but God open a safe pathway for their useful activity? They seem to be thus environed with formidable difficulties, that they may look up, and plead, and trust, and hope. They understand their position; they have no alternative. With their whole souls they turn to the one door opened in heaven, and avail themselves of their one resource. Along that shining path which their ascended Lord has just trodden, the familiar highway of angels, they hope that their prayers may enter into the Infinite Presence, and through His intercession find acceptance. To this hope they cling without faltering. Day after day they meet and plead, with no signs of an answer; and yet, though sometimes almost disheartened, they persevere. It shall be recorded to their credit, and as an example to all coming ages, that they 66 CONTINUED in prayer and supplication." We sympathize with them in their protracted agony, their prolonged entreaty. Is God dealing harshly with the friends of His dear Son? We see that they are undergoing a severe, we hope a salutary discipline. Our hearts ache for them; we would fain bow with them, and help them to wrestle with the Angel of the Covenant. Let us now come back to our homes and to the nineteenth century, and look at what Christianity has become and has done. There, in that small upper room, we have seen the rudimental Church, consisting of a few individuals, unorganized, feeble, hated, strengthless. What could they do? They had no learning, no property, no influence. They were shut up to one course. They availed themselves of the one means to which they were restricted, and as we shall repeat our visits, we may see wonderful results from that simplest of all agencies, a primitive prayer meeting. In that which we have seen, the first of the kind, we see cradled the infant cause of Christ. There is the earliest development of Church life, the bursting germ of that enterprise which would soon expand into largely comprehensive results. How in structive the lesson! If I have not read and observed very erroneously, the prayer meeting has done more than any other instrumentality to warm piety into life, and has conduced to the development of every true Church of Jesus. There have been collected, by Christian affinities, the materials which soon became assimilated and compacted into form. There the members have kept alive their Christian sympathies, and strengthened their mutual attachments, and acquired fresh vigour for their work. There, when Zion's prospects have been dark, and her interests were languishing, has the little remaining life been preserved, like the vestal fire upon the altar, and, by constant feeding, increased to a flame that has dispelled the darkness and restored prosperity. There, when the Comforter was away, have intercessions, united and earnest, been made, which Heaven has accepted, and the Spirit has been outpoured, and revival blessings have gladdened a whole region. It may not be said that the prayer meeting is the life of a church; but it may be said that it is the nurse of a church's life, the manifestation of its life, the measure of its life. The Head of the Church, by arranging that prayer meeting in Jerusalem so soon after His ascension, indicated His will and our duty. He made it the type of a permanent lesson. He intended that we should learn from it the condition of spiritual prosperity, If we would have His favour, conveyed under the best circumstances for ourselves and others, we must have a place for social devotion, and we must "continue in prayer and supplication" till "the Spirit is poured upon us from on high." That church is the most prosperous which is, not the largest or wealthiest or genteelest, but, the most prayerful; which maintains, unitedly, vigorously, the best prayer meeting. REGULAR DISTURBERS OF WORSHIP. THE ministers of the Gospel of all denominations know what it is to be often disturbed while they are solemnly engaged in the worship of God; and sometimes what they see and hear is so unbecoming the sacredness of the sanctuary, and so unsuited to the character of the service which they attempt to render to Jehovah, that the heart is grieved, and the mind astonished and confused. The persons by whom they are annoyed are not those who by accident enter the house of God, and who, because they are ignorant of the order of worship and the forms of devotion therein observed, may behave themselves in a manner inconsistent with the decorum which marks the conduct of the regular and devout worshipper; but those who trouble them are such as regularly attend their ministrations, and some of whom are accredited members of the churches of which they have the honour to be the pastors. Those who regularly disturb the worship of God are, unfortunately, very numerous, and they form distinct classes in the congregations to which they belong. They are distinguished from all others by the time and manner in which they enter the sanctuary, and are known to all by the peculiar habits they have contracted in relation to the exercises of religion. Among those who thus trouble and disturb ministers and congregations, = I shall mention first, THOSE WHO ARE LATE. In some congregations there are certain persons who enter the house of prayer never earlier than the time of reading the Scriptures, when they cause so much noise that the minister is either compelled to desist for a few seconds, till the agitation is over, or, if he proceed, his reading is quite unintelligible to the greater portion of the assembly. In other congregations persons come in during prayer, which is often