The Episcopal church

Front matter

HE Episcopal Church

Its Message for Men of Today

Class 13 )(■ 6 I 3 I Book '/\ Y

Preface

This book is a serious effort to appeal to the minds and hearts of those who are becoming aware of the unique character and claims of the Episcopal Church. The charm of the Church is being felt everywhere in our land. Its breadth of sympathy for all conditions of men, its more satisfying point of view concerning the joys of life, its freedom from eccentricities of faith and practice, have brought the Episcopal Church to the attention of many whose religious affiliations have been somewhat disturbed or weakened.

There are certain apparent obstacles, however, which are preventing many from membership in the Episcopal Church. The Church seems somewhat strange, or formal, or complex, or cold. It does not seem to fulfill the conditions that early training had lead many to expect in a church. Its services seem obscure and rigid; its methods elaborate; its practices unusual. It seems to require a decision of a pronounced nature, for one to determine to find in the Episcopal Church his spiritual home.

vii

PREFACE

These apparent obstacles are^ I am convinced, the result of misunderstanding and of the lack of definite information. When the Church is seen as a whole; when its purpose in its services is fully made known; when its reasons for its methods are made clear, the obstacles vanish.

It is quite certain, as experience has taught many a minister of the Church, that there are many people who are adrift from religious affiliation because they believe they cannot conform to the practices, or fulfill the expectations, of church membership. To such the Episcopal Church has a message of deepest import. The Church presents a teaching and practice, which, when understood, have claimed the enthusiastic allegiance of many who have felt an uncomfortable isolation from religious associations. The faith of the Episcopal Church is sane, reasonable, and of right proportions. Its practices are stimulating and satisfying and strengthening. Its methods are calm and healing. It has an atmosphere of joy and peace. Its purpose is to educate the people in the life of the Kingdom of God, and to do this with care, patience and with sympathy. The Church is not exclusive, but inclusive of every soul having a good intention. It is not the judge and the accuser of its people but their advocate and friend.

This book is intended for those who would understand the Episcopal Church; both its

PREFACE

spirit and practices. It considers chiefly the initial difficulties of those coming for the first time within the influence of the Church. It is not a manual of Christian doctrine, or a complete exposition of the Church. There are many such manuals, which should be read by any who wish a full statement.

To those who desire to gain a better knowledge of the Episcopal Church, I venture to offer a suggestion. Attend, for a time, the services of the Church with an effort to understand them. No great spiritual forces in actual operation can be understood and appreciated by study alone, without the corrective and broadening influences of experience in contact with those forces. A great book must be read to be appreciated. The critics can never give an adequate presentation of its charm and power. Appreciation of the Church is likewise a matter of experience. It is certainly worth time and effort to gain some knowledge of the Mother Church of the English speaking people. The services are not so involved as many imagine. An hour's careful examination of the Prayer Book will make them plain. The Prayer Book itself should be in every home. Next to the Bible it has been the book of greatest influence in moulding the religious life of our race.

The Church always welcomes the inquirer, and its ministers are ready to give him instruc-

PREFACE

tion. The Church likewise asks no repudiation or distrust of one's previous religious persuasions. But with its greater experience, extending through many generations, corrected and enriched by its comprehensive contact with multitudes of lives, it supplements and enlarges the religious training of those who Gome within its portals.

This book is intended to create a favorable opinion of the Church, by an expression of what the writer believes to be its true spirit toward its people. Nor are these words written in the seclusion of an academic cloister, but in the study of one who for twenty years has been talking with men and w^omen about these subjects.

May I explain the literary form into which these simple talks are cast? I have adopted this method of a conversation among friends because it permits of more flexible presentation of the subject. It is the natural method of the teacher. Every statement has been as carefully weighed, however, as if it were part of a treatise.

My only hope in presenting this book is that it will not be understood as a complete treatise but that it will help to remove the apparent obstacles in the minds of those to whom the Episcopal Church is extending a welcome.

George Parkin Atwater.

Marvin Parish Hou^

St. Andrew's Day

Contents

Page.

I. The Church and Public Worship 1

II. The Active Worship of the People 18

Chapter II. The Active Worship Of The People

"Well, I went to church again," said the Doctor, as if challenged, when the four friends had gathered for their weekly conference in the Rector's study.

"Get the habit!" suggested the Major. "Habits are great supports to life. They relieve the mind of a vast amount of strain."

"Some habits do," admitted the Doctor.

