Manual of Forms, for Baptism, Admission to the Communion, Administration of the Lord's Supper, Marriage and Funerals, Ordination of Elders and Deacons, Etc (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from Manual of Forms, for Baptism, Admission to the Communion, Administration of the Lord's Supper, Marriage and Funerals, Ordination of Elders and Deacons, Etc Notwithstanding the fact that the founders of all the several national branches of the Reformed Church prepared and used written formularies of public worship (as, e. g., Calvin, Knox, the authors of the Dutch and the German Reformed Liturgies, and in the next century Richard Baxter), the genius of Scottish and American Presbyterianism has discarded them as uncongenial, and the matured judgment of our Church has pronounced them to be inexpedient. The action of our recent General Assemblies from 1873 to 1875 proves that the mind of the Church is decidedly averse to the recommendation by authority of even the simplest forms for special services. With this jealous care for the freedom and spirituality of the Church the compiler of this little manual is in perfect sympathy. Nevertheless, accurate verbal preparation is felt by all to be necessary for the edifying performance of certain special services, as, for instance, the administration of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, the admission of the baptized to full communion, and the celebration of Marriage. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.