This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1864 Excerpt: ...and the people, as a rule, take a common-sense view of words, and explain them not by the canons of sophistry, but by the standards of nature and usage. This reflection, namely, that the Prayer Book finds its way not only into the pulpit, but also into the pew, --not only into the church, but also into the family, - ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1864 Excerpt: ...and the people, as a rule, take a common-sense view of words, and explain them not by the canons of sophistry, but by the standards of nature and usage. This reflection, namely, that the Prayer Book finds its way not only into the pulpit, but also into the pew, --not only into the church, but also into the family, --and is consequently interpreted, not with the help of Clement and Jerome, hut with the assistance of evangelists and apostles, --this reflection, I say, should compel the rulers of the Church so to express their views of the Gospel as not to imperil the salvation of the common multitude. Were the Prayer Book a book for the clergy only, the case would be less comprehensive, and less influential, in its bearings--if it were a book whose teaching was locked up in the dead language of "The Fathers," the ground of debate would be contracted to the merest foot-hold;--but since it is a book not only written in the English language, but circulated in hundreds of thousands of copies, its influence may penetrate the heart of society, and express itself not only in an unscriptural theology, but occasionally in a very questionable morality. Lest, however, it should be thought that these are the words of sectarian prejudice, I hasten to summon to my side a witness who can bear testimony that may well strike terror into the heart of the superficial, and arouse every energy of those who love the truth. Speaking of modern heretical writers, the Rev. Philip Gell, M.A., sometime rural-dean and minister of St. John's, Derby, boldly says: --"Now, whatever fault maybe chargeable upon Men in the revival and earnest propagation of these offences, it cannot well be denied that our ecclesiastical Formularies are the real grounds from which their origin has be...
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