The Prayer Book Explained

By Percival Jackson

The Prayer Book Explained by Percival Jackson is an argument that, rather than there being one most favorable way to praise God, multiple ways of worship are more full of merit. Excerpt: "To those who believe in One Holy Catholic Church wherein dwelleth the Holy Spirit, it will always be difficult to distrust the Service Book of any Branch of it. The old claim made at Jerusalem about the vexed questions of the Church's infancy, It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us (Acts xv. 28), rested not on the presence there of the good and wise, on the prudence or self-sacrifice of those who had hazarded their lives for the Name, but on the reality of the Lord's promised Presence."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Good Press
• Release date: Nov 26, 2019
• ISBN: 4057664627452

Book preview

Percival Jackson

The Prayer Book Explained

Published by Good Press, 2022

[e-mail]

EAN 4057664627452

Table of Contents

PART I.

CAMBRIDGE

APPENDIX C.

APPENDIX D.

APPENDIX F.

DATES CONNECTED WITH THE

PART I.

Table of Contents

THE DAILY OFFICES AND THE LITANY.

CAMBRIDGE:

Table of Contents

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

1901

"The book requireth but orderly reading."

HOOKER, v. xxxi. 3.

{v}

PREFACE.

To those who believe in One Holy Catholic Church wherein dwelleth the Holy Spirit, it will always be difficult to distrust the Service Book of any Branch of it. The old claim made at Jerusalem with regard to the vexed questions of the Church's infancy, It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us (Acts xv. 28), rested not on the presence there of the good and wise, on the prudence or self-sacrifice of those who had hazarded their lives for the Name, but on the reality of the Lord's promised Presence. Not because there were Apostles there, but because those there were the Catholic and Apostolic Church, they asked and received the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

It was a living and lasting Presence, touching with saving grace the treatment of such questions as the observance of Mosaic precepts, {vi} the eating of bought meat, as well as Purity of Life. We cannot doubt, then, that many Services which have been criticised on afterthoughts were essentially constructed in accordance with the Faith once for all delivered to the Church.

To renounce this conviction with regard to our own Church of England is to surrender its inheritance. Men of various tastes may prefer diverse rites: reasonable sequence may suggest one method, and glowing impulse another, fear of misunderstanding a third; but that which has seemed good to the Holy Ghost and His Temple, the Church, demands that we shall endeavour to believe it to be good, and use it in the temper of faith.

The critical spirit, as we now use criticism, is not the spirit of worship. For the spirit of worship is moved by Faith—Faith supremely in God, but also faith in the words which we use, and in the people with whom we use them.

Thus the truest cure for Doubt is Worship. If my faith in a friend weakens I must go to see him, to speak with him, to restore our mutual {vii} confidence and love. In like manner, if my faith in God through Christ weakens, I must go to Him, speak with Him, seek a return of the old confidence and love.

In the belief that God is calling us to know Him more perfectly by the Worship which we offer in heart and life, and in the confidence that our Branch of the Church has the guidance of the Indwelling Spirit, this book is dedicated to His glory.

P. J.

May 1901.

{ix}

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Extempore Worship and Forms of Worship . . . . . . . . . . 1

Variations of words and phrases:

a. Variety of Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

b. Variety in Singing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . —

c. Variations in the component parts . . . . . . . . 4

CHAPTER II.

Origin of Morning and Evening Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . 5

The Day Hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

General Scheme of the Day Hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Names and Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

CHAPTER III.

The Model—The Lord's Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

a. Two kinds of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

b. Praise and Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

c. Intention and Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

d. The Key-note of Prayer and Praise . . . . . . . . 16

e. Forms of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

f. Worship-Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Table of Worship Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Appendix A. Hooker on the use of Worship-Forms . . . . 22

CHAPTER IV.

Morning and Evening Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

The two headings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Map of the two Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Sentences, Exhortation, Confession, Absolution . . . . . . 29

Rubrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Duplication of Phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

CHAPTER V. PRAISE I.

The Psalms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

The first Lord's Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

The Ladder of Praise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . —

Versicles and Psalms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Psalms in Daily Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

CHAPTER VI. PRAISE II.

The Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

A. The Study of the Bible a help to worship:

The Old Testament—1. Its agreement with the New . . . 48

2. Its teachings . . . . . . . . . —

3. Its 3 parts—(a) The Law,

(b) The Psalms, (c) The

Prophets . . . . . . . . . . . —

The New Testament—4. Its 3 parts—(a) The History,

(b) The Epistles, (c) The

Revelation . . . . . . . . . . 49

The Apocrypha— 5. Its place in the Prayer Book . . 51

B. Lessons and Lectionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . —

Jewish Lectionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Early Christian Lectionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Our own Lectionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

The Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Appendix B. Justin Martyr's description of Holy

Baptism and Holy Communion . . . . . . . . 58

CHAPTER VII. PRAISE III.

Hymns in the Daily Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

The Day Hour Hymns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . —

The Canticles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Map of the Lessons and their Canticles . . . . . . . . . 64

CHAPTER VIII. PRAISE IV.

Te Deum Laudamus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

The Latin original. Its three stanzas . . . . . . . . . . 66

Notes on the words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Note on the Doxology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

CHAPTER IX. PRAISE V.

The Canticles, continued . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Magnificat, Benedicite, Cantate Domino . . . . . . . . . . 77

Canticles which follow the Second Lesson: . . . . . . . . 82

Benedictus, Nunc dimittis, Jubilate Deo, Deus misereatur . 83

CHAPTER X. PRAISE VI.

The Creeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

The Apostles' Creed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Uses of Creeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

History of the Apostles' Creed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Creeds in the Bible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Primitive Creeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Close of the Praise Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

CHAPTER XI.

Reason, History, and Revelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

I. About God, a. What Reason has to say . . . . . . . . 101

b. What the Bible Revelation has to say . 104

II. About Jesus Christ, a. What the outside world said . 106

b. What the Bible says . . . . . 107

III. About the Holy Ghost. What the Bible says . . . . . . 111

CHAPTER XII.

Excursus on The 'Athanasian' Creed . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

CHAPTER XIII.

The Service of Prayer. I. Preces and Collects . . . . . . 127

Worship-Forms in the Prayer Service . . . . . . . . . . . 128

The Prayer Service Rubrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

A. Preces, 132; B. Collects, 134; C. The other Prayers . . 142

CHAPTER XIV.

The Service of Prayer. II. Anthems . . . . . . . . . . . 146

a. Simple Anthems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Example. Advent setting of Venite . . . . . . . . . . —

b. Compound Anthems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Example. The Easter Anthems in their original form . . —

Praise and Prayer Anthems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Hymns as Anthems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

CHAPTER XV.

The Service of Prayer. III. The Litany . . . . . . . . . 153

Ancient Litanies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Rogation Litanies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Structure of the Litany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

i. Our cry to Christ, 159. ii. Our cry to the Father, 170.

iii. Appeal for help, 171. iv. Pressing anxieties of

the moment, 172. v. Final Commendation of our

prayers to Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Appendix C. Lessons in the Day Hours . . . . . . . . . . 173 Appendix D. Pliny's Letter to Trajan . . . . . . . . . . 174 Appendix E. The addition of Filioque . . . . . . . . . 176 Appendix F. Greek origin of Litanies . . . . . . . . . . 177 Tables of Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

{1}

CHAPTER I.

EXTEMPORE WORSHIP AND FORMS OF WORSHIP.

There is no such special merit in monotony as to require that the worship of God should be conducted wholly