholic faith of 
 Christ's Church: not catholic in any corrupt, or perverted, or 
 
A Basis of Unity. 
 
 5 
 
 exclusive sense, but catholic in the sense of the once univer- 
 sal, unadulterated faith of Scripture — the faith of the church 
 when its heart was yet warm with its first fresh love, ere phi- 
 losophy, falsely so called, had defiled the pure well-spring of 
 sacred truth. And this old and undefiled faith, the prayer 
 book embodies, not merely in confessions and creeds and arti- 
 cles of dogmatic theology, but what is far better, in devotional 
 offices, in the utterances of prayer and praise, in supplication 
 and adoration ; so that the incense of its devotion is fragrant 
 with the most precious truth of God’s holy word. This goodly 
 robe of the bride of Christ is wrought out of the purest gold 
 of divine truth — its warp and its woof are alike Holy Scrip- 
 ture. 
 
 Let us look more closely into this statement. What great 
 cardinal truth of the ancient primitive faith is not interwoven 
 into the very texture of the Liturgy ? 
 
 1 . Is it the doctrine of the Trinity, the Tri-unity of Father, 
 Son and Holy Ghost? The wondrous thing about the Liturgy 
 here is, that it brings this sublime verity close to our hearts 
 in all its blessed practical significance, as nothing else can 
 bring it. 
 
 Says one, who is not of this fold, but who bears his admir- 
 ing testimony from without, “ Who that has been able, in 
 some frame of holy longing after God, to clear away the petty 
 shackles of logic, committing the soul up freely to the inspir- 
 ing impulse of this Divine mystery as it is celebrated in some 
 grand Doxology of Christian worship — as the Gloria Patri — 
 a hymn of the ages framed to be continuously chanted by the 
 long procession of times, until times are lapsed into eternity 
 — and has been lifted into conscious fellowship with the great 
 celestial minds in their highest ranges of blessedness and their 
 shining tiers of glory — who has not known it as being at 
 once the deepest, highest, widest, most enkindling and most 
 practical of all practical truths ? ” 
 
 This is the work of the prayer book — to turn a theological 
 mystery into a precious heart-truth of deepest experience. For 
 as soon as the soul of the worshiper has prostrated itself in 
 deepest humility and penitence before God, and received the 
 declaration of his abundant pardon to those who “ truly re- 
 pent and unfeignedly believe,” it rises into strains of loftiest 
 
6 
 
 The Prayer Book 
 
 adoration in a chant which has borne to heaven the praises of 
 saints for 1,500 years, or in the thrilling accents of the angefs 
 song, or in the hymn of St. Ambrose, cries with the Seraphim, 
 “ Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, the Father of an 
 infinite Majesty, Thine adorable and true and only Son; also, 
 the Holy Ghost, the Comforter ! ” 
 
 Then, the worshiper turns to the ancient symbols, and 
 makes his confession of faith in a creed so primitive and pure 
 as to be rightly called the creed of Apostles, or in another, 
 scarcely less ancient and venerable, and chants “ God of God, 
 Light of Light, very God of very God ! ” And again there 
 is heard the deep, earnest, plaintive pleading of the Litany, 
 and to each adorable person of the Godhead does the 
 prayer ascend until it reaches its climax in “0, Holy, blessed 
 and glorious Trinity, three Persons and one God, have mercy 
 upon us ! ” 
 
 How can this foundation truth ever be lost out of the heart 
 of a church whose unchanging order of prayer thus enshrines 
 it in the deepest, holiest feelings of the soul? And, if one 
 who ministers at her altars should prove recreant to this great 
 truth, how keen is the rebuke which he must feel, as forever 
 he is constrained to unite in such utterances. 
 
 2. Is the atonement, the vicarious sacrifice of Christ upon 
 the cross for us men and our salvation, a vital part of the 
 Christian system ? Not less full is the prayer book of this 
 than of the Trinity; not in the formal and abstruse terms of 
 the theological science, serving only to confuse and perplex 
 the mind of the simple believer in Jesus, but in strong cry- 
 ings and pleadings for mercy “ through the satisfaction of 
 Jesus Christ our Lord.” 
 
