OF THE
LUTHERAN
LITURGICAL ASSOCIATION
Volumes I-VII.
Published by the Association Pittsburgh, Pa., 1906.
Copyright, 1906,
by
The Lutheran Liturgical Association.
[These volumes have been scanned and proofread, but may still contain errors. Original pagination has been indicated throughout.]
Page i
PREFACE.
THE study of our historical antecedents and the attainment of doctrinal definiteness by our Church in this country have emphasized the great points which Lutherans of every land and language hold in common and which show us to be more truly United and to stand more firmly within the unbroken historical development of the Church Universal than any other Christian Communion. Our wide dispersion, the various national and linguistic factors and especially the un-Lutheran and sectarian influences to which various parts of the Church were subjected have naturally resulted in a very decided lack of uniformity in our external life. The recognition of our essential doctrinal unity, the growing appreciation of the meaning and value of the liturgical, musical and other art treasures of our fathers, the adoption of common liturgical forms upon the basis of a concensus of historic usage, the general advancement in intelligence and culture as well as the rapid Anglicization of our vast numbers in this country,—these are the potent factors in the present powerful movement that seeks to secure beauty, correctness and desirable uniformity in the department of Liturgiology and Ecclesiastical Art—our Public Worship, Church Architecture and Ornament, Church Music, Hymnology, Ministerial Acts and every other element of a churchly life. Such consistent, historical and distinctive practice with all its evident advantages can be established only upon a discriminating knowledge of liturgical
Page ii
history in general and of the historical development of Church Art, as well as upon a thorough understanding of the particular liturgical and artistic principles, usages and tradition, of our, own distinctive Church-life. To encourage and promote such study the Lutheran Liturgical Association was organized. Its consistent purpose and effort have been to assist clergymen and laymen in developing an intelligent and deeply spiritual devotional life, and in rightly interpreting our beautiful Services, to guard against the hasty adoption of innovations and practices foreign to Lutheran principles or usages, and to meet and solve the many important and practical questions constantly arising in the individual parish.
The organization of the Association was suggested by the President in a conversation with the future Vice President and Secretary during the annual meeting of the Pittsburgh Synod of the General Council at East Liverpool, Ohio. A preliminary meeting was held during this session of the Synod, September 3rd, 1898, which was attended by twenty or more clergymen. A permanent organization was effected at a meeting held in the First English Lutheran Church, Pittsburgh, Pa., the rev. Dr. D. H. Geissinger, Pastor, October 3rd, 1898, by the adoption of a constitution and the election of the following officers:
President, The rev. Luther D. Reed,
Vice President, The rev. Prof. Elmer F. Krauss, D. D.
Secretary and Treasurer, The rev. R. Morris Smith,
Archivarius, The rev. George J. Gongaware.
These officers have been re-elected every succeeding year. Together they constitute the Executive Committee. The practical direction of the interests of the Association has thus been uninterruptedly in the hands of those most active in its organisation seven years ago.
PREFACE.
Page iii
The regular monthly meetings have, without exception, been held in the First Church, Pittsburgh, Pa., the revs. D. H. Geissinger, D. D., and George J. Gongaware, Pastors. Fifty-one such regular, Conventions have been held, at which many valuable papers, prepared by many of the best-informed men in all parts of the Church, have been presented. During the first few years of the Association’s history, in addition to the afternoon sessions in the First Church, an evening session was held each month in one of the various churches of Pittsburgh or vicinity, to which the congregations of the city were especially invited. At these sessions Vespers were read and various liturgical subjects of a more generally popular nature were discussed.
From the very beginning the Association endeavored to give the results of its studies permanent form and thus to make them useful to a far larger number than could possibly attend the meetings. The income received from subscriptions permitted the publication of the most valuable papers in the MEMOIRS. Subscribers receive every single publication as it is issued, as well as copies of all programs, etc., and are also entitled to club reduction upon publications controlled by American publishers and importers.
The work and membership of the Association soon expanded beyond all anticipation and demonstrated that the Association had found a sphere of real usefulness in almost every portion of the English-speaking Lutheran Church in America. Synodical boundaries and distinctions, have never limited its work.
The first year the membership comprised seventy-five subscribers in seven different States. Last year (1905) there were enrolled nearly four hundred members, most widely distributed throughout twenty-two States of the Union, four Provinces of Canada, the District of Columbia, and India, and representing
Page iv
MEMOIRS.
five General Bodies, of the Church. Members of nearly all the Synods of the General Council, the General Synod, the United Synod of the South, the joint Synod of Ohio, the Icelandic Synod and the United Norwegian Synod have prepared papers for the Memoirs and the surprisingly extensive correspondence which from the beginning has devolved upon the President and the Secretary of the Association, is unmistakable evidence of a widespread and genuine interest in all parts of the Church and in all parts of the country on subjects within the liturgical field.
In the publication and dissemination of its printed literature the Association finds its most important work‑the work that is of permanent value to the Church. The first publication issued was a sixteen page “Bibliography and Outline of Study” which soon was out of print. Four papers were also published the first year and comprised Volume I of the MEMOIRS, issued at a cost of $64.75. The growth of the work is indicated by the fact that the mere printing of last year’s MEMOIRS (Volume VII, 187 pages) cost the Association $319,25. The total receipts from membership dues, sale of publications and other sources since the organization has been $2,249.60; total expenditures $2,243.28.
The papers collected and issued in the various volumes of the MEMOIRS are undoubtedly of very unequal merit. Some are quite brief; others are exhaustive treatises which embody the fruits of years of earnest and patient investigation. Altogether they unquestionably comprise the most extensive and most valuable collection of Lutl1eran liturgical literature in the English language. Gathered from innumerable sources and adapted to the conditions of our Church in this country by special students of acknowledged standing, many of these papers present information that is invaluable. The MEMOIRS are regularly used as supplementary text books in some of our Theological Seminaries
PREFACE.
Page v
and they have certainly proved of inestimable service to pastors and laymen in many parishes.
At a meeting of the Association held December 4th, 1905, the Association declined to accept the resignation of the President, but by resolution acceded to his urgent request to be relieved of the duties of his office for the present. It was also resolved that the regular meetings and publications be for the present discontinued and that the present publications, in so far as possible, be collected and issued in a single bound volume.
Volumes I and II of the MEMOIRS are out of print. The members of the Association have been invited to forward their copies of these volumes and have them bound together with the later annual numbers. Otherwise this volume is necessarily limited to Volumes III-VII, inclusive. The exceedingly valuable Index, prepared by the Secretary, however, includes the entire seven volumes.
In taking advantage of this resting point in the Association’s work and in issuing this bound volume, it was deemed advisable Ito include the facts and figures given above relating to the origin and development of the Association and its work. In years to come they may seem of greater interest than even in the immediate present.
Advent 1906.
LUTHER D. REED.
Page v b
Contents.
