^c^^ 
 
THE REFORM 
 
 THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND 
 
Printed by R. <fe R. Clark, 
 
 EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS, EDINBURGH. 
 
 LONDON . . HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE . MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 DUBLIN M'OLASIIAN AND GILL. 
 
 GLASGOW JAMES MACLEHOSE. 
 
^ OCT '>7 1937 
 
 THE EEFOKM 
 
 CHURCH OF SCOTLAND 
 
 IN 
 
 WORSHIP, GOVEENMENT, & DOCTRINE 
 
 By ROBERT "lee, D.D. 
 
 MINISTER OF GREYFRIAltS, 
 
 ■KOFESSOU OF BIBLICAL CRITICISM, ETC., IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, 
 
 SENIOR DEAN OF THE CHAPEL ROYAL, AND 
 
 ONE OF HER MAJESTY'S CHAPLAINS IN ORDINARY IN SCOTLAND 
 
 PAKT I.— WORSHIP 
 
 EDINBUEGH 
 
 EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS 
 
 1864 
 
■n-plv ev^aaOai iTolixaaov aeavrbv, 
 
 Kal fir) ylvov ws dudptoTTOS Treipdfwi' 
 
 TOV Kvpiop. 
 
 Zo0. 'Itjo-. xviii. 23. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Institutions Perish that are not Reformed. 
 
 Necessity of speaking freely — Dangers of Controversy — The Old 
 Paths — Change is the Order of the World — Decay of Stag- 
 nant Nations — Fears disappointed — Institutions rest on 
 Opinion — Successors of the Reformers not animated by 
 their Spirit — Lord Bacon's Opinion of Church Reforms — 
 Scots Confession ...... 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The History of the Church op Scotland a continued 
 Series of Changes. 
 
 Roman and Greek Churches cling to Traditions — Roman Doctrine 
 of Develoi)ment — Short History of Church of Scotland — 
 Superintendents — Book of Common Prayer — Order of Geneva 
 — Directory — This never enforced or complied with — Prin- 
 cipal Hill's Statement criticised — Departures from Director}- 
 — Present Vai'ieties in Public Worship — Indej^endence of 
 Presbyteriaii Clergy — Its Causes and Advantages — Unifor- 
 mity, what, and how to be Secured 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Guilt of Innovation. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 " Clergy precluded from coiisidering Propriety of Changes in 
 Worship by their Ordination Vows" — Nine Queries upon this 
 Subject — " Changes should at least be sanctioned by Cliurch 
 Courts" — Inconsistency and Absurdity of this Objection — 
 Whether Church Courts at present possess the same Powers 
 as formerly they did — Laity possess no Direct Power — People 
 don't need to be reminded of their Liberty to Dissent . 19 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 To WHOM IT PERTAINS TO MAKE CHANGES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 Admission that Innovations are Improvements — Directory oidy 
 Law regarding Worship, except so far as Repealed — What- 
 ever not Forbidden is Lawful — Summary Authority of Pres- 
 byteries — Impossible to obtain sanction of Cliurch Courts — 
 Examples — Stained Glass, etc. — Innovations contrary to Law 
 — Present Church System a Heap of Unauthorised Customs — 
 Cliurch Courts systematically abstained from interfering — 
 Use of Book of Common Prayer in Banchory-Devenich — 
 Reasons for not consulting Presbytery , .27 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Dangers of the Church. 
 
 Declension of the Church relatively to the other Sects — Not a 
 recent Phenomenon — Relation to English Church — Point of 
 Honour — Obligations of Parliament — Revival of Catholic 
 Dogmas in Church of England, and consequent Hatred of the 
 Kirk — Advantages gained to Church of England by late Judi- 
 
CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 PAOK 
 
 cial Decisions — Interests of the Two Establishments Antago- 
 nistic — Tliree Sources of Danger — Umvillingness to Admit 
 the Danger . . . . . .39 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Secessions to the Episcopal Church, and the Causes. 
 
 Prayers, etc., should be Excellent in every Congregation — Sermons 
 commonly Superior to Prayers — General Dissatisfaction with 
 the Latter — Influence of Fashion not the only Cause of Seces- 
 sions — Preaching not Inferior to that in Episcopal Church — 
 No Faith in Episcopal Pretensions or Tlieories — Evils of Sepa- 
 ration in Religion between Aristocracy and the People — Pres- 
 byterians change their Religion when they join the Scotch 
 Episcopal Church — Proofs — Pretensions to Catholicity — 
 General Opinion that Presbyterian Worship wants Reform — 
 Sermons preached at Jedburgh — Manifesto of Catholic Doc- 
 trine — Dean Ramsay's Letter — Pi*esbytery worse than Popery 
 — Its Ministers without Commission — Episcopalians mere 
 Dissenters in Scotland . . . . .47 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Extempore Prayer. "* 
 
 Extravagant Sentiments on both sides — Not a Difficult Question 
 — Foolish Talk about Gifts — Pi-aying by the Spirit — Pains 
 bestowed upon Sermons — Consequences — Rarity of Good 
 Speakers Extempore — Principal Hill's Sentiments — Reading 
 of Prayers — Its Advantages — Prayers of Presentees under Lord 
 Aberdeen's Act — Suggestions on this Subject — Lord's Prayer 
 settles the Whole Question — Reading of Psalms . .CD 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Postures in Public Worship. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 postures in themselves Indifferent — Not therefore Unimportant 
 — Standing and Kneeling both Postures of Reverence — Sitting 
 not so — Other Reasons for Standing to Sing, and Kneeling 
 to Pray — Inquiry regarding Practice in Apostolic times and 
 in Patristic Church , . . . .90 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Praise of God — Instrumental Music. 
 
 Objections Considered — Human Inventions in the Worship of God 
 — ^These cannot be excluded — Preaching and Breaking Bread 
 — Psalms and Hymns — Ancient Worship — Inconsistency of 
 Objectors — Spirituality, etc., of Worship not explained — 
 Rudeness not Simplicity — Ancient Church, its Practice not 
 Decisive — Alleged Typical Character of Jewish Worship — 
 Synagogue Worship no Authority — Unfairness in arguing 
 from Old Testament — Dancing under the Law — Objection 
 very Weak — Human Voice God's Instrument — Fallacy of this 
 Argument — Quotation from Bushnell — The Beautiful in 
 Nature and Art — Remark on Quotations from Fathers against 
 Instrumental Music . . . . .109 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Psalms and Hymns. 
 
 Demand for Hymns — Paraphrases, Remarks on — Psalter, not of 
 Uniform Character — Different Portions of it should be used 
 differently — Psalms in the Prophets and in New Testament — 
 Very few Good Hymns . . . . .143 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Directory, Book of Common Order, and Book of 
 Common Prayer. 
 
 The Directory : 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Opinions respecting Improvement in Worship — Episcopal Objec- 
 tions to Directory — Circumstances of Churches for which 
 Directory was intended — ^Reading of Prayers not prohibited 
 in Directory — Omits some important Particulars — Whether 
 Church still boimd to maintain Directory . . .158 
 
 Book of Common Order: 
 
 Its Literary and Religious Character — Quietly Relinquished 
 — Quotation from James Gorden — Too Cold and Dry for Re- 
 vival — Its Denunciations — Specimens — Recognises Kneeling 
 at Prayer — Superiority of Special Services . . .163 
 
 Book of Common Prayer : 
 
 Its great general Merits — Abimdant Use of Scripture — Posi- 
 tion of Congregation — Absence of Long Prayers — Calendar, 
 etc. — Faults of do. — The Introduction — Its Excellence and 
 Origin . . . . . . .170 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Arrangement of Public Worship. 
 
 The Importance of different Acts being properly Arranged — 
 Catholic Mode of beginning Service — Reformed Mode — Supe- 
 riority of the latter — Proposed Arnmgement . .180 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Additional Reasons for a Liturgy — The only Confession of Faith 
 — A Bond of Union — Singular want of Coherence among 
 Presbyterians — Importance attached to choice of Ministers — 
 Explanations — Qualities of a good Liturgy for us — Need of 
 Forms for Sacraments, etc. — Responses — Propriety of certain 
 Festivals — Christmas, Good Friday, etc. — Celebration of Lord's 
 Supper simultaneously over Scotland — Conclusion . .184 
 
PART I.-WORSHIP. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 mSTITUTIONS PERISH THAT ARE NOT REFORMED. 
 
 If it be no news to have all innovations ushered in with the name of Reforma- 
 tion, sure it is less news to have all reformation censured and opposed 
 under the name of Innovation, by those who, being exalted in high place 
 above their merit, fear all change, though of things never so ill or so 
 unwisely settled — Milton. 
 
 I AM induced by discussions which have lately arisen regard- 
 ing Presbytery and Episcopacy, the union of the Church of 
 Scotland with the Church of England, and on ecclesiastical 
 questions in general, to publish some observations which 
 have occurred to me on these and kindred subjects. 
 
 In doing so, I hope I shall not be considered as advancing 
 any claim either to authority or to superior wisdom ; but it has 
 long appeared to me that one of the greatest dangers to which 
 churches are now exposed arises from the silence of their 
 members on matters of great and even pressing importance — 
 a silence which cannot fail to be pernicious in many ways, 
 chiefly as being sure to be misconstrued ^Moderate and 
 judicious men will indeed always feel unwilling to excite 
 controversies, which generally prove the parents of so much 
 mischief ; but this laudable feeling may easily be, as it has 
 often been, carried to a length which compromises truth and 
 honesty. To many men, indeed — as well as St. Francois do 
 Sales — no time ever appears seasonable for the promulgation 
 of a new doctrine, or the reform of an old corruption ; for 
 
2 INSTITUTIONS PERISH 
 
 who can tell how far the love of novelty may go, or to what 
 lengths the spirit of innovation, once indulged, may carry 
 us? Quiet times are unsuitable, for "nobody is making 
 any complaint ;" and times of agitation are unsuitable, for 
 " men's minds are in a fever, and if let loose they will work 
 mischief." 
 
 It is, indeed, impossible to deny that all changes involve 
 certain risks. By "putting it to usuiy," we may, by possibility, 
 lose "our Lord's money ;" yet this risk we must run in the dis- 
 charge of our trust, and in order that we may prove "good and 
 faithful servants." It is indeed easy and natural for certain 
 tempers to exhort us to " let what is well alone," and to quote 
 that favourite text which speaks of " asking for the old paths, 
 the good way ; " forgetting that some very old paths are not 
 " good ways," and that all old paths would soon be very bad 
 ways, unless frequently renovated and repaired ; as also that 
 those ways which the prophet exhorts the children of Israel 
 "to look for" and "walk in," were the very paths which they 
 had forsaken (Jer. vi. 6). This text, therefore, though gene- 
 rally quoted in the interest of obstructiveness and stagnation, 
 is indeed rather an encouragement to reform and progress. 
 For is not all repentance a practical innovation ? and is not 
 this the sum of all the promises — Behold, I make all things 
 new? 
 
 One class of minds is indeed charmed with whatever is 
 new ; as another, with no better reason, admires and clings to 
 whatever is old. But we need a better criterion of judgment 
 and action than either the one temper or the other ; both of 
 which are mere feelings, and may be commendable or the con- 
 trary, in different circumstances. It needs only a moment's 
 reflection to convince us that it is not left to our choice 
 whether, in tliis world, there shall be changes or not — these 
 
THAT ARE NOT REFORMED. 3 
 
 . are inevitable for the most part, and arise from the very con- 
 stitution of our nature and of the world in which we live. 
 We cannot make yesterday to-day^ however we may cherish 
 its memory or value its lessons. It is gone, dead and buried, 
 and we inherit only the legacy it has bequeathed to us. 
 It is only left to our choice to control, in a greater or less 
 degree, changes which themselves are inevitable ; to welcome 
 or resist them ; and to turn those torrents, which must 
 descend, into safe and salutary channels, or to permit their 
 undirected fuiy to devastate all around. Every state, and 
 every human institution whatever, which has affected to 
 imitate the laws of the Medes and Persians, has perished or is 
 in ruins ; for though man may have thought them too sacred for 
 his hand to touch, the arch destroyer Time has, without inter- 
 mission, shattered them with his irresistible stroke, and 
 consumed them with his remorseless tooth. Change is the 
 order of the universe, the normal condition of all things 
 mundane and human. Man may modify, he cannot prevent 
 or arrest it ; he may use it to his own benefit, but he can no 
 more abrogate this than any other of the laws of nature. The 
 chariot of Divine Providence still moves on in its glorious 
 course, but it crushes those who stand in its way. 
 
 All the stagnant nations of the earth are in the dust. 
 Non possumus, is the reply which Pio Nono and his College of 
 Cardinals make to all projects of reform. The words are 
 history and prophecy united ; they furnish at once a true 
 character and an appropriate epitaph. 
 
 On the other hand, at this moment every people in the 
 world that enjoys any considerable measure of internal peace 
 and stability, and is prosperous and powerful, has made great 
 and vital changes in its laws and institutions, and is even, in a 
 great measure, prosperous and powerful by means of those 
 
4 INSTITUTIONS PERISH 
 
 changes : which is only saying that nations, like individuals, 
 reap the fruit of their knowledge of the laws wliich regulate 
 human affairs, and of their compliance with those laws, and 
 that divine providence is too strong for man — either singly or 
 aggregated in the largest communities. No doubt those great 
 reforms of which our own country, for example, has been the 
 fortunate subject, were hailed with dire forebodings on the part 
 of many whom superstitious dread actuated, or private interest, 
 or some other form of selfishness. It is satisfactory to find so 
 many of these now reading their recantation, and renouncing 
 their political heresies, by applauding the results of those 
 measures which they formerly, in their state of ignorance, 
 blasphemed. Such confessions are gratifying, even though 
 extorted ; they are a striking testimony to the power of truth, 
 and they want nothing but a little of that personal humilia- 
 tion which always forms so large an element of true re- 
 pentance. 
 
 All human institutions, as one of the acutest of our 
 philosophers remarks, rest ultimately upon opinion. This 
 applies less to states — which are concerned directly with 
 the material interests of mankind — than to religious societies, 
 which are the immediate fruit of conviction. The Christian 
 Church is the direct offspring of Faith ; this is its ^aison d^etre : 
 and particular churches are founded upon particular concep- 
 tions of that Faith ; that is, upon particular opinions, which 
 also they are designed to represent, maintain, and disseminate. 
 Of all societies, therefore, they are most liable to perpetual 
 modifications ; and they could remain absolutely unchanged 
 only by the utter suspension of thought among their members, 
 and the absolute stagnation of human society. This, however, 
 being impossible in the strict sense — the most immovable 
 societies being only comparatively so — when the outward 
 
THAT ARE NOT REFORMED. 5 
 
 symbols of Christian doctrine and ecclesiastical institutions 
 are long maintained without alteration, the cause has always 
 been either a general indifference, or hypocrisy, or worldly 
 policy and selfishness, in some form or other, among the ruling 
 classes. 
 
 The religious Eeformers of the sixteenth century accom- 
 plished, perhaps, the most daring, sudden, radical, and exten- 
 sive revolution the world ever saw. It is wonderful, and also 
 sad, to find so many of their successors — I mean the clergy 
 of the churches which they either founded or reformed — now 
 actuated by the very spirit against which those Eeformers had 
 to contend, and using arguments which would shew that re- 
 formations of churches are needless, dangerous, or even sacri- 
 legious, unless they chanced to take place in the sixteenth, or 
 at latest, in the seventeenth century : as if it were our duty to 
 follow in the footsteps not of the Eeformers, but of those who 
 denounced them as revolutionists and heretics, enemies of 
 God and man, and therefore worthy to be exterminated, like 
 other noxious creatures. All this, no doubt, is justified by a 
 pretended deference to the Eeformers, and a professed zeal 
 for the doctrinal systems which they introduced. But this is 
 to uphold Luther and his coadjutors in the letter, against the 
 spirit, of their teaching and conduct. 
 
 Certainly none of the Eeformers imagined that their ideas 
 were to become the standard, according to which all succeeding 
 Protestants were to think. 'Not could they suppose that those 
 ** Confessions of Faith," which embodied the opinions they 
 then entertained, and which they composed, sometimes hur- 
 riedly, and generally at the call of their opponents, to exhibit 
 to hesitating or hostile governments what the doctrines were 
 which they really held and taught, should be turned into 
 Eules for the opinions of future generations of Christians, 
 
6 INSTITUTIONS PERISH 
 
 and Tests for excludiug such as miglit not believe, or at least 
 profess, according to their tenor. It is said, accordingly, 
 that j\Ielancthon proposed that every seven years there 
 should be held some convention, or other theological as- 
 sembly — not to bring back, if possible, advancing opinion to 
 the Augsburg Confession, but to adapt the Confession to 
 those modifications of opinion which were inevitable ; so 
 that the Symbol might at all times truly represent the faith 
 of the existing church. Whether this suggestion were really 
 thrown out by that great man or not — for I am not aware of 
 the original authority upon which it rests — it certainly was 
 in perfect consistency with the Protestant principle ; or 
 rather, something of that sort was evidently dictated by that 
 principle, however inconsistent with it Protestant practice 
 may sometimes have been. 
 
 Accordingly, Lord Bacon, in the very beginning of the 
 seventeenth century, represents it as a monstrous thing that 
 the Church of England should have remained without any 
 reforms for less than half a century, when reforms were being 
 unceasingly made in the civil government by Parliaments 
 which met every third or fourth year. 
 
 "Who knoweth not," he says, "that time is truly com- 
 pared to a stream, that carrieth down fresh and pure waters 
 into that salt sea of corruption which environeth all human 
 actions ? And, therefore, if man shall not, by his industry, 
 virtue, and policy, as it were with the oar row against the 
 stream and inclination of time, all institutions and ordinances, 
 be tlicy never so pure, will corrupt and degenerate. But I 
 would only ask why the civil state should be purged and 
 restored by good and wholesome laws, made every third or 
 fourth year in parliament assembled, devising remedies as fast 
 as time breedcth mischief ; and, contrariwise, the ecclesiastical 
 
THAT ARE NOT REFORMED. 7 
 
 state should still continue upon the dregs of time, and receive no 
 alteration now for these five-and-forty years and more ? . . . 
 But if it be said to me that there is a difference between civil 
 causes and ecclesiastical, they may as well tell me that 
 churches and chapels need no reparations, though castles and 
 houses do ; whereas, commonly, to speak truth, dilapidations 
 of the inward and spiritual edifications of the church of God 
 are in all times as great as the outward and material. Sure I 
 am that the very word and style of reformation used by our 
 Saviour — ah initio non fuit sic* — was applied to church 
 matters, and those of the highest nature, concerning the law 
 moral" — {Of the Pacification of the Church.') 
 
 In the same spirit -svrote" our Scotch Eeformers, who, in 
 their Confession of Faith, 1560, "protest that if any man will 
 note in this our Confession any article or sentence repugning 
 to God's holy Word, that it would please him of his gentleness 
 and for Christian charity's sake, to admonish us of the same 
 in writing ; and we, upon our honour and fidelity, do promise 
 unto him satisfaction from the Holy Scriptures, or else reforma- 
 tion of that which he shall prove to he amiss." — (Preface.) They 
 had not such an opinion of their hasty though honest labours, 
 as to conceive that their work might not contain errors, and so 
 need changes : and if by themselves, no less by their suc- 
 cessors, who had the same interest in truth, and the same 
 rights respecting it as they, besides larger experience, and, 
 probably, better means of knowledge and judgment. 
 
 More emphatically still, they declare (ch. xx.) that while 
 " in the kirk of God, it becometh all things to be done decently 
 and in order," they did " not think that any policy or order of 
 ceremonies can be appointed for all ages, times, and places ; 
 for as ceremonies, such as men have appointed, are but tem- 
 
 * From the beginning it was not so. 
 
8 INSTITUTIONS PERISH THAT ARE NOT REFORMED. 
 
 poral, SO may and ought they to be changed, when they rather 
 foster superstition than edify the church using the same." 
 
 If the world continually go forward, and the Church stand 
 still or go backward, what can happen but an eternal separa- 
 tion between science and religion ; they who study God's 
 works and they who preach his Word regarding each other 
 not as allies and friends, but rivals and enemies, and the 
 multitude gradually imbibing the notion that He who inspired 
 the Bible is not the same God who governs all tilings and 
 made the worlds. 
 
CHAPTEE IL 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE CHUECH OF SCOTLAND A CONTINUED 
 SERIES OF CHANGES. 
 
 Passibus ambiguis fortuna volubilis errat, 
 
 Et manet in nullo certa tenaxque loco. — Ovid. 
 
 Surely every medicine is an innovation, and he that will not apply new 
 remedies must expect new evils ; for time is the greatest innovator : and if 
 time of course alter all things to the worse, and wisdom and coimsel shall 
 not alter them to the better, what shall be the end? — Bacon. 
 
