There is a growing feeling that the Services of the Church are too long; and many persons think it a sound feeling, merely because it is a growing one. Let such as have not made up their minds on the subject, suffer themselves, before going into the arguments against our Services, to be arrested by the following considerations.
The Services of our Church, as they now stand, are but a very small part of the ancient Christian worship; and, though people now-a-days think them too long, there can be no doubt that the primitive believers would have thought them too short. Now I am far from considering this as a conclusive argument in the question; as if the primitive believers were right, and people now-a-days wrong; but surely others may fairly be called upon not to assume the reverse. On such points it is safest to assume nothing, but to take facts as we find them; and the facts are these.
In ancient times Christians understood very literally all that the
Bible says about prayer. David had said, 'Seven time a day do I
praise thee'; and St. Paul had said, 'Pray always'. These texts they did not feel at liberty to explain away, but
complying with them to the letter, praised God seven times a day,
besides their morning and evening prayer. Their hours or devotion
were, in the day time, 6, 9, 12, and 3, which we called the Horae
Canonicae; in the night, 9, 12, and 3, which were called the
Nocturns; and besides these the hour of day-break and retiring to
bed; not that they set apart these hours in the first instance for
public worship,-this was impossible; but they seem to have aimed at
praying with one accord, and at one time, even when they could not do
so in one place. The Universal Church, says Bishop
Patrick, "anciently observed certain set hours of prayer, that
all Christians throughout the world might at the same time join
together to glorify God; and some of them were of opinion, that the
Angelical Host, being acquainted with those hours, took that time to
join their prayers and praises with those of the Church." The
Hymns and Psalms appropriated to these hours were in the first
instance intended only for private meditation; but afterwards, when
Religious Societies were formed, and persons who had withdrawn from
secular business lived together for purposes of devotion, chanting
was introduced, and they were arranged for congregational worship.
Throughout the Churches which used the Latin tongue, the same
Services were adopted with very little variation: and in Roman
Catholic countries they continue in use, with only a few modern
interpolations, even to this day. (more)