I 1 The Fundamental Principles of Christian Worship (J. C. F. Rupp)
I 9 Our Distinctive Worship—The Common Service and Other Liturgies, Ancient and Modern (L. D. Reed)
I 19 The Significance of Liturgical Reform (E. T. Horn)
I 41 The Sources of the Morning Service of the Common Service (R. M. Smith)
II 1 The Architecture of the Chancel (E. F. Krauss)
II 7 The Significance of the Altar (W. E. Schramm)
II 15 The Swedish Liturgies (N. Forsander)
II 29 Altar Linen (L. D. Reed)
II 35 The Sources of the Minor Services (R. M. Smith)
II 57 The History of the Liturgy of the Lutheran Church in Denmark (E. Belfour)
II 75 Thematic Harmony of Introit, Collect, Epistle, and Gospel (D. H. Geissinger)
II 83 Art in Worship (J. F. Ohl)
III 1 The Administration of the Lord’s Supper in Different Ages of the Church (G. S. Seaman)
III 9 The Liturgical History of Confirmation (C. T. Benze)
III 19 The Church and the Liturgy (C. M. Jacobs)
III 35 The Church Prayer (C. A. Miller)
III 47 The Value of Liturgical Study for Organists (G. C. Rees)
III 59 A General Survey of the Book of Common Prayer (S. A. Bridges Stopp)
III 75 Means of Liturgical Reform (T. W. Kretschmann)
III 81 Liturgical Education of the Church’s Youth (R. E. McDaniel)
III 89 The Sacrificial Idea in Christian Worship (G. F. Spieker)
III 101 The Place of Liturgy in the Church’s Thought, Life and Art (J. A. W. Haas)
III 113 The Liturgical History of Baptism (H. S. Gilbert)
IV 1 The Liturgical Influence of the Lesser Reformers (C. T. Benze)
IV 17 The Ecclesiastical Calendar (N. R. Melhorn)
IV 29 Luther’s Liturgical Writings (E. A. Trabert)
IV 47 The Pericopes (A. Spaeth)
IV 63 Liturgical Development in the Period of the Reformation (E. T. Horn)
IV 67 The Liturgical Deterioration of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (J. F. Ohl)
IV 79 Liturgy and Doctrine (D. H. Geissinger)
IV 85 Early American Lutheran Liturgies (D. M. Kemerer)
IV 95 The Liturgy of the Icelandic Church (F. J. Bergmann)
V 1 The Liturgical Influence of Gregory the Great (A. L. Ramer)
V 9 The Function of the Minister in Divine Worship (E. F. Krauss)
V 21 A Laity Liturgically Well-Informed (A. B. Markley)
V 31 The Significance of Symbolism and Its Employment in the Service of the Church (G. J. Gongaware)
V 41 The Collects (S. A Bridges Stopp)
V 53 The Fundamental Principles of Divine Service (G. W. Mechling)
V 69 Regulations and Customs Pertaining to the Use of the Sacraments (I. M. Wallace)
V 85 Liturgical Accuracy and Spirituality (H. D. Spaeth)
VI 1 Contributive Influences Noted in the History and Structure of the Liturgy (W. A. Lambert)
VI 17 Remarks on Some of Our Liturgical Classics (E. T. Horn)
VI 23 Preaching and the Day (P. Z. Strodach)
VI 41 Christian Worship in the Apostolic Age (C. M. Jacobs)
VI 65 The Liturgical History of Confession and Absolution
VI 77 The Sacramental Idea in Christian Worship (A. Spaeth)
VI 89 Paraments of the Lord’s House (G. U. Wenner)
VII 1 Liturgical Colors (P. Z. Strodach)
VII 19 Consecration (G. U. Wenner)
VII 27 The Liturgical Use of the Creeds (J. W. Horine)
VII 35 The Liturgy of the Norwegian Lutheran Church (E. K. Johnsen)
VII 49 Christian Worship in the First Post-Apostolic Age (C. M. Jacobs)
VII 75 The Application of Lutheran Principles of the Church Building (E. T. Horn)
VII 121 The Bidding Prayer, Litany, and Suffrages (C. K. Fegley)
VII 159 The Use of Stained Glass in Ecclesiastical Architecture (E. F. Krauss)
VII 169 Sacred Monograms—The Charisma and the Holy Name (E. F. Krever)
volume 1 page 1
THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
OF
CHRISTIAN WORSHIP.
We are exploring the foundation upon which the glorious temple of worship is built. This foundation is an eternal rock; the Tabernacle; revealed on Sinai is based upon it; the glorious Temple in the vision of Ezekiel and St. John’s Tabernacle with men in the New Jerusalem rest upon the same foundation. There “they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.” It is the worship of in the Holy City, wherein no temple is seen: “for the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple thereof.” Thus the principles of worship are eternal, though it is adapted to the changeful, spiritual conditions of mankind.
Underlying worship is a divine purpose, just as the mountains are the visible outlines of the hidden framework of the earth, upon which the upper and outer world of life and beauty is built. We come to this Paradise of the Lord to find the seed-germs of divine grace and power which luxuriate so richly into the flowers and fruit of worship. The manner of Christian worship, how it becomes an avenue of grace to the worshipper, is in wondrous harmony with the appropriation of God’s gracious purpose of salvation to man’s spiritual wants. The essence of worship bas the flavor of the divine means employed as the vehicle of this grace.
The divine purpose underlying is worked out in the Providence of history and illustrated in the development of the human conception of worship. God’s purpose is the instruction of men unto edification in life. In all things man learns slowly and nowhere is this fact better
Volume 1 Page 2
illustrated than by the evolution of the idea of worship, as recorded in its several stages, in written language. True, the essence of worship is not derived from etymology, but from religion; equally certain it is, however, that the meaning of the word worship, revealed in the history of its slow growth, is a search-light upon, the unrevealed purposes of God; it is a development from the rudimentary thought of human personal worthiness up to its present exclusively religious meaning. The essence of the religion determines the essence of the consequent worship, but, at the same time, the worship is a fair index of the religious character of a people. The life of religion, pure and undefiled, is set forth in warm and glowing forms of living faith. Its worship is a robe of rich but modest coloring. Worship is a fine old word, handed down in its original Saxon purity with striking significance in the now archaic form used in olden times to denote the outward recognition of personal worth. Our Saviour says, when one is promoted through the lower degrees of preparation to the highest emoluments of honor, “then thou shalt have worship (doxia) in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.”
This divine purpose outcrops in the several and respective strata of human life. It is not to be forgotten that the social bond, involved in the organic unity of the race, is a principal factor in worship; in the same way, sin became universally powerful throughout the race. Some one says, that the secret of the great power of the Christian Church is discovered in the habit of associated worship. It is undoubtedly true that the social feature is one of the normal conditions of religion, but it is possible to give it too great prominence and hence strike the source whence some of the secret dangers come that constantly threaten religious life. To linger upon the social beauties of our worship is to forget the divine in worship, to reduce religion to mere naturalism, and stripping it of its heavenly habiliments to make the pure fellowship of the saints only the baldest anarchistic socialism. Even the agnostic finds in the primal idea of worship the moral tendencies arising from the culture and refinement of civilized life and consequently he limits the power of religion to the effect of art cultivated by the social instinct and impulse of the congregation.
