SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Netted in this column does no necessarily procluh su5seiusn: review-I It is a commonplace to say that liturgic art is dead, that in sincerity alone can our new prayers for the war equal those of the Book of Common Prayer, while they are on a lower level in imagination and in style. The aeroplane and submarine have scarcely inspired our writers, though there is one brief effect gained where we pray that fighters in the air and under the sea may be confident "that underneath them are the Everlasting Arms." (Might not this be improved, "even there Thine Everlasting Arms bear them up " ?) It is interesting to compare further the special prayers sanctioned for use during the Napoleonic wars, which have been republished, War Prayers of One Hundred Years Ago (S.P.C.K., 3d.). In these there is sincerity, but it is sometimes clouded by the Hanoverian pomposity of those Erastian days, and there is no writing that can compete with any composition of Bishop Sanderson, such as the "Prayer to be said before a Fight at Sea against any Enemy," surely one of the noblest in the Prayer Book. We do not think that King George V. would care for a petition that he should "long preside over" tho Church "as a nursing father." German methods of warfare have not stirred our modern liturgists to such language as Rousseau and the Revolution inspired in 1796, when our enemies, "following the vain imaginations of reprobate Minds, have plunged themselves into Crimes and Impieties which astonish the Nations of the earth " ; but the words express our feelings fitly. There is evidence of humility curiously mixed with the pomposity ; e.g., "We acknowledge with penitent hearts that we have been blessed in the knowledge and profession of Thy Truth and the long Possession of abundant Prosperity : too often we have turned our backs on Thee and sought our Peace and Security in our own inventions." The cynic will join with the most humble in selecting this prayer : "Save us, not only from our worldly, but also from our spiritual enemies ; and most especially save us from ourselves."
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