On reading the prayers and lessons : a sermon preached at an ordination held in Norwich Cathedral on Trinity Sunday (June 4), 1882

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<73

ON READING THE PRAYERS AND
LESSONS.

A SERMON

PREACHED

At an Ordination held in Norivich Cathedral,

ON

TRINITY SUNDAY (JUNE 4),
1882,

BY

EDWARD MEYRIGK GOULBURN, D.D., D.G.L,

(DEAN OF NORWICH.)

PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF SOME OF THE
CANDIDATES FOR HOLY ORDERS.

[Re-printed from the Norfolk Chronicle.']

Stevenson and Co., Printers, Market-place, Norwich,
* — —

SERMON.

1 Coe. xiv., 15.

0 I will pray with the spirit^ and I will pray
with the understanding also"

Among the numerous topics which suggest
themselves in connexion with an occasion like the
present, I choose one, which, if not quite in the
foremost rank (an admission, however, which I
make somewhat reluetantly), fcas yet, I am
persuaded, far greater importance than is
generally ascribed to it. The public functions
of the clergy, those which they exercise in
the congregation, are twofold. That which
has the most obvious and direct bearing upon
the interests of the people is the function of
preaching, in which they appear as God's
ambassadors, charged with a message gathered out
of His living oracles, which they are to deliver with
all earnestness and fidelity. But there is another
side of our ministrations which, because it seems
to be so much easier, and to demand so much less
forethought and preparation, is sadly apt to be
neglected, to the great detriment of our con-
gregations, and to the lowering of the whole tone
of our public worship. If it be a high honour and
trust to be God's mouth-piece to the people in the
sermon, it is scarcely a lower honour, or a less
responsible trust, to be their mouth-piece to Him in
conducting their devotions, and saying the
Church's appointed Prayers. " Oh ; but anyone
can read the Prayers! " Can they ? It is just this
notion, — that any person, educated to the extent a
clergyman must necessarily have been, can offer
the prescribed prayers in such a way as to kindle
and help the devotions of the people, and thus to
edify them,— that makes the Service so often a dead

letter, and even creates in certain congregations,
where the indifference to it is patent, an undefinable
impression of the most offensive kind, that nothing
transacted in Church is of any interest or
importance, until the sermon comes. How deeply
dishonouring to God, and how discreditable to
those who are charged, not only to preach His
Word, but also to administer His ordinances, is
such an impression, wherever it prevails !

It may be of use, then, if on the present occasion
I lay down some of the principles (time will not
serve to do more) which must underlie our reading
of the public prayers, if that reading is to tell upon
our people for good, and to be an element, aa
surely it ought to be, in their spiritual training.
And although the Lessons, and appointed portions
of Scripture, are more or less addressed to the
people, and in this view of them would seem to fall
under a different category from the Prayers, I
shall embrace them in my remarks. For indeed
there is a point of view in which the ritual reading
of Holy Scripture in the congregation forms part
of the service offered to God, which indeed may be
said of everything transacted in the Church,
preaching not excepted. The ceremonial Law of
old had a provision analogous to the Lessons : " In
your solemn days," it is said, "ye shall blow with
the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over
the sacrifices of your peace offerings ; that they
may [be to you for a memorial before your God." *
The ritual reading of the appointed Scriptures, in
the Christian Church, intermingled as it is with
the prayers of the people, is the blowing of the
trumpet over the sacrifices for a memorial before
God ; and in the Pre-Reforroation Church this
significance of the Lessons used to be indicated by
the practice of burning incense during the reading
of the Gospel.

I. Now the first principle, which underlies all good
reading of the Church Service, is that announced in
the first clause of my text ; " I will pray with the
spirit,'' — the higher element of my nature, that in
virtue of which I am capable of holding communion
with God, shall be called into exercise in my prayer.
" God is a spirit ; and they that worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth," Indeed
unless the spirit is called into active exercise, and
does its part, while there may still be a form of

•Numbers x. 10.

