are at antipodes in this opinion; and I once heard the pastor persuade his people to value the unheeded privilege of assimilating their worship to the adoration of the angels, in terms which I cannot forget, and with impressiveness I cannot imitate. Thus spake, emphatically, the zealous priest:

"It is the peculiar province of Sacred Music to liberate the immortal mind from the thraldom of earthly thoughts, and on the wings of holy harmony the soul uprises towards heaven. In sacrificial song it is that the homage of the sinner and the seraph correspond in character, however dissimilar in degree; and, when sincere, it is a religious rapture of the supremest order of delight. It gives birth to an indescribable joy-but Piety is reconciled in it, and the majesty of the Most High propitiated, for it is that pure joy which accompanies ever the kindling emotions of Gratitude." F. paused for a moment, as in thought "too deep for words upon their stream to bear;" and you heard your bosom in its beatings, so profound was the silence of the sanctuary. "O!" resumed the priest, "O lamentable unconsciousness of its overwhelming debt to the Power which might have hurled us into the abyss of torment, but for that mysteriously-prevailing Love which would allure us

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to the realms of bliss!-deplorable insensibility to Mercy, or alarming indifference to its manifestations, is that of the heart torpid and voiceless in presence of Him in whom it lives, and moves, and has its being. How marvellous the contradiction and the coldness too often visible in the demeanour of Christians, congregated ostensibly for united praise! Say, if this be in very truth our purpose, would it not be rational to study the example, and strive to emulate the fervour, of beings who worship in a loftier sphere? -there is not a reasonable soul in this assembly but responds affirmatively; but, alas! of this assenting throng, how few are there who do not reproach themselves in the acknowledgment. What! confess that the celestial example is worthy of all emulation, and yet abide in this unbroken lethargy! Is the altar of Gratitude within you so ice-bound, that incessant bounties from on high cannot excite there the audible accents of a thanksgiving song? Yet, as many of ye say in words, and all, I trust, in spirit, it is meet and right, and our bounden duty, to magnify the Lord God of sabaoth:'-avowing this, quit ye like men.-Think ye, my brethren, that sombre Silence hath part or place in the bright land to which we hasten?-ah, which of you would accredit me if I

said, that in the clime whose very atmosphere is harmonical there lived one songless spirit-that among all its countless myriad of minstrels there could exist one sullen lyre?

"Sacred Music irradiates the mysteries of Faith,— with the glow of imagination gives vividness to the gorgeous creations of Hope,-and induces a sense of exaltation wherein

We feel that we are greater than we know:"

thus, its influence subjugates the grosser qualities of the heart; expands its nobler capacities; familiarises its conceptions with whatsoever things are pure; advances the mortal to the dignity of a ministering spirit; and accelerates the progress of the mind towards that eminent altitude of perfection which, while within its earthy confines, the soul has not freedom to attain. The assurance of a vast beatitude, too illimitable, exhaustless, and exquisite for the comprehension of man in his degeneracy, is the revealed distinction between the supreme enjoyments of heaven and the subordinate pleasures permitted to the upright of the world; but the grateful power of harmony on the complicated fabric of natural feeling, would encourage in us the expectation that the large bounty

of enthroned Benevolence has mingled the raptures of choral consummation with the guerdon in reserve for His redeemed ones. 'The ransomed of the Lord shall return with singing unto Zion;' and not alone are the felicities which there await them affirmed to be indistinguishable to human eye and inconceivable by human heart; it is likewise pronounced concerning them, that the ear of man hath not heard the rich reward which God hath prepared for them that love Him.

"The dynasty of depravity in the constitution of man has, in truth, despoiled the purity of those glorifying strains vernacular to the stainless soul; and anthems ascending with simultaneous charm from the high estate of primal innocence to the sphere of the excellent glory, have been exchanged by its dominion for dissonant and broken music. Yet-though sin and sorrow have subdued the tone of man's rejoicing-the victory over Death, the purification from defilement, redemption, unmerited providence, the wiping away of tears, and the eternal joy, are themes which remain to our fallen race; and invited to a reconciled Father, his rescued children may well forget their fleeting infirmities in the interminable perspective of peace-their light afflictions

in the glad heritancy of a weight of glory, and still delight to come before his presence with a song!"

This, continued E., is all that Mary and I could bring away, for closet-consideration; but the effect of F.'s discourse, aided, as I have remarked, by an extraordinarily-impressive delivery, was highly gratifying; and when you attend his church, you will not fail to remark there the "meek fervour of devotion," which Wordsworth laments as a characteristic of ancient piety, defective in the modern: nor will you wonder that the multitude should be all absorbed in the moving eloquence of the Church's petitions, when you hear them, in all their sacred force and comprehensive meaning, from the lips of this pious man, who, imputing to form and ceremony no availing influence per se, does not therefore disdain to demand veneration for antiquity, and cement attachment by representations and persuasions, which the schismatic rather than devout might pronounce to be conducive to a superstitious regard, but which, by more ingenuous disciples, are found to promote an ardency of affection for the form, which aids rather than supersedes the spirit of a reasonable worship. The signs of the times induce an apprehension, that the bosom of the