Bicknell on Article XXIV: Of speaking in the Congregation in such a tongue as the people understandeth

ecclesiastical custom, venerable as representing the mind of the Church, Therefore a national Church has the right to change it. It is not mentioned in the Prayer-Book, and, though recommended and observed by individuals, has not been enforced for centuries in the Church of England. In 1893 a Report of the Upper House of Southern Convocation declared that to teach that it is a sin to communicate otherwise than fasting, is contrary to the spirit and teaching of the Church of England. Even the Church of Rome admits that the custom is of human institution, since the Pope has the right to dispense from it. We believe our Church to be quite right in leaving its observance to the individual conscience. Fasting is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Food is God’s gift and cannot, as food, defile the man. On the one hand, fasting represents the share of the body in the self-preparation before communion. As such, it has a quasi-sacramental value. On the other hand, if it weakens our attention or unfits us for our work, it ceases to be a means to the true end. Social customs have changed and circumstances are very different from early days. Life in an English climate is far more strenuous. Perhaps what we most need is a new definition of fasting. (See Quick, Fasting Communion. §8.P.C.K. Also, on the rigorist side, Puller, The Fast before Communion, O.B.S. Report 1891; on the other side, Archbishop Temple, Life, ii. p. 308.)

support both of Scripture and the.custom of the primitive Church.

The only passage of Scripture that bears directly on the ques- tion is 1 Cor. 14. In this chapter St. Paul contrasts ‘ speaking in an unknown tongue,’ ¢.e. unintelligible ecstatic utterances, with prophesying, 7.e. preaching. This by itself, however, is hardly to the point, as no one would be so foolish as to preach in a tongue not understanded of the people. But in v. “ he proceeds to the question of prayer, ‘If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.’ Praying and singing are to be not only with the spirit but ‘ with the understanding also.’ Further, prayer in a tongue excludes ‘the unlearned.’ As he cannot understand it, he does not know when to say ‘ Amen’ at the end (v. 1%). ‘Thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified.’ St. Paul lays down two principles. First, he deprecates any form of devotion in which the intellect has not its due place. Secondly, he lays down that the great aim must be the edification of the whole body. It is clear that prayers in a foreign tongue as compared with prayers in English, are far less in accordance with these principles. Not even the pro- viding of translations makes the service equally real. In this sense the use of ‘a tongue not understanded of the people’ ‘is