дв Miss Margaret L. Tatlock 2-18-47 PREFACE. HIS book contains the substance of a series of familiar Parish lectures, delivered to adults by a layman. If, therefore, it shall have practical value, it will be because it is the outgrowth of a method which has already thus met with favor and acceptance. There are many commentaries upon the Prayer Book, from primary instruction to exhaustive treatises; more than enough to dissuade from the introduction of another. But it is believed that the system of inquiry and explanation here pursued is one not precisely employed before. It deals primarily with the Prayer Book of the Church, that most venerable, historic and priceless volume, known and read of all men. It aims to treat this volume in order and detail, overlooking nothing necessary to a thorough appreciation of its contents, as regards the analysis, history and application of the text. Frequent comparison with this text will be found helpful to an intelligent understanding of the comment. Results alone have been given, and these have been thrown into a simple, and, it is hoped, useful running commentary on the Offices in their practical application to worship and service. To do this, the usual form of question and answer has been exchanged for a simple descriptive style, and all references to authorities omitted, from a desire to curtail in volume. Extended works of ripe scholarship on the one hand, or of catechetical instruction on the other, have a value not here claimed. From the consideration of the text there inevitably radiate lines of thought which lead the mind to the other distinguishing features that challenge the attention of thinking people to the Church, which is so indissolubly associated with the Book of Common Prayer. The effort has been to give to the average Churchman or religious inquirer a thorough view of the Church, based on her chief formulary of worship: a view which shall neither shun nor overlook any distinctive point of difference from other religious bodies, abate nothing of her own claims, yet be as brief and succinct as it is intended it shall be comprehensive. It will be the endeavor to make reference to primitive standards of beauty and fitness in worship, practically of universal sanction in the American Church, and of large and rapidly increasing acceptance where the requisite outward conditions prevail. A glossary of ecclesiastical terms, not otherwise explained, will be found in connection with the index. No enumeration of authorities consulted is here given, but the author wishes to express his deep sense of obligation to many standard sources of information not generally consulted, from some of which adaptations have been made. To the dear friends who have encouraged him in a labor of love, a public meed of gratitude is scarcely needed, but is too heartfelt to be withheld. It is his hope that this rapid survey may lead others to consult works of far greater pretensions to scholarship and authority on the subject here treated. While rather a commentary than a manual of devotion, still a knowledge of the principles here disclosed may aid in making an intelligent and profitable choice and use of the latter. And with it goes the earnest prayer that it may be blessed by the Master to the disarming of prejudice and the correction of misapprehensions, as well as to the strengthening of the truest devotional usage; and that it thus may prove a modest offering to the great and vital cause of Christian Unity. E. L. T. Windyledge, Rutland, Vermont, St. Michael and All Angels, 1893. |