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Home , Oblation, Words of Institution

130 THEOLOGY regards the person and relations of persons to one another as the essence of reality." In spite: therefore, of the difficulties created by the concept of a Personal God, we contend that Christian Philosophy, following the lines indicated by Lotze, may continue to maintain the postulate of Perfect Personality as applied to God, and to regard the ultimate Reality as the Living Personal Spirit of God, All Holy, All Love, and the world of personal spirits as the City of God. (To be contintzted.) H. MAURICE BELTON.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE EARLY AND SOME RECENT PROPOSALS FOR THE REVISION OF THE ENGIJISH RITE III.-THE ENGLISH RITE OF 1549 AND ITS DERIVA1'IVES. WHEN Augustine came to England at the close of the sixth century, he found in use in the British Church a of the Gallican type; and, if Bede's account be accurate, when he consulted Gregory as to what type of liturgy he should adopt for the nascent English Church, Gregory advised him to arrange vvhatever would be most suitable for the new converts. As a matter of fact, he adopted the Roman liturgy. It is possible that, later, a fe,v Gallican features became incorporated in it, perhaps through the lingering influence of the Bcotic Missions in the north, even after the Conference at Whitby in 664, and subsequently through the intercourse between England and the Continent in the ninth and tenth centuries. This was the liturgy that the English Church used until Norman times; but gradually certain details became modified in different dioceses by local customs or episcopal direction. Thus Sarum, Bangor, York, Hereford, Exeter, Lincoln, and Aberdeen had their own Uses. But by far the most popular was the Use of Sarum, which, until recent times, was attributed to Osmund, of Sarurn, 1078-1099, but which really be ascribed to a successor of his, Richard Ie Poer, Dean of Sarurn, 1173-1215, and Bishop of Salisbury, 1217-1242, who, whilst dean, compiled the Salisbury Consuetudinarium or Custom Book. This again was revised about 1350, and a New Use of Sarurn came into being. This Use exercised a verywide influence, and by the middle of the fourteenth century became dominant throughout nearly the whole of. England, Wales, and Ireland. The importance of this Use lies in the fact that it was the basis of the English Rite which took form in the in Edward VI.'s First Prayer Book.

Downloaded from tjx.sagepub.com at SIMON FRASER LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 THE STRUOTURE OF THE EARLY LITURGIES 131 But a most momentous step had already been takenin the previous year, March 8, 1548, by the authorization of The Order of the Com­ munion in English-a booklet of only three or four leaves-which restored in both kinds, and was intended as a companion to the Latin , which was still used as far as the 's reception of the . The importance of this leaflet has not been sufficiently emphasized, seeing that it was from this Order of the Communion that were taken in 1549 the" warning" for the cele­ bration, both the longer and the shorter Exhortations at " the time of the Communion," the General Confession, part of the Absolution, the" Comfortable Words," the , theWords of Delivery, and the first half of the from Phil. iv. 7. rrhese preparatory devotions for communicants, which should properly have found place in the pro-, were placed in this anomalous position after the and priest's reception, so as to avoid introducing any dislocation of the order of the matter in the with which the people were familiar. It was to escape disturbing any more than was absolutely necessary the order of the service already customary, and to make as easy as possible and as little strange the transition from a heard Mass to a real Communion. They were put into an exceptional place for an exceptional reason; but this exceptional intrusion of extraneous matter between the Consecration and the Communion had a far­ reaching influence, for it led to the same order being adopted in the 1549 book, and from thence it was copied into the Scottish Rite of 1735 (not the original Scottish Office of 1637), and remains there at this day. We come, then, to the first of our wholly English books, the Liturgy of 1549. It was in the main, but with important omissions and differen-ees, a translation of the Sarurn Rite, but it was much simpler, and contained additions suggested by Cranmer's study of the German Kirchenordnungen (Church Orders), the Simplex ac Pia Deliberatio of Hermann von Wied, Archbishop of Kaln, and the Greek liturgies of Basil and Chrysosto.m. It began with the Lord's Prayer and for Purity. Then followed the Psalm or , succeeded by nine and the Gloria in excelsis. Then came the Mutual Salutation, the for the Day and for the King. Then the and (with Gloria before, but no thanksgiving after its reading), the Creed, the , Exhortations, and , as in our present use; after which non-communicants were to leave the quire. Then began the anaphoral portion of the service with the presentation of the elements (mixed ), mutual salutation, and . The Triumphal Hymn contained the words" in the Highest. Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord." Then followed the Prayer for the Whole State

Downloaded from tjx.sagepub.com at SIMON FRASER LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 132 THEOLOGY of Christ's Church, which comprised our curtailed Church Militant prayer, prayers for the departed, the Prayer of Consecration (which contained an entreaty for the sanctification of the elements by the and word, before the recital of the ), and the , concluding with the Paternoster-all without any break or pause. Then followed the new matter from the English Order of Communion of 1548-the preparation of the communicants, namely, Exhortation, Confession, Absolution, Comfortable Words, and Prayer of Humble .A.ccess. Then came the Communion of priest and people in both kinds, the , the sentences, the Prayer of Thanksgiving, and the blessing. Now the question is, how far did this service represent or mis­ represent the older Latin book? First, the whole of the priest's private preparation before Mass is omitted, including the assistants' confession and absolution. The alone survives. Secondly, numbers of minute ritual directions as to the actions of the officiant and servers and their are omitted. The between the epistle and gospel was left out. The Prefaces for , , Feasts of the Apostles and Evangelists, of the Holy Cross, and of the Virgin, were dropped. The ritual oblation of the bread and wine, a marked feature in the Sarum Use, is omitted, the Offertory now consisting of sentences intended to be appropriate to the giving or collection of money. This point is important,because the trend of the later liturgies which we have to consider was to restore this ancient custom of the First Oblation. The earliest custom (which survived in the Roman Use to the ninth century, but had disappeared from the Eastern liturgies in the fourth century) was for the people to make offerings of bread and wine for the service, and whilst this oblation was being made the sang a portion of a psalm called the Offertorium. Then this bread and wine thus presented was offered with ritual oblation by the priest, and he said the prayer called the . In the Sarum Rite, although the offerings in kind by the people had long fallen into desuetude, yet the oblation of the elements was emphatic. The presented" the chalice with the and the sacrifice" to the priest who was to raise it in both handsJ offering the sacrifice to the Lord, and saying, " Receive, 0 Holy Trinity, this oblation which I, an unworthy sinner, offer in Thy honour, and in that of Blessed Mary and all Thy saints for my sins and offences, and for the salvation of the living and for the repose of all the faithful departed." And all this, be it remarked, before the Consecration and Great Oblation. Meanwhile let it be noted that it was anciently the practice in England, as it still is in France,

Downloaded from tjx.sagepub.com at SIMON FRASER LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 THE STRUCTURE OF THE EARLY LITURGIES 133 to bless a loaf of bread (pain benit) , which was cut up and distributed to the people during the Communion-undoubtedly a survival of the time when the Agape and were combined, if not identical. This loaf of bread was supplied by each family in the parish in turn. But instead of the loaf, the " just value and price of it " was now ordered to be given " to the use of the and curates," and this offering was to be made to the priest whilst the collection for the poor was being made in the church, "in recom­ pense for the costs and charges he was at in finding sufficient bread and wine for the Holy Communion." Hence, in our present prayer, the phrase" alms and "-the alms being for the poor, the oblations for the priest, the latter having no reference to the ritual oblation of the elements on the . Thirdly and lastly, in the Consecration Prayer, which was bidden to by the words" Let us pray for the whole state of Christ's Church," there was naturally no mention of the oblation of the elements­ "these holy undefiled sacrifices"-nor of the Pope; but the de­ parted saints did find mention. Another noticeable thing is that the reminiscence of the invocation in the Greek liturgy of Basil­ " Hear us (0 merciful Father), we humbly beseech Thee, and with Thy Holy Spirit and word vouchsafe to bless and sanctify these Thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine that they may be unto us the Body and Blood of Thy most dearly beloved Son Christ"-comes before the recital of the words of institution, whereas the in Eastern liturgies always succeeds it. Only two manual acts are prescribed, the ritual not being specified. Beyond these points there is nothing specially divergent from the old Latin Rite. I need not dwell upon the changes brought about in the Second Edwardian Book. They are familiar to us from our present Use. The eucharistic vestments were forbidden, the were omitted, the Decalogue was farsed in between the nine Kyries, the Gloria in excelsis was removed to the end of the service, the Gloria was omitted after the gospel, the long eucharistic prayer was cut into three parts-the first portion was made into the prayer for the Church Militant and placed in the pre-anaphoral part, all of saints and all intercession for " other departed " being omitted. The Exhortation, Confession, Absolution, and Comfortable Words were placed, quite rightly as I believe, before the Anaphora, and the Prayer of Humble Access quite wrongly left within it. The Conse­ cration Prayer contained no explicit invocation of the Spirit and word upon the elements, while the Prayer of Oblation and Thanks­ giving was postponed until after the Communion. The manual acts were not mentioned, nor were they explicitly restored until 1662, when their number was increased to five. The words

Downloaded from tjx.sagepub.com at SIMON FRASER LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 134 THEOLOGY of administration were altered to the last half of our present sentences. The only important changes made in 1559·were the restoration of the eucharistic vestments as in 1549, and the combinatjon of the 1549 and 1552 words of administration. But the alterations in the Second Edwardian Book had far­ reaching consequences, because they, to a large extent, formed the norm which later liturgies of the English type followed. The Scottish Liturgy of 1637, often wrongly termed Laud's Liturgy, and the American Book of 1789, both were based upon it, and, except in the most important feature of the Consecration Prayer, those two booke were very much on the lines of our own present rite. To take the Scottish Book of 1637 more particularly. After the Gospel the is to say " So endeth the Holy Gospel," and the people to respond, " Thanks be to Thee, 0 Lord." Several fresh and wholly appropriate offertory sentences were added, from Gen. iv. 3 fi., Exod. xxv. 2, Deut. xvi. 16, 1 Chron. xxix. 10, Ps. xcvi. 6, and that singularly unsuitable" Let your light so shine before men" omitted. The oblation of the elements was restored: "The Presbyter shall offer up and place the bread and wine prepared for the Sacrament upon the Lord's Table," though no form of words was prescribed to accompany this action. The Prayer of Consecration began as in the 1552 rite, but-a great difference-contained a prayer for the blessing and sanctifying the elements with the Word and Holy Spirit, " that they may be unto us the Body and Blood of Thy most dearly beloved Son." This came before the words of institution, and the Great Oblation came before the Communion. The words of delivery were those of 1549, and the recipient was bidden to say Amen. Moreover, there was a delightful rubric respecting the distribu­ tion of the people's offerings which I cannot resist mentioning, for it appeals to me very much. It ordered that" After the Divine Service ended, that which was offered shall be divided in the presence of the Presbyter and the Churchwardens; whereof one half shall be to the use of the Presbyter to provide him books of holy divinity; the other half shall be faithfully kept and employed on some pious or charitable use, for the decent furnishing of that Church, or the public relief of their poor, at the discretion of the Presbyter and Churchwardens." Now let us look at the American Book of 1789. You will observe that, whereas the Scottish Book of 1637 had nothing later than the 1604 revision of the English Prayer Book to help them, the American compilers had the advantage of the 1662 revision to draw upon if necessary. And it was our 1662 rite that was for the most part adopted. The more important variations were these:

Downloaded from tjx.sagepub.com at SIMON FRASER LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 THE STRUCTURE OF THE EARLY LITURGIES 135 The summary of the law taken from our Lord's words in Matt. xxii. 37 ff., is permissively allowed to be said after and in addition to the Decalogue. For the Prayer for the King is sub.. stituted our second Postcommunion Collect. There is no oblation of the elements at the offertory. The words" here in earth" are omitted in the bidding to the Prayer for the Church Militant, though there is no mention of the departed in its form, which follo,vs that of 1662, save that, of course, no king is named-" all Christian rulers" is the phrasing. There is an alternative Proper for . In the Consecration Prayer one change is very noticeable. The Great Oblation follows the words of institution, and precedes a distinct invocation of the Word and Spirit upon the elements, which differs from the 1549 form by omitting" that they Inay be unto us," and passing on into the words of our own rite-" that we, receiving them, may be partakers of His most blessed Body and Blood." The prayer goes on to incorporate as in 1549 our Prayer of Oblation, but the Paternoster is reserved for the Postconl111union. The five manual acts are prescribed, the words of delivery are those of 1559, and the service ends as does our own. We have seen that Cranmer's most notable debt to the Eastern liturgies was the insertion of a distinot mention of the Spirit in the invocation upon the elements that they might be blessed and sanctified, not by a , but relatively to the good of the communicants-" that they may be unto us "-following exactly in this particular the Roman and Sarurn wording-ut nobis fiat. I pointed out that, although this special invocation was dropped in 1552, yet that our present words are really an invocation, and quite upon the old lines of a prayer for a good Comnlunion. In fact, they form the only words of Prayer in the whole consecratory sentences, the rest being preamble and narrative. Our rite really approaches more nearly to that of the Apostolic Anaphora, as we get it in Hippolytus, than any other. The Dean of Wells is so struck with this that he asks whether we ought not to pause now that " we are again being threatened with an attempt to insert an Eastern patch into our own sufficient form of Western liturgy." For 111yself, I cannot see any objection to a vast Communion, such as the English­ speaking Churches constitute, developing a distinctive rite or rites of its own, with characteristic features differing (if need be) fronl other rites, just as the modern Roman, Greek, Coptic, and Assyrian Churches have their distinctive characteristics, which we study ,vith interest and veneration. The later Soottish Rite, and the one authorized to-day in the Scottish Episcopal Church in the wording of its invocation, has given rise to some criticism because it drops the equivalent of the nobis inut nobis fiat, and reads simply" that they may beoome the Body

Downloaded from tjx.sagepub.com at SIMON FRASER LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 136 THEOLOGY and Blood." But read in the light of the immediately suooeeding words the phrase seems to be quite innocent, for it goes on "to the end that all who shall receive the same may be sanctified both in body and soul." The proposals which have been made recently to recast the English canon are, I.suppose, the best that can be done with the minimum of disturbance of the existing form. The Prayer of Humble Acoess is to follow the Comfortable Words, and the Post.. communion Prayer of Oblation is connected with the Prayer of Consecration. This is, of course, a compromise, and, like all com­ promises, seems to please no one. But if the proposals will lead people to study the older forms of liturgy-I mean the really primi­ tive forms-soIl}e real educational value will have accrued from them, even if they be not finally accepted. The real defect in our Consecration Prayer, as compared with that in every other liturgy, is that it contains no word of thanksgiving. Now the whole essence of the rite springs from our thanksgiving for the benefits of redemp­ tion; it is ·a Eucharist, and that aspect of it is relegated to a point subsequent to Communion. It would seem best to place the Thanksgiving and the before the words of institution, in order that, by an intrinsic fitness and closer approach to the original form of the , the Communion should follow immediately upon the recital of these words. And the real defect in the structure of the canon is that the steady onflow of praise which begins with the Sursum corda and goes on through the is interrupted by the Prayer of Humble Access, and the organic unity spoilt. But we must al,vays remember that the word" defective" does not mean " ineffective." I do not know what answer is being made to the King's Letters of Business issued to Convocation some sixteen years ago. The bodies from whom the answer ought to oome have, in this long interval of delay, been absorbed in another kind of assembly, and as yet we do not know what its competence or incompetence may be for work of this kind. There are two little points of textual emendation that I should like to see taken in hand. I should like to have the true text of the great Eastern Creed restored, which would give us "I believe in One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church," and which would omit the ~'filioque"-not that the doctrine of the so-called" double procession" is untrue, or that East and West do not really think very much alike on this matter, but beoause the verbal alteration of the Creed has always given offenoe to the Easterns. ~Iy other ·point would be the recovery of the mention of the Holy Spirit in the first part of the Gloria in excelsis, and its omission

Downloaded from tjx.sagepub.com at SIMON FRASER LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 THE STRUCTURE OF THE EARLY LITURGIES 137 in the last part where it obscures the quotation from Philippians ii. 11. The hymn has only two parts, and, according to the true text, one is an address to the Trinity: " We give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory, 0 Lord, Heavenly King, God the Father Almighty; o Lord, only begotten Son, Jesu Christ; 0 Holy Spirit." Then comes the precatory half, addressed to the , and ending with the Pauline ascription of praise to Him: "Thou only art the Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father." I see that Dr. Frere would advocate the additions to the Sanctus of Hosanna and Benedictus qui venit. The Sanctus itself does not appear in the Apostolic Anaphora, and when it was introduced, it was in its simplest Isaian form, as in Sarapion and in the Apostolic Constitutions. Without· the Hosanna and Benedictus the final note of the ascription of glory is immediately caught up in the Scottish office by the opening words of the priest in the Consecration Prayer, and the of thought is unbroken. On the other hand, the combination with the hymn from Isaiah and the Apooa­ lypse, of the quotation from the Hallel Psalm cxviii., which is so closely connected with our Lord's triumphal entry, will seem to some people extremely appropriate, and to others an anomalou9 intrusion. It found its way into the later Eastern and Roman Rites, but not into the Egyptian. Questions like this, and those of hymnody in general and of postures-sitting, kneeling, standing, genuflecting-are really matters which reflect racial customs and temperament, and hardly touch liturgical propriety. And a close study of the racial religious sentiments of peoples is as necessary no,v in formulating a liturgy for any palticular Church as it is a condition of understanding the history of Christian worship in its manifold changes and differing formal expressions in the past. A very good illustration of this is seen in the Liturgical of Narsai, Bishop of Nisibis in the fifth century (Hom. xvii. A., apud Texts and Studies, viii., 1, 23). Three genuflexions by the priest were customary before the consecration took place, and three bows after it. Now, in the Roman Church the genuflexions mark the completed act of transubstantiation. So to a Western onlooker the genuflexions of the Eastern would indicate that the consecration had taken place, while to an Eastern they would convey the opposite conclusion. As a matter of fact, the kneeling symbolizes for Narsai the state and passive immobility of death, and the subsequent bows typify the active Presence of the living Lord. All this goes to show that to insist on uniformity is alien to the mind of the Church. Variety of expression in worship is needed to meet the endless varieties of religious temperament. Wrong­ headedness comes in at once \vhen a particular form, ceremony, or

Downloaded from tjx.sagepub.com at SIMON FRASER LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 138 THEOLOGY kind of service which suits one type of religious devotion is insisted on as the only true and proper form, ceremony, or type. There must be recognition of a diversity of spiritual response as large as the diversity of the Holy Spirit's energies. Religion does not consist, as so many people seem to think, in the rejection of the religion of someone else. It is a positive expression. Orthodoxy means right thinking, not a blind repetition of traditional shibboleths. There is a value sometimes in ambiguous language, because the formula can be accepted as a bond of external union, and can be interpreted by each side in its own sense. An excellent illustration of this can be seen in Bishop Gardiner's , On the Sacrament of the Altar, written in 1551, and Cranmer's reply, which show the diverse interpretations which each side put upon the new English Rite of 1549. The Church Quarterly Review for July, 1920, contains an article by Dr. Frere on the proposed new liturgy for the South African Church. He tells us that the aim of this revision has been threefold ~to restore the unity of the canon, to enrich the Anamnesis, and to provide some form of Invocation of the Holy Spirit. This is the form that the Consecration Prayer would take: " All glory and thanksgiving be to Thee, Almighty God, our heavenly Father, for that Thou of Thy tender mercy didst give Thine only Son, Jesus Christ, to take our nature upon Him, and to suffer death upon the Cross for our redemption; who made there, (by His one oblation of Himself once offered) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world. . .. Do this, as oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of Me. Wherefore, 0 Lord and heavenly Father, according to the institution of Thy dearly beloved Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, ,ve, Thy humble servants, having in remembrance His blessed passion and precious death, His mighty resurrection and glorious ascension, do render unto Thee most hearty thanks for the innumer.. able benefits procured unto us by the same; and, looking for His coming again with power and great glory, we offer here, unto Thy Divine Majesty, these sacred gifts and creatures of Thine own, this Holy Bread of eternal life, and this Cup of everlasting salvation; and we humbly beseech Thee to pour Thy Holy Spirit upon us and upon these Thy gifts, that He may hallow this oblation, and that all we, who are partakers of this Holy Communion, may worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of Thy Son, and be fulfilled with Thy grace and heavenly benediction. And we earnestly desire Thy fatherly goodness mercifully to grant, that by the merits and death of Thy Son Jesus Christ ... all honour and glory be unto Thee, 0 Father Almighty, world without end, Amen. And now as our Saviour Jesus Christ hath commanded and taught us, we are

Downloaded from tjx.sagepub.com at SIMON FRASER LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 THE STRUCTURE OF THE EARLY LITURGIES 139 bold to say: Our Father ... but deliver us from evil. Deliver us from all evil, for we do not presume to come to this Thy Table, o merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in Thy manifold and great mercies ... dwell in Him and He in us. Amen." There is much that is welcome in the simplicity and reticence which, while asking for the descent of the Spirit, does not attempt to define the effect of His outpouring, which, you will notice, in accordance with primitive custom, is invoked upon the worshippers, upon their gifts, and upon the oblation, the purpose in view being a good Communion. More especially welcome, too, is the prominence given to the eucharistic side-the essential note of thanksg(ving, which ought always to be to the forefront in the Consecratory Prayer. The Paternoster is included within the Prayers of Consecration, instead of being said after the Communion, and is followed by an " " which introduces the Prayer of Humble Access, thus leading directly to the Communion. This is a quite reasonable place for it if it is connected in this way with the Paternoster; but if the Prayer of Humble Access is to remain a detached prayer, then a better place would be among the preparatory prayers before the Anaphora begins. The great Intercessory Prayer retains its position in the pro-Anaphora, which, as we have seen, is its older historical position, but it is enriched at the end by the mention of the blessed dead: " And we commend to Thy gracious keeping, 0 Lord, all Thy servants departed this life in Thy faith and fear, beseeching Thee to grant them refreshment, light, and peace, both now and at the day of resurrection." It then adds some words of praise and thanks for the graces and virtues declared in the saints, the Virgin Mary, the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs: "Beseeching Thee to give us grace that we, rejoicing in the communion of saints, and following the good examples of those who have served Thee here, may be partakers with them of Thy heavenly kingdom." It is remarkable that two quite kindred proposals have been made within the last few months for adoption in the American Prayer Book-namely, the shifting of the Lord's Prayer to the end of the canon instead of after the Communion, and the transference of the Prayer of Humble Access from before to after the Consecratory Prayer. These suggestions will be found in the American " Second Report " of 1919. I see that Dr. Frere dislikes the Bidding of special prayers before the Prayer for the Church Militant. He says that the proper place for the Bidding is just before the sermon. But his objection seems to me to rest on a wrong principle. The old Bidding of the Eedes formed part of a group of vernacular devotions, instruction, and

Downloaded from tjx.sagepub.com at SIMON FRASER LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 140 THEOLOGY notifications, attached to the sermon, and known as the Prone. But since we no longer have the service of the Prone, and since all our services are now in the vernacular, it seems most reasonable to place all the biddings to prayer in close connexion with .the Great Inter­ cession. I mean that it seems more reasonable to bid to prayer immediately before falling to prayer than immediately before a sermon which need have no connexion with, or contain any reference to, the subjects of the petitions asked for. To conclude. So long as the essentials of an effective Communion are preserved, exact uniformity of detail in worship in every section of so vast a body as that of the English-speaking Churches-in England, in Scotland, in Ireland, in Canada, in South Africa, in the East and West Indies, in Australia, in America-embracing very many varieties of race and religious temperament, is perhaps neither possible nor desirable. Great artists, Ruskin used to say, see masses, not edges. If you insist on uniformity you invite non­ conformity; if you permit elasticity, within reasonable and proper limits, you avoid non-conformity and retain unity. T. HERBERT BINDLEY.

THE BLESSED SERVICE. Poems on Holy Communion. By Ethel M. Mills. The Society of St. Peter and St. Paul. 2s. 6d. net. These twenty-three short poems, which follow the order of our English liturgy, show a deep understanding of its spirit and express it in verse of singular beauty. One or two of them, such as the" Prayer for the Sovereign," should find their way into future hymnals; while all will enrich the Eucharist for those who use them. This, entitled " Prayer of Consecration," may be quoted: "A little bread, a little wine, Least things 'of earth to offer Thee,­ Changed by this hallowing divine The Greatest of all Things to be ! o Thou most holy, quicken thus Our souls' devotion,-answering swift To all Thy love once did for us, Remembered in t4is Perfect Gift."

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