 Of the 200 prayers and collects of this book, all, with 
 scarce an exception, are offered in one name, are based upon 
 one plea, u through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, 
 our adorable Redeemer.” Redemption through the blood of the 
 Lamb is the key-note which floats through all this mingled 
 chorus of praise and prayer. “ Lamb of God that taketh away 
 the sins of the world,” is the Church’s ever repeated cry in 
 the “ Gloria in Excelsis.” “ When thou hadst overcome the 
 sharpness of Death thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to 
 all believers,” is its echo in the Te Deum. “ By Thine agony 
 
A Basis of Unity. 
 
 7 
 
 and bloody sweat, by thy cross and passion, by thy precious 
 death and burial,” is the sinner’s only claim to salvation. 
 
 But if we would know all the fullness with which the prayer 
 book sets forth the propitiatory sacrifice for sin by the blood 
 of Christ, we must turn to the most sacred and precious of 
 all its offices “ the order for the administration of the Supper 
 of the Lord.” Language seems powerless to convey its sense 
 of the infinite preciousness of the Redeemer’s sacrifice. At 
 each notice of the celebration of this sacred feast, the minister 
 is to remind the recipient that it is “in remembrance of His 
 meritorious cross and passion whereby alone we obtain remis- 
 sion of our sins.” In the exhortation preceding the office of 
 consecration, he is to bid them give thanks to God “ for the 
 redemption of the world by the death and passion of our 
 Saviour Christ, both God and man, who did humble himself 
 even to the death of the cross for us miserable sinners.” As 
 he kneels before the Holy Table, he prays “ that our sinful 
 bodies may be made clean by His body and our souls washed 
 through His most precious blood.” And more significant than 
 all, he is bidden to declare that upon the cross, Jesus Christ 
 “ made a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and 
 satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.” 
 
 Blessed testimony to a blessed truth! Hqw sublimely 
 does this volume witness to this “old path,” this “ good way” 
 of salvation, in a day when men would take from the Gospel 
 its very life-blood, by seeking to eliminate the truth of Christ’s 
 vicarious sacrifice. Let us thank God that its ceaseless utter- 
 ance is, “ Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the 
 sin of the world ! ” 
 
 3. Again, is the plenary inspiration of Holy Scripture a 
 vital truth, essential to the very being of the Faith ? It is 
 recognized and acknowledged throughout the whole frame- 
 work of the Liturgy. The prayer book honors the Word of 
 God as it is honored in no other volume on earth. “ Hear 
 what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith:” “hear 
 what the Holy Ghost saith,” is its repeated utterance as it 
 echoes the teachings of Holy Scripture. Here is no doubting, 
 hesitating acknowledgment of the plenary inspiration of the 
 Bible. And now, more than ever, we prize this testimony 
 when recreant sons of our Mother Church in England have 
 
8 
 
 The Prayer Booh 
 
 risen up to assail this pillar of the truth. Never can such false 
 teaching widely prevail among men using this book, which 
 bid them pray, “Blessed Lord, who hath caused all Holy 
 Scripture to be written for our learning. ’ ’ Or again, 4 4 Oh, 
 God, who hast instructed thy Church b}^ the heavenly doctrine 
 of the Evangelists, give us grace that, being not like children 
 carried away by every blast of vain doctrine, we may be estab- 
 lished in the truths of thy Holy Gospel.” 
 
 Time forbids us to go further into this investigation, deeply 
 interesting as it might prove. W e might take successively other 
 vital and central truths, dear to the hearts of God’s people in 
 all time, and show how each is incorporated into the very life 
 of devotion. Thus the truth of man’ s ruined nature, the office 
 and work of the Holy Spirit *in the renewal and sanctification 
 of the heart, justification by faith, 44 only for the merits of our 
 Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ” — 44 a most wholesome doc- 
 trine, and very full of comfort” — these are every where in- 
 wrought into the texture of this book. 
 
