THE REVISION OF THE PRAYER BOOK
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
the ordinary course of things it will not be many years before the " Order for the Burial of the Dead " will be used in connexion with my body. And I am sure that some of inY friends Will he—as I have always been —irritated and annoyed by the interposition in a solemn farewell function of that incoherent, inconsequent and illogical passage from Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, which forms part of the service. To the above adjectives let me add "incongruous," for it is, after all, the incongruity of it that strikes and offends one most. Surely this is no suitable time for a controversial, almost vindictive, tirade upon immortality or, indeed, any other subject.
As to the subject matter of the extract, I offer no opinion. Paul's opinions may be perfectly right : but I do not think that any reasonable person would be justified in accepting them on the strength of Paul's arguments and analogies. But that is beside the mark. We do no want, at such a time, to indulge in controversy or to be called "thou fool" for asking (supposititiously) what seems a perfectly natural and in- offensive question. Cannot the revisers be persuaded to omit this offensive feature, and substitute something more in keeping with the occasion ?—I am, Sir, &c.,
SENEX.
Previous page