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prayer, and a form (as all our liturgical forma
are) edifying, beautiful, logically symmetrical, and
echoing with Holy Scripture at every turn, there
can be nothing which deserves the name of
worship or prayer. The prayers of saints are said
to be " golden vials full of odours." * The golden
vial is ready to our hand in the Prayer Book, — it
rests with us to fill it with the odours of holy
aspirations and affections, — the odours of spiritual
incense kindled upon the heart's altar by the power
of the Holy Ghost, — as it is written, " Let my
prayer be set forth in Thy sight as the incense." f
This, then, is the fundamental, the indispensable,
condition of all good officiating, of all such reading
of the service I mean, as shall be helpful and
edifying to the people. The minister must be
really praying himself, holding real communion
with God in his own soul, — a circumstance which
in the long run is sure to make itself felt, — if the
people are to be lured on to join in the same holy
exercise. "The disciple is not above the master :
it is enough for the disciple if he be as his master ;"
and, if you, God's duly qualified ambassador, are
not engaged in secret communion with Him, when
you read the prayers and lessons, you cannot
expect to lift up the souls of your flock — (however
anxious some of them may be to shake off the
influence of the work and worries of the week) —
into a higher and purer atmosphere, which you are
not breathing yourself. The first thing is, then, to
realise your position as standing face to face with
God and Jesus Christ, and then to pour out your
own heart unto Them in the appointed form of
confession, supplication, or thanksgiving, as the
case may be. Your doing this habitually will act
as a spell upon the congregation, you may be sure,
without the smallest effort on your part to impress
them. No need to " preach the prayers," or try
to make them effective by your rendering of them
(a most offensive practice indeed) ; all will feel that
you are praying ; and the desire will be kindled in
them to pray too.

And the same with the Lessons. Eealise your
position. You are for the time God's mouth-piece,
much more entirely and absolutely than you can
be in a sermon, where the fallibility of the minister
is apt in greater or less degree to deprave the
ministration. With what reverence, with what
* See Rev. v. 8. ~ t Ps. cxli. 2.

desire to bring out the full significance of the sacred
text, should you read! And, again, you are
blowing the two silver trumpets on the solemn day
over the burnt offering, — making the memorial
before God of His Word in both its sections, the
Old and New Testament, — with all the " exceeding
great and precious promises," which it holds out,
and whioh are the foundation of our hopes.
The blowing of these two trumpets is to " be an
ordinance for ever throughout all generations" of
the Church militant. How careful should we be,
in sounding them, to make the significance of them
apparent, so that "the trumpet may not give an
uncertain sound," — to impress upon the minds of
the hearers what God would have impressed by that
particular Lesson !

II. So much for the first and most important
counsel which has to be given in the matter we are
now considering. But is it the only counsel, or
the only one of any moment ? So long as we are
heedful, while conducting the worship of the con-
gregation, to maintain in our own hearts the spirit
of prayer and of communion with God, is that all
we need care for ? May all the more mechanical
parts of the great function — tone, delivery, pronun-
ciation, emphasis, slowness or speed in reciting, —
be safely left to take their chance ? I reply
deliberately and very emphatically, No. Upon
principle, No. Prayer has a body as well as a
spirit; and the body, as well as the spirit, is to be
cared for. Of its spirit, and the absolute necessity
of maintaining it in our conduct of Publio
Worship, we have already spoken. The body ia
the outward expression, which conveys the desire
of the heart. And as the prayer in both its parts
is an offering to God, this expression must
be the best, the choicest, the most appro-
priate that is within our reach. Not only
must the incense give out its fragrance, but the
vial from which it is poured upon the incense-altar
must be golden, — "golden vials full of odours."
Now how is this to be ? The first and most im-
portant advice for rectifying the expression of the
prayer,— I mean, its expression by the living
voice, — is that he who recites or offers it should
thoroughly understand it ; — "I will pray with the
understanding also." " But everyone understands
the Prayers." Do they ? I have a very strong
conviction, the result of having been led for some

