affections should be kept constant to an object which gives no employment to the understanding, and yet cannot be made manifest to the senses. The exercise of the reasoning and reflecting powers, increasing insight, and enlarged views, are requisite to keep alive the substantial faith in the heart." "In a state of perfection, perhaps, all other faculties may be swallowed up in love, or superseded by immediate vision; but it is on the wings of the cherubim,-that is, (according to the interpretation of the ancient Hebrew doctors,) the intellectual powers and energies, that we must first be borne up to the 'pure empyrean.' It must be seraphs, and not the hearts of imperfect mortals, that can burn unfuelled and self-fed. Give me understanding, (is the prayer of the royal Psalmist,) and I shall observe thy law with my whole heart." * We need more active thought, and reflective meditation on God's word, and thus a deeper and more settled faith would be legitimately produced. Such a faith is necessary in the hour of Divine worship, to strike out the fire of true devotion. God's presence must be realised as a grand and solemn truth; the eye must rest with the clearness of a vision on the sacrifice of the cross; the soul must feel conscious that the breath of life fills the house; and the ear must be open to the triumphant harmonies of heaven. Then the devout spirit will be quickened into life, the mind will be sanctified by the moral beauty of its own conceptions, and the heart refreshed by the fragrance of its own spiritual emotions.

The spirit of criticism in connexion with Divine worship must be greatly subdued. Our nature has not reached that point in its mental and moral advancement, in which it can self-originate spiritual impressions, and devout affections. There does not seem to exist an ever-playing fountain of the Divine life in each man's bosom, making him independent of the resources of other minds, and the warmth of other hearts.

The usual state of most minds is that of comparative inactivity, so that they require external sources of influence to stimulate them to vigorous action. The glow and energy of piety, therefore, will be dependent, instrumentally, on the influence which vigorous and devout minds may exercise upon us, in the thoughts they may suggest, and the warmth of affection they may sympathetically excite. This fact in our spiritual nature shows how wisely public worship is adapted to advance religion in the soul. It was designed by its Author to be a means of gracious influence to his waiting people. They are to receive spiritual light and fire, stimulating their minds into vigorous and holy thinking, and giving a pure sensibility to the heart. Now God does not, in a palpable form, or with an audible voice, address the people; neither is there any visible symbol of his presence, or any angelic ministration. The voice, the language, the thoughts, the emotions are

* Coleridge.

human; and this alone is the medium through which the beauty and power of Divine service can be felt and enjoyed. The lamp of life which illumines the sanctuary, burns in the souls of our pastors, and the fire of heaven lives in their hearts: and the people receive from them the force of religious impressions, and the blessedness of spiritual emotions. As this is the case, the amount of benefit which they will derive from public worship will seriously depend on the sentiments and feelings they cherish toward their ministers. They are in the place of God to the people; and there must be yielded to them confidence and sympathy, as an essential condition to the communication of spiritual blessings, through their ministrations.

On this point, an important distinction exists between the Episcopal and the Congregational churches. In the former, the devotional service consists in her liturgy: in the eyes of most Churchmen that is a perfect composition; they speak of it as their "admirable and incomparable" liturgy. Their esteem for it could scarcely be greater, had it been given by inspiration. It is the service of the church, and it shares the veneration and homage paid to every thing comprehended in that potent word. It is not the prayer of the clergyman; his defects or infirmities are not mingled with it. Its human origin is almost forgotten; or if remembered, only to excite admiration of the gifted and sanctified minds which produced it. As a consequence, a serious Churchman surrenders his mind to the full influence of the liturgical service of his church. We cannot deny that, when well read, it gives a rich devotional tone to the feelings. We attribute this fact, not exclusively to what the liturgy is in itself, but also, to the sacred attachment the people cherish towards it.

