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A friend has pointed out to us that if he included Matins in the offices which he said from the Breviary, the Old Testament would not be avoided; while if Matins were not counted there would be no lesson at all in the offices, except for the little chapters of a single verse which occur occasionally in the day hours.

We suspect that the priest in question read only the day hours. We did not investigate the matter carefully as our reference was meant to be taken lightly. However, if we assume that he did read Matins from the Breviary, it still remains true that he would avoid the long and often extremely tedious lessons from the Old Testament that have been prescribed in the new lectionary. If we must have lessons from the Old Testament, why could we not have some such brief selections of high devotional value as are contained in the Breviary office of Matins?

The Attitude of Churchmen Toward Labor

IT

behooves Churchmen to familiarize themselves with the program that has just been set forth by the American Federation of Labor. We believe that most fair-minded men among the clergy and the laity will feel that for the most part the demands set forth are reasonable and moderate and deserving of hearty support. It will certainly not do in these times to close our eyes to the injustice and the inequalities that undoubtedly exist. The following words by Charles Edward Russell, published in the New York Times of January 12th, seem to us to indicate a wise point of view and one that may well be adopted by Churchmen generally:

"The Bolshevist movement in Europe and the I. W. W. in the United States are only outbursts from the same fundamental feeling of injustice that elsewhere has driven men to form labor organizations for their defense, and again to launch great co-operative movements. Some of these manifestations are good for society and some are

bad, but whether good or bad they all come from the same general source-the unfairness of the present system by which a few men get a great deal of the wealth labor creates and the masses of men get little.

It is plainly to be seen that we have not yet begun to grasp the readjustment that will be necessary in the sharing of wealth created by labor. If we are to avoid the incitement to some form of Bolshevist agitation or activity, it will be necessary that a much larger share of this wealth shall go to labor than it has hitherto been labor's lot to receive, and a smaller share to the employer. It is necessary that the entire class of producers, irrespective of the kind of production on which they are engaged, shall attain to a higher standard of living, better opportunity for leisure and culture, larger security against penury in old age than they ever had before. It is essential also that society should recognize in all ways, governmental, cultural, and social, the worth and value of labor and the justice of its plea for the fullest opportunity."

Revision and Enrichment of the Book

T

of Common Prayer

BY THE RT. REV. FREDERICK BURGESS, D.D.

HE first feeling of many Churchmen, when such a subject as this is mentioned, is one of antagonism. "The Prayer Book was revised a few years ago," they say, "and at that time it narrowly escaped mutilation, but do not let us expose it to new dangers." They feel as the reverent connoisseur would feel if some ambitious artist proposed to restore Leonardo Da Vinci's "Last Supper" on the walls of the refectory in the monastery at Milan. To be sure, the colors have faded, but no vandal hand must touch it. Of course, if that were the true way to regard the Prayer Book, they would be right. But it is not the true way. The Prayer Book is for men of the present day. Its archaisms must be eliminated, its rubrics and offices must be changed to meet the changing needs of the age. Unless we are willing to have the great Service Book of the Church become antiquated, we must run the risk of revision.

And yet it is hardly possible to exaggerate the value of this book to English speaking Christians. Archbishop Cranmer did the greatest possible service to the Church when he published that first book of Edward. Hitherto the services had been in Latin. The various parts had to be collected from various sources: missals, breviaries, pontificals, ordinals, and so forth. At the celebration of the Mass the Epistoler would read from one book, the Gospeller from another, and the Priest who offered the Mass might use several music books before he finished. The occasional offices: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Matrimony, Burial of the Dead, were all in a separate book. It required genius of the highest order to create a new book which should be written in terse stately English, which should contain all the prayers, and which could then be placed

in the hands of the layman as the authoritative office book of the English Church. And Cranmer did all this. In the midst of a busy life, with court intrigues about him, he found time to study liturgical questions and to do that most difficult task of translating. If he took a collect out of an old Latin liturgy, he did not merely reproduce it in slavish literalness, but he often lighted it up with new words which made it live for a new age. I know that he vacillated in his theology, that the first book of Edward differs radically from the second. I know that he broke his solemn oath to Henry the Eighth and that he seemed alternately a coward and a hero. Yet, with all his shortcomings, he was one of the truest servants the Church of England ever had. When the papal delegates degraded him before his death, they must have felt the grim irony of the scene as they watched Bonner, as the finishing touch, scraping the tips of the Archbishop's fingers to deprive him of the power to bless and sanctify. But they could not undo his work, and the Prayer Book, as we have it today, is a monument to Cranmer's zeal and good taste.

The work of revision, if it is to be successful, must follow traditional rules. It would be a mistake to overlook the fact that the influence of the Prayer Book has consisted to a great extent in the charm of its style. The exquisite rhythm of the Psalter, the simplicity and directness of the Collects, the appeal and pathos of the Litany and the Liturgy, and, finally, the sublimity of the language in the Sanctus, form the very poetry of expression which penetrates into the inmost chambers of the heart. But it is not the Elizabethan English which gives this charm of style. I presume the Prayer Book is written to a great extent in that manner. But I am ready to maintain that Elizabethan English is not any better than Victorian or American English. To say that we cannot have collects written now worthy of a place in our service, because we do not write in Elizabethan English, would be as absurd as to say we cannot have perfect sonnets because Shakespeare is dead. Wordsworth, Matthew Arnold, Andrew Lang, and Longfellow

all prove the contrary. But a man cannot say, "Go to, I will write a sonnet," any more than he can say, "Go to, I will write a collect." For both there must be the attention to form, the obedience to the law, but most of all there must be the inspiration.

One thing which has perhaps been a surprise to the Commission on Enrichment of the Prayer Book is the small number of original prayers which have been offered. Is it possible that this is not a praying age, and that thoughtful Christians of our day are too busy with practical affairs to enrich our literature with the deep-toned petitions such as came from the Church in the Middle Ages? There are suggestions innumerable about rubrics and arrangement of services; there are criticisms sometimes of a very penetrating character, but few new prayers and collects are offered. The least admirable portion of the Commission's report is in this department. One prayer which persists in knocking at the door for admittance is the one which is attributed to Cardinal Newman about the busy world being hushed and the fever of life being over. It strikes a false note. It is sentimental, morbid and unworthy of a place in the Prayer Book. It would be like putting a flimsy stucco statue into York Minster. The Church's scholars and saints must produce work of virile character to enrich our great service book, so that it may strengthen an age which craves the strongest faith to meet the demands of life.

But not only in language must there be changes. There must be changes in doctrinal statements as well. When the Commission on Revision was appointed, the resolution provided that no proposition involving Faith and Doctrine should be considered or reported upon by it. The letter of this command the Commission in its report has certainly disregarded. Indeed it could not have been otherwise. Revision would have been absolutely colorless if it did not touch doctrine, for doctrine is woven into all the texture of the Prayer Book.

Take for instance the doctrine of original sin. No thought

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