05 - Christian Worship

CHRISTIAN WORSHIP THE first obligation of a Christian is his duty towards God. We some times give as our reason for love and reverence towards God that He will show us how to serve our neighbours better. This is a subordinate reason. The primary and essential quality in our reverence and love towards God is not for our own sake or our neighbours’ sake, but for His sake. Our Saviour taught us the proportion of our duty when He gave to His disciples the Lord’s Prayer. The first half of that prayer is on God’s behalf: for the hallowing of His Name, the fulfilling of His will, the coming of His Kingdom. We wish to make Him glad by understanding Him, by loving Him, by working with Him for His purposes. To reduce Christian worship to a mere inspiration for altruism is like giving a present to a business friend on your mother’s birthday. We must have sufficient imagination to believe that God rejoices in the expression of our affection.

Out of gratitude to our heavenly Father we erect the most beautiful and dignified churches in our power. Into the stone and wood and iron and glass we build our love. A beautiful church is a spiritual thing, kindling joy in the soul. Then into this building a Christian strives to bring the beauty of worship. So we have a Prayer Book, containing the devotion of all the Christian ages, translated into the most transparent English. The first meeting places for Christian worship were the houses of the Christians.

St. Clement’s in Rome illustrates the evolution of the Christian Church, one church after another being built on the ruins of the previous church, and, below all, the walls of the house of Clement. Sometimes persecution drove the Christians to hiding places, and at all times, until Constantine’s conversion, the faithful were too poor to erect special buildings. When riches came, the covered Roman forum, called a basilica, became the type copied for the sumptuous Christian church. Later, the round heathen temple, such as the Pantheon, be came the model; and later still, the basilica merged into what is called the Romanesque church. In the East the Byzantine church, in the form of a Greek cross surmounted by domes, was common. The Romanesque gradually merged into the Gothic, and in the middle of the twelfth century the Cathedral at Chartres was begun. In England the Early English Gothic of the thirteenth century passed, in the next century, into the Decorated; and, in the fifteenth century and later, we have the Perpendicular Gothic of King’s Chapel, Cambridge, and of Henry VIFs Chapel at Westminster. The Gothic was never popular in Italy, for it always seemed to the Italians literally ’Gothic/ that is, barbarous. With the Renaissance in learning we find areturn to Greek ideals in the architecture of the Church. St. Peter’s in Rome and St. Paul’s in London are outstanding examples. In the nineteenth century admiration for Gothic revived, and most of our best churches to-day reflect that admiration.

Ordinarily the best churches are built of the material of the neighbourhood in which they are set. Stone is the natural material for a village or a city built of stone, but in a New England village built of wood painted white, the old New England Meetinghouse, built of wood painted white, designed somewhat after the fashion of Sir Christopher Wren, is certainly a thing of the utmost beauty and reverence. In Puritan New England as well as in mediaeval France the most beautiful building in the community was the place of worship.

It was only a later day which brought the ugly, irreverent, cheap architecture, or the exotic stone church in a wooden village.

Learned architects and a sounder taste in all the people are showing us how the Lord must be honoured with man’s very best. With this rapid survey of the history of ecclesiastical architecture in mind, let us now think of the meaning of a church building. Ordinarily a church is so built that its chancel faces the East, the rising sun typifying the risen Christ, the Sun of Righteousness. Churches are often built in the form of a cross in memory of our Saviour’s cross. Entering by the west door we find first the church porch, a place of shelter under the roof of the church, before we enter the church proper. From the church porch we enter the nave, so named from the Latin word for ship [navis], because the Church, like a ship, is a place of safety for God’s people in the storms of life.

