Author: Edward Harper

Publisher: Rarebooksclub.com

Published: 2013-09

Total Pages: 30

ISBN-13: 9781230107585

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1870 edition. Excerpt: ...Baptism and the Lord's Supper, is a feature in the Hymns quoted from this book; and that even the holy rite of Matrimony has been desecrated by the introduction of blasphemies relating to a pretended "aZtar-throne of Christ." In one of the matrimonial Hymns already referred to Hymn 212. (No# 212) the manner in which the three Persons of the Trinity are invoked is not pleasing. Take the opening lines of each of three verses as an example, Bepresent, awful Father, To give away this bride, &o. Is "awful" the proper word here? The next verse commences thus: --Bepresent, Son of Mary, To join their loving hands, &c. It is not as "Son of Mary," but as Son of God, that Christ is the Second Person in the Trinity. Afterwards come these lines: --Be present, Holiest Spirit, To bless them as they kneel, &c. No fault can possibly be found with the ascription of highest holiness to any Person of the blessed Trinity; but as the "Father" is simply called " awful," the Son "the Son of Mary," the superlative term "holiest," applied only to the Spirit, might possibly be taken in contrast to the other Two Persons of the Trinity, as if they were in some sense less entitled to the appellation. All Three, however, are specially invoked to give effect to the "altar" blasphemy, as in the lines previously quoted--"When onward to Thine Altab The hallowed path they trace. The same incongruity of attributing the highest degree of holiness to one Person in the Trinity, and not to the other Two, is to be found in another Hymn (No. 222), where the terms employed are "Eternal Father," " O Christ," and "Most holy Spirit." This mode of addressing the...