years to study various parts of the Prayer Book,
that nobody understands it who has not studied it
(in its history and gradual construction, as well aa
its phraseology), and that even those of us who
understand it best have still much to learn in it,
many hidden and edifying meanings to elicit and
discover. At all events, this may be said, without
hesitation or fear of contradiction, respecting the
volume of Holy Scripture, the reading of which
in the ears of the congregation is, as I have already
intimated, one of the most important parts of
Public Worship. Whatever proficiency a man
may have made in the study of God's Word, there
still remain mines of significance in it which have
yet to be explored ; and each of us, therefore, may
humbly hope that as he gains, in the course of his
daily reading and meditation, fresh light upon the
meaning of Holy Scripture, he shall be better
qualified some years hence, than he is now, to be a
public reader of it. But the Prayers, so far as
they vary from the language of Holy Scripture
(and how little they do vary !), together with the
whole structure of the Services, certainly 6tand
upon a different footing from the Holy Scriptures,
as not having been given by inspiration of God;
and yet to one who looks into the Book of Common
Prayer, with the desire to acquaint himself with its
full significance, how entirely will it approve itself
not only as a composition on which a wonderful
amount of learning and thought has been ex-
pended, but which has been watched over at every
stage of its construction by the special Providence of
God ! But it is vain to expect that you can exhibit
the significance of these Services, unless you have
yourselves seized it ; and to seize it without study
is an impossibility. — An instance drawn from my
©wn early experience will best illustrate what I
mean ; I trust you will pardon my egotism, if
egotism it be, in adducing it. Shortly after I had
been ordained Priest, an elderly friend, who casually
heard me give the Absolution on one of the first
occasions on which I was qualified to give it, told
me it was evident to him, from my manner of
reading, that I did not understand it. I was
inclined to be piqued by the censure at first, until
he showed me that it was perfectly just. " You do
not perceive the coherence of the formulary," said
he ; " you have never laid the parts of it together in
your mind. The earlier part contains an announce-

8

ment of the terms on which God forgives the
sinner, which are repentance and faith ; ' He
pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly
repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy gospel.'
"What follows is a prayer, or an exhortation to
prayer, that we, the congregation there present,
may come under the terms so announced, which
can only bo by God's grace forming in us these
dispositions of heart ; ' Wherefore let us beseech
him to grant us true repentance, and his holy
Spirit' (i.e., the holy Spirit of faith,) so that,
our persons being accepted through Christ,
the worship we now offer may be accepted,—
'that those things may please him, which we do
at this present ; and that ' henceforth we may date
our course afresh from this new exercise of re-
pentance and faith — ' the rest of our life hereafter
may be pure and holy ; so that at the last we may
come to his eternal joy.' " "No man," my friend
added, " whose mind is fully possessed with this
connexion of thought, can fail to indicate it in his
voice by laying a slight emphasis on the ' us ;'
' Wherefore let us beseech him to grant us true
repentance and his holy Spirit.' You did not do
this ; and I saw at once that you had never given
any thought or study to the formulary ; your voice
would have gone right enough, had not your
understanding been in fault." It was a great
lesson to me at starting, which I have never
forgotten, how very little one may understand of
formularies familiar to us as household words,
thinking that, because the sound of them is in our
ears, the sense is, therefore, necessarily in our
minds. — I may add that the late Bishop Wilber-
force (who was blessed with a voice of marvellous
flexibility of tone) set me a thinking, when I first
heard him confirm children, what could be his
meaning in giving a stress and tone to the word
11 everlasting " in the close of the sentence of
Administration ; — " Defend, 0 Lord, this Thy child,
&c, &c, that he may continue Thine for ever, and
daily increase in Thy holy Spirit more and more,
till he come ito Thine everlasting kingdom." It
Btruck me that the implication of such an emphasis
must be that the child had already come, in virtue
of its Baptism, into God's earthly kingdom, the
Church, and that what now remained was, that by
the defence of His grace, and by daily increase in
the holy Spirit, it might reach the everlasting

9

kingdom, — might " finally come to the land of
everlasting life," as the phraseology is in the
Baptismal Service. So I asked the Bishop whether
that was what he intended to convey. "Well,"
he said, "I do not know that I ever intended to
convey anything ; but certainly that is how I under-
stand the words ; and I suppose I say them ac-
cordingly." This is a good instance of a meaning
latent in words, being elicited and conveyed to the
hearer by the method of reading them.

