Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

In the other case, the soul is healthful, and is in itself a happy being. All its sufferings arise from accidental hinderances and foreign causes; and therefore, when it leaves the body, and passes into brighter regions, it will bid farewell, for ever, to pain and

sorrow. Rev. H. Woodward.

"THIS DO IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME."-Who could resist such an appeal? who disobey such a command? More than eighteen centuries have passed away, since, in that upper chamber, in some obscure house in the city of Jerusalem, the words which conveyed the request were spoken by that lowly sufferer to his broken-hearted followers; and is it too much to say, "that their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words into the ends of the world?" From that night to the present hour, all ranks, all classes of Christian believers, have united in fulfilling this last request of their Redeemer. Century after century has passed away, the monuments of human greatness have mouldered into dust, the laws inscribed upon tablets of brass have perished, dynasties and empires have risen and fallen, and are forgotten,-and these few simple sentences-this short, affecting memorial, has outlived them all-never obliterated, never even suspended; no single week, we might perhaps with truth assert, no single day, has ever yet passed by, which did not witness some little assemblage of the followers of the Redeemer " doing this in remembrance of him ;" and thus, as the apostle says, "shewing forth the Lord's death till he come."Rev. Henry Blunt.

UNITY. Neither may we think that order and discipline is needful for the people in God's Church, and needless for the pastors: that were to guard the feet, and leave the head open to a more deadly wound: but rather, as the more principal the part, the more perilous the disease, so the more disordered the pastors, the likelier the people to perish by their dissensions. The house cannot stand which the builders subvert. The harvest is lost, where the labourers do rather scatter than gather. If the eye lack light, how dark is the body! If the salt be unsavoury, wherewithal shall the rest be seasoned? The followers cannot go right where the guides go astray; and forces distracted, be they never so great, are soon defeated. Discord and disorder in the pastors rend the Church in pieces; whereas peace and agreement in the teachers confirm and establish the minds of the hearers. If they strive that sit at stern, the ship of Christ cannot hold a straight and safe course in the tempests of this world. Order, then, and discipline--the very nurse and mother of all peace and quietness, as well in divine as in human societies and assemblies,-though it be not the life or spirit that quickeneth the Church, yet doth it fasten and knit the members thereof, as joints and sinews do the parts of our bodies, insomuch that the uniting (Eph. xiv.) of the spirit is not kept (as the apostle noteth) without the bond of peace; and where there is dissension nourished, or confusion suffered, no peace can be preserved or expected.—Bp. Bilson's Perpetual Government of Christ's Church.

Poetry.

LOVE TO GOD.

WHETHER I tread the silent plain,
Or musing seek the forest-bower,
This prayer I form, and form again-
My God! thy love my heart o'erpower!

When morn with rising sunbeam glows
Or eve retires from vale and hill;
My heart no other ardour knows-
My God! I pray to love thee still!

Is it the thought of England throws Remembrance far? or Greece returns, To tell of gladness past, or woes?

My God! my heart to love thee burns.

I think of those who once could love,
If lips did truly love reveal;
But, rise my better thought above-
Give me, my God! thy love to feel.

Is it the verse that Homer pours,

Or nobler song, would touch my heart? My God! my prayer to love thee soarsFor this earth's sweetest song depart!

How soon my years their course will run!
Death beckons me from earth away;
But still my voice as once begun,
My God! to love thee still shall pray.
REV. J. HARTLEY,

MY BAPTISMAL BIRTHDAY.

BORN unto God in Christ-in Christ my all!
What that earth boasts were not lost cheaply, rather
Than forfeit that blest name, by which we call
The Holy One, the Almighty God, our Father?
The heir of heaven, henceforth I dread not death;
In Christ I live, in Christ I draw the breath
Of the true life. Let sea, and earth, and sky,
Wage war against me; on my front I shew
Their mighty Master's seal! In vain they try
To end my life, who can but end its woe.
Is that a death-bed where the Christian lies?
Yes; but not his 'tis death itself that dies!
S. T. COLERIDGE.

[blocks in formation]

In how coy a figure wound,
Every way it turns away!
So the world excluding round,
Yet receiving in the day:
Dark beneath, but bright above;
Here disdaining, there in love.
How loose and easy hence to go;
How girt and ready to ascend:
Moving but on a point below,

It all about does upwards bend.
Such did the manna's sacred dew distil,

White and entire, although congeal'd and chill;
Congeal'd on earth; but does, dissolving, run
Into the glories of th' almighty sun.