 This, then, is our first argument. If to pray aright we need 
 to pray 44 with the spirit and the understanding also,” and if 
 all the primal and essential doctrines of salvation are brought 
 to the heart as blessed realities, and made the very flame of 
 devotion by him who worships God in the order of this book, 
 is it not eminently worthy of the high office we claim for it to 
 lead the devotions of all who would 4 4 worship in spirit and 
 in truth?” 
 
 II. We advance to another position. The prayer book is 
 fitted to unite all reformed communions, because it enshrines 
 most faithfully the true spirit of the reformation. 
 
 The book of common prayer is the fairest and most beaute- 
 ous child of the great Reformation. It is a blessed monument 
 of God’s goodness to His Church, in bringing her great deliv- 
 erance after long ages of bondage and darkness. It is the 
 precious casket in which are laid up the spoils of the mightiest 
 conflict waged with the powers of darkness, since the fathers 
 of Christendom fell asleep, for 44 the truth as it is in Jesus.” 
 
 How wonderously can we trace the hand of God in the 
 agencies and instruments employed in the accomplishment of 
 this work ! First came the 44 Reformers before the Reforma- 
 tion,” Wicliffe and his brotherhood, sowing in tears the seed 
 for a harvest to be reaped in joy by others. Then followed in 
 God’s good time, Cranmer and his co-laborers, Jewel, and 
 Latimer, and Ridley, and others whose names will never die : 
 first in 1564 only permitted to translate the prayers and the 
 litany into the English tongue ; next, under Edward YI, 
 setting forth the first Book of Common Prayer, drawn up in 
 
A Basis of Unity. 
 
 9 
 
 the words of the royal decree, “ according to the most sincere 
 and pure Christian religion taught by Scripture, and according 
 to the usages of the Primitive Church.” 
 
 Then came the memorable Whitsunday of 1549, when for 
 the first time the reformed liturgy led the worship of a whole 
 realm, rejoicing in “ the liberty wherewith Christ had made 
 them free.” Soon, indeed, under another reign, there returned 
 for a season a night of superstition, to be followed only by a 
 more glorious day, whose meridian brightness other genera- 
 tions are yet to behold. 
 
 But what a history is condensed into the few sentences just 
 uttered ! What prayers and sacrifices, what patient waiting 
 and. suffering, what stripes and imprisonments, what burnings 
 at the stake were needed to win for the church of the future, 
 the glorious heritage of this book ! And the great principle 
 which guided the English reformers was that enjoined in the 
 text ; they sought to find “ the old paths ” — “ the good way ” 
 of the Church in its days of primitive purity. 
 
 Isaac Walton tells us that when Sir Henry Wotton was 
 present at a church festival in the city of Jtome, and listening 
 to strains of exquisite music, a priest, thinking the time a 
 favorable one to win him over to the Romish faith, sent to him 
 a note with this question : “ Where was your religion before 
 
 Luther?” To which question Sir Henry presently under- 
 wrote : “ My religion was to be found then, where yours is 
 
 not to be found now, in the Word of God.” The work of 
 reformation at which the martyrs and confessors of the English 
 Church labored, and which hundreds among them sealed with 
 their blood, was not the work of constructing a new system, 
 but of restoring the old to its lost purity. They were like 
 men who went forth to cleanse and restore some grand old 
 cathedral, whose windows were darkened by the accumulated 
 dust of ages, whose courts were defiled with uncleanness, and 
 whose altars were polluted with strange fire ; and their work 
 was to clear away the heaps of rubbish, to kindle a new and 
 holy fire on its altar, to fill its courts with the incense of a 
 pure devotion, and to let in the unobscured glad sunlight of 
 truth, filling and flooding its whole vast area. 
 
 Such was the work which bequeathed to us the Book of 
 Common Prayer, combining the “old paths” of the Apos- 
 tolic Church, and the “good way” of the Great Reformation. 
 May we not safely challenge any portion of reformed Christ- 
 endom to produce in any confession or symbol, or formulary 
 of devotion, that which represents so faithfully the spirit of 
 that great movement. Hear the grand and stately protest of the 
 Articles of Religion, as for three hundred years they have 
 borne their solemn witness against transubstantiation, purga- 
 
10 
 
 The Prayer Book 
 
 tory, pardons, the worshiping and adoration of images and 
 relics, the invocation of saints, the denial of the cup to the 
 laity, the use of prayers in a strange tongue, the five added 
 and spurious sacraments, the requiring any thing to be 
 believed as necessary to salvation ‘ ‘ which is not read in holy 
 Scripture nor may be proved thereby,” and then remember 
 that the authors of this protest gladly laid down their lives in 
 its defense, and sealed it with their blood. 
 