disturbed to such a degree that he who is the mouth of the people with God, is stopped in his intercession, and for a time restrains his prayer. In other places of worship a great number of the hearers and members never think of coming earlier than the singing before the sermon, and some enter when the discourse has been one-third delivered, and this they do as a regular thing, without any sense of its impropriety, and careless of the injury they inflict upon their minister and upon the truth he preaches. These very persons are punctual in other things. They are in time at their daily work, in the house of business, in attending to worldly things; but they can treat the house of prayer and the worship of God in a manner that they would not for a moment dream of according to worldly affairs. Is the counting-house more sacred than the temple of the Lord? Are the successes of trade and the interests of commerce more important than the salvation of the soul and the glory of God? Do the speculations of this life deserve greater attention than the enterprise of eternal life? Why, then, do many so neglect and so heartlessly treat those means appointed to secure and promote the highest interest of man, both present and future? Surely, such conduct is highly unbecoming those who are hearers of the Gospel, and especially those who profess the religion of Christ. This evil is so rooted in some places, that neither private counsel nor public rebuke, many times administered, can effect any improvement; and ministers are compelled to look upon it as an incurable evil, which ever annoys them, and ever militates against their power and influence as the messengers of Christ. Next in point of importance as a source of disturbance are THOSE WHO SLEEP DURING SERVICE. These are not so numerous as those already described; but, according to their force and conduct, they are quite as troublesome. I know one congregation where there are within a yard or two of the pulpit four or five persons to be found fast asleep during the service every Sabbath morning. One or two of these are deacons of the church assembling in that house of worship. In another congregation there are two persons to be found in deep sleep whenever the sermon has been about half delivered. When the text is announced, they fold their arms, give a knowing look at the minister, turn their heads a little on one side, and gently fall asleep. In another place I know persons who but half sleep, and in this state they attract the attention of all around them: one eye is partly open, and the other closed; the mouth is turned on one side; they regularly bob their heads, and nod at such unseasonable periods in the sermon, that they by the supremely comic character of their conduct, cause a titter through the whole assembly. Such is the appearance of these persons, that it is next to impossible to look at them and be serious. If they could be introduced for one night only into one of those places where comic acting is carried on, they would, I have no doubt, ever after draw a crowded house. They do not snooze and sleep because the sermon is dull and the manner of the preacher tame, for they do so under the most awful truth, delivered in the most eloquent and stirring manner. In every other place, and with regard to every other thing, they are wide awake, but in the house of God they are ever dozing, or fast asleep. Such conduct is offensive to the last degree, and the cause of constant trouble to ministers of the Gospel, and to the congregations in which they are found. THOSE WHO FAN THEMSELVES during the service contribute their share to disturb the preacher, and to unsettle the congregation in its acts of devotion. Whatever may be said in defence of this practice by those who are guilty of it, I am persuaded that nine out of every ten ministers will condemn it as unnecessary and injurious. The constant moving to and fro of a number of fans in a congregation, tends to distract the attention of those who use them from what is said from the pulpit, and the very motion casts a constantly moving shadow over the eyes of the preacher, which is extremely undesirable, and even painful. By this much loved and much practised evil the minds of many ministers have been ere now disconcerted, and their efficiency and power in the pulpit weakened and injured for the time. Why should ladies alone use them? And why should they use them whenever they worship God in His temple? They do not use them elsewhere when the heat is equally oppressive. Does it not seem very much like fashion, and nothing else? THOSE WHO WHISPER IN THE CONGREGATION are guilty of doing much harm, by turning their own attention first, and then the attention of those around them, from the minister. So great is this evil in some congregations, that it is impossible for those who sit near those that do this, to hear the preacher, and to profit by his ministry. It is a regular and a public nuisance, to put down which the pastors of such congregations as contain these disturbers are compelled to refer to it nearly every Sabbath. The house of God is not a place wherein to carry on conversation in an undertone to the annoyance and trouble of the whole assembly. Another cause of disturbance are RESTLESS CHILDREN. This is an evil of no small magnitude, and one very difficult to deal with. Children generally have so much life, so much vivacity, so much love of play, and take such delight in tricks and toys, that it is next to unreasonable to expect them to be as quiet and ́as sedate as those who have reached maturity. Yet their