Part 6 (1/2)
The Directory has been ably revised, but it still remains a Directory, suggestive and eminently suitable to present requirements of the Church. Serious and persevering attention has been given to the praise service, and no less than three Hymnals have received and now enjoy the Church's _imprimatur_. Public wors.h.i.+p in Divine service has retained a much greater uniformity among the Presbyterians of the Southern States than among their brethren in the North, and there has been less yielding to the popular demand for those features in wors.h.i.+p that appeal to the imagination, and which so often serve to entertain rather than to edify.
The Presbyterian Church in Canada, owing to the ties that bind it to the Churches of the Old Land, has closely followed their practice, and its method in wors.h.i.+p has been characterized by a similar spirit. No authoritative or mandatory formulas have been imposed upon it, nor does it seem likely that such would be received should they be proposed.
Reverence and dignity have in general characterized its public services, and yet in recent years those changes which have gradually been introduced into the wors.h.i.+p of the Church in that part of the American Republic lying contiguous to the Dominion have made their appearance in Presbyterian wors.h.i.+p in Canada. The chief result has been, as in that Church also, an unfortunate want of uniformity in this part of divine service. There has always been a constant and due regard paid to all parts of wors.h.i.+p provided for in the Directory, and the neglect of any of these parts cannot be seriously charged against any considerable part of the Church, but congregations have frequently considered themselves at liberty to change their order and to vary them as circ.u.mstances seem to demand. It is this feature as much as any that has in recent years led to an agitation for the improvement of public wors.h.i.+p, and that is calling the earnest attention of the Church to a matter of supreme importance.
Until very recently then, all branches of the Presbyterian Church in the British Empire and those bodies in the United States whose standards have been those of Westminster, have refused to recognize the need for any other formula of wors.h.i.+p than that, or such as that, provided in the Directory. And where any considerable desire for change and improvement has been found, it has expressed itself usually as favorable to a revised Directory rather than as desirous of the adoption by the Church of a liturgy, however simple.
Those great sections of the Church which have been most active in the work of Home and Foreign Evangelization, a work that has especially claimed attention during this century, have found the simple wors.h.i.+p of our fathers well suited to the cultivation of the spiritual life that must of necessity lie behind all such efforts, and to the development of the reverent and devotional spirit so characteristic of an aggressive Christianity. The Church has been true to the traditions and principles so loyally maintained in the days of her heroic struggles in the past, and along these lines she has found in her public wors.h.i.+p blessing and inspiration for her peaceful toils, even as our fathers in their day found in similar wors.h.i.+p strength and revived courage with which to meet their difficulties and to endure persecution.
Modern Movements in Presbyterian Churches Respecting Public Wors.h.i.+p.
”All who desire to manifest an intelligent appreciation of what is distinctive in Presbyterian ritual would do well to guard against attaching undue importance, or adhering too tenaciously, to details of a past or present usage, as if these const.i.tuted the essentials from which there must never be the smallest deviation, of which there may never be the slightest modification or adaptation to altered acquirements and circ.u.mstances.”--McCRIE.
Chapter IX.
Modern Movements in Presbyterian Churches Respecting Public Wors.h.i.+p.
The earliest indication of any general desire in Scotland for a more elaborate service than that in general use in the Church at the time of the Revolution was seen in the proposal to enlarge the Psalmody and to improve the Service of Praise. As early as 1713 the General a.s.sembly of the Church of Scotland called the attention of congregations to the necessity that existed for a more decent performance of the public praise of G.o.d, in a recommendation that was exceedingly desirable and necessary if the accounts of the service of praise at that time are to be believed. This was followed, not long afterward, by the introduction of paraphrases, styled ”Songs of Scripture,” and later of hymns, and finally of instrumental music. In this matter of the improvement of wors.h.i.+p in the department of praise, the Secession Churches in several cases were more forward than the Established Church, the revived interest in religion and wors.h.i.+p which had been in a measure the cause of their existence lending itself to such measures.
In all sections of the Church the conflict concerning praise in wors.h.i.+p was for a long period prosecuted with an energy that frequently arose to bitterness. The vexed questions of hymn-singing and the use of instruments in Churches being settled, there followed, or perhaps it may be said there arose out of these, the further question of the elaboration and improvement of other parts of wors.h.i.+p.
In 1858 the a.s.sembly of the Church of Scotland recommended to congregations that were without a minister, the use in wors.h.i.+p of a book prepared by its authority, in which were embodied the prayers of the Book of Common Order, together with much material from the Directory of Wors.h.i.+p. This action on the part of the Church was regarded by some as indicating the existence of a spirit which warranted the formation of ”The Church Service Society.” This Society was formed by certain ministers of the Established Church who were strongly impressed with the desirability of the adoption by the Church of certain authorized forms of prayer for public wors.h.i.+p, and of the use of prescribed forms in the administration of the Sacraments. By the publication of its const.i.tution, in which it announced its object as ”The Study of the Liturgies ancient and modern of the Christian Church, with a view to the preparation and ultimate publication of certain forms of prayer for public wors.h.i.+p, and services for the administration of the Sacraments, the celebration of Marriage, the Burial of the Dead,” etc., it very early aroused vigorous opposition on the part of many who saw in its organization an evident intention to introduce into the Church a liturgical service. Such a purpose the Society emphatically disavowed, and insisted that there was no desire on the part of its members to encroach upon the simplicity of Presbyterian wors.h.i.+p, but claimed rather the desire to redeem the same from lifelessness and lack of a devotional spirit with which they declared it is so likely to be characterized. So effectively have the fears of those who first uttered their objections been allayed, that the Society is said to comprise in its members.h.i.+p, at the present time, more than one-third of the ordained ministers of the Established Church. The results of this Society's labors have been published in a volume which is now in its seventh edition. It is a book of more than 400 pages, and is ent.i.tled, ”Euchologion--A Book of Common Order.” Its contents seem to harmonize more with the views which were charged against the originators of the Society at its commencement than with the defence which was put forward in its behalf at that time. Although widely used it has no official sanction of the Church, and, therefore, it is not necessary to enter into any close a.n.a.lysis of its contents.
