A MANUAL OF THE LITANY: WITH QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. BY THE REV. W. H. KARSLAKE, M.A., ASSISTANT PREACHER AT LINCOLN'S INN, VICAR OF WESTCOTT, DORKING, LATK FELLOW AND TUTOR OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD. PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE. LONDON: SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORIES: 77, GREAT QUEen street, LINCOLN'S-INN FIELDS; AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. 1878. 138. i. 417 PREFACE. IN composing the following pages, the writer has had mainly a threefold object in view. First, he wished to give his readers a short sketch of the history of the use of Litanies in the Church, in order that they might have a clearer idea of the origin and purpose of this particular office. Second, he wished to explain to them the general plan according to which the Litany is arranged, as well as the meaning of the clauses composing it in detail. It will be found a great help to devotion, if not only the import of the words of any office in detail, but also the struc. ture of the office as a whole, is clearly before the view of those who offer it. Third, he wished to show how fully every part of the office may be illustrated from Holy * This point has been treated more cursorily, because the Author had lately published a fuller account of the Litany in his "Litany of the English Church." Pickering. Scripture; so that the worshippers may feel that they are all along breathing up to heaven prayers and aspirations in entire accord with the spirit of the Word of God. In doing this, the writer conceives that he has only been trying to meet a very real and urgent need. Nothing has more strongly and painfully forced itself upon his notice, than the almost complete ignorance of the meaning-to say nothing of the history-of our offices, which prevails among a large number of those who are professedly members of our English Church. The result is, that our services are often engaged in in a mere mechanical way. And, when any wake up to a greater reality of spiritual life, they are easily won over to services which seem to them to have a fervour which is lacking in our own. There is consequently no duty more incumbent on those who are in positions of any influence, than that they should gain for themselves, and then impart to others as fully as they can, a knowledge of the history, and plan, and meaning in detail, of the offices appointed for use in our English Church. It is to aid them in this, that the writer has composed this work on the Litany, as he had before endeavoured to give an account of the origin and import of the Services for Daily Morning and Evening Prayer.* He is well aware how imperfectly he has been able to carry out his design, in the midst of the distractions of parochial work. All he can feel is, that he has done what he could. In composing the Book, he has availed himself of such aids as were within his reach. Chiefly he is indebted to a Manual of the Litany, bearing the initials of S. W., now out of print, with its excellent Scriptural illustrations; to the condensed analysis of the Litany of the Rev. E. J. Boyce; to the simple, earnest Meditations on some points in the Litany of the Rev. J. Whitlock; to an old Exposition of the Litany to which no author is assigned; and to the two Commentaries on the Litany, both excellent in their respective ways, of Dean Comber, and Bishop Forbes. And now he sends forth the Book with the desire and the prayer that it may tend to God's glory through the more intelligent and earnest use of this most tender and comprehensive office of our Church. 66 English Churchman's Companion to the House of Prayer." Skeffington. |
