The Ladder Of Praise

The various parts of the Praise portion of the Service are not

repetitions of the same ideas. We {39} have first, in the Psalms, the

simpler thoughts about God. The First Lesson, taken from the Old

Testament, advances to higher or more complex thoughts in Praise of

Him. The next stage is reached in the Second Lesson; and the Apostles'

Creed crowns the whole. Thus a Ladder of praise is made whereby we

climb up to th thought of God in His Perfect Being, which is the very

essence of Real Worship.



The first steps in this ladder are made by the use of the Book of

Psalms, which is divided into sections for these daily Services, and so

arranged that they supply different Psalms for 30 mornings and 30

evenings. If there are 31 days in the month, those for the 30th day

are repeated on the 31st: in February, the (29th and) 30th are omitted.



There are many words which originally meant a Song, but in course of

time have come to mean a special kind of song, or the music which

belongs to a song. Thus Cantus, a song, gives us Chant, the music

of a psalm verse; and Canticle, a psalm after a Lesson. psalmos, a

song, gives us psalm, a hymn, but not metrical, hymnos, a song,

gives us hymn, a song in metre.