PREFACE 10 THE FIRST FDITION. For the age of innocence to have its representatives engaged in the public miniftry and service of the LORD has been a moft edifying and cherished usage of the Church, from the time that "Samuel ministered to the LORD, being a child, girded with a linen ephod." Impreffed with a deep fenfe of the importance and fanctity of their office, the writer has been induced to publish the following remarks on "the Vocation of Chorifters," with the appended devotions, in the hope that they may be the means, in fome cafes, of affording affiftance, encouragement, or guidance, to fuch Choristers s feel a boly zeal and emulation to gladden and adorn the Spouse of CHRIST whose distinguished children they are, by walking worthy of their vocation. as One of the most hopeful figns of the present day is the increasing number of children imbued with fuch devout afpirations; and we have also reason to ac knowledge with thankfulness a correfponding increase in the pains and care bestowed upon them by their Spiritual fuperiors. That the prefent manual may not be entirely unproductive in helping forward so holy and interesting a movement is the highest wish of the Author. The devotions being for the most part taken from the "Winchester Manual" of Bishop Ken, and intended by him for the use of Chorifters as well as Scholars, can have no higher teftimony to their excellence and fitness. They may be confidered few and scanty compared with our ideas of what a Chorifter's devotions ought to be, but looking at the actual condition of the Church, it may be doubted whether more numerous and copious offices would at prefent be better calculated to meet our wants than those prescribed. It is much to be regretted that the edifying custom of admitting Chorifters to their office by a folemn act of initiation has fallen into difufe in the English Church. In fome Quires, the Author is informed, this practice has been recently revived, ftill it is far from univerfal, or even frequent; and can we wonder if fome Chorifters underrate the fanctity of an office to which they are admitted without the flightest ceremonial or circumftance likely to convey a ferious impression? Surely the fame authority which prescribes the cere monial for the dedication of Churches might prepare and authorize a ritual for occafions fcarcely lefs important. And furely it would feem more Church-like to have a fettled and uniform rule under Episcopal Sanction, than for each individual priest or precentor to be left to his own discretion. In the abfence however of any fuch rule it is fuggefted that the beft form which can be used is that very ancient one, "Vide ut quod ore cantas, corde credas, et quod corde credis, operibus comprobes;" which words, in Latin or English, might accompany the prefentation of a Prayer Book and Surplice. It is also much to be desired that some kind of Cœnobium or College fhould be founded in the precincts of our Cathedral and Collegiate Churches for the education and training of fuch Chorifters who may be willing to devote their after-life to the fervice of the Church, either as lay teachers or in holy orders. The abfence of Some provision of this kind for Choristers, some means of retaining them for Ecclefiaftical employments where a right difpofition is not wanting on their own part, must be painfully felt in many ways, for it seems not only injurious to them, but a reflection on the Church's maternal care, that they who have dedicated the firftfruits of their years and ftrength to the Special Service of her courts, fhould be turned adrift at a most critical period of life, for no other reason than because their voice breaks down, or their minstrelsy becomes exhaufted. May we live to fee, at no very diftant day, the removal or abatement of this evil! In conclufion, the Author begs to express his deep fenfe of obligation to thofe friends who have kindly taken an intereft in the present publication. T. F. S. The Innocents' Day, 1848. |