With Congregationalists the case is different. The minister is the living liturgy. Almost the whole of Divine service is derived from his intellect and heart. All mental power, all human affections, are variable in their force; the best and ablest men have the infirmities of our nature; and these facts will find their frequent illustration in the sanctuary. Our worship is thus indissolubly linked with the good and the evil, the power and the weakness of man. As Congregationalists have decided to reject the use of liturgies, they must depend on the mental and moral abilities of their pastors, to breathe forth "fervent and effectual" prayers. When arguing with churchmen, they affirm that their practice is most conducive to devotion and piety; consistency, therefore, not to say personal edification, requires that this opinion should be a moral rule of the mind and temper in the hours of public worship. As the Episcopalian yields his mind to the influence of the liturgy, so the Congregationalist must cordially surrender his to the free prayer of his minister. He must cherish a devout regard for the devotional service breathed from the lips of man; as the Churchman does towards the pre-composed prayers of the liturgy. This we affirm

to be an absolute condition of his realising high devotional feeling in congregational worship.

This habit of mind we fear does not exist among us, to the extent which is desirable, and even necessary. Public worship, in all its parts, is too much regarded as an intellectual performance of the minister. The power of thought, the beauty of illustration, the elegance of diction, or the want of them, are points which attract the attention, and are constantly the subject of remark. We do not plead for a blind deference to the ministers of religion, nor claim for their statements infallibility; we would put no fetters on the reason of the hearer, nor lay his powers of discrimination asleep, nor rob his intellect of one of its prerogatives ; but we enter our solemn judgment against the practice of an unslumbering and a trivial criticism. The house of God is not the proper place for mental gladiatorship, any more than for the "tables of the moneychangers." It is not the place to sell or to purchase mere intellectual luxury. A mind governed by such influences cannot, in the philosophy of the case, be highly devotional. Excellences and defects will ever be blended together in the sacred services of the ministers of Jesus; and to be perpetually viewing them, as mental productions, in a critical temper, is fatal to that elevation of soul which the worship of God should communicate. When admiring some rich landscape, we are so thrilled with the beautiful and the grand in nature, as to be unconscious of regret, because deep shadows cast a gloom on some parts of the scene. When listening to the sounds of music, those slighter discords which are never absent disturb not our pleasure, because the mind is oblivious to all but the tender and the beautiful. Will there be pleasure in friendship, to one who is ever dwelling on the fact, that friendships have proved false? Can the heart repose in the deeper and more sublime affections of our nature, if we are always musing on the selfishness and treachery which have often blasted the fair fields of human happiness? Neither will there be deep devotion, where the critical temper is the characteristic of the worshipper. Should any one, on reading these remarks, say in his own mind, "Give us an able ministry, and then criticism will not be forced upon us;" we reply, first, the Congregational ministry, at the present time, will bear an honourable comparison with any in the world; secondly, admitting its deficiencies as we do, we affirm, that the ministry has done for the church, all that the church has done for the ministry: and that Congregationalists have more reason for gratitude that their ministry possesses its present power, than for complaint that it is not every thing the cause and the age demand.

In order to gain the object in view, a deeper and more earnest religious spirit must be cultivated. The religion of the cross, we may naturally expect, will exist in the heart as a spiritual passion. Within sacred ground, all the pure sources of human feeling seem to form into one

deep, irrepressible fount of emotion. Piety consists in loving God with all our heart, and soul, and strength; and as this affection is to possess such an absorbing power, it will give the bosom deep sensibility. It further consists in penitential sorrow for sin, causing much tenderness of heart. It possesses, also, the exciting power which a sublime faith and a heavenly hope impart to the faithful. We may, therefore, reasonably expect, that there will be depth and power in the character of religious men. Religion, to be true, must have great power over human nature. The world has melancholy evidence of the tyrant sway which the superstitions of the heathen have exercised over the human spirit: it is rational, it is just to claim a more absolute dominion for the Gospel of Christ. Romanism sees prostrate at her shrine the intellect of half Europe;-Congregationalists should bow with a more profound homage at the throne of Jesus. Romanism can produce a romantic fanaticism in her devotees ;-Congregationalism should give a purer baptism of fire to those who hold her doctrines, and worship in her temples. In Christ, as the source of spiritual life, our souls should "live, and move, and have their being." This is wanting to give a highly devotional character to our worship.

