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CT 431
THE
BEAUTIES
OF
THE PRAYER-BOOK.
PAET
PUBLISHED
II.
BY THOMAS
SCOTT,
11 THE TERRACE, FARQUHAR ROAD, UPPER NORWOOD,
LONDON, S.E.
1876..
Price Sixpence.
�4
The Beauties of the Prayer-Book.
them, and therefore celebrates the service with much
of the ancient pomp ; while the other furiously rejects
this so-called idolatry, and makes the service as bare
and as simple as possible. Both parties can claim
parts of the Communion Office as upholding their
special views, for the English service has passed
through much of tinkering from High and Low, and
retains the marks of the alterations that have been
made by each.
To those outside the Church this office has particu
lar attraction, as being, in a special manner, a link
between the past and the present, and being full of
traces of the ancient religion of the world, that catho
lic sun-worship of which Christianity is a modernised
revival. From the Nicene Creed, in which Jesus is
described as “ God of God, Light of Light, very God
of very God, Begotten not made, Being of one sub
stance with the Father, By Whom all things were
made ”—from this point we breathe the full atmo
sphere of the elder world, and find ourselves engaged
■in the worship of that Light of Light, who, being the
image of the invisible God, the first-born of every
creature, has for ages and ages been adored as incar
nate in Mithra, in Christna, in Osiris, in Christ. We
give thanks for “the redemption of the world by the
death and passion of ‘ the Sun-Saviour, who suffered
on the Cross for us,’ who lay in darkness and in the
shadow of death
we praise Him who fills heaven
and earth with His glory, and who rose as “ the Pas
chal Lamb,” and has “ taken away the sin of the
world,” bearing away in the sign of the Lamb the
darkness and dreariness of the winter; we remember
the Holy Ghost, the fresh spring wind, who, “as it
had been a mighty wind,” came to bring us “out of
darkness ” into “ the clear light ” of the sun; then
we see the priest, with his face turned to the sun
rising, take the bread and wine, the symbols of the
God, and bless them for the food of men, these sym
�The Communion Service.
$
bols being changed into the very substance of the
deity, for are they not, in very truth, of him alone ?
“ How naturally does the eternal work of the sun, daily
renewed, express itself in such lines as
‘ Into bread his heat is turned,
Into generous wine his light.’
And imagining the sun as a person, the change to
‘flesh’ and ‘blood’ becomes inevitable; while the
fact that the solar forces are actually changed into
food, without forfeiting their solar character, finds
expression in the doctrines of transubstantiation and
the real presence.” (‘Keys of the Creeds,’ page 91.)
After this union with the Deity, by partaking of his
very self, we praise once more the “ Lamb of God
that takest away the sins of the world,” and is “ most
high in the glory of God the Father.” The resem
blance is made the nearer in the churches where much
of ceremony is found (although noticeable in all, since
that resemblance is stereotyped in the formulas them
selves ; but in the more elaborate performances the
old rites are more clearly apparent) in the tonsured
head of the priest, in the suns often embroidered on
vestment and on altar-cloth, in the rays that surround
the sacred monogram on the vessels, in the cross im
printed on the bread, and marking each utensil, in the
lighted candles, in the grape-vine chiselled on the
chalice—in all these, and in many another symbol,
we read the whole story of the Sun-god, written in
hieroglyphics as easily decipherable by the initiated as
is the testimony of the rocks by the geologian.
But passing by this antiquarian side of the Office,
we will examine it as a service suitable for the use of
educated and thoughtful people at the present time.
The Rubric which precedes the Office is one of those
unfortunate rules which are obsolete as regards their
practice, and yet which—from their preservation—■
appear to simple-minded parsons to be intended to
be enforced, whereby the said parsons fall into the
�6
The Beauties of the Prayer-Book.
clutches of the law, and suffer grievously. “ An open
and notorious evil-liver ” must not be permitted to
come to the Lord’s Table, and this expression sepms
to be explained in the Exhortation in the Office,
wherein we read: “if any of you be a blasphemer of
God, an hinderer or slanderer of His word, an adul
terer, or be in malice, or envy, or in any other
grievous crime, repent you of your sins, or else come
not to that holy Table; lest, after the taking of that
holy Sacrament, the devil enter into you, as he entered
into Judas, and fill you full of all iniquities, and
bring you to destruction both of body and soul.”
In a late case, the Sacrament was refused to one who
disbelieved in the devil and who slandered God’s
word, on those very grounds, and it would seem to
be an act of Christian charity so to deny it; for
surely to say that part of God’s word is “ contrary to
religion and decency” must be to slander it, if words
have any meaning, and people who do not believe in
the devil ought hardly to be sharers in a rite after
which the devil will enter into them with such melan
choly consequences. It would seem more consistent
either to alter the formulas or else to carry them out;
true, one clergyman wrote that the responsibility lay
with the unworthy recipient who “ did nothing else
but increase ” his “ damnation,” but it is scarcely a
pleasing notion that the clergyman should stand in
viting people to the Lord’s table and, coolly handing
to one of those who accept, the body of Christ,
say, “The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve
thy body and soul unto everlasting life,” when he
means—in the delicate language used by the abovementioned clergyman—“ The Body of our Lord Jesus
Christ damn thy body and soul unto everlasting
death.” No one but a clergyman could dream of so
offensive a proceeding, and, to those who believe, one
so terribly awful.
The Ten Commandments which stand in the fore-
�The Communion Service.
7
front of the service are very much out of place as
regards some of them, to say nothing of the want
of truthfulness in the assertion, that “ God spake
these words,” &c. In the second we are forbidden
to make any graven image, or any likeness of any
thing, a command which would destroy all art, and
which no member of the congregation can have the
smallest notion of obeying. The Jews, who made
the cherubim over the ark, upon which God sat, are
popularly supposed not to have disobeyed this command,
because the cherubim were not the likeness of any
thing in heaven, earth, or water : they were, like
unicorns, creatures undiscovered and undiscoverable.
Yet in direct opposition to this command, Solomon
made brazen oxen to support his sea of brass (1
Kings vii. 25, 29), and lions on the steps of his
ivory throne (1 Kings x. 19, 20) ; and God himself is
said to have ordered Moses to make a Brazen Serpent.
God is described, in this same Commandment, as
“ a jealous God ”— which is decidedly immoral
and unpleasant—who visits “ the sins of the fathers
upon the children, unto the third and fourth gene
ration of them that hate me;” the justice of this
is so obvious that no comment on it is necessary.
