INTRODUCTORY NOTE. THE HERE is cause for real regret in the fact that Churchmen are, at the present time, required less often than of old to defend the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Church. These have come to have a recognized place in the thoughts of men all about us, and they are often mentioned or noticed without awakening opposition. And, partly as a result of this, it is to be feared that many who are strongly attached to the Church's belief, her polity, and her liturgy, have never been called upon to give reasons for that which they accept and hold, and have never put to themselves the questions which would bring those reasons clearly before their own minds. But, though Churchmen need to be reminded of the duty of being "ready always to give an answer," the study of the answer which they may give has never lost, and never can lose, either its interest or its value; and the Church is the sufferer for every failure to inquire into the principles of her faith and her practice. The present volume has grown out of an attempt, and that a successful one, to bring before intelligent people the lessons to be found in the Book of Common Prayer. It does not aim to contain a full investigation into the "origins" of the Prayer Book, or to be an exhaustive commentary on all the contents of that wonderful volume. But it is a wise and timely attempt to bring before Churchmen the important facts as to the meaning and the value of the treasures which have come down to us as the heirs of the liturgical riches of the ages. It will be of service to those who are familiar with the Prayer Book, as it helps them to understand it better; it will serve for many more as an introduction to much of devotional usage of which they can ill afford to be ignorant; and it will help all to gain, from the intelligent use of that which is constantly in their hands, that growth in the knowledge and the service of God which is the mark and the test of true religion; while its fair and conciliatory tone will coin for it the favorable attention of many who, we fain hope, will find in the Book of Common Prayer a practical basis for Christian Unity. I shall be glad if my words shall commend this work of an earnest, devoted, and scholarly layman, who, as a member of the General Convention, has taken part in the recent revision of the Prayer Book, to any of those for whose benefit it is published. Within the lines of loyalty to the Church and to her standards, which the author is careful not to transgress, there is room for a variety of interpretation and practice that no wise man would willingly limit. The author will not expect that all will agree with him in every such particular; but his purpose will be accomplished, if he shall succeed in pointing out the great truths which are so wonderfully and in such manifold ways embodied in the Book of Common Prayer. Trinity College, SAMUEL HART. I. THE USE OF FORMS. "Hold fast the form of sound words, * love."-II. Timothy i. 13. * in faith and "That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God."-I. Timothy iii. 15. HAT there exists, even among Churchmen, a great THAT want of familiarity with the rationale, arrangement and significance of the Church's worship, few, on due reflection, will deny. And probably this unfamiliarity extends as well to her exact status in respect to doctrine and discipline, as differentiating her from the religious bodies about us. It is no doubt true that outside of the Church, as well as among its members, the Prayer Book is read and prized by thousands who use it in their private devotions as the noblest formulary of Christian worship. Her children love it as the vehicle of her common worship, the hallowed heirloom of the fathers, endeared by centuries of sanctified association, itself in great part composed of the words of Holy Scripture, and thus enshrining the very Word of truth. But just how that truth is enshrined, how part harmonizes with part, in what manner a vast body of Catholic doctrine not elsewhere embodied is, so to speak, held here in solution, what are the principles of a worship which strikes its roots deep in a historic past, how many except responsible teachers pause to consider? The Church's ritual is beautiful, her liturgy dignified and impressive, her ways conservative, and thereby she attracts. But these are only the media through which the truth is carried home in its integrity to the hearts of sinful and erring men. Her liturgy is but the golden casket which enshrines the jewel of God's indwelling Spirit, present with His Church by virtue of the Incarnation of His Son. How great were the gain if, by some expenditure of time and thought, a Churchmanship of mere preference should be moulded into one of principle! Surely such privileges as we enjoy carry with them a corresponding obligation of intelligent faithfulness in giving "a reason of the hope that is in us," and in handing on these reasons to men "who shall be able to teach others also." Time was when the Churchmen in this country were a feeble folk, the victims of an ill-founded prejudice against forms of worship and old-world antecedents. This is true no longer. A great career lies before the Church in America. Her growth in influence is unexampled, and a Christianity which is an institution as well as a life wins a ready hearing. Faith in man-made creeds and appeals to precedents of yesterday are on the wane. A restless longing for some general return to older and more tried methods is apparent to observing eyes and ears. At the end of four hundred years of our continental life, a great softening is evident in the antagonistic elements which won their first lodgment on these shores, by Churchmen in Virginia, by Puritans in Massachusetts; and Christian Unity is at least "in the air." The only tangible proposition before the world in this direction is the Chicago Lambeth Declaration, commonly so-called, set forth in England and America as the Church's basis, by her highest authority. The exact scope and bearing of this eirenicon are too little understood by those not of us. To defend it is the duty of every intelligent and well-informed Churchman. And what better preparation is there than a thorough knowledge of the Book of Common Prayer? The significance of the Church's teaching should be as familiar to her children as are her words to their lips; and as intelligible to our brethren of other names. The Church has no greater missionary storehouse nor weapon than this Book. It is the vitalized expression of all that is precious in our faith and worship. It is a vade mecum in the hands of all. At the threshold of the twentieth century, and of the second of our national existence, the American Church, after twelve years of careful debate and with complete unanimity, has now completed the latest revision of this precious formulary, accomplishing thereby "liturgical enrichment with flexibility of use”: a revision not likely again to be soon undertaken. With this last revision comes the renewed obligation of intelligent and consecrated fidelity to our standards-the standards of the past-to be borne prayerfully and lovingly on the battlefields of the future, in the conquests of the Prince of Peace. Many aspects of the Church's teaching become hazy and obscured by their very nearness and familiarity, so that plain and simple statements will be best. The book we are to consider is the Book of Common Prayer. Its title does not necessarily imply that it is the expression of each |