OR, THE PRAYER-BOOK AS AMENDED BY THE WESTMINSTER DIVINES. AN ESSAY ON THE LITURGICAL QUESTION IN THE AMERICAN CHURCHES. BY CHARLES W. SHIELDS, D.D., LL.D., PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE. FOURTH EDITION. NEW YORK: ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, PREFACE. THE following essay was originally published in connection with the Presbyterian Book of Common Prayer, and properly accompanies that volume as an explanation of the numerous points in which it differs from other editions of the Prayer-Book, though it also contains much matter that is of general and permanent interest. The suggestion has often been made that it should be issued in this separate form, in order to meet the growing interest that is felt in liturgical, as distinguished from extemporaneous worship, and especially to aid in solving the problem of a liturgy that shall be in accordance with the history, doctrine, and genius of the Presbyterian Church. The positions maintained in the essay are: that it is now impossible to construct a true liturgy outside of the Prayer-Book, or without regard to the ancient and modern formularies which it contains; and that the Prayer-Book, as amended by the Westminster divines, and made optional rather than obligatory, would supply the need of Presbyterian forms of devotion, for private and public use, and at the same time afford a basis of closer union among the leading Churches of the Reformation (the Lutheran, Reformed, Presbyterian, and Episcopalian), which originally contributed to the formation of the English liturgy. |