The geologist explains the principles underlying the effects produced by the cooling mass of the earth in the-convolutions of the enfolding crust. But back of these smiling valleys, back of the principles of art, of socialistic theories, and the religious idea,—back of these there is somewhere a divine purpose. It is the living power which set
Page 3
in operation the laws that sometimes harmonize with and sometimes contradict our philosophy and theories of natural science. There is no elevating power, no spiritual uplift in the cultus of social instinct per se. God’s persistent purpose breaks through human contradictions as a divinely upward impulse and marks the unfathomable abyss between natural cultus and divine worship.
Worship is a communion of saints. It makes the race feel its spiritual destitution. Certain it is, the history of the word is abundant evidence of this recognized human need for a divine stimulus to loftier motives and purer emotions. Christian worship supplies this want. Realizing this only in religious experience, the social consciousness gradually restricted the meaning of worship to denote chiefly the part of religion and to direct the ascription of honor and dignity to the Supreme Being alone. In this way worship becomes an act, or the acts collectively, of homage at a given time and place, “such as adoration, thanksgiving, prayer, praise, and offering.”
Therefore, worship in spirit and truth has a positive power. For example, the soul in which the feeling of gratitude is quickened by divine gifts is susceptible to the power of worship, and grace reveals to it the character of our God as worthy “to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him.
So grace provides a fulcrum sufficient to make worship a mighty lever for the spiritual and moral uplift of humanity. Christian worship is a divine moral uplift, but its divine possibilities are not evolved, from the merely human aspirations for the beautiful, the true, and the good. This motive in itself is only a noble humanitarianism, not worth cultivating simply for its own sake, but of great value in its proper auxiliary relation to nobler fruits, and very different in style and effect from the divine element in worship, whose chief and only end is to glorify God and magnify Him forever. This human motive may have great moral force in the development of literature, art, and science, as the mental activity, the artistic spirit, or refining influence of the age. But all such moral achievements through human resources alone are like the laurel chaplets that wither upon the victor’s brow. It has no eternal principle, no controlling purpose, no persistent divinity, to implant new motives, to transform character, and to beautify human life.
All this is a part of Christian worship, its human element, the sacrifice which humanity offers; but this is its lesser half, in itself
“As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.”
Page 4
Along with the human there is a divine element; the two are inseparably wedded. The divine is a sacrament which brings imperishable grace to the worshipper in spirit and truth. Christian worship is the channel for the incoming grace, rather perhaps the flood-gate, shut and opened at human will, joining the reservoir of the fulness of divine love to the appointed means of grace in word and sacrament. Therefore, in its essence, worship is pre-eminently sacramental; it makes man the recipient of good and reaches its climax and summum bonum in the Holy Supper.
This divine element of worship always makes a man receive more than he can give. It has this sacramental character, because it revolves around Christ as its centre, and has its fulness of blessing in Him who is the Saviour of the world. Christ is the one chief stone in the corner, the true foundation of our temple of worship. This sacramental character makes it the purpose of every act of worship first to exalt and magnify Him forever. It is a truly Christian worship, though a nominally Christian worship may be lacking in every essential principle of Christian worship, and be only a kind of nominalism with no objective reality in the faith and life of Christ. He is the heart, the magnet that draws all unto Himself. He is the divine cause that calls forth the act of worship. He appeals to the heart and conscience of the worshipper and comes through the enlightening power of the Holy Ghost who confers His gifts upon believers and creates the insatiable thirst for the water of eternal life. Thus the intellect is sharpened, the sense of esthetic beauty refined, and the ethical judgments of conscience confirmed; so fully does Christ enter the life, absorb every faculty of the soul, and make every act of worship begin and end in Him.
But one may fully understand the general truth and state the theory of worship in harmony with the general proposition without possessing this vital principle of worship. For the essence of worship is the essence of religion. At their root religion and worship coincide “so far, that no man can fully perform all that is involved in worship without doing all that is involved in religion.”
The Word of God declares the divine purpose in worship. It is a pure worship so far as it contains the pure Word of God. The fruits and effects of grace are bestowed through God’s Word. Worship has its best expression in the language of Scripture. Worship in spirit and truth is not simply a spiritual act or mental abstraction apart from the spoken word or spiritual condition. It is rather the spirit of devotion
Page 5
quickened by the truth—Thy Word is truth—and comforted by the Spirit who dwelleth in the Word of truth. We find in the words of Scripture the forms in which every act of worship may find expression. Long usage crystallizes the thought of Scripture into forms which preserve the odor of sanctity. For there can be no worship apart from the Church which is the assembly of saints, in which the Gospel is truly preached and the sacraments in due form administered. The instruction of God’s Word, the formal preaching of the Gospel, is the centre of Christian worship. Its truly sacramental character is set forth in the absolution promised in the Gospel and received by the truly penitent and believing. So worship in the use of the fixed forms of Collect, Word, Creed, Sermon, and Sacrament preserves the doctrinal purity of the faith.
The human element in worship is of minor importance only in a degree; but as the whole consists of all its parts there is superlative necessity for it to round out the act of perfect worship. The neglect of the human in worship chills it and tends to make it a lifeless formality. According to the law of liberty this is the place of the variable and free. It leaves room for so wide an adaptation to circumstances as to meet all emergencies. It is the pre-eminently sacrificial, not in the sense of making propitiation for sin, but as being the avenue through which are brought the offerings of confession, praise, and adoration, prayer, supplication and thanksgiving. Worship is both sacramental and sacrificial, for it brings to the worshipper the gift of grace, and offers to God honor, reverence, and glory. Worship is refreshing because in it men receive mercy and peace, and inexpressible joy in the Holy Ghost; at the same time, it is decorous in action and dignified in confession of sin and eucharistic offerings:
The true worshipper is devout; he comes in the spirit of devotion; when edified he departs with the fragrance of a devout spirit. Devoutness makes the heart and mind receptive to sacramental grace. The worshipper sings devoutly, prays devoutly, and listens devoutly. The of worship is established as a habitude by observing regularly appointed seasons, by using fixed forms, especially the divinely given words in Gospel and Sacrament as the voice of highest service. Of course, the simple act of worship is not unattended by danger. In the many common duties of life many things are done in a perfunctory way. It is possible even in worship for the mind to wander and allow the formal act, apart from the spirit of true devotion, to crystallize into the mere, cold formality, like an icicle sparkling with all the outward
Page 6
richness and wealth of beauty stored up in the cold but brilliant jewel.
