"To enlarge on the advantages of a judicious and earnest delivery of such a Text to the philologist and the man of taste," wrote James Wright of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in the dedication of his Philosophy of Elocution exemplified by Readings of the Liturgy of the Church (Oxford, 1818), "would be to arraign his scholarship and insult his understanding. For, when to the sublimity, comprehensiveness, and superior accuracy of written composition, is superadded that captivating energy, that sensible inflection, that well-tuned modulation, which mark the finest specimens of oral discourse-it must be self-evident that the effect produced on the human mind by such a combination will be of the most forcible and impressive nature.

"Our sublime and beautiful Liturgy, from the simple elegance of its language and the exalted air of piety with which it is strongly characterized, would demand the utmost exertions of the reader appointed to pronounce it, were it viewed in the mere light of a noble composition; but when the clergyman considers that on the correctness and precision of his utterance, and on the ardour and solemnity of his manner, the true devotion of his hearers in a great measure depends, the just delivery of this exalted service becomes not only a desirable accomplishment, but a serious and most important duty."

The author desires to acknowledge with best thanks valuable assistance received from Dr. R. R. Terry, the Rev. Dr. W. H. Frere, the Rev. Dr. G. H. Palmer, Mr. E. Stanley Roper, B.A., Mus.B. (of the Chapel Royal, St. James'), Mr. Herbert Ware, and other friends.

CHAPTER

THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK

I. INTRODUCTORY: A FEW PLAIN QUESTIONS PLAINLY ANSWERED
(1.) WHAT IS A LITURGY, AND WHAT ADVANTAGES ARE THere in
SET FORMS OF PRAYER?

(11.) WHY SHOULD PRAYERS BE SUNG?

(111.) From What was our Present English Liturgy DERIVED?
(IV.) FROM WHAT WERE OUR PRESENT DAILY CHOIR OFFICES
DERIVED ?

(v.) How WAS THE CONTINUITY OF ENGLISH CHURCH MUSIC
PRESERVED?

(vi.) WHAT VOCAL RANGE, ETC., IS NECESSARY FOR THE PRIEST'S
PART IN THE SERVICES OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH?

II. THE "ACCENTUS" PORTION OF THE PRESENT ENGLISH LITURGY
(1.) THE PREPARATION

PAGE

I

I

2

3

6

8

12

(VI.) THE OFFERTORY

(VIII.) THE THANKSGIVING, “Paternoster,' ""GLORIA IN EXCELSIS,"

AND THE BLESSING

III. THE ORDER FOR MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER

(1.) VERSICLES, RESPONSES, AND COLLECTS

(11.) THE PRIEST'S PRECENTING OF THE FIRST VERSES OF PSALMS
AND CANTICLES WHEN SUNG TO GREGORIAN TONES

51

IV. THE LITANY

V. ON READING THE LESSONS

555

55

55

59

64

71

THE PRIEST'S PART OF THE ANGLICAN LITURGY, CHOIR OFFICES, AND LITANY

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

A FEW PLAIN QUESTIONS PLAINLY ANSWERED

I.-What is a Liturgy, and what Advantages are there in Set Forms of Prayer?

THE word LITURGY (Greek Meiтoupyía) has, at different times and in various places, conveyed one or more of the following meanings:

(i.) A civil service, or state burden, in the technical language of Athenian law.

(ii.) A function or office of any kind.

(iii.) Some prescribed form of sacerdotal ministration-heathen, Jewish, or Christian.

(iv.) The Eucharistic Service of the Christian Church.

(v.) Any prescribed formulary of Public Worship.

The loose way in which the term came into general use, as shown in (v.) above, may be said to be largely due to the Preface contributed by Dr. Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln, to the Book of Common Prayer issued in the year 1662.

Properly speaking, the term liturgy means the Communion Service, and no other; the Order for Morning and Evening Prayer being best described as the "Daily Choir Offices," although the Rev. Dr. Percy Dearmer, in his Everyman's History of the Prayer-Book, applies to these daily offices the term "Divine Service."

It is sometimes asked what is the necessity for a Prayer-Book at all? Why should there be any pre-arranged or set forms of prayer, and why should such forms be rendered musically?

The first part of this question was so admirably answered in a sermon by Bishop George Bull (of St. David's, 1705-1710), that it well deserves quotation here:

"A Liturgy is useful and necessary to obviate and prevent all extravagant levities or worser impieties in the public worship. If the prayers of the Church were left to the private conceptions or extempore effusions of every minister of the Church, what a lamentable worship and service of God should we have in many congregations. We had sad experience of this in those days when our Liturgy was laid aside.* What impertinences, what tautologies, what bold and familiar addresses to the Divine Majesty! What saucy expostulations with Almighty God! Yea, what blasphemies were heard in the Houses of God from the men of those times!

"A Liturgy is not more necessary for the provision of devotions to less learned ministers than to those who are more learned; lest the best actions and prayers of the latter degenerate into mere sin and vanity. The people need set prayers in order that undue faith and confidence may not be placed in the individuality of the one person who prays; who, if left to his own improvisations, will find it very difficult to avoid venting his own private opinions (both religious and political) in his prayers; for men will always pray as they think and believe, and all their doctrines will have a tincture of their private notions and conceptions, which may not be always sound and orthodox."

II.-Why should Prayers be Sung?

From the earliest times the Hebrew officiant was expected to utter with the singing voice every word he recited aloud in public worship. Nor was such a custom ever peculiar to the Jewish Church. All over the world, in all phases of its history, prayers have been musically rendered, because it is a natural instinct with all races of mankind— ancient or modern, savage or civilized-to approach publicly the Deity they worship in a tone of voice different to that used in private conversation. It is recognized universally as a common principle that such

* The period of the Commonwealth is here referred to, when, by reason of the overthrow of King Charles I. by the Parliamentary Party, the Church Service was temporarily superseded by an inferior type of Presbyterianism.