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-let us seek, in the cultivation alike of the Christian grace and the sacred art, to prepare ourselves for the services of the upper sanctuary, where

"Ten thousand thousand are their tongues,

But all their hearts are one."

ART. VI.-1. Moderate Revision of the Prayer Book, on the Orthodox Principle of its Preface, advocated and illustrated in a Conciliatory Spirit, to promote the Union of sound Protestant-Catholic Churchmen, holding no extreme opinions; with Appendices, &c. By the Rev. C. H. DAVIS, M.A., of Wadham College, Oxford. London: Jackson. 1853.

2. The Doctrine of the Church of England as to the Effects of Baptism in the case of Infants; with an Appendix, &c. By the Rev. WILLIAM GOODE, M.A., F.S.A., Rector of Allhallows-the-Great-and-Less, London. Second Edition. London: Hatchard. 1850.

As a mere denominational question, as between the Church of England and other bodies repudiating liturgical forms, or as a party question, as between different sections of the Episcopal communion itself, the subject to which the above-mentioned publications refer scarcely falls within our province. The broad catholic sphere in which it is the aim of this Journal to move, forbids our entering the lists of mere ecclesiastical polemics. Only so far as this or any other church question may appear to have an important bearing on the general interests of Christianity and of the Kingdom of God, does it fall within our scope. In the present instance, however, that bearing is at once direct and momentous. Whatever affects the soundness and purity of Christian worship within the Church of England, affects also, and that most deeply, the soundness and purity of that church herself; whatever affects the religious life of the English Church, affects also, almost equally, the religious life of the English people; whatever tells on the religion of England, tells also on the religion and highest interests of the world. The liturgy moulds the church; the church, in large measure at least, moulds the nation; and the nation, queen and mistress as she is of kingdoms, contributes instrumentally more than any other power to mould the world. Thus, by only one or two strong links of connection, a mere question of liturgical purity may be bound up with interests the most vital and far-reaching, affecting alike the glory of our

native land, and the welfare of universal Christendom and of the human race.

The influence of religious formularies in moulding the spiritual life of the people who use them, is one which many of our readers unaccustomed to liturgical worship probably very greatly underrate. Even to those who are better qualified to estimate it, it requires a strong effort of the imagination adequately to realise its extent. Think of an instrument of religious culture, touching the deepest springs of our spiritual being, at work at once simultaneously over so vast a surface, and incessantly from day to day, and from generation to generation. Whatever the character of that influence may be, whether in quality or in energy, plain it is at least that it is used in such a way as to produce effects at once the most extensive and the most permanent. Everywhere and always, in the minds and hearts of those myriads who are included within the Anglican pale, it is at work. In cathedral choirs and in retired rural churches; in college chapels and in village schools; in brilliant city congregations and amid the rude, half-naked flocks of Galway and Connemera; in the mother church of Canterbury, and in far distant colonial fields; in our native Saxon, in the vernacular of the Welsh mountains, and in the barbarous tongues of Hindustan, New Zealand, and the coast of Guineaeverywhere the same solemn words sink into men's hearts at the moment when, bowing before the throne of God, they are most accessible to deep and devout impressions; and all this on every Sabbath of every year, of every generation, since the birth, three hundred years ago, of the Reformed Church of England!

Nor is the power of this influence less remarkable than the extent and permanency of its operation. It is a common idea, especially with those who are not themselves accustomed to liturgical worship, that the effect of such often repeated forms on the minds and hearts of men is comparatively slight. It appears to them, that the result of their use must be, either that no effect whatever is produced on the minds of the worshippers, or the production of a habit of mere listless formalism. No idea can in fact be more groundless. However it may be with the careless, unthinking multitude who constitute so large a portion of most congregations, in the case at least of devout and serious minds, the recurrence of well-remembered words of solemn prayer comes fraught with a constant increase of pathos and power. The effect of such repetition, when not so frequent as to pall on the mind, is cumulative, not diminutive; as in the case of the songs of our native land, the familiar words acquire new meaning and power for the heart the longer they are used. Language simple and ordi

nary in itself, comes back enhanced by the memory of all we have felt in its use in our holiest and best moments, and thus acquires to us a meaning and an unction which to another they possess not,-even as the mountain stream in its course becomes impregnated and coloured by the soil it has passed through on its way. This principle we see illustrated in the case of the Hymns of the German Church-those true war-notes of the Reformation; in the sacred songs of the Moravian and Wesleyan bodies; or in our own metrical Psalms, which, the longer used the more deeply loved, have contributed more perhaps than any other means to feed the springs of Scottish piety, and impart to it that sober, solid, experimental character that so honourably distinguishes it. In none of these instances is the effect of repetition to lessen impression, but the direct reverse; nor can we suppose it otherwise in the present case. Ask any devout English churchman of the school of Simeon or of Bickersteth, whether the suppliant cries of the Litany, or the jubilant accents of the Te Deum, come home with less or with more power to his heart after a lifetime's use than they did at first; and we have no doubt whatever of the answer. Certain it is, that, for good or for evil, the Book of Common Prayer is enshrined in the heart of the English people as no other uninspired volume is, and wields an influence, in moulding and fashioning their religious life, second only to the written Word of God and the preached Gospel. Associated with all that is most tender and sacred in bygone memorywith the whispered prayers of childhood, the devout impressions of early youth, and the convictions and vows of riper years-the words possess to millions of hearts a meaning they can never have to a stranger, and have engraven themselves in living characters on other than fleshly tablets, a fact which we see demonstrated, not only by the fervent testimonies of the church's own children, but by the still more impressive witness of those who, separated from her by conscientious scruples on other points, have carried fragments of her solemn service along with them, and still continue, in whole or in part, to pray in the words they learned within her pale.

