centuries. Probably nothing but a plebiscite made among the mourners of our day who have listened to the Burial Service of the Church could prove or disprove the correctness of my impression that for the great majority of devout Christians to-day these cries from a bygone age sound like "a dying echo from a falling wall." But I am ready to risk the assertion, although it is neither to be proved nor disproved; so strong is my belief that the tendency of my sentiment is due to currents within the Church itself. The next item in the service is the declaration to be said by the priest while earth is being cast upon the body. There is no occasion to quote or criticise it, as its essential point is the assertion of the hope of resurrection, with which I have already dealt in various aspects. The next following item (to be said or sung) is one which, although alternatives might be offered, should in my judgment be retained, because besides its literal and original significance it is capable of re-interpretation: "I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, From henceforth blessed are the dead which die in the Lord: even so saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labours." This may be literal fact; but it is also undeniably beautiful poetry, and everyone who has made his peace with death feels in it an essential truth that is independent of the imagery. The supplication to be uttered by the priest after the Lord's Prayer needs no special comment; but it may not be out of taste, in order to show the need of alternatives, to call attention to the sentence, "We give thee hearty thanks, for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world," and to remind my reader of the painful incongruity in the practice of the Church, in that it pronounces this statement over the dead bodies of persons who have been put to death by the law of the land. Yet, until an alternative is allowable, this incongruity will continue. In the closing collect, no new sentiments are introduced except that contained in the admirable words, "We meekly beseech thee, O Father, to raise us from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness." Here, happily, we find the Church rising from a literal acceptation of the doctrine of personal immortality and physical resurrection, and using the idea of resurrection as a symbol of ethical regeneration. Such a metamorphosis of the doctrines of the Church needs to be developed, in order to transform the whole Book of Common Prayer in accordance with the new social vision of the Spirit of Man. INDEX Absolution, the, 228. (Cf. For- | Anglican Church: creeds, 152; giveness of sins.) Accession Service, the, and the Adultery, a legal term, 57. and extra-conjugal indulgence, unfaithfulness and excess, 57. Advent, the season of, and its and Modernism, 156. and the Book of Common dogma, 154. Tractarian Movement in, 175. Athanasian Creed: the word | Benediction, the, a triple blessing, "Father," 146. Bentham, Jeremy, 408. "Better Part, The," 264. Bible, the, and the Higher Criticism, 245, 285, 287, 288. ethics of, 276. Matthew Arnold's dictum on, 274, 277, 278. Old and New Testaments, 279. Polychrome, 245, 246. psychology and sociology of, 275 et seq. supreme in literature, 275. translation into English, 287. Bishops, consecration of, and the Lord's Prayer, 70. jurisdiction of foreign, 3. Book of Common Prayer, the, I et seq. revision of, 178. (Cf. Prayer Book.) Bravery, intellectual, 63. Browning, Robert, cited, 216, Burial Service: special Lesson | Christening (cf. Baptism). sanctioned by Scottish the closing collect, 452. the committal, 451. the final supplication, incon- the Lesson, 444· the opening rubric, 407. Burke, Edmund, and his Letters, Thoughts on the Present Dis- Christian religion, its two Chrysostom, St, the prayer of, 229. Church of England, the: Creeds of, 144, 146, 157, 170, 173. importance of the Decalogue in reality an ethical society, 194. Lectionary of, 272 et seq. public offices: Baptism, 70, 291, 295, 296, 297, 299, 300, 305, 308. Confirmation, 70, 306. Litany, 220 et seq. Marriage Ceremony, 375 et seq. Morning and Evening Prayer, ritual of, 291, 355. Ten Commandments, the, I et the first ethical society, 373. (Cf. Anglican Church.) and Protestants, cleavage be- |