The fourth Commandment is another which no one
dreams of attending to ; in the first place, we do
not keep the seventh day at all, and in the second,
our man-servant, our maid-servant, and our cattle
do all manner of work on the day we keep as
the Sabbath. Further, who in the present day be
lieves that “ in six days the Lord made heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the
seventh day; ” geology, astronomy, ethnology have
taught us otherwise, and, among those who repeat
the response to this commandment in a London
church, not one could probably be found who believes
it to be true. The fifth Commandment is equally out
of place, for dutiful children do not live any longer
�8
The Beauties of the Prayer-Book.
than undutiful. The remainder touch simple moral
duties, enforced by all creeds alike, and are notice
able for their omissions and not for their commis
sions : the insertion of the Buddhist Commandment
against intoxication, for instance, would be an im
provement, although such a commandment is natu
rally not to be found in the case of so gross and
sensual a people as the ancient Jews. The alterna
tive prayers for the Queen, which follow next, are
only worth noting, because the first enshrines the
doctrine of divine right, which is long since dead and
buried, except in church; and the other says “ that
the hearts of Kings are in thy rule and governance,”
and suggests the thought that, if this be so, it is
better to be out of that “rule and governance,” the
effects on the hearts of Kings not having been speci
ally attractive. The Nicene Creed comes next, and
is open to the objections before made against the
Apostles’ Creed ; the last clauses relating to the Holy
Ghost are historically interesting, since the “ and the
Son ” forms the Filioque which severed Eastern from
Western Christendom ; “ Who with the Father and
*
the Son together” ought to be “worshipped and
glorified,” would be more true to fact than “is,”
since the Holy Ghost is sadly ignored by modern
Christendom, and has a very small share of either
* A short, but very graphic account of the shameful transac
tion by which the Filioque clause was, so to speak, smuggled
into the Nicene Creed, is to be found in the first ten or twelve
pages of the shilling pamphlet written by Edmund S. Ffoulkes,
B.D., entitled “The Church’s Creed, or the Crown’s Creed,”
published by J. T. Hayes, Ly all-place, Eaton-square, Lon
don. The following short prayer, ‘ ‘ Mentes nostras, quaasumus, Domine, Paraclitus, qui a te procedit, illuminet: et
inducat in omnem, sicut tuus promisit Filius, veritatem ” (i-’ide
Praeparatio ad Missam, in the “Missale Romanum”), clearly
proves, too, that the Church of Rome once held that the Holy
Ghost only proceeded from the Father, as the Dominus in it
can only refer to the Father.
�The Communion Service.
9
prayers or hymns: yet he is the husband of the
Virgin Mary, and the Father of Jesus Christ; he is,
therefore, a very important, though puzzling, person
in the Godhead, being the Father of him from whom
he himself proceeds: this is a mystery, and can only
be understood by faith. The texts that follow are
remarkable for their ingenious selection : “ Who goeth
a warfare,” &c. (1 Cor. ix. 7) ; “If we have sown,”
&c. (1 Cor. ix. 9) ; “ Do ye not know,” &c. (1 Cor. ix.
13) ; “He that soweth little” (2 Cor. ix. 6); “Let
him that is taught” (Gal. vi. 6). The pervading selfish
ness of motive is also worth noting : Give now in order
that ye may get hereafter ; “Never turn thy face from
any poor man, and then the face of the Lord shall not be
turned away from thee“ He that hath pity upon the
poor lendeth unto the Lord: and look,what he layeth out,
it shall be paid him again;” “If thou hast much, give
plenteously; if thou hast little, do thy diligence
gladly to give of that little ; for so gathered thou thyself
a good reward in the day of necessity.”* No free, glad
giving here ; no willing, joyful aid to a poorer brother,
because he needs what I can give; no ready offer of
the cup of cold water, simply because the thirsty is
there and wants the refreshment; ever the hateful
whisper comes : “ thou shall in no wise lose thy
reward.” These time-serving offerings are then pre
sented to God by being placed “ upon the holy Table,”
and we then get another prayer for Queen, Christian
Kings, authorities, Bishops and people in general,
concluding with thanks for the dead, not a cheerful
subject to bless God for, if there chance to be pre
sent any mourner whose heart is sore with the loss of
As if the clergy, with very few exceptions, are not suffi
ciently provided for by the tithes, &c., without having to go
a-begging like either Buddhist or Roman Catholic monks, to
both of whom P.P. and P.M. are not inappropriately applied
(Professors of Poverty and Practisers of Mendicancy).
�IO
The Beauties of the Prayer-Book.
a beloved one. At this point the service is supposed
to end, when no celebration of the Holy Communion
is intended, and here we find two Exhortations, or
notices of celebration, from the first of which we have
already quoted : in the second, we cannot help re
*
marking the undignified position in which God is
placed; it is a “grievous and unkind thing” not to
come to a rich feast when invited thereto, wherefore
we are to fear lest by withdrawing ourselves from
this holy Supper, we “provoke God’s indignation
against ” us. “ Consider with yourselves how great
injury ye do unto God what a very curious expres
sion. Is God thus at the mercy of man ? Surely, then,
of all living Beings the lot of God must be the sad
dest, if his happiness and his glory are in the hands
of each man and woman ; the greater his knowledge
the greater the misery, and as his knowledge is per
fect, and the vast majority of human kind know and
care nothing about him, his wretchedness must be
complete. All things being ready, the clergyman
begins by another Exhortation, of somewhat
threatening character : “ So is the danger great if we
receive the same unworthily. For then we are guilty
of the Body and Blood of Christ our Saviour; we
cat and drink our own damnation, not considering
the Lord’s Body; we kindle God’s wrath against us ;
we provoke him to plague us with divers diseases, and
sundry kinds of death.” (Surely we cannot be
plagued with more than one kind of death at
once, and we can’t die sundry times, even after the
Communion.) One almost wonders why anyone
accepts this very threatening invitation, even though
* It is, however, only just to say that that portion of it con
tained between “ The Way and Means thereto, ” and “ Offences
at God’s Hands,” is one of the best bits in the whole PrayerBook, and which far surpasses the generality of sermons one
hears afterwards.
�The Communion Service.
11
there are advantages promised to “meet partakers.”
