The Service Of Prayer


If we have understood the Method of Praise which, in these Services,

uses ancient forms in an ordered variety, we shall be prepared to find

similar order, and similar use of variety, in the Prayers. The Map of

the Services on p. 28 should be examined afresh, in order that we may

grasp the unity of the Prayers, as well as the unity of the Praises.



There is the Lord's Prayer set for prayer (see p. 16), at the

/> beginning of the Prayers, to strike the keynote. Verses and Responds

follow next, asking for such things as will be again asked for, in the

Collects which are to come after them. The Collects may be divided

into two classes, viz.,



1. Those for spiritual needs--First, Second, and Third Collects.



2. Those for physical needs, and earthly relations.





Worship-Forms used in the Prayer Service.



See Table of Worship-Forms .



The Preces are Interjectional. The Collects are of the Amen form. The

Anthem should be {128} Antiphonal. The Litany, when used, contains

examples of four of the Worship-forms. Thus, the attention of

worshippers is arrested, and their unity of heart and voice maintained.



Another purpose is served by the mutual relation in which these forms

stand to one another. We shall show, in the Chapter on the Litany,

that a Collect may be preceded by a Verse and Respond, which anticipate

briefly the prayer of the Collect. Thus the Verse and Respond, which

are Interjectional, belong to the Collect. This tie between

Interjectional prayers and Amen prayers is very remarkable in the

Morning and Evening Services. Six couplets of Interjected prayers,

which for the sake of distinction are called Preces, anticipate the

petitions of the six (or more) Collects which follow. They correspond

Couplet and Collect, Couplet and Collect; and, being grouped so that

all the couplets come first, the whole prayer Service is made one.



The Anthem is used to strengthen this unity. Unfortunately the

Revisers stopped short of making an Antiphoner, or Anthem-book; but we

may suppose that the provision made here for Anthems was intended as a

promise of such a book. Our Hymn Books, which were recognised, when,

in 1879, shortened Services were permitted, contain a good number of

suitable hymns admitting antiphonal arrangement. They should supply

some grave thought of God's help, or Christ's mediation, or our

dependence on Him. The Anthem is a bond of union, not a musical

interruption. (See Chap. xiv.)



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