"I am speaking of habits of which we approve," replied the Major with a trace of humor in his voice. "The trouble with most people is that they begin every Saturday night to decide whether or not they will go to church Sunday. It is always an open question. They struggle with it on Sunday morning, until the mind is worn out with perplexity. Any chance occurrence comes in to turn the scale. A visitor, a late morning paper, a failure to consult the clock, a flat tire, a dozen little things, determine the decision adversely. Habit would overcome all this."

"You are quite a philosopher, Major," asserted the Doctor.

"Not at all. Onlj^ an observer. It is never an open question as to whether or not a man will go to his business on Monday morning, even if he might remain away or be late. His decision about that has been niade once for all. Habit does the rest. Nothing is so satisfactory and so beneficial as to let habit carry you on. People torture themselves by indecision. A course of action, firmly established, would relieve them of countless mental confusions.

"So you think church-going can become a habit?" asked the Doctor.

"Nothing easier!" affirmed the Major. "Never let it be an open question, never let a Saturday night's indecision or a Sunday morning's wavering disturb you. Just get up and go."

"That's a good thing," said the Doctor, "if you are certain that you want to go."

"Why shouldn't you want to go?" asked the practical Major.

"That's too big a question to answer in general," replied the Doctor. "I wanted to go last Sunday and I went. I wanted to see the church in the light of our discussion last week."

"We should be glad to hear your conclusions," said the Judge.

"I am hardly ready to pronounce judgment, most learned Judge," parried the Doctor. "I believe that your view of the Church is the result of more experience than is afforded by attendance at two services."

"Quite so!" admitted the Judge. "But that is true of every valuable thing in the mental or spiritual life. The Episcopal Church must not be judged by casual observation and its wealth cannot be appreciated by casual attendance. To appreciate it you must become accustomed to it. But it is worth the time and the effort."

"I found that what you had said modified my point of view and removed certain prejudices against the Church," admitted the Doctor, "but some new difficulties arose as others vanished," and he glanced at the Rector.

"Be perfectly frank," urged the Rector. "If you think that I do not understand that there are difficulties, you are mistaken. Moreover I have learned more from men's difficulties than you can imagine. I wish that you men would get over the notion that you are going to shock a clergyman by your difficulties. You should give him a chance by being frank. If you would realize that the clergyman respects sincere men and respects their difficulties, it would bring them closer together. Men who think that a clergyman is going to brand them as unbelievers, or anything else, because they have honest opinions, or that he will overwhelm them with refined abuse, are sadly unaware of the desire of a clergyman to talk things over. Give us your opinion. Doctor, and let us reason together as friends. This is not a debate in which we must win, but a 'diplomatic conversation' in which we may get a better point of view."

"In that case, here goes," asserted the Doctor. "Last Sunday I was under the impression that your service was too formal. I did not see why you should use the book so much, and why you should rise and kneel so often."

The Rector was silent for a moment. Neither the Judge nor the Major came to his aid. It was an old question but one that all felt to be important.

"Let us take things in their order, and get down to the fundamental principles," began the Rector. "Do you remember the young woman in Arnold Bennett's play who asked a scientist who mentioned specific gravity, *Now what is specific gravity, in a word?' "

Everyone laughed. The Doctor nodded his head.

"It takes more than a word to make clear the principle of worship of the Episcopal Church.

If you are prepared for several words, then I can explain."

"There are two types of human beings," said the Rector, "the active and the passive types. Every educational effort shows the influence of these two types. There are people who are more edified by lectures which they receive and think over, and there are others who are more benefited by teaching and reciting. The latter method gives a readiness to the habit of expressing and stating what they have learned."

"You can learn more quickly by attempting to teach than in any other way," put in the practical Major.

"These two general tendencies have always had an influence in religion and have determined in one way or another the methods of public worship," continued the Rector. "The extreme of the passive type is the quiet mysticism of the Quakers, and a very good type it is, in this clamorous day.

"The extreme of the active type is the camp meeting, which is not so admirable.

"Various churches emphasize this active type, but most of those with which you are familiar are of the pronounced passive kind. The congregation assembles, and then, relaxing into a state of passiveness, listens. It is true that they do sing a hymn or two as a concession to the other instinct, but for the rest of the service they listen, first to a prayer and then to a sermon."

The Major here broke in. "I have a high regard for my brethren of other churches, but when I attend their service I find myself slowly becoming someone else, a sort of unusual self, under a kind of restraint, with an unnatural pressure about my mind and heart. I have felt that way at funerals. It is as if for a moment I had put aside my true self, and were merely engaged in being silently present at a function in which it was highly improper to intrude a thought or action or emotion of my own. I seemed to contribute nothing except an impassive countenance and a hearing ear. I felt like a judge who was taking an impartial survey of the occasion but who gave no evidence of his feelings. It was a relief when they passed the plate. I could do something then."

