LECTURE II.

THE PRIMITIVE LITURGIES-THE ROMAN MASS-THE COMMUNION OFFICE OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH.

HE statement that this is "The Book of COMMON

THE

Prayer and ADMINISTRATION of the Sacraments," etc., etc., which is the fourth and last of the points to be noted on the title-page, can be understood in its full significance only in connection with other important features of the offices referred to in the expression itself. Hence we can give here merely the general principles involved in the use of the terms employed.

The phrase "Common Prayer" has sometimes been taken to mean the ordinary, daily prayer "of the whole congregation on ordinary occasions, "whereas the Sacraments and other rites and cere"monies are used by a part only of the congregation "and on particular occasions." But it was placed on the title-page of the Prayer Book, and connected with "The Administration of the Sacraments," etc., with a deeper significance than this.

The design of the English Church in translating her old offices of worship into the popular language, and putting them into the hands of the people as well as

1 "Shepherd on the Common Prayer,” p. 1.

the minister, was to restore to the people their right and ancient part in the services of the Church, which, during the Middle Ages, had passed almost wholly into offices "said" by the priest, and to have both ministers and congregation become again sharers together in the prayers that were offered, and the Sacraments that were to be ministered.

The public devotions of the Church had, under the sacerdotal system of the medieval period, come to be mainly services performed by the priest for the people, acts in which they had little or no part save to be present, and to have prayers or sacrifices offered for them by an authorized priesthood.

But the people were now, as in the early ages of the Church, once more to have prayers in their own mother tongue, which they themselves were to pray with the minister, a worship in which every individual was to join with voice and understanding, and which was thus to be the "Common Prayer" of the whole Church as one, the prayers of the congregation equally as the praying of the priest.

So, too, of the Sacraments. The Holy Eucharist was presented in the Middle Ages almost wholly as a vicarious sacrifice offered on behalf of those looking on, a bare priestly function "celebrated" before them, and available solely as performed in their stead by "a Catholic priest.'

But this, too, was restored in the Liturgy of the Reformation to its Scriptural and primitive use as "a Holy Communion." The people were again, as in the Divine institution, and for many centuries after, whenever present at the Sacrament, to be partakers with the

minister "of His body broken and His precious blood shed for them," as He had commanded to be done forever in remembrance of Him.

In both these vital restorations the American Church has followed her great English ancestor, and has returned to "the truth once for all delivered to the saints." She has made her daily offices of worship "The Common Prayer" of the Church, and she presents the Holy Eucharist, as in its very essence, a common act, a joint participation of both the minister and the "faithful." And "this Church," at one in this with the Church of England, knows nothing of a "celebration" of "the Lord's Supper" by a priest without an "administration" to the people, and a " Holy Communion" through its reception by those present who are entitled to partake.

The terms "Common Prayer" and "Administration of the Sacraments" on our title-page thus indicate the protest of the "Church in the United States" against the system of mechanical and priestly theology, which had become dominant in the Western Church in the centuries preceding the Reformation, and our adherence to the Scriptural and Catholic principles which are set forth in the gospels and apostolic writings, and embodied in the liturgies and "ancient authors" of the early Church.

As Mr. Green has admirably expressed it in his History of the English People, "The name Common "given to the Prayer Book marked its real import. "The theory of worship which prevailed through

1 Green's "History of the English People," Vol. II, p. 226.

"mediæval Christendom, the belief that the worshiper "assisted only at rites wrought for him by priestly "hands, at a sacrifice wrought through priestly inter"vention, at the offering of praise and prayer by "priestly lips, was now set at naught. The laity, as it "has been picturesquely said, were called up into the 'chancel; the act of worship, devotion, became a 'com"mon prayer' of the whole body of worshipers, the "Mass became a 'communion' of the whole Christian "fellowship."

Proceeding now from the general principles set forth in the title-page of our Prayer Book to a more direct consideration of the contents of the book itself, we begin with that service' which, in all ages of the Church, has been esteemed its central and chief act of public worship, "The Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion," or, as it has been called from the very earliest ages of the Church, "The Liturgy."

The command of our Blessed Lord, "This do in remembrance of me," and the accompanying precept of St. Paul, "As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye proclaim the Lord's death till he come," were recognized from the very beginning as essential elements of the service and life of the Church.

Both the description given in the Acts of the Apostles of the fervid zeal of the Christian community in the Pentecostal days, that those who were baptized "con

1 This service was generally called in the earlier ages "The Eucharist,” or “The Liturgy,” sometimes "The Breaking of Bread." Its name in the English and American Churches is "The Lord's Supper," or "The Holy Communion." The Romanists call it "The Mass."

tinued steadfastly in the Apostles' teaching, and in fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and the prayers," and the earliest accounts we have of the Church, after the Apostolic writings, show that the principal service of the first day of the week, or the Sunday, was always connected with the Holy Communion or was a Liturgy. That very ancient and invaluable record which has been recently discovered, and which goes back into the Apostolic age itself, known as "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," gives as one of its injunctions to those who seek to keep 'The Way of Life,' "On the Lord's Day do ye assemble and break bread, and give thanks (eucharistate) after confessing your sins, that your sacrifice may be pure." And Justin Martyr, in his Apology for Christianity, addressed to "the Emperor, the Sacred Senate and the whole people of Rome," at a date probably some few years later, says, " On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the Apostles, or the writings of the Prophets are read, * *** then the president verbally instructs and exhorts. *** After this we all rise and pray, and when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president offers prayers and thanksgivings; and the people assent, saying amen; and there is a distribution to each and a participation of that over which thanks had been given."

But while the Liturgy was thus in its primitive use the chief public service of each Lord's Day, it is almost equally certain that at this period, it was seldom or never performed on any other day of the week. It was in its very essence a specially festal service, and was