The High Church party have indeed the right to talk
much of the real presence, since ordinary bread and
wine have none of these fearful penalties attached to
the eating and drinking, and some curious change
must have taken place in them before all these terrible
consequences can ensue. What would happen if some
consecrated bread and wine chanced to be left by mis
take, and a stray comer into the vestry eat it unknow
ingly F One thinks of Anne Askew, who, told that
a mouse eating a crumb fallen from the Host would
infallibly be damned, replied, “ Alack, poor mouse ! ”
Then follows a Confession of the most cringing kind,
fit only for the lips of some coward suppliant crouch
ing at the feet of an Eastern monarch; it is marvel
lous that free English men and women can frame
their lips into phrases of such utter abasement, even
to a God ; manliness in religion is sorely needed,
unless, indeed, God be something smaller than man,
and be pleased with a degradation painful to human
eyes. The prayer of consecration is the central point
of the ordinance; of old they prayed for the descent
of the Holy Ghost on the elements, “ for whatsoever the
Holy Ghost toucheth is sanctified and clean”—it is not
explained how the Holy Ghost, being omnipresent,
manages to avoid touching everything—and now the
priest asks that in receiving the bread and wine we
“ may be partakers of” Christ’s Body and Blood, and
repeats the words, “ This is my Body,” “ This is my
Blood,” laying his hand alternately over the bread
and the wine; now if this means anything, if it is not
mere mockery, it means that after tfie consecration the
bread and wine are other than they were before ; if
it does not mean this, the whole prayer is simply
a farce, a piece of acting scarcely decent under the
circumstances. But flesh and blood ! Putting aside
the extreme repulsiveness of the idea, the coarseness
of the act, the utter unpleasantness of eating flesh
�12
The Beauties of the Prayer-Book.
and drinking blood, all of which has become non
disgusting by habit and fashion, and the distasteful
ness of which can scarcely be realised by any believer
—putting aside all this, is there any change in th©
bread and wine ? Examine it; analyse it; test it in
any and every fashion; still it answers back to the
questioner, “ bread and wine.” Are our senses de
ceived ? Then try a hundred different persons; all
cannot be deceived alike. Unless every result of
experience is untrustworthy, we have here to do with
bread and wine, and with nothing more. “ But faith
is needed.” Ah yes ! There is the secret: no flesh
and blood without faith ; no miracle without credu
lity. Miracle-working priests are only successful
among credulously-disposed people; miracles can only
be received by those who think it less likely that Na
ture should speak falsely than that man should deceive;
those who believe in this change through consecration
cannot be touched by argument; they have closed,
their eyes that they may not see, their ears that they
may not hear ; no knowledge can reach them, for they
have shut the gateways whereby it could enter, they
are literally dead in their superstition, buried beneath
the stone of their faith. The reception of the Body
and Blood of Christ being over, the people having
knelt to eat and drink, as is only right when eating
and drinking Christ (John vi. 57), the Lord’s Prayer
is said for the second time, a prayer and thanksgiving
follows, confined to “we and all thy whole Church,”
for the spirit is the same as that of the prayer of
Christ, “ I pray not for the world, but forthem whom
thou hast given me” (John xvii. 9), and then the
service winds up with the Gloria in Bxcelsis and the
Benediction. Such is the“bounden duty and ser
vice” offered by the Church to God, the service of
which the central act must be either a farce or a
falsehood, and therefore insulting to the God to
whom it is offered. Regarded as a service to Godz
�The Baptismal Offices.
13
the whole Communion Office is objectionable in the
highest degree ; regarded as an antiquarian survival,
it is very interesting and instructive ; it is surely time
that it should be put in its right place, and that its
true origin should be recognised. The day is gone by
for these barbarous, though poetic, ceremonials ; the
“flesh and blood,” which was a bold figure for the
heat and light of the sun, becomes coarse when joined
in thought to a human being; ceremonies that fitted
the childhood of the world are out of place in its man
hood, as the play that is graceful in the child would
be despicable in the man ; these rites are the baby
clothes of the world, and cannot be stretched to fit
the stalwart limbs of its maturer age, cannot add
grace to its form, or dignity to its graver walk.
THE BAPTISMAL OFFICES.
For all purposes of criticism the Offices for “ Public
Baptism of Infants, to be used in the Church,” for
“ Private Baptism of Children in houses,” and“ Bap
tism to such as are of riper years, and able to answer
for themselves,” may be treated as one and the same,
the leading idea of each service being identical; this
idea is put forward clearly and distinctly in the pre
face to the Office: “ Dearly beloved, forasmuch as all
men are conceived and born in sin; and that our
Saviour Christ saith, None can enter into the king
dom of God, except he be regenerate and born anew
of water and of the Holy Ghost; I beseech you to
call upon God the Father, through our Lord Jesus
Christ, that of his bounteous mercy he will grant to
this Child that thing which by nature he cannot
have.” According to the doctrine of the Church,
then, baptism is absolutely necessary to salvation:
None can enter . . . except he be . . . born
�14
rlhe Beauties of the Prayer-Book.
anew of water thus peals out the doom of condem
nation on the whole human race, save that fragment
of it which is sprinkled from the Christian font;
there is no evasion possible here; no exception made
in favour of heathen peoples; no mercy allowed to
those who have no opportunity of baptism • none can
enter save through “ the laver of regeneration.” Can
any words be too strong whereby to denounce a doc
trine so shameful, an injustice so glaring ? A child is
born into the world; it is no fault of his that he is
conceived in sin; it is no fault of his that he is born
in sin ; his consent was not asked before he was
ushered into the world; no offer was made to him
which he could reject of this terrible gift of a con
demned life; flung is he, without his knowledge,
without his will, into a world lying under the curse
of God, a child of wrath, and heir of damnation.
“ By nature he cannot have.” Then why should God
be wrath with him because he hath not ? The whole
arrangement is of God’s own making. He fore
ordained the birth ; he gave the life; the helpless,
unconscious infant lies there, the work of his own
hands; good or bad, he is responsible for it; heir of
love or of wrath, he has made it what it is ; as wholly
is it his doing as the unconscious vessel is the doing
of the potter; as reasonably may God be angry with
the child as the potter swear at the clay he has clum
sily moulded : if the vessel be bad, blame the potter ;
if the creature be bad, blame the Creator. The con
gregation pray that God 11 of his bounteous mercy,”
“ for thine infinite mercies,” will save the child, “ that
he, being delivered from thy wrath,” may be blessed.
It is no question of mercy we have to do with here ;
it is a question of simple justice, and nothing more ;
if God, for his own “ good pleasure,” or in the pursu
ance of the designs of his infinite wisdom, has placed
this unfortunate child in so terrible a position, he is
bound by every tie of justice, by every sacred claim
�The Baptismal Offices.
15
of right, to deliver the blameless victim, and to place
him where he shall have a fair chance of well-being.
