THE LITERARY ASPECTS OF THE PRAYER-BOOK
REGARDED from the strictly literary point of view as an anthology of devotion, the Prayer-book of the Church of England is probably unsurpassed in any language. It is finer, we venture to think, than the missal from which so many of its choicest flowers are culled, for the merit of a collection depends upon selection as well as upon compre- hension.. The long lists of Christian names, repetitions, and ejaculations which charmed the Mediaeval ear, and still find a place in the Roman Liturgy, can hardly be said to have any value from the point of view of literature in the present day. In judging of devotional literature, as in judging of sacred music, the critic is apt to be carried away by the force of association. The words of the Morning and Evening Services are charged for most of us with the devotional memories of a lifetime. We are no longer competent to criticise their com- position, any more than we are competent to decide on the correctness of feature possessed by those for whom we care the most. On the other hand, it is only great literature which arrives as a rule at this unassailable position. Besides, it is not with the whole Order of Common Prayer that the ordinary reader is familiar; and in the back-waters of the Book we find passages as fine as those over which use has spread the glamour of religious custom. Take this invocation of God at the beginning of the " Forms of Prayer to be Used at Sea " : " 0 Eternal Lord God, who alone spreadest out the heavens, and rulest the raging of the sea ; who hast compassed the waters with bounds until day and night come to an end." Could anything be better worded or more suggestive of the empty landscape of sky and ocean unchanged but by light and darkness P One phrase out of this prayer has passed into the language, " such as pass on the seas upon their lawful occasions," a sentence which suggests that the writer's mind had flown to pirates and sea-rovers, and that all the romance of the sea rose before his eyes as he composed his prayer. The whole of this little set of prayers for sailors is admirable, and the common-sense and simplicity of the rubrics delight the reader. Almost every possible exigency is foreseen. Short prayers are suggested "for single persons, that cannot meet to join in Prayer with others, by reason of the Fight, or Storm." " Special prayers with respect to the Enemy " are given, and the Confession out of the Communion Service is appointed to be said in case of " imminent danger," when " as many as can be spared from necessary service in the Ship shall be called together." Afterwards, "if there be any in the Ship," the Absolution is to be pronounced. The following thanksgiving is surely both suitable and splendid :—" 0 Almighty God, the Sovereign Commander of all the world, in whose hand is power and might which none is able to with- stand ; We bless and magnify thy great and glorious Name for this happy Victory."
Curiously enough, it is not only in common prayer—in the Prayers designed to express the religious desires and emotions of the multitude—that the compilers of the Prayer-book showed their great ability. In the service for the visita- tion of the sick we find prayers which for beauty and "inwardness" could hardly be surpassed, while the fact that they are part of a liturgy saves them from the slight aroma of impertinence which could hardly be kept out of an extemporary prayer touching upon the private concerns of a sick man's soul For instance; the prayer appointed to be said by the bedside of one " troubled in mind or in conscience " assumes a right to speak which. could hardly be assumed without offence by a minister using his own words. " We beseech thee, look down in pity and compassion upon this thy afflicted servant. Thou writest bitter things against
him, and makest him to possess his former iniquities give him a right understanding of himself, and'of thy threats and promises; that he may neither cast away his confidence in
thee, nor place it anywhere but in thee make him to hear of joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice." The arguments against a liturgy seem, we are prepared to admit, from certain points of view, many and strong; but to say that written prayers are unlikely to be felt by the offerer or to appeal to the listener is absurd. Does poetry or music in order to provoke or to express emotion re- quire to be improvised ? The blessing which we are about to quote could hardly be better imagined, designed as it is to support the man who sees the gulf of death open before him :— " The Almighty Lord, who is a most strong tower to all them that put their trust in him, to whom all things in heaven, in earth, and under the earth, do bow and obey, be now and evermore thy defence." Perhaps among the collects and the " Prayers and Thanksgivings, upon Several Occasions," we encounter the finest passage in the whole book,—if we except the " Te Deum " and the two rhapsodies appointed to be " sung or said " during the Communion Service. The first of these begins, " Therefore with Angels and Archangels, and with all the company of heaven," than which there is no better example of the pomp of words in the language; the second with the angelic apostrophe, " Glory be to God on high, and in earth peace," lie., which breaks from prayer to praise and from praise to prayer without the slightest breach of literary continuity. So far as actual writing goes, the greatest of the collects, to our mind, is the one for the first Sunday in Advent, in which the Church prays for grace "that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of lights now in the time of this mortal life in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal." Perhaps from a religious point of view some of us may prefer the less gorgeously worded collects—for instance, the one in which the people pray " that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve thee with a quiet mind "—but as literature there can be no doubt which is the best. The prayer to be used at any time of dearth or famine is a good example of the use of alliteration to produce a startling effect,—to seize the atten- tion, and, if possible, stir the hopes, of depressed worshippers : " 0 God, merciful Father, who, in the time of Elisha the prophet, didst suddenly in Samaria turn great scarcity and dearth into plenty and cheapness." Again, the collect for St. Luke's Day is a fine instance of the way in which an atmo- sphere can be thrown around a bare statement by an apt allusion : "Almighty God, who calledst Luke the Physician, whose praise is in the Gospel, to be an Evangelist, and Physician of the soul."
The exhortations of the Prayer-book, with the exception of one or two—notably " Dearly Beloved Brethren "—are con- ceived in a somewhat different spirit from the prayeiv. Doubt- less the human mind in the attitude of devotion is seen to better advantage than in the attitude of remonstrance. The exhortation to be read before the Communion, in case the minister shall see people "neglectful to come," is a short sermon, well conceived and put, but somehow we feel in reading it that we have descended to a totally different spiritual level. from that to which the collects attain. The parabolic simile' of guests who refuse to come to the supper of the King loses its dignity when it is given a directly ceremonial applies; tion,_ and that other exhortation which threatens unworthy receivers with " divers diseases and sundry kinds of death " contains a striking piece of vituperation, and has, to our mind, no other merit. It is, so far as our experi- ence goes, wisely omitted by most of the clergy.
How far is the religions effect of a service heightened by its liturgical beauty ? (by -" religious effect" we mean its power to convey spiritual suggestion and to engender moral deter.
ueihation). For the majority we should say it was greatly heiehtened; but it has to be remembered that the 'Protestant ,
' 'revivalists have seldom relied at all upbn literature to lend, enthusiasm to their services. There are no doubt soiree minds for whom repetition destroys admiration and creates Weari- ness ; for such an extempore service conduces to worship rather than a liturgy. A few people, too, are without the literary sense at all, just as others are without the musical sense. Again, a still smaller minority feel all these things only too keenly. They are occasionally startled by a horrible fear that apart from aesthetics they have no religions feeling at all. For such the most Puritan of all forms of worship, the silent worship of the Quakers, has the ()harm of reassurance. Nevertheless, we believe that for the many the enchantment of letters conduces to worship no less than what. Vaughan the Silurist calls "the joy of the confluence and company." The spirit of Christianity and the social spirit are closely allied,—as closely as the spirit of great literature and the spirit of inspiration.
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