A suitable preparation of mind must be devoutly and systematically sought. We are not accustomed to enter the circles of good society, without a becoming and a suitable preparation. No person is admitted into the royal presence, without such robes as would be deemed respectful to the dignity of the sovereign. These are not idle fashions; they are agreeable to the instinctive feelings of our nature. The practice is as old as the Pharaohs. The man found without the wedding garment, was cast out as a criminal intruder at the festive board. These references illustrate an important principle, that the soul should be spiritually adorned when it enters into the presence of God, to hear his word and to worship at his footstool. The wisest and most natural preparation for public worship on the Sabbath, consists in the existence of devotional habits during the week; these, of course, are formed by frequent and earnest prayer. Time, thought, sacred musings, and scriptural meditation, are necessary to create the spirit and to form the habit of devotion. The structure of our mental nature requires it; and only in harmony with its principles, can we gain spiritual power and holy triumphs. It is desirable, also, that there should be special exercises, directly bearing on the precious seasons of Sabbath worship. We know a family, joined occasionally by a kindred spirit, who spend one hour on the Saturday evening in devotional preparation for the Lord's day. Such a practice must have an excellent effect, and tend to make "the Sabbath a delight."

Sectarian prejudices must give way to more liberal and catholic views. It will be admitted that contracted views may exist among Congregationalists. Narrow prejudices may lurk in the bosom of the separatist

from the established church. It is no vulgar attainment to have the mind open to truth, come from whence it may. From our habits of thought, and our usual course of reading; from the infirmity of the human mind, and the force of our attachments to our great distinctive principles; we may be deceived into incorrect opinions or unworthy prejudices respecting systems different from our own. Have we altogether escaped? We think not. Names have alarmed us, or attached the high authority of reason and wisdom to extreme views. Ecclesiastical usages, or forms of worship, if found in the ancient existing churches, would give a tremor to our pious sensibility, if so much as named among us. We fear it would put some most excellent men into a mortal agony, to hear the Te Deum chanted in Congregational worship. We are anxious to see more liberal views prevail. Let us be Nonconformists in GREAT THINGS, not in those which are little and unimportant. We have long thought that all the truth is not in any one denomination. Our enlarged and instructed reason, the wide and free range of thought our principles authorise, the experience of ages lying as a treasure at our feet, the humility and charity which belong to elevated and cultivated minds, should give us more catholic sentiments. Some change on this point is necessary, before our public services will be rendered highly devotional.

But more liberal views would do little for us, without a deeper Christian love existing in our congregations. The value of public devotion depends, considerably, on the mental-the spiritual-and the affectionate sympathies being kindled, and maintained among the people. Alienation, discord, indifference, are destructive of the devotional spirit. The harmony of love is essential to the full power of public worship. Though it were conducted by the Son of God, a cold, heartless, divided people would not feel its true influence. Disunion is the blast of death sweeping over the temple. The charity which silences the tongue of envy, strife, and bitterness, is necessary to those who are to worship together in the sanctuary. When there is one baptism of love on every heart, all will kindle into a brighter flame of devotion before the altar of God. Christian affection, with its sweet and attractive sympathies, is essential to a deep and blissful devotion in public worship.

Conducive to a devout temper of mind, will be a due reverence for the house of God. We attach to many things an extrinsic value; they become rich in interest from the power of association. The place of our birth, however rude and humble it may be, gives life to melting and solemn thoughts. The tomb of departed friends is a place of "grievous mourning" to many a tender spirit. Antiquity throws a charm on things, which, in themselves, have nothing to give them power over the mind. Some spots on earth possess an imperishable interest. Who could ascend the Pyramids, plough the Eleusinian wave to Salamis,