communities, such a practice would be considered dangerous and unbecoming. And hence, with the authority inhering in the office-bearers of the Church, and guided by general Scriptural laws, most Churches have adopted another method—namely, that of sprinkling or aspersion. There is no such thing now as the "kiss of peace," which was common enough in apostolic times, because it would be considered improper. Neither do Christians now recline on couches in receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper-which in all probability was the manner in which Christ appointed it, and the apostolic Church administered it-because custom has suggested and perpetuated another way. So also leavened bread has superseded unleavened bread in the celebration of this ordinance; whilst the Agapæ or Love-feasts, which were added to it by the primitive Church, have long since been given up. And in like manner, orders of Deaconesses have disappeared from many of our Churches, because they might create scandal. So that whilst these and other non-essential rites and ceremonies were common enough in former days, the authorities of most Churches have laid them aside, and created others, while the essential and unchanging ordinances of religion remain in all their efficacy and power.

Nor is this practice of a varying ritual and changing services in connection with the minor arrangements of the Church confined to New Testament times. Such a thing was common enough also in the previous dispensation, and received the sanction of the Saviour Himself. The whole synagogue institution, for instance, with its services and officers, and which moreover existed not only within but beyond the Holy

Land, is not once alluded to in the Old Testament writings, and receives no direct authority from them. As a mode of worshipping God, it sprang into existence after the Captivity, evidently from motives of expediency on the part of Church rulers; and yet this institution was often recognised by Christ, and is associated with some of the most important events of His ministry. There was a baptism in our Lord's days also, for which there is no sanction in the Holy Scriptures, and rites were added to the Paschal service other than those mentioned in Exodus xii. And yet Jesus engaged in those services. He and His apostles went to the synagogues and conformed scrupulously to all their arrangements, and to the various forms of service that were in existence in that day. And although the divine founder of Christianity reproved the Jews, and especially the Jewish rulers, for their superstitious regard for rites, and for over-estimating their importance in the then religious system, yet He does not condemn their use. On the contrary, He borrowed some of those ceremonies, and made them the federal rites of His own pure and more spiritual dispensation; and whilst He pronounced woes on the Pharisees and Scribes for neglecting the weightier matters of the law-judgment, mercy, and faith-and said, "These ought ye to have done," yet He added, in regard to the rites and lesser matters-the paying of tithe, and anise and cummin-" and not to leave the other undone." So that, according to our Lord's example and teaching, the non-essential rites of religion -those services which derive their existence, not from the express letter of Scripture, but from the acknowledged authorities of the Church-become bind

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ing and obligatory upon all Christians within their respective denominations, until these authorities think it proper to set them aside.

But although there is thus an element of authority pervading all the prescribed services of the House of God, assuredly those are most important and most binding which are essential—that is to say, those which have the express letter of the divine Word for their existence. And foremost among these is the PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL - a great moral and spiritual institution, founded by Christ, practised by Himself, enjoined on His apostles and their legitimate successors, the ministers of the Gospel in all ages and countries, and accompanied with the promise of His presence to the end of time. Then again, there are the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper-the federal and symbolic rites of the Christian religion -instituted directly by Christ in moments of great sublimity and impressiveness, and binding on every Christian throughout the world. Then again there is the reading of the divine Word; Prayer-the suppliant attitude of the Church militant; Praise—the joyful utterances of hopeful, believing men in a world of sin, suffering, and death; the Sabbath-that weekly contribution which time makes to the spiritual life and energies of mankind. These are Christianity's essential ordinances, her great means of grace, by which uncounted generations have held communion with God, and drawn down priceless blessings upon their souls. And they are, moreover, Christianity's perpetual, universal, and abiding ordinances. No human power can set them aside. They are supremely authoritative and necessarily permanent. Other rites and

ceremonies may be added to them or taken from them in the onward progress of the Church, but these essential means of grace, like the unchanging constellations in the heavens, remain for ever in the Church, claiming the homage of all its office-bearers, and the unmurmuring recognition of all its people. And since the Divine Being in His government of the world ever accompanies each great agency, whether material or spiritual, with a proportionate degree of power and blessing, so must it be with the essential ordinances of religion; and those Churches that employ them most regularly and sincerely, in perfect harmony with the letter and spirit of the divine Word, will assuredly present to the world, and to the eye of an all-seeing God, the largest number of true and genuine Christians; whilst, on the other hand, those Churches that conceal or pervert them must present to every onlooker the starved and beggared aspects of an imperfect Christianity.

Nevertheless it must not be supposed that, because the minor services and other arrangements of the Church have not the same high authority for their existence which the essential ordinances have, that they are without all authority and of comparatively little importance. On the contrary, these minor services, though differing, it may be, in different countries and Churches, are absolutely necessary for the decency and order of Christian worship. Christ has not prescribed them by special rule-that is to say, by one applicable to each case-but He has done so by general precept, requiring order and decency, and all that is becoming, in the Christian service. "Let all things be done decently and in order." "Lay hands suddenly on no

man.' And the general precept or rule, though liable to be perverted or abused by applications of it that may be wholly unwarrantable, or by stretching it beyond its scope, is nevertheless divine, carrying along with it the authority and presence of that Holy Spirit of God, that gives such sacredness and importance to all revealed truth. Therefore when the properly constituted office-bearers of a Christian Church proceed to lay down rules for the minor arrangements of that Church-to determine, for instance, in such matters as to the style, or furniture, or ornamentation of churches, the dresses of the clergy, the hours and seasons and order and mode of worship, or any of the other matters that are necessary for a right and proper performance of the ordinances of religion, unless what they do is plainly opposed either to the letter or spirit of the Christian writings, or the simplicity and spirituality that should characterise all our approaches unto God-then their doings are unquestionably authoritative, and, moreover, binding upon all the members of the Church over whom these office-bearers rule. And although, in virtue of that right of private judgment and liberty of conscience which each individual Christian possesses, especially in all Protestant Churches, some one may not be quite satisfied with the propriety of some of these minor details, yet, recognising the authority which the office-bearers of the Church possess, and the necessity of order and law in every Christian Church, and bearing in mind, moreover, the humble and submissive spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, he will, if not from compulsion, yet from a spirit of Christian charity, endeavour to yield up his own notions on these indifferent matters to the gen