never-ceasing restlessness is a source of great disturbance to ministers and congregations. So troublesome are children in some chapels, that ministers cannot have the attention of their people, and for the sake of securing a hearing they are constantly calling the children to order. This only increases the evil, by bringing ministers into collision with the parents of the children, many of whom think them harsh and severe, when in fact they only do that which the circumstances of the case render imperatively necessary. Is it right to leave children in groups of considerable numbers in a congregation, without any one to look after them and keep them in order? Is it right, is it prudent, is it useful, to put children in such places in the chapel as to render every move, every turn of theirs visible to the minister? Is it right that the minister should be the only person to keep order in the congregation? Should not the parents of children, the teachers of children, the deacons of the church, and the members generally, labour to secure and to maintain order, quietness, and solemnity in the house of God during the hours of divine worship? While I am making these complaints of disturbances caused by children being restless during divine worship, I wish it to be understood distinctly, that I do not object to children being brought into the house of God, and to their being kept there to hear the word of life preached by the ambassadors of truth. God forbid that I should conceive the idea, much less utter a word, or write a line, that should have such a tendency, or bear such a construction, or that should lead any parent to keep his child away from the temple of Jehovah. It appears to me that no congregation is complete, no assembly is full, without a sprinkling of young people, even of little children, in it. The picture made of grey hairs and children's curls, of wrinkled brows and chubby cheeks, of those who are ripe in years, experience, and wisdom, and of those who are beautiful in their innocency, weakness, and merry faces, is interesting, lovely, grand, and sublime, beyond compare, and is one upon which the greatest mind and the holiest heart must look with delight. I feel also that it is the solemn duty of every parent to bring his child early to the house of God, that it may have its first impressions and earliest memories from the message of mercy and from the place of the holy. Every minister of the Gospel must be often delighted by seeing in his congregation mothers who have in their arms their little ones whom they thus bear with them to the house of prayer, and who could not attend themselves, without nursing thus their young, even when engaged in serving God. Let the parents of children come with them into the house of the Lord, and watch over them with care, kindness, and love while they are there, and this will, to a great extent, secure quietness among them, and help their ministers to preach the word powerfully as well as affectionately unto them. The last source of disturbance I shall now mention are THOSE WHO ARE FIDGETTY in the house of God, who are also guilty of helping to disturb the worship of Jehovah. I know that many persons are uneasy and restless wherever they are. It is a distemper of the mind which moves about for ever the body in which it is lodged. But it is strange that such persons must be, or are, more fidgetty in the house of God than anywhere else. They are known to sit for a considerable time in the presence of certain persons, without any particular movements to indicate their character as ungovernably fidgetty; but in the place of worship they are continually moving, as if they trod upon briers with naked feet, or sat upon a cushion of thorns. One moment they attend to the door of the pew, which, if loose, they fasten. Another time they take down their books, Bible, hymn-book, and tune-book, and, having carefully adjusted them, they place them in the box, or upon the shelf made to receive them. Then they attend to their hair; having put that right, they remember that their over-coat is unfastened, and they set that right. They turn to the right and left, behind and before, to see whether all is right. Others are ever and anon taking out their watches and comparing them with the clock; and others are every ten minutes looking at the clock to ascertain how much longer the service will last. I know some persons who are ever on the move in the house of God, and by their extremely fidgetty behaviour often upset the gravity of those around them, and distract the minds of the ministers whom they come to hear. I remember one case of this description which so annoyed the minister of the congregation wherein it took place, that he was compelled to rebuke a man in public for his restlessness. These are some of the things which offend our public worship, and disturb the solemn service of the sanctuary. It appears to me very strange that so much evil can be thus done by those who profess to regard the Gospel and love the truth. Those who attend idol temples, those who follow the false prophet, and those who are led by the man of sin, conduct themselves a thousand times more properly, and appear more devout in the exercises of their religions. Why should not Christians who worship the true and living God be decorous, solemn, attentive, and devout in His holy temple? I have been compelled to call attention to this subject, by a sense of duty towards the truth, of reverence towards the sanctuary, and of deep sympathy with those whose work it is to teach men to do all things decently and in |