The Prayer Book Explained

by Percival Jackson

CANTICLES WHICH FOLLOW THE SECOND LESSON.

We have seen that the Gospel is frequently hidden[1] in the Old Testament Lessons. The unfolding of this hidden thought comes by natural sequence in the Second Lessons. They are chosen from the Gospels, which tell the History of our Lord's Earthly Life, or from the other parts of the New Testament, which carry on the History from His Ascension. The Acts of the Apostles is the second volume of the Gospel History, and the Epistles form a book of correspondence commenting on the first, or illustrating the second, volume. Lessons from the Gospels are records of the Gospel Spring-time, Lessons from the {83} Epistles and the Acts are records of the Summer; the Revelation of S. John carries us on to the Autumn, or Harvest time. To adopt a different metaphor, one kind of Second Lessons are chapters from the Wars of our Leader, another kind are chapters from the Wars of His lieutenants. There is in the one kind the Gospel thought, pure and simple; in the other kind there is the Missionary thought.

Since the Lessons have place in the Services as parts of an Act of Praise, we must always consider each Lesson in combination with its attendant Canticle. We saw that the First Lesson, when combined with the Respond of the Congregation in Te Deum, is an Act of Praise to God, for His Promise of Salvation by His Son. In like manner the Second Lesson, when combined with its Responding Canticle, may be an Act of Praise to God, for the Coming of the Saviour, or for the Spread of the Gospel. We must therefore now discuss the connection between the Second Lessons and their attendant Canticles.

Benedictus and Nunc dimittis praise God for the Coming of His Son—Jubilate Deo and Deus misereatur praise Him for the Spread of the Gospel.

Benedictus.

Benedictus is the Hymn of Zacharias upon the first beginning of the actual Coming of Messiah. "The horn of salvation was virtually raised up when the Incarnation became an accomplished fact" (Godet). The birth of S. John the Baptist was foretold to his father Zacharias, and the name by which he was to be {84} called. Zacharias showed his faith in the Angel's message by giving him this name—John—which means God's mercy. Benedictus is a Hymn upon that name. There is a Psalm, well-known, we are to suppose, to Zacharias, upon the same theme. It is number cvi. in our Bible. From it a very large proportion of the leading words of this Hymn are taken. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel (v. 48), visited (v. 4), redeemed (v. 10), salvation (v. 4), spake (v. 2), since the world began (v. 48), from our enemies—from the hands of all that hate us (vv. 10, 41), mercy (vv. 1, 7), remember, remember the covenant (vv. 4, 7, 45), being delivered (v. 43), righteousness (v. 3), all the days of our life (=at all times, v. 3). Some of these come twice in the Hymn, or in the Psalm, and leave comparatively few leading words unaccounted for.

There are, however, two verses in the Hymn which require further notice. The word anatole is translated dayspring in the last couplet, because it is treated here as giving light to those who sit in darkness. But in Zech. iii. and vi. it is used of Joshua the son of Zerubbabel and translated Branch. The thought of Joshua the High Priest as prefiguring Jesus our High Priest suggested the idea of the Branch, but its other meaning suggested the star of the East ushering in the day.

Distinguish between the Zacharias who speaks and the Zechariah of the Old Testament, the prophet whose words he uses. Note that Joshua and Jesus are the same word, and that the prophet's words about Joshua are used by John's father about Jesus. {85} Also there are references to Psalm cxxxii., where vv. 1 and 11 mention God's remembrance and God's oath, and v. 17 has the horn of David and I will make to flourish, using a word akin to the word for dayspring (exanatelo, anatole).

v. 2. A mighty salvation. In S. Luke (A.V.) horn of salvation: see Psalm xviii. 2. The horn is used as the symbol of strength.

v. 6. The oath is in Gen. xxii. 16, 17, 18, By myself have I sworn—that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven—and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. It is explained (Gal. iii. 16) that Abraham's seed is Christ: in Him all nations are blessed. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise (Gal. iii. 29). Thus the oath to multiply Abraham's seed is fulfilled in the increase of the Christian Family.

v. 9. Thou, child,=John the Baptist.

The Highest=God Almighty.

v. 10. St John Baptist was to give people knowledge of Jesus—the Saviour.

v. 11. The Dayspring is Jesus. The word for dayspring in Greek means "springing up," and is translated Branch in Zech. iii. 8 and vi. 12, and Jer. xxiii. 5.

v. 12. Read Isaiah ix. 2 (to give light, &c.) and Isaiah xlix. 9-11 (to guide, &c.). Also 2 Pet. i. 19 and Rev. xxi. 23 and xxii. 16.