But while the understanding of a formulary is
the first requisite for the right rendering of it by
the voice, it is not the sole one. There are other
points, minuticB seemingly, — but still minutiae
which, if not attended to, are apt to distress the
congregation, and hinder their devotions, — in
which almost all readers require correction, and
in which the correction must be made before
a faulty habit is formed. Such are vulgar,
broad, mincing, and provincial pronunciations
of certain words ; drawling (a most pernicious
habit, because it balks the worshipper, and
takes the fervour out of his devotions) ; [an
unduly rapid recital of the prayers in a country
congregation, where the comparatively uneducated
minds of the peasants cannot possibly move so fast
as that of the clergyman ; whining and snuffling, as
the Puritans used to do, as if forsooth, because the
exercise is a religious one, the voice ought to lose
all its natural tones, and assume an artificial and
querulous key. Add to which, that all of us
(but more especially those who have any force of
character or originality of mind) have certain
mannerisms in pronunciation, gesture, attitude, the
result of idiosyncracy or our peculiar temperament,
— some of which perhaps may be harmless (and to
those who know and love us even interesting, as
part of our personality), but others are apt to be
grotesque, ungraceful, painfully eccentric, and such
as we should do well to unlearn. How are
we to proceed in regard to these and similar
defects, which may prove a real drawback and
hindrance in our ministration of God's ordinances ?
It would be well if every young clergyman would
select some judicious senior friend, a scholar and
a gentleman as well as a Christian, and a man of
experience and knowledge of the world, and would
invite him to be a listener, and make what criticisms
he pleased both on the reading and preaching of a

10

beginner. " My only wish is to cure the faults
incidental to my youth and inexperience; tell me
candidly what they are. Notice them all, small
and great, it you please, all the mis-pronouuced
words, all the vulgarisms, all the provincialisms,
all the affectations, all the pieces of bad taste,
all the oddities, all the uncouthnesses, every-
thing in my manner, voice, or bearing, which
could by possibility distress my hearers, or
excite a smile on their countenances." Such
a Mentor might do incalculable service, if wo
only gave him full liberty of speech, with the
assurance that we should never take offence what-
ever his criticisms might be. But pray observe
that, if any such advice is to be effectual to the cure
of bad habits, it must be given and taken at the
beginning of our ministerial career. The fault,
which a little attention and care will servo to
eradicate at twenty-four, is stereotyped upon
us and has become part of our personality at
forty-four. — Hut I seem to hear some of my
hearers saying, "Are you not going too much
into minutiae ? Are such trivialities as tone,
manner, pronunciation, worthy of being con-
sidered in a sacred function, the execution of
which touches the highest interest of men ?" Most
assuredly. The worship of God, in its very humblest
part, should be conducted with all the dignity,
reverence, and scrupulous care, which we can
possibly throw into it. Shall I say we are never
quite right, until a spirit of scrupulosity (or, if you
prefer that word, punctiliousness) pervades and
gives a certain tone to our ministrations ? And
punctiliousness stands in small things ; and " he
that contemneth small things shall fall by little and
little." # The saying of Mr.Eomaine, which is often
quoted, has an admirable moral, — all the more
admirable, because it turns upon a very in-
significant matter — a piece of clerical costume,
which is now (for whatever reasons) falling fast into
desuetude. Observing his curate coming out of
the vestry without bands, Mr. Romaine said to
him, " How now, sir ? no bands ?" "I thought,
sir, they did not signify," was the reply. "Not
signify, sir? How may not the course end, which
begins so? First, no bands; then no surplice;
then no Prayer-book; and then no Bible, sir." If
by giving up the Bible be meant giving up belief
* Ecclus. xiv. I.

11

in its inspiration, and in the supernatural character
of much which it records, many even of our clergy,
its professed and authorised exponents, (alas!
that I should have to say so ! ) are unhappily
fast giving up the Bible. I do not say, because
obviously the two things have no sort of
connexion, that this comes in any way from having
first given up the bands ; but in connexion with
Mr. Romaine's observation, which has become more
or less historical, it is a grim and grotesque fact
that the two surrenders appear together on the
same page of Church of England history ; and
any how the principle stands unimpeached, and
needs no fanciful or far-fetched connexion to
establish it, that minute infidelities in the service
and worship of God lead on to serious ones.

