eral laws of the Christian society, and act in accordance with that precept of Christ uttered at His baptism by John, "Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.'

As history and experience, however, tell us, the authorities of the Church of Christ have often, either consciously or unconsciously, abused their powers, and erred grievously at times, in the imposition of rites and ceremonies in the respective Christian communities over which they bear rule. And they have done this by not attending to the great distinctive feature of Christianity-namely, its spirituality; that, above every other system that has, rightly or wrongly, assumed the name of religion, it is essentially spiritual in its nature, modes of administration, and aims. And because of this very circumstance, the Divine Being, in His wisdom, has not intrusted it to the infant state of the world's history, for which in all probability it would have been found wholly unsuited, but has cast it upon the most thoughtful and reflective ages. Christianity, with its revealed truth, its abiding God, and the Holy Spirit, its weekly Lord's Day, its numberless churches and preachers, its holy services and Communion-seasons, its high aims and aspirations, is the heaven-appointed nursery of man's spiritual nature, intended to prepare that nature for the pure joys and unending activities of a better world. It is a school of comfort to the sorrowing, a refuge for the erring and sinful, and a field of discipline for all, tutoring man to abiding faith in God through Christ, and to a right performance of all earth's duties, in the sure and certain hope of a great and enduring reward. Now it has often happened that the rulers of

the Church, in their zeal and anxiety to set spiritual things before the mind, have often, by their arrangements, done the very reverse; for they have given such an importance and impressiveness to material things used as symbols, as to make the worshipper's mind stop short at the symbol, and obscure altogether the spiritual thing which it was intended to portray. And thus, in the progress of ages, they have created a Christian idolatry, or idolatrous Christianity. For instance, the apparently harmless pictures and images of the Saviour and His cross, the use of signs and symbolic actions in worship, the various parts of the robes of the clergy invested with a symbolic meaning, and suchlike, intended to lead the mind of the worshipper to spiritual things, have, when indulged in for a time, by the wonderful power of habit, absorbed the feelings and emotions of the heart, which should have gone up like incense to God. It is true, indeed, that the world of humanity is not in that infant state as regards spiritual things in which it was when the Jewish religion, with its many ceremonies, was founded; but, nevertheless, the mind of man is constitutionally the same; and therefore, wherever there is a profusion of material objects used as symbols, the tendency will be to give a spirituality and mystery to the symbol, so that, instead of its being a help to the worshipper, as perhaps it was intended to be, it will be an effective and degrading barrier between the soul and God, and will ultimately bring the individual into a state of bondage—a bondage of reverence and superstition for mere symbols, which is wholly inconsistent with true worship and Christian liberty. This has been the case, alas in the sad experience of millions in former ages

who have borne the Christian name, but who, it is to be feared, never tasted the sweets of Christian liberty and spiritual freedom. The cross, by long usage and frequent observation-not as an object of ornamentation of the person, but as a religious symbol—has drawn the piety and reverence of the Christian heart to itself, and ultimately failed to convey to the mind, as it was intended to do, any idea whatever of the great sacrifice of Calvary, and the perfect atonement for sin that was made there. And so, too, the extravagant use of music in churches-not the use, but the extravagant use-has tended rather to soothe and lull the soul into a spiritual torpor, and to confine its thoughts to the occasion or the performers, than raise the desires and aspirations to that God who demands the homage and love of every heart. The rich dresses of priests, the incense rising from altars, the processions of white-robed choristers, the lights and draperies and burnished ornaments, and other attractive objects and mysterious utterances of a superstitious and sensuous worship, have pleased the eye and the ear, and, it may be, gratified and impressed the æsthetic feelings, but they have frequently done nothing else, because worship, and such worship as Christ requires His people to give, has been thereby completely sacrificed. The soul has throughout the whole, in all probability, never been near to God. The heart, with its sins and sorrows, has never been moved, and the conscience, instead of being roused and quickened in all its sensibilities, has only been the more lulled into a slumber. This is not worship, but a perversion of worship, and must be most detrimental to all the powers and susceptibilities of the human mind. There can be no true worship where the wor

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shipper's soul is not impressed with the majesty, purity, and holiness of God, the grandeur of the heavenly world, the seraphic glory and happiness of all its denizens; and therefore, when a showy and sensuous ritual takes away the mind from these, and concentrates it on mere sensible things, the most licentious profligate may indulge in such a service without being even made to feel what a sinner he is before high heaven, or what need he has of the pardoning mercy and sanctifying grace of God.

To obviate, then, all abuse or perversion of the rites and ceremonies of the Church, it ought to be the constant aim of all Church rulers to keep as near as possible to the essential ordinances of religion and the Christian services, or at least to give them that place and prominence in the worship of God which their character evidently demands, and which God intended them to occupy when He specially prescribed them in His holy Word. In this way Church rulers will be adhering closely to divine law, and taking the best means of securing the divine blessing. For it is well known that, both in natural and spiritual things, a rigid compliance with divine law never fails to bring a sure reward. As men in ordinary circumstances are made strong, and kept strong, by attending carefully to the ascertained laws of health; as a compliance with Nature's processes in applied science invariably brings Nature's help;—so a rigid compliance with undoubted Gospel ordinances-ordinances that have on them the stamp of heaven and the testimony of ages — will assuredly bring Gospel blessings. Gospel blessings. The ark-God's ordinance to Noah-did not fail him or his family in the hour of need, nor the brazen serpent the

wounded Israelites, nor the waters of Jordan the leprous Naaman; and so Gospel preaching, prayer, praise, the reading of the Bible, the administration of the Sacraments, and all those ordinances that are founded upon the sure and authoritative letter of the divine Word, will assuredly bring salvation to men, and enrich with divine grace the individuals, families, and nations that go to make up and represent the living Christianity of the world.

But whilst it is possible for Church rulers to err in the imposition of rites and ceremonies, it is no less possible for ordinary worshippers to pervert and abuse all the ordinances of the house of God; and therefore, in seeking to render as perfect as possible the services of the sanctuary, it will not do to eliminate from our calculations the conduct of the worshipper. Indeed, all arrangements will be comparatively worthless where the worshipper supposes himself to be a mere machine or automaton, and is not sensible, not merely of his privileges, but of the great burden of responsibility as regards preparation and devout bearing that rests on him as a member of a Christian community. Although results are with God, both in nature and religion, yet a right use of the means is required of all who call themselves by the Christian name. Every one, therefore, who enters a sanctuary, when that most sacred of all days comes round, should strenuously endeavour to make religion tell upon his nature, character, and life. The very existence of a house of God, not to speak of the solemnity of its services, should remind the worshipper as he enters it that now the most sacred of all earthly duties are to be performed by him; and just, therefore, as the husbandman does not trifle with