It will be noticed that although the occasion was the Birth of John, yet his father's Hymn is directed to the Coming of Jesus. Jesus is the Dayspring or {86} Branch—John is to be the herald of the Saviour. Not till the 9th verse does the father address his infant son: his mind is turning upon the greater Birth which was to come six months later.

In verses 5, 6 and 7 there is a complex reference to the birth of
Christ's forerunner. By a play on the names Zacharias, Elizabeth and
John he sings that God's remembrance was wedded to God's oath, and
thence was born God's mercy: for as we said above the 'text' of the
Hymn is John—God's mercy.

This Hymn may be called a Hymn of the Advent; whatever is read in the Gospels as the Second Lesson will be sure to excite, in those who listen, Praise to God for the Advent of His Son.

Nunc Dimittis.

The Evening Service is supplied with a different Hymn of the Advent for its Second Lesson—that of the aged Simeon, when, having waited through his long life for it, he was blessed at last with the sight of the Infant Jesus. Holding Him in his arms when He was brought to the Temple, he used these words of praise. God was letting him depart in peace: notice the words Thou lettest: it is not the imperative, praying for release; but the indicative, praising God for His mercy. The other chief thoughts of this short Hymn are that Jesus is God's Salvation—before the face of all people—a Light to Gentiles—and the glory of Israel. Comparing these with the Hymn of Zacharias, we shall be struck with the correspondence of two very different compositions.

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Lighten: not as in Te Deum 'to come upon,' but as in 3rd Collect at Evening Service, 'to give light.'

Gentiles—Israel: making up together the whole human race.

Jubilate Deo.

It is scarcely necessary at this time to show that the 100th Psalm is suitable as a Canticle after a Missionary Lesson; for it seems to be assumed that the Old Hundredth, in its metrical form, is an integral and necessary part of a Missionary meeting. "In its breadth and simplicity it is fit for all occasions of access of the redeemed to God, and naturally it has become (both in its original form and its metrical rendering) the regular hymn of unmixed thanksgiving in the Church of Christ. It is in vv. 1, 2 an invitation to joy, because we know that we are God's people[2]."

This Psalm was formerly used at Lauds on Sundays.

1. We claim the whole earth for God,

2. Because He is God, because He made us, and because He protects us.

4. The wide extent of His mercy is made the ground of praise and thanksgiving at this place in the Service, because the spread of the Gospel has been called to mind by the Second Lesson.

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Deus Misereatur.

Ps. lxvii., styled by Dr Kay The Spiritual Harvest-Home Song of Israel, is to be applied by us to the Harvesting of Missionaries, when set before our minds in the Second Lesson. It especially refers to the gathering-in of the Gentiles ('all nations'), and extends the threefold blessing of Num. vi. 24-26 to them; see vv. 1, 6, 7. Cf. the description which is placed at the head of this Psalm in the Bible, A prayer for the enlargement of God's kingdom—to the joy of the people—and the increase of God's blessings.

In the Sarum Use it was a special Sunday Psalm at Lauds (see p. 44); together with Psalm 63, it followed Jubilate Deo and preceded Benedicite.

[1] Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet, Vetus Testamentum in Novo patet.

[2] Bishop Barry.

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CHAPTER X.

PRAISE.

VI. The Creeds.

The discussions which arose upon the Revelation of Himself, which God gave in His Son Jesus Christ, were carried on between people who lived far apart round the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Nature of Almighty God could not possibly be easily understood by man. We might as well expect a horse to understand the nature of man. When a man tries to make a horse understand kindness, he is often disappointed with the lower nature which seems unable to appreciate it: but he perseveres, and expects some response to his efforts.

In like manner we may believe that God expects us to respond when He reveals something of His own Nature to us.

Assuming that He is perfectly Wise, we must own that what He tells us about Himself it is good for us to believe, and to try to understand. The Revelation is itself a claim upon our Worship. We start with a grain of Faith: that is, we believe that there is a Revelation—an unveiling of the mystery of God's Being.

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It was necessary that argument should just fail to prove this; because it is God's Will that men should be equal before Him: the man who can argue very cleverly was not designed to have an advantage over the stupid or ignorant man in their dealings with God. The meaning of our Lord's words, The poor have the Gospel preached to them, is not to be confined to poverty in money and clothes: the man who is poor in opportunities, learning, intellect, can believe if he makes the needful effort: the intellectual man who is poor in humility has also to make an effort, and to endeavour to believe. They and all others are made equal when God makes His Claim upon them. Moreover, the difficulties of Faith are in proportion to the Aids to Faith. There is no compulsion of Reason, any more than there is compulsion of Authority, or of Imprisonment. We are all free; we all have difficulties; and we all have the call of God to Believe in Him.

