with the Collect, O God, whose nature and property, &c., at the end of the Litany. In accordance with primitive practice, it is a Prayer for Clergy1 and people that He, who alone worketh great marvels, will send down upon them the healthful Spirit of His grace, and that they may truly please Him, will pour upon them the continual dew of His blessing. ; 5. The Prayer of St Chrysostom is found in the Liturgies of Basil and Chrysostom, but not in the earlier MSS. of them. It is doubtful, therefore, whether its composition can be distinctly traced to either of these Fathers, but without dispute the Prayer has been very 1 The words "Send down upon our Bishops and Curates' are liable to be misunderstood. The Latin super famulos tuos pontifices is a guide to their true meaning. "Curates" is here used in its literal sense="one who is entrusted with the care (cura) or cure of souls," and includes all the parochial Clergy as distinguished from the Bishops. Comp. the French curé; and the following passages: "To bischopis and curatis pat han kepinge, It is her charge, and to lordis also." Hymns to the Virgin and Christ, p. 37. "Wharefore pou preste curatoure, 3ef þou plese thy sauyoure 3ef thou be not grete clerk, Loke thou moste on thys werk." Myrc's Instructions for Parish Priests, p. 2. "Wee will that our curate shal minister the Sacrament of Baptism at al times, as well in the week day, as on the holy day." Sixth Article of the Devonshire Rebels, A. p. 1549. "The saide abbot of Hyde canne show you of a curat, and well learned in my diocese, that exhorted his parisheners to beleve contrary to the Catholic faith." Nykke, bishop of Norwich, Letter to Archbishop Warham, A. D. 1530. "He commeth therefore to the banket, and accordynge to hys maner, breaketh and distributeth bread with hys own handes vnto them and also fyshe, by this facte teachynge all such as be hys disciples and followers, whom he hathe chosen to be the curates and feders of his churche." Taverner's Postils, p. 223. P. B. 7 anciently used in the middle of the Liturgies which bear their names. When Cranmer revised the Litany in 1544', he placed this prayer at the end of the Litany. In 1661 it was placed at the close of the daily Morning and Evening Prayer, where it is peculiarly appropriate; for being addressed immediately to Christ, who has promised that when two or three are gathered together in His Name, He will grant their requests (Mtt. xviii. 19; comp. Exod. xx. 24), it prays for the fulfilment of the desires and petitions of His servants as may be most expedient for them, granting them in this world the knowledge of His truth, and in the world to come, life everlasting. 6. The Benediction. In the time of Moses and Aaron an express command was given that the people should be dismissed with a sacerdotal benediction. The words of this benediction were dictated to the Hebrew Lawgiver (Num. vi. 22, 23): The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace (Numb. vi. 24-26). The triple repetition of the sacred name of Jehovah, which is used in this Levitical Formula, is replaced by one which distinctly recognises the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, and the appropriate Prayer of Benediction, with which St Paul closes many of his Epistles (2 Cor. xiii. 14), forms the close of our Daily Morning and Evening Prayer2. 1 See above, p. 17. 2 It was also used in the Liturgies of Antioch, Cæsarea, Constantinople, and Jerusalem. PART II. THE EVENING PRAYER. I. The Greater Portion of the Order for Evening Prayer is the same as that for the Morning. It will be only necessary, therefore, to examine those portions, where there is any difference between them. 2. The Order for Evening Prayer was called "Evensong" in the First Prayer-Book of Edward VI., and is formed upon the ancient Offices of Vespers and Compline. The Sentences, Exhortation, Confession, and Absolution were appointed to be said before the commencement of the Service in the Second Prayer-Book, 1552, but were not printed at the beginning of Evening Prayer until the last Revision in 16611. 