SOME CURIOUS THINGS FOUND IN

PRAYER BOOKS.

THE language of liturgies is generally simple, dignified and impressive. Eccentricities and quaintness, however, characterize some of the older books of devotion. In the service of Baptism in the Lutheran Hymn and Prayer Book, printed by Hurtin & Commardinger, of New York, in 1795, the congregation, after the administration of the rite, is directed to sing this verse:

In a

His bath, his meal and preaching,

Are ordinances teaching,

That faith and not fruition,

Are here the Church's condition.

Yet pow'r of Jesu's Spirit

Applies the Saviour's merit,

Submission to his pleasure,

Seals us the heavenly treasure.

prayer of Confession, among the sins mentioned are, "clandestine envy" and sorrows

for the belly."

Curious Things Found in Prayer Books.

371

In this same book, at the end of the Burial Service, is this note:

The thanks of the widow (heirs) are given to the Christian friends and neighbours, who have followed the corpse, and have thus testified their regard and brotherly love to the deceased, and the distressed family. They are ready to make suitable returns on similar and other occasions.

In the first American edition of the Swedenborgian Prayer Book, published at Baltimore in 1792, there is a prayer for the conversion of the Bishops, Priests and Deacons of the Church of England. This is the language:

we

Almighty and everlasting Lord Jesus, who by thy DIVINE HUMANITY alone workest great and marvelous Works, intreat thee to look down in mercy upon all Bishops, Priests, and Ministers of the former Church and upon all Congregations under their Direction. Convert them, we beseech thee, to the knowledge of thyself, and teach them by thy holy Word that in thy DIVINE PERSON Alone all the Fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily. May they all be brought by the Door into the true Sheepfold, and in due Time be admitted within the Gates of thy holy City, the New Jerusalem, now descending from thee out of Heaven. Grant this, we humbly beseech thee, for the Honour and Glory of thy great and holy Name. Amen.

This prayer was omitted from all later editions. The Prayer Book issued in Boston in 1861, of the Apostolic Catholic, Universal or Gospel Church as it is variously called, contains a curious provision

concerning Church government.

After A Prayer

to be used at meetings of the Holy Council or Conclave of the Church, there are six rubrics arranged in paragraphs as follows:

The Holy Council is a body of faithful men assembled in conclave by a call of its presiding officer, the Chief Priest, or head of the Church. It is the great Almoner of the Pious and Faithful, for the distribution of their funds with deliberation and judgment.

The Holy Council is the supreme Ecclesiastic Court, and Court of Appeals, and the whole body of the Priesthood is bound to obey its authority. The Council consists of a number not less than forty, nor more than eighty, and upon the members of it are hinged and turn all the temporalities of the Church. The Council appoints its own officers, elects its own members, fills all vacancies in the Priesthood, and its Primate is the Head of the Church. No order of Council is valid without his sanction. Subsidiary Councils, called " Chapters," organized in any diocese, sovereignty, or state, are all secondary to, and under the control of, the Holy Council.

Four Sundays in every year are set apart by the Ministers of Parishes and Churches, under order from the Holy Council, for collections and contributions for the use of the Council. Donations made to the Holy Council, and Funds established for Christian purposes, will be under their guardianship and trust. All petitions to the Holy Council must first pass through and be sanctioned by a Chapter, or subsidiary Council, And applications for assistance and support from aged, infirm, or unemployed Priests, or other officers of the Church, must, in like manner, be approved and forwarded by a Chapter, before they can be acted on by the Council.

The first English Prayer Book of the Reformed Dutch Church, published in New York in 1767,

Curious Things Found in Prayer Books.

373

is largely musical, as the Psalms, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer and Creed are versified. The construction of the music is decidedly curious. Dr. S. Austen Pearce, as quoted in the Year Book of the Reformed Dutch Church for 1882, says:

Some peculiarities of the music may be noted, and are not without interest. The clef is alto, or that of C on the middle line. There are only two keys used, viz., those of C and F, while E flat is the only accidental. On a fly-leaf at the beginning of the book are given scales of the two keys, naming the notes in each key separately, C and F being respectively designated as "Ut," showing that the "movable Do" was then understood and in use. This recalls, and coincides with, the scales as given in the music lesson in Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew," in which "ut" is both C and G in those scales respectively. It is significantly remarked in the preface that these scales, "being perfectly understood, will enable any person to sing all the Psalms in the Book with ease."

Instead of a sign being placed over final notes, as was common in old German music to indicate a pause, a full stop, or period, is printed after such notes at the end of each line—a reminiscence of the old custom of "lining out" the psalm or hymn, or

deaconing," as it was sometimes called, which necessitated a pause in the singing between each line. At the end of each line an indicator shows the pitch of the first note of the next line. A preference is given to eight-lined stanzas. There are no notes on ledger lines, either above or below the stave.

Another curious feature is the high notes employed in some of the tunes, many of them running as high as A! This extreme altitude of the sounds, as indicated by the notes, in music intended to be sung in unison, can only be accounted for by the fact that the pitch in music has been gradually raised during the last two centuries.

While the 100th Psalm is set to a strange melody, the familiar “Old Hundred" is found in the book, but is recognized rather from the sequence of sounds indicated by the notes than by their rhythm.

The tunes set to the Psalms in this English Version, though sometimes the same, are generally different from those set to the same Psalms in the Dutch Version in use in the Church before the introduction of preaching in the English language, and commonly found printed within the covers and at the end of the Dutch Bibles. The same peculiarities of the music are, however, found in both Versions.

Though a time signature is employed, consisting of two-thirds of a circle (tempus imperfectum), there are no equal divisions of time as in ordinary barred music. The rhythm is irregular; the melodies being based upon the natural motion of the language. In these respects the tunes resemble those found in the old Salisbury hymnals. Unlike the Salisbury hymnal, however, in the Dutch book (with but two exceptions) only one note is given to each syllable of the words. The order of succession is oratorical, rather than consisting of a succession of symmetrical musical feet, as in modern Psalmody. While the words are poetic in form, the music may be regarded as in the form of prose. The music cannot be scanned like the poetry. The verse is never dactylic, but always dignified and stately, and never descends to the light tripping measures and regular cyclic forms of the march or dance, with motions regular as the pendulum, which in such large part constitute the church music of the present day.

Many interesting reflections will be indulged in by persons acquainted with the singular action of the human mind, with reference to the adoption for divine worship of music, based upon the dance; a return to a style that was used when dancing was part of a religious service, as it is indeed to-day in some Spanish cathedrals, where a ballet is performed before the high altar as a special service continued from time immemorial.