CHAPTER VIII THE LITANY, PRAYERS AND COLLECTS ORDINARILY, in summing up comprehensively the Christian religion, its doctrines are reduced to two—the immortality of the soul and the personality of God. The impression which such a summation gives is that in the Christian scheme these two ideas are co-ordinate and equally eminent and dominant. And if one were to examine the prevalent preaching of the day, one would find confirmation for this impression. Indeed, one might even be led to the conclusion that of the two doctrines the controlling one was the immortality of the soul, or the life after death. One would think that Christianity's supreme discipline through the ages had been to turn the attention of people away from this world and its transient concerns to another, with infinite and abiding interests. The result is that when one for the first time compares popular preaching and the ordinary summation of Christian thought with the Book of Common Prayer, one is startled to find that in the latter the doctrine of immortality is scarcely present, and, where it does appear in the regular services, it has no prominence, but, on the contrary, as a regulating or guiding principle plays no rôle whatever. It does not permeate and saturate the sentiment of the Prayer Book, as one would expect to find if it were one of the two vital principles of the Christian religion. Never can the effect of the Prayer Book be to stimulate into intensity of passion a yearning for a life after death and a denial of this world's goods and claims. Not only, however, is the doctrine of immortality thus conspicuous for its absence as an animating principle, but its very opposite is in complete ascendency. It is therefore thoroughly in harmony with the character of the Book of Common Prayer, that thus far in this volume I have treated, because of their pre-eminence in it, first the Ten Commandments and then the Lord's Prayer-in neither of which documents is there any hint of the doctrine or even of the hope of immortality, but in both of which, on the contrary, religious aspiration and prophecy are only towards the future of cities and nations. It was fitting, then, to pass from them on to the Creeds, in which the doctrine appears, but only subordinately, and not as if it constituted the mainspring to the Christian life. It is only in the Burial Service and the Articles that the thought of a life after death is the leading sentiment; it is not so even in the Order for the Visitation of the Sick. And, fortunately, assent to the Articles is not required of the laity, and even from the clergy only a general agreement is demanded; so that the prominence of the doctrine of a life after death in them does not impugn the accuracy of my statement. In the Burial Service we find the Prayer Book to show least signs of fine literary workmanship, liturgical construction, religious insight, and human sympathy. Undoubtedly the Burial Service does imply -presumably to the end of consoling the mourners—— that this life is all vanity, and that the only thing worth enduring it for is to escape from it into bliss beyond; but, if this were the true sentiment of the Anglican Church, it is hard to believe that the regular services would not have been framed so as to cultivate in the souls of men, throughout their earth-life, an ecstatic anticipation of the life beyond; yet they certainly are not so framed. I invite the attention of my readers to the contents of the Litany, the prayers and collects, especially in relation to the idea of a life after death as compared with the idea of the continued life of the generations of men on earth. My object in considering this special relation is not negative, nor is it arbitrary; on the contrary, a close study of the Litany, prayers and collects revealed to me as the chief import and trend of the Prayer Book an interest in social life on earth-in health, justice, prosperity, wealth, peace and power. It revealed to me that the Prayer Book as a whole is true in its discipline to the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer, from which all thought of a life after death is absent, and that an intense absorption in the earth-life of man is its distinguishing note. It revealed that the Prayer Book is millennial and not supermundane in trend. Take, for instance, the most superb literary and liturgical composition of the Church-the Litany. Its form is so elaborate, and yet withal so simple and chaste, that even when one scarcely attends to its substance the spirit of the participant in its responses is satisfied and uplifted. The essence of its substance is the love of social justice. Let us pass over its initial outcries for mercy to be said by priest and congregation, as they are mainly an acknowledgment of the Trinity, and as I have already treated of the threefold unity of moral experience when considering the Creeds. We come then to the supplications to be spoken by the priest, with the responses "Spare us, good Lord" and "Good Lord, deliver us" by the people. In order that the form may not hide the mental processes implied and involved in the petitions, we must think what the Litany would be if, instead of being in the form of prayer, it were simply a direct statement of desires. No one will deny that persons so much moved as to cry out sincerely in public assembly "Good Lord, deliver us," must in their own hearts desire the things for which they pray; and if this be so, it will be possible to discard the imperative mood of petition and reshape the contents into simple indicative expressions of desire. Such a transformation would perhaps destroy some of the emotional intensity of the prayer, but not its contents or significance. Let us also, in order to demonstrate how little of the substance of this utterance is in any way dependent upon supernaturalistic presuppositions, drop from it all phrases containing any possible implications of this kind. Let us likewise find universal human equivalents, if we can, for any references to Jesus that might seem to impute to him powers unique in kind. His life and death, as regards their influence, are not without parallels in the life and death of others; our debt to him, even if greater, is similar to our debt to others. When, for instance, it is said in the Litany that we have been redeemed by his most precious blood, there might seem to be involved a denial of the fact that we are also, at least in part, redeemed by the sacrifice of others besides Jesus. To attain a universalised formula, however, we need only to widen the reference concerning redemption by his blood so as to include the vicarious sacrifice of all martyrs to the cause of humanity. Modified in this manner, the main body of the Litany might assume some such shape as this: That our offences and the offences of our forefathers be not remembered against us, nor vengeance of our sins taken; that we who have been delivered by the life and death of many shall be spared, and that we may escape the anger of the just, We most earnestly desire. From all evil and mischief; from sin, from the crafts and assaults of malicious and lying persons; from the wrath of the good and from everlasting condemnation, We long to be delivered. From all blindness of heart; from pride, vainglory and hypocrisy; from envy, hatred and malice and all uncharitableness, We long to be delivered. From fornication and all other deadly sin; from the world and the flesh and from the plots of all mischiefmakers and tempters, We long to be delivered. From lightning and tempest; from plague, pestilence and famine; from battle and murder and from sudden death, We long to be delivered. From all sedition, privy conspiracy and rebellion; from all false doctrine, heresy and schism; from hardness of heart and contempt for wisdom and the commandments of duty, We long to be delivered. In all time of our tribulation; in all time of our wealth; in the day of judgment and in the hour of death, We long to be delivered. That the holy Church universal may be ruled and governed in the right way, We most earnestly desire. That our King and Governor may be kept and strengthened in righteousness and holiness of life and in devotion to the nation's welfare, We most earnestly desire. That his heart may be ruled in the faith, fear and love of Duty, We most earnestly desire. That he may find his defence and support in doing justice, and therein gain victory over all our enemies, We most earnestly desire. That all bishops, priests and deacons may understand the laws of the universe in which we live, and the principles of |