“It is certain by God’s Word,” says the Rubric,
“ that children which are baptized, dying before they
commit actual sin, are undoubtedly saved.” And
those which are not baptized ? The Holy Roman
Church sends these into a cheerful place called Limbo,
and the baby-souls wander about in chill twilight,
cursed with immortality, shut out for ever from the
joys of Paradise. Many readers will remember
Lowell’s pathetic poem on this subject, and the
ghastly baptism; they will also know into what de
vious paths of argumentative indecency that Church
has wandered in deciding upon the fate of unbaptized
infants;—how, when mothers have died in childbirth,
the yet unborn children have been baptized to save
them from the terrible doom pronounced upon them
by their Rather in heaven, even before they saw the
light;—how it has been said that in cases where
mother and child cannot both be saved the mother
should be sacrificed that the child may not die un
baptized. Into the details of these arguments we
cannot enter; they are only fit for orthodox Chris
tians, in whose pages they may read them who list.
Truly, the Lord is a jealous God, visiting the sins of
the fathers upon the children, since unborn children
are condemned for the untimely death of their mother,
and unbaptized infants for the carelessness of their
parents or nurses. Of course the majority of English
clergymen believe nothing of this kind; but then
why do they read a service which implies it ? Why
do they use words in a non-natural sense ? Why do
they put off their honesty when they put on their
surplices ? And why will the laity not give utterance
to their thoughts on these and all such objectionable
parts of the Service ? In the Office for Adults, as
regards the necessity of the Sacrament, the words
come in : “ where it may be hadbut the phrase reads
�i€
The Beauties of the Prayer-Book.
as though it had been written in the margin by some
kindly soul, and had from thence crept into the text,
for it is in direct opposition to the whole argument of
the address wherein it occurs, and to the rest of the
office, as also to the other two offices for infants. The
stress laid upon right baptism, i.e., baptism with
water, accompanied by the “ name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” appears specially
in the office to follow the private baptism of a child,
should the child live; for the Rubric directs that if
there be any doubt of the use of the water and the
formula, “ which are essential parts of Baptism,” the
priest shall perform the baptismal ceremony, saying,
“ If thou art not already baptized, I baptize thee,” &c.
Surely such care and pains to ensure correct baptism
speak with sufficient plainness as to the importance
attached by the Church to this initiatory rite; this
importance she gives to it in other places : none, un
baptized, must approach her altar to take the “ bread
of lifenone, unbaptized, must be buried by her
ministers, “ in sure and certain hope of the Resur
rection to eternal life.” The baptized are within the
ark of the Church ; the unbaptized are struggling in
the waves of God’s wrath outside; no hand can be
outstretched to save them; they are strangers, aliens,
to the covenant of promise; they are without hope.
The whole office for infants reads like a play: the
clergyman asks that the infant “may receive remis
sion of his sinswhat sins ? The people are ad
monished “ that they defer not the Baptism of their
children longer than the first or second Sunday next
after their birth.” What sins can a baby a week old
have committed ? from what sins can he need re
lease ? for what sins can he ask forgiveness ? And
yet, here is a whole congregation prostrate before
Almighty God, praying that a tiny long-robed baby
may be forgiven, may be pardoned his sins of—
coming into the world when God sent him! The
�The Baptismal Offices.
17
ceremony would be ludicrous were it not so pitifuh
And supposing that the infant does need forgive
ness, and has sins to be washed away, why should a
few drops of water, sprinkled on the face—or bonnet—
of the baby, or even the immersion of his body in the
font, wash away the sins of his soul ? The water is
''sanctified;” we pray : “ Sanctify this water to the
mystical washing away of sin.” As the hymn sweetly
puts it:
“ The water in this font
Is water, by gross mortals eyed;
But, seen by faith, ’tis blood
Out of a dear friend’s side. ”
Blood once more I how Christians cling to the re
volting imagery of a bygone and barbarous age of
gross conceptions. And, applied by faith, it cleanses
the soul of the child from sin. Well, the whole thing
is consistent: the invisible soul is washed from in- visible sin by invisible blood, and to all outward
appearance the child remains after baptism exactly
what it was before—except it chance to get inflam
mation of the lungs, as we have known happen, from
*
High Church free use of water, which is, perhaps, thepromised baptism of fire. The promises of the spon
sors are in full accordance with the rest of the ser
vices ; promises made by other people, in the child’s
name, as to his future conduct, over which they have
no control. The baby renounces the devil and all his
belongings, believes the Apostles’ Creed, and answers
“ that is my desire,” when asked if he will be bap
tized; all which "is very pretty acting,” but jars
somewhat on the feeling of reality which ought surely
to characterize a believer’s intercourse with his God.
The child being baptized and signed with the Cross,,
"is regenerate,” according to the declaration of the
priest. Some contend that the Church of England
does not teach baptismal regeneration, but it is hard
to see how any one can read this service, and then
B
�18
The Beauties of the Prayer-Book.
deny the teaching; it is clearer and fuller than is the
teaching of her voice upon most subjects. The cere
mony of baptism and the idea of regeneration are
both derived from the sun-worship of which so many
traces have already been pointed out: the worshippers
of Mithra practised baptism, and it is common to the
various phases of the solar faith. Regeneration, in
some parts, especially in India, was obtained in a
different fashion : a hole through a rock, or a narrow
passage between two, was the sacred spot, and a
worshipper, squeezing himself through such an open
ing, was regenerated, and was, by this literal repre
sentation of birth, born a second time, born into a
new life, and the sins of the former life were no longer
accounted to him. Many such holes are still pre
served and revered in India, and there can be little
doubt that the ancient Druidic remains bear traces of
being adapted for this same ceremony, although a
natural fissure appears ever to have been accounted
the most sacred.
*
One ought scarcely to leave unnoted the preamble
to the first prayer in the baptismal service: “ Who of
thy great mercy didst save Noah and his family in
the ark from perishing by water; and also didst
safely lead the children of Israel thy people through
the Red Sea, figuring thereby thy holy baptism ; and
by the baptism of thy well-beloved Son Jesus Christ,
in the river Jordan, didst sanctify water to the mys
tical washing of sin.” In the two first examples
given the choice of the Church appears to be pecu
liarly unfortunate, as in each case water was the ele
ment to be escaped from, and it was a source of death,
not of life; perhaps, though, there is a subtle meaning
* Even in this country, at Brimham Rocks, near Ripon, in
Yorkshire, the dead form of the custom is, or was, until very
lately, kept up by the guide sending all visitors, who chose to
avail themselves of the privilege, through such a fissure.
�The Order of Confirmation.'
