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And now, unto Him who hath given us the promise of the life that now is, as well as that which is to come, and whose grace can alone. strengthen us to live now so that hereafter we may abide in His presence-unto Him be glory for ever.

Amen.

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XIII.

CHRISTIAN WORSHIP.

1 CORINTHIANS, xiv. 15-19.—“What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Else, when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest? For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified. I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue."

THIS chapter, and particularly the verses we

have read, give us something of a real insight into the character of the earliest Christian times. They carry us back, across more than eighteen centuries, and help us to see, as in a mirror, the Corinthian Church, and what its worship was, less than thirty years after the death of our Lord. I say this with confidence; because the Epistles

to the Corinthians are admitted beyond all question, by all critics, however sceptical, to be the genuine writings of the Apostle Paul. They give us therefore, so far, a real picture of the thought and life of their time. The Corinthian Church, planted by the apostle, with its strange enthusiasms and mingled beliefs, stands revealed in them. And how very valuable and rare such a picture is, may be estimated by the difficulty we have in calling up before our minds any true image of facts or institutions only one or two centuries past. There are few things more difficult to do. Let us try, for example, to recall our own Scottish Church of the seventeenth century -to bring clearly before us its mode of worship, the attempt to displace which, in the summer of 1637, gave rise to the memorable tumult whose force spread through England as well as Scotland, and changed our whole history-how little would we be found agreeing in our reproduction of that worship, and the famous scene connected with it; how scanty the materials for their reproduction! How much harder still is it to realise the form of that ancient Celtic Church which prevailed in these islands before it was supplanted by the Latin or Roman Ritual-the

Church of St Columba and of St Giles !* Apart from the difficulty which always exists of true historic insight and appreciation, we cannot be said, in either of these cases, to have adequate means of recreating the image of the past. Facts are wanting. But here at least we have before us a series of undoubted facts. All that the primitive Church was is not told us here. But the features which are given are clear and unmistakable. The picture may not be complete; because there was no intention of making it complete. But the lines are fresh and vivid, and they are from the hands of a master.

Let us contemplate the picture first in its details; then as a whole; and, lastly, draw from it the meaning or lessons which it contains for us.

I. The several details in the primitive Christian worship are here plainly indicated as four -to wit: (1.) Prayer; (2.) Praise; (3.) What is called "Giving of thanks;" and (4.) Prophesying. These all receive attention, and to some extent description.

* This Sermon was also preached at the reopening of St Giles's Cathedral, or the High Church, after careful restoration, in the spring of 1873.

(1.) Prayer takes precedence, if not in the chapter, in the verses we have more particularly made our text. And rightly so. For prayer is a primary instinct of all worship. Wherever there is any recognition of a Supreme Being, the heart rises spontaneously in adoration, gratitude, or supplication. The reality and intensity of this spiritual feeling is its own justification. And whatever difficulties it may involve to reason-however we may explain, or be content to cease from explaining, the relation of the Divine and the human will-the aspiration of prayer will never fail while men look beyond themselves to an invisible Power above them. Prayer was a prominent feature of the worship of the Synagogue; and thence, no doubt, passed in its customary form into the service of the Christian Church. But it took also a new spirit and mould in doing so.

As described here, it was obviously of a twofold character. “I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also." The prayer of the "spirit" and the prayer of the "understanding" were not the same. The language points to a pervading distinction which runs through the chapter, and the general nature of which is easily apprehended, whatever

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