The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-08-02 00:00:00

DEAN STANLEY ON AN IMPROVED
PRAYER-BOOK.

In preaching on Sunday afternoon in Westminster Abbey
on the Book of Common Prayer, Dean Stanley, after giving a
history of its compilation, turned to the question, "Is the
Prayer-Book worth improving ? "

Everything, the Dean said, that was worth pre-
serving was worth improving and capaple of improve-
ment. That which could not put forth new life must,
sooner or later, come to the ground and be cast off.
The Prayer-Book had never claimed the character
of suah a dead, lifeless trunk. It had been
revised once, twice, thrice, four times—twice
under Edward VI., once under Queen Elizabeth,
again under Charles 11., and in the present
reign. There were two modes in which an improve-
ment might manifest itself. The first was by giving
greater elasticity and freedom to forms of worship.
Many of the rubrics had become obsolete. "Charity,"
said Archbishop Tillotson, "is before rubrics," and so
in common sense lay the true safety of the Church of
England and the true use of the Prayer-Book. From
one end of the Prayer Book to the other there was no
mention of surplice or gown, or evAn of scarf or hood,
not to speak of those curious habiliments which were
praised by some and condemned by others. Those
who were inquisitive about these matters had to go
outside the Prayer-Book to find anything about
them.
The second form of improvement was the removal
of such stumbling-blocks as contracted the limits of the
Church and gave offence to those without its borders.
These things were discussed by the best and wisest
divines of the Church nearly 200 years. The rule
which by enforcing the recital of the Athanasian Creed
condemned to everlasting torments the Churches of
the East, and the rule which forbad the reading of the
Burial Service over the grave of the most saintly mem-
ber of the Society of Friends or of the most innocent
little child of a Baptist, of whom Christ said, "Of
such are the Kingdom of Heaven," were obvious
examples or imperfections in the Prayer-book which
became in our own time untenable when our means of
knowledge had so largely increased and our sense of
Christian charity had so greatly deepened. If it were
matter for regret that opportunities lately offered of
enlarging the elasticity of the Prayer-book by re-
moving these stumbling-blocks were likely to be
thrown away, it was nevertheless matter of hope
and thankfulness that the Church of England,
being the Church of the nation and not of a sect, the
Church of the laity and not of the clergy only, there was
always a chance that in future days a nobler spirit of
religious life might arise and remove those blemishes
which its better and wiser supporters had so long and
so deeply deplored. Without those improvements
they could get out of the words in the Prayer-book
many an expression of their own thoughts, If they
wished to express, as many of them might well do,
their thankfulness for the coming close of a long,
dismal, and disastrous war, they could in the general
thanksgiving breathe their gratitude to the Father of
all mercies for this new example of His goodness and
loving-kindness to them.