19
in the Red Sea, it points to the blood of Christ: but
then, again, the Red Sea drowned people, and surely
the anti-type is not so dangerous as that ? It must
be a mystery. It would be interesting to know how
many of the educated clergymen who read this prayer
believe in the story of the Noachian deluge, and of
the miraculous passage of the Red Sea; and further,
how many of them believe that God, by these fables,
figured his holy baptism. Will the nineteenth cen
tury ever summon up energy enough to shake off
these remnants of a dead superstition, and be honest
enough to stop using a form of words which is no
longer a vehicle of belief ? When the Prayer Book
was compiled these words had a meaning; to-day
they have none. Shall not a second Reformation
sweep away these dead beliefs, even as the first swept
away for its own age the phrases which represented
an earlier and coarser creed ?
THE ORDER OF CONFIRMATION.
These signs shall follow them that believe : In
my name shall they cast out devils ; they shall speak
with new tongues ; they shall take up serpents ; and
if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt
them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they
shall recover.’’ In those remarkable days the “order
of Confirmation ” might have been in consonance
with its surroundings, a state of things which is very
far from being its present position. Mr. Spurgeon,
writing for the benefit of street preachers, lately
pointed out very sensibly that as the Holy Ghost no
longer gave, the gift of tongues, they had “better
stick to their grammars,” and in these degenerate
�20
The Beauties of the Prayer-Book.
days honest effort is likely to show results more
satisfactory than those which ensue from the laying
on of Bishops’ hands. When the Apostles performed
this ceremony which the Bishop now performs after
their example, definite proofs of its efficacy were said
to have been seen ; so much so, indeed, that Simon,
the sorcerer, wished to invest some money in heavenly
securities, so that “ on whomsoever I lay hands he
may receive the Holy Ghost.” A Simon would mani
festly never be found nowadays ready to pay a
Bishop for the power of causing the effects of Con
firmation. So far as the carnal eye can see, the
white-robed, veiled young ladies, and the shamefaced
black-coated boys, who throng the church on a Con
firmation day, return from the altar very much the
same as they went up to it: no one begins to speak
with tongues ; if they did, the beadle would probably
interfere and quench the Spirit with the greatest
promptitude. They are supposed to have received
some special gifts : “ the spirit of wisdom and under
standing ; the spirit of counsel and ghostly strength;
the spirit of knowledge and true godliness and in
addition to these six spirits, there is one more : “ the
spirit of thy holy fear.” No less than seven spirits,
then, enter these lads and lasses. Wisdom and under
standing are easily perceptible : are they wiser after
Confirmation than they were before ? do they under
stand more rapidly? do they know more ? if there be no
perceptible difference is the presence of theHoly Spirit
of none effect ? if of none effect, can his presence be of
any use, of the very smallest advantage ? if of no use,
why make all this parade about giving a thing whose
gift makes the recipient no richer than he was be
fore ? Besides, what certainty can there be that the
Holy Ghost is given at all ? Allowing—what seems
to an outsider a gross piece of irreverence—that the
Holy Ghost is in the fingers of the Bishop to be given
away when it suits the Bishop’s convenience, or is in
�The Order of Confirmation.
21
a sort of reservoir, of which the Bishop turns the tap
and lets the stream of grace descend—allowing all
this as possible, ought not some “ sign to follow
them that believe ? ” How can we be sure that the
Bishop is not an impostor, going through a conjurer’s
gestures and mutterings, and no magic results accru
ing ? If, in the ordinary course of daily life, any one
came and offered us some valuable things he said that
he possessed, and then went through the form of
giving them to us, saying: “Here they are; guard
and preserve them for the rest of your life
and the
outstretched hand contained nothing at all, and we
found ourselves with nothing in our grasp, should we
be content with his assurance that we had really got
them, although we might not be able to see them, and
we ought to have sufficient faith to take his word for
it ? Should we not utterly refuse to believe that we
had received anything unless we had some proof of
having done so, and were in some way the better or
the worse for it ? The truth is that people’s religion
is, to them, a matter of such small importance that
they do not trouble themselves about proof—Faith is
enough to comfort them; the six week-days require
their brains, their efforts, their thought: the Sunday
is the Lord’s day, and he must see to it: earth needs
all their earnest attention, but heaven must take care
of itself; the validity of an earthly title is important,
and the confirmation of a right to inherit property in
this world is eagerly welcomed, but the Confir
mation to a heavenly inheritance is a mere farce,
which it is the fashion to go through about the age
of fifteen, but which is only a fashion, the confirma
tion of a faith in nothing in particular to an invisible
heritage of nothing at all.
�22
The Beauties of the Prayer-Book.
THE FORM OF THE SOLEMNIZATION OF
MATRIMONY.
One of the most curious blunders regarding or
thodox Christianity is, that it has tended to the
elevation of woman. As a matter of fact, the Eastern
ideas about women are embodied in Christianity, and
these ideas are essentially degraded and degrading.
From the time when Paul bade women obey their
husbands, Augustine’s mother was beaten, unresisting,
by Augustine’s father, and Jerome fled from woman’s
charms, and monks declaimed against the daughters
of Eve, down to the present day, when Peter’s
authority is used against woman suffrage, Christianity
has consistently regarded woman as a creature to be
subject to man, because, being deceived, she was first
in transgression. The Church service for matrimony
is redolent of this barbarous idea, relic of a time
when men seized wives by force, or else purchased;
them, so that the wives became, in literal fact, the
property of their husbands. We learn that matri
mony was “ instituted of God in the time of man’s
innocency, signifying unto us the mystical union that
is between Christ and his Church.” It would be
interesting to know how many of those joined by the
Church believe in the Paradise story of man’s inno
cency and fall. It seems that Christ has adorned the
holy estate by his first miracle in Cana; but the
adornment is rather of a dubious character, when we
reflect that the probable effect of the miracle would
be a scene somewhat too gay, from the enormous
quantity of wine made by Christ for men who already
had “ well drunk.” Christ’s approval of marriage
may well be considered doubtful when we remember
that a virgin was chosen as his mother, that he him
self remained unmarried, and that he distinctly places
celibacy higher than marriage in Matt. xix. 11, 12,
�The Solemnization of Matrimony.
