Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-04-13
PRAYER BOOK.

III Tic oIlODtE HuulDGI Oh the
Century magazine, Edmund
Clarence Stedman gave al esti-
mate of the Prayer-book, which is
worthy to be kept with the Book
itself, he said: Upon its literary
and construction side | regard the
venerable liturgy of this historic
christian church as one of the few
world poems-the poems univer-
sal | care not which of its rituals
you follow-the Oriental, the
Alexandrian, the Latin, or the
Anglican. The latter, that of our
Episcopal Prayer-book, is a YER
sion familiar to you Of what seems
to NE the most wonderful SYM
tphonic idealization of human
faith, certainly the most inclusive,
blending in harmonic succession
all the cries and longings, and
laudations of the universal heart
invoking a paternal Creator. |
am not considering here this
Liturgy as Divine, though much
of it is derived from what multi
tudes accept for revelation. | have
in mind its human quality: the
mystic tide of human hopes,
imaginations, prayers, sorrows and
passionate expressions, upon which
it bears the worshipper along, and
wherewith it has sustained mems
souls with conceptions of the
Deity and Immortality through
hundreds-yes, thousands of un-
doubling years. The Orient and
| Occident have enriched it with
their finest, strongest utterances,
have worked it over and over,
have stricken from it what was
against the consistency of its inn
port and been a growth, an exha-
lation, an apocalyptic cloud arisen
With the prayers ST the Saints
from chimes of the Hebrew, the
Greek, the Roman, the Goth, to
spread in time oyer half the world.
1t is the voice Of human brother
hood, the blended voice Of rich
and poor, old and young, the wise
and simple, the statesman and the
peasant, the brotherhood of an
age which, knowing little, compre-
bending little. could have no refuge
save trust in the oracle through
which ADJUST and merciful Protector,
a pervading Spirit, living media
tor and CONSIDER, has been revealed.
This being its nature, and, as
the charming masterpiece of faith,
you find that in various and con-
struction beauty-as work OF
poetic art-it is unparalleled. 1t
is lyrical from first to last, with
perfect and melodious forms OF
human speech. Its chants, its
anthems, its songs of praise, and
hope and sorrow have allied to
themselves impressive music from
the ofigination and immemorial
past, and the enthfalling strains Of
it's inheritors. Its prayers are not
only for all sorts and conditions
of men, but for every stress of life
which mankind must feel in COM
mon-in the household, or isolated,
or in tribal and National effort,
and in calamity and repentance
and thanksgiving. Its wisdom is
forever old and perpetually new.
It's calendar celebrates all seasons
of the rolling year, its narrative is
Of the simplest, the most pathetic,
the most rapturous and most en-
nobling life the world has known.
There is no malefactor so wretched,
no just man SO perfect, as not to
find his hope, his consolation, his
lesson in this poem of poems. l
have called it lyrical; it is dramatic
in structure and effect; it is an epic
of the age of faith; but, in fact, as
a piece of inclusive literature, it
has no counterpart, and can have
no successor"
!