If there is a clerestory [a second storey with windows] this is supported by pillars; and the spaces between the pillars and the side walls of the church are called aisles. In a cruciform church the side arms of the cross are called transepts. Proceeding eastward from the nave, we enter the choir, in which are stalls, or seats and desks, for the clergy and the choristers. Ordinarily at or near the space dividing the choir from the nave are placed the Lectern, from which the Bible Lessons are read in Morning and Evening Prayer, and the Pulpit, from which sermons are preached. Sometimes in this space, or near it, is the Font for Holy Baptism; sometimes the Font is placed near a door, to symbolize the fact that Baptism is the entrance to the Church. The communion rail, at which communicants kneel, divides the choir from the sanctuary, the most eastern part of the church, which is sometimes in the form of an apse or semi-circle. The chief object in the sanctuary is the Holy Table or Altar, on which at the time of Holy Communion the Bread and the Wine are placed for the Sacrament. At the south side of this is the Credence, so named from the side-table in a King’s dining hall in the middle ages where the King’s taster sat and guarded the King from poison: the derivation of the word is from the Latin credens, inspiring belief or trust. On this side-table are placed the Bread and the Wine before the moment when they are to be placed on the Holy Table. On the north side of the sanctuary is generally placed the bishop’s chair. The choir and sanctuary together are called the chancel. At the west end of the church or at the intersection of nave and transepts a tower or spire is often built. The spire represents aspiration; the tower, God’s protection of His people.

Since the Reformation the ordinary clothing of the presbyter at the time of divine service is a white linen surplice under which is worn a long black coat called a cassock, and over which, across the shoulders he wears a stole or tippet. These garments are simply the survival of ordinary clothing worn in the early centuries of the Church by the laity. In the early ages the clergy had no distinctive dress. The surplice is a development of the Roman tunic, the stole is the development of a band of cloth to protect the neck from cold; the cassock, sometimes made of fur, was for warmth in cold churches. Though these garments have nothing sacred in themselves, they serve to hide the riches or the poverty of an individual’s clothing, and they have come to represent dignity and reverence in worship. The white surplice for us represents purity and the white robes of the saints; the stole over the shoulders represents the yoke of Christ worn by the clergyman as a badge of highest honour and Christian service. A deacon wears a surplice only; or he may, in addition, wear a tippet over both shoulders; or a stole over one shoulder. A bishop wears in place of a surplice, a white linen rochet, which is a long garment with sleeves gathered at the wrists by a black band and linen ruffs. This is really only another form of surplice. Over this he wears a black satin chimere, which is, in its origin, a practical garment for warmth.

Over the chimere he wears a wide tippet of black silk. This too was for warmth, and is shown in some of Holbein’s pictures made of fur. The clergy are conservative and therefore cling to the dress of an age long past. The conventional street clothing of clergy men to-day is simply a survival of Dr. Johnson’s time. To glance at a picture of Samuel Johnson you might easily imagine that you were looking at the picture of an English bishop of our own generation. The church clothes of the clergy go back many centuries, but they survive because they happen to be simple and beautiful. Any meaning which any church vestments may have must be read into them, from the Geneva gown of a Presbyterian elder to the most gorgeous vestment of the Pope of Rome. All are simple survivals of ordinary clothing of the past, and have no right to survive unless they are seemly, dignified, and clean. ii The English Book of Common Prayer dates from 1549. It has been revised only a few times and the present revision in America will, we trust, be completed in 1928. The Book remains essentially what it was when it came from Archbishop Cranmer’s scholarship and genius. It includes the best of all the devotional literature of the Christian Church, with additional matter by Cranmer himself. The whole Book is in the glowing English of Tyndal, Cranmer, and other great lights of sixteenth century English prose.

