6 JULY 1918, Page 25

The Worship of the Church : being the Report of

the Archbishops' Second Committee of Inquiry. (S.P.C.K.)—The Committee, headed by the Dean of Christ Church, who were appointed last year to consider " ways in which the public worship of the Church can be more directly related to the felt needs of actual life at the present time," give in this interesting and outspoken Report many definite suggestions for the revision of the Prayer Book—which they regard as an urgent need—and the rearrangement and simplification of the services. The opinions of three Army chaplains, which are recorded in an appendix, evidently impressed the Committee ; the chaplains' view is reflected in the statement that " many men feel that the Prayer Book, as at present used, is remote from common life," and in Mr. N. S. Talbot's remark, as to evening Communion, that " the discipline of preparation and fasting need not be over- thrown in principle by the application (as regards time) to the Holy Communion of our Lord's judgment that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath." The chaplains refer with approval to the revised Prayer Book in use in America ; they might also have referred to the more cautious revision adopted by the Scottish Episcopal Church.