23
where he urges: “ he that is able to receive it let
him receive it.” St. Paul also, though he allows it
to his converts, advises virginity in preference : “ I
say to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them
if they abide even as I;” “he that giveth her
not in marriage doeth better ” (see throughout
1 Cor. vii.) The reasons given for marriage are
surely misplaced; last of all, it is said that mar
riage is “ ordained for the mutual society, help,
and comfort that the one ought to have of the
other;” this, instead of “ thirdly,” ought to be
“ first.” “ As a remedy against sin and to avoid
fornication, that such persons as have not the gift
of continency might marry,” is not a reason very
honourable to the marriage estate, nor very delicate
to read out before a mixed congregation to a young
bride and bridegroom; so strongly objectionable is
the heedless coarseness of this preface felt to be that
in many churches it is entirely omitted, although it
is retained—as are all remains of a coarser age—in
the Prayer-Book as published by authority. The
promise exchanged between the contracting parties is
of far too sweeping a character, and is immoral, be
cause promising what may be beyond the powers of
the promisers to perform ; “ to love” “ so long as ye
both shall live,” and “ till death us do part,” is a
pledge far too wide; love does not stay by promis
ing, nor is love a feeling which can be made to order.
A promise to live always together might be made,
although that would be unwise in this changing
world, and the endless processes in the Divorce Court
are a satire on this so-called joined by God; “ what
God hath joined together” man does continually “put
asunder,” and it would be wiser to adapt the service
to the altered circumstances of the times in which we
live. The promise of obedience and service on the
woman’s part should also be eliminated, and the con
tract should be a simple promise of fidelity between
�24
The Beauties of the Prayer-Book.
two equal friends. The declaration of the man as he
places the ring on the woman’s finger is as archaic as
the rest of this fossil service, and about as true: “With
all my worldly goods I thee endow,” says the man,
when, as a matter of fact, he becomes possessed of all
his wife’s property and she does not become possessed
of his. One of the concluding prayers is a delightful
specimen of Prayer-Book science : “ 0 God, who of
thy mighty power hast made all things of'nothing.”
What was the general aspect of affairs when there
was “ nothing ?” how did something emerge where
“ nothing was before ? if God filled all space, was
he “nothing?” is the existence of nothing a con
*
ceivable idea ? can people think of nothing except
when they don’t think at all ? “ who also (after other
things set in order) didst appoint that out of man
(created after thine own image and similitude) woman
should take her beginning“ out of man,” that is
out of one of man’s ribs ; has any one tried to picture
the scene : Almighty God, who has no body nor parts,
taking one of Adam’s ribs, and closing up the flesh,
and “ out of the rib made he a woman.” God, a pure
spirit, holding a man’s rib, not in his hands, for he
has none, and “ making” a woman out of it, fashion
ing the rib into skull, and arms, and ribs, and legs.
Can a more ludicrous position be imagined; and
Adam ? What became of his internal economy ? was
he made originally with a rib too much, to provide
against the emergency, or did he go, for the rest of
his life, with a rib too little ? And the Church of
England endorses this ridiculous old-world fable.
Man was created “ after thine own image and simili
tude.” What is the image of God? He is a spirit
and has no similitude. If man is made in his image,
God must be a celestial man, and cannot possibly be
omnipresent. Besides in Genesis i. 27, where it is
stated that “ God created man in his own image,” it
distinctly goes on to declare : “ in the image of God
�The Solemnization of Matrimony.
25
created he him; male and female created he them.
Thus the woman is made in God’s image as much
as the man, and God’s image is “ male and
female.” All students know that the ancient ideas
of God give him this double nature, and that
no trinity is complete without the addition of
the female element; but the pious compilers of the
Prayer-Book did not probably intend thus to trans
plant the simple old nature-worship into their mar
riage office. Once more we hear of Adam and Eve
in the next prayer, and we cannot help thinking that,
considering all the trouble Eve brought upon her
husband by her flirtation with the serpent, she is
made rather too prominent a figure in the marriage
service. The ceremony winds up with a long ex
hortation, made of quotations from the Epistles, on
the duties of husbands and wives. Husbands are to
love their wives because Christ loved a church—a
reason that does not seem specially d propos, as
husbands are not required to die for their wives or to
present them to themselves glorious wives, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing (!); nor would most
husbands desire that their wives’ conversation should
be “ coupled with fear.” Why should women be taught
thus to abase themselves ? They are promised as a
reward that they shall be the daughters of Sarah ; but
that is no great privilege, nor are English wives likely
to call their husbands “lord;” if they did not adorn
themselves with plaited hair and pretty apparel, their
husbands would be sure to grumble, and the only de
fence that can be made for this absurd exhortation is
that nobody ever listens to it.
_ Among the various reforms needed in the Mar
riage. Laws one imperatively necessary is that all
marriages should be made civil contracts—that is,
that the contract which is made by citizens of the
State, and which affects the interests of the State,
should be entered into before a secular State official;
�26.
The Beauties of the Prayer-Book.
if after that the parties desired a religious ceremony,
they could go through any arrangements they pleased
in their own churches and chapels, but the civil con
tract should be compulsory and should be the only one
recognised by the law. Of course the Church might
maintain its peculiar marriage as long as it chose, but
it would probably soon pass out of fashion if it were
not acknowledged as binding by the State.
THE ORDER FOR THE VISITATION- OF THE
SICK.
Of all the services in the Prayer-Book this
is, perhaps, the most striking relic of barbarism,
the most completely at variance with sound and
reasonable thought. The clergyman entering into
a house of sickness, and as he enters the sick man’s
room and catches- sight of him, kneeling down and
exclaiming, as though horror-stricken : “ Remember
not, Lord, our iniquities, nor the iniquities of our
forefathers; spare us, good Lord, spare Thy people
whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy most precious
blood, and be not angry with us for ever.” This
clergyman reminds one of nothing so much as of one
of Job’s friends, who appear to have been an even
more painful infliction than Job’s boils. The sick
ness, the patient is told, “ is God’s visitation,” and
“for what cause soever this sickness is sent unto
you : whether it be to try your faith for the example
of others, .... or else it be sent unto you to correct
and amend in you whatsoever doth offend the eyes
of your heavenly Father; know you certainly, that
if you truly repent you of your sins, and bear your
sickness patiently, .... it shall turn to your profit,
and help you forward in the right way that leadeth
�The Visitation of the Sick.
27
unto everlasting life.” One might question the
justice of Almighty God if the theory be correct that
the sickness may be sent “ to try your patience for
the example of others ; ” why should one unfortunate
victim be tormented simply that others may have
the advantage of seeing how well he bears it ? If
we are to endeavour to conform ourselves to the
image of God, then it would seem that we should be
doing right if we racked our neighbours occasionally
to “ try their patience for the example of others.”