* For full discussion of this, see J. William Legg’s * Church Ornaments and their Civil Antecedents.’ University Press: Cambridge. The tunica corresponds to the linen shirt of modern times, and was of various forms: it might reach to the knees or to the ankles. It might be sleeveless [like a sleeveless Rochet], or with flowing sleeves [like a Surplice], or with close sleeves [like an Alb]. Fashions varied among gentlemen in different ages: long or short, sleeves, or no sleeves. The conservative Church kept them all! The laity of the Early Church wore over the tunica, an outer garment which they called the pcenula, this we recognize in ancient pictures as the Chasuble, or, again, as the Cope. So with the Dalmatic, the Pallium, and all the other vestments of the Church all are survivals of the dress of different ranks of the laity. The Prayer Book is composed from four Mediaeval Service Books: The Breviary, or short monastic services for the ’hours’; The Missal, or Service for the Holy Communion; The Manual, or Services for Holy Baptism, Matrimony, Burial, etc.; and The Pontifical, or the bishop’s Services, such as Ordinations.

These books in turn go far back into the dim past for their origin. The daily services of the Church, which we now call Morning and Evening Prayer, are not unlike the services in the Jewish Synagogues of our Lord’s day. Two Lessons were read, one from the Law; the other from the Prophets. The Psalter was their book of praise as it is largely ours. We have prayers and versicles which may be traced in embryo to that time. And some of the most sacred parts of the Holy Communion are traceable to domestic worship in the homes of the laity of our Lord’s nation and time. Then our Lord’s own Prayer be comes part of every service in the Prayer Book. All through the succeeding centuries great aspiration and longing found place in the more or less permanent worship no of the Church. The English Prayer Book has enshrined these within its covers; so that we may rightly claim for it the spirit of worship through all the Christian centuries and even before. When the monasteries were closed, there was no class in England which could go to church at intervals of a few hours through the day. The Reformers were forced to provide services for the morning and evening to take the place of these brief services. In general they provided for more reading of the Scriptures, and they combined into one service what had been divided among several services. The service of Morning Prayer begins with a sentence or sentences from the Scripture appropriate to the season. This is followed by an exhortation explaining the uses of worship; this exhortation may be omitted, and, if it is omitted, a short bidding is used in its place. [Into the various services at the Reformation short sermons or exhortations were introduced, because preaching was at a low ebb, and in the people needed instruction. Now that there are many excellent sermons, the Church is either dropping these exhortations or is making their use optional.] Then follows the public confession of sins and the declaration of absolution, taking the place of private confession, which the Reformers felt had been abused. After the Lord’s Prayer and Versicles, the Invitatory, called the Venite^ is sung. This is followed by other Psalms selected by the minister. A chapter from the Old Testament is then read as the First Lesson; the congregation rise to sing Te Deum, Benedicite, or Benedictus es; a Second Lesson, from the New Testament, is read; and this is followed by the singing of Benedictus [the Song of Zacharias] or Jubilate. The Apostles’ Creed is said by all the people, followed by versicles and the prayers. Evening Prayer is the same, except that Venite is omitted, and the canticles sung after the Lessons are Magnificat and Nunc dimittis or certain Old Testament Psalms. The people are instructed to stand for praise, to sit for instruction, and to kneel for prayer. Morning and Evening Prayer are the greafc missionary services of the Church* and when reverently, intelligently, and simply rendered make a profound appeal. The Litany is a Service of Prayer wherein the people take large part. It was the first service of the Prayer Book to be put into English. It may be used with other services or alone.

2 Of the Holy Communion I shall speak later, and therefore postpone the consideration of the service till that time. This is the service book which was called the Missal.

3 The next book, the Manual, begins with the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. Instead of three services [Infant Baptism, Adult Baptism, and Private Baptism] we now have one service, assuming that the Public Baptism of Infants is the normal use, provision for Adult Baptism and Private Baptism being made in the course of this service. Provision is made also for immersion if the candidate or his sponsors desire it. The Catechism has been amplified and interspersed with worship, and is now called Offices of Instruction. This part of the Prayer Book is to be learned before Confirmation. Confirmation is a short service wherein the Bishop, after the custom of the Apostles, lays his hands upon baptized persons duly prepared and presented by their Rector, praying that they may be strengthened by the Holy Spirit. The Service of Matrimony has in it the history of the Church in the freeing of woman and giving her an equal place at the side of her husband. The dower rights proclaimed that she was not the mere chattel of her husband; and now we have made her vow identical with her husband’s vow. Both now enter into mutual obedience, service, and love, quite equal before God and man. The Visitation of the Sick is a collection of comforting and inspiring suggestions for the use of the clergy and others in a sick room. The sick themselves may find it useful when quite alone. The Burial Service, comforting, reticent, noble, is the same for the great and the unknown.

