FROM the day Jenny Geddes’ well-directed camp stool narrowly missed the head of Dean Hannay on Sabbath 23rd July 1637, as he read for the first time the hated Laudian Prayer Book, Presbyterian Scotland has given a wide berth to prayer books, and it is only in recent years that a movement, weak at first, but now sufficiently strong to be recognised by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, has borne fruit in the production of a prayer book, entitled “Prayers for Divine Service in Church and Home.” The book is issued by the Committee on Aids to Devotion, and “by the authority of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.” The General Assembly of 1922 authorised the publication of the book, which is a republication of what was formerly known as “Prayers for Social and Family Worship,” and recommended it to the ministers and members of the Church. At last General Assembly the Rev. W. A. Knowles, in giving in the report of the Committee on Aids to Devotion, in the absence of the Convener (Dr Wallace Williamson) said that the work had a circulation of 1136 copies out of 2000 printed. Prof. Reid moved a resolution, which became the finding of the Assembly, that the book be examined by a special committee. It was a remarkable thing, he said, that for the first time in the history of these prayer books this volume was issued by the authority of the General Assembly. He specially singled out the section on the Holy Communion, and suggested that this section should be examined by competent theologians and others to see whether the part to which he referred could be safely adopted without very serious misunderstanding and without very serious grief and astonishment from those who had adhered to the doctrine and practice, particularly in the sacraments, of the Reformed Church of Scotland. Prof. Reid’s words are strong, but not too strong in view of what is to be found in this book. The whole service connected with the observance of the Lord’s Supper is of a very elaborate nature, including many readings, prayers, and the repetition of the Nicene Creed. The prayers include invocations, confessions, intercessions, supplications, the Lord’s Prayer, the offertory prayer, the Agnus Dei, post communion prayer, etc. In one of the prayers designated in the rubric as the Great Intercession we have the words: “We remember with thanksgiving the faithful and blessed departed, and our beloved ones whom Thou hast taken to Thyself.” Then there is the “Sursum Corda,” with responses. To Presbyterians, accustomed to the severe simplicity of the services associated in their minds with the observance of the Lord’s Supper, all this must be anything but pleasing.
In the section dealing with the Burial of the Dead we give a quotation from one of the prayers:—”We thank Thee O Father, for all Thy faithful servants departed this life in Thy faith and fear, and especially for him whom Thou hast now taken to Thyself. For all Thy loving-kindness towards him through his earthly life we give Thee thanks. And since it was Thy will to call him hence, we thank Thee that for him all sickness and sorrow are ended, that death itself is past, and that he is entered into the rest that remaineth for Thy people.” Now, this might be true in the case of one of God’s people, but from an experience extending over many years we know that this prayer will be repeated at the graves of those who died in the service of the devil, and concerning whom we are not warranted in entertaining the hope that they have entered into rest. Such words only mock the living who hear them, and are a daring usurpation of the authority of Him who has the keys of hell and of death. The claims of Christian charity have no right to interfere with His prerogatives. Of the same strain are the words in the Prayer At Grave:—”Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God, of His great mercy, to take unto Himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, who shall change the body of our humiliation, that it may be like unto the body of His glory, according to the mighty working whereby He is able to subdue all things to Himself.”
Then there is a section devoted to “Prayers for Sacred and Natural Seasons,” and among these we have prayers for Christmas, “Sunday” before Easter, Monday before Easter, Tuesday before Easter, Wednesday before Easter, Thursday before Easter, Good Friday, Easter Eve, Easter Day, and Commemoration of All Saints, and the Remembrance of the Blessed Departed. We have given enough to show that Prof. Reid might have spoken stronger than he did and yet be within bounds. We shall await with keen interest the next Assembly’s attitude to this Prayer Book, and while the Church of Scotland has no George Gillespies or David Calderwoods, the one with his “Dispute against the English-Popish Ceremonies intruded upon the Church of Scotland,” and the other with his “Altare Damascenum,” in which they gave short shrift to English Church ceremonies and festivals, still, there are some, we believe, in the Church of Scotland who will take their stand on the right side.
The Church of England also is in trouble over its Prayer Book, or, to be more correct, over its revision. The Anglo-Catholic party are making a strong effort to have the Prayer Book so revised that it will bring them a step nearer Rome, which every true Anglo-Catholic looks to as his home. In July of this year the House of Clergy approved of the Romish doctrine of reservation of the elements for the sick and dying by a majority of five, notwithstanding the fact that Article XXXIX. condemns “reservation” as contrary to Christ’s ordinances. There are other matters, all preparing the way for Rome, but we refrain from dealing with them meantime. While the Church of Scotland by its Prayer Book is drifting towards Anglicanism, the Church of England by its revised Prayer Book is drifting towards Rome. The Evangelicals in the Church of England are putting up a stiff fight with their Romanising opponents, but what with Anglo-Catholicism on the one hand and Modernism on the other, they must feel faint at heart many a time because of the strength of the opposition.
If through sovereign grace we are the doves of Christ, born of Him, we shall feel restrained, unhappy, and anxious wherever He is not; we shall take no delight in any worldly society, and worldly pursuits, as if we were at home in them; on the contrary, we are there with disquietude and weariness, the heart becomes oppressed, and lifts its wings to seek a better country.—Krummacher.