3. Absence of the Venite. At the close of the Salutation between the Minister and the People, the rubric directs," Then shall be sung or said the Psalms in order as they are appointed." Here the Venite is omitted, and the Psalms commence without that Invitation to Praise, which, as we have seen, distinguishes the Service of the Morning. In fact the Venite has never been used before the Psalms of the Evening, and the invitation which it offers, to join in setting forth God's most worthy praise, is considered to extend throughout the day. 4. The Magnificat. The reading of the first Lesson from the Old Testament is followed by the Magnificat, or The Song of the Blessed Virgin Mary3, which has been sung at Vespers as long as the Service can be 2 See above, p. 72. 1 See above, pp. 56, 57. 3 In Marshall's Primer it is called The Song of our Lady; in Henry VIIIth's Primer The song of Mary, rejoicing and praising the goodness of God; Burton's Primers, p. 476. traced in the Western Church, while on the other hand in the Eastern Church it is sung among the Canticles of the Morning1. The position it occupies in our Service is one of great significance. For after the reading of a Chapter from the Volume that contains the promises of Redemption made by God to the fathers of the Old Dispensation, we celebrate in the words of her, who was privileged to become the mother of her Lord, the fulfilment of the Divine Promises; we acknowledge that remembering His mercy He hath holpen His servant Israel; and for all these gracious acts of mercy, which each person of the Godhead joins in bestowing, we end by giving glory to the Holy Trinity. 5. Cantate Domino. This Canticle only was appointed to follow the Lesson from the Old Testament in the First Prayer-Book of Edward VI. In that of 1552, for variety and in accordance with the ancient rule3 that Psalms and reading of Scripture should be alternated, the Rubric directed that the xcviiith Psalm might be sung, except on the nineteenth day of the month, when it is read in the ordinary course of the Psalms. It had not been sung among the Psalms of Vespers or Compline in the Medieval Services, but it is appropriate, especially during the season of Epiphany, as a 1 Procter, p. 244. = 2 Holpen helped; comp. Ps. lxxxiii. 8, "Assur also is joined with them; they have holpen the children of Lot;" Dan. xi. 34, "Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help;" see also Isai. xxxi. 3. The word is the old form of the past participle of the verb help; A.-S. helpan, pp. holpen. See The Bible Word-Book, pp. 255, 256, and compare "And specially, from every schires ende Of Engelond, to Canterbury they wende, The holy blisful martir for to seeke, That hem hath holpen when that they were seeke.” 3 See above, p. 80. song of praise for the announcement of salvation, and an acknowledgment that by the incarnation of His blessed Son God hath done marvellous things, hath with His own right hand, and with His holy arm gotten Himself the victory, and openly shewed His righteousness in the sight of the heather. 6. Nunc Dimittis. After the Second Lesson from the Apostolical Epistles follows the Nunc Dimittis, or The Song of Simeon (Lk. ii. 29), which has been sung at Evening Prayer from very early times. Its position is no less significant than that of the Magnificat. The Epistles to the various Churches are a standing monument that the Gospel proved itself a Light to lighten the Gentiles. In the words of the aged saint, therefore, who was privileged to take the infant Saviour in his arms, (1) we acknowledge that our eyes, like his, have seen the long-promised Salvation of God, which He prepared before the face of all people; and (2) we express our readiness to receive this Salvation to ourselves, and our faith that by so doing we may hope to have peace in our death, of which every night brings a type in sleep. 7. Deus Misereatur. In place of the Nunc Dimittis the Rubric of King Edward's Second Prayer-Book directs that the Deus Misereatur, or the Sixty-seventh Psalm may be used, except on the Twelfth Day of the Month. This Psalm of mingled prayer, prophecy, and 1 In the Prayer-Book Version of this Psalm occurs the word shawms, for which the Authorized Version has with sound of cornet. The shaum, also used in the forms shalm, shalmie, Fr. chalmie, chalemelle (fr. calamellus dim. of calamus) is a musical instrument resembling a clarionet. Compare:"The shreyffes and the althermen toke barge at the iij Cranes with trompets and shalmes, and the whetes playhyng.' Machyn's Diary, p. 96. "With shaumes, and trompets, and with clarions sweet." Spenser, F. Q. I. 12, 13. See The Bible Word-Book, p. 433. |