We leave our beloved dead, of whatever station they may be, in the hands of a loving Father. The fourth book is the book of Bishops’ Services, called the Pontifical. It includes the services for ordering Deacons, ordaining Priests, and consecrating Bishops; also a form for the consecrating of a Church; and an office for the Institution of Ministers. At the end of the Prayer Book, technically outside it, are forms of Family Prayer. These are placed here chiefly that the laity may easily find them and use them more conveniently in their own households.

We need no arguments in our day for the use of formal services, printed in a book. The prejudice against them is rapidly passing, and many gracious testimonies to their value are corning from unexpected quarters. At the same time the value of extempore prayer must never be forgotten; only it is a gift which is rare. The compactness, directness, and reverence of the old prayers are in general the best medium of the worship of the heart. For it must be remembered that neither precomposed prayer nor extempore prayer is in itself really prayer. Unless the prayer spoken by the minister awakes the inner prayer of the soul, there is no prayer under the root of the church. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below, Words without thoughts never to heaven go. The whole matter is a question of what will make the people in the pews truly lift up their hearts to the heavenly Father.

Phillips Brooks, filled with the memory of the great prayers of the Prayer Book, could on occasion pour forth such prayers from his heart that all people who heard fell to praying. But for most people, there is either stumbling or irreverent fluency, too much giving of information, too much preaching, too little direct petition, too little trust in the Father’s overwhelming knowledge and love. The fact that the words are familiar is a help rather than a hindrance. They may come freighted with association and memory. But they must be said slowly, clearly, reverently. To hear prayers muttered or gabbled, as if it mattered not what we offered to God, is to chill the heart and to drive away all secret prayer. Rightly, honestly, and carefully said, the prayers of the Prayer Book may be like the remembered harmonies of music: the expectation of loved words and phrases finds the heart ready to mount on wings of light into the heavenly places.

There is one corollary to this truth which, in justice to our human frailty, should be mentioned. Even in the most sacred services, in spite of devout effort, the mind will wander to other things. Conscientious people are often. distressed by the irrelevance of their thoughts, while solemn words are being said. I can remember a certain evening in my own youth when I heard a saintly clergyman confess that as he tried to lead the worship of the people, his thoughts would sometimes stray in every direction, and he would arouse himself to know that he himself was not worshipping, though trying to lead others. I shall never forget the comfort which that admission gave me. I felt that I had noble company in my shortcoming, and, though I did not cease to try to put my thought and spirit into the outward worship, I ceased to accuse myself of the sin of irreverence. More and more, I am sure that, if we honestly try to lift up our hearts, God is very patient with our wandering thoughts: He pities our infirmities, and only rejoices when we succeed in filling the words of the prayers with the desires and aspirations of our hearts.

Another important reason for the use of a Prayer Book is that it provides a share for the people in the worship of the Church. The responses to the versicles, the saying of certain prayers with the minister, the saying of the Amens y the reading of the Psalter, the singing of the Canticles and Hymns all belong to the people. It is the duty of every member of the Church to take full advantage of this privilege.

Everyone should take audible part in every service. He is a shabby Christian who sits idly in his pew, and makes no effort to have the service hearty and inspiring. He who earnestly offers worship will help his neighbours and will himself receive the greatest blessing.

Above all, a beautiful church and an orderly, dignified worship of praise and prayer, may be the means by which we give to God our best our understanding and our love.