Benedictus is the Hymn of Zacharias upon the first beginning of the actual Coming of Messiah. "The horn of salvation was virtually raised up when the Incarnation became an accompli...
"When ye pray, say, Our Father, &c." S. Luke xi. 2. We can now understand why the Lord's Prayer is used twice in the same Service. The Praises begin with it and the Prayers begin w...
The principal dates which are of use in reading this book fall into four groups: 1. The Early Church. 2. The Discussion of the Creed. 3. The Growth of Services. 4. The Growth of th...
The Prioress, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, relates that a Litel child his litel book lernynge, As he sat in the scole in his primere, He O alma redemptoris herde synge, As childr...
The same words may serve for Praise and for Prayer. The plainest meaning of "Hallowed be Thy Name" is Praise to God. But it may be also a Prayer to Him to cause His Name to be hall...
The similarity of the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed, as they stand in the Prayer Book, {95} suggests the reflection that disputes about the Human and Divine Natures of Jesus...
The Apostles' Creed is a summary of those things which the Bible tells us of God's Being. There can be no higher act of the soul of man than to dwell Upon the Being and Attributes...
There were of old four methods of singing the Psalms: 1. Direct or Choral. 2. Antiphonal. 3. Responsorial. 4. Continuous. 1. The Direct or Choral Singing was done by the whole choi...
Ps. lxvii., styled by Dr Kay The Spiritual Harvest-Home Song of Israel, is to be applied by us to the Harvesting of Missionaries, when set before our minds in the Second Lesson. It...
Praise. There are two ways in which respect is paid to a man, viz. (1) Outspoken praise, (2) Deference to his words. In like manner we praise God (1) by dwelling with joy and gladn...
Reasoning of the kind which Socrates used comes near to proof. But it can never actually prove the existence of God. The mind of man is so constituted that it dislikes the notion o...
are 11 verses, chosen, 5 from the Psalms, 4 from the Prophets, 2 from the Gospels, 1 from the Epistles. They represent either man's cry to God (Nos. 2, 3, 7, 9, 10) or God's call t...
The eight versicles which follow next are addressed to Christ, and in most editions of the Prayer Book are separated by a small space from the Verse and Respond, Priest. O Lord, le...
We have seen that the Gospel is frequently hidden[1] in the Old Testament Lessons. The unfolding of this hidden thought comes by natural sequence in the Second Lessons. They are ch...
A. The Study of the Bible a help to worship. The Bible is read in Church as an incentive to the praise of God. It supplies thoughts of God which are then offered up to Him, as Prai...
Behold the King cometh. Let us go to meet our Saviour. O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our Salvation. Let us come before his presence...
The third paragraph of this Creed is a summary of the teaching of the Bible concerning Him whom we often call the third Person of the Godhead--whom Jesus described as the Comforter...
Passing now to the corresponding Canticle at Evensong, we find Cantate Domino, the 98th Psalm, which, though much briefer, and nearly free from elaborate detail, makes the same ack...
1. Exhortation. Parallel. goodness and mercy. assemble and meet together. Progressive. ( acknowledge . . . . . suggesting reluctance. ( confess . . . . . . . " willingness. ( sins...
We are about to explain how Hymns are attached to Lessons for purposes of worship. It will be well therefore to consider what a Hymn is, and how we arrived at the present arrangeme...
If we have understood the Method of Praise which, in these Services, uses ancient forms in an ordered variety, we shall be prepared to find similar order, and similar use of variet...
The Nicene Creed (325) had the words "Proceeding from the Father": the Council of Ephesus (431[1]) decreed that no addition was to be made to the Creed, as there settled. When, how...
[Pliny the younger was Governor of Pontus and Bithynia during some of the early years of the 2nd century. Trajan was Emperor from A.D. 98 to 117. The letter, from which we give som...
Answer. And with thy spirit.] This may be taken as the mutual salutation of Minister and People at the close of the Praise Service. It is therefore to be said before they kneel. In...
The Preface to the Prayer Book Concerning the Service of the Church states that, prior to 1549, the old order, for reading the greatest part of the Bible through every year, had be...
The foundation of Christianity was not laid with outward marks, but in the hearts of those who, by one, and by two, united themselves together to serve the Lord Christ. As He had s...
The Scripture moveth us] The Sentences supply 11 such places, but there are many more to be found in the Bible. The word "moveth" has the same meaning as when a resolution is moved...
The couplet O Lord, deal not with us, &c. Neither reward us, &c. belongs to the Prayer of the Contrite Heart, and is a summary of it. It is taken from Psalm ciii. 10. It offers no...
It may be said with truth that the Bible is a book which reads History, and the perplexities of Man, in the light of one great postulate, viz. that there is a God. The natural sequ...
It has often been noticed that pairs of words having nearly the same meaning frequently occur in the Prayer Book. This doubling of an idea may be called 'Duplication'. Duplication...