Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-04-28
PLEA FOR REVISION
CONTINUED from first page.)

CONTINUED from first page.)
Iections, VIC shall lose tho advantage Of
saying the whole psalter in course Why
not then, adopt the suggestion made by
the Rev. Percy Dearmer Of England. in
Canon Scott Hollands Magazine. the
Commonwealth: why not bracket Few
verses in such psalms. and print them in
smaller type? Thereby, as we shrink
from them and pass over them in silence.
we shall be helped. not hindered. for we
shall appreciate how far beyond the jew
ish and medieval and Puritanical stand-
ard of morals have been brought on
the Via Dolorosa by the compassionate
Jesus"
Change in the Commandments.
Referring particularly to the suggest
ed change in the Ten Commandments.
Rev. Or. Douglas said: why should we
not revise here and there on lines sUg-
gested again by Mr.. Dearmer in Canon
Scott Hollands magazine? Why may
we not follow the example of the Roman
and the Lutheran churches and have
the courage to restore our Prayer BOOK
version of the Ten Commandments to
what scholars are pretty generally
agreed was the original and shorter
form. so that we shall not weary our
congregations with oxen and asses and
slaves which they do not possess? Let
us drop the inflated clauses wherewith
some ancient scribes spoiled the mag
niicent proportion Of the decalogue.
There Is great social movement 60
ing on in American. elsewhere in the
Christian world the speaker continued.
Father Doling in England, the Key
Percy S. Grant OF the Church or the
Ascension in New York, the Rev. Mr..
Steizle of the Presbyterian Church, near
I'd avenue and 14th street, New York,
and other ministers OF other denomina-
tons elsewhere have showed how work
ing people and so-called socialists can
be gathered in Christian churches and
attracted to public worship there
Means of Comforting Benefit.
But in order to hold and benefit
these people We must have an alter
native prayer book pr an appendix.
not enforced, but permitted: for our
book of common prayer is unsuitable.
and our hymnal. too Yet are folk
| like these any further from us than
| the hearers of st. Augustine in the
primitive church? The attractions of
the cross begin from very far on. and
the minister who has the Christian
| cross stamped upon his soul will not
compromise 1T If he speaks and prays
| in language Ineligible to those who
| have yet many steps to take before
| they will bow at the holy name. There
are occasions and churches where a
public service for such people ought
to be suitably said without breaking
any rubric, even IL neither morning
prayer nor evening prayer have been
said before on that day.
| THE general convention of 1871 was
held in Baltimore during the Chicago
fire. In that awful calamity a member
Of the convention asked that special
pEayer be offered. They searched the
prayer book through i'm vain. The best
they could do was to say the litany. for
| our hidebound rubrics would not permit
even bishop in our general convention
to offer an extempOre prayer. In Eng
land the sanity Bishop King of Lincoln.
who was prosecuted for ritualism, was
| once in a gathering of non-conformists,
whose ministers complained OF the M
ability of a Church of England clergy
man TO pray extempore.
Adopts Impromptu Prayer.
".Brethren,' said Bishop King let US
pray and there and then he said with
them an impromptu prayer that pene-
trated and upifted them all.
by all means let every priest Of our
church be stepped i'm the spirit and versed
| in the phraseology and forms or our an
| cient service book, by way OF prepare
| ton: but l hope, when our prayer DOCK
| is revived, the rubrics will give us more
latitude and enable US, on occasion, TO
pray extempOre in church without APP
| pearing to be either rampant or radical.
Doubtless there would be some FISK In II,
| hut the first council of Jerusalem In
Cured great risks; and IL we fear them
too much we shall encounter the grea'-
est risk of all far as our social duty
| is commemorative risk of getting out or
| touch with the people of our time; the
risk OF not continuing 10 be living
| church.
Regarded as Unreasonable"
Our prayer book is the product OF
our and our forbears' original capacities.
the expression of our experience. In
many respects the heather whom We con-
| front today never have had and never
will have quite the same. Hence to compel
| them to accept and use our PRAYER oooK
whole and entire as 1t stands, peIore we
| invite them to partake of our communion
! with Christ is as unreasonable and IN
human as it mus be futile. The prece-
dent of the first council OF Jerusalem In
dealing with the differences between the
Jews and Gentiles ZOO year ago indi-
Gates, out of our own New Testament,
wiser and better way. Let our liturgi-
cal experts at home and our best foreign
missionaries. in joint committee, follow
out that better way.
Comfy in Missions.
There is necessity for comfy in Chris
tian missions, according to the speakers
at last nights session of the congress
Rt. Rev. Joseph NJ. Francis, Bishop of
INDIANAPOLIS; Revs. III. Symonds. vicar
of Christ Church Cathedral Of Montreal;
Theodore Sedgwick, rector Of Calvary
Church of New York, and DIR. Reese r.
AIsop rector emeritus OF st. Ann $
Church of Brooklyn, n. Y. spoke on the
subject.
Giving voice to his belief in the neces-
sitv for co-operation between the church
es in their Christian mission work, Bishop
Francis declared that in all too many
instances controversy is substituted TOT
the preaching of the gospel; rivalry
ahounds proselytism is encouraged anu
the conversion of the sinner-the redl
work of the church-is neglected or let
undone altogether.
Terms Conditions Deplorable.
conditions existing In the Christian
world are both deplorable and destruc-
tive" Bishop Francis said. ''They are
responsible for wicked waste OF men
and money There is precipitated strug-
gle for existence among the churches
that causes them to adopt methods Tor
their support which are wrong In prhi-
ciple and subversive Of their spirituai
Two, three and four churches are
found in almost every small town
throughout the land, and each Is poor.
each is struggling each Is inefficient. anu
the communities I'm which they are placed
are. to a considerable degree. Indifferent
alike to the church and to religion. How
much better would 1t be II in each or