 We are not unmindful of the retort that may be made, that 
 not a few, trained under all the influences of this book, and 
 familiar with all the hallowed memories which consecrate it, 
 have found their way back to the altars of a corrupt and 
 idolatrous church, even while the language of the Liturgy yet 
 lingered on their lips. But we lay hold of the very objection 
 to strengthen our position. The perverted religiousness of the 
 human heart, which hungers for a sensuous worship and an- 
 other gospel, can find no satisfaction in the simple scriptural 
 worship of this book. A pure and apostolic Church affords 
 no abiding place for such a spirit. “ They went out from us 
 because they were not of us.” They go forth to bear witness 
 that, whilst this Liturgy remains intact, it will prove a mighty 
 breakwater to save the Church of Christ from ever again being 
 devastated by the floods of superstition and idolatry. 
 
 III. Again, we claim this high position for the prayer book, 
 because it is committed to no human system of theology, but 
 is broad enough and comprehensive enough to embrace men 
 who differ widely in their interpretations and definitions of 
 scriptural truth. 
 
 It is indeed a peculiar glory of the prayer book that it is 
 marked by the ‘ ‘ elastic tenderness of a nurse who takes into 
 account the varying temperaments and dispositions of child- 
 ren ; ” not by the rigid precision of an imperious taskmaster, 
 who would prostrate into a procrustean bed all the varieties of 
 human feeling and human conscience. It bears upon its very 
 fore-front Augustine’s motto : “In essentials, unity ; in non- 
 essentials, liberty ; in all things, charity.” They who framed 
 the Liturgy recognized the truth, that their work was not for 
 a day, but for all time ; not for a nation or a denomination, 
 but for a great Catholic Church, which, in Gf od’ s good time, 
 might be co-extensive with the earth. 
 
 Hence they were careful that its doctrinal teachings should 
 be set forth only as the Bible sets them forth, and as they 
 were embodied in ancient creeds and liturgies, purified from 
 all the errors which were the growth of a later and darker age. 
 They called no man master on earth. They followed not Au- 
 gustine, nor Luther, nor Calvin, but Christ and his Apostles. 
 
A Basis of Unity. 
 
 11 
 
 Hence the theology of the prayer book is not the confession 
 of Augsburg, nor that of the Synod of Dort, nor yet of the 
 Westminster Assembly. It is not Lutheranism, nor Calvinism, 
 nor Arminianism. But better than all, it embraces all that is 
 precious and of vital truth in each of these systems, yet com- 
 mitting itself to none ; and a disciple of each of these schools 
 may find in it that which gives “rest to his soul.” 
 
 Does the follower of Calvin find the doctrine of election a 
 4 4 doctrine full of sweet, pleasant and unspeakable comfort to 
 the soul of a godly person?” So teaches the seventeenth 
 article of Religion of the Prayer Book. Does the Arminian 
 hold nothing to be more vital and essential than the doctrine 
 of the free, unlimited, unrestricted offer of salvation to all 
 mankind ? He finds it running like a silver thread through 
 all the texture of these beauteous garments of the Bride of 
 Christ. Does the Wesleyan regard it as the blessed privilege 
 of a child of God to know God as a reconciled father, who, in 
 Christ, has put away his sins, and given him joy and peace in 
 believing ? Where else is such a truth so fully recognized as 
 in those seraphic strains of devotion which lift the soul into 
 holy communion with God, and cause it to realize its accept- 
 ance in the beloved ? Does the Lutheran place a high value 
 upon the worthy partaking of the sacrament of Christ’ s body 
 and blood ? Surely the lofty glowing language of the commu- 
 nion office is fitted to meet the deepest longings of the soul as 
 it feeds on Christ in the heart by faith with thanksgiving. 
 
