The Preface, "Concerning the Service of the Church," states that "the ancient Fathers have divided the Psalms into seven portions, whereof every one was called a Nocturn," and that...
The Litany is a series of prayers addressed mainly to God the Son. It has two breaks, or interruptions, which consist of prayers addressed to God the Father. Thus there are five se...
As an illustration of this we may think of Esther, when she went to make her petition of the King (Esther iv. 2, v. 1-3). The King extending his sceptre gave her permission to spea...
This ancient Latin Hymn of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ has in many Service-books been attributed to S. Ambrose and S. Augustine. One of the stories is that they sang i...
The Services in the Prayer Book may be roughly classed as (1) those which are used every week: and (2) those which are used more rarely. The principal service is the Holy Communion...
[Transcriber's note: In the following section, in the original book, the material in the right-hand column was italicized. In standard Project Gutenberg practice, such text is (usu...
The amendment of rubrics in this part of the Services, which was effected in 1662, completed the directions for continuing the Service after the Collects. Until that time, the pray...
Much has been said from time to time concerning Extempore Prayers and Extempore Praise, as opposed to those which are more carefully prepared and agreed upon. The discussion has be...
Acts xv. 21. "Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath Day." The reference is to the Mosaic regulations which were to a...
A learned Professor once attacked the use of Creeds in Worship with the bitter words, that "they combine the maximum of offence with the minimum of worship." This utterance might b...
61. * * * We bring them where there is water; and after the same manner of regeneration as we also were regenerated ourselves, they are regenerated; for, in the Name of God, the Fa...
We find that, in the Services, shares are distributed to the worshippers in five different ways, which may be called Worship-forms. The Table on p. 21 should be carefully studied....
The discussions which arose upon the Revelation of Himself, which God gave in His Son Jesus Christ, were carried on between people who lived far apart round the waters of the Medit...
Origin of Litanies. Some of the Offices of Holy Communion--especially in the East--have had a portion after the Gospel very similar to what we call a Litany. Thus in the Liturgy (i...
The Canticle Benedicite omnia Opera is so called from Latin words meaning Bless ye, all Works. Our Services were translated from the Latin Services used in our Church for centuries...
Jesus is known to us as the Son of Man: hence His people can use the words of the Blessed Virgin. When she looked forward to His coming, she used words which we can say after readi...
Anthem=Antiphon, fr. antiphonon: so called because two choirs sing alternately. Anthems are of two sorts--simple Anthems and compound Anthems. A simple Anthem is one or more verses...
These interjected prayers do not follow exactly the order of the Collects and Prayers, which are to come next to them. The second couplet belongs to the two prayers, for the King a...
We have seen that Unity of Intention is necessary to congregational worship. When a few people, animated by the same sentiments, are drawn together by one motive, and incur the sam...
The Books formerly used in Church. In a passage of the Prayer Book Preface of 1549, which was not struck out until the last Revision in 1662, it was said that "by this order the Cu...
The Evening Service is supplied with a different Hymn of the Advent for its Second Lesson--that of the aged Simeon, when, having waited through his long life for it, he was blessed...
THE LORD'S PRAYER. PRECES or Interjected Verses anticipating the Collects. ( 1. for spiritual needs, COLLECTS ( ANTHEM or Choral Prayer uniting the ( two kinds of Collect, ( 2. for...
Before the invention of printing (15th century), the directions in Law Manuscripts had been written in red, in order to distinguish them from the Statutes. This distinction had bee...
The various parts of the Praise portion of the Service are not repetitions of the same ideas. We {39} have first, in the Psalms, the simpler thoughts about God. The First Lesson, t...
Every part of the Praise portion of the Service has a Praise-Termination. We have already seen that the "intention" of the Lord's Prayer is marked for praise by a Termination, viz....
As God's answer to Confession, this is pronounced by God's own messenger. The messenger must have full credentials; i.e. a Deacon must not say the Absolution. Both here and in the...
Cartwright, attacking the Prayer Book, 1572 or later, wrote-- "For the singing of Psalms by course and side after side, although it be very ancient yet it is not commendable, and s...
It is scarcely necessary at this time to show that the 100th Psalm is suitable as a Canticle after a Missionary Lesson; for it seems to be assumed that the Old Hundredth, in its me...
The capital letters indicate that this was to be, as it were, dictated to the people, sentence by sentence: and the Rubric implies the same. It will be remembered that books were s...
The worshippers are divided into two or more parties who take up their parts alternately, or together. It is evident that such a division may be made in many ways. Those which have...