Part the First

Explanatory Introduction

This little volume aims to make more readily accessible the treasures of The Book of Common Prayer.

Strangely enough, there is no index to the Prayer Book, and even its table of contents is of little help. Great familiarity with the Book enables an experienced searcher to find a particular collect or epistle or gospel or psalm or rubric without a great deal of trouble; but the wayfaring man sadly needs signposts and directions.

While the need for an index is obvious, the actual making of one is by no means a simple matter. There is, first of all, the difficulty that arises from the fact that not until 1934 did General Convention provide for uniform pagination throughout the Book,* i.e., from the beginning of Morning Prayer until the end of the Articles of Religion. The pagination of the prefatory matter which precedes Morning Prayer has always been on the basis of Roman numerals and the resolution of 1934 was not applicable to this portion of the Book. In 1943 General Convention passed another resolution approving the printing of the new Table of Psalms and Lessons for the Christian Year, which necessarily increased the number of pages devoted to prefatory matter. The index now set forth is accordingly based, as to prefatory matter, upon the pagination made necessary by the resolution of 1943, and, as to all subsequent matter, upon the pagination provided for by the resolution of 1934.

Another element of difficulty results from the nature of the material to be indexed. In most books the names of people, places and events can readily be listed and arranged in proper order. Not so with the Prayer Book. The mechanical work of indexing must be preceded by a descriptive statement of the things to be indexed. In some instances (as in the case of the Epistles) the familiar opening words will be found sufficient for identification. In others (as, for example, the Gospels) it is probably more satisfactory to identify them by a concise statement of their subject matter.

A peculiar difficulty presents itself in the case of the prayers. Some of the prayers are specifically designated “collects.” In this index these are listed under that caption in the order of their occurrence, each being designated by a condensed statement of its subject matter. It is, however, by no means easy to remember whether the prayer for which one is searching is or is not a collect. It has accordingly been thought wise, at the cost of partial duplication, to index all prayers (whether styled collects or not) under the caption “Prayers,” designating each of them by a statement of its theme and also by its opening words. Under that caption all prayers will be found in the order of their occurrence, while a side heading indicates the service, the season or the occasion in connection with which the prayer is intended to be used.

No attempt has been made to define a “collect.” Suffice it to observe that this designation is almost invariably given to a prayer expressed in a single sentence and limited to a single subject. That subject is almost always a petition for some general or universal blessing—such as forgiveness, guidance, protection—as distinguished from a plea for some more specific or particular favor, such as fruitful seasons or the welfare of specified individuals or institutions.†

An index to the Rubrics must take account of their different degrees of importance. They range from a mere “or this” (permission to use an alternative form of prayer) to matters of very considerable moment. To classify them according to subject matter is the obvious thing to do, but many rubrics of minor importance may properly be designated collectively merely as directions for the conduct of particular services.

The most satisfactory form of index to the Psalter is a concordance. Mr. Gladstone expressed the reason for this conclusion as follows:

In many of the Psalms (especially, perhaps, in Ps. cxix) there is not found that degree of nexus, or continuity and context, which belongs to the Holy Scriptures in general, and which is so needful in order to make reference easy. A very considerable proportion of the whole are so composed that single verses, or larger portions, stand severed from one another. Indeed, there are some entire Psalms, the contents of which it is impossible, or most difficult, to bring under one collective title or description. Reference to particular passages and expressions is thus rendered slow and uncertain; and the need for a concordance, to assist the memory, plainly becomes more urgent.

This quotation is from the preface to a small volume containing the text of the Psalter and a concordance which Mr. Gladstone himself made. The volume was published in London in 1894, but has long been out of print. Both because of the excellence of the concordance and of the interest which attaches to its authorship, it is here republished with the gracious consent of the publisher, Sir John Murray, and of members of the Gladstone family.

The task of adapting the Gladstone Concordance to the American Revision of 1928 has not been free from difficulty. The principal changes in the Psalter made in 1928 are indicated by the Table on page 124. From the point of view of adapting the concordance to meet these changes, the greatest amount of trouble has been caused by the mere renumbering of the verses in Psalms 18, 45, 58 and 73. In Psalm 18 the first verse was divided into two; and the forty-third and forty-fourth verses were combined. In the Forty-fifth Psalm the first two verses were combined. In the Fifty-eighth, the sixth verse was divided into two, and in the Seventy-third the twelfth verse was similarly divided. Accordingly, every verse-reference in the Concordance to words in the second and subsequent verses of the Eighteenth Psalm down to the forty-fifth verse, in the sixth and subsequent verses of the Fifty-eighth, in the twelfth and subsequent verses of the Seventy-third, has had to be found and corrected by adding one to its number; and, in the case of the words of the Forty-fifth Psalm, by subtracting one from the number of each verse after the first. Doubtless inaccuracies will be detected, but it is hoped they will be of minor importance.