However, this danger threatens every form of worship and is never quite so chilling as in the threadbare formality that knows no forms; it is obviated in all only by a living sacrifice of prayer, praise and thanksgiving; by the faithful and intelligent cultivation of the sacrificial in the variable parts, of worship which allow ample freedom and spontaneity. In the fixed centres of worship, like the Word and Sacrament, we have divinely appointed foci to quicken spiritual activity and put within reach the great wealth of divine mercy and grace; they are the “golden candlestick,” “the lamp unto our feet and the light on our path,” and also the table of “shew-bread,” for “man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Likewise in the free and variable forms of worship we have our sacrificial altars whereupon the flame of our devotion, burns; the golden altar of incense from which our prayers arise like clouds of incense to the skies. It is little that we give in return for the boundless treasures that we receive; but in our destitution our offering, at best but a scanty gift, is still our all: our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, our reasonable service.
An important corollary to this proposition of the fundamental principles of worship is the fitting time and place. In our worship we ought to enjoy the benefits of redemption. Its great facts are to be emphasized. Beginning with the weekly cycle of the resurrection in the Lord’s Day, the contemplation of the year of grace includes every feature and doctrine of the redemptive work.
It is true that
“The groves were God’s first temples. Ere man learned
To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,
And spread the roof above the—ere he framed
The lofty vault, to gather and roll back
The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood,
Amid the cool and silence, he knelt down,
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks and supplication.”
But it is equally true that God has always chosen a place for His local habitation with men. The place where His people meet with Him should be suitable for such an occasion, neither in barn nor opera-house, Jewish Temple nor Mohammedan Mosque, factory nor theatre, but in a Christian Church. On such an occasion the church should harmonize with the divine purpose in worship.
Art is a handmaid to worship. In architecture it makes the stones speak the story of redemption through the eye, in sculptured
Page 7
wall and painted arch. Architecture, sculpture and painting tell the pictured story, while the other arts poetry, music, and eloquence tell the same story to other sense-perceptions and fill the storied temple with the words and spirit of worship.
-----
In studying the Fundamental Principles of Worship the following outline was pursued:
I. There is a divine purpose for instruction and edification in worship.
II. It appears in the association and fellowship of worship.
III. It is accomplished by the means of grace employed in worship.
1. The Sacramental character, or the divine elements of worship:
(1) It is Christo-centric;
(2) It uses the Word of Scripture
(3) It is the Means of Grace;
(4) It conserves doctrinal purity.
2. The Sacrificial character, or the human elements of worship:
(1) Eucharistic offerings;
(2) Variable forms;
(3) The Times and Places;
(4) The use of Art.
J. C. F. Rupp.
Scottdale, Pennsylvania
Page 9
OUR DISTINCTIVE WORSHIP—
THE COMMON SERVICE AND OTHER LITURGIES, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
Principle and Form are related as Soul and Body. The latter is the medium through which the former is able to express itself. The intellect, will, the emotions, in fact the SOUL LIFE of the human personality is only able to reveal itself, and indeed only possesses objective existence, in the physical life. So abstract principles may have some quasi existence within the realm of the metaphysical, but in order to our real apprehension of them in time and space they must have a concrete, formal expression. The animating principles of Christian faith constantly appear in the several spheres of Christian life, and nowhere more clearly than in the department of Christian Worship. The distinctive differences in doctrine held by different Churches may not be evident in the private lives of their members, but they will inevitably appear in the public worship of their congregations. Doctrines in principles of worship are proclaimed not only from the pulpit, but from the altar, from the pew, from the organ bench and choir room; liturgy as truly as in Confessional Symbol; in rubric often more clearly than in text; in manner, gesture, posture as surely as in spoken or printed word. Everything is pregnant with meaning when one learns to read it aright. We understand not the mannerisms of strangers, but the simple tone of voice, the glance of an eye, or the most
Page 10
trivial gesture of a dear friend conveys deep significance. So greater intimacy with the forms of devotion may reveal to us many qualities hitherto unperceived.
It is a very superficial opinion, oft expressed, that there is little difference between Churches. “We all are going to the same place,” it is said; as if it were immaterial in undertaking a journey to a distant city whether we kept in the King’s highway with its signboards and places of refreshment, or stumbled in danger and discomfort through the woods and swam swollen streams. Or as if because we all live upon what we eat, there were no difference in foods! A Lutheran is not a Romanist, a Quaker or a Methodist. We have a distinctive doctrine, a distinctive apprehension of God’s revelation, as have they; and our cultus, or form of worship, as expressing our belief, is just as distinctive in character. It is our purpose therefore, by a study of our Service and a comparison of it with others to see wherein this distinctiveness lies.
We may look first at the Service as a whole. The first impression we gather is that it is not only in the language of the people, but that the latter actively participate in every portion of it. There is no suggestion of a vicarious performance, but of a personal participation. Pastor and people together enter the Holy of Holies and commune with God. Here is the living embodiment of a cardinal principle of the Reformation, and indeed of the New Testament,—the Universal Priesthood of All Believers. Hear what Dr. Rock, a most eminent Roman Catholic divine, says with reference to the celebration of the Roman Mass. “In the performance of this sacred service no Office is assigned to the people. The sacrifice is offered up by the priest in their name and on their behalf. The whole action is between God and the priest. So far is it from being necessary that the people shall understand the language of the sacrifice, that they are not allowed even to hear the most important and solemn part of it. … They do not act, they do not say the prayers of the priest, they have nothing to do with the actual performance of the Holy Sacrifice.” (Hierurgia I:314).
Hear again the words of Dr. Boardman, one of the most prominent Baptist divines in this country, as he laments the vicarious character of worship in his own and other non‑liturgical Churches. He says, “No voice but the preacher’s is heard in adoration, thanksgiving, confession, supplication, intercession, aspiration, communion. So far as the vocal act of homage goes, the preacher alone worships. … Alas! this individual privilege of each member of the congregation we allow the min-
Page 11
ister to appropriate to himself. He alone lifts the veil, and enters the Holy of Holies, and communes before the mercy-seat; while the congregation stands mute in the outer court. The New Testament doctrine the rent veil and the priesthood of all Christians gives way to the Old Testament doctrine of a sacerdotal order; or what is worse, to the Roman heresy of a priestly caste and a priestly worship. Even pulpit has been removed from the side to the centre; so that the preacher is perpetually in the foreground, while the worship of Almighty God is consigned to a comparatively subordinate niche. How painfully true this is, may be seen in the fact that while it is not considered rude to enter the sanctuary during the earlier parts of the service, such as the singing or the Bible reading,—that is to say, be it observed, during that part of the service which is distinctively liturgical or worshipful,—it is considered rude to come or go out while the minister is preaching, as though, forsooth, the main thing in worship were ignorant, feeble, sinful man, instead Jehovah of Hosts.” (Christian Worship, p. 291 sq.) Out of their own mouths they stand convicted, the Romanist asserting the doctrine of the vicarious work of a priestly order, and the Baptist admitting its virtual practice. Take the Common Service and see pastor and people unite in common confession, and appropriation of God’s forgiveness; see them direct to the throne of grace common praise and petition in the Gloria Patri, the Kyrie, the Gloria in Excelsis, the Collect, the General Prayer, the Preface, Sanctus, Agnus and Nunc Dimittis; their common confession of belief in the Creed as well as many other parts of the service; see them together honor and reverence and use the Word and the Sacrament, uniting in all that pertains to the administration and the reception of both. In its every line our Service is vocal with the principle of a Universal Priesthood engaging in a Common Ministry.