Reason is one of God's best gifts. Reason shows nothing contrary to Faith, when the balance comes to be struck. The Intellectual argument is with us all, and is slightly in favour of Belief. But Faith is the atmosphere in which we must move, if we are to see the Invisible God.

Revelation, then, appeals to Faith, and is not opposed to Reason. The Summary of Revelation which is found in the Christian Creeds is compiled from the Bible. Reason is incapable of assuring us that God has a Son, and equally incapable of assuring us that He has not a Son. The Revelation assures us that He has a Son: and Reason cannot, in the {91} nature of things, contradict that assurance. Reasoning can tell us, and does tell us, that the Epistles (say) of St Paul to the Galatians, Romans, and Corinthians were written, as they claim, by St Paul; that the Gospels and other New Testament books are compositions of the first century; that Christianity was accepted as true by multitudes of the people of that century, and so on. But the acceptance of the Faith was then, and still is, left to your choice—a choice whether you will listen to God's Call to be His faithful son, or reject it.

The Apostles' Creed.

The Apostles' Creed is a summary of those things which the Bible tells us of God's Being. There can be no higher act of the soul of man than to dwell Upon the Being and Attributes of God. It is a great step upwards, to purify one's life from evil. But plainly it is a further and higher step, to purify the soul: for the man who refuses to do evil is not so far on as the man who refuses to feel and think evil. It is however possible for him to reject evil only because it is bad for himself. A life of selfishness may be wonderfully free from the doing of evil. The Revelation in Jesus Christ is the Revelation of God as the highest Aim, and of the Unselfish Life as the path to God.

A summary of what God has told us of His Being is most perfect for use in Worship, when it is most free from discussion. A courtier is most courtly when he is freest from doubts and suspicions of his king. {92} The presence of discussion in a creed implies that there has been a doubt.

The Apostles' Creed has no discussion in its clauses, and has been called "The loving outburst of a loyal heart." (Harvey Goodwin.) It is therefore the Creed of Worship and Praise.

The Nicene Creed is the Creed of Self-Examination. Discussion is implied in some of its clauses.

The Athanasian Creed is a Guide to Thought concerning the nature of God. It appeared on the scene at the close of many controversies—when the Church had debated the various explanations of Revelation which had been proposed, and was prepared to declare what God's children may reverently say and think of their Father in Heaven. [See Chapter on the Athanasian Creed.]

"I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy Name because of thy lovingkindness and truth: for thou hast magnified thy Name and thy Word above all things" (Ps. cxxxviii. 2). When used in Church Services a Creed must always be regarded mainly as an Act of Praise to God.

The most evident characteristic of a Creed is that it says what we know of God by His Revelation of Himself in the Bible.

Now, that which speaks of God must of necessity be a declaration of His
Worthiness—an Act of Worship.

We have already defined Praise as that kind of Worship wherein we think of God, and not of ourselves.

Forasmuch as a Creed contains, chiefly or entirely, {93} the proclamation of God's Nature and Being, it is the form in Worship which is most entirely Praise.

The Apostles' Creed is so placed in the Morning and Evening Prayer as to be the highest of several kinds of Praise.

The Psalms have a considerable mixture of thoughts of man, and of human dependence on God.

The Old Testament Lesson, with its Respond, draws from Man's History the joyful thoughts of God's mercy.

The New Testament Lesson, with its Respond, carries our Praise a degree nearer to Perfect Peace and Joy in the Goodness of God through Christ.

The Apostles' Creed entirely omits the human element that we may rejoice in God's Existence.

Other uses of Creeds. Creeds have been used for various purposes, which may be classed as follows:

(a) Symbolum, or Examination. (b) Self-Examination. (c) Guide to Thought and Basis of Argument. (d) Praise or Worship.

(a) In order to understand the word Symbolum, from which a Creed is often called a Symbol, we must go back to the days when, for persecution's sake, and lest they should unnecessarily cause their own deaths, Christians met in secret, and required pass-words that they might know one another.

To be admitted freely to the Christian assemblies a man had to know the
Creed as his pass-word (symbolum); which at Milan, and in other
Churches, was taught to the Catechumens, some three weeks before
Easter, and not written down. They recited it a {94} week later, and
then were taught the Lord's Prayer, in the time of S. Augustine. On
Easter Eve they recited it again, and were baptized. This use of the
Creed survives in the Baptism Services.