 Are not these facts evidence that the system of the prayer 
 book is the system of the Bible ? This is the boast, this is the 
 honor of our church. Let her willingly submit to the igno- 
 rant reproach that men of every creed can find in her something 
 to favor their views, while she shares this reproach with the 
 Word of God. It is this fact which fits her for universality. 
 In this fact is found her chief power. 
 
 IV. Once more : In claiming for the prayer book that it is 
 fitted to be a basis of unity to all Christians, we claim for it 
 what the experience of centuries has confirmed, that it is emi- 
 nently adapted to unfold and nourish the spiritual life of the 
 believer. 
 
 Where is the longing of the soul which it does not satisfy ? 
 Where the craving it does not appease ? Where the deepest 
 experience of the love of God which finds not here an appro- 
 priate utterance ? Where the contrition which cannot unbur- 
 den itself in its penitential pleadings ? What soul-sorrow finds 
 not fitting expression? What soul-rapture may not find wingS 
 for its heavenward flight in these anthems worthy to be chanted 
 by cherubim and seraphim ? 
 
12 
 
 The Prayer Booh 
 
 Here we advance our argument to a high position indeed. 
 W e claim that the voice of three hundred years bears testimony 
 to the truth that the prayer book is eminently fitted to develop 
 and nourish the very loftiest type of spiritual piety. We are 
 willing to test it by its fruits in the lives of the faithful. And 
 just as the course of a stream may be traced at a distance by 
 the luxuriant skirt of trees lining its banks and fed by its 
 waters, so through all the lapse of three centuries may we 
 trace the windings of this river that makes glad the city of our 
 God by the trees of righteousness, the saints of lofty stature, 
 whose roots found rich nourishment in its living fountains. 
 
 The monks of the middle ages spent almost a lifetime in 
 illuminating, by curious skill of the pencil, the Missal and the 
 Breviary ; but what an illuminated edition of the prayer book 
 would it be, could we gather around it the lives of the elect 
 and saintly spirits who have been nourished at its rich banquet 
 of spiritual food! It will well repay us to walk with reverent 
 step and admiring hearts along the far-stretching galleries of 
 the Church’ s history, and pause before the portraits of men 
 and women whose names are dear to all God’s people, and 
 who may be justly claimed as living epistles, witnessing to 
 the power and preciousness of this book. “ Come and see” 
 is our reply to him who would depreciate the Liturgy, and 
 tell us that its tendency is to deaden spirituality and to make 
 formal, lifeless Christians. “Come and see” the saints of 
 lofty stature, the men and women of lofty holiness, the mighty 
 wrestlers with God, the meek and lowly followers of the Lamb, 
 whose names and works are now the heritage of all Christen- 
 dom, and whose lives are most truly the fruits of prayer book 
 nurture. 
 
 To what sphere of faithful service for Christ can we turn 
 without meeting a cloud of witnesses to this truth ? Is it among 
 those who “ resisted unto blood” for the precious truth of the 
 gospel ? What venerable and saintly forms are those which 
 pass before us, girded for the sacrifice, and chanting, “ This is 
 the day the Lord hath made ; this is the way, narrow though 
 it be, yet full of the peace of God, and leading to eternal 
 bliss?” Need I tell you? They are Ridley and Latimer, 
 Cranmer and Bradford, Rogers and Philpot and Taylor, on 
 their way to the stake, to swell “ the noble army of martyrs ! ” 
 
 Is it among great doctors and masters and learned theolo- 
 gians, whose writings form the stately buttresses defending and 
 upholding the temple of truth ? Where shall we find names 
 more* august than that of the Church of England’s great 
 apologist, Jewel, whose piety was as profound as his learning, 
 and of whose departure it has been ^beautifully said by his 
 biographer, Walton, that “it was a question whether his last 
 
A Basis of Unity. 
 
 13 
 
 ejaculations or his soul did first enter paradise ?” — or the in- 
 comparable Hooker, whose meekness and heavenly minded- 
 ness we are apt to forget amidst the bright shining of his 
 wondrous intellect— or the myriad minded Jeremy Taylor, or 
 Stillingfleet, or Chilling worth, or Barrow, colossal champions 
 of the reformed faith. 
 