Briefly, however, it may be said, it is a liturgy much more closely approximating to the English Book of Common Prayer than to Knox's Book of Common Order, or to the ritual of any of the Reformed Churches of the Continent, with which its projectors declare themselves to be more in sympathy than with the Episcopal Communion of England.
The first part comprises, in addition to prescribed daily Scripture readings and readings for every Sunday of the year, the Order of Divine Service for morning and evening for the five several Sundays of the month; in this Order are contained special forms of prayer, responses to be used by the congregation, the Lord's Prayer, to be repeated by minister and congregation together, and the Apostles' Creed, which is to be either said or sung.
In the second part, which contains ”additional materials for daily and other services,” the first place is given to the Litany, which is an exact transcript of that of the Church of England with the exception of a change in one pet.i.tion, rendered necessary by the difference in the forms of government in the two Churches. A number of ”prayers for special graces,” ”collects” and ”prayers for special seasons” and ”additional forms of service” are added. The ”prayers for special seasons” have regard to ”our Lord's advent,” ”the Incarnation,” ”Palm Sunday,” ”the descent of the Holy Ghost,” etc.
The last section of the book provides forms of service for the administration of the Sacraments, visitation of the sick, marriage, burial, ordination, etc. In the form for the visitation of the sick a responsive service is provided, as also in the order for Holy Communion. On the whole it is probably not too much to a.s.sert that ”Euchologion--a Book of Common Order,” issued by the Church Service Society, is decidedly more liturgical in form than was the unfortunate Laud's Liturgy, which raised against itself and its projectors such a vigorous protest on the part of the Church of Scotland.
Following the organization of the Society referred to, came one in connection with the United Presbyterian Church called ”The United Presbyterian Devotional a.s.sociation,” having for its object ”to promote the edifying conduct of the devotional services of the Church.” This Society declares its willingness to profit from the wors.h.i.+p of other Churches besides the Presbyterian, but at the same time a.s.serts its loyalty to the principles and history of Presbyterianism. The forms published in its book, ”Presbyterian Forms of Service,” are not intended to be used liturgically, but the purpose is that they should furnish examples and serve as ill.u.s.trations of the reverent and seemly conduct of public wors.h.i.+p.
The latest book to be issued on these lines is ”A New Directory for the Public Wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d”; this name is further enlarged by the following description, which provides a sufficient index to its contents: ”Founded on the Book of Common Order (1560-64) and the Westminster Directory (1643-45) and prepared by the Public Wors.h.i.+p a.s.sociation in Connection with the Free Church of Scotland.”
This book follows in general the form and method of the Directory, carefully avoiding the provision of even an optional liturgy. The form which it has a.s.sumed, that of a simple Directory of Wors.h.i.+p, was adopted after long discussion in the ”a.s.sociation” on these four questions, ”The desirableness of an optional liturgy as distinguished from a Directory of Public Wors.h.i.+p;” ”The Desirableness of a Responsive Service,” such a service to include the use by the people with the minister of the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Beat.i.tudes, the Commandments, etc.; ”The desirableness of the Collect form of prayer and of Responses in general,” and ”The desirableness of the celebration of the Christian year.”
After long and exhaustive debate on the above questions the book has been issued in its present form as a simple Directory of Wors.h.i.+p, responses and the celebration of the Christian year and even an optional liturgy having been rejected as undesirable. Orders of service are suggested, as well for public wors.h.i.+p as for the administration of the Sacraments and for special services, and suggestions at great length are offered concerning what should find a place in the prayers of Invocation, Thanksgiving, Confession, Pet.i.tion, Intercession and Illumination. A few historic prayers of eminent saints of G.o.d are included as examples, and large quotations are made for the same purpose from Knox's Book of Common Order and from Hermann's ”Consultation,” and from this last source ”A Litany for Special Days of Prayer” is added in an Appendix. If the Euchologion indicates a strong tendency on the part of the ”Church Service Society”
towards the introduction of a responsive and liturgical service into public wors.h.i.+p, the New Directory of Public Wors.h.i.+p indicates just as strongly a tendency within the ”Public Wors.h.i.+p a.s.sociation” to avoid the introduction of even optional forms and to retain the simplicity that has for three centuries characterized Presbyterian wors.h.i.+p.
The attempts to revise the Directory of Wors.h.i.+p in order to modify and adapt it to present-day requirements made recently by the Presbyterian Church of England, and by the Federated Churches of Australia and Tasmania, have already been referred to. That these Churches have confined their efforts to a revision of the Directory, and have in this a.s.serted their approval of a Directory of Wors.h.i.+p rather than of a liturgy, is in itself an instructive fact.
In the revised Directory of the Presbyterian Church of England some changes are made in the direction of securing for the people a larger part in audible wors.h.i.+p. The repet.i.tion of the Creed is permitted, and where used is to be repeated by the minister and people together; it is recommended as seemly that the people after every prayer should audibly say Amen, and the Lord's Prayer, which should be uniformly used, is to be said by all.
The work of revision by the Churches of Australia and Tasmania introduces fewer changes. In the administration of ”The Lord's Supper”