The brief sketch of the Evolution of the Book of Common Prayer has been included in the belief that some knowledge of the history of the Book will tend to emphasize both its importance and its practical value.

The Christian Year

This introduction may appropriately include a brief explanation of the Christian Year. The sequence of Seasons, Holy Days, Feasts and Fasts determines the arrangement of most of the material in the Prayer Book. Common to all branches of the Christian Church is such a division of the calendar year as will provide the wayfaring man with signposts and guides for the journey of life. These are the anniversaries of events of Christian significance, styled Holy Days, through the observance of which a man is constantly reminded of his obligations as a faithful follower of Our Lord.

The two outstanding events of the Christian Year are Christmas and Easter, the anniversaries, respectively, of the Birth and Resurrection of Our Lord. Each of these events is taken, in the calendars of the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches, as the basing point for a series of Sundays.‡ The Collect, Epistle and Gospel for each of these Sundays supply a convenient reminder of the significance of the day and suggest to each reader the practical question, “Where do I stand with reference to this matter?”

The Sundays based on Christmas are the four preparatory Sundays in Advent, the one or two Sundays after Christmas, and the Sundays following the Epiphany, the manifestation of Our Lord to all mankind. The Sundays based on Easter (the date of which varies according to the Paschal full moon §) are next in order following the Sundays after Epiphany. The first three Sundays in the series based on Easter are called, respectively, Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima. A word of explanation of these names is perhaps needed. Quadragesima, meaning a “forty-day period,” is the Latin term for Lent. The Sunday before Ash Wednesday, i.e., the Sunday next before the Lenten season begins, is therefore styled “Quinquagesima,” as being approximately fifty days before Easter. The two preceding Sundays, by another convenient approximation, are conceived of as, respectively, sixty and seventy days before Easter; and these periods are indicated by their Latin names. After Quinquagesima come the six Sundays in Lent, the fifth of which is Passion Sunday and the sixth Palm Sunday. Easter, called traditionally “the Queen of Feasts,” is followed first by the five Sundays after Easter, then by the Sunday after Ascension, by Pentecost or Whitsunday, by Trinity Sunday and, in numbered sequence, from twenty-two to twenty-seven Sundays after Trinity—the last of which is always the Sunday next before Advent. As Christmas is a fixed date and as the date of Easter varies, adjustment is necessary in determining in any given year how many Sundays after Epiphany and after Trinity there will be.

Interspersed through the year are the Holy Days, other than Sundays, which commemorate specific events or the lives of specified saints. Of the former class are Christmas, the Circumcision, the Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, the Annunciation, Good Friday, the Ascension and the Transfiguration. The Saints’ Days of the Christian Year begin in Advent with the day dedicated to Saint Andrew, the first to answer Our Lord’s call, and end with All Saints’ Day, which always falls on November 1. Most of these Holy Days are observed as festal days but some, according to their significance, are to be observed as days of fasting and abstinence.

The year, taken as a whole, is a moving picture of the drama of the redemption of the world. If it is intelligently understood and faithfully followed, it has a compelling power of immense practical value. Nobody will doubt this if he will but conform his habit of life to the dramatic sequence.

Acknowledgments

When Mrs. Pepper and I first met in 1884, she was busy making the index for the Universal History written by her father, the late Professor George Park Fisher, of Yale University. I volunteered to help her. Sixty-three years later she, in a spirit of reciprocity, volunteered to help me in the preparation of the index which is the principal feature of this volume. To her I am indebted for constant coöperation and continuous assistance at every stage of the work.

I also wish to express to my invaluable secretary, Miss Emma M. Kane, my appreciation of the untiring intelligence with which she has typed and retyped, checked and rechecked, corrected and revised, every part of the work.

To the Very Reverend John Wallace Suter, Dean of Washington Cathedral, and official custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer, I return thanks for important advice and help. He and the Right Reverend Ernest Milmore Stires, D.D., have read the proofs and made valuable suggestions.

For gracious permission to reprint the Gladstone Concordance of the Psalter, I owe a debt of gratitude to Sir John Murray and to the members of the Gladstone family.

G. W. P.

Washington Cathedral
1948