 Is it among true hearted and faithful and holy pastors ? 
 What beauteous pictures are those that live in our memories of 
 the life of the saintly Leighton, of whom Burnet said, after 
 an intimacy of more than twenty-two years, 4 4 I never once saw 
 him in any other temper but that in which I wished to be in the 
 last moment of my life ; ” — of the simple-minded and gentle 
 country parson of Bemerton, whose dying request was, 4 4 read 
 me the prayers of my mother, the Church of England : there 
 are no prayers like them;” — of the home and the flock of 
 Leigh Richmond in the beauteous Isle of Wight, where the 
 grave of the Dairyman’s Daughter, a prayer-book Christian, 
 is a spot sacred to the heart of millions who have wept over 
 her touching story ; — of the lives and labors of Tillotson and 
 Ken, of Usher and Hall, of Simeon and Cecil, of Newton and 
 Yen. 
 
 Shall we seek among the sweet singers of the Church for 
 traces of its influence? Where but at these fountains did 
 Cowper, and Charles Wesley, and Wordsworth, and Keble 
 drink in inspiration ? 
 
 Passing to the noble sphere of a world-embracing philan- 
 throphy, whose names are enshrined so sacredly in the hearts 
 of all good men, as those two prayer book Christians, one 
 whose last request was, 44 lay me quietly in my grave, place a 
 sun-dial over my breast, and let me be forgotten,” and yet 
 whose statue in St. Paul’s Cathedral bears the name of John 
 Howard, and the other, who sleeps in Westminster Abbey by 
 the side of Pitt and Burke, and Canning and Sheridan, his 
 compeers, yet greater than them all — William Wilberforce? 
 Or, rising to the highest field of holy labors, whose names 
 shine out against the darkness of heathenism so bright as 
 those of Martyn, of Heber, of Selwyn, and a host like-minded, 
 who found in this book strength and holy inspiration ? 
 
 By its fruits is the tree known ; and by its fruits let the 
 prayer book be tested. Is it presumption then to claim for it 
 a fitness to be the prayer book of all Protestant Christendom, 
 to bind together in one great Christian family those now 
 divided and discordant ? 
 
 W ill it be said that it is in vain to hope for, to pray for, to 
 labor for such a result ? Nay, not so : there is a yearningfor 
 unity, deep-seated and wide-spread, which can only come 
 from above, and which stirs the noblest among us to heroic 
 
14 
 
 The Prayer Book a Basis of Unity. 
 
 action. What a sublime thought that this is the work God 
 has committed to us, whose birthright is this heritage — to 
 restore the long-lost unity of Protestant Christendom upon 
 the basis of the prayer-book ! To grasp this thought in all its 
 fullness would of itself elevate the Church to a status never 
 yet attained in this generation. It would heal every division, 
 and hush every voice of strife among ourselves into silence. 
 It would animate us to the noblest endeavors after a character 
 becoming a position of honor and responsibility such as this. 
 It would incite to noble deeds of piety, noble works of love, 
 to prove to all men what mighty power for good, God has 
 entrusted to His Church. It would restrain all harsh judg- 
 ment and condemnation of those whom we seek to bring into 
 our heritage. And its voice of love would ever be to all who 
 profess and call themselves Christians, “ Stand in the ways 
 and see and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and 
 walk therein, and ye shall find rest to your souls.’’ “Come 
 and sit down with us at this feast of fat things. Come and 
 share our inheritance. Come back under the shelter of the 
 old roof-tree of our Father’s house. Come with us and we 
 will do you good, for the Lord hath spoken good concerning 
 Israel.” 
 
 Oh ! blessed vision of the Church of the future, as it -rises 
 before me do-day, a city at unity in itself ; its strength no 
 longer wasted in intestine warfare, but combined against a 
 common foe, going forth from conquering unto conquest, fair 
 as the sun, beauteous as the moon, and terrible as an army 
 with banners. 
 
 THE END.