THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
While the old system is but a fragment of a lost whole, related originally to what is no longer in existence, and suffering from special faults, it has one great advantage in that it contains indispensable selections setting forth the person, life, and work of the Lord Jesus. A new system must contain or parallel these, conserving variation and incitement for the preacher, but not changing the essentials. Especially in the epistle is there room for improvement. If in the pericopes the choice is restricted to the New Testament, the series can hardly cover more than two years; if in the epistle the really choice parts are in the first series, the second can be little more than supplementary.
The Reformed churches vary in practise as to possession of a lection system alongside the text. German Lutheran and union congregations have an independent lection system. This is regarded as a necessity for the life of the congregation, because of the importance for it of the 17. Sugges- Bible; this requires not merely sermon tions for a texts but independent lections. When Lectionary. the sermon pericopes are derived from the New Testament, the Old Testament falls out of use in case the lection is missing. A requirement of the lection is that it have inherent significance, since the difference between this and the text is that the latter is explained in the discourse while the lection has to speak for itself. To install a lectionary which shall meet the demands implied in all that precedes is a task the Protestant Church should no longer defer. In doing this the experiences of the past should be utilized, especially the fact that the serial reading of the Bible has not maintained itself. Indeed, this sort of reading is based upon a wrong principle, inasmuch as all books of the Bible are not equally suited for the edification of the congregation, which last is one aim of the Church in its reading of Scripture. On this account the Church will install pericopes, that is, a fixed and obligatory system of lections. This will meet the needs of the congregation in that it will represent the great things of God and will minister to personal Christianity. Both these ends are provided for in the church year, the former in the special celebrations, the latter in the ordinary Sundays. Appropriateness in these two directions is consequently to be sought in the pericopes; moreover, both Testaments are to be represented; but in this department the Psalms are to be at best only slightly used. In the lection God speaks to the congregation; the Psalms are largely prayers — the address of the congregation to God, therefore unsuitable for lections proper. For the lections read at special celebrations of the Church the Old Testament is not a source. The spirit of these is foreign to the Old Testament, hence a full year's course of readings can not be derived from that part of the Bible. Yet in the periods which are the preparation for particular observances, such as the Advent season and passion week, passages from the prophets are appropriate; similarly, when the catechism is the basis of the service, and the Decalogue, e.g., is under review, passages from the Old Testament are seasonable. So single passages from Revelation, like the letters to the seven churches, and
other parts having an eschatological bearing, are available. And, finally, the wording, for example, of the introduction to the reading is to be so looked after that abruptness and infelicities shall be avoided. (W. Caspari.)
The portions of Scripture selected and appointed for reading in the congregation in the Anglican prayer-books fall first under two heads 18. The — those appointed for the service of Anglican the Eucharist or the Holy Communion, Readings, and those appointed for the daily services of morning and evening prayer. The former corresponds with the Latin missal, the latter with the breviary. In the former there are always read two passages, one from the epistles and one from the Gospels. In the latter there are, beside the appointed portion of the psalter (so arranged that the whole shall ordinarily be recited in every month), a lesson from the Old Testament and a lesson from the New Testament. The epistle and Gospel at Holy Communion are selected as specially appropriate to the season, holy day, or occasion. The epistles and Gospels for Sundays and holy days in the prayer-book follow the arrangement of the fifth century given in the comes more closely than does the present Roman use. The general principle of the selection seems to be this. In the earlier half of the Christian year, from Advent to Trinity, the appointed Gospels set before the people declarations or illustrations of the great facts of the creed commemorated at the different seasons, and the epistle is adapted to the Gospel or to the season. In the second half of the year, from Trinity to Advent, the epistles take the lead, with teaching concerning the Christian life, which the Gospels for the most part serve to illustrate.
At morning and evening prayer the Old- and New-Testament lessons for Sundays and holy days follow the same general rule of appropriateness to the season or special commemoration, while on week-days the readings are in course, providing for the reading through of the greater part of the Old Testament once in each year, and of the New Testament twice. In this way an attempt is made to familiarize the people with the whole of the Scriptures, safeguarding them from the narrow preferences of the individual minister, while on the other hand he is not bound in sermons to confine himself to the Scriptures appointed to be read in the congregation. A. C. A. Hall.
Bibliography: A long list of printed editions of lectionaries in Greek, Latin, English, and polyglot, with commentaries, etc., is giveji in the British Museum Catalogue, under " Bible," columns 1016-30, and Appendix, columns 404-410. Special note may be made of Evangelarium Hierosolymitanum, ed. M. Erizzo, Verona, 1861- 1864; Palestinian Syriac Lectionary, and Palestinian Syriac Lectionary of the Gospels, ed. A. S. Lewis and M. D. Gibson, London, 1897-99. For description of lectionariea consult: F. H. A. Scrivener, Introduction to Criticism of N. T., i. 74-77, ii. 413-414 (i. 80-87 gives the table of lessons for the year in the Greek synaxaria), London, 1894; C. R. Gregory, Canon and Text of the N. T., pp. 384-393, New York, 1907; idem, Prolegomena, ii. 687, Leipsic, 1890 (discussion and catalogue of manuscript lectionaries). Consult further: J. Goar, Euchologium, pp. 711 sqq., Paris, 1647; E. Ranke, Kritische Zusammenstellung der . . neuen Perikopenkreise, Berlin, 1850; H. A. Daniel, Codex liturgicus, iv. 213 sqq., Halle, 1855; W. Benham, Companion to the Lectionary, London,