And is the idea of God a reverent one F What
should we think of an earthly father who tortured
one of his children in order to teach the others how
to bear pain F if we should condemn the earthly
father as wickedly cruel, why should the same action
be righteous when done by the Father in heaven F
If we accept the second reason given for the sickness,
it is difficult to see the rationale of it. Why should
illness of the body correct illness of the mind ; does
pain cure fretfulness, or fever increase truthfulness F
Is not sickness likely rather to bring out and
strengthen mental faults than to weaken them F
And how far is it true that sickness is, in any sense, the
visitation of God for moral delinquencies ? Is it not
true, on the contrary, that a man may lie, rob, cheat,
slander, tyrannise, and yet, if he observe the laws of
health, may remain in robust vigour, while an
upright, sincere, honest and truthful man, disregard
ing those same laws, may be miserably feeble and
suffer an early death F Is it, or is it not a fact, that
in the Middle Ages, when people prayed much and
studied little, when the peasant went to the shrine for a
cure instead of to the doctor, when sanitary science was
unknown, and cleanliness was a virtue undreamed of,
—is it, or is it not true, that pestilence and black death
then swept off their thousands, while these terrible
scourges have been practically driven away in modern
times by proper attention to sanitary measures, by
�2$
The Beauties of the Prayer-Book.
improved drainage and greater cleanliness of living ?
How can that be a visitation of God for moral
transgressions, which can be prevented by man if he
attends to physical laws ? Is man’s power greater
than God’s, and can he thus play with the thunder
bolts of the divine displeasure ? The clergyman
prays that “the sense of his weakness may add
strength to his faith ; ” what fine irony is here, as body
and mind grow weak faith grows strong ; as a man
is less able to think, he becomes more ready to believe.
It is impossible to pass, without a word of censure,
over the passage in the exhortation, taken from the
Epistle to the Hebrews, which says, “ for they
(fathers of our flesh) verily for a few days chastened
us after their own pleasure.” Good earthly fathers,
do not chasten their children for their own amuse
ment, while God does it “for our profit ; ” on the
contrary, they do it for the improvement of their
children, while God alone, if there be a hell, tortures
his children for his own pleasure and for no gain to
them. The succeeding portion of the Exhortation,
that, “ our way to eternal joy is to suffer here
with Christ,” is full of that sad asceticism which
has done so much to darken the world since
the birth of Christ; men have been so engaged in
looking for the “eternal joy” that they have let
pass unnoted the misery here; they have been so
busy planting flowers in heaven that they have let
weeds grow here ; yes, and they have rejoiced in the
misery and in the weeds, because they were only
strangers and pilgrims, 'and the tribulation, which
was but temporal, increased the weight of the glory
that was eternal. Thus has Christianity blighted
the flowers of this world, and entwined the brows of
its followers with wreaths of thorns. The concluding
portion of the exhortation deals with the duty of
self-examination and self-accusation, that you may
““not be accused and condemned in that fearful
�The Visitation of the Sick,
29
judgment.” Very -wholesome teaching for a sick
man; sickness always makes a person morbid, and
the Church steps in to encourage the unwholesome
feeling ; sickness always makes a person timid and
unnerved, and the Church steps in to talk about a
“ fearful judgment,” and bewilders and stuns the con
fused brain by the terrible pictures called up to the
mind by the thought of the last day.
But worse follows; for after the sick person has
said that be stedfastly believes the creed, the clergy
man is bidden by the rubric to “ examine whether he
repent him truly of his sins, and be in charity with
all the world.” Imagine a sick person being worried
by an examination of this kind, putting aside the
gross impertinence of the whole affair. Further, “ the
minister should not omit earnestly to move such
persons as are of ability to be liberal to the poor.”
When every one remembers the terrible scandals of
by-gone days, -when priests drew into the net of the
Church the goods of the dying, using threat of hell
and promise of heaven to win that which should have
been left for the widow and the orphan, one marvels
that such a rubric should be left to recall the rapa
ciousness and the greed of the Church, and to invite
priests to grasp at the wealth slipping out of dying
hands. And here the sick person is to “ be moved
to make a special confession of his sins, if he feel his
conscience troubled with any weighty matter, and the
priest is bidden to absolve him, for Christ having
“left power to his Church to absolve by his authority
committed to me,” says the priest, “I absolve thee.”
Confession ; delegated authority ; priestly absolution ;
such is the doctrine of the Church of England : all
the untold abominations of the confessional are
involved in this rubric and sentence, for if the man
can absolve a man at one time, he can do it at
another; the precious power should surely not be
left unused and wasted; whenever sin presses, behold
�jo
The Beauties of the Prayer-Book.
the remedy, and thus we are launched and in full
sail. But never in England shall the confessional
again flourish; never again shall English women
he corrupted by the foul questions of the priests ;
never again shall Englishmen have their mental
vigour and virility destroyed by such degradation.
Let the Church fall that countenances such an
accursed thing, and leave English purity and English
■courage to grow and flourish unchecked.
The devil is in great force in this service, as is
only right in a so generally barbarous an office:
*l Let the enemy have no advantage of him“ de
fend him from the danger of the enemy “renew in
him whatsoever hath been decayed by the fraud and
malice of the devil;” “the wiles of Satan;” “deliver
him from fear of the enemy ;” all this must convey to
the sick person a cheerful idea of the devil lingering
about his bed, and trying to get hold of him before it
is too late to drag him down to hell.
Is there any meaning at all in the expression : “ the
Almighty Lord ... to whom all things in heaven,
in earth, and under the earth do bow and obey ?”
Where is “ under the earth ?” The sun is under some
part of the earth to some people at any given
time; the stars are under, or above, according to the
point of view from which they are looked at; of course
the expression is only a survival from a time when
the earth was flat and the bottomless pit was under
it, only it seems a pity to continue to use expressions
which have lost all their meaning and are now
thoroughly ridiculous. People seem to think that
any old things are good enough for God’s service.
The last two prayers are remarkable chiefly far
their melancholy and craven tone towards God : “ we
humbly commend,” “most humbly beseeching thee.”
Surely God is not supposed to be an Eastern despot,
desiring this kind of cringing at his feet. Yet the
“ Prayer for persons troubled in mind or in eonsci-
�The Burial of the Dead.
31
ence ” is one pitiful wail, as though only by passionate
entreaty could God be moved to mercy, and he were
longing to strike, and with difficulty withheld from
avenging himself. When will men learn to stand
upright on their feet, instead of thus crouching on
their knees ? when will they learn to strive to live
nobly, and then to fear no celestial anger, either in
life or in death ?
THE ORDER EOR THE BURIAL OF THE
DEAD.