Worship is a transaction between God and Man; in it therefore are two active elements, the divine and the human. Theories of worship fundamentally differ as the emphasis is placed upon either of these elements. The Roman, and perhaps to a less degree the Greek Liturgy, reeks with the human, the sacrificial element. God is still to be appeased, His wrath averted by the work which the Church, through its priesthood, must do every day. All service centres about the work, the sacrifice of the Mass. It is not what God brings to man in worship, but what man does for God. The Reformed, by which we understand the other Protestant Churches except the Lutheran, also emphasize the
Page 12
human or sacrificial side. Not indeed the propitiary sacrificial theory of the Romanists, but the eucharistic-sacrificial idea. God is appeased, Christians gather to thank and praise Him, and to offer Him their prayer and grateful service, provoking one another’s devotion and sacrifice by mutual fellowship. But again it is not what God brings, but what man does. The Lutheran lays stress upon the Divine element in worship. The propitiary sacrifice has been made once for all by the death of Jesus; this, and this only, is the basis for our every approach to God in worship. God desires all men to receive most fully the benefits of Christ’s work. He conveys these benefits and blessings, pardon, peace, spiritual strength, GRACE in fact, through certain means. These are His Word and Sacraments. He says, “Thou art redeemed, O Man; Christ died for thee. Come, commune with Me; I will give thee My Word and Will; will assure thee of pardon; will give thee My Strength to help thy weakness; will give thee in My Sacrament a seal and pledge of thy acceptance, and will make and confirm with thee an everlasting covenant.” The sinner, though assured of God’s mercy, is ever conscious of his own sin; and his every experience but impresses him with his own weakness. He comes to receive again what God offers him through the means entrusted to His Church. Hence our distinctive teaching is that we gather in Divine Service primarily to receive the gifts of God, and then secondarily to give Him our praise and prayer. We receive far more than we can ever give. The Divine element predominates; the human is governed by it. It is not what man does, but what God brings. Examine the Service in the light of this distinctive principle; see the importance accorded the Divine element, the Means of God’s coming to us, the Word and the Sacrament. Luther in his very first liturgical writing said, “One thing is needful, namely, that Mary should sit at Christ’s feet and hear His Word daily, which is that best part which she has chosen, and which shall never be taken from her. There is one eternal Word. Everything else must pass away, no matter how much concern it may cause Martha.” See how he labored to give the Word to the people in their own language; how the Sermon as the exposition of it was restored; how the legends of the saints, the work of the priests, the penances of men, the figment of the Virgin’s powers, were all swept aside. Like another John the Baptist he came crying, “Make straight the way of the Lord.”
We, as his heirs in doctrine as in name, have entered into his works. The Greek and Roman Liturgies today are filled with works and ceremonies, with elaborate dramatic symbolism, with invocation of the
Page 13
saints and adoration of the Virgin; but of the pure Word of God, His message to human hearts, there is little. We put them down in sorrow and turn to Orders and Directories of Worship used by many Protestant Communions. Here is abundant provision of Hymns and Prayers and Anthems; even the Apostles’ Creed may be said and the Gloria Patri sung, and if the Lord’s Prayer be added yet it is regarded as a remarkably rich liturgical service. And yet that is all man’s work, his offering to God. All that God brings to man must come through perhaps a single short portion of His Word, for it is to be feared that the Sermon frequently is so filled with the social, political, or at best moral opinions of the preacher that there is scant opportunity for a morsel of Divine truth, an assurance, a promise, or a pledge, to trickle through. In sorrow again we place these down. Let us examine our Service. At the very beginning pastor and people encourage each other to approach the throne of grace by the messages of God delivered to His people thousands of years ago, and so we say, “Our help is in the Name of the Lord, … For Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” and after united confession we receive the assurance of His Gospel again that “Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, hath had mercy upon us and given His Only Son to die for us, and for His sake forgiveth us all our sins. To them that believe on His Name, He also giveth power to become the Sons of God, and bestoweth upon them His Holy Spirit. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Then the Introit gives us in the language of the Psalms again the special message of the day, which we are to receive more fully later in Lessons and Sermon, and about which all our response is to cluster. The very words of the Kyrie, Gloria in Excelsis and Collect bring before us, chiefly in the very language again of Scripture, the Person and Work of our Saviour, and the assurance of His love, His intercession, His benediction. And then we have directly His particular message in the Epistle and Gospel; that portion of His Life, His Work, His Teaching that is to be His especial assurance, promise, warning or exhortation,—the particular Gift of His love for the time to those who gather in His courts below.
And now about this message, this Divine Gift, which is further explained and applied in the Sermon, based directly upon it and not determined by some passing whim or caprice of the preacher;—about this Divine Gift, gathers our grateful response in acceptance and affirmation in the Creed, and our further appropriation and thankful in the Hymns. And so it is the WORD that rules, that is the
Page 14
centre, that is the life of the Service. The Church in its Pericopes) or selection of Lessons, as related to the general plan of the Christian Year, has rightly divided this Word of Truth, and given us a proper portion for every service in the year. “Worship”, says the President of Union Theological Seminary, and he voices the conception of all the Reformed Churches on this point, “worship has for its characteristic idea, its main object, not impression, but expression.” “Its two chief elements are praise and prayer.” (p. 312 & 306 in Christian Worship.) “Not so!” says the Lutheran, with the Common Service in his hand. “The chief thing is God’s Gift to us, His Message in His Word, His pledge in His Sacrament.” About these have grown up that rich devotional literature, as well as that wonderful body of Church Song,—the Hymns, the Graduals. the Choräle, the Chants and part compositions—that show most clearly that the Lutheran Church does not underestimate the subjective or human element in worship, but that she bases it upon the Divine element. God speaks first; we hear and answer.