 Whatever reasons certain other churches may have to plead 
 antiquity and to stand upon tradition, it would be both 
 unreasonable and inconsistent in the Church of Scotland to 
 do so. This church has been founded upon the denial of 
 those reasons ; which denial, also, its whole history exempli- 
 fies, and by which it has always sought to justify itself. The 
 Roman Church may plead for most of its peculiarities an 
 antiquity of a thousand years, and in many instances of yet 
 older date. The Greek Church, which pronounces the Roman 
 heterodox and schismatical, carries up its traditions, both theo- 
 logical and ecclesiastical, to a much earlier period. It boasts 
 that it is now, in its creed, government, and worship, what it 
 was in the fifth century. We can easily understand how 
 men should be shocked by the veiy mention of innovation, 
 whose minds are overshadowed with such a mass of ancient 
 traditions, and who have been taught that the first of Christian 
 
10 THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 duties is to abjure the use of reason, and submit to authority 
 in matters religious. 
 
 By such men rational inquiry and independent judgment 
 are esteemed, not duties, but presumptuous sins : to change 
 any institution, rite, or doctrine, under pretence of improve- 
 ment, would be an act of rebellion or sacrilege. The apostles, 
 they conceit, left all things in the state of highest perfection, 
 under the guardianship of Scripture, Tradition, and the 
 Church, whose high calling it is to preserve what she has 
 received in integrity and purity through all ages till the 
 second coming of the Lord. To reform the Church, therefore, 
 can mean nothing else than to desecrate and destroy the 
 temple of God. 
 
 Such is the position maintained by the Greek Church, in 
 all its branches and by all its offshoots : * from the awkward- 
 ness and inconveniences of which position the Church of Eome 
 has sought to escape by its ingenious but inconsistent and 
 rationalistic doctrine of development. The Holy Ghost being 
 now conveniently lodged in the Vatican, the Church, thus 
 divinely authorised and guided, may at any time add a new 
 article of faith to the already overgrown creed, whensoever the 
 voracious credulity of the faithful may crave for a new dogma, 
 such as that of the Immaculate Conception. But whatever 
 may be expected of those whose minds are oppressed by a 
 long history, by venerable traditions and inveterate customs, 
 the ministers and members of our Presbyterian Church can 
 plead no such temptation. This Church itself is no more than 
 300 years old, and it has seen more revolutions than centuries ; 
 its history is an almost uninterrupted series of innovations. 
 At first it had Superintendents, who, though not in any 
 
 * Sco lvO(hvoll'.s Translations of TEthiopic Liturgies, etc., in "Journal of 
 Sacred Literature," No. viii. N.S. 
 
A SERIES OF CHANGES. 11 
 
 essential respect hishops, yet maintained a shadow of Epis- 
 copacy, and showed that the absolute equality of ministers 
 was not yet ripened into a point of faith. The English Book 
 of Common Prayer was for some time employed in public 
 worship. Tliis appears to have been gradually superseded by 
 the Book of Common Order, or the Order of Geneva, which was 
 composed for the use of the English congregation in that city. 
 This book had been published so early as the year 1557, and 
 authorised by the lords of the congregation ; but that it had 
 not superseded the Book of Common Prayer so late as the years 
 1565 and 1566 may be inferred from this, that we find the 
 General Assemblies of those years enjoining, "that every 
 minister, exhorter, and reader, should have a copy of the 
 Psalm Book lately printed at Edinburgh, and use the order 
 contained therein in prayers, marriages, and the administra- 
 tion of the sacraments." So unfounded is the statement 
 which was made in our Church Courts a few years ago, that 
 Knox's Liturgy was never enjoined or obligatory upon the 
 ministers of the Church of Scotland. How long the Book of 
 Common Order was actually used by the generality of the 
 ministers, or whether it was ever minutely adhered to, is not 
 easy to ascertain. Indeed, some of its own directions or 
 rubrics, afforded a plausible apology to those who had an itch 
 for extemporising in public prayer. There can, however, be 
 little doubt that long before the year ] 645, when the Direc- 
 tory was adopted, the Book of Common Order had been 
 generally disused. The last mention of it in the Proceedings 
 of the General Assembly is said to occur in the year 1601 ; 
 though Bishop Sage asserts that it was still in use at the 
 beginning of the civil war, and that persons alive near the 
 end of the seventeenth century remembered to have heard it 
 read in the churches. 
 
12 THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 However this may be, the General Assembly, without 
 venturing either to find fault with it, or even distinctly to 
 mention it, superseded, of its own authority, both that public 
 Liturgy of the church and the venerable Confession of Faith 
 which had hitherto been its legal and authorised symbol of 
 doctrine, in favour of the Directory for the public worship 
 of God, and the Confession of Faith, agreed upon by the 
 Assembly of Divines at Westminster, as " part of the Cove- 
 nanted Uniformity in Eeligion betwixt the Churches of Christ 
 in the kingdom of Scotland, England, and Ireland." 
 
 Though, shortly after its first adoption, one or two feeble 
 efforts were made by the General Assembly to secure compli- 
 ance with the Directory, there is no proof that there ever 
 existed any real zeal in the matter ; and this, at least, appears 
 certain, that very soon the ministers paid very little attention 
 to it ; till at last it came to be doubted whether that docu- 
 ment was of any authority at all. 
 
 During the half century which comprehends the Moderate 
 cera^ the Directory, as we have been told by one who should 
 know, was considered, as not a rule, "but a guide : if so, it was 
 a guide which nobody followed any further than pleased the 
 private fancy of each. " The lapse of time," says Principal 
 Hill, speaking of the Directory, " and the change of circum- 
 stances, have introduced various alterations ; and the ministers 
 of the Church of Scotland are in general disposed to conform, in 
 the manner of performing the public services of religion, to the 
 practice of that part of tJie country in which Providence orders 
 their lot, and are always ready to attend to every recommenda- 
 tion from their ecclesiastical superiors!'^ 
 
 I fear these two dispositions are hardly consistent with 
 each other ; in this case, at least, the former quite prevailed : 
 
 * Counsels respecting the Duties of the Pastoral Office, p. 2, cd. 1862. 
 
A SERIES OF CHANGES. 13 
 
 for almost everj^thing was done in public worsliip, otherwise 
 than as the Directory appointed. The service, as the Direc- 
 tory appoints, was to begin with a solemn call to the congre- 
 gation, and with prayer : it began with singing. The first 
 prayer was to be a short introduction to the service : it was 
 long, being the principal act of worship, next to the sermon, 
 which was the grand centre of the whole, the other acts being 
 considered as mere garnishing. Two chapters, at least — one from 
 each Testament — were to be read at each meeting : it became 
 the custom to read none, as is still the case in some parishes ; 
 the ministers of the church, as Dr. Hill truly says, being "much 
 disposed to conform to the practice of that part of the country 
 in which Providence orders their lot.'* But as a substitute 
 for the Word of God they " lectured and preached" their own 
 words ; and these continue to be the terms used to the present 
 day in appointing persons to conduct public worship in the 
 High Church "before His Grace the Eoyal Commissioner," 
 during the sittings of the General Assembly. The Directory 
 also recommended the use of the Lord's prayer ; but this came 
 to be considered popish^ and was universally discarded — 
 nay, a great uproar was excited, in some cases, by the attempt 
 to reintroduce it ; and within the present century, some lead- 
 ing ministers, even in Edinburgh, preached sermons to show 
 that the Lord's prayer did not belong to the New Testament 
 dispensation, and was not properly a Christian prayer. The 
 same Directory ordains that rebuking of penitents, and the 
 celebration of marriages, should take place in public before 
 the church ; but they came to be universally done in private. 
 The mode of celebrating the Communion which was general or 
 universal during the last century, and which still survives, though 
 now divested of some of its most unedifying peculiarities, 
 might appear to have been contrived in contrast to the direc- 
 
14 THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 tions of that document which still was formally maintained as 
 the Law of the Church. 
 
 Even at the present day, the mode of conducting public 
 worship on Sundays, though having that kind of general 
 agreement which is inevitable even where a liturgy is not 
 in use, yet varies in its details as much as it easily could 
 where the elements admitting of difference are so few ; the 
 number of possible " permutations and combinations" always 
 depending upon that of the elements to be so dealt with. 
 In some churches there are two prayers at each service, in 
 many three, in some four. Two psalms are sung in some 
 cases, in some three, in some four ; and frequently the number 
 is varied according to the judgment or fancy of the minister, 
 as is also the place in the service at which at least one of the 
 psalms shall come in. The Lord's prayer is now frequently 
 used, but more generally it is not ; and it is introduced at 
 what part of the service the minister pleases — at the end of 
 the first prayer, or of the second, or of the third, if there be a 
 third ; and often it is used by itself before the sermon. Many 
 use the Lord's prayer in one diet of public worship and not in 
 the other ; others use it occasionally. 
 
 The prayers of one minister differ from those of another in 
 every respect in which such exercises can be conceived to differ. 
 In one case they are dry, didactic discourses, discussing points 
 of theology, sadly wanting in solemnity, pathos, simplicity, 
 and beauty, and expressed in commonplace, and often vulgar 
 and inaccurate language — bad sermons, addressed to God, for 
 the instruction and reproof of the people, who are put, and 
 cannot but feel that they are put, in the position not of 
 worshippers but of hearers. Very often they are little else 
 than a string of Scriptural quotations, connected by hardly the 
 slenderest thread of thought, some word in the conclusion of 
 
A SERIES OF CHANGES. 15 
 
 one quotation suggesting that which is made to follow, and 
 so failing to leave any definite impression, except perhaps 
 a sense of bewilderment, upon the minds of the congrega- 
 tion, who learn that the rhapsody is at length concluded 
 only by the minister saying the " Amen," which they ought 
 to say. 
 
 In other cases, .the prayers are neat and concise, but 
 poor, thin, and meagre ; deficient in comprehensiveness, depth, 
 fulness, and fervour ; leaving out many essential petitions and 
 other elements of public prayer, and containing little reference 
 to those great facts, doctrines, and duties, which, though 
 not to be discussed, are always to be remembered, in the 
 worship of the Sanctuary. 
 
 A few ministers, young and inexperienced, who affect 
 ecclesiastical costume and are suspected of Episcopal sympa- 
 thies, are much censured by some of the clergy because they 
 offer prayers made up of scraps from the Liturgy of the Church 
 of England, as if they were ambitious to exhibit the Kirk as 
 some poor Lazarus, subsisting on crumbs that fall from the 
 table of a rich neighbour ; while by others this conduct is 
 rather commended, as a confession of need, a protest against 
 things as they are, and a call for reform. But whatever " the 
 brethren" may think, "the hearers" are said to declare them- 
 selves *' much refreshed" with this innovation. 
 
 Many ministers pray always the same prayers in public 
 worship, without change or variety, from month to month 
 and year to year, during their whole lives. Others have two, 
 three, or four prayers, which they repeat in succession ; and 
 probably a much larger number pray extempore in the most 
 absolute sense — plunging, on each occasion, into the great 
 wilderness of thought and language — like Abraham who went 
 forth not knowing whither he went, but who was safe under 
 
IG THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 the promised guidance from above, which these men shew, 
 by their dreary wanderings, that they do not enjoy. 
 
 In one church the prayers seldom exceed five, six, or seven 
 minutes ; in others they are prolonged to fifteen, to twenty, 
 to thirty, and even in some instances to forty minutes. 
 
 In some cases — I hope they are many — the public prayers 
 are pious, comprehensive, solemn, judicious, and in ever}' re- 
 spect excellent. " Happy are the people that are in such a 
 case." But what has been said may suffice at least to shew 
 that individual liberty has had, and now has, veiy ample 
 scope in the Church of Scotland in this regard ; and that a 
 boundless variety is the only tradition, in connection with our 
 worship, that we can appeal to. 
 
 This liberty has been claimed and insisted on by our 
 clergy during two centuries at least. Indeed, it belongs to 
 the genius of Presbytery, and has always distinguished it. 
 
 And accordingly it was that feature of the system with 
 which the Episcopal party in Scotland always found most 
 fault, and which they were most desirous to reform ; as every- 
 one knows who has even that slight acquaintance with our 
 ecclesiastical controversies which may be derived from such 
 well-known writers as Burnet and Leighton. 
 
 This greater independence of the individual minister arises 
 naturally from the different position wliich he holds in re- 
 lation to his flock, compared with the Episcopal clergyman. 
 The latter is visibly " a man under authority." His flock see 
 over his head the chief pastor or bishop, w^hose deputy, in 
 some sense, and curate the parochial clergyman is, and to 
 whom he is in all things responsible. It appears natural, 
 therefore, or rather inevitable, that the chief pastor should 
 interfere with the form of worshij) in the different churches 
 in his diocese, all of which compose in some sense one church, 
 
A SERIES OF CHANGES. 17 
 
 of which the bishop is the chief pastor, and in relation to 
 which he alone is competent to perform certain acts. "Whereas 
 under Presbytery, though the Episcopal power be vested, 
 according to the theory, in Church Courts, yet each minister, 
 as a member of these courts, himself partakes of that power ; 
 so that his congregation, perceiving no superior officer standing 
 above him, naturally regard him as their highest ecclesiastical 
 authority and ruler, who rather acquires importance than other- 
 wise in their eyes from the existence of Church Courts, in whose 
 proceedings he takes part, and whose power he shares. The 
 Presbyterian minister himself cannot but be actuated, though 
 perhaps unconsciously, by the same feelings. A man placed 
 under the superintendence of a superior officer, to whom he is 
 accountable, can never regard himself in the same light as 
 another who is superintended by a court, of which he himself is 
 a constituent member, and all whose members have the same 
 legal standing, and the same powers. It may be true that 
 the Presbyterial superintendence has, in some cases, not proved 
 itself efficient ; the same may be said of the Episcopal ; but 
 this is beyond doubt, that the Presbyterian system places the 
 minister in a highly- advantageous position in relation to the 
 members of his congregation, and secures for him, if he be not 
 unworthy, an independence and authority which, it is believed, 
 no other clergy, either Congregationalist or Episcopalian, enjoy 
 in an equal degree. 
 
 It appears natural that he, as the bishop of his own 
 flock, should arrange and order everything in its public wor- 
 ship, without much direction or interference from those 
 impersonal bodies in which theoretically the oversight is 
 vested, and which, though they may lay down some general 
 rules upon the subject, cannot be strict in the interpretation 
 of these, or rigorous in the execution of them, without destroy- 
 
 c 
 
18 THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH A SERIES OF CHANGES. ' 
 
 ing that freedom of action which the system implies. The 
 cry which is sometimes heard — that because we are an Estab- 
 lished Church, therefore we should have uniformity in our 
 worship — is raised by persons who forget that a uniformity 
 which has any reality or meaning can be secured only by a 
 ritual, with rubrics, universally applicable and rigidly enforced 
 upon all and sundry ; that is, by a public and authorised 
 liturgy, departure from which is a penal offence. 
 
 But there is no real uniformity of public worship secured 
 by only providing that the different acts of worship shall 
 succeed one another in the same order ; the acts them- 
 selves remaining as different and as unlike as the genius or 
 caprice of different men may chance to make them, or by 
 requiring that prayers or sermons shall in no case be read 
 from a book or a manuscript. Against that real uniformity 
 the Church of Scotland has, rightly or wrongly, always con- 
 tended and protested. In doing so, she has undoubtedly 
 been true to the fundamental idea of Presbytery, and has 
 exemplified its genuine spirit. 
 
 To the eyes of her opponents our Church has appeared 
 a scene of systematic irregularity, disorde!*, and confusion ; and 
 her defenders cannot deny that her only traditions are those 
 of liberty on the part of her clergy, producing endless variety 
 and ceaseless innovation. 
 
 " Tiiibitur ot lahetiir in omno voluhilis {rvum." — ITor. 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE GUILT OF INNOVATION. 
 
 'AW ol ToWol TUP avdpunriav twp [ikv Idlojv afMapTrjfxaTCJV avv-qyopot yivovrai, 
 tCjv ok dWorplup Kuri^opoi. — Chrysost. 
 
 Aliis severissimi sumus, nobis indulgentissimi, aliis austeri, nobis remissi. In 
 eodem crimine punimus alios, nos absolvimus. — Salvian. 
 
 Wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. — Rom. ii. 
 
 In a pamphlet which appeared last year, we find the argiin 
 mentum ad hominem thus delicately handled : — 
 
 While the laity possess full powers to consider all eccle- 
 siastical questions, "the ministers of the Church are dif- 
 ferently situated. They are precluded from considering the 
 question at all. Whether it be right or wrong, whether it is 
 more or less for edification, whether it would promote the 
 interests of religion if any different practice were adopted ; 
 these points may be freely canvassed by the laity, though not 
 by the clergy. They are bound by their ordination vows ; 
 they have given their assent in the most solemn manner 
 that men can, to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the 
 Church, as subsisting at the time when such vows or obliga- 
 tions were prescribed by the Church to be taken by all intrants 
 to the ministry. These vows were deliberately sanctioned by 
 the Church, and voluntarily homologated by them. And 
 though they may come to think that some change is advisable 
 in accordance with the spirit of the age and with the pro- 
 
20 THE GUILT OF INNOVATION. 
 
 gressive improvement of society, and that vital religion would 
 be promoted, and the Church be enlarged, consolidated, and 
 strengthened by their adoption ; yet, so long as they are 
 bound by their ordination vows, they cannot attempt their 
 introduction without perjury." — {Innovations in Public Woi'- 
 sliip, etc., pp. 7, 8.) 
 
 Without attempting a formal reply at present to these 
 charges, it may be permitted us to ask the following ques- 
 tions : — 
 
 1. Where shall we find described and enjoined those 
 customs, rites, forms of worship, etc., departure from which 
 in any particular constitutes perjury? Also, When and 
 where the ministers of this church bound themselves on 
 oath never to depart from or change any of these ? 
 
 2. It being admitted that we have all at ordination 
 solemnly vowed and engaged to maintain "the purity of 
 worship authorised and practised" in the year 1707 (when 
 an Act against innovation was passed) and before, — ^Vliere 
 are we told that that purity consists in standing, and not 
 kneeling to pray, or that it would be polluted by standing, 
 instead of sitting to sing ? Also, on what occasion any of us 
 vowed or declared that the reading of our prayers was a 
 departure from either pure or Presbyterian worship ? 
 
 3. Since ministers at their ordination own the " purity of 
 worship authorised and practised in this Church," if the worship 
 "authorised" happen to differ in any respect from that "prac- 
 tised" in it, either now or any time before, how shall we escape 
 falling into either Scylla or Charybdis ? which shall we comply 
 with ? with statute against custom, or with custom against 
 
THE GUILT OF INNOVATION. 21 
 
 statute ? shall we keep our consciences clean by obeying that 
 which has or had the sanction of law, or that which has the 
 sanction only of the multitude, who transgress the law ? 
 
 4. What words in their ordination vows bind the clergy 
 of the Church of Scotland never to make any alterations 
 whatever in those modes of public worship which happen to 
 prevail in their own times, and in " those parts of the country 
 where Providence may order their lot ?" And shall a minister, 
 salvd conscientid, *'read two chapters of the Bible, or more 
 when the coherence of the matter requireth,'' and use the 
 Lord's Prayer, within the bounds of one Presbytery; and 
 dispense with both on his being translated to another, in 
 compliance with what is " presently practised" in either ? 
 
 5. It seems the laity enjoy full power to inquire, discuss, 
 and judge in such matters ; but as for the ministers of the 
 church, " they are precluded from considering the question at 
 all — whether it be right or wrong, whether it is more or less 
 for edification, whether it would promote the interests of reli- 
 gion, if any different practice were adopted,'' etc. If this be 
 a correct account of our position, I ask whether we be not 
 the most degraded clergy in the world? and whether the 
 Church be not only Erastianised and enslaved beyond all 
 example, and beyond even the representations of its enemies ? 
 Also, Wlio took from us our proper and peculiar functions, 
 and transferred them whole and entire to the laity ? More- 
 over, How it happens that the clergy in former times claimed 
 to do, and also did, all the things, none of which we may do, 
 or attempt, without perjury ? 
 
 6. Whether it be not the duty of every minister to render 
 
22 THE GUILT OF INNOVATION. 
 
 the public worship in his Church as perfect as possible, to 
 remove from it all defects and blemishes as far as he can, 
 within the limits of the laws ecclesiastical ? and Whether it 
 be not incumbent upon those who denounce him as a trans- 
 gressor for so doing, to quote the law or laws he transgresses ? 
 
 7. Whether any one should be denounced as an innovator, 
 or rebellious against the Church, because he does not comply 
 with customs which have no authority of law, which are 
 unseemly, inexpedient, distasteful to his flock, and which 
 are themselves innovations ? 
 
 8. Whether those should be censured as " divisive 
 courses," which create no divisions, but satisfy the people, 
 unite and multiply the flock, and strengthen the Church ? 
 
 9. Wliether the most solemn of all our vows be not to 
 defend, uphold, and extend the Church, for the glory of God 
 and the good of the people ; and Whether these ends should 
 not take precedence in our minds of any customs, rites, or 
 regulations whatever, which have no utility or value except 
 as they conduce to these ends ? 
 