These remarks will not be mistaken for a eulogy of the Book of Common Prayer, or of liturgical worship. We have no intention whatever of here pronouncing a judgment on the vexed question of the lawfulness or expediency of such forms; far less a judgment adverse to the opinion which the great body of our countrymen have immemorially held. We are looking at the matter at present simply as one of facta fact which, even at this distance, and with all our hereditary prepossessions, we cannot but regard as important as it is unquestionable. Verily, an instrument of such power for good or

evil, incessantly at work on the great body of Christian England, and contributing so largely to the spiritual education of many of her noblest sons, can be no matter of indifference to any who tender the highest interests of Christianity and the cause of God. Where the influence of those formularies is so vast, the character of that influence becomes proportionably momentous; and thus, while whatever in them is sound and true acquires an incalculably enhanced value, a corresponding seriousness will attach to whatever in them may be erroneous or hurtful. It is in this point of view that we regard the matters now in discussion concerning the "Book of Common Prayer," as a question not for English churchmen only, but demanding and deserving the serious attention of every friend of Christianity and vital religion throughout the land.

What, then, is the intrinsic character, both as to its excellences and defects, of the Book of Common Prayer? What has England to expect, whether of good or evil, from the influence it is exerting, and will inevitably continue for generations to exert, on the Christian feelings and convictions of the great body of her people? And where seeds of evil do exist, how may she best bestir herself for their eradication, or failing that, for neutralising the baneful influence which they threaten to exert? Such are the important topics to which we propose to devote what remains of the present paper.

In estimating the character of any instrument of Christian culture-whether of a strictly didactic kind, as the preaching of the Word, or of a devotional kind, as the formularies of Christian worship-there are, as it appears to us, four main elements which it is necessary to keep in view. These are the personal, the doctrinal, the experimental, and the practical:The personal, or the degree and the manner in which it sets forth the living person of Christ himself; the doctrinal, or how it inculcates or cherishes a practical faith in the leading articles of saving faith; the experimental, or how it deals with the workings and struggles of the inward life; and the practical, or how it feeds the springs and cherishes the habits of holy practice. It will be admitted, we think, that this fourfold test might be very safely applied as a touchstone to guage the practical soundness and efficiency of pulpit ministrations in any given church or country; that, in fact, could we have before us the whole body of such instructions, addressed to the Christian flock within any one communion, on any one Sabbath in the year; and should we find that in the great bulk of those addresses, the essential elements we have indicated were livingly and in due proportion present, none will doubt but that church might be congratulated with the possession of a full, efficient, and well-balanced ministration of the Word. If, on

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the contrary, we found one or more of those elements exclusively, or almost exclusively present; if, for instance, in ninetenths or more of the discourses before us, we found the elements of dogmatic truth and inward experience exclusively predominant, while the glory of the personal Saviour and the communion of the heart with Him was little seen, or the inculcation of special Christian duties was almost wholly ignored, then we should say that here we have a narrowness and one-sidedness of teaching which cannot fail to tell with pernicious tendency on the Christian life of the people that are placed under it. Now, what is thus true of the ministrations of the pulpit, applies equally to formularies of worship, considered as vehicles of truth and instruments of Christian culture. Let us apply this criterion, then, to the Book of Common Prayer, and let us subject it to the crucible of a thorough examination under each of the forementioned heads, and particularly of the first two.

Of all the elements we have mentioned, that certainly which in the Book of Common Prayer is most prominent and characteristic is the first-that which we have called the PERSONAL. Throughout, the grand, central, vivifying principle is the contemplation of the living personal Saviour, and the communion of the spirit with him in his life and in his death, rather than any more special views of his office and work. Following in this the tendency of the early post-apostolic ages, from which its compilers inherited the spirit, and much too of the materials with which they wrought, it is rather the mystery of the incarnation itself, and the glorious person and history of the incarnate Lord, than the special ends of the incarnation and its substantive results, which it sets prominently before us. Christ himself-born, living, suffering, tempted, dying, rising, ascending, reigning, coming again to be our Judge-fills the canvas, and casts everything else pertaining to dogmatic truth comparatively into the shade. He, himself, like another sun, walks in glory through all the circle of the Christian year, irradiating it with his presence and vivifying it with his grace. Jesus Christ, in short, as the object of supreme affection,-the pattern of continual imitation,the spring of a new life,-and the centre of a mystical union, binding us in sympathy and destiny for ever to him ;-such is the grand, pervading, though not altogether exclusive principle of these formularies throughout. Let us at once illustrate and confirm this statement by a few quotations. We shall select one or two of the great epochs, or decisive moments, in the Redeemer's life, and carefully mark the special aspect in which they are held forth for our contemplation. The following is the Collect for the Nativity, appointed to be used also during every day of the succeeding week, and thus embodying,

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