"When the Lamb had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls of incense, which are the prayers of the saints; and they sang a new song, saying, 'Worthy art thou.'" (Rev. 5:8).
In the last book of the Bible, the Revelation of St John, which is filled with fascinating imagery, Jesus Christ is called the LAMB twenty-nine times. Though he still bears the marks of his being slaughtered, he also has the marks of exaltation (for his seven horns [= omnipotence] and seven eyes [= omniscience]). And his heavenly habitat is filled with music, as Christian Rosetti once said: "Heaven is revealed to earth as the homeland of music." The praise is from all creation (represented by the four living creatures) and from the elect people of God of the Old and New Covenants ( 12 + 12, 24 elders). It is also from the myriad of angels. The whole creation, visible and invisible joins in the praise of the Creator.
In this picture of a whole universe praising Christ, the prayers of the saints, who still labour on earth for the kingdom of God, are described as golden vessels filled with the sweet odour of incense. This picture recalls the use of incense of the Jewish Temple: "Let my prayer be set before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice."
Prayer comes from the depths of the soul and it is expressed in words created by the mind and uttered by the lips. In personal, private prayer the words are often ejaculatory and extempore. But no so in public, common prayer where normally there is the reaching for excellence and thus prepared forms of prayer.
In the vision from Revelation 5 the prayers of the saints are in a golden cup, vessel or bowl. Gold was the most precious of metals and thus the golden vial points to the sound, sterling quality of the words and their felicitous and elegant arrangement. But there is more to prayers than their excellence in grammar, syntax and style. They are to be through Christ Jesus unto God the Father as sweet smelling odour, as holy incense. That is, they are to be biblical and in conformity with God's will and mind, and arising from purified affections, desires and intentions of the souls of the baptized.
In the Collects of the classic Book of Common Prayer (e.g., editions of 1549, 1662, 1928) we have the golden bowl, the excellence in words of public prayer to God the Father. First in Latin and then in English they have been for 1400 years as the manna in the wilderness to devout spirits, and are, next to Scripture itself, the clearest standard whereby genuine piety may be discerned; the surest guidance by which its progress may be directed; the highest mark to which its wishes would aspire. Obviously their passionate and elegant words need to be matched by appropriately devout affections, desires and intentions of the soul in the congregation of the saints.
As naturally as kindled incense ascends upwards, the public prayers of the congregation of the saints also ascend to the Father because of the merits of his Son, and they are "an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God" (Phil. 4:18).
If a choice has to be made between, on the one hand, the use of excellent Collects [as in the classic BCP] by an apostate congregation, and, on the other, the use of poorly constructed Collects [as in some modern Anglican Liturgy] by a faithful congregation, then the devout soul will choose the latter; but, he will surely wish that this faithful congregation would use the excellency of the golden bowl of incense, rather than one made of an inferior metal!
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon
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