 But perhaps I should apologise for alluding to so paltry a 
 production. The argumenium ad hominem, the most vulgar, 
 mean, and ineffectual of all controversial weapons, is resorted 
 to only by those who are conscious that they have no legitimate 
 argument to advance. The same uncharitable reflections 
 have been expressed by many in private'; and one or two 
 have assayed, with little success, to put them forth in Church 
 Courts. The autlior of this pamphlet has been so left to him- 
 self as to print and publish the malignant nonsense. He 
 
THE GUILT OF INNOVATION. 23 
 
 will be comforted — if himself a minister, as I have no doubt 
 he is — to know that he is included in his own denunciations. 
 " Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou 
 art (of the ministers of the Church of Scotland) that judgest ; 
 for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyseK. 
 For thou that judgest, doest the same things.'' If it be our 
 duty to maintain and observe all the customs which prevailed 
 in our Church in 1707 and 1711, none of us is innocent : "in 
 many of these things we all of us offend." 
 
 It has been frequently said that " the innovations," how- 
 ever excellent or expedient in themselves, and however proper 
 to be adopted, if tlwy had received the sanction of the General 
 Assembhj, are utterly unlawful without that sanction. 
 
 But, according to the above argument, they would be equally 
 unlawful though they had the sanction of all the Church Courts, 
 inasmuch as they are a departure from " the discipline and 
 worship of the Church, as subsisting at the time when the 
 vows and obligations, imposed at ordination, were prescribed 
 by the Church to be taken by all intrants into the holy 
 ministiy." The only effect of such sanction being accorded 
 by the General Assembly would be to involve that venerable 
 Court in the same perjury which the writer imputes to those 
 who innovate on their own responsibility ; since the General 
 Assembly is made up of ministers and elders, all of whom 
 have subjected themselves to the same or like vow^s and 
 obligations ; and who, " so long as they are thus bound, can- 
 not attempt the introduction (of any innovation) without 
 perjury;'' nay, are "precluded from considering such ques- 
 tions at all ;" — " these points may be freel}'' canvassed by the 
 laity, though not by the clergy" — " they are bound by their 
 ordination vows," as the elders no less are. 
 
 According to this doctrine, any member who should move 
 
24 THE GUILT OF INNOVATION. 
 
 the General Assembly to approve or allow any innovation 
 would be guilty of perjury ; as would also any one who 
 supported such motion; and, by adopting it, the venerable 
 Assembly would only make itself particcps criminis ; so that 
 tliis favourite suggestion, instead of preventing, would only 
 multiply and aggravate the transgression. 
 
 We had not hitherto imagined that the General Assembly 
 of 1707, or of 1711, had any powers or privileges which did 
 not belong in an equal degree to every Assembly hoi den 
 before or since ; so that anything whatever which either of 
 those Assemblies saw fit to do, any of these had power to 
 undo, if they pleased. 
 
 A minister or elder of the present day, we supposed, had 
 just the same right, and even the same duty, to consider and 
 weigh the terms of admission of ministers to benefices, and 
 the declarations that should be required of them, as any of 
 the ministers or elders who framed and proposed the Act of 
 1711, which imposed the declarations now exacted ; and the 
 man who should propose that that Act be repealed or modi- 
 fied would be no more guilty of perjury, or any other sin, or im- 
 propriety, than he was on whose motion it was at first adopted. 
 On the contrary, it is not only possible, but very likely, that 
 this is the very thing which that person would be found doing, 
 if he had lived in our day — for the Act of 1711 was an innch 
 vatioii then ; a new law dictated by the apprehension of new 
 dangers. 
 
 But, it seems, '* all these points may be freely canvassed by 
 the laity." Tlie laity are no doubt much obliged for this ample 
 concession to them of those rights and powers of which the 
 ministers and elders are denuded. 
 
 I hope the laity will always jealously guard their privileges ; 
 and, for my part, I should feel no regret if these were in some 
 
THE GUILT OF INNOVATION. 25 
 
 respects much enlarged. One might suppose this writer 
 meant tliat the laity should reform the Church, when it needs 
 reformation ; the clergy standing by, not presuming to do any- 
 thing, or even to utter a w^ord, or indicate a feeling, lest they 
 should make themselves guilty of breaking their vows. If such 
 be the privileges and duties of the laity, it is time they knew it. 
 
 All Scotchmen, however, must be aware that the laity have 
 no direct power, whatever indirect influence they may have, in 
 the legislation of the Church of Scotland. With the small ex- 
 ception of the representatives of the Universities and Eoyal 
 Burghs, all the members of the General Assembly are either 
 ministers or representatives of Church Courts, i. e., virtually of 
 ministers. And all the laymen in Scotland, however unani- 
 mous or resolved, could not alter any one law or regulation of 
 the Church against the clergy, who are always a majority in the 
 General Assembly, and in all Church Courts — except the Paro- 
 chial E^rk Sessions, which have nothing to do with legislation. 
 
 But this writer proposes nothing so revolutionary as that 
 the laity should either exercise or possess any power in re- 
 forming the Kirk. Not at all ; all he asserts for them is — 
 the sacred liberty of dissent. " They can," he says, " with a clear 
 conscience, canvass the merits of any changes that are pro- 
 posed," and " adopt the course which they think most likely to 
 promote their spiritual improvement ; and it is plainly their 
 duty to join themselves to that branch of the Church which 
 they think most in accordance with Scripture," etc., i.e., separate 
 themselves from the Church, — "dissent.'* This zealous friend 
 and advocate of the Kirk has no remedy to propose but that 
 which must in the end ruin the institution — depletion : the 
 loss of more blood is the only medicine his wisdom can pre- 
 scribe for the already emaciated body ecclesiastical. The 
 people do not need to be informed that they enjoy liberty to 
 
26 THE GUILT OF INNOVATION. 
 
 go out of the Church — a privilege they have fully understood 
 and abundantly used for a long vi^hile, but one which it is 
 strange that a zealous advocate of the Church should suggest 
 to them : whereas what we should desire and seek for them 
 is, liberty to remain in the Church, by considering "what is 
 best adapted to promote the glory of God, the good of mankind, 
 and the advancement of pure and undefiled religion," and what 
 is most decorous and suitable in the times in which we live. 
 
 According to the notions of this ^vriter and of those whose 
 views he expresses, though all the clergy and all the lay- 
 members of the Church of Scotland should come to a unani- 
 mous opinion that instrumental music, for example, or reading 
 of prayers were desirable, it would still remain the duty of 
 the clergy to resist these innovations, because the General 
 Assembly 150 years ago passed a certain Act, in totally 
 different circumstances, and with the view of preventing quite 
 different dangers. And the laity must all in duty dissent, 
 and the clergy, for conscience' sake, denude themselves of 
 their flocks, and submit to receive and consume their stipends, 
 out of a sacred regard to their vows ! But the good of the 
 Church, and the edification of the people, are the supreme 
 laws in the case — all other considerations should and must 
 give place to these. 
 
 Is it possible, after all, that this writer can be some enemy 
 of the Church, under the mask of a friend, alarmed at the 
 prospect of a reformed worship in the Establishment, which 
 may already shew symptoms of drawing back some of those 
 who had freely used that sacred privilege of dissent, which he 
 so officiously suggests to the members of the Church of Scot- 
 land, and so zealously asserts for them ! I hope, however, 
 experience has taught us to seek other methods of reformation, 
 more effectual and also more legitimate. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TO WHOM IT PERTAINS TO MAKE CHANGES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 In those days there was no king in Israel ; every man did that which was 
 right in his own eyes. — ^Judg. xxii. 6. 
 
 From this Act (1690) it would appear that while the State has fixed the 
 Church's faith, it has not fixed the Church's worship. - The Church may 
 adopt any form of worship she pleases without violating any Act of Parlia- 
 ment. She must ever believe as the Westminster Divines believed ; but she 
 may worship in a surplice or without a surplice ; with a liturgy or without a 
 liturgy : in this she is free. —Cunningham's Chicrch History of Scotland^ 
 vol. ii. p. 286. 
 
 It is remarkable in our late controversies that few of those 
 who attempted to raise an outcry against certain changes in 
 the mode of conducting public worsliip, ventured to deny that 
 the changes themselves were, on the whole, for the better ; 
 and that several of them were unquestionable improvements. 
 Some opponents went so far as to acknowledge that, " if the 
 thing were to be done over again, it might properly be done 
 as the innovating members of the Church desired." " But," 
 it was added, " we were not now constituting the Church for 
 the first time : it had been otherwise ordered ; and we, as 
 dutiful sons of the Church, should respectfully submit, and 
 conform to general and long established usage." 
 
 This, however, evidently begs the whole question at issue. 
 It takes for granted that the practices, now general, are parts 
 of the constitution of the Church, and that a mere custom has 
 acquired the force of law. Both these assumptions I deny ; 
 
28 TO WHOM IT PERTAINS TO MAKE 
 
 and the absurdity of the latter is shown by this, that some of 
 the customs thus sought to be made obligatory, are not only in 
 opposition to the Spirit, but to the letter of the law. I shall 
 assume here that the Directory, sanctioned by the General 
 Assembly in 1645, is the law of the Church of Scotland re- 
 lating to the ordering of public worship, except in so far as 
 any of its provisions may have been repealed by subsequent 
 laws of the Church regularly enacted ; and that it never was, 
 nor is now, competent for any Church Court, supreme or sub- 
 ordinate, to issue any order, or to grant any permission, to 
 contravene that Statute, in whole or in part. This can be 
 done only by an Act of the Church, passed in a constitutional 
 manner. For no one, whose opinion is worthy of regard, will 
 contend that a body like the General Assembly, which exer- 
 cises administrative and judicial as well as legislative functions, 
 has authority to repeal in the former capacity what it had 
 established in the latter, any more than one of our Courts of 
 law has authority to set aside an Act of Parliament. 
 
 I have often been told, both in public and in private, that 
 such novelties as standing to sing, kneeling to pray, reading 
 of prayers, or the use of an organ, would J)e quite in order, if 
 the sanction of tJie Church Courts were first obtained. But 
 these things are either forbidden by the constitution and laws 
 of the Church, or they are not. If they be not so forbidden, 
 they are permitted, and lawful for those to adopt who judge 
 them expedient — unless we will exalt the private feelings 
 and prejudices of individuals into ecclesiastical statutes. If, 
 on the other hand, those novelties be really contrary to the 
 law or constitution of the Church, no Church Court whatever 
 has right to grant to any of its ministers or congregations 
 liljerty to practise them. In such case, they can return but 
 one or other of tlie following answers : " The matters in 
 
CHANGES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 29 
 
 question are proliibited by the law wliicli we administer, and 
 we have no power to grant a dispensation ;" or, " They are not 
 so proliibited, and we have no authority to enforce or to issue 
 a proliibition." 
 
 An exception may be pleaded in cases where discord had 
 arisen, or was certain or likely to arise in a congregation from 
 changes in the public services. The Presbytery may be pre- 
 sumed to have authority to take summary action, with a view 
 to prevent disunion, confusion, or other scandals tending to 
 obstruct edification, dis;^erse the flock, or otherwise injure 
 the Church ; but such intervention is only permissible until 
 the Courts have had time to deal with the matter in a legis- 
 lative way ; and if the Supreme Court do not prohibit the 
 matter in question, either by a new law, or by a judgment 
 professedly founded upon a law already extant and binding, 
 the matter remains unforbidden and lawful as before, not- 
 withstanding any expression of opinion on the part of indi- 
 vidual members of the Court, or any decision not professedly 
 founded upon existing law. I hardly tliink that any lawyer 
 will doubt the soundness of what is here said ; proceeding, as 
 it does, upon the evident principle that, under a constitution, 
 men are to be governed by laws, not by private feelings, 
 opinions, or judgments — well or ill-founded ; and if any 
 Society should attempt to punish any one of its members for 
 doing what was not proliibited by any of its laws, the Society 
 might be restrained and punished by the municipal law for 
 breach of contract, whether that Society were of an ecclesi- 
 astical or of any other sort. 
 
 To pretend that no changes are permissible in our public 
 worship, unless the formal sanction of the Church Courts 
 shall first have been obtained, is virtually to contend that no 
 changes should ever be made at all ; because it has been 
 
30 TO WHOM IT PERTAINS TO MAKE 
 
 found practically impossible to obtain such sanction, even in 
 cases where the need of some alteration was most apparent. 
 
 It was judged desirable, during the last century, to have 
 additional hymns to be simg in Church, besides the psalms 
 in metre. Accordingly, great pains were employed by some 
 of the leading clergy of that time in preparing the " Para- 
 phrases," which have long been in use in our churches. But 
 that collection never received any express or public sanction ; 
 they are now employed in our churches without any authority 
 but the good pleasure of individual' ministers. The same is 
 the case with the Collection of Hymns with which a com- 
 mittee of the General Assembly has been occupied many 
 years past. These are now used in many churches, and may 
 be in all, but the Assembly has not sanctioned them, and, if 
 we may judge from precedents, it probably never wilL 
 
 The same holds in regard to the Prayers for Social and 
 Family Worship — a volume lately prepared by a committee 
 of the General Assembly. The ordering such a work to be 
 prepared was itself a striking innovation, and went far to 
 commit the General Assembly as to the propriety of reading 
 prayers. But what is here to be remarked is, that, though 
 composed under its authority, the General Assembly has 
 hitherto refrained, and probably may continue to refrain, from 
 giving these Prayers the stamp of its sanction, so that they 
 are only " published by authority of the Committee." 
 
 Many Overtures have been laid before the Assembly to 
 allow the private dispensation of the Communion in certain 
 cases ; but the Venerable Court has hitherto declined to enter- 
 tain them : though the tenor of the last discussion on the 
 subject rendered it evident that no fault would be found with 
 any minister who should do so — at least in urgent cases, as 
 I myseK have since done oftener than once. In regard to a 
 
CHANGES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 31 
 
 more frequent dispensation of this sacrament, the same may 
 be said. On the other hand, many of our prevailing customs 
 are only innovations, brought in by clergymen on their own 
 responsibility, and propagated by others adopting them in like 
 manner. 
 
 Tlie reading of the Psalms line by line, and afterwards 
 by two lines, during singing, which so long prevailed, was dis- 
 continued not by public authority, but by the private sense 
 of the clergy, who judged that the custom was absurd after 
 the people had learned to read. 
 
 The singing of Doxologies at the conclusion of the 
 service, which is now general, has in like manner no public 
 warrant. 
 
 The same may be said of Bands or Choirs, wliich are 
 employed in a great proportion of those churches in which 
 there is anything that deserves the name of music. 
 
 The practice of chanting prose psalms has come into use 
 in many cases of late years. This is a striking and important 
 innovation ; but no Church Court has interponed its authority, 
 either to permit or to proliibit, or has been asked so to do. 
 
 The reading of sermons, which so late as the year 1732 
 was reckoned " an offensive innovation " on the ancient and 
 universal custom of the Kirk, gradually extended until it 
 became rather the rule than the exception, as it probably 
 stm is — and yet the Courts of the Church never gave it any 
 approval, nor did they ever condemn, or in any way censure 
 it — though they knew well that it was most offensive to 
 a large proportion of the people, and had been a fruitful 
 cause of dissent."^^* 
 
 The most striking, perhaps, of our late ecclesiastical 
 changes, is the introduction of stained-glass windows. Before 
 
 * *' The Assembly, in 1726, remitted to its Commission an 'Overture 
 
32 TO WHOM IT PERTAINS TO MAKE 
 
 the rebuikling of tlie Greyfriars Church — so lately as the 
 year 185G-7 — none of our churches since the Reformation liad 
 been decorated in this way. If custom could in any case esta- 
 blish a law or rule, it must have done so in this case ; for here 
 the custom was ancient, inveterate, and virtually universal ever 
 since the foundation of the Church itself ; supported also by 
 the presumed abhorrence of the people, and the emphatic 
 testimony which their teachers had at all times borne against 
 what they esteemed the idolatry of the Eomish Church, and 
 against everything which seemed to minister to that idolatry, 
 or to be connected with it ; as pictures in churches un- 
 doubtedly and even conspicuously were. 
 
 Yet neither the Supreme Court nor the Presb}i:ery of Edin- 
 burgh felt called upon to interfere, or to notice this most 
 startling invasion of Presbyterian notions and practices. This 
 wise forbearance, however, was so little reckoned on, that I 
 was earnestly and repeatedly counselled to obtain the consent 
 of the Presbytery at least, before perpetrating so daring an 
 outrage upon inveterate custom and feeling. Not choosing 
 to ask liberty to do what was not prohibited by any law ; and 
 averse to put the Church Courts in a delicate position, we 
 proceeded upon our own responsibility ; thus setting an ex- 
 
 anent the Method of Preaching ;' And in a representation and petition signed by 
 twenty-four influential ministers, laid before the Assembly of 1732, reference is 
 thus made to it — 'Tliere appeared more and more need for it everyday, by reason 
 of several innovations, both in the method and strain of preaching, introduced 
 of late by some preachers and young ministers, very offensive to many of God's 
 people, and no small obstruction of spiritual edification. Yea, a young 
 minister appointed to preach before his Majesty's Commissioner to the last 
 Assemljly, had tlie assurance, even on that solemn occasion, to add to former 
 innovations tliat of reading his sermon openly ; though he could not but 
 know that it would give great offence, both to ministers and people of this 
 Church, and bring a reflection on the Assembly, as if they approved thereof.' " 
 — CanniiiglmirCs Church History of Scotland^ vol. ii. p. 445. 
 
CHANGES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 33 
 
 ample which has been extensively followed — in some cases 
 with great splendour, and at vast expense — and which the 
 most timid and conservative Doctors among us do not now 
 scruple to follow, by having their own churches ornamented 
 in the same way. 
 
 They who have concurred in this novelty must not be 
 startled at others of less moment, and less inconsistent with 
 Scotch Presbyterian traditions and hereditary feelings. 
 
 In the foregoiog cases, innovations on established prac- 
 tice have been introduced by individuals where no law 
 existed on the subject ; but in many other cases they have been 
 brought about in the same manner, against the express provi- 
 sions of laws, whose authority no one denied. 
 
 The Directory, as we saw in a former chapter, appoints 
 that, at each diet of worship, two chapters of the Bible 
 shall be read, one from each Testament ; and also that the 
 Lord's Prayer shall be used. But over the whole Church, 
 which acknowledged this Dii*ectory, and passed Acts of 
 Assembly to enforce it, it became the custom to substitute 
 a lecture for the lessons ; so that not a word of Scripture 
 was ever heard in the churches, except, perhaps, the text 
 of the sermon, or some quotations iu the prayers or dis- 
 courses ; and the Lord's Prayer came to be regarded with 
 suspicion, because it savoured, as they opined, of popery ; but 
 rather, perhaps, because the use of it was a virtual acknow- 
 ledgment that set forms of prayer were not unlawful nor unbe- 
 coming in. Christian worship. And it is notorious that even 
 at the present day there is a considerable number of churches 
 in Scotland, in which lessons from the Bible are not read nor 
 the Lord's Prayer used. This scandalous proceeding, con- 
 trary to the laws of the Church, was begun, extended, and 
 continued, solely because the body of the ministers, unworthily 
 
34 TO WHOM IT TEllTAINS TO MAKE 
 
 yielding to the stupid prejudices of the people, which 
 they should have resisted and removed, chose so to do. No 
 Church Court gave them, or was asked to give them, permis- 
 sion thus to violate at once Christian propriety and the laws 
 of the Church. And now the dreary service consisted of the 
 minister's preachings, lecturings, and prayers (which often 
 were as much preachings as either of the former), and of that 
 exercise on the part of the people which is called singing, but 
 of which melody and harmony are not component parts. 
 
 Even such innovations as these — at once illegal, irrational, 
 and indecent — are the work of individuals, perpetuated by 
 those who chose, and tolerated by the Church Courts. And 
 yet some of the very men who are chargeable with acting 
 in this manner have had the hardihood to raise an outcry 
 against " innovation," because a minister, fearful of talking 
 nonsense on so solemn an occasion ; or of falling into con- 
 fusion, or swelling into bombast, rant, or wild and offensive 
 declamation ; or of sinking into irreverence or mere drivel ; 
 thinks proper to read prayers which he has carefully written, 
 that both himself and his flock may feel that prayer is not 
 a less solemn or important exercise than preaching, and that 
 it is not less indecorous to speak unadvisedly with our lips 
 in our address to God, than in those sermons to our fellow- 
 creatures, which we laboriously compose, and for the most 
 part read or commit to memory. 
 
 A whole catalogue of other changes, now common or 
 universal, has been brouglit in, contrary to the law of the 
 Church, on the sole responsibility of individual clergymen. 
 
 When we consider these things — and many more could no 
 doubt be added — we must confess that our present Church 
 system is a great heap of customs whicli liave been changed, 
 according to times find seasons, by ])rivate influence and 
 
CHANGES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 35 
 
 authority, without any sanction being eitlier obtained or 
 sought from the Presbyteries, Synods, or General Assemblies. 
 These Courts have systematically, and no doubt for what 
 appeared to themselves good reasons, abstained from interfer- 
 ing with such changes as seemed to them unimportant, or to 
 inflict no damage upon the Church. So far has this tolerance 
 been carried in some instances, that, in the early part of the last 
 century, a minister in Aberdeenshire actually introduced the 
 Book of Common Prayer into the public service of the parish 
 church, and contiQued regularly to read it for several years 
 to the end of his life — no one apparently attempting to 
 hinder him, or even censuring the innovation* 
 
 * The following curious extracts from the Minutes of the Kirk Session of 
 Banchory Devenick have been kindly famished me by the Rev. Dr. Paul, 
 minister of the parish : — 
 
 *• ISth March 1708. — The said day a proclamation from the councill was read, 
 intimating a fast upon Thursday next, the first of AprilL It was also 
 intimated, that whereas Friday next was the anniversary day of the 
 crucifixion of the Sone of God, the people were desired to observe that 
 day religiously, by coming up to the Passion sermon in the forenoon, 
 and to hear a preparation sermon in the afternoon, in order to the 
 celebration of the Holy Communion on the next Lord's Day, the anni- 
 versary of the Resurrection of Christ." 
 
 " 19^^ December 1708. — The said day intimation was made, that whereas 
 Saturday next was the anniversary day of the Incarnation of the Sone 
 of God, the people were exhorted to come up at the ordinary time to 
 divine worship on that day." 
 
 " SOthJamiary 1709. — This being the dismal anniversary-day of the barbarous 
 murder of the Royal Martyr King Charles 1st, of ever-blessed memory, 
 preached Mr. Robert Jamieson (the minister's assistant) a sermon suit- 
 able to that sad occasion — text, 1st Sam. 26 c. 9 v." 
 
 '* 2Sth May 1710. — This being the anniversary-day of the descent of the Holy 
 Ghost, called Pentecost or Whitsunday, Mr. Robt. Jamieson preached 
 a sermon suitable to this feastival — text, Acts 2 c. 1, 2, 3, 4 verses." 
 
 " 5th Novr. 1710. — This day being the anniversary-day of the morcifull deli- 
 verance from the Gun-powder plott by the detection thair-of, preached 
 
36 TO WHOM IT PERTAINS TO MAKE 
 
 This, then, is my answer to those who ask why I have 
 presumed to read prayers, or to use instrumental music, to 
 change the postures in public worship, etc., without the 
 authority of the Church Courts first sought and obtained : — 
 
 Mr. Robt. Jamieson a sermon suitable to the occasion — text, Ps. 126. 
 V. 1, 2." 
 
 " 21 th July 1712.— Given out of the public money for the incident charges of 
 sixty-two service books which were distribute amongst the parochiners 
 in order to setting up the English Liturgy in this church — £3 : 5:6." 
 
 " 19^A October 1712.— The said day intimation was made to the congregation, 
 that the next Lord's Day the excellent Liturgy of the Church of Eng- 
 land was to be used in the publick worship of God in this congregation ; 
 and accordingly the people were seriously exhorted to perform this 
 method of worship with a true spirit of devotion, and with that becom- 
 ing gravity and decencie that was expected from those who had been 
 so exemplary heretofore in the publick worship of God." 
 
 ** 26^^ October 1712. — The said day, according to the foresaid intimation, the 
 Liturgy of the Church of England was first used in the publick worship 
 of God in this parochial church, in order to the continuance thereof ; 
 for advancing of which excellent worship there were two hundred books 
 of Common Prayer given to the minister out of the charity books sent 
 from England to Scotland to be distribute gratis, charges of fraught 
 excepted, which two hundred books were given and distribute some 
 weeks before amongst such of the pariochiners as were capable to make 
 use of them. As also a folio book for the minister and a quarto for the 
 clerk. 
 
 ** Paid out of the publick money for charges of the foresaid 200 prayer books, 
 at a penny per book, £10 ; for the folio and quarto, 4/ ; carriage thereof 
 from Aberdeen at several times, 6/," 
 
 Dr. Paul adds — " You are aware, I suppose, that Mr. James Gordon, 
 parson of Banchory Devenick (as he is usually called), was author of a work 
 entitled the Reformed Bishop, for which lie was deposed in 1680. On his 
 expression of repentance for the offence given, he was rcponed a few wrecks 
 after tlie sentence was passed. Mr. Gordon continued to hold his charge at 
 Banchory after the Revolution ; and under the provisions of the Act of Parlia- 
 ment 1695, remained minister there till his death, which took place about the 
 year 1714. Mr. Gordon's name docs not ajipcar in the sedenints of the Pres- 
 V)ytery of Aberdeen from that period, nor is there any notice whatever taken 
 
CHANGES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 37 
 
 1. These things have not been regulated by any law of 
 which I am aware, or which any one, who censured that pro- 
 ceediag, has been able to quote. 
 
 2. It has been the practice to make such innovations 
 without any public authority to that effect ; so that to have 
 invoked it on the present occasion, in order to authorise 
 alterations which are not unlawful, which are in themselves 
 confessed improvements, which are agreeable to the people, 
 and which tend manifestly not to divide or scatter, but to 
 unite and increase congregations, and to strengthen the estab- 
 lishment, would itseK be an innovation as contrary to pre- 
 cedent as it is to reason. 
 
 If others, during two hundred years, and indeed from the 
 very foundation of the Presbyterian Church, had presumed, 
 without the public or formal approbation of the " Ecclesias- 
 tical superiors," to practise novelties — many of which were 
 contrary to existing regulations, and some of which were of 
 doubtful, and worse than doubtful, character and tendency — 
 we could not persuade ourselves that we should be censured 
 if we ventured upon some reforms which no existing law had 
 forbidden, and the necessity and advantage of which are 
 generally admitted. 
 
 3. To ask permission in such cases, which was certainly 
 unusual, and appeared unnecessary, was also the surest way 
 to defeat the end in view ; for experience has shewn that the 
 permission would not be granted ; while to proceed without 
 obtaining it, if once asked, would be disrespectful and inde- 
 corous. 
 
 of him in the minutes of the Presbytery, excepting on one occasion that he 
 was summoned before them and rebuked for allowing his son to officiate for 
 him at Banchory after his deposition. 
 
 "I see no reference whatever in the Presbytery records to the service 
 books referred to in the minutes of our Kirk Session, herewith sent." 
 
38 CHANGES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 4. Besides, we felt that we were not warranted to thrust 
 the Church Courts into what might prove to be an embarrassing 
 position, compelling them to give a decision which might ap- 
 pear either to violate old traditions, or to obstruct the present 
 interests of the Church ; either to offend a great and increasing 
 number of enlightened people by refusing the permission 
 sought, or to give umbrage to a perhaps greater number of 
 narrow-minded, but well-meaning people, by granting it. 
 
CHAPTEK V. 
 
 DANGERS OF THE CnURCII. 
 
 'Ek At^j ijdrf iravra ire<paafiipa Trdvrodi Keirau — Arat. 
 
 Ye can discern the face of the sky, can ye not discern the signs of the times ? — 
 Matt, xvi, 3. 
 
 A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself ; but the simple pass on, 
 and are punished, — Prov. xxii. 3. 
 
 That the Church of Scotland needs some important changes 
 may seem to be demonstrated by the imdeniable fact that it 
 has lost ground, and is contiQually losing ground, if not abso- 
 lutely, yet relatively to other sects, and to the nimibers of the 
 people. 
 
 This unquestionable declension, which did not commence 
 with the last Secession in 1843, but had been in progress 
 long before, indicates that the National Church no longer 
 satisfies the religious tastes and other demands of the popu- 
 lation, and is gradually losing the character of a " National 
 Church." 
 
 Those who consider how rapid has been that progress of 
 comparative decay, and how active are still the causes which 
 have produced it, may well feel anxiety for the Church ; even 
 for its existence as an establishment. We cannot disguise 
 from ourselves the painful fact, that the Kirk even at this 
 moment maintains its position, as the Church of the law, by 
 the suffrance of the English Church ; which, with the eager 
 co-operation of the Dissenters, could at once disestablish it. 
 
40 DANGERS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 The Church of England indeed is restrained (as we generally 
 suppose) iroui any such attempt by certain considerations 
 of honour, and chiefly by an apprehension that the fall of 
 the smaller Church Establishment might pave the way for 
 the overthrow of the greater. The latter security is much the 
 better of the two ; for societies, like individuals, are most 
 steadily swayed by those influences which affect their own 
 interests, or what they consider such. 
 
 As to the point of honour, we should not rely too much 
 upon that ; because it does not appear that either the 
 Church of England, or the Imperial Parliament, is bound to 
 uphold our Church, except on the express condition on which it 
 was established at the Eevolution, namely, that " that Church 
 Government was most agreeable to the inclinations of the 
 people " — Act abolishing Prelacie, 1689.* And, accordingly, the 
 Acts establishing our Church at the Eevolution have since 
 been repealed and altered in many particulars by the Imperial 
 Parliament ; it having been ascertained that " the inclinations 
 of the generality of the people of Scotland " had so changed 
 as to warrant such repeal or alteration. 
 
 Some persons, I am aware, have argued that the Imperial 
 Parliament is, in morality and justice at least, precluded from 
 changing in any way those solemn national compacts by 
 which the Church was established at the Eevolution. But a 
 doctrine need not be seriously refuted which would oblige 
 the Government to prohibit all dissent, and to persecute all 
 Dissenters ; and which would render unjust and sacrilegious 
 all such reforms as have taken place within the last forty 
 years, respecting the elective Franchise, the Burghs, the 
 Universities, and the Parish Scliools. Toleration of any 
 Church but the Kirk, was, in particular, anxiously guarded 
 * Acts of rarliament of Scotland, ix. 104. 
 
DANGERS OF THE CHUKCIL 41 
 
 against at the Revolution; and the Kirkmen of 1712 were 
 consistent, if not wise, in denouncing the toleration then en- 
 acted, as not only a ruinous encroachment upon their 
 privileges, but as a flagrant violation of the Articles of Union. 
 It cannot therefore be seriously doubted, that the Imperial 
 Parliament — urged on as it would be by the Dissenters in both 
 parts of the Kingdom, and not obstructed by the Church of 
 England, which exercises an enormous influence in both 
 Houses, especially in the House of Lords — would not feel 
 restrained from disestablishing the Kirk, if it should become 
 manifest to them that " the inclinations of the generality of 
 the people " so required ; as these " incliaations " extorted 
 from a reluctant government its establishment in 1690. 
 
 As to the second supposed security — namely, the appre- 
 hensions of the Church of England, that the overthrow of the 
 Kirk might pave the way for its own disestablishment — ^we 
 can hardly doubt that among the calmer spirits, and those 
 who attach more importance to the civil establishment of 
 the Church than to its form of government, etc. — in short, 
 among those who regard the Church rather from a social and 
 political, than an Ecclesiastical poiat of view — this consider- 
 ation will have great weight. But we cannot disguise from 
 ourselves that this class among the English clergy has greatly 
 diminished during the last half century. Controversy has 
 tended powerfully to evoke the Church spirit. Episcopacy 
 is now very generally regarded by the Anglican clergy as of 
 divine authority ; so that no society is indeed a Christian 
 Church which repudiates or wants the three orders of the 
 Priesthood, or at least the Episcopal order. They also resent 
 the humihating position, as they conceive it, which their Church 
 holds in relation to the Law and the civil Government of the 
 country : and " they champ upon the bit " — to use an expres- 
 
42 DANGERS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 siou of tlieir own Hooker — wliicli Parliament lias put into 
 their mouth ; so that they can neither add, omit, nor change 
 a single sentence in a single prayer, or one anathema, however 
 intolerant or uncharitable, in a creed, without the sanction of 
 the Sovereign with the consent and authority of both Houses 
 of Parliament. 
 
 These restraints are so keenly felt by a large and influential 
 portion of the English clergy, that they make no secret of their 
 oj)inion, that the advantages of the civil establishment are 
 dearly purchased by their continuance. No doubt that fraction 
 of the clergy who are so fortunate as to possess the loaves and 
 fishes, will always, as a body, decline to carry these aspirations 
 further than protests and declamation : but the great majority 
 have no such temptations, for they are extremely poor ; and, 
 as a necessary consequence, much dissatisfied with things as 
 they are ; and all men are tempted to esteem institutions 
 according as they affect their own present temporal interests, 
 and large bodies of men always do so. 
 
 It therefore appears vain to expect from the great body, 
 either of the clergy or of the more zealous members of the 
 Anglican Church, zealous or effectual resistance to any attempts 
 that may be made to suppress the Church of Scotland. A 
 large number of them would rather exult over the putting 
 down of " that form of schism which has contrived to get itself 
 established north of the Tweed" — as a decisive victory over 
 an old, obstinate, formidable, and once victorious rival. 
 
 Besides : might not the legal abrogation of the Kirk natu- 
 rally introduce the establishment of the Church in Scotland ? 
 There is no denying that of late years the Church of England 
 has largely gained in popular sympathy and support. Besides 
 the conservatives, whose attachment to the institution is 
 characteristic and hereditary, a large portion of the liberal 
 
DANGERS OF THE CHURCH. 43 
 
 party of all religious persuasions have had their former pre- 
 judices softened, if not an attachment to it created, by the 
 factiousness and intolerance of dissent upon one hand, and, 
 upon the other, by the larger and more humane spirit which 
 has begun of late years to characterise at least a number 
 of the leading spirits in the Church. Such men persuade 
 themselves that soon, if not abeady, the Anglican Church will 
 afford the only refuge for those, whether laity or clergy, who 
 are not prepared to give themselves up to absolute mental servi- 
 tude, but are resolved to vindicate for themselves some free- 
 dom of inquiry and speech on theological doctrines ; and who 
 consider that a national Church should be comprehensive and 
 liberal in its constitution ; that it should brand nothing as 
 lieresy except a denial of some one of those very few points 
 which constitute the foimdation and essence of the Christian 
 Keligion, as taught in the New Testament. The late decisions 
 of the Court of Arches have served greatly to extend and deepen 
 such feelings — however the straiter churchmen may be scan- 
 dalised by them ; and since the Judicial Committee of the 
 Privy Council has not only confirmed, but even much extended 
 those liberal interpretations of the law, there can be no doubt 
 that the Church of England will gain an accession of strength 
 in popular feeling, which will set it on a firmer ground than 
 it has ever occupied. In such circumstances, no doubt, all 
 those who feel that their orthodoxy requires, besides Scrip- 
 ture and reason, also the arguments of deposition and for- 
 feiture, the ruin of families, the brand of " heresy," and other 
 pains and penalties, will violently denounce such latitudi- 
 narianism, as polluting the Church and desecrating religion ; 
 but it is not likely that they will weaken it by seceding. 
 Rather they may be expected to be satisfied with the privilege, 
 still secured to them, of denouncing corruptions and the toler- 
 
44 DANGERS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 atiou of them, and of charitably groaning over the infidel 
 shepherds and their misled flocks. There cannot, however, 
 be a doubt that any interpretation of the law which expands 
 the institution from the condition of a Sect to that of a Church, 
 will in the same degree contribute to render it national — in 
 fact as it is in style — and to draw within its pale multitudes 
 who are now hovering upon the borders of sects mth which 
 their spiritual ties are fairly broken ; but from wliich they 
 have not finally separated themselves, only because not well 
 resolved whither they should betake themselves. 
 
 Many suppose that the interests of the Established 
 Churches in Great Britain are so bound up together, that 
 whatever strengthens or weakens one, tends also to strengthen 
 or weaken the other. It would rather appear that the oppo- 
 site of this is nearer the truth. These two churches, as now 
 existing, are rather antagonists than allies, as indeed they have 
 been at all times when care for the temporalities was not the 
 only form of clerical zeal. This at least is certain and obvious, 
 that every accession of strength and influence gained by the 
 Southern Establishment brings the northern, wdiile it con- 
 tinues in its present state, into greater peril ; for, united and 
 commingled as the populations of England and Scotland now 
 are, the Scotch Presbyterians, at least of the higher and 
 middle classes, stand nearly in the same relation to the 
 Episcopal Church of England as the English Dissenters do ; 
 and the same influences which withdraw Llethodists, Quakers, 
 Independents, and others, from their respective Connections, 
 tend to draw Scotch Presbyterians out of the Kirk to the 
 Church of England. Now, also, when by a more liberal 
 interpretation of the law, and other causes operating in the 
 same direction, those inlhiences are rendered more powerful, 
 undoubtedly the result will be more and more unfavourable 
 
DANGERS OF THE CHURCH. 45 
 
 to Scotch Presbyterianism, and particularly to that of the 
 Established Church ; unless it shall in good time look its 
 position boldly in the face, acknowledge honestly the real 
 sources of its weakness, and set itself to remove these with a 
 courage and zeal proportioned to the gravity of the danger. 
 
 These dangers do not appear to me .to have much or 
 almost anything to do, directly at least, with Episcopacy or 
 Presbytery as forms of Church government. But they arise 
 from other causes, and chiefly the three following : — 
 
 First and chiefly, The form and manner of public worship. 
 
 Secondly, The extent, minuteness, and strictness of the 
 Creed, and of the subscription required of office-bearers. 
 
 Thirdly, Some peculiarities in the discipline or government 
 of the Church. 
 
 These causes have long been in operation, and they act 
 with increasing force from year to year. So that, if things 
 are permitted to go on much longer in the same course, the 
 Kirk cannot but find itself so reduced as to lose all claim to be 
 considered as in fact the National Church ; and the loss of its 
 establishment cannot in that case be a very distant event. I 
 am well aware how obstinately men shut their eyes to such 
 melancholy prospects, and what ridiculous nostrums they often 
 rely on for redressing those evils which they cannot but admit. 
 A venerable father of the Church, to whom I expressed my 
 apprehensions many years ago, replied that he did not regard 
 the danger of the Church so great as I considered it, and at all 
 events, " it would last his day." And upon another occasion, 
 after the Secession in 1843, the same individual, w^hen the 
 crisis had proved incomparably more serious than he would 
 admit to be probable or possible before it happened, thought 
 that the Church could still be saved " by a strict adherence to 
 the forms of procedure ! " There are people now, in like 
 
46 DANGERS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 manner, who insist that the Church of Scotland is in a better 
 state in 18G3 than it was in 1842. Certainly it is more at 
 peace and more united — which are great blessings — but if we 
 measure its strength by the power and position of its adver- 
 saries, such talk can only illustrate the saying of Holy Writ, 
 that men may " have eyes and see not." 
 
 Such remedies as some men talk of are mere delusions ; 
 and that importance should be attached to them is a melan- 
 choly proof how imperfectly the real danger is understood or 
 felt. A far deeper revolution is wanted. 
 
 On the eve of the Eeformation, when matters began to 
 look serious even in the eyes of ecclesiastics, many of the 
 clergy were seen at last to bestir themselves a little, and to 
 busy themselves with certain small repairs for upholding the 
 edifice which time had undermined, and which the storm was 
 ready to overthrow. But the remedy, besides being ridiculously 
 inadequate to the occasion, was also too late. " Because wis- 
 dom called and they refused, because she stretched out her 
 hand and none of them regarded, therefore she laughed at 
 their calamity, and mocked when their fear came." 
 
 Even yet, if we were wise and courageous, we might be 
 safe, and even prosperous. I feel persuaded that, without 
 running any risks, or needing to go to Parliament, by virtue 
 of the powers which we ourselves constitutionally possess, we 
 have the means of reforming everything in the Church that 
 obstructs its prosperity. Unlike the clergy of the English 
 Establishment, we have virtually all our affairs in our own 
 hands, and, if we use our powers temperately and wisely, we 
 shall meet only with applause and encouragement from all 
 those, at least, wliose approbation is valuable in itself, or of 
 consequence to us. 
 
CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 SECESSIONS TO THE EPISCOPAL CHUECH, AND THE CAUSES. 
 
 MTjSels TrXavdado)' ^av fi-fj tls rj eKrbs tov Qvacaarrjplov, vcTepeirai tov dprov tou 
 Qeov. 'El yap evbs Kal devripov Trpocevxh roa-avTijv iax^v ^X^i, 7r6o-y fJLciWov 
 ^ re TOV iiriaKdirov Kai irdarjs ttj^ iKKXrjaias ; . . . (nrovddarcoiJ.ev oSu, fXT] 
 dvTiTdffffeaOai rQ iTriaK6ir(i>, tva &fi€v 0e<p viroraacrd/xevoi . . . Tbu odv iirlff- 
 KOTTov S^Xov 6rt ws airbv rbv K^pcov Set irpoaSX^veiv. — Ignat. Epis. ad 
 Ephes. 
 
 Quisquis ab Ecclesia segregatur adulterse jungitur, a promissis Ecclesioe sepa- 
 ratur. Nee perveniet ad Christi prcemia, qui relinquit Ecelesiam Christi. 
 Alienus est, profanus est, hostis est. Habere jam non Deum patrem, 
 qui Ecelesiam non habet matrem . . . Qui pacem Christi et concordiam 
 rumpit, adversus Christum facit. Qui alibi prseter Ecelesiam colligit, 
 Christi Ecelesiam spargit. — Cyprian, De Unit. Eccles. 
 
 O worship the Lord in the beauty of hohness. — Ps. xcvi. 
 
 That some considerable alterations are indispensably needed 
 in our modes of conducting public worship is so evident to 
 every one who is capable of observation, that any attempt to 
 render it more certain or clear may well be dispensed with. 
 Even those who think that in many, or even in the genera- 
 lity of cases, the prayers and other services are what they 
 should be, cannot deny that in many cases they are in almost 
 every respect what they should not be. This admission 
 settles the whole question : because it is the business of the 
 Church to provide that everywhere, in even the remotest 
 parishes, and among the humblest and most illiterate of the 
 
48 SECESSIONS TO THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 
 
 population, the public worship shall be distinguished by good 
 taste, decency, propriety, and solemnity, as well as by purity 
 in doctrine and fervour of devotion ; that it shall be compre- 
 hensive, and as far as possible complete in its several parts, 
 omitting nothing that is essential to the idea of public Chris- 
 tian worship on one hand, while on the other it avoids re- 
 dundancy and tediousness, doctrinal exaggeration, fanatical 
 vehemence, and enthusiastic raptures, and everything else that 
 is inconsistent with sober piety and godly wisdom. No Church 
 is rightly constituted or well conducted in which the most edu- 
 cated and refined of its members may not worship in any of 
 its congregations without meeting what shall disgust or offend 
 him. It is one of the very functions of the Church to educate 
 the people in solemnity of feeling, in reverence and deco- 
 rum, as well as in the knowledge of Christian doctrine ; and 
 if this cannot be secured — as manifestly it cannot — by each 
 minister being left to produce extempore, if he pleases, the 
 whole service each Sunday, some reform is called for, by 
 which the legitimate ends of public worship may be secured, 
 and the grosser improprieties and defects at least may be 
 corrected. 
 
 It may be objected tliat to secure these ends we must not 
 only advocate the composition of a public liturgy, but its 
 rigid and universal enforcement ; and, even more than this, 
 tlie preparation by some public authority of the sermons 
 wliich tlie clergy shall be compelled to read to their flocks on 
 Sundays ; since good taste and pious feeling may be offended 
 by the preaching no less than by the prayers. Even this 
 latter notion has not wanted advocates. It has appeared to 
 some very wise men a prodigious waste of labour, that many 
 thousands of clergymen should expend every week a large 
 portion of that time which is so much needed for pastoral 
 
AND THE CAUSES. 49 
 
 and other duties, in composing sermons each for himself, when 
 some few men, eminently qualified, might be selected to pro- 
 duce discourses for the whole body, which would be incom- 
 parably superior, and which would tend far more to the 
 edification, and even the satisfaction, of the hearers. This 
 idea, however plausible it may appear, is not likely to find 
 favour among any considerable portion of either clergy oi* 
 laity in Presbyterian Churches. 
 
 There can be no doubt, in the mind of any judicious per- 
 son accustomed to attend divine worship in Presbyterian 
 churches, that the sermons are, as a general rule, very much 
 superior to the prayers. This is easily accounted for ; but 
 the fact itself is, I apprehend, indisputable. There exists 
 accordingly, at least among the more educated hearers in our 
 churches, a general and deep dissatisfaction with the woi^ship. 
 This is indicated by many circumstances. — 
 During the last five or six years innumerable Articles, 
 Reviews, Letters, etc., have appeared in the Scotch news- 
 papers. Excepting those few which are notoriously under 
 clerical and sectarian influence, it is surprising how uniform 
 the Scottish journals have been in the opinions they have 
 expressed on this subject. The common complaint of almost 
 all that expressed the popular lay mind, and of all without 
 exception that expressed the mind of the educated and think- 
 ing lay mind, is, the 'prayers — their tedious length — their in- 
 coherence — their perpetual repetitions — their didactic and 
 sermonizing character — their consisting of little but a string 
 of unconnected quotations from Scripture — their want of 
 solemnity, beauty, devotion, or some other quality or quali- 
 ties which should especially distinguish prayer. Any one 
 who has paid attention to these manifestations, which have 
 been surprisingly numerous of late years — especially during 
 
 E 
 
50 SECESSIONS TO THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 
 
 the controversy respecting innovations in 1858 and 1859, 
 and since that time — must have been struck with the uni- 
 formity of their tenor. This seems to admit of but one ex- 
 planation, viz., that something is much amiss in the matter 
 complained of ; and that if not wrong absolutely, or in itself, 
 it is so at least in relation to the feelings and tastes of the 
 •present generation ; and especially, unless I mistake, of the 
 rising generation. Tliis circumstance is higlily significant; 
 for it is in the minds not of the old but of the young, that we 
 may read the sure prophecy of approaching revolutions. 
 
 Of late years a great number of persons have forsaken 
 the Church of Scotland and Presbytery, to join the Scotch 
 Episcopal Church. This deserves serious consideration ; the 
 more so as, besides the present loss, it may indicate a ten- 
 dency which, if left unchecked, shall work the most disastrous 
 consequences to the Church of Scotland. It cannot be doubted 
 tliat fashion has much to do in this ; some think it the chief 
 influence. Not to mention that among the wealthier classes 
 a large and increasing number of the youth of both sexes are 
 now educated in England, where they become accustomed to 
 the Episcopal worship, and are often zealously indoctrinated 
 with High Church teaching — numbers who have been sub- 
 jected to no such influences are as ambitious to belong to the 
 fashionable Church as they are to obtain admission to fashion- 
 able society, and for the same reason. People who are re- 
 solved to be genteely naturally aspire to be genteel in all 
 things, and at all times — in religion as well as in dress, 
 manners, and society ; and on Sundays no less than at 
 other times. Accordingly great numbers of people who have 
 been trained up with no prepossessions favourable to Episco- 
 pacy, but the contrary, are found, on their " getting up in the 
 world," as tlu^ phrase is, to join tlie Episcopal Churcli — 
 
AND THE CAUSES. 51 
 
 moved by nothing, so far as can be ascertained, but tlie ambi- 
 tion to go to heaven in fashionable company. As in tlie 
 seventeenth century thousands of the Scottish people who 
 had no mind to Presbytery were driven into the Kirk by 
 civil and ecclesiastical persecution, so now many are in- 
 duced to leave it for reasons equally worldly. It is not 
 uncharitable to say so ; because the fact is evident, and in 
 many cases is hardly attempted to be concealed. 
 
 But we cannot believe that such reasons will explain the 
 generality of those Secessions. Though the motives here al- 
 leged may have insensibly mingled with them, others, and 
 these of a more respectable kind, have also been at work. The 
 Seceders themselves commonly allege other motives ; and as 
 there is no reason to imagine that they deceive themselves more 
 than other men do in like cases, it is worth while for us to 
 mark and ponder their own account of the causes which moved 
 them to withdraw from the Church in which they were 
 baptized. I have never known any one of these persons who 
 pretended that he was led to frequent the Episcopal Chapel 
 because he found the preaching there better than in the Kirk ; 
 and I think we may alSirm, without fear of contradiction from 
 persons having considerable acquaintance with both, that the 
 SiYeYSige preacJiinj in the Church of Scotland, and in the Presby- 
 terian Churches generally, is not inferior to that which we 
 hear in Episcopal Churches either in Scotland or in England. 
 
 What is more remarkable is, that very few of those Scotch 
 Christians who have revolted to the Episcopal Church during 
 the last twenty years, have any preference for Episcopacy as 
 a form of Church government, or any belief whatever that a 
 Bishop has, in Scripture or reason, a higher right or better 
 qualification to rule the churches than a Presbytery or a 
 Synod. They commonly quite distrust the doctrines of the 
 
52 SECESSIONS TO THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 
 
 Divine Right of Episcopacy, Apostolic Succession, and the 
 efficacy of the Sacraments, dependent upon these claims. If 
 infants be regenerated in Baptism, they do not doubt that this 
 may take place through the instrumentality of the "minister" 
 no less than of the *' priest ;" and if it be the body and blood 
 of Christ which communicants receive, in the Lord's Supper, 
 they have not yet been sufficiently instructed to see why the 
 miracle may not be performed by the man who utters the 
 words of consecration in a black gown, as effectually as by 
 him who utters them in a white surplice. In short, a large 
 proportion of these Christians are only half illuminated in 
 their new creed, and not half converted to its peculiarities. 
 Their children, however, who enjoy the advantages of early 
 teaching and training, will no doubt embrace the whole — as 
 those commonly do w^ho are taught to believe before they can 
 be expected to inquire and reason, or indeed are capable of 
 forming a judgment upon such subjects for themselves. 
 
 What is more, not a few of those who of late years have 
 withdrawn from the Presbyterian worship, have done so with 
 regret, and are, I believe, even now, in many instances, not 
 well resolved in their own consciences as to the rightness of 
 the step they have taken in dissenting from the national 
 worship. 
 
 Thoughtful men, among the aristocracy and great landed 
 proprietors especially, cannot but feel that it is a most un- 
 desirable state of things that they, who are separated from 
 other classes of their countr^inen in so many other respects, 
 should also voluntarily separate themselves from them in 
 religious worship and church fellowship, which ought to be 
 the bonds of society, and should knit the different orders and 
 ranks of citizens together, helping them to forget and rise 
 above worldly and temporal distinctions, in the conscious- 
 
AND THE CAUSES. 63 
 
 ness of a deeper interest which unites them alL We might 
 conclude that it is unfortunate and even dangerous for the 
 aristocracy of a country to profess one religion and the body 
 of the people another, even had we not at our own doors a 
 terrible proof of it in the turbulence, bloodshed, and miser- 
 able disorganization which are the chronic distempers of 
 society in a neighbourijjg island God grant that the Scotch 
 aristocracy may not find out the grievous mistake they have 
 committed, when it is too late. 
 
 It may indeed be said that Presb^-terians and Episcopa- 
 lians are not of two religions, but of one and the same religion, 
 though differing in respect to forms of worship. Church go- 
 vernment, and some few not essential doctrines. This, no 
 doubt, is the opinion of a large number of the laity at least in 
 the Episcopal communion ; and it is, we presume, the general 
 sentiment among Presbyterians, both clergy and laity. But 
 it is 7wt the doctrine of the Scotch Episcopal Church. Her 
 clergy do not seem to regard her as a Protestant Church, and 
 are disinclined so to speak of her ; they claim for her the 
 designation of Catholic ; and it is that presumed character of 
 Catholic which, in their opinion, makes her a Cburch, and 
 "the Church in Scotland f which title they deny to "the 
 Presb}i:erian Kirk," established by law though she be, and 
 national, as far as the state without persecution can con- 
 stitute her sucL They speak of her as a "communion," 
 or " community,'' a " sect,* a " form of schism" — with them she 
 is " Samaria stript naked and cast out to the chill mountain 
 air." According to them she has no right to be the National 
 Church or to exist, because, as they teach, she has no divine 
 commission ; her ministers are not Gods clergy ; tliey want 
 the Episcopate, Episcopal ordination, and Apostolic Succession, 
 without which no " teacher'' can legitimately or effectually 
 
54 SECESSIONS TO THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 
 
 administer the sacraments, or " be certain that he has Christ's 
 body and blood to give to the people/' And their watcliword 
 is this — that they are " the Church in Scotland ;" therefore the 
 only Church, the other " bodies" being sects — different forms 
 of " Schism." 
 
 Many private members of this communion, and some of 
 the clergy, may repudiate such claims on the part of " the 
 Church in Scotland ;" but that they represent the views of 
 those who speak for the body, is notorious and will not be dis- 
 puted. No doubt the Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches 
 agree in many doctrines, perhaps in almost all that are really 
 of great moment ; but in regard to the organization and con- 
 stitution of the Church and its powers, offices, and sacraments, 
 they differ irreconcilably : and what is of greatest import- 
 ance in this connection is, that the one Church claims to be 
 what it asserts the other is not, the Catholic Church, or a 
 branch of it, in Scotland, and exclusively to have divine 
 warrant and power legitimately and effectually to administer 
 the Sacraments. 
 
 These, no doubt, are very old opinions ; these claims can 
 plead the authority of some of the most ancient doctors of the 
 Church. " Let no man deceive himself," says one of the 
 ^Vpostolic Fathers, whose words are quoted as the motto to this 
 chapter, " if any one be outside the altar, he is deprived of 
 God's bread. And if the prayers of one or two have so much 
 power witli God, how nmch more those of the I^ishop and the 
 wliole Cliurch. He, tlierefore, that does not assemble liimself 
 with them is already lifted up with pride and is a schismatic, 
 for it is written God resisteth the proud. Let us therefore 
 study not to resist the Bishop, lest we resist God. For whom- 
 soever tlie master of the house sends to rule his house, we 
 should receive as we should the Master himself who sent him. 
 
AND THE CAUSKS. 55 
 
 Clearly, therefore, we ought to regard the bishop as [we do] 
 the Lord himself." And again : " Study, my brethren, to be 
 subject to the Bishop, and the Presbyters, and the Deacons ; 
 for he that is subject to them obeys Christ, who appointed 
 them ; but he that disobeys these, disobeys Christ Jesus." 
 If these doctrines appeared to us as true as they are Catliolic, 
 the controversy would on our part be at an end. 
 
 In the Church of England there is a great party as well 
 of clergy as of laity, who reject such pretensions for them- 
 selves, and loudly assert the Protestant character of the Church 
 of England. Whatever reason may support such views, this 
 is certain, that the case is different with their brethren in 
 Scotland. They belong, as a body, to the High Church party. 
 High Church principles, which had long been dormant in 
 England, underwent there some years ago a great revival ; 
 but it was otherwise in Scotland, for here those principles had 
 been always alive, vigorous, predominant. For a Scottish 
 Presbyterian to join himself to this Church seems, therefore, 
 nothing less than to change his religion. From being a Pro- 
 testant, a Presbyterian, and a schismatic, he becomes, accord- 
 ing to the views of the Church he enters, a Catholic — not a 
 Roman Catholic — for the Eomanists also are schismatical in 
 the judgment of that great Catholic Church in Scotland, which, 
 to the eye of sense, is itself only one of the smallest of Scottish 
 sects. 
 
 It may be that the quondam Presbyterians who have 
 become Episcopalians did not mean this at all. They did not 
 intend to change their religion, or to cease being Protestants : 
 perhaps many of them would shudder at the very thought. 
 This feeling may be so strong in some congregations, composed 
 chiefly of such neophytes, that the clergy dare not speak out 
 their mind on such doctrines as the Apostolic Succession, 
 
56 SECESSIONS TO THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 
 
 the Divine Kight of Episcopacy, Baptismal Regeneration, and 
 such like, lest they should strain too much the still weak 
 faith of their converts — who must still be fed, as babes, with 
 milk, and not with that strong meat which is fit for " those 
 that are of ripe age," and is even greedily swallowed by " those 
 that are perfect." Still — however kept back, or but lightly 
 touched upon — such are the opinions of the clergy who repre- 
 sent the " Church in Scotland," and speak in its name. When 
 a Presbyterian joins that body, he unquestionably changes his 
 religion, if he be consistent and know what he is doing. If, 
 indeed, this be matter of conscience, all must give way to that 
 paramount consideration : we must cut off a right hand, and 
 pluck out a right eye, when we hear the divine voice requir- 
 ing us to make even such painful sacrifices. If our present 
 religion be not true nor right, if that in which we were 
 born and have been reared be not the Church of Christ, or if 
 we cannot be reasonably assured that it is, we must renounce 
 it — though the renunciation should separate us not only from 
 our countrymen, neighbours, and friends, but from father and 
 mother, sister and brother, wife and child. But it becomes 
 us to be sure that that which we would obtain is " the pearl 
 of great price," before we " sell all that we have to buy it." 
 
 It being thus neither the peculiar doctrines of the Episco- 
 pal communion nor its form of Church government, neither 
 the superiority of its teachings nor its claims to be in some 
 high and peculiar sense Catholic ; it being none of these that 
 has attracted so many wealthy and genteel families, and so 
 many more that only aspire to these distinctions ; and if their 
 separation from the communion of the great body of their 
 countrymen cannot but be felt by those who have any rellec- 
 tiou or soriouvsness of mind, to be, at least in many political 
 and social respects, a course attended with some disadvan- 
 
AND THE CAUSES. 57 
 
 tages, and perhaps also witli some dangers — there remain but 
 two motives to account for those separations : the influence of 
 fashion — already spoken of — and the character of the worship, 
 especially the manner of praying, and the general want of 
 solemnity, decorum, and refinement in the services. This 
 latter is, undoubtedly, the reason generally assigned : " We go 
 to the Episcopal chapel because we like (he woi^ship there 
 better than that in the Kirk." This is what is alleged gener- 
 ally, almost universally ; and, no doubt, it is really one of the 
 reasons — I believe it is the chief reason. It surely becomes 
 us, whose ministry is so often deserted for such reasons, to 
 look carefully to the matter, so that we may either remove the 
 offence, or at least take away all plausibility from the allegation. 
 That the worship of the Church of Scotland wants reformation, 
 any person of moderate intelligence might be expected to grant, 
 even were there no dissatisfaction, no secession from the 
 Church, or any other such mischief to quicken our perceptions. 
 This is the general opinion of almost all the educated laity who 
 remain in our Church, as well as the perhaps universal senti- 
 ment among those who have seceded to Episcopacy ; and we 
 shall greatly mistake if we persuade ourselves that it is con- 
 fined to the laity. On the contrary, it is notoriously shared 
 by a very large number of our ministers, and by the more 
 intelligent and learned of them probably without exception. 
 Among this class I have never heard an opposite opinion ex- 
 pressed, whatever difficulties they might apprehend in the way 
 of a reform. It is time, therefore, that the " thoughts of so 
 many hearts were revealed," and the subject discussed with a 
 frankness which its own importance and the highest interests 
 of the Church alike demand. 
 
58 SECESSIONS TO THE EPISCOrAL CHURCH, 
 
 Perhaps some persons may imagine that that given above 
 is a satire, a caricature, or at least a gross exaggeration, dic- 
 tated by sectarian jealousy. But I do not apprehend that any 
 one acquainted with the subject will charge me with misre- 
 presenting or overstating the pretensions of the Scottish Epis- 
 copal Church. Probably hundreds of corroborations of its 
 correctness could be furnished. In the absence, however, of 
 any formal document sanctioned by the whole clergy, I will 
 only refer to a publication which was put forth twenty years 
 ago as a manifesto of the principles and claims of that Church 
 in contradistinction to the Church of Scotland. ' It is en- 
 tituled — 
 
 " Six Sermons preached at the Consecration of the 
 Church of St. John the Evangelist, Jedburgh ; with an Intro- 
 duction." Edinb., Grant and Son. 
 
 At this ceremonial assisted four out of the seven 
 Scotch Bishops, and a great number of clergy — several from 
 England; and the sermons preached on the occasion were 
 intended to bring out the distinctive peculiarities and claims 
 of the Episcopal Church in contrast to the body ** which had 
 obtained a legal establishment ;" but which the preachers 
 carefully refrain from calling a Church. The work is a pic- 
 ture of Higli Church Episcopacy, and is worthy of study by 
 those who desire to apprehend what this really is, and to see 
 liow the narrowest sectarianism may be paraded under the 
 grand names of Church principles and Catliolic doctrine. I will 
 venture to assert that the most bigoted Presbyterian sects in 
 this country are, in their tenets and feelings, tolerant, liberal, 
 and catholic, in the true sense of this much-abused word, 
 coin])arod with these "Catholic" churchmen ; who, however, 
 exhibit tlic art of setting forth tlie most arrogant assumptions 
 ill the meekest language; and, being scholars and gentlemen, 
 
AND THE CAUSES. 59 
 
 employ the teiiderest phrases to express the most intolerant 
 doctrines. 
 
 The introduction, by the Kev. W. H. Teale, commences 
 thus — '* While," he says, " to some parts of Christendom the 
 Reformation of the sixteenth century was a blessing for which 
 we can never be too thankful, in Scotland it was far other- 
 vjise. There the Church was not reformed, hut destroyed" etc. ; 
 and so he goes on through the whole Introduction to talk, as 
 if there had never been since the Eeformation any Church in 
 Scotland but his own small body, and that the new Chapel at 
 Jedburgh was the first Christian* Church that had adorned 
 that beautiful region since the miserable days when masses, 
 monks, and nuns, were superseded by Presbyterian Kirks 
 and Parish Schools. 
 
 The first sermon is peculiarly important in this connection, 
 as being not only preached by a man of great eminence in the 
 Church — the Rev. Dr. Hook of Leeds — but because it was 
 delivered in presence of the whole clergy assembled on the 
 occasion, including " a large proportion of the Bishops of the 
 Scottish Church,'' and was "published hy desire of the Bishop!* 
 i.e., The late Rev. Dr. M. Russell, minister of an Episcopal 
 Congregation at Leith, who was called " Bishop of Glasgow," 
 and who presided on the interesting occasion of restoring 
 Christian ordinances, after so long an extinction of them, 
 among the benighted schismatics — or perhaps unbaptized 
 and therefore heathen dwellers at Jedburgh ; for Jedburgh, 
 as the natives might learn with surprise, is " in the Diocese 
 of Glasgow." 
 
 Throughout this sermon, entitled " The Church in Scotland 
 aggressive," the author denies that the " Establishment " is a 
 Church, or part, branch, or member of the Church of Christ ; for 
 it wants essential elements and powers of the Church : and 
 
60 SECESSIONS TO THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 
 
 upon this ground he defends the Episcopal Church in Scot- 
 land from the charge of schism in its separation from " the 
 Establishment " — that this is so radically defective, that its 
 members want " the benefits and blessings of the Catholic 
 Church " (p. 1 3). In the Kirk many true doctrines may be 
 taught, but its members cannot be expected to reach Christian 
 perfection "in the absence of sacraments and sacramental 
 grace " (p. 6), which are possessed by " Catholics, whether 
 Roman or Anglican" (p. 2). Accordingly, Presbyterian 
 heathens, as many of them as are " illuminated," are offered, 
 in the new Chapel at Jedburgh, and elsewhere, " an asylum 
 where they may receive the blessings of sacramental grace " 
 
 (p. 11). 
 
 And so he argues throughout — " If," he says, "the religion of 
 the State (i.e. Presbytery) be not in essential things in error, it 
 has a claim upon the allegiance of patriotic men " (p. 5). 
 " Now, on these principles," he repeats, " it follows, that if we 
 do not differ from the Establishment in essentials — if the 
 Establishment be not deficient in some things which we know 
 to be essential — we are Schismatics and Sectarians in holding 
 a separate comnmnion. If from the Establislmient we do not 
 differ in essentials, we arc in duty bound to conform to it : 
 but if we conform to the Establishment, we are guilty of 
 schism, whenever, for tlie purposes of Divine worship, we 
 cross the threshold of an Episcopal Chapel — as it is customary 
 to designate our Churches," etc. (p. 9). ** It is on tliis ground, 
 and on this ground only, that we can defend our separation " 
 
 (1>- 10)- 
 
 To the same purpose speak the other preachers whose 
 sermons are contained in tliis volume. Among them the 
 Venerable Arcli(l«_'acon Wilberforcc thus expresses himself: 
 " It is nut a slight thing that can authorise that departure 
 
AND THE CAUSER. 61 
 
 from the established usage of tlie land you inhabit. To 
 separate yourselves from the national sentiment, to divorce 
 yourselves from the creed and custom which public law 
 commends to your choice, were a crime as plainly forbidden 
 by natural piety as by God's revelation, were there not an 
 audit more awful than any earthly assize," etc. " It is as the 
 sworn adherent of that Church Catholic, whereof Christ 
 himself was the founder . . . that I remind you of that duty 
 which your election as churchmen especially demands. For 
 yours it is to maintain the public order of God's service . . . 
 this great duty of the Christian sacrifice. Who seeks to do it, 
 who can do it, in this land but yourselves V (pp. 48, 49). Epis- 
 copalians will no doubt hear with no less surprise than satisfac- 
 tion this comfortable doctrine that they are "the elect," though 
 the bowels of some of them may be moved when they think 
 of the poor Presbyterians, without Priest, Church, or Sacra- 
 ments, who must, on the same principle, be " reprobate," and 
 whose fate is all the more cruel because many of them appear 
 to bear upon their characters and upon their lives that seal of 
 election supplied by an unerring authority (John xv. 14 ; 
 1 Thess. i. 4, 5). 
 
 All this naturally, and even necessarily, follows from the 
 radical principle of the Catholic system, whether reformed or 
 unreformed — that Christianity is a religion of Sacraments, by 
 which grace is conveyed and the faithful are sanctified and 
 saved. But the Sacraments have no efficacy — or we can have 
 no assurance that they have any — without a priesthood. Epis- 
 copal ordination, Apostolical Succession, etc. Accordingly " in 
 our churches the most conspicuous places should be assigned 
 to the font and the aZtor" (p. 21); — quite naturally — for the 
 faithful are regenerated by the one, and partake of Christ's 
 body and blood, and so are incorporated into Him, nourished, 
 
G2 SECESSIONS TO THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 
 
 grow, and live, by the other. I cannot but suspect, however, 
 that some of the members of " the Church in Scotland" may 
 be rendered a little uncomfortable by hearing the legitimate 
 deduction from the above doctrine. " A Christian cannot he 
 considered in a safe state wlw communicates only three times in 
 a year — nay, I do not see how any one can be considered in 
 a safe state who determines only to communicate once in a 
 month. . . Since receiving the Holy Communion of the body and 
 blood of Christ is one of the appointed means, or we may say, 
 when connected with the preparation for it, the great mean of 
 grace, it is hard to suppose that those . . . wlio wilfully or 
 negligently forsake this communion at any time can he in the 
 way to heaven. . . If we hope to be saved, we must do all we 
 can in using the means of grace ; but we can receive the Holy 
 Communion very often ; some every Sunday — some every 
 holiday besides. Then, if we deliberately neglect this duty" 
 — of communicating on all these occasions when we have the 
 'power — " we can have no right to indulge the hope of salva- 
 tion." — {Sermon on Frequent Communion, by the Eev. W. Dods- 
 worth, M.A., pp. 75, 77.) 
 
 If this be so, I fear many pious and conscientious mem- 
 bers of " the Church in Scotland" must be in a very precari- 
 ous condition, and not much more certain of salvation, with 
 all their privileges, than their unhappy neighbours of the 
 " Presbyterian persuasion." " But," as the same rev. gentle- 
 man observes a little further on, *'in such matters let us 
 carefully avoid the undue exercise of private judgment" 
 (p. 85) — a warning wliicli is most needful for those who are 
 expected to receive as gospel sucli utterances as the following : 
 — " Our eating tlie flesh, and drinking the blood of Christ," in 
 the Sacrament, " are real and literal, and yet not in any way 
 carnal " (p. 87). 
 
AND THE CAUSES. 63 
 
 So long as Scotcluneu in general are deficient in that capa- 
 city of believing contradictions, which Bayle ascribes to 
 Asiatics, these Catholic doctrines are not likely to make much 
 progress among us — among those of us, at least, who would 
 prefer tliat their religion should be true, as well as Catholic 
 and fashionable. 
 
 It may be said that those expressed above are the private 
 opinions of individuals ; and that some of these men have 
 since seceded to the Church of Kome. But no man who had 
 understanding enough to see wliither his principles lead, or 
 consistency enough to follow them, could go anywhere else 
 but to the Church of Eome, or to the Greek Church, which is 
 also " Catholic." As to their being private opinions, they are 
 not so : they are the public teachings of eminent and leading 
 clergymen — listened to with applause by others, approved and 
 sanctioned by the Bishop of the Diocese, and apparently by 
 the other Bishops, and sent forth to the world as expositions 
 of the doctrines by which " the Church in Scotland " is dis- 
 tinguished from the " Establishment." 
 
 Were any of these clergymen called to account by their 
 superiors for promulgating such tenets, or for representing 
 them as doctrines of their Church ? 
 
 Did any of the Episcopal clergy utter any dissent, or publish 
 any protest against these dogmas, or any refutation of them ? 
 
 It would be consolatory to those who desire to regard the 
 Scotch Episcopal Church in a different light from that in 
 which the foregoing expressions represent her, if they could 
 find any good grounds to support them. I am not aware, 
 however, of any such. Even the most liberal and tolerant of 
 her clergy express themselves in a way which seems to favour 
 her high and exclusive pretensions — exclusive, at least, so far 
 as the Established Church and all other Protestant Churches 
 
04 SECESSIONS TO THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 
 
 in Scotland are concerned — for she includes the Komish Com- 
 munion as well as herself in the circumference of the true fold. 
 The Kev. Dean Kanisay having been betrayed, in a popular 
 work, into some slight expression of respect for the Church of 
 Scotland, found it necessary to appease the indignation of 
 many of his brethren by the following explanation of his sen- 
 timents : — 
 
 " I have no hesitation in saying that no (ministerial) 
 authority can be pleaded without it (the Apostolic Succession), 
 and therefore I do not hesitate one moment in affirming this 
 proposition — To whatever extent Presbyterian baptism is avail- 
 able, it is not in consequence of Presbyterian ministers having 
 received any ministerial authority from Christ to administer 
 the Sacrament of the Font;" and "that it is the religious 
 duty of Presbyterians to renounce their present schism, and be 
 reconciled to the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, 
 where the Episcopate exists, and where alone is to be found a 
 divine right to minister in holy things." (Signed) " E. B. 
 Ramsay." 
 
 After this, it is needless to search the pages of the Scottish 
 Ecclesiastical Journal for proofs and illustrations. We shall 
 find the writers in that organ of "the Church in Scotland" 
 demonstrating to their own satisfaction that Presbytery is 
 worse than Pojpery ; the former being a schism or separation 
 from the Church, whereas the latter is merely a schism within 
 the Church, so that not only the unhappy Kirk, but " all the 
 Protestant communities " are utterly condemned.' They want 
 everything, for they want the Apostolic Succession, whereas 
 their dear, though slightly erring sister of Rome, is 
 substantially right, sound and safe — she has the essential 
 constitution, powers, and privileges of "the Church." The 
 separations between the East and West, or between Armenians 
 
AND THE CAUSES. 65 
 
 and Nestorians, or between AngKcans and Romanists, are 
 merely scliism within the Church, but "the case of Protestant 
 communities'' — for we are all doomed together — is wholly 
 different. 
 
 " The Church received its form and government from Christ liimself ; 
 that form and government is under the threefold order of ministers, 
 bishops, priests, and deacons ; this your correspondent admits. Schism 
 in the Church is when this form is preserved (by means of the Apos- 
 tolic Succession), but when the various parts do not hold communion 
 with each other. Thus in early times the Armenians and Nestorians, 
 e.g., ceased to hold communion with the rest of the Church, but pre- 
 served tlieir divine order of ministers, and the administration of the 
 Sacraments." 
 
 " The case of Protestant conmi unities is wholly diflferent ; they sepa- 
 rated from the Church, for they set up their own ministry of a wholly 
 diflferent nature from that of the Catholic Church and in opposition to 
 it : in a word, the difference in this respect between the two is this, 
 that the Catholic Church is a divine institution, the Protestant com- 
 munities are human institution. This fact the Anglican Church has 
 always acknowledged ; for while she admits Roman and Greek priests 
 and bishops to their proper status, on their conformity, she treats Pro- 
 testant ministers as mere laymen, not permitting them to officiate till 
 they have been canonically ordained. Thus the Protestant schismatic 
 commits a far greater sin." — {Scot. Eccles. Jour., Oct. 31, 1861.) 
 
 The Presbyterian body, of course, "has no spirituality; for 
 its ministers are not Presbyters even, have no orders whatever." 
 
 The following passage, from the same Article, is worth 
 (Quoting, because it fully expresses the theoiy which sanctifies 
 and saves Ptome and the " Church in Scotland," and sends all 
 Protestant communities to " the uncovenanted mercies of God." 
 
 " It is not the name Episcopal that is of any value, but the Apostohc 
 Succession of the Episcopate. It is the mystic sap welled up in the 
 spiritual vine, perpetually flowing through the branches, which gives 
 life and spirituality to every twig, however locally and temporarily 
 
 F 
 
G6 SECESSIONS TO THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 
 
 remote from the venerable vine planted in Jerusalem. It is the virtue 
 which, emanating from apostolic hands, and which from generation 
 to generation, and from hand to hand, has been transmitted through 
 the Apostolic Episcopate, that alone can create the Cliristian priesthood. 
 Thus is the Church of Christ propagated. It requires a larger amount 
 of ingenuity than I possess to prove that any society not so constituted 
 forms a part of the one Catholic and Apostolic Church ; a society espe- 
 cially which entered into a Solemn League and Covenant for the extirpa- 
 tion of church government by Archbishops and Bishops. To extirpate 
 the entire Divine Episcopate is certainly more than to un-Church the 
 universal Church. It has pleased God to suffer the existence of heresy 
 and schism, and it does not become me to judge of the salvability of 
 unhappy separatists." 
 
 We need not wonder that men who think and write in 
 this way should consider it a very awful matter for a member 
 of " the Church " to fall away to Presbytery. " The late discus- 
 sions, " says a writer in the same publication, " on the state of 
 matters in the diocese of Argyll, must have drawn much 
 attention to the fact that many of the members of the Church, 
 and sometimes whole districts, have been perverted lo Presby- 
 terianismr " Very large towns and villages exist which have 
 no churches" etc. And he recommends that laymen should 
 read prayers in such places, " so that Episcopalians may 
 not fall so easy a prey to Presbyterianismr " Let us," he adds, 
 " do anything in itself lawful sooner than allow the children 
 of the Church to be perverted." — (November 30, 1861.) 
 
 • Such " utterances " may shock many Episcopalians, as they 
 will all other Christians ; — if after this we may venture to 
 call ourselves Christians ; but they should not surprise any 
 one ; for they are the necessary consequences of that principle 
 which the " Church in Scotland" professes and glories in. 
 
 If such were tlie authorised doctrines of the Church of 
 England, or if we imagined they were generally held by her 
 
AND THE CAUSES. 67 
 
 clergy, how absurd — not to say how humiliatiug — for us ever to 
 talk or think of such a union as has formed the subject of 
 discussion in the newspapers of late. That there should be a 
 united Church of England and Scotland is a fine idea, and may 
 be recommended by many reasons, political and social, as well 
 as religious ; and perhaps — if each party only held that its 
 own was " the more excellent way " — such a consummation 
 might be hoped for, notwithstanding the obvious and formidable 
 difficulties. But, as the Episcopal party in former centuries 
 found that violence and persecution were not effectual means 
 of reconciling Presbyterians to " the Church ;" and that the 
 sullen sectaries were not apt to be converted by such " booted 
 and spurred apostles" as Dalzell and Claverhouse, so they 
 might suspect that we are not likely to be conciliated now by 
 arrogant and insulting pretensions on their part. I say 
 nothing here of " the grounds and reasons " of those preten- 
 sions. Arguments are sometimes used to support them — of the 
 same sort as those which establish Transubstantiation, though 
 not quite so clear or strong ; but as a general rule they are 
 only asserted with a great air of infallibility. This is the safer 
 course, and with some people the more effectual. For the 
 multitude are apt to believe us according to the strength of 
 our faith rather than of our arguments. 
 
 But to many Presbyterians it does not appear that the 
 " Church in Scotland " should be considered as identical with 
 the Church of England, however wishful she may be to appear 
 so; and some of her own members are evidently of the same 
 mind. " I do not think," says a writer in the same Journal, 
 " that the Church is gradually winning over the more thought- 
 ful and sober-minded of our countrymen. Too many Presby- 
 terians learn to dislike us quite as rapidly as they learn to 
 like the English Church. They see in the Scottish Episcopal 
 
G8 SECESSIONS TO THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH, ETC. 
 
 Cliiircli miicli mere resemblance to a narrow modern sect than 
 to the broad old English Church."— (March 21, 1861.) 
 
 It is curious that though " the Church in Scotland" ac- 
 knowledges the Church of Eome, the latter will not return 
 the compliment, but pronounces her, as well as " the Protestant 
 communities," heretical and schismatical, employing also much 
 the same arguments which the Episcopal party use against us. 
 
 In the meantime, we consider the reasonings of both incon- 
 clusive and fallacious, and the spirit of both narrow and 
 sectarian. "We claim to be the *' Church in Scotland," and 
 " the Church of Scotland," by as good titles as any which 
 the Episcopal Church south of the Tweed has to be considered 
 the " Church of England," or the " Church in England ;" and 
 we can see no reason whatever to regard the Episcopal 
 communion in Scotland as less a body of Dissenters and a 
 sect, than the Methodists or the Baptists, the Cameronians or 
 the Free Church. This last-named body, also, sets up similar 
 pretensions ; it calls itself " The Free Church of Scotland." 
 So James the Second was " The Free King of Great Britain 
 and Ireland," when being compelled — by the necessity of his 
 conduct — to abdicate the throne, he lived at St. Germains, and 
 employed himself in concocting alliances with the enemies of 
 the country, whose constitution he had violated, and of which 
 he still flattered himself that he was "King." We should 
 pardon a little harmless arrogance in dethroned potentates, 
 especially when their minds are not sustained by the con- 
 sciousness that they have not suffered by their own fault. 
 
 • fuiinus Trocis ; fuit Ilium, et ingens 
 
 Gloria Teucroruin. 
 
 Ah ! to think what we have been ; 
 All ! the times that we have seen ; 
 Our glory — sure 'tis not a dream ! 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 EXTEMPORARY PRAYER. 
 
 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing 
 before God : for God is in heaven, and thou art upon the earth ; therefore 
 let thy words be few. 
 
 Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin ; neither say thou before the 
 angel, that it was an error : wherefore should God be angry with thy 
 voice, and destroy the work of thy hands ? — Eccles. v. 2, 6. 
 
 Qui inter caetera salutaria monita et praecepta divina, quibus populo suo con- 
 suluit 9.d salutem, etiam orandi ipse formam dedit ; ipse quid praecaremur, 
 monuit et instruxit. Qui fecit vivere, docuit et orare j ut, dum prece et 
 oratione, quam fihus docuit, apud Patrem loquimur, facilius audiamur. — 
 Cyprian, De Orat. Domin. 
 
 All manner of extravagances have been advanced on the sub- 
 ject of extemporary prayer. The following quotations may 
 serve as specimens : — 
 
 " There is no doubt but that wholesome matter and good 
 desires rightly conceived in the heart, wholesome words will 
 follow of themselves. Neither can any true Christian find a 
 reason why liturgy should be at all admitted, a prescription 
 not imposed or practised by those first founders of the Church, 
 who alone had that authority : without whose precept or ex- 
 ample, how constantly the priest puts on his gown and surplice, 
 so constantly doth his prayer put on a servile yoke of liturgy. 
 This is evident, that they who use no set forms of prayer have 
 words from their affections ; while others are to seek affections 
 
70 EXTEMPORARY PRAYER. 
 
 fit and proportionable to a certain dose of prepared words ; 
 which, as they are not rigouroiisly forbid to any man's private 
 infirmity, so to imprison and confine by force into a pinfold 
 of set words those two most unimprisonable things, our 
 prayers and that Divine Spirit of utterance that moves them, 
 is a tyranny that w^ould have longer hands than those giants 
 who threatened bondage to heaven. 
 
 " But suppose them savoury words and unmixed, suppose 
 them manna itself, yet if they shall be hoarded up and enjoined 
 us, while God every morning rains new expressions into our 
 hearts ; instead of being fit to use, they will be found like re- 
 served manna, rather to breed worms and stink." — {Milton) 
 
 Let us hear the other side. — 
 
 " To conclude, — This extemporizing is merely carnal and 
 formal worship, will-worship as much as the false and super- 
 stitious traditions of the elders among the Pharisees, though 
 the votaries of it falsely call our worship by a settled form so. 
 It is a carnal and will-worship, because a human (a novel 
 invention too), to satisfy men's carnal lusts, tickle the itching 
 ears of the wavering and unstable. To lead them into and 
 ensnare them in the toil of error, having neither precept nor 
 example in Scripture or antiquity. It is formal, because it is 
 a form, and will not be called a form, and because it is an 
 outward show without substance, without glory to God or 
 benefit to the people, but great hurt. It is the cursed tiTimpet 
 of schism and separation, the hunting hound of impostors and 
 deceivers, the bedlam horn of fanaticism, the vehicle of the 
 spirit of error, the mask of Jesuitism, the vizard of popery, 
 th^fiocco (alias, topknot) of hypocrisy, the ruin of unity, and 
 the bane of peace. It is a profane and ungodly custom that 
 quenelles and destroys the true spirit of prayer, a cheat of 
 Satan's invention to make and keep the dissenters prayerless, 
 
EXTEMPORARY PRAYER. 71 
 
 aud teach them to offer up in the drunken plight of enthu- 
 siasm, strange fire of fancy and stinking smoke of rash 
 words and rude noise, and not sweet incense upon the clear 
 coals of the altar of the heart, to the Almighty. It is a dia- 
 bolical lie to and against the Holy Ghost. Hearken, people, 
 every one of you, as ye desire and hope for the silent 
 ordinary graces of the blessed Spirit, to know and to do the 
 will of God in Christ Jesus to the eternal salvation of your 
 souls. — (A Discourse of Praying in the Spirit, or against Ex- 
 temporary Prayer, by Thomas Edwards, M.A., late chaplain 
 of Christ's Church, Oxon. 1703.) 
 
 Yet surely the question is not a difficult one if we look at 
 it calmly. In the closet, prayer without a set form of words 
 cannot be thought to be unnatural, and perhaps there is no 
 one who engages in secret prayer at all, who does not some- 
 times or frequently so pray. For here, none or few of the ob- 
 jections apply, which have been advanced against this mode 
 of praying in the Church, or even in the family. In the 
 closet we furnish words only for own thoughts, feelings, 
 desires, not for those of others, as is the case in aU acts of 
 worship in which others partake with us. In all cases of 
 public and family worship, we must never forget that the 
 speaker supplies a form of words for those who join with 
 him in the exercise ; whether he extemporise, or repeat what 
 he has prepared, or read from a manuscript or a book — in all 
 these cases alike the spoken prayer is a form to the congre- 
 gation. This is evident. The question is — and it is here the 
 only question — whether the generality of ministers, or rather 
 ministers universally, should be considered competent to pro- 
 duce, without writing them, without preparation, or, if they so 
 please, without one moment's previous study or consideration, 
 a whole public service for hundreds or thousands of people — 
 
72 EXTEMPORARY PRAYER. 
 
 aud that from week to week and from year to year ? whether 
 the stupidest, rawest, least learned and accomplished stripling 
 whom any Presbytery may have licensed to preach, or on 
 whose head they may have laid their hands, shall be esteemed 
 qualified to produce six public prayers each Sunday out of 
 his own mind on the spur of the moment ; and also to extem- 
 porise, as the occasions recur, services for baptism, for mar- 
 riage, and for the celebration of the most solemn rite of the 
 Christian Church — the Lord's Supper? Those who expect 
 that such services, produced in this way, should be what they 
 ought, must at least have conceived a very low idea of what 
 is required. 
 
 It is commonly said, in reply to these obvious objections, 
 that no person should be ordained or licensed who wants qua- 
 lification to conduct public worship in a satisfactory manner. 
 To which the answer is — That numbers of such men are 
 actually licensed and ordained ; have been so at all periods in 
 our Church history, and will always be, so long as present 
 arrangements for conferring license and ordination continue : 
 while new and better arrangements can only diminish, not 
 remove the evil ! We may go further, and assert that it can- 
 not possibly be otherwise ; because the average of such men 
 as offer themselves for the Christian ministry in the Presby- 
 terian Church, or in any church whatever, are incapable of 
 performing, as it should be performed, what is requisite. We 
 can only license those, or some of those, who choose to enter 
 the ministry ; and these, we may presume, neither fall below 
 nor rise much above the general level of tolerably educated 
 men. We are not in circumstances to select persons of rare 
 or very superior endowments. Neither the emoluments nor 
 the position of any of our clergy, nor any advantages, worldly 
 or spiritual, which we can offer, are such as to draw to the 
 
EXTEMPORAKY PRAYER. 73 
 
 mmistcrial office in our Church men of high station in society, 
 or distinguished by commanding talents. But though it were 
 otherwise, the result would be still the same as respects the 
 great body of the clergy. Under any circumstances, it would 
 be unreasonable, and even preposterous, to expect they should 
 do what every Presbyterian minister is now required to per- 
 form. To most men — of even good abilities and respectable 
 accomplishments — the performance is simply impossible at 
 any time, and to all men whomsoever it is impossible at 
 some times. 
 
 The grand argument on the other side is, that by using 
 extemporaneous prayer each minister stirs up the gift that is 
 in him ; whereas prayers which have been composed before- 
 hand supersede this, and seem not to require or exercise those 
 gifts which are promised to assist us in such duties. No 
 doubt we are promised the aids of God's Spirit to assist us to 
 pray ; but not more than to preach, or to perform any other 
 duty of our Christian calling. That promise does not pre- 
 vent any Presbyterian minister studying his preaching — 
 carefully writing his sermons — committing them laboriously 
 to memory, or even reading them in the pulpit. Now, the 
 promise of supernatural aid which was given to the Apostles 
 for public preaching, is far more distinct and emphatic (Mark 
 xiii. 11) than any which either they or their successors 
 received in regard to the performance of public worship ; re- 
 specting this, indeed, nothing is said at all — for there is no 
 proof that the primitive churches used ordinarily any public 
 prayers, except perhaps the Lord's Prayer and the Psalms. 
 
 There was some consistency in these views (which are still 
 entertained by many on this subject), so long as it was ima- 
 gined that they who could vociferate fluently without book, 
 " prayed by the Spirit," as they phrased it — i c, were inspired 
 
74 EXTEMPORARY PRAYER. 
 
 to address the Almighty. No wonder that persons supposed 
 to possess such supernatural gifts were regarded with a 
 peculiar admiration, and were preferred by the people to 
 those whose inspiration seemed to come from a printed book, 
 and that of other men's composition. God seemed to teach 
 the one, but men the other, to offer prayer. But now, when 
 such delusions are exploded among all people, except those 
 who, by reason of gross ignorance or wild enthusiasm, are in- 
 capable of judging, it is indeed amazing that fluency of speech 
 in extemporary prayer should still be so admired. For what 
 is commonly styled " the gift of prayer," is nothing else but 
 fluency of speech — a faculty which implies neither special 
 intellectual endowments nor spiritual graces, nor even moral 
 virtue, but is often found to distinguish the shallow, the 
 ignorant, the conceited, and the presumptuous ; men who are 
 conspicuously deficient in the higher elements of human 
 character, and particularly in wisdom and humility. 
 
 Of the examples of bad taste, irreverence, and even inde- 
 cency and profanity, contained in two well-known books — 
 " The Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence ; or the Foolishness of 
 their Teaching Discovered from their Books, Sermons, and 
 Prayers, third edition, with additions, London 1719;" and 
 " English Presbyterian Eloquence ; or Dissenters' Sayings, 
 Antient and Modern : Collected from the Books and Sermons 
 of the Presbyterians, etc., from the Ptcign of Queen Elizabeth 
 to the Present Time, London 1720" — many are probably 
 spurious, and many others caricatured or exaggerated ; but 
 making all reasonable allowances, what a frightful mass will 
 remain of expressions and illustrations which offend equally 
 against piety and decorum ! We may imagine how those 
 men would express themselves under the excitement of public 
 speaking, and among crowds of rude enthusiasts, who in 
 
EXTEMPORARY PRAYEli. 75 
 
 private letters — and these addressed to ladies — could so often 
 write in a manner which neither reverence nor decency, 
 according to our notions, can tolerate. 
 
 It may be said, and truly, that the times were rude, and 
 men's minds were not so sensitive to proprieties as they now 
 are : but surely it is not proper that public prayer should 
 descend to the lowest level that the sense of propriety among 
 the people will endure. It should do something at least to 
 elevate their minds, and to purify and refine their tastes as 
 well as their affections : the language of the pastor addressed 
 to the Almighty in his own name and in theirs should not 
 tempt them to forget that " He is in heaven, and they upon 
 the earth," or embolden them to lay aside " reverence and 
 godly fear" in approaching the throne of grace. It is com- 
 monly admitted, and generally deplored, that these becoming 
 dispositions are too little manifested in our public worship. 
 Some of the causes, at least, are not obscure. It has been fre- 
 quently alleged that our congregations have less the appearance 
 of devotion in public worship, and particularly in prayer, than 
 is to be observed anywhere else. Even if the statement so 
 made should appear to be exaggerated, few impartial wit- 
 nesses wiU deny that there is at least some truth in it. Two 
 causes are obvious — first, The general custom of praying 
 extempore ; and second, the practice of standing at prayer, 
 which will be considered afterwards. From Jong experience 
 the people have learned that the minister bestows whatever 
 pains and thought he does bestow, upon the sermon ; that this 
 is the work of the week, and expresses whatever thoughts he 
 has to express ; on the other hand, that the prayers are the 
 result of no pains or thought either by himself or any one 
 else ; but are often loose and unconnected harangues, wan- 
 dering up and down, no person can guess whither ; or consist 
 
/6 KXTEMPORARY PRAYER. 
 
 of such accidental outpourings, gradually petrified into a 
 lixed form. Accordingly, the people attend to that discourse 
 — the sermon — which is in some measure worthy of attention, 
 and pay very little regard to those other discourses — the 
 prayers — whose demerits and defects they are too well assured 
 of. If the prayers were as good in their kind as the scnnons 
 are in theirs, they would excite not less interest ; on the con- 
 trary, they would fix the minds and touch the hearts of the 
 people even more. 
 
 It may be true that the extravagances and indecorums 
 which were once so frequent, and which are still so prevalent 
 in some quarters, are no longer heard, or very seldom, in the 
 Church of Scotland, or among the Presbyterian sects. Still 
 prayers are often uttered wliich no person who has good sense 
 and moderate education can hear throughout with full con- 
 currence and sympathy ; and I feel persuaded that a verbatim 
 report of all the public prayers uttered in Scotland any one 
 Sunday in the year, would settle the question for ever in the 
 mind of every person who was capable of forming a rational 
 judgment upon such a matter. 
 
 Such report would prove (I apprehend) these propositions 
 among others — That the preacher might generally, by a diffe- 
 rent method, offer much better prayers ; and that a large 
 number of preachers, at least, should have some assistance in 
 this work from the Church. 
 
 As to the first proposition, it can hardly need proof. For, 
 to pray extempore in a congregation demands qualifications 
 which few men possess. It requires an intimate familiarity 
 with the Scripture, a perfect command of language, suitable for 
 such exercises — i.e., of the simplest language which yet must 
 never degenerate into vulgarity, familiarity, or even common- 
 place ; the most solemn and sublime language, which yet nmst 
 
EXTEMPORARY PRAYER. 77 
 
 not swell into turgidity or bombast, or savour of rhetorical 
 exaggeration, or wear any appearance of labour or artifice. 
 And this reaches deeper than a mere literary accomplishment ; 
 it implies a highly cultivated mind, a refinement of character, 
 and a pitch of spirituality, which never have been found, and 
 cannot be expected, in any body of clergy whatever. I do 
 not say that this attainment is impossible; but experience 
 demonstrates that it is difficult and uncommon. 
 
 Look round the General Assembly, or any other assembly, 
 lay or clericaL How rare is the appearance of a really 
 finished master of speech — one who can, on all occasions, 
 express himself with accuracy and propriety, with elegance 
 and force — who is found always ready to say, on the spur of 
 the moment, what ought to be said, and as it ought ! Tliis is 
 confessedly a rare, as it is assuredly an admirable gift, or 
 rather it is a combination of many rare and admirable gifts. 
 
 Why, then, should we fancy that extemporary prayer 
 should be the common gift of every minister, when the 
 faculty of extemporary speech on other subjects is con- 
 fessedly so exceptional ? 
 
 If we will look at the matter dispassionately we shall 
 perceive that to blunder, or become confused — to hesitate, or 
 repeat over and over the same thing — or to fall into undig- 
 nified or inappropriate expressions — or to talk without 
 method, order, or connection, and so without the possibility 
 of impressing or edifying our fellow-worshippers — is far less 
 indecorous and much less pernicious in preaching than in 
 prayer ; for the former, though a solemn address, is still only 
 an address to men ; whereas the other is an address in the 
 name of a whole congregation to the majesty of heaven and 
 earth, before whose glory angels veil their faces. 
 
 " The Church of Scotland," says Principal HiU, " in adopt- 
 
78 EXTEMPORARY PRAYER. 
 
 ing a Directory instead of a liturgy, considers its ministei-s as 
 men of understanding, of taste, of sentiment, capable of think- 
 ing for themselves ; who, without being confined to the repe- 
 tition of a lesson that has been composed for them, may be 
 permitted to exercise their talents with a becoming depend- 
 ence upon divine aid, in the sacred and important office of 
 leading the devotions of Christian worshippers." — [Counsels 
 respecting the Duties of the Pastoral Office, p. 3.) 
 
 It is unfortunate that the Church should proceed upon 
 a supposition which is notoriously contrary to fact ; for 
 neither the whole nor the generality of the ministers of our 
 Church, or of any church in the world, are men of *' under- 
 standing, taste, sentiment, and capable of thinking for them- 
 selves;" as, indeed, the Eev. Principal himself very well knew 
 and proceeds to show. " In our Church," he says, " a minister 
 is at liberty to follow the impression made by ' those special 
 occasions, which afford matter for special petitions and thanks- 
 givings,' and may thus avail himself of the aid which provi- 
 dence often administers to the sentiments of devotion. But 
 much good sense and sound discretion are here required; and tlie 
 gross instances of irreverence and dbsfitrdity which have occurred 
 in prayers suggested hy the occasion, form one of the most popular 
 and plausible ohjections to our mode of worship'^ (p. 7). And 
 again, " We certainly do not imitate this manner of praying," 
 that of the Lord's Prayer, " when we exhaust ourselves and 
 fatigue our hearers by much loose speaking, in which the 
 same idea is perpetually recurring" (p. 5). Are they "men of 
 understanding, of taste, of sentiment," etc., who thus " exhaust 
 themselves and fatigue their hearers by much loose speaking" 
 in prayer ; and wlio furnish those " gross instances of irrever- 
 ence and absurdity !" " The Church," says Dr. Hill, " considers 
 them so." Surely it is time she should consider things and 
 
EXTEMPORARY PRAYER. 79 
 
 meu as they are ; not as a theory, contradicted by unquestion- 
 able facts, requires her to consider them. 
 
 Even if nothing more were needful to be attempted, 
 ministers should at least be encouraged to compose and write 
 their prayers, bestowing not less pains upon these than they 
 now almost all bestow upon their sermons — or rather a great 
 deal more; because, in addition to what has just been advanced, 
 while a sermon after delivery is laid aside and perhaps never 
 used again, or at least not till after a long mteirval, prayers may 
 and should recur much more frequently, as being more limited 
 in their subject-matter, and considerable repetition at least 
 being here attended with some evident advantages. By this 
 means alone a great amelioration might be easily accomplished 
 in the character of our worship. Besides, copying or borrow- 
 ing, which in sermon-making is regarded by the people in 
 Scotland as a sin hardly less heinous than theft, might, with- 
 out reproach from any quarter, be practised to almost any 
 extent in composrug prayers ; and, if these were found to be 
 unquestionably excellent, it is not likely that any congrega- 
 tion would be so foolish, or any Church Court so inquisito- 
 rial and absurd, as to find fault, though it was notorious 
 they were not altogether or chiefly the composition of the 
 minister who used them. 
 
 For promoting this most desirable end, the reading of 
 prayers in public worship should by all means be encouraged. 
 The greatest difficulty at present arises from the practice of 
 reciting prayers. This practice, if they be written, necessitates 
 committing to memory, of which many men, and some of the 
 ablest, are utterly incapable, and which the generality find 
 very difficult. They are accordingly driven to trust on each 
 occasion to their powers of extemporaneous speaking ; or they 
 compose and learn off one prayer or two which are constantly 
 
80 EXTEMPORARY PRAYER. 
 
 repeated ; or, what is more common, they fall gradually into 
 a routine which is virtually the same thing — a fixed unvarying 
 liturgy of their own, put together by chance, stereotyped by 
 custom — wanting both the care, finish, completeness of a 
 systematically formed service, and also the warmth and fresh- 
 ness of reaUy earnest, unpremeditated speech — uniting the 
 faults of both methods with the virtues of neither. 
 
 Many suppose that the people would not tolerate the 
 reading of prayers. This I do not believe ; and I could add 
 some strong reasons for this incredulity. The aversion of 
 the common people, particularly in the country, to the reading 
 of sermons is indeed strong, and in some districts apparently 
 invincible ; but this is, in my opinion, much less unreasonable 
 than the other aversion ; for as I cannot but think it more 
 unnatural to read sermons than to read prayers, so probably 
 the latter prejudice would be found to be far more easily over- 
 come — especially when it was discovered, as it would very 
 soon be, that the read prayers were very much superior to the 
 others. It will be found that the people judge in such cases 
 pretty correctly, whenever they have the means of compari- 
 son ; the want of which is commonly the chief cause of their 
 prejudices and errors. It is one of many reasons for changing 
 the common attitudes in our public worship ; for when the 
 congregation stand at prayer they generally gaze at the 
 minister, as if in praying, no less than in preaching, he were 
 addressing them ; whereas, where kneeling is the attitude, the 
 eyes of the people are otherwise directed, and it becomes a 
 matter of indifference to them whether the minister recites or 
 reads from a nianuscri})t or a book — provided only the matter, 
 language, and manner be fitted to express and excite Christian 
 thought and feeling. 
 
 That miserable enactment, called Lord Aberdeen's Act, 
 
EXTEMPORARY PRAYER. 81 
 
 which has wrought and is still working so many mischiefs, 
 will incidentally have produced some benefit, if it shall help 
 to open the eyes of our ministers and people to the monstrous 
 absurdity of our present modes of proceeding and judging in 
 the matter of public prayer. Under this Act the people or 
 any of them are permitted to offer " any objection to a 
 presentee in respect to his ministerial gifts and qualities ;" 
 and the Church Courts have decided, as was natural they 
 should, that this includes the right of objecting to the prayers 
 as well as the preaching of the presentee. What a strange 
 position for the members of the congregation to stand in ! to 
 come forward and be recognised by the body of their pastors 
 and rulers, as critics of those acts of devotion, of humiliation, 
 supplication, thanksgiving, intercession, which, according to the 
 supposition, they have themselves joined in offering up before 
 the throne of the heavenly grace ! But indeed their proceed- 
 ings shew clearly that they consider the public prayers as 
 truly the presentee's, and not in any sense theirs ; for they 
 inform the reverend court that " his prayers are affected, cold, 
 insipid, and unedifying, as well as unsuitable to the great body 
 of the people;"* and the Presbytery are appointed to hear 
 the presentee at one diet of public worship, that they also — 
 who assume the attitude of persons praying with the presentee 
 — may, instead of that, play the critics so as to " cognosce and 
 determine upon" the people's criticisms — the subject of both 
 being the prayers in which they should have joined, and 
 which (according to every reasonable supposition) should 
 have been their own. 
 
 According to the truth of things there is no praying at all 
 on such occasions, on the part either of presentee, congregation, 
 or Presbytery. The first goes through, and knows that he 
 
 * Case of Duthil, Dec. 1863. 
 G 
 
82 EXTEMPORARY PRAYER. 
 
 goes through, au exhibition of which the people are there 
 assembled to form an opinion and pronounce a judgment, not 
 to pray ; and the Presbytery no less are placed in a critical 
 attitude — to judge and determine whether or not, as may be 
 alleged, the prayers of the presentee are or are not " affected, 
 cold, insipid, unedifying, and unsuitable to the people." What 
 a position for those who, in offering those prayers, themselves 
 have assumed the attitude of worshippers ! What reduces the 
 whole proceeding to absurdity, in a judicial point of view, is 
 this — that while all the Church Courts, lower and higher, have 
 admitted the relevancy of objections to the presentee's prayers, 
 they have never demanded any manuscript record of these 
 " exercises ;" while, on the other hand, they require the pre- 
 sentee to furnish to the Presbytery a manuscript copy of the 
 sermon or sermons he has preached by appointment of the 
 Presbytery ; thus compelling him to write, and, contrary to all 
 the traditions of the Church, requiring him to read his sermons, 
 or to submit to the miserable drudgery of reciting them word 
 for word from memory. But the absurdity and contradiction 
 do not end even here. The members of the Presbytery may 
 at least have been present when the presentee went through 
 one of those exhibitions called 'prayers^ and so have had some 
 grounds of judgment in dealing with objections to the same. 
 But these objections go by appeal to the superior Church 
 Courts, and they are called upon to affirm or reverse them 
 without one line of record on which to proceed. For the Synod 
 and General Assembly neither require the presentee to per- 
 form an exhibition of praying in their presence, nor have they 
 any manuscript of the prayers, nor do they require that these 
 should be written, nor are they supposed to know or to care 
 whether they are or not. In point of fact, the matter of 
 prayers is studiously slurred over in these proceedings. No- 
 
EXTEMPORARY PRAYER. 83 
 
 body seems to tliink it worth any notice; it is considered 
 quite a subordinate affair — a decent introduction to the great 
 fact of the sermon, which is the first, second, and third thing, 
 and indeed very nearly everything in our public worship. In 
 an Edinburgh church, much frequented by strangers, espe- 
 cially from England, a gentleman was compelled to stand in 
 the lobby till the devotional services were terminated, 
 when he was promised a seat. To encourage his perseverance, 
 the old woman who kept the door assured him thus — " Dinna 
 weary, sir, ye '11 no hae lang to wait ; the Doctor's no lang in 
 gettin' through the preleeminaries." 
 
 Do I insinuate that those devotional compositions — if 
 indeed they ever were composed — which our Church Courts 
 thus treat as if they were not worthy of a record, may not be 
 open to criticism, or may not merit condemnation and rejec- 
 tion ? I am far from alleging that the parishioners may not 
 be justified in branding them with even stronger epithets than 
 "affected, cold, insipid, unedifpng, and unsuitable'- for any 
 parish or congregation whatever. In almost every case in 
 which a presentee's discourses were justly liable to objection, it 
 will, I believe, be found that his prayers were much more so. It 
 would be deeply interesting, and also very instructive, to see 
 how the Church Courts would proceed if the people of any 
 parish had sense enough to object to the presentee's prayers^ 
 without urging any other objection. Would the superior 
 Courts still proceed without a record, acquit or condemn the 
 prayers without either hearing or reading them ? It would 
 be curious, and might perhaps open some eyes. May we 
 hope that a time will come when those which each congrega- 
 tion offers up to the common Father shall no longer be the pre- 
 sentee's prayers nor the minister's prayers, but the Church's 
 prayers — common prayers, in which the whole Church 
 
84 EXTEMPORARY PRAYER. 
 
 is already agreed. ; in which all congregations, in all corners 
 of the land, from generation to generation, shall unite with 
 one haiTQonious voice ! 
 
 Upon the whole, as all our practical abuses and all the 
 defects of our system, in respect to public worship, seem to 
 proceed from a mistake regarding the importance of the 
 devotional element, and particularly of prayer in public wor- 
 ship, so any reform which shall be of much value, or shall 
 go to the root of the evil, must proceed from a reform of our 
 notions in this respect ; and as all imaginations of a special 
 or miraculous agency of the Holy Ghost in this exercise have 
 long ago been dissipated (except among the most ignorant) by 
 accumulated and distressing experience, it is time we should 
 seriously consider what should be done for reforming whatever 
 is amiss in this respect, and so at least retaining what remains 
 to us of the intelligence and piety of the people. The following 
 may appear safe expedients for the present — 
 
 1. We should endeavour to impress upon the minds of 
 all — both ministers and people — the great importance of this 
 part of public worship ; without depreciating sermons, ex- 
 positions, catechisings, and other forms of Christian instruction. 
 
 Particularly, by frequent admonitions and explanations 
 the people should be made to apprehend, and, if possible, to 
 feel, that the public prayers are to be considered as their 
 prayers, and not the minister's prayers — as the prayers of tlie 
 congrefjation^ and not of any one person, wliether speaker or 
 hearer. Principal Hill, in his book already quoted, betrays 
 the same notions substantially on the subject of public prayer, 
 which notoriously prevail among the body of the Scotch people. 
 After using the following argument, which indeed sufficiently 
 refutes the system he defends (though evidently with no good- 
 will or real conviction) — " As the greatest and most interesting 
 
EXTEMPORARY PRAYER. 85 
 
 subjects of prayer are always the same, you cannot, without 
 affectation, avoid frequent repetition of what you have once 
 expressed well" — he adds this strange and indecorous sug- 
 gestion : " Yet, in a Church where no set forms are prescribed 
 by authority, it is desirable that you should appear cajKihle of 
 clothing the same sentiments with equal facility and propriety 
 in eocpressions somewhat varied" (p. 7). This is addressed by 
 a Professor of Divinity to the future ministers of the Church ; 
 who are informed that the reason why they should not adhere 
 to the same words in prayer is, not that they may impress or 
 edify the congregation, or attain any legitimate end of public 
 worship, but may make such an exhibition as may lead the 
 people to admire them, their gifts and talents, in the way of 
 extemporary speaking ! Might not some better opportunity be 
 found for making such display, and exciting such admiration ? 
 
 2. Presb3d;eries should require written prayers from candi- 
 dates for the . ministry, as well as written discourses. The 
 practice of reading trial discourses is an innovation, like aU 
 reading of discourses, and probably not of very old date ; but 
 being recommended by evident propriety and convenience, it 
 has been universally adopted. The same convenience and 
 propriety require that the prayers should be written and read. 
 The same, as to writing at least, should be observed in pro- 
 ceedings under Lord Aberdeen's Act. The Presbytery should 
 be put in possession of the manuscript of the prayers, as well 
 as of the discourses of the presentee. 
 
 3. Those ministers who are so happy as to be placed over 
 intelligent congregations, should begin the practice of reading 
 prayers. Such congregations will be found to be favourable 
 to the innovation ; sometimes almost unanimously so. And 
 the reason of the thing is so manifest and strong, -that a 
 minister who enjoys the confidence of the people will easily 
 
86 EXTEMPORARY PRAYER. 
 
 succeed in satisfying almost any congregation, however 
 illiterate or prejudiced, of the advantage of this practice. Of 
 course, no man of discretion will attempt this, or any such 
 like change, however evident its advantages may be, until he 
 has convinced the great majority of the people that it is 
 desirable. 
 
 4. All pastors, especially in the country, and in congre- 
 gations composed principally of the common people, should 
 endeavour, as a general rule, to deliver their sermons, etc., 
 without reading, and in all cases without close and slavish 
 reading. It cannot be denierl, I think, that the prejudice 
 which has prevailed so obstinately on this subject, has been 
 perpetuated and strengthened (if it was based originally on 
 other grounds) by the bad reading, the utter inability to read 
 in a clear, fluent, and impressive manner, which has been so 
 general among those who adopted the practice. Perhaps it 
 might be fomid, if the experiment were made, that there is no 
 congregation whatever in the Church of Scotland, which 
 would not prefer, if they must choose between the two, to 
 have the sermon spoken and the prayers read, rather than to 
 have the sermon read and the prayers spoken. But the 
 practice of kneeling at prayer will immediately render the 
 manner of delivering the prayers, whether by reading them or 
 otherwise, a matter of perfect indifference in the minds of the 
 people. 
 
 5. Upon the whole, as an immediate improvement, and 
 palliative at least — dta r^v eveaTuaav dvdyxrjv — till something 
 more effectual can be accomplished, it would seem to be the 
 duty of tliose who are zealous for the edification of the people 
 and the pnjspcrity of the Clmrch, to take a great deal more 
 pains in preparing prayers tlian has generally been thought 
 necessary — not oifering to the Lord our God that which is 
 
EXTEMPORARY PRAYER. 87 
 
 unbecoming his divine majesty and our dependent and sin- 
 ful condition, but studying so to express thoughts and desires 
 that the hearts of the people and our own may be ele- 
 vated and purified, that so our prayers may prove acceptable 
 to God and profitable to ourselves — through our great High 
 Priest and Intercessor Jesus Christ, who hath taught us when 
 we pray, thus to say — '' Our Father," etc. 
 
 Tliis has been generally thought to settle the question of 
 the lawfulness at least of prepared and prescribed forms of 
 prayer. And those who denied, no less than those who main- 
 tained, the lawfulness of liturgies, would appear to be of this 
 opinion. For there can be no doubt that the real reason why 
 the use of the Lord's Prayer was discouraged, and finally laid 
 aside by the former, was the inconsistency in which it seemed 
 to involve them. How could they absolutely condemn all 
 prepared forms, when they themselves habitually employed 
 such a form? That our Lord was the author of this form 
 and enjoined its use, only made the matter worse ; and there- 
 fore their natural subterfuge was to deny that it was intended 
 to be a form, or that the injunction to employ it extended to 
 them. Milton, accordingly, argues against the obligation to 
 use the Lord's Prayer, perceiving clearly enough that this 
 involved the whole question, as between those who denied 
 and those who maintained the lawfulness and expediency of 
 set forms. 
 
 But it is difficult to be consistent in an error : — 
 The same men who say it is unlawful to use prepared 
 forms of prayer, or to read prayers, themselves do the very 
 things which they condemn. Even those of them who will 
 not repeat the Lord's Prayer in public worship, yet read the 
 prose psalms, and by so doing they have settled the question. 
 For not only do most of these psalms contain petitions, 
 
88 EXTEMPORAKY PRAYER. 
 
 confessions of sin, and other elements of prayer, but a large 
 proportion of them are throiujhout prayers in every respect — 
 not only in substance and spirit, but in form, and even accord- 
 ing to the titles in some instances. It is true that these 
 psalms are read in Presbyterian churches as lessons ; but this 
 does not alter the case ; it is only an incongruity to use, as if 
 it were an exhortation or instruction to men, what is indeed 
 an address to God. The minister, in reading such psalms, 
 is praying and reading prayers, and every devout worshipper 
 is also praying in hearing these prayers read. 
 
 " Have mercy upon me, God, according to thy loving- 
 kindness : 
 
 " According to the multitude of thy tender mercies^ blot out 
 all my transgressions. 
 
 " Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, 
 
 " And cleanse me from my sin : 
 
 " For I acknowledge my transgression ; 
 
 " And my sin is ever before me. 
 
 " Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean ; 
 
 " Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 
 
 '* Make me to hear joy and gladness ; 
 
 " That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.'''' 
 
 Are these prayers or sermons ? i. c, are they addresses to 
 men or to God ? 
 
 But the way in which we commonly employ them would 
 shew, that in prose they are sermons, but become prayers 
 or psalms by being turned into metre. We all read prayers, 
 and use prepared forms of prayer, when we read the prose 
 psalms ; and so, indeed, we have long ago, without knowing 
 it, determined the controversy against our own prejudices. 
 
 Many persons appear to think that the reading or reciting 
 of prayers is the grand and decisive distinction between 
 
EXTEMPORARY PRAYER. 89 
 
 Episcopacy and Presbytery ; and even in our Church Courts 
 some speakers have displayed such incredible ignorance as to 
 talk of a minister who read prayers in the church as " playing 
 at Episcopacy." But if so, John Knox and John Calvin 
 played at Episcopacy, and so did the Church of Geneva and 
 all the Eeformed or Presbyterian Churches on the Continent, 
 and also our own beloved Church — the Church of Scotland — 
 with her sisters. The Episcopal Church in Scotland also 
 must have "played at Presbytery" when her clergy used the 
 same manner of praying as their Presbyterian contemporaries, 
 till, on their attempting to do otherwise, the redoubtable Jenny 
 Geddes — herself probably an Episcopalian — by means of her 
 lignum infaustum, produced that hiatus vcdde laclirymabilis 
 in the history of "the Church in Scotland," of which the 
 consequences, proximate and remote, have been so many and 
 so important. The use of liturgies, and the consequent read- 
 ing of prayers, may indeed be considered an attribute of the 
 Christian Church in all its branches, and at all times ; but 
 the disuse of a liturgy, and the practice of praying extempore, 
 or at least without book, is in no sense characteristic of Presby- 
 tery or of Presbyterian Churches. It arose from accidental 
 causes — the chief of which were ignorant prejudices and blind 
 enthusiasm, excited and fomented by the same, or worse, 
 among the English Puritans and Sectaries, but which we 
 hope are now either extinct or rapidly in course of extinction. 
 And yet we are content to wear stiU the livery of deceased 
 superstitions. It is time surely we should strip off these 
 badges, which never were honourable, but which now doubly 
 degrade us. 
 
CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 POSTURES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 come let us worship and bow down ; let us kneel before the Lord our 
 
 Maker. — Ps. xcv. 
 
 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. — 
 Eph. iiL 
 
 A670S ^x^* • • crrpaTiuTas iv ry irpbs tovs iroXefxlovs irapaTa^eL y6vv 6ivTa% iiri ttjv 
 yrjv, Kara t6 oIkciov Tjfuu tQv evx'^v idos, iirl rds Trpbs rhv Qeop iKeaia^ 
 rpairiadaL. — EuSEB. Hist. v. 5. 
 
 Omnes ex more prosternimur. — Arnob. Lib. I. 
 
 1 love to use the civility of my knee, my hat, and hand, with all those outward 
 
 and sensible motions which may express or promote my invisible devo- 
 tion. — Relig. Medic, iii. 
 
 It is perhaps unnecessary to remark that the postures of our 
 bodies when we engage in acts of divine worship are, in them- 
 selves, of no consequence : for he that worships in spirit and 
 truth is accepted with the Father of spirits whether he stand, 
 sit, or kneel ; whether he walk by the way, or offer up his 
 supplications from his bed in the darkness of night. Unlike 
 many others, the Church of Scotland has always treated these 
 as matters of indifference ; for though, as we shall see, kneel- 
 ing at prayer be recognised in the Book of Common Order, 
 no law or regulation appears ever to liave been made on this 
 subject by tlie Church since the Reformation. There seems 
 good reason to believe that the present customs of standing at 
 
POSTURES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 91 
 
 prayer and sitting to sing were innovations, introduced about 
 the middle of the seventeenth century, in imitation of the forms, 
 or in compliance with the feelings, of the English Puritans, 
 whose zeal affected as many departures as possible from the 
 customs of the Episcopal Church. There is no reason (so far 
 as I am aware) to doubt that, till then, the Scotch followed 
 the universal custom of the Catholic Church — at least in the 
 West — of kneeling to pray and standing to praise. This inno- 
 vation, however, had no sanction from the General Assembly, 
 nor did any inferior Court interfere, either to recommend or 
 forbid. Such matters were never, I believe, in our whole 
 Church history made subjects of censure or remark till the 
 year 1858, when a committee of the Presbytery of Edinburgh 
 reported that in the Greyfriars Church the innovation had 
 been introduced of standing to sing and kneeling at prayer. 
 The General Assembly, however, when the subject came before 
 it in 1859 — neither pronounced any decision nor indicated 
 any opinion respecting the matter of postures in public wor- 
 ship ; it ignored the subject, thus adhering faithfully to the 
 uniform traditions of the ChurcL 
 
 But sometimes things which in themselves are indiffe- 
 rent, may become accidentally of some, yea of great import- 
 ance. It was in and of itself not sinful to frequent heathen 
 feasts, because the idol was no god, the house no temple, the 
 meat no sacrifice ; but, from other considerations, the act 
 may become so pernicious, and therefore relatively so sinful, 
 that the enlightened Christian man (6 riXuag) shall resolve " to 
 eat no such meat while the world stands " (1 Cor. viii. and 
 X.) There being, admittedly, no command or authoritative 
 example in the case before us, and this not being a question of 
 true or false, nor yet of right or wrong, but only of better and 
 worse, we must here appeal to considerations of expediency, 
 
92 POSTURES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 good order, decency, and edification, according to the dictum 
 of the Westminster Confession, " There are some circum- 
 stances concerning the worship of God and government of the 
 Church common to human actions and societies, which are 
 to be ordered according to the light of nature and Christian 
 prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which 
 are always to be observed." — Ch. i. 
 
 These principles had in view, it follows, that those pos- 
 tures or attitudes are most suitable in the worship of God 
 which correspond best to the mental acts of prayer and praise 
 respectively, and which are most likely to excite the proper 
 acts or states of mind in ourselves and others ; and all such 
 postures are unsuitable and improper as are not, according to 
 the common feelings and associations of the people, expressive 
 of humiliation, reverence, and the other dispositions which 
 worship is understood to express and is designed to strengthen. 
 
 Few probably will dispute this proposition in the general 
 form in which it is here set down ; and a dispassionate appli- 
 cation of it would afford a very easy reconcilement of any 
 differences of opinion or of practice which may now exist 
 among members of the Church of Scotland. 
 
 Standing and kneeling are recognised attitudes of reverence 
 and respect universally. Among the Jews, wliether under 
 the Old Testament or the New, in the universal Christian 
 Church of the early ages, and, indeed, of all ages and every- 
 where — in the customs and notions of modern times, and 
 among ourselves universally, standing and kneeling are re- 
 garded as proper and significant attitudes of respect and 
 reverence ; and sitting has been and is now, everywhere, 
 among all ranks and conditions of men, regarded as not 
 expressive of any sucli emotion or state of mind. The Lord 
 sits upon his throne, " and the hosts of heaven stand before 
 
POSTURES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 93 
 
 him." " Every other priest stands ministering in the temple, 
 but Christ sits dovm at "the right hand of God" (Heb. x. 
 11, 12). To sit is to assume the position of the superior, to 
 assert the rights of the master or lord ; to stand is to take the 
 place of the inferior, to occupy for the time the servant's 
 room ; to show deference ; to give honour to another : and the 
 attitude of kneeling, by universal consent, expresses the same, 
 only in a greater degree and in a more striking manner — 'Ev 
 
 vXri&si T^eff^vrhojv arri&i (Ecclus. vi.) 
 
 It would seem to follow from this that sitting is improper 
 and unsuitable in at least direct acts of worship, such as 
 praise and prayer, because, according to the sentiment of all 
 men, it asserts a condition, and is expressive of a state of 
 mind not consistent with that which we profess in drawing 
 near to God, either in praise or in prayer. In short, if we 
 may speak freely, the practice of sitting while God's praise is 
 sung, is an innovation in our worship and a solecism in itself, 
 and at the same time an indecorum and an irreverence, con- 
 demned by the whole voice of Scripture, and by the authority 
 of nearly the whole Christian Church in every age, as well as 
 contrary to the universal feeling of propriety, and not having 
 even the argument of convenience to support it ; for, as every 
 one knows, standing is the natural attitude for singing, and 
 prompted by well-known physical reasons. 
 
 Now, this practically settles the whole matter in so far 
 as attitudes in public worship are concerned. For it being 
 admitted that both standing and kneeling have sanction in 
 Scripture and in Christian antiquity, and both being postures 
 of reverence, and therefore suitable for acts of worship ; if we 
 stand to sing praise, we must kneel at prayer — both to secure 
 some variety, and because it would impose an intolerable 
 burden upon the people to continue standing during both 
 
94 POSTURES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 acts. I shall endeavour afterwards to prove that hieeling is 
 the proper posture for prayer ; but apart from this, we must, 
 as matter of expediency, or rather of necessity, adopt it in the 
 arrangements of our public service, if we reject the custom of 
 sitting, and stand while we praise the Lord our ^laker. 
 
 Apart from arguments derived from Scripture or authority, 
 there are several obvious reasons for standing to sing in church 
 and kneeling to pray, instead of sitting to sing and standing 
 to pray, as, till lately, all Presbyterians have done in Scotland 
 for two centuries, except in the Northern Isles. 
 
 The act of singing, as practised in our churches, generally 
 occupies from three to Jive minutes ; the tunes in general use, 
 most of them, requiring not more than about forty-five seconds 
 for each verse, and few so much as sixty seconds, if they be 
 sung in proper time. Now, the bulk of every congregation, 
 including the weak and the aged, can commonly stand four 
 or five minutes without fatigue or inconvenience ; whereas 
 it is fatiguing and even distressing to a large portion of 
 persons to stand fifteen, twenty, twenty-five minutes, or 
 as much longer as the minister may chance to pray ; and 
 accordingly in every congregation where they stand at 
 prayer, some do not attempt to stand at all, and others drop 
 down upon their seats in increasing numbers as the prayer is 
 protracted, till, in some cases, a considerable proportion of the 
 people have resumed their seats before the tedious supplica- 
 tion comes to an end. 
 
 It may be replied that the natural remedy is the shorten- 
 ing of the prayers. This may be desirable on many accounts, 
 but is impracticable so long as it continues the custom for 
 ministers to pray extempore. For one who proceeds accord- 
 ing to tliis method can li.'irdly be expected to judge whether 
 he speaks long or shortly ; and the real explanation of those 
 
POSTURES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 95 
 
 insuffembly tedious prayers of which we often hear is, not 
 that the speaker intended to make them so lengthy, but that 
 he could not tell, and was not aware how long he had spoken. 
 
 If these be matters of inditference, we may at least plead 
 that they should be arranged so as not to tax the strength or 
 destroy the comfort of the people in public worship ; remem- 
 bering that this goes further; because whatever occasions 
 physical uneasiness, also distracts attention, disturbs the mind, 
 and so tends to prevent salutary impressions and edification. 
 
 It is generally admitted that in those churches in which 
 kneeling at prayer is practised, greater decorum and solemnity 
 are observable than where the people stand. This can hardly 
 be questioned, and will not be by any one who has had con- 
 siderable means of observation. And such a fact goes very 
 far to settle the whole matter. 
 
 Accordingly, in private, in our own families, and, I pre- 
 sume, in our closets — that is, in every situation in which we 
 carry out our own sense of fitness and propriety without con- 
 trol — we kneel at prayer. This is the unbiassed sentence of 
 the whole Christian community, Presbyterians and Episco- 
 palians, Protestants and Catholics, Dissenters and Churchmen 
 — the spontaneous suffrage of all men among us. Whenever 
 we follow the unbiassed promptings of our own Christian 
 feelings, we assume that attitude in prayer which expresses 
 with most emphasis humility, reverence, and godly fear ; and, 
 like St. Paul, " bow our knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 Kneeling being thus associated in our minds with prayer 
 in all other circumstances, we commit an error, and deprive 
 ourselves of an advantage, in assuming, in our Church service, 
 another posture which has no such associations. This is not 
 a small matter, though it may appear small to those who have 
 
Of) POSTURES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 not considered how much our minds are affected by association 
 of ideas, how powerfully this controls our thoughts and feel- 
 ings, and how largely it enters into those influences which 
 draw us towards both good and evil. Nothing seems plainer 
 than this — that we should adopt in church the same bodily 
 posture in prayer, which we use habitually on other occasions, 
 and should not disturb the hallowed feelings which are inse- 
 parably entwined with that posture by introducing another, 
 less fitting and expressive in itself, and un associated with 
 those emotions. 
 
 Nor is it unworthy of consideration that Christians of 
 other communions find this exceptional custom of ours so dis- 
 turbing and disagreeable that, as they often express it, they 
 can hardly bring themselves to feel as if they were in Church 
 or engaged in prayer at all. Many reasons, which need not 
 be here insisted on, shew that this is worthy of some regard, 
 especially in an Established Church, which should be national 
 in fact, as it is in theory and in law. 
 
 The only arguments that have been used against all this 
 are these two — That such has not been the custom; and, 
 That our churches are not constructed so as to admit of kneel- 
 ing. The former is sufficiently answered when it is shewn 
 that the custom which prevails is neither ancient nor good ; 
 that it is inconvenient, unsuitable, exceptional, and modern ; 
 not truly distinctive of the Church of Scotland, but the fruit 
 of an alliance of questionable expediency, and for doubtful 
 objects, with the English Puritans. 
 
 As to the architectural objection, I rather apprehend that 