they ought, for those great duties that are per. formed in them. Secondly, that the Church be swept, and kept clean without dust or cobwebs, and at great festivals strewed and stuck with boughs, and perfumed with incense. Thirdly, that there be fit and proper texts of Scripture everywhere painted, and that all the painting be grave and reverent, not with light colours or foolish antics. Fourthly, that all the books appointed by authority be there, and those not torn or fouled, but whole and clean, and well bound; and that there be a fitting and sightly Communion cloth of fine linen, with an handsome and seemly carpet of good and costly stuff, or cloth, and all kept sweet and clean, in a strong and decent chest, with a chalice and cover, and a stoup or flagon; and a basin for alms and offerings; besides which, he hath a poor man's box conveniently seated, to receive the charity of well-minded people, and to lay up treasure for the sick and needy. And all this he doeth, not as out of necessity, or as putting a holiness in the things, but as desiring to keep the middle way between superstition and slovenliness, and as following the Apostle's two great and admirable rules in things of this nature: the first whereof is, 'Let all things be done decently and in order:' the second, 'Let all things be done to edification.' For these two rules comprise and include the double object of our duty, God and our neighbour; the first being for the honour of God, the second for the benefit of our neighbour1." These directions are in some respects antiquated, but they are conceived in a sweet spirit of holiness and of love towards the Parish. Church, which can never be out of date. There is one feature of Parish Churches, especially of old Parish Churches, which may receive a word of passing notice: I mean the presence in and around them of memorials of the dead. The practice of burying within Churches has, with rare exceptions, very rightly been forbidden; but the custom of putting up memorials has not passed away, and probably never will, Such memorials have been much abused: the walls of Churches have sometimes been made to bear inscriptions, which Christian humility and modesty, not to say truthfulness, would forbid. Nevertheless the practice may be used for edification; and the custom, now so common, of erecting memorial windows, may with ordinary care be made to add not a little to the beauty of the Church. The practice of burying the dead in ground 1 Herbert's Country Parson, Chap. xiii. The Parson's Church, surrounding our Churches, though in many cases, in consideration of the health of the living population, very wisely forbidden, will probably long continue in our villages. It is in truth a practice which almost every one would be sorry to see discontinued: it conveys a solemn lesson; it reminds the thoughtful that the living and the dead form one Church, and are all to be judged together; and the habit of praying in the midst of the multitude of sleepers, many of them friends and relations, many known by name, many still living in memory either by their good or by their evil deeds, is calculated more than almost anything else to sober the spirits of the careless. Perhaps in its double character, as alike connected with the rest of the dead and with the worship of the living, is to be found the explanation of the solemnizing effect of an old Parish Church. I remember a confession of this effect being once made to me by a gay thoughtless young man, who was examining the interior of a Church solely with reference to its architectural features: "I do not know how it is," said he, “but I cannot laugh in an old Church like this." The Guide to the Parish Church would therefore remind the worshipper, that in the Parish Church he is praying in the presence of the dead: or rather perhaps that he is in the presence of a cloud of witnesses, who have fought the fight of faith before him. Let him remember that the Church militant here on earth, and the Church triumphant in Heaven are but one; also that he is worshipping as a dying man, and that after death there is a judgment. "Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of Hosts: I will go also." Zechariah viii. 21. THERE is another portion of the Parish Church, which comes under the head neither of arrangement nor of decoration, though in the ecclesiastical sense it may perhaps be treated as an "ornament." I refer to the Church Bells. Bells are a very ancient portion of Church furniture, and there is much that is curious connected with their history. But all this lies beyond my purpose; it is enough that the sound of Church bells is connected with our earliest recollections, possibly with some of our happiest, and that they certainly must not be left out of consideration when we are enumerating the hallowing influence of the Parish Church. "I hear the sabbath-bells' harmonious chime |