Green Baggins

Charles W. Baird, The Presbyterian Liturgies: Historical Sketches, 1855; reprint, Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2006, paperback, 266 pages, no index, reviewed by Barry Waugh.

Worship is a hot topic for contemporary Evangelicals and Reformed Christians. C. W. Baird’s book is concerned to show “from the history and teachings of the Presbyterian Church, what may be considered the proper theory of its worship, and to compare that ideal with our prevailing practice” (1). His method for achieving decent and orderly worship is to recommend the “discretionary use of written forms,” which he believed is “abundantly” warranted by the Westminster Standards and the history and practice of the Presbyterian Church (5). For the author, the Directory for Worship “minutely and definitely” contains regulation of prayer and the other aspects of worship “without rigid confinement to set words and phrases” (3). The regulations provided by the Directory for Worship, he says, do not exclude the use of written forms, but neither do they prescribe the use of forms.

During the course of Dr. Baird’s book, he presents the order of worship of several churches including Calvin’s Geneva, Knox’s Scottish order, Richard Baxter’s liturgy, and the “liturgy of the Palatinate” or the German Reformed. Common to each of these liturgies are the singing of Psalms, the reading and preaching of the Word, prayers in various locations of the order, confession of sin, the use of the sacraments and the use of a benediction. Essential to each liturgical order is the Bible, whether its text is the lyrics for singing, the words read for hearing, the subject matter of the sermon, the words used for the confession of sin, the passages used for administering the sacraments or the benediction—the service is a service to God using the words he has given for his worship. The orders of worship Dr. Baird describes are very simple, so simple that readers of this book might think that he left some things out. For example, there was no collection of the offering, it appears that there were no announcements, no greeting of the visitors, no special appeals from the leaders of special groups and ministries in the church for attendance at their functions, and there were no presentations appealing for a building fund. The liturgies were simple in that they were centered on the Word of God, but they were also elegant because the majestic language of God’s Word was used for adoration, supplication, blessing, and obeisance. Such Scripture centered liturgies would appear strange to many today since nearly all the scriptural elements of the Protestant liturgies either are minimalized or absent from many present day worship services. Sermons are often just devotional snippets that might be published in a self-improvement meditating guide; prayer, if present at all, is limited in the scope and gravity of its supplications and thanksgiving; if there is a Bible reading it is as brief as the sermon; and if hymns are sung, they are limited to a few stanzas. One thing that can be said about the present scene is that the Psalms and other Bible texts sometimes constitute the lyrics of popular choruses.

Dr. Baird ends the book with a concluding chapter, pages 251-266, where he presents his thoughts regarding the history of Reformed liturgy and its relevancy to his contemporary situation. He appeals for “a reverent approach to the Divine Majesty” by means of appropriate language being used to approach the throne of grace. He comments that the same “solicitude” should be used to approach God as one might use to approach “the great and honored among men.” He believed that the historic use of the Westminster Standards by the “Calvinistic Churches of Great Britain and the United States” faced a cross-roads between continuing to follow the Directory for Worship and its historic liturgy, or following the path of rejection of its standards and each minister creating his own liturgy. In the face of the trends, Dr. Baird called for the use of liturgical forms noting that Great Britain and America were the only Calvinistic churches without a liturgy. Dr. Baird went on to propose measures to be taken to turn the tide of worship practice in his own era. The church must begin anew to use the “Scriptural and Apostolic Elements of Worship,” such as the benediction, the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Apostles’ Creed.” The author goes on to call for “the regular and continuous reading of the Holy Scripture, at every religious service.” Baird believed that the limited use of the reading of the Word in his own era was due to the disposition of his contemporaries to depreciate “regular and prescriptive…rites of religion.” The key to achieving this rediscovery of reverent worship, according to Dr. Baird, is a stricter adherence to the Directory for Worship.

There is nothing new under the sun when it comes to irreverence. Just as C. W. Baird was concerned for the decline of worship in his own era, many are concerned today about casual, man-centered, unregulated services. Is it just the thinking of this reviewer or is it not absurd to think that Christians could really believe that they can define proper worship apart from Scripture or by picking-and-choosing which liturgical elements to use? Could it be that the erosion of the fundamental elements in some of today’s worship—prayer, reading the Bible, preaching the Word, confession of sin, and singing the Scripture—is due to the ever present Edenic tempting desire to rule one’s self? Concerned parents do not allow their children to define right and wrong for themselves; good parents teach their children to believe God’s Word and follow his commands for righteousness. Good Christian parents exercise authority and tell their children what is right and wrong because God has given them that responsibility, but when it comes to worship, the Christian’s most exalted and edifying experience, people many times choose to define worship for themselves. Some will argue that the depreciation of worship in our era is due to the influences of Schleiermacher, or maybe post-modernism, or possibly the “me-ism” of American individualism, or the anti-organized religion descendants of the Jesus Generation, but worship degenerates into human exaltation when it is designed to appeal to the worshipper rather than God and any philosophy or theology that exalts humanity at the expense of God will affect worship. Charles W. Baird’s book is a helpful reminder of where worship doctrine has come from and a warning to beware of self-indulgence in worship.

For those interested in more study of the doctrine of worship, the following books may be found helpful: first and foremost is the Westminster Assembly’s Directory for the Public Worship of God, which can be found in several editions including those of the Westminster Standards published by the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland (my copy is from 1976); the two important books by Horton Davies, The Worship of the American Puritans (Soli Deo Gloria reprint, 1999), and The Worship of the English Puritans (Soli Deo Gloria reprint, 1997); Sean Lucas, On Being Presbyterian (P&R, 2006), particularly 117-21, though the whole book is helpful; D. G. Hart and John Muether, With Reverence and Awe: Returning to the Basics of Reformed Worship (P&R, 2002), which is an appeal for Scripture regulated and confessional worship; the Anglican theologian, P. E. Hughes, Theology of the English Reformers (1965, 1980, 1997), the discussion of worship begins on page 153; and any of Pastor Terry Johnson’s several worship titles (here, here, and here).