some of the most eminent men, politic rather than true; fourthly, their mystic mode of interpreting the Scriptures, derived from the Alexandrian Jews; fifthly, the mixture of selfdenying virtue with astonishing weakness; sixthly, that the spirit of the old church so silently leaked away from its form; seventhly, that it almost counteracted its original design; eighthly, its rapid return to discarded ritualism; ninthly, the extravagance of the early heresies; tenthly, the want of delicacy and decorum in the Fathers; eleventhly, the little and over-action of mental acumen; twelfthly, the stringent hierarchy, which grew out of the freest democracy; in the thirteenth place, the astonishing criticism on the earlier writers; and, lastly, the conditional wonder whether an universal reason presided in the impersonated church, which had any tendency to give value to her inquiries, and a seal to her decisions. Such are the impressions which one tyro has felt, in perusing those pages which record the effects of revela tion and the blessings of Christianity.

The removal of a paradox is always doubled instruction. If, notwithstanding all its short-reachings towards expected perfection, Christianity has been an inestimable benefit to the individual and the social system, to government and law, no doubt the discovery will be a delightful confirmation of its truth, and an illustration of its power. "The structure of the natural world," says Dr. Blair,1" affords innumerable instances of profound design, which no attentive spectator can survey without wonder. In the moral world, where the workmanship is of much finer and more delicate contexture, subjects of still greater admiration open to view. But admiration must rise to its perfect point, when those parts of the moral constitution, which at first were reported blemishes, which carried the appearance of objections, either to the wisdom or goodness of Providence, are discovered, on more accurate inspection, to be adjusted with the most exquisite propriety." In like manner, when we see the imbecility and confusion in Christian society, which first caused

'Blair's Sermons, serm. iv. Vol. i.

our disappointment, converted to admiration by an obvious discovery of the latent design of God, we feel a sentiment like that arising when we find a coal-formation beneath a barren surface; and learn that where all was seeming sterility, nature has been treasuring up fuel for ages.

Let us wait, then, for the fog to clear away, before we judge of the magnificence of the prospect. Let us not impute to God the projections of our own ignorance. Church history is a series of IMPORTANT EXAMPLES. The influence of feeling on speculation, and speculation on feeling, the action and reaction of the reigning controversy; the effects of one doctrinal point of view on another; the connection of the mental philosophy with the popular faith; the causes and consequences of the popular faith; the lights that led, and the lights that misled, the church; the influence of a sound or unsound Biblical interpretation; and the question whether there is, in the long run, a tendency to an all-conquering creed, and to a human1 perfection- these are points never yet cleared, and yet vastly important. If the Bible is God's word, a well-written church history is his Providential commentary.

ARTICLE V.

GERMAN THEORY OF WORSHIP.3

I. Introductory Remarks.

THE topics relating to religious worship, which, to a somewhat unusual extent, occupy the public mind at the present moment, refer primarily to certain outward forms; and,

1 That is, such a perfection as may be reasonably expected in this world.

2 Liturgik und Homiletik. MS. Lectures of Prof. Julius Müller.

Evangelische Homiletik, von Christian Palmer.

Grundleyung der Homiletik, von Philipp Marheinecke.

viewed only in this relation, they may be considered as of comparatively little importance. The questions, whether the congregation shall rise, or remain sitting, during prayer; whether precomposed forms of prayer are preferable to those which are not written; whether the functions of worship shall be wholly confined to the officiating clergyman, or the congregation be allowed an active share in them: these, and questions of similar import, seem, at first, scarcely to deserve the attention which has been given to them. Every one, it would be supposed, might safely be allowed to act, in reference to these points, precisely as his own taste might dictate.

No reader of history, however, is ignorant of the extent to which these questions have, at different periods, agitated and convulsed the church. And controversies, so fierce and protracted as those to which these questions have given rise, cannot be admitted to relate to matters of inferior importance. A closer view of the subject will be likely to convince every thoughtful man, that questions which refer to forms of worship, have a very momentous bearing on the vigor of the Christian life and the general prosperity of religion. The strength and constancy of religion, considered as a principle of action, are apt to be powerfully affected by the character of our religious emotions. These, as they are pure or adulterated, as they are intense and permanent, or feeble and fluctuating, confirm or weaken the religious principle. At the same time, the media of expression, which are used in the case of our religious emotions, through which we either communicate them to our fellow men or utter them to Jehovah, exert on the emotions themselves no inconsiderable reflex influence. In this view, therefore, whether theory or fact guide our convictions, it must be admitted, that to dismiss as frivolous the questions to which we have referred, betrays not only a superfi cial, but a positively incorrect, judgment. At all events, facts indicate, too plainly, that if not a real, yet a factitious, importance is attached and will continue to be attached to these questions. May we not expect that controversies,

which have been supposed to be forever settled, will hereafter be revived; and that, consequently, however slight we may consider the intrinsic value of the points at issue to be, we shall yet be summoned to their discussion? a task, certainly, in which no one ought to engage otherwise than intelligently.

We suppose, therefore, that we shall render a service, not entirely without value, by undertaking to state, in this Article, the German theory of worship.

In doing this, we shall make free use of the works cited at the beginning of this Article. German writers have treated this subject, not only at greater length than any English or American writers with whose works we are acquainted; but also, in a manner much better conformed to logical rules, exhibiting, as the result of a sharp analysis, the different parts of the subject in their proper relation. The study of the theory of worship, as presented by German writers, may be in no small degree advantageous. It is scarcely neces sary to add, that we are far from approving, as a matter of course, all which has been written on this theme, even by those writers whose works we have principally consulted. The Articles which have, from time to time, appeared in the Bibliotheca Sacra, on topics connected with our general subject, and particularly the Article in the Number for April of the present year, on the Theory of Preaching, coincide much more exactly with our own sentiments.

II. Statement of the Subject.

Every congregation is supposed to be made up of two classes of persons: those who are already arrived, at least in a comparative sense, at maturity in age and in spiritual culture, and those who are in progress towards this maturity. The aim of all church services, therefore, may be regarded as two-fold: as the preparation of those who are as yet immature, in the sense above intimated, to become, in the high sense of the phrase, members of the congregation; or else, as the carrying forward of those who are already

relatively immature, to a more elevated stage of spiritual culture. The instructions and labors which propose to themselves the former object, pass under the general name of Catechetics. Those which have a bearing on the second of these objects, which contemplate the persons to whom they are directed, as relatively mature, refer either to the congregation in its collective capacity, or to the individuals of whom it is composed. In the latter event, we have, in the specific sense of the words, the care of souls; in the former, we have worship, cultus, wherein the congregation is considered as brought together into one place, and the activity of the clergyman exerted among them and for them. For though worship is, indeed, most properly considered as the act of the congregation, yet, in developing its nature, we are obliged to concern ourselves with the functions of the ministry, as they operate in its production and guidance. The clergyman is the medium through which is expressed partially, if not completely, the common religious life of the congregation. He is the life-giving central point, whence goes forth the influence by which the congregation is carried forward to a purer and closer participation in the life of God. We are, then, to consider worship in that point of view wherein it is a product of the agency of the ministry of the word.

In all attempts at an analysis of worship, we should be careful not to contemplate exclusively any of the empirical forms in which it has usually been practised. With these there has been mixed much that is purely conventional and arbitrary; much that has had no other than a disturbing and corrupting influence. The earlier writers on this subject, too often did slavish homage to this barren empiricism. They did not get an insight into the grounds of that inward necessity of worship, which always exists wherever a Christian consciousness is found.

III. Necessity of Worship.

A correct statement of the nature and origin of that inward necessity of worship, to which reference has just been