Presume not, then, in any part of the ministry
you are now about to undertake, to "contemn small
things." You are to labour to make everything
connected with Divine Worship as solemn, aa
reverent, as edifying to man, as acceptable to
God, as you have it in you to make it. And as a
test to your own consciences, whether or not you
are doing this with the pure intention of honouring
our Divine Master, and discharging in a manner
pleasing to Him the great function of conducting
Public Worship, let me propose to you in conclu-
sion this question, — whether even at times when
your congregation is very small, insignificant
alike in numbers and station (say on Wednesdays
and Fridays, for example, when there is no
sermon, and no singing, and nobody comes to
church but two or three old folks from the
alms-house), you observe the ritual of your
Church with the same punctiliousness, say
the Prayers with the same fervour and devotion,
and read the Lessons with the same reverence, and
the same desire to bring out their meaning for
those who do attend, as you would if you were
officiating in the dome area of St. Paul's on Sunday
evening, when that vast space is crowded with
upturned faces ? How far, in short, is your careful-
ness in conducting Divine Worship a piece of eye-
service, rendered by men-pleasers, — or how far (on
the other hand) is it done in singleness of heart
with reverence and godly fear ? Is not the pre-
sence of Him " who walketh in the midst of the
seven golden candlesticks," covenanted equally to
the two or three alms-people in the country

12

church, as to the multitude assembled in the
dome-area? "Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst
of them." * Let His presence be but the ruling
thought in our minds, whenever we presume to
administer His ordinances ; and while even then
we shall have to throw ourselves upon His mercy
for the pardon of many negligences and ignor-
ances, yet the service, being rendered " in single-
ness of heart, as to the Lord and not unto men,"
will not fail through His intercession to be
accepted, nor will the people fail in the long run
to be edified, discovering by instinct, as even the
least educated among them will do very rapidly,
the devotion which animates their pastor's heart,
and which will spread among them, in proportion
to their capacity of receiving it, the sacred infec-
tion of Prayer and Praise.

* St. Matt, xviii, 20.

NORWICH :
Stevenson & Co., Market Place.

38

society is become comipt ; the light that is in it is become darkness; the
leaven that leavens it is not the Divine leaven of the Gospel, hut that of
worldliness, selfishness, sensuality, and wickedness ; therefore all these
miseries — the necessary fruits of sin — come upon it. The Gospel is
called the light of the world, the salt that is to keep it from corruption, the
leaven that is to leaven all man's life, and how awfully does history and
the course of the Divine judgements show that it is so indeed ; for if in any
nation that light is put " under a bushel," or is not set on a sufficient
<• candlestick" so that all who come in may sec it, then more and more do
we tee darkness of every kind covering it. And " if the light that is in it
be darkness," if what pretends to J^^^jistianity is, for the most part, some
frightful perversion of it* "how^Bp^j is that darkness!" And if any
" body" or society of men* 3s njfl ^Ri witjAthat salt, how visibly does it
decay and become utterly l'"fl ^7 " -f^^F* sa^ have lost its savour"
— if the teachers and i&ifjjrrs dermic op^ron in any nation have become
worldly — "wherewith shuH it be salted?" "It is thenceforth good for
nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men." He
must be blind who does not, by this time, perceive how entirely it is
one principle, and one only which " has the promise of the life that
now is, as well as of that which is to come" — namely, real and true
Christian faith — one God, one only who in the end rules this as well
as all other worlds — namely, God manifest in Christ. Where that
faith is not, everything sooner or later decays — " it carries within itself
the germs of its own dissolution." All spiritual food is useless or
poisonous that is not leavened with this; all light is darkness that is
not borrowed from and illumined with this. If we would make our
education worth anything at all — if we would have teachers who shall do
any good and not wide-spreading harm — if we would teach politics in any
way that shall not be poisonous — all must be leavened with this leaven of
real uucorrupted Christianity. It is not necessary only, or chiefly, that
the teachers should be men who profess Christianity as their declared
creed, nor yet that the doctrines of the Bible should be taught at times,
but the main point is, that true uncorrupted Christianity should be the
leaven, leavening the whole character of the teacher, and giving its savour
to the whole doctrine taught about everything. This is the sole and only
true remedy for all our ills : "this it" note — just as much as shall be
hereafter — "life eternal to know Thee the only true God and Jesus Chuist
whom Thou hast sent." Leaven a nation with this faith and it will come
soon to " glory, honour, and immortality;" take away this, or turn the faith
which ought to be " leaven, leavening the whole lump" — leavening all
politics, philosophy, and wisdom into a dead stone separate from all life
— and in the end it will come to sure destruction and shame — to " indig-
nation and wrath, tribulation, and anguish." If men will not believe this
by faitli in (ion's word, they will be compelled Booner or later to
acknowledge it bv the ttaht of God's judgements.

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