It is a little difficult to write a critical notice of a
funeral office, simply because people’s feelings are so
much bound up in it that any criticism seems a cruelty,
and any interference seems an impertinence. Round
the open grave all controversy should be hushed, that
no jarring sounds may mingle with the sobs of the
mourners, and no quarrels wring the torn hearts
of the survivors. Our criticism of this office, then,
will be brief and grave.
The opening verses strike us first as manifestly
inappropriate: “ Whosoever liveth and believeth in
me shall never die;” yet the dead is then being car
ried to his last home, and the words seem a mockery
spoken in face of a corpse. In the Fourth Gospel they
preface the raising of Lazarus, and of course are then
very significant, but to-day no power raises our dead,
no voice of Jesus says to the mourners, “ Weep not.”
The second verse from Job is—as is well known—an
utter mistranslation: “without my flesh ” would be
nearer the truth than “ in my flesh,” and “ worms ”
and “ body ” are not mentioned in the original at all.
It seems a pity that in such solemn moments known
falsehoods should be used.
�32
The Beauties of the Prayer-Book.
The whole argument in the 15th chap, of I Corin
thians is the reverse of convincing. Christ is not
the first fruits of them that slept. A dead man had
been raised by touching the bones of Elisha (II Kingsxiii. 21). Elisha, in his lifetime, had raised the dead
son of the Shunamite (II Kings iv.) ; Elijah, before
him, had raised the son of the widow of Zarephath
(I Kings xvii) ; Christ had raised Lazarus, the daugh
ter of Jairus, and the son of the widow of Main. In
no sense, then, if the Scriptures of the Christians
be true, can it be said that Christ has become the first
fruits, the first begotten from the dead. “ For since
by man came death ”; but death did not come by
man; myriads of ages before man was in the world
animals were born, lived, and died, and they have left
their fossilised remains to prove the falsity of the
popular belief. We notice also that “flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” If this be so,
what becomes of “the resurrection of the flesh,”
spoken of in the Baptismal and Visitation Offices ?
What has become of the “flesh and bones” which
Christ had after his resurrection and with which,
according to the 4th Article, he has gone into heaven ?
Cannot Christ “inherit the kingom of God”? It is
hard to see how, in any sense, the resurrection of
Christ can be taken as a proof of the resurrection of
man. Christ was only dead 36 or 37 hours before he
is said to have risen again; there was no time for
bodily decay, no time for corruption to destroy his
frame: how could the restoration to life of a man
whose body was in perfect preservation prove the
possibility of the resurrection of the bodies which
have long since been resolved into their constituent
elements, and have gone to form other bodies, and to
give shape to other modes of existence ? People talk
in such superior fashion of the resurrection that they
never stoop to remember its necessary details, or to
think where is to be found sufficient matter where
�The Burial of the Dead.
33
with to clothe all the human souls on the resurrection
morn. The bodies of the dead make the earth more
productive ; they nourish vegetable existence ; trans
formed into grass they feed the sheep and the cattle;
transformed into these they sustain human beings;
transformed into these they form new bodies once
more, and pass from birth to death, and from death
to birth again, a perfect circle of life, transmuted
by Nature’s alchemy from form to form. No man has
a freehold of his body; he possesses only a life-tenancy,
and then it passes into other hands. The melancholy
dirge which succeeds this chapter sounds like a wail of
despair:, man “hath but a short time to live and is full
of misery. He cometh up and is cut down like a flower;
he fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in
one stay.” Can any teaching be more utterly unwhole
some ? It is the confession of the most complete help
lessness, the recognition of the futility of toil. And
then the agonised pleading: “ 0 Lord God most holy, 0
Lord most mighty, 0 holy and most merciful Saviour,
deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.”
But if he be most merciful, whence all this need of
weeping and wailing ? If he be most merciful, what
danger can there be of the bitter pains of eternal
death ? And again the cry rises: “ Shut not thy merci
ful ears to our prayer; but spare us, Lord most holy,
O God most mighty, 0 holy and merciful Saviour,
thou most worthy Judge Eternal, suffer us not, at
our last hour, for any pains of death, to fall from
thee.” It is nothing but the wail of humanity, face
to face with the agony of death, feeling its utter help
lessness before the great enemy, and clinging to any
straw which may float within reach of the drowning
grasp; it is the horror of Life facing Death, a horror
that seems felt only by the fully living and not by
the dying; it is the recoil of vigorous vitality from
the silence and chillness of the tomb.
After this comes a sudden change of tone, and the
�34
The Beauties of the Prayer-Book.
mourners are told of God’s “great mercy” in taking
the departed, and of the “ burden of the flesh,” and
they are bidden to give “ hearty thanks” for the dead
being delivered “ out of the miseries of this sinful
world.’ Can anything be more unreal ? There is
not one mourner there who desires to share in the
great mercy, who wants to be freed from the burden
of the flesh, or desires deliverance from the miseries
of this world. Why should people thus play a farce
beside the grave ? . Do they expect God to believe
them, or to be deceived by such hypocrisy ?
It is urged by some that the Church cannot have a
“ sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal
life” as regards some of those whom she buries with
this service; and it is manifest that, if the Bible be
true, drunkards and others who are to be cast into
the lake of fire, can scarcely rise to eternal life at the
same time, and therefore the Church has no right to
express a hope where God has pronounced condemna
tion. The Rubric only shuts out of the hope the un
baptized, the excommunicated, and the suicide; all
others have a right to burial at her hands, and to the
hope of a joyful resurrection, in spite of the Bible.
We may hope that the day will soon come when
people may die in England and may be buried in
peace without this cry of pain and superstition over
their graves. Wherever cemeteries are within rea
sonable distance the Rationalist may now be buried,
lovingly and reverently, without the echo of that in
which he disbelieved during life sounding over his
grave ; but throughout many small towns and country
villages the Burial Service of the Church is practically
obligatory, and is enforced by clerical bigotry. But
the passing knell of the Establishment sounds clearer
and clearer, and soon those who have rejected her
services in life shall be free from her ministrations at
the tomb.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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The beauties of the prayer-book. Part II
Creator
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Besant, Annie Wood
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 34 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references. Published anonymously. Author is Annie Besant. Attribution 'My Path to Atheism'. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Publisher
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Thomas Scott
Date
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1876
Identifier
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CT191
Rights
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (The beauties of the prayer-book. Part II), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Subject
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Church of England
Religious Practice
Baptism
Book of Common Prayer
Church of England
Communion
Confirmation
Conway Tracts
Funeral services
Marriage
Prayer