"Weren't you silently joining in the service?" asked the Doctor.

"Yes, but there was afforded no opportunity to assert myself. I felt as if I were forbidden to salute when the flag passed, or to arise when the national air was played. There was nothing to give me a chance to declare my faith, or to express my emotions."

"I hope you made the collection a sufficient opportunity to show the depth of your approval," suggested the Judge with a twinkle in his eye.

"Trust me," said the generous Major. "I never had any sympathy for the man who thought he was exempt from that responsibility. But let the Rector go on."

"The Episcopal Church, while it gives large opportunity for quiet and searching meditation, emphasizes the active type of worship. The Church feels that the people need the opportunity of expressing their repentance, their gratitude, their faith, their praises, their prayers. Nothing drives an idea or emotion inward so effectively as to express it outwardly. A singer understands that and is more affected by a great song than any of the auditors. That, plus a voice, makes great singing. To utter your faith, to give it words, drives it into your soul. To express it is to bring an emotion, a spiritual state, into the light, so that its roots may grow with the energy absorbed from without."

"That's true," asserted the Doctor, "but how does it apply to your service?"

"You need only follow the service to see that it provides for the outward expression of every

THE ACTIVE V/ORSHIP OF THE PEOPLE

religious emotion of the worshippers. They are not a group of people gathered to hear, an audience, but a group of people gathered to participate, a congregation. They, and not the minister, perform the act of worship. He is but the leader, the director. The worship ranges through every need of the soul, and for each need there is some corresponding expression.

"For this reason our people stand during certain parts of the service. Standing is the natural attitude during praise. We sit during instruction and kneel for prayer. To sit during an entire service is to allow the passive side of one's nature to predominate. But worship is an active participation in the expressive acts of the service. The attitude of the body reinforces and Stimulates the attitude of the mind. The people participate in the worship. They are not a body of listeners."

"It is like the difference between singing in a great chorus and merely hearing a solo," added the Judge.

"If you were a baseball player, which would you rather do," asked the Major, "play in a game or watch a game?"

The Doctor laughed. "I see the point. Td rather play in the game."

"Exactly. And I think you will find that you would rather participate in worship than merely attend it,'' added the Major.

"Many a church whose worship is of the passive type has felt this need," continued the Rector, "and they have tried to meet it by music of the emotional kind. But their chief admission of the need is the institution of the prayer meeting in which the people find opportunity for expression. That is intended to correct the passive character of public worship."

"But do you mean to say that the benefits of the prayer meeting are found in your worship?"

"The two are not exactly alike, but the desire for self-expression that is provided for by the prayer meeting is met every Sunday by the service of the Episcopal Church."

"But no one prays individually?"

"Oh, yes, indeed. Each one does. The only difference is that each one does it without laying bare his individual experience to the gaze of others. There is the utmost individuality in the public worship and yet the privilege of privacy. This is most desirable, because real spirituality is of such a nature that only very rarely does an open expression of spiritual experience prove of benefit to others. But in the public worship of the Episcopal Church each one may express the needs of his heart. If he comes to get the benefit to the full, he comes conscious of the presence of God and the relation of his own soul to God. He brings his sins, his needs, his hopes, his gratitudes, his supplications, his faith. If he does not he is passing by a vital experience of life. There, in an act of repentance, he pours his sins before God, in an act of praise he utters his gratitude. So with every phase of it. Each soul lives through a vital experience before God, and has opportunity in the most impressive and exalted way to give expression to his own worship."

"Do you mean that that is what church-going is for?" asked the Doctor, slightly puzzled.

"Precisely. What did you think it was for?"

"Well, I had not stopped to analyze it very much. I had rather thought of the sermon as the chief thing."

"The sermon has its place, to be sure. To the heart prepared by w^orship the sermon comes to guide, to enlighten, to stimulate. The trouble with too many sermons is that neither the heart nor the mind of the hearer is prepared for them. If the sermon prompts to repentance and to prayer it seems unreal unless the church provides opportunity in public worship for the hearer to give expression to them. I know that you will say that repentance ought to reveal itself in acts and in conduct. True. The sermon and the worship together give the spiritual stimulus to acts and to conduct. Each supplies a necessary element to the religious life, but the sermon must not be confused with the worship."

"Then it isn't enough that people just go to church," said the Doctor. "They ought to be" — here he hesitated for a word — "they ought to be involved in it."

"Exactly," affirmed the Major, "that's the word. Many go who are not involved."

"I was tempted last Sunday evening to a church which held out as an attraction a whistling quartette. I am afraid I didn't go to worship."

"Such a perversion of worship is not worthy," pronounced the Judge. "It may attract crowds, but it cheapens religion. The practice of religion ought to be simple, intelligible, and even popular, in the best sense of that word, but it does not consist in attracting crowds by a promise of novelty or entertainment."

"But the stranger unfamiliar with your worship has no chance. He does not know what to do," urged the Doctor.

"But he may learn," replied the Rector. "It is not so difficult as you imagine. Every accomplishment is the result of practice. You could not play in an orchestra by merely owning a violin.

Every art is the result of effort. Worship is a great art. One must become skilled in it. The first step is to know the methods and to become familiar with the Prayer Book. This is quite easy. A very little attention and the instruction which every Church provides will do this.

"The next step is more difficult. It is to grasp what the worship is intended for, and how you may spiritually take part in it. That requires knowledge and experience. But it is supremely worth while.

"When one grasps only the idea that the people read a few pages from a book, then he charges the Church with formalism."

"That's what I did exactly," admitted the Doctor. "It seemed a form."

"That's a very superficial judgment. The Episcopal Church cares nothing for forms as such. That which seems a form is merely a framework which supports the substance of worship. The worship is like a great oratorio, in which each attendant has a part. Each musician, however, in an orchestra has a score with the notes upon it. If he recites the notes as do-re-me it would be formal, tiresome and without interest. But he plays them. That gives inspiring music. So the worshipper fills the forms with feeling, aspiration, hopes, prayer, and praise."

"But does not that mean a height of worship to which the ordinary man cannot reach?"

"Not at all. Every man living may share to some extent in the oratorio of worship. He may not always analyze and dissect it, but the substance of it will inspire him. And what you call the forms merely direct, suggest, stimulate, and guide. We have no use for forms as such."

"Then you believe in educating the people in appreciation of the substance of worship?"

"Why not? It is a most vital matter. We send our children to school, then to college, and often to universities, that they may enlarge their mental outlook. Is it not worth while to train the people to use their spiritual powers to the utmost?"

"Will the service of the Church do that?" asked the Doctor.

"No," asserted the Rector, "no more than the text books will educate you. You must cooperate. The service is a means, not an end. It is a method, not a result. But every Sunday and every service is a step in the process. Our text book is the Book of Common Prayer."

"That suggests another difficulty," said the Doctor. "Why do you use the Book of Common Prayer?"

"That brings us to the third principle underlying our practice," replied the Rector. "But it is too late to begin tonight. If you care to come again, I'll try to make it plain."

"ni be here again," asserted the Doctor, as they left.

Chapter III. The Prayer Book And Public Worship

The following week the Doctor was the first to arrive at the Rector's study. He found the Rector busy for a few minutes and he spent the time examining the books upon the shelves. Occasionally he took one from its place and turned over the pages. At last the Rector was ready to talk.

"I have been looking at your books," said the Doctor. "They interest me. Men have given religion a good deal of study, haven't they? I never realized that there were so many books dealing with this subject."

"Religion has been the study of man since man began to think," replied the Rector. "There have been a thousand books written for each one I have on these shelves."

"But to what purpose?" asked the Doctor. "We seem as confused about it as were primitive men."

"That is because you have never taken the trouble to study the subject. Medicine seems chaos to me, yet I suspect that the science of medicine has made progress and has reached some definite conclusions."

"You may be sure that it has," replied the Doctor, "but we have the experience and practice of the ages to rest upon."

"So have we," parried the Rector. "And we have reached some conclusions that are quite as worth while as yours."

"I thought every church and almost every minister developed his own views," said the Doctor.

"If that were not the statement of a grown man I should call it childish," laughed the Rector. "If religion were merely the sum total of each man's guesses, surmises, and views, it would be of no more importance than the guesses of a child about the moon. The Christian religion is a revelation of God through Christ, verified to us by experience, study and practice."

*'Why is it not written down in black and white for the plain man?" demanded the Doctor.

"It is," asserted the Rector. "There, your hand is on the book now."

The Doctor took it from the shelf and read, "The Book of Common Prayer."

"Oh," he exclaimed, "I thought that was a book of services for church."

"It is, but it is more. It is a manual of religion. It contains the fundamentals of the Christian Faith. It is a summary of the teachings of the Bible and an exposition of the doctrines of Christianity. It contains all that a Christian need believe to his soul's health."

"But you use it in Church as a service book."

"We do indeed, and it is the most important religious book in the English language, except the Bible."

The Doctor looked at it again and turned the pages.

"I see that it contains a good many things," was his comment. "But just now I am most interested in the question I proposed last week. Why do you use the Prayer Book in worship?"

At this point the Judge and the Major entered. The Judge had heard the question and with a nod to the Rector, he at once began to answer the question.

"So you are at it again, Doctor. I would like to answer your question by asking another. What is public worship ?"

"As I said once before. Judge, before you three entered this open conspiracy to enlighten me, I always thought that public worship was singing a few hymns, listening to a prayer and hearing a sermon."

The Judge was serious. "Would you believe me, Doctor, if I should tell you that that is not public worship in the full historic sense of that term?"

"That's public attendance at the private worship of the minister," put in the Major.

The Rector protested. "Don't put it in that way, Major. It's a fashion of public worship, very modern and quite unlike the worship of the ages. It is not what we feel to be sufficient."

"What is worship then?" demanded the Doctor.

"It is the common worship of the people, with the effort to express five great phases of the religious life," began the Judge. "From the earliest days public worship has developed as a great drama of common experience. It has five elements: repentance, prayer, praise, faith, and instruction. Moreover, it is a participation in the great wealth of spiritual power which our Lord intrusted to His Church."

"But why the Prayer Book?" insisted the Doctor.

"That brings us to our third principle, which is that the Episcopal Church provides for the participation of the people in public worship.

When people come together to share in a service there must be some mode of common expression. There must be some pre-arranged method for common action. The Prayer Book provides the method by which the whole congregation can share in the experience. Otherwise they could not worship at all. Every public worship has some kind of Prayer Book."^

"We never had one in the church in which I sang," asserted the Doctor.

"Not this book, perhaps, but another. Did you not read a Psalm together?"

"Yes," admitted the Doctor.

"Was it not printed somewhere?" asked the Judge.

"In the back of the hymnal."

"That was a Prayer Book of a sort, the beginning of one," affirmed the Judge. "When the people gave expression to worship they used what you call a *form,' printed in the hymnal."

"They did," said the doctor.

"So when you sang together, did you not use a printed 'form'? Could you imagine the people singing without the printed words? The Prayer Book bears the same relation to the worship that the hymnal does to the singing.

"Every time the people share in the worship they use some sort of a form or pre-arranged method. The reason we use a Prayer Book is that the people may join in the worship."

"Well, I see that," said the Doctor. "It gives the congregation a chance."

"Exactly," said the Judge. "And it does more. It educates them in forms of sound words. It enlarges their knowledge and stimulates their minds."

"Where did you get this book?" asked the Doctor.

"It is the product of ages of devotion," answered the Rector. "Four-fifths of it are the words of the Bible. The rest of it is from the devotions that by reason of their beauty and their spiritual power have endured throughout the centuries. It was first compiled in the English language in the year 1549. It was adapted to the use of the Church in America in the year 1789."

Here the Rector went to his shelves and took down a book.

"Let me read to you some words of appreciation of the Prayer Book, written by men who are not members of the Episcopal Church."

"This is from a Scotch Presbyterian. The Prayer Book is the accumulation of the treasures with which the most diversified experience, the most fervent devotion, and the most exalted genius have enriched the worship of prayer and praise during fifteen hundred years.' "

"Another Presbyterian says, 'We have never doubted that many of the purest flames of devotion that rise from the earth ascend from the Altars of the Episcopal Church/"

"Here is what John Wesley said, *I believe that there is no liturgy in the world either in ancient or modern language which breathes more of solid spiritual, rational piety than the Book of Common Prayer.' "

" *Dr. Adam Clark, the most learned commentator among Wesley's followers, says: "It is the greatest effort of the Reformation, next to the translation of the Scriptures into the English language. As a form of devotion it has no equal in any part of the Universal Church of God. It is founded on those doctrines which contain the sum and essence of Christianity, and speaks the language of the sublimest piety, and of the most refined devotional feeling. Next to the Bible it is the book of my understanding and of my heart." ' "

" 'The following is from the memoirs of the learned Congregationalist, Professor Phelps : "The Liturgy of the Episcopal Church has become very precious to me. The depths of its meaning, it seems to me, nobody can fathom who has not experienced some great sorrow. We have lost much in parting with the prayers of the old Mother Church; and what have we gained in their place? I do not feel in extemporaneous prayer the deep undertone of devotion which rings out from the old Collects of the Church like the sound of ancient bells. I longed for, and prayed for, and worst of all, waited for some sublime and revolutionary change of heart; and what that was, as a fact of a child's experience, I have not the remotest idea. If I had been trained in the Episcopal Church, I should at the time have been confirmed, and entered upon a consciously religious life, and grown up into Christian living of the Episcopal type." ' "