ANDREW MARVELL.

Miscellaneous.

HOWARD.-In England, he adopted the same mode of travelling as he had done upon his former tours, still ordering his meals and wine, as any other traveller would do, at the inns where he stopped; but directing his servant to take them away as soon as they were brought in, and to give what he himself did not eat and drink to the waiter. But on the continent he performed the greater part of his journeys in a Ger man chaise, which he purchased for the purpose, never stopping on the road but to change horses, until he came to the town he meant to visit; travelling, if necessary, the whole of the night, and sleeping, from habit, as well in his vehicle as in a bed. He always carried with him a small brass tea-kettle, a tea-pot, some cups and saucers, a supply of green-tea, a pot of sweetmeats, and a few of the best loaves the country could furnish. At the post; house he would get some boiling water, and, where it was to be procured, some milk, and make his humble repast: while his man went to supply himself with more substantial food at the auberge. The publication of the result of his former travels had caused him to be held in such deserved estimation, not only throughout his own country, but in every part of Europe, that, upon entering on the tours whose progress has here been traced, he might allowably assume that tone of authority which enabled him to pursue his inquiries with more ease to himself, and more effect in securing the object for which they were undertaken. Upon these, as upon his former journeys on the continent, though he often thought it advisable to furnish himself with recommendations to persons high in rank or office, by whose means he might more effectually prosecute his researches, he preferred, whenever he could, entering the different prisons as an unknown individual, whose visits were not expected, and therefore could not be prepared for. It was his general custom also, whenever he had obtained access to a place of confinement by means of persons in authority, to remain for some days longer in the town, for the purpose of revisiting every part alone and unexpected. "Thus careful was he," observes his friend and biographer, Dr. Aikin, "to guard against deception; and with such coolness of investigation did he execute a design which it required so much ardour of mind to conceive."

SORROW. Although nature may be allowed to feel, when Providence calls away those who are the objects of our affection; yet if they die in the Lord, excessive sorrow for the loss we sustain is highly discreditable to our principles as Christians who are looking forward to a blessed immortality. St. Chrysostom, speaking on this subject, and reflecting on the custom of those times, when, at funeral solemnities, a train of mourning women attended the corpse, tearing their hair and their faces, and crying, with all the expression of desperate sorrow, thus exclaims, "Ah! Chris

tian faith, the religion that was triumphant over its enemies, in so many battles and victories, by the bloody death of the martyrs, how art thou insulted by the prac tice of those who profess thee in words! is not this to be sorrowful as those who have no hope? Are these the affections, the expressions of one that believes in the blessedness of immortal life? What will the heathens say? How will they be induced to believe the promises of Christ to his servants, of a glorious kingdom, when those who are so in title behave themselves as if they had no stedfast faith in them?

LOLLARDS. Much doubt exists on the origin of the word Lollard. Clarke, in his Martyrology, speaks of two Lollards, Reynaud and Walter, who lived at the interval of a century from each other, and both suffered at Cologne ; he quotes no authority, and the circumstances are unlikely. Perrin speaks of one Reynaud in the sixteenth century, and ascribes to him the teaching of Wickliffe. Many derive the name from the recent innovation of singing Psalms, from the Flemish lollen, to sing.

CINGALESE SUPERSTITIONS. - Went this evening to the Buddhist temple. Soon after we arrived, a multitude of people, who had marched in procession through the village, came up, preceded by banners, and men dressed like soldiers, with swords, and caps, and guns, and accompanied by tomtoms, dancers, &c. Having come to the compound before the temple, the dancing commenced, and lasted for some time; during which, every now and then, the soldiers fired their guns, and fire-works were exhibited. A sort of large image, which was brought before the procession, was carried into the Banna Madua, and laid down very carefully. The Banna Madua is the place where the priests read the banna: it is very capacious, and was nearly filled with women and children; the males being all on the outside witnessing the dancing, &c. The reading of the banna soon commenced, four priests taking it in turns. It would continue till day. light of the following morning, without interruption, except the shouts of the people, crying, "Sadu! Sadu!" -"Glorious! Glorious!" The banna read by the priests was in Pali: of course, quite unintelligible to all the people; and it was not interpreted, as it usually is. When it was time for the people to call out "Sadu!" the priests were obliged to remind them of it, and to tell them when they were to say it once, and when to repeat it three times. Nothing can exceed the strength of those superstitious ideas which the people in general in this country have conceived; and the influence which they have upon their actions is amazing. If they intend to set out on a journey, and hear a lizard chirp, or see what they think a strange sight, they do not start that day. If a person takes medicine, he will only take it on some particular day of the week, which he considers a "lucky day." If they hear a dog howling that is not bound, it portends evil to them, or their family; and they live in constant dread for some time after, till either some event happens which they can accommodate to the omen, or till it is driven out of the recollection by something of more recent occurrence. Toward the conclusion of the year they tie a strip of a cocoa-nut leaf round a great many trees in their gardens; and on the eve of the new year they call the priest, and with some ceremony loose them; and begin, at the commencement of the new year, to use the fruits that grow on those trees; with many other things equally

absurd.-Rev. J. Selkirk.

LONDON:-Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12 Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country.

PRINTED BY

ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN, 46 ST. MARTIN'S LANE.

[merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

THE LITURGY COMPARED WITH

EXTEMPORE PRAYER.

more ex

THERE are many points of view in which the
expediency of liturgical forms for public wor-
ship may be considered. It might easily be
shewn, by the practice of the Church from
the earliest times, under the express sanction
of our blessed Lord, who himself delivered
to his disciples a form of prayer, that in pro-
viding for our congregations an order, which
they all may understand, and in which they
all can join, we have followed the "
cellent way." But it may be well also, be-
sides the arguments taken from Scripture
authority, and the reason of the thing, to in-
quire whether, supposing the objections made
to our Liturgy were well founded, we should
be likely to obtain any advantage by casting
away our forms. I would treat the subject
by way of comparison, and would ask, if, in
those places where extempore prayer is used,
expressions far more frequently and seriously
faulty are not heard, than can be by possi-
bility in our churches? I trust I have no
desire unkindly to accuse those who con-
scientiously differ from us; but it is right
that all classes of churchmen should learn
to appreciate duly the blessings which, by
God's mercy, they enjoy.

PRICE 1d.

crated, as it were, by the affectionate reverence of successive generations, or those which, on the spur of the moment, are conceived and uttered by the single individual who officiates? Certainly, if objections are found. against the expressions of our deliberate prayers, objections yet more considerable may be expected against hasty effusions, biased by the varying frames of the mind, and corrected by no thought. It is, I know, pleaded, that God has promised special help in this respect to his ministering servants, and that he will be to them when they so address him "a mouth and wisdom," and a "door of utterance." It is true that God does pledge himself to impart many excellent gifts to those who, as his ambassadors, represent him among men: but he no where, I apprehend, says that he will bestow such a talent as is claimed in support of this argument. For even if it were granted that such texts as (Mark, xiii. 11), "Take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate; but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost," if it were granted that such texts apply to persons offering public prayer-which manifestly is not the case-we must still examine what degree of assistance from above might If there is to be any such thing as united be expected. Few, surely, would assert, that worship, a congregation must consent to pray the prayers so produced were absolutely perin the words adopted by the minister. Each fect, that the voice of the Holy Spirit would man cannot be at liberty to use his own be actually heard pleading through the mouth language: else, instead of union, there would of man. Yet any thing short of this leaves only be confusion. Then the question is, Then the question is, room for objection, and gives no assurance which words are best and most appropriate? that the unpremeditated prayer will be better those which, carefully composed of old by than the form. For, if imperfections may many holy men, have descended to us, conse-exist, we are necessarily led to the conclusion

VOL. I.-NO. XIII.

that they do exist; and we come back to the question, which method is least likely to be encumbered with fault? It is not possible, when we find objectionable expressions in a liturgy, to say, We will discard this form, and error with it; we will adopt another mode of worship, not exposed, like this, to imperfection. We can only such is, alas! the infirmity of our nature-have a choice of imperfections; we shall find no path altogether free from difficulties we must, therefore, choose that way which presents the fewest. Hence we need not allow our opponents to assail us, as if we could only stand on the defensive. Even were we to admit the force of the objections they urge to different parts of our Liturgy, we should not be vanquished. We might admit them all, and yet prove that, on their side, there are, to their prayers, objections infinitely greater.

The supposed faults, which two centuries and a half of keen inquisition have been able to detect in our formularies, are very few; and they arise, in many instances, from a misapprehension of the words objected to. But were a critical hearer to attend for a single month on the extempore prayers of but one individual, he might make out doubtless an extended list. Unsound expressions, obscure phrases, inappropriate appellations, he would have to complain of in abundance. If it be said, that God still accepts and answers in Jesus Christ these imperfect prayers, overlooking and forgiving the infirmities of men, that is just the argument we use in behalf of our formularies. We are not unwise enough to pronounce them faultless; but we say that in them God's people do find near access to him, and are enabled to pay him a reasonable service.

[ocr errors]

give them a tincture, perhaps, little in harmony with the feelings, and wants, and desires of those whom he professes to represent. The petition offered up will hence be destitute of that generality and comprehensiveness which should be principal features of public supplication; and, consequently, many of those who come with burdened hearts to the sanctuary, will go away with the mortified conviction that their cases were not reached, their supplications not laid before the mercyseat. The thoughts of the same individual will generally be running in the same channel, and, consequently, a sameness, a mannerism will be the result, which, far different from the rich and copious uniformity of our Liturgy, will be distinguishable chiefly for its uniform prolixity on some topics, and its uniform neglect of others equally important. And even where an undue prominence is not, from the habitual bias of the mind, given. special opinions, yet the memory will selo a present all the particulars on which it is desirable to dwell. Few persons, I am persuaded, can rise from leading a congregation in extempore prayer, without feeling afterwards, that they have through forgetfulness omitted much that it was most essential for them to introduce.

in

If it be said, that the office of preaching is every Christian church entrusted to individual judgment, and that the office of conducting prayer might with equal propriety be similarly entrusted, I reply, that there is the widest difference between the two. The preacher requires his hearers to act on his instructions no farther or sooner than, on mature deliberation, they perceive them to be sanctioned by the sacred volume. The minister in offering prayer requires his congregation to accompany him at once to the throne of grace, and to join him on the instant in the words with which he presents to God their wants. Prayer is the joint act of the minister and people, in which all should take an equal

The greater imperfection of extempore than precomposed prayers will appear from the following considerations. Much must depend upon the particular frame of mind of the individual who officiates. One man may have a lively imagination, a chastised judg-part: preaching is the act of the minister ment, a retentive memory, a readiness of language, and thus may be able, with sufficient propriety, to express the wants of a congregation: another may be destitute of these advantages, and, though with a heart ast feelingly alive to a sense of his necessities, be little competent to give them utterance. And the same man will not find in himself the same capabilities at all times. His mind, once clear, will sometimes be confused; his memory, generally strong, will sometimes fail him. And (what I consider a very leading objection) he will be apt to consider himself rather than the people. His own feelings, his own opinions, his own circumstances, will almost infallibly influence his prayers, and

alone, with respect to which, the duty of the hearers is perfectly different from his. And the absence of a liturgy goes far, I may observe, to destroy the union of the whole assembly in prayer. The worship then resembles rather the service of the Jewish temple, where the priest alone entered into the sacred place, while the people were restrained without, than the liberty of the Christian church, where, the vail being removed by the death of Jesus, we may all approach, with holy boldness, the presence the Lord, and find grace to help in every time of need. How can a congregation enter with full feeling into supplications, the precise nature of which they cannot anticipate the

of

moment before they are uttered? There is thus rebuilt betwixt them and the open face of God, that partition-wall which it was the business of the Redeemer to destroy.

If, then, I think it will readily appear, we were to part with our precious Liturgy, instead of reaping any advantage by the change, we should sustain the greatest injury. Objections far more numerous and well-founded would be raised against whatever could be substituted. Let us not, therefore, be companions of those who are given to change: let us not be persuaded to desert the old paths: let us rather imitate the practice which our Saviour in one of his illustrations has referred to "No man having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better."

A.

THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER.* THE Book of Common Prayer, next to the Oracles of eternal truth, must be estimated by the true churchman as the most valuable possession. He will regard it as the chief of uninspired volumes, as eminently calculated to call forth devotional feelings, and to convey the prayers of a suppliant sinner to the throne of grace; and while he presumes not to dictate to, or to condemn those who conscientiously object to it, as a form, for no other reason than because it is a form, he will not be backward to acknowledge it to be his rational conviction, that the possession of a Scriptural Liturgy has been of vast importance to the Church collectively, and to its members individually. Every thing, therefore, which can in any way throw light on the origin of this book, or elucidate its contents, will be most interesting to him; and with this impression the following short history of the Liturgy is here given.

It need hardly be stated, that before the Reformation, the service of the Church of England was mainly that of the Church of Rome; that it was conducted in a language which the people did not comprehend. It is painful, indeed, on entering a popish place of worship, to behold deluded multitudes on their knees in adoration, often before the consecrated wafer, while the priest repeats, in a tone of voice which it is almost impossible to hear, prayers which it is quite impossible the people can understand. The evils of such a mode of worship are fully set forth in one of the prefaces to the Prayer-Book, that "concerning the service of the Church." It is there stated, that "whereas St. Paul would have such language spoken to the people in the Church as they might understand, and have profit by hearing the same; the service in this Church of England, these many years hath been in Latin to the people, which they understand not; so that they have heard with their ears only, and their hearts, spirits, and mind, have not been edified thereby. . . . . Moreover, the manifold changings of the

Wheatley on the Common Prayer is one of the principal

sources whence the most authentic information is to be derived; but for important information relative to the Liturgy, in a more popular form, the reader may consult with advantage Ayre's Liturgica, and Riddle's First Sundays at Church; from which, as well as from the larger work of Wheatley, some of these remarks are taken.

service was the cause, that to turn the book only was so hard and intricate a matter, that many times there was more business to find out what should be read, than to read it when it was found out."

It cannot be wondered at, therefore, that a mode of worship so unscriptural, and so opposed to reason and common sense, and to that spiritual worship which God requires, should have early attracted the attention of those whose clearer light, although it was not the full light of the Gospel, enabled them to discover the gross errors of a service in which "uncertain stories and legends, with multitudes of responds, verses, vain repetitions, commemorations, and synodals, had been planted in," to the almost utter neglect of the word of God. In the articles set forth by Edward the VIth, it is declared, "that it is most fit, and most agreeable to the word of God, that nothing be read or rehearsed in the congregation in a tongue not known unto the people, which St. Paul hath forbidden to be done, unless some be present to interpret." A much stronger article, however, was afterwards drawn up with reference to the subject; and the 24th, as it now stands, declares "that it is a thing plainly repugnant to the word of God, and the custom of the primitive Church, to have public prayers in the Church, or to minister the sacrament, in a tongue not understanded of the people." The objection made to this, by stating, as is generally stated by members of the Romish Church, that the people are furnished with forms in their own language, into which the greatest part of the public offices are translated, is thus met by Bishop Burnet, who says, "As this is not done but since the Reformation began, and in those nations only where the scandal that is given by an unknown tongue might have, as they apprehend, ill effects, so it is only an artifice to keep those still in their communion whom such a gross practice, if not thus disguised, might otherwise drive them from." The twenty-fourth article is well declared by him "to be founded on the law of nature." "One great end," he says, "of continuance in worship is, that, by the frequent repeating and often going over of the same things, they may come to be deeply rooted in our thoughts. The chief effects that the worship of God has by its own efficiency is, the infixing those things, about which the branches of it are employed, the deeper in our minds; upon which God gives his blessing, as we grow to be prepared for it, or capable of it. Now all this is lost if the worship of God is a thread of such sounds as makes the person who officiates a barbarian to the rest. They have nothing but noise and show to amuse them, which, how much soever they may strike upon and entertain the senses, yet they cannot affect the heart, nor excite the mind; so that the natural effects of such a way of worship is to make religion a pageantry, and the public service of God an opera."

The first effort to render the service of the Church more consistent with Scriptural truth, and primitive practice, and common sense, was made during the reign of Henry VIII., in the year 1537. A committee was appointed by the convocation to compose a book, which was called "The godly and pious Institution of a Christian Man." This book contained the Lord's Prayer, the Ave Maria, the Creed, the Ten Com

« ПредишнаНапред »