(b) Whereas we believe most firmly those things which we most frequently remember, it is needful that we remember frequently the Articles of the Creed. Hence Self-Examination requires not only the consideration of our Conduct, but also the examination of our Faith. In the Visitation of the Sick, and in Holy Communion, the Creeds are used for Self-Examination.

(c) Since other thoughts are built up on those which we have about God, it is usual amongst Christians to use the Articles of the Creed as a Guide to what they are to think about themselves, and about the World, and about the Evil and Good which are in the World. Their arguments with one another rest upon the Creeds which are acknowledged amongst them.

(d) But apart from all inferences and arguments, the facts about God's Existence call forth from the heart of man joyful praise and adoring worship.

The name by which God is declared to His People in Exodus is I AM. The thoughts by which we too come nearest to Him are thoughts which declare what HE IS. Thus the Apostles' Creed in Morning and Evening Prayer is a Hymn of Praise.

History of the Apostles' Creed.

The similarity of the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed, as they stand in the Prayer Book, {95} suggests the reflection that disputes about the Human and Divine Natures of Jesus caused the enlargement of those parts which refer to Him: and that similar enlargements were caused by disputes about the Holy Spirit, and even about the Father. We cannot certainly say that the Apostles' Creed as it now stands is older than the Nicene Creed. But we know that Eusebius brought to the Nicene Council (A.D. 325) a form simpler than the Nicene Creed; and that briefer forms were used in the second century by Tertullian (A.D. 200) and Irenaeus (A.D. 170).

Having already considered the various uses of a Creed, we are prepared to acknowledge that something of the sort was a necessity from the beginning. Justin Martyr's writings, about the middle of the 2nd century, record the arguments about the Existence of God, and of Jesus Christ, which had influenced him and others for many years, inducing them to live and die for the Faith. (See Just. M. Apol. and Dial. Trypho, passim.)

The death of S. John the Apostle must have occurred during Justin's lifetime. We are led therefore to examine the Bible for traces of a Creed. The following are some of the passages which supply an answer to our examination.

Eph. iv. 1-6:

One Body—One SPIRIT—one Hope of our calling.

One Faith—One LORD—one Baptism.

One God and FATHER of all,—above all, through all, in all.

Col. i. 4-22 is an exposition of Faith in God through Christ, with a reference to the Holy Spirit: {96} but especially concerning the Being of Christ, who is declared to be

v. 15. The Son fully and perfectly.

v. 16. By whom all things were made.

v. 17. Before all things.

v. 18. Begotten before all worlds.

v. 19. In whom by the will of the Father all the fulness dwelleth.

v. 20-22. Who died for our Redemption and Reconciliation.

1 Cor. xv. 3-8. References by a preacher to what he has taught to any whole congregation must, almost of necessity, be references to what he was in the habit of teaching. The articles mentioned here are part of S. Paul's Creed, viz. the articles which he is about to use as the basis of an argument about Resurrection.

Acts xix. 2, 3. The ignorance about the Holy Spirit displayed by the 12 men at Ephesus revealed to S. Paul that they had not been baptized as Christians; for (S. Matth. xxviii. 19) that would have involved Teaching about the Holy Trinity.

Acts viii. 37. This verse, though not now believed to be part of the original text, was so believed by Irenaeus (A.D. 170).

It therefore shows us that a confession of faith at Baptism was (1) expected in Irenaeus' time, (2) expected by someone much earlier, who being accustomed to it, wrote it in the margin, or between the lines of a copy of the Acts.

2 Tim. i. 13, 14. The form of sound words was a good deposit which Timothy was to hold fast.

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There are other passages which contain references to the Holy Trinity: suggesting that the earliest Christians, when thinking of the Godhead, were prone to include the Three Persons, as we by reason of our Creeds are also disposed to do. Thus our investigation leads us to suppose that a Creed was early used as a Basis of Teaching, and as a Password at Baptism: that it soon settled down into a form very like the Apostles' Creed: that in A.D. 325 the controversy about our Lord's Divine Nature led to the expansion of those Articles which referred to Him.

To these we may add that in 381 the Council of Chalcedon expanded the Article I believe in the Holy Ghost, or formally adopted an expansion which had become usual: and so gave to the Nicene Creed the form which it now has.

It is difficult to say exactly where the Apostles' Creed is most likely to have come as a link in the historic chain.

A comparison may be usefully made between: