Chapter 17

ORIGIN OF MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.

The Services in the Prayer Book may be roughly classed as (1) those which are used every week: and (2) those which are used more rarely. The principal service is the Holy Communion; which is provided with a special Collect, Epistle and Gospel for each week, and for Holy Days of special importance as being connected with the Lord's life on earth, or with His immediate disciples.

The weekly Collection, enjoined by S. Paul in the churches of Galatia and Corinth (1 Cor. xvi. 2), suggests that the Holy Communion was from the first the usual Sunday Service. And this is confirmed when we find S. Paul making a rapid journey from Greece to Jerusalem (Acts xx. 16), but waiting seven days at Troas so as to be with the disciples there upon the _first day of the week, when they came together to break bread_ (Acts xx. 6, 7): cf. also a similar sojourn at Tyre on the same voyage (Acts xxi. 4). But the Holy Communion was not the only regular Service. Peter and John went to the Temple (Acts iii. 1) _at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour_. _Peter went up upon the housetop to pray_ (Acts x. 9) _about the sixth hour_.

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Cornelius saw the vision _about the ninth hour_ (Acts x. 3). _They were all together in one place_ (Acts ii. 1) upon the day of Pentecost--and it was _the third hour of the day_ (Acts ii. 15). These hours may have been suggested to them as Christians by the solemn scenes of the crucifixion of our Lord (S. Mark xv. 25, 33, &c.)[1].

The constant sense of responsibility and danger tended, of course, to the frequent assembling for united prayer. It was natural to adopt some such method as that in Psalm lv. 17, evening, morning and noon (cf. Daniel vi. 10).

To these were added others: in the 3rd century for example we hear of one at dawn and one at sunset: the former, being especially a praise service, came to be known as _Lauds_ or _Mattin-lauds_; the latter was soon called _Vespers_ (vesper=evening).

In the 4th century we hear of two more, making up the _seven times a day_ of Psalm cxix. 164. During this growth of daily services there is sometimes a {7} doubt whether the night Service is included in the reckoning: but eventually we find for the daytime Mattin-lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline.

The precise time of each is not defined by its name. If Mattins (i.e. Lauds) was not finished when Prime was due, these two Services were united.

But the office for Terce might be said at the 2nd hour or at the 3rd: and in like manner Sext belonged to any of the three hours before 12; and None to the three hours between 12 and 3.

Thus the day was divided into portions of three hours each: each portion had its own Service, named from its close, but said at a variable time according to the appointment of the Ordinary[2]. The tendency was to appoint an early part of the three hours for the Service; and this is visible in the word 'noon,' if it is true that 12 o'clock is so named from the custom of saying None at that time.

_Compline_ (completorium) is so called from its completing the services of the day.

It will be noted that many of the names of Church Officers and many other terms having a technical Church meaning are Greek in their derivation. Archangel, Angel, Bishop, Priest, Deacon, Church, Ecclesiastical, Apostle, Prophet, Martyr, Baptism, Epistle, Evangelical, are instances of this; and many languages show by these and other terms that Christian Churches derive much of their organization from times and places where the Greek tongue was prevalent.

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It might be thought perhaps that the Latin derivation of the names of the Day Hour services would imply a more local and a Western Source for these Hours of Prayer. But some of them are, as we have shown, very early in their origin, and indeed there is evidence from books that something of the same order was very early observed in the Eastern parts of Christendom also.

This frequency of Services had a great charm for men who lived together and worked together in communities, with no great distance between their work and their Church, and who were able to fit their day's tasks and necessary meals to the intervals between the Services.

It was not so suitable for mixed occupations or for isolated houses: and as populations increased, it became evident that a less frequent assembly would be more conducive to united worship.

GENERAL SCHEME OF THE DAY HOURS.

We will not enter into the minute differences of structure which are found in one or other of the Day Hours. The following list will show the order of a Service which is nearly identical with each of them.:

Our Father, &c. Versicles. Hymn. Several Psalms divided into portions by _Glorias_ and _Antiphons_. {9} Several Lessons divided by Responses. Canticles. Lesser Litany. Our Father, &c. Versicles. Creed. Versicles. Confession. Collects.

Thus they followed the general division of worship into Praise and Prayer. By enlarging one portion and diminishing another a special character was given to certain Services. Thus Lauds was made joyful by having many psalms.

The chief Lessons from the Bible were read in the Mattins Service when it was said before Lauds. The union of those two Services resulted in the omission of many of the Psalms. (See Preface "Concerning the Service of the Church" in our Prayer Book.)

The Day Hour Services were not precisely alike even in their outline: but they had a certain similarity which suggested the plan which has been adopted in the Morning and Evening Services of the Book of Common Prayer.

There were always two parts,--Praise: and Prayer.

[3]Each of these parts began with the Lord's Prayer. The Praise part always had something of the nature of Psalms and Lessons: the Prayers always had Collects. The Praises had Praise-versicles and the Prayers had Prayer-versicles. Also as time went on Litanies became usual for special days of the week.

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It was easy therefore to recast the seven Services in the shape which they now have.

_Praise_. The Lord's Prayer. Versicles. Psalms. Lessons. Creed. _Prayers_. The Lord's Prayer. Versicles. Collects. Thanksgivings.

NAMES AND TITLES.

The Services of our Church were translated into English in 1549. Many alterations were made at that time.

The seven Day Hours were combined into two Services--Mattins and Evensong: the Holy Communion Service was assimilated in some respects to Eastern Liturgies: the rules of variation for days and seasons were simplified: interruptions were avoided by the omission of many Verses and Responds, Antiphons, &c.: better provision was made for continuous reading of Holy Scripture.

The change from Latin, which had once been a commonly-spoken language, to the language spoken in England is the alteration which produced the greatest effect upon congregational worship, and the smallest amount of difference in the worship itself: for if you understood both languages it would not matter to you which of them you used.

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The Latin prayers had been known by their first words. Just as we now know a prayer as _Our Father_, or a doxology as _Glory be to the Father_, so formerly they were known as _Pater Noster_, and _Gloria Patri_. Some of these titles have survived. _Credo_ (_I believe_) has been shortened into _Creed_. We use as a Creed the Hymn _Quicunque vult_ (Whosoever will). The Canticles still are known by their first words in Latin, _Te Deum, Benedicite_, &c., and so is the 95th Psalm, _Venite, exultemus Domino_.

The _Lesser Litany_ is a name given to the three petitions,

_Lord, have mercy upon us._ _Christ, have mercy upon us._ _Lord, have mercy upon us._

They are used before the Lord's Prayer as an Invocation of the Holy Trinity.

We proceed to examine the foundation of this order in worship.

The model bequeathed to us by Our Lord is known to us as _The Lord's Prayer_, often called "_Our Father_" from the first words.

[1] Haec sunt septenis propter quae psallimus horis: Matutina legat Christum qui crimina purgat. Prima replet sputis. Causam dat Tertia mortis. Sexta cruci nectit. Latus ejus Nona bipertit. Vespera deponit. Tumulo Completa reponit;

which may be translated:

Seven are the hours at which we sing and pray; Mattins for Christ who takes our sins away, Prime shows Him mocked, and Terce says why He died. Sext shows His Cross, and None His pierced side. Vespers His taking down commemorates, And Compline how they buried Him relates. Thus day by day we sing and pray Christ and Him crucified.

[2] The Ordinary, i.e. the Ordinary judge in such matters, viz. the Bishop.

[3] See p. 16.

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