It is hardly necessary to indicate the manner in which our Service emphasizes the Divine element in the Sacrament. The Eastern Liturgy of St. James says “Remembering, therefore, His life-giving sufferings, … we, sinful men, offer unto Thee, O Lord, this dread and bloodless sacrifice, praying that Thou wilt not deal with us after our sins, nor reward us according to our iniquities.” The Roman Liturgy says “Accept, O Holy Father, Almighty, Eternal God, this immaculate Host, which I, Thy unworthy servant, offer unto Thee, my living and true God, for my innumerable sins, offences and negligences, and for all here present, as also for all faithful Christians, both living and dead, that it may be profitable for my own and for their salvation unto eternal life. Amen.” Here everything is human offering, work and action. Let us glance at some Protestant Liturgies. Here the Holy Communion is a service of commemoration, of Christian union and fellowship, a sign of faith and a promise of consecration on the part of men. In Zwingli’s Liturgy, as indeed in Knox’s and in many of Reformed services today the people remain in their seats, the bread and wine are distributed by the deacons or even passed from hand to hand while a Psalm or Hymn is sung or words of Scripture read. The fundamental idea appears in a sentence of the recent Liturgy proposed for use in the Presbyterian Church by Dr. Shields,—”And here we offer and present unto Thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy and lively sacrifice unto Thee; humbly beseeching Thee, that all we, who are partakers of this holy Communion, may be
Page 15
fulfilled with Thy grace and heavenly benediction.” (p. 245). The Liturgy of the Reformed Church in the U. S. says (p. 96), “Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, sanctify, we beseech Thee, by Thy Word and Spirit, these elements of bread and wine, that, being set apart now from a common to a sacred and mystical use, they may exhibit and represent to us with true effect the Body and Blood of Thy Son, Jesus Christ,” and in the Distribution the formula is “The bread which we break is the Communion of the body of Christ” and “The cup of blessing which we bless is the Communion of the blood of Christ.” The Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England in the formula for distribution says, “Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on Him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving.” Examples might be multiplied, but this will suffice to show us that here again is human work, human commemoration, human consecration, human fellowship, but not the Divine Gift for which we long,—the real Divine Presence in the transaction and the personal, individualized assurance of Divine forgiveness, for which we hunger and thirst. Take the Common Service and see its simple but soul-satisfying words. The communicants come to the altar and reverently kneel before the Lord Who has chosen this way in which to impart Himself to them. Their sin sees the pledge of its pardon in the Holy Elements; with holy reverence and deepest gratitude they receive the Divine Gift, as they hear the very words of the Giver, “Take and eat, this is the Body of Christ, given for thee.” “Take and drink, this is the Blood of the New Testament, shed for thy sins.” Devoutly we appropriate to ourselves the message of pardon, peace, imputation, impartation; reverently we receive CHRIST, with all His Work, in all His plentitude of Power. No, in this solemn moment, not human works as offering, but Divine Gift and assurance.
There are many other distinctive traits in our beautiful Service, but time permits us to mention but one particularly. It presents Christ our Saviour as the object and centre of all our worship; it is a living embodiment of the spirit of the First and Second Commandments, which declare that “thou shalt have no other gods beside Me;” and “thou shalt not take My Name in vain”. We have already seen how the Roman Service centres, not in the propitiary sacrifice which Christ once offered on the cross, but in that which the Church now from day to day continually offers. Its Liturgy is further crowded with references to the Virgin, the Archangel Michael, the Apostles, Martyrs and Saints, some forty of whom are men-
Page 16
tioned by name; not simply references to them, but ‘we should have said confession to them for their intercession with God. And while the clergy are hastily mumbling or chanting this service in a foreign tongue the laity are busy in the pew “working out their salvation”, as with marvelous celerity they cover the decades of the rosary, reeling off the vain repetitions” of Ave Marias, Pater Nosters, and Gloria Patris, Work! Work! Work! Christ’s work ignored; man’s work exalted! The Church, Mary, the Martyrs, the Saints traditions and legends, but little of Christ and His Word. Now take up a Monday morning paper in any great city and read the reports of the majority of sermons there given. Political situations, industrial conditions, sociological problems, criticisms of the national policy, reviews of recent publications, discussion of athletics or Art; disquisitions philosophical, geographical, historical, ethnological, biographical,—but what of Christ and Him crucified” than Whom Paul declared that he would know nothing? Take up again the Common Service. Its very beginning is in the Name of the Triune God; His assurance of pardon meets our confession of sin; our cry of need ascends to Christ in our Kyrie, and Agnus Dei; our praise is given Him in the Gloria, the Hallelujah, the Response to His Gospel, the Sanctus, the Thanksgiving, the Benedicamus; we confess our faith in Him in Preface and Nunc Dimittis; from Him we receive sacramental grace in Lessons, Sermon, Absolution, Communion and Benediction. His Life, His Work, His preaching, His Intercession, His Exhortation, His Promise. We are on the mount of Transfiguration,— Christ is with us in all His Divine Glory, Majesty and Power. All else is down in the valley, far beneath. Jesus is all in all.
Not only, however, does our Service reflect in its form our distinctive views of Divine Worship, but it is a living embodiment of our whole doctrinal System, from which indeed, our conceptions of Worship naturally emerge. We believe that in the very words of the Service not only every fundamental, but every distinctive doctrine of our Church finds expression. The doctrine of the Trinity is proclaimed constantly in Invocation, Declaration of Grace, Gloria Patri, Kyrie, Gloria in Excelsis, Collects, Creeds, General Prayer, Proper Preface, Sanctus, and Benediction. The doctrine of Creation and Providence in the very first Versicle, as well as in Collects, Creeds and General Prayer; human sin and God’s mercy and forgiveness appear in the Confession and
Page 17
Declaration, Gloria in Excelsis, Collects, Creeds, Offertory, General Prayer, Proper Prefaces, Verba, Agnus and Distribution. Concerning the Person of Christ, the doctrine of His two Natures is shown in Collects, Creeds, Proper Prefaces; the doctrine of His Offices passim,—as Prophet in Collect and Sanctus; as Priest making intercession and satisfaction in Declaration, Gloria in Excelsis, Collects, Creeds, Proper Preface; as King reigning in His kingdoms of Power, Grace and Glory in Gloria in Excelsis, Collects, Creeds, General Prayer and Gloria Patri everywhere. Likewise the doctrine of His States. The Humiliation appears in Confession, Collects, Gradual, Creeds, General Prayer, and Proper Prefaces: the Exaltation in Gloria in Excelsis, Collects, Creeds and Proper Prefaces. Of the teaching concerning the Holy Spirit, we see faith, justification, calling, illumination, regeneration, conversion, sanctification proclaimed in Confession, Declaration, Collects, and Creeds.
The doctrine of the Means of Grace not only underlies the whole conception of the Service, but appears specifically as well in individual portions of it. The power and efficacy of the Word is not only emphasized by the dominating, position accorded it as controlling every variable part of the Service, but the very words of the Liturgy itself are in great measure Scriptural, and if not literally so, entirely so in spirit. The whole second portion of the Service enshrines in forms of living beauty the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. We have already spoken of at least one of the individual parts which shows that he who engages in this holy service in the spirit and words of this Liturgy cannot regard the Sacrament either as a sacrificial offering, or a mere commemorative or consecratory form, but as in very truth the way chosen by our Lord Himself to impart Himself in all His plenitude of saving grace and power to us personally and individually. And so we may mention every vital, fundamental doctrine of Christian faith, and every distinctive principle and tenet of Lutheranism and we find it not only dimly reflected but generally most clearly stated in our incomparable Service.
It had been our intention to give a concise summary or characterization of the different families of liturgies, and indicate the place of the Common Service among them;—in other words, to treat of the somewhat complicated questions of liturgical consanguinity and affinity, to present at least, of the ledger in which History has recorded the debt credit account of these near relatives in their dealings with one another,—but this manifestly ties beyond the limits
Page 18
of this paper. We trust that sufficient has been presented to show that not only in its general outline and spirit, but in its individual parts, our Service is at once a living embodiment and a luminous and lovely exposition of the Holy Christian Faith as apprehended by the Lutheran Church, and that as such it deserves to stand as a worthy contribution of American Lutheranism to the number of Confessional Symbols of our Church: not as a dry, dogmatic formula of belief to be taken down from dusty shelves in time of controversy and argument, but as a living thing of surpassing beauty, which our hands, lips and heart may together use whenever we enter the sanctuary of God to commune with Him.
LUTHER D. REED.
Allegheny, Pa.
Page 19
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LITURGICAL REFORM
Few delights are comparable with that of a scholar who thinks he has lighted on a fact which other students have not known, or recognized, or taken into account. As when a chemist, who has put certain substances together a hundred times without being able to make them unite, suddenly hits upon the right proportions, and in the right temperature fails of no necessary condition, and sees them make the nation which exactly imitates and therefore explains nature, so the ardent student glows over the possibility that in Occam he will find the germs of Luther’s theory of the Sacraments, recognizes in Augustine the beginning or reflection of the Collects, or constructs from the “faithful sayings” of the New Testament Epistles a theory of the daily life of the Apostolic Church. But how common is it to find that he is only repeating a discovery, made many times before; to have men say in the face of his prophetic voice, O, I knew that; that is an old story. The critics are fond of showing that every poet is a plagiarist. The commentator discovers in earlier seers the material of later prophecy. The plots of our novels and dramas are tracked to prehistoric story. And we are almost compelled to believe that all possible knowledge is made up of a few score original elements, whose combinations only are variable, as in a Chinese puzzle.
It is very curious again how often a great discovery has been made simultaneously by several investigators. Astronomers differ over the right to name a planet; physicians challenge the title to the discovery of anaesthetics; steam and electrical appliances are ascribed to different inventors. It seems as if when the time had come for the evolution of
Page 20
some new contrivance, when all the conditions had at last been perfected by patient work in many lands, and further progress waited on its emergence, it waited on no man’s wit to discover it, but forced its way through the brains and hands of many, wherever there were thoughtful and unselfish men fitted to be the conductors of the gifts of God.
Let me congratulate this Association formed for liturgical study and research, upon your program and the zeal with which you have begun to follow it. I may not be wrong in the surmise that the Association owes its being and the direction and thoroughness of its studies to the impulse given by a teacher in our theological Alma Mater and the delightful fruits of labour in these fields under his guidance. And he was called into these special studies by the opportunity which occurred (now twenty years ago) to review, extend and defend our liturgical forms. And this opportunity came out of the growth and refinement of our Church, as it cast the chrysalis of its ancestral tongue and began to think and speak and pray in English. But it would be a mistake for this Association to conceive itself to be a pioneer; or as it puts its hand to the axe to hew itself a way and to build itself a home in what seems still a wilderness, to think there are no other workmen, that there are no other clearings, and that stately cities have not risen where a forest was. I propose that we consider the Origin of Liturgical Reform; that we analyze the work in which we are interested, and ask whence came the impulse to it, as worthy of those who are consecrated to the service of God in the world.
No one will deny that there are strong practical reasons in the present for liturgical reform. All of us can remember bald and tiresome religious services, which repeated and multiplied the iteration of hymn and long prayer and targumed Scripture lesson and lengthy sermon and doxology and benediction, as if no other way of worshipping God ever had been known or was possible; and there are around us extravagances enough to show us how overwearied men are trying to escape from it. Wonderful things have been accomplished within the memory of living man. But much remains to do. There are churches of hopeless ugliness; in many congregations an historical service is mangled and misshapen; there are ministers who seem to think of themselves only in the Church, who do and say things revolting to delicate taste and to the reverent mind, and who are unable to explain to their flocks any of the parts of worship or even to discern any reason in it. Eccentric mistakes, the idiosyncrasies of a man or a congregation,
Page 21
are repeated over a wide country in lesser churches. And many a change, which for a while is applauded, is after all but a heartless following of a fashion.
But our Church has awakened to the necessity of liturgical reform. Our people share in the general culture of the community. They wish to have fine churches, and ecclesiastical architecture and an historical service answer to each other. They read; and as they read the best English books they imbibe the spirit of the Anglican Church, and demand the same tone in their own, or that purer and better spirit which fanned the worship of the English Church. They are unwilling to be abandoned to the ignorance or impertinence or vagaries or narrowness of any preacher, and yearn to breathe the communion of saints, the native air of the Universal Church, in the house of God. Then we have grown in appreciation of the doctrinal belief of the Church. The Holy Sacrament is the Centre of our worship and asserts its place. The Word of God will no longer be dealt out as the utterance of a man, but must have its sacramental dignity. Nor should we leave out of view, on the other hand, that liturgical reform is demanded by just such a time of decaying faith as this. It is noteworthy that what are called Broad Churchmen in the Protestant Episcopal Church make much of ritual. As beliefs become cloudy, when men are holding their faith in abeyance, they want a standard, a beacon; and they value a worship whose forms stand, and which goes on undisturbed, even when the worshippers are cold and faith is weak. These are some of the reasons which make liturgical reform a necessity in the present time merely as a practical measure, and would justify earnest men in studying the measures to adopt, the principles to be observed, and the aim to keep in view. But I wish to remind you that liturgical reform is a larger thing than this. It is a part of a wide, deep and venerable movement. It is a world-tendency upon which we are borne. It is rooted in the life of the Church.
At the beginning of this Century in many of the churches of Germany the Gottesdienst had given place to Gottesverehrung. In some of the churches the service of the 16th Century still was said, the ministers wore the alb, there were many services on a Sunday and during the week, and every regulation of the reformers was unchanged;—to such an extent, indeed, that in some places on high days the main parts the Service, except the pericopes and the Words of Institution, were sung in Latin, and, I fear, on other days, when they were not sung in Latin, were not said at all. It is not hard to see that if the Liturgy in
Page 22
such a case was faultless in form, it was an opus operatum: the people had no part in it; they were spectators only. Such a liturgy was only a survival. The life of the Church was not in it, and was not nourished by it. It was not altogether a false motive which led men to substitute a new order and new formularies for the old that seemed to have no meaning; just as in this country the simpler and emptier Service of 1786 no doubt seemed to answer the mind of the Church better than the full Lutheran Order of 1748. But the change went very far. The new formularies were pompous, and were intended to move the people to worship. The Holy Supper no longer was regarded as the centre and focus of worship. The Sacramental idea was forgotten. With alb and Latin song went the whole structure of the Service. Not much was left to the congregation but to be preached to and prayed at. But at the beginning of this Century the whole face of Europe was changed. The conquests of Napoleon broke down the old order. He demonstrated the worthlessness of the structure. And when he had been overcome, it was impossible to set it up again. The French revolution with the horrors that attended and followed it had made men feel how far they had drifted from patriotism, purity, homely affection and religious faith, and brought about a great revival, a conversion of the nations. It was natural there should be a reaction after the excesses of skepticism and political liberty. With renewed assertion of the rights of kings, renewed submission to the authority of the Church, a painful endeavour to restore what was venerable, there was an honest abasement before God,—the hearts of the earnest cried out for more than rationalistic forms could give them. To this era belongs what is called the Romantic movement in literature—of which Walter Scott was a product and a force, to which the Schlegels belonged in Germany, and from which came the Pre-raphaelite School in Art and the revival of Gothic architecture. The Tercentenary of the Reformation occurred in 1817 and directed the thoughtful to the principles and achievements of the reformers. Frederick William III. of Prussia sought the union of the Evangelical Church in Germany—the ancestral dream of his house. He and his successor hoped for a closer relation to the Church of England. He discerned the real causes of the disunion, weakness and overthrow of Germany. The Liturgy for the Garrison Church at Berlin, of which the king was the compiler, Bunsen’s Capitoline Liturgy intended for the use of the Evangelical Church in the Embassy at Rome, and finally the new Liturgy for the Prussian Church, all followed one line, namely, a return to the historical order of service which had been in
Page 23
use in the Western Church from early times, and a return to the order and forms of that Service as “Father Luther” had purified and arranged them. Different views may be taken of the liturgies which the king and his friends published and he tried to force on the Church. But it is evident that they rested on a study of the original and characteristic Service of Worship of our reformers, which deserved to be recalled to mind. In the controversy that ensued men were compelled to study the old Church Orders, to admire the wealth of liturgical material so strangely forgotten, to recognize that such a liturgical service at every point answered to the structure of the old faith, which had been forgotten too, so that in every part the one demanded the other, and to seek and regard the essential principle of the worship of the Christian Church. The past century seemed to have been lost time. The Church awoke with a sigh to the faith of the fathers and to their mode of worship. The contest in Prussia spread to the other states. And so the work of liturgical reform has steadily proceeded in Germany. Probably no German state has been content with the Order and constituents of worship which were in use at the beginning of the century. At present the liturgy of the Lutheran Church in Russia is under revision. And everywhere—while in some places there is incompleteness, and in some a conscious and obdurate aversion to Lutheran forms, based on an aversion to the Lutheran faith,—wherever there has been intelligent guidance, liturgical reform has returned to the principles and liturgy of “Father Luther.”
In this country our churches owe so much to the influence of the Protestant Episcopal Church for the maintenance of liturgical taste, that we are apt to think that the Anglican Church has always been as well ordered as it is to-day. It is a curious fact that, as in the Reformation the Lutheran Service was practically fixed in the period between 1523-1539 while the first English Service, which was drawn from it, was not published till 1548-9, so the reaction, conversion and reform of which I have spoken had declared itself and taken shape and started on its resistless way before the beginning of the Oxford movement, which, in spite of the Romeward tendency it developed, has had so mighty an influence on the liturgical reform of the Anglican Church. It would be unfair to say that it is due to the movement in Germany. The Romantic movement, the conservative reaction, found leaders and prophets in England. The English and the Germans are of the same stock. German sovereigns, whose continental realm possesses one of the purest of Lutheran communities, sat on the throne of England. There is
Page 24
too much in common between the Lutheran and the Anglican Churches for one to be deeply stirred without the other feeling it. Yet it must not be left unnoticed that German influence in this direction was felt in England. Baron Bunsen, for instance, was as effective in England as in Germany. He profoundly influenced Broad Churchmen there. The healthy core of the English Church always is nourished on Lutheran theology. And the very attempt of Frederick William IV. to unite the German and Anglican churches in the Jerusalem bishopric, though it rested on a misconception of the genius of both churches urged on the movement to the revival and criticism and repristination of the forms of the past.
I may say that in the Church of England in this country before this movement began, there was little order. And in England the churches were neglected, instruments of handiwork stood in chancels, the usages of the fathers were forgotten, the clerk and not the congregation said the responses, and it even was forgotten what vestments were in use in earlier time. There is much reason to admire the dignity of the Service of the English Church and its so-called uniformity, but we must not forget that it has been attained under much greater advantages, yet not without sore struggle, in the course of that very movement of liturgical reform upon which we are borne in our own Church, which seems so incomplete, but in which we are striving to do our part.
The progress of liturgical reform in our own country has gone the same course that I have described. The earliest liturgy of our Church in this country was of the historical Lutheran type, but by the beginning of this century another had succeeded it, which answered to the colder faith of the time. And when our first English Churches were organized, our first books breathed the grandiloquent uncertainties and touching periphrase which were a truthful utterance of weakness of conviction. The revival of Church-consciousness, a renewed interest in doctrine, were in no small measure due to the movement in Germany, and in later years the influence of controversy in England was felt. The same movement began in other churches. Dr. Nevin revived a churchly theology and his followers tried to establish a liturgy constructed on ancient models. Dr. Schaff gave a voice to German thought. The General Synod was always aiming at an improved liturgy. In that improvement the Pennsylvania Synod was a pioneer. The Southern Churches practically adopted the Pennsylvania Synod’s scheme. The Church Book finally came into being: and then the Kirchenbuch; and
Page 25
finally the Common Service. We now have the full Lutheran Service with all its provisions for all who wish to use it. We see, ever more clearly, the Christian principle of worship. We are learning to discern principle of worship which our fathers held to be Scriptural and proper to the Church from that which has mastered the Roman Catholic Church and so troubles the Protestant Episcopal Church to-day. And having reached this stage, we recognize it is but a stage. We have yet to understand one book; to criticise it; to live it; and to make it the possession and life of our people. It is yet a mark to aim at. It will be long before the fidelity of many make it a starting-point for further development of the Church.
I have dwelt at length on the origin of the present movement of liturgical reform. It is well to remember that the same interest that occupies us is felt throughout the Christian Church. It has its roots very deep in history. It is a part of the progress of our race. And it is not a spent force.
There have been several great eras of liturgical reform. Perhaps the first was when the simple Service of New Testament time, such a Service as the Didache or Justin Martyr tells of, became such as that of the earliest Greek written liturgies that have come down to us. The adoption of the dramatic principle, the secret discipline, the growing distinction between clergy and laity, the transference to Christian worship of Old Testament forms, the developmen