and chosen phrases. The next question is how to provide for that Variety which shall sustain interest and engage the mind of the worshipper in the great business of his Service.

We may consider Variety of method, Variety of singing, and Variations in the component parts of the Service.

(a) Variety of Method. The worshippers are divided into two or more parties who take up their parts alternately, or together. It is evident that such a division may be made in many ways. Those which have been adopted in former times have resulted in the survival of five Varieties for general Congregations [see chap. III. f.].

(b) Variety in Singing. There were of old four methods of singing the Psalms:

1. Direct or Choral. 2. Antiphonal. 3. Responsorial. 4. Continuous.

1. The Direct or Choral Singing was done by the whole choir:

2. The Antiphonal by the two halves of the choir alternately:

3. The Responsorial by the Priest and choir alternately:

4. The Continuous by the Priest alone.

{4}

A careful study of the Rubrics will show that great liberty is allowed in the Prayer Book in respect to the singing.

There is a Rubric in the Morning Service which prescribes the manner of saying or singing Gloria Patri, viz. that it is to be Responsorial. The order is that after the Morning and Evening Canticles As it was in the beginning, &c. is to be an answer to Glory be to the Father, &c. And this order may be found also after the Versicles of Mattins and Evensong, O Lord, open thou our lips. It might be inferred from this that the Psalms and Canticles were intended to be sung in the same way. But it is more likely that it was designed to continue an ancient freedom of choice which is now represented in our custom of using the Antiphonal Method when we sing, and the Responsorial when we say them. The division of Gloria Patri into two verses was, no doubt, intended in any case. The Prayer Book does not recommend the fourth method; many rubrics indicate that the congregation should take a substantial share in the services with voice and heart.

(c) Variations in the Component Parts of Services.

  1. Praise and Prayer.
  2. Variations;
     from Service to Service,
      " Day to Day,
      " Week to Week,
      " Morning to Evening,
      " Season to Season.

{5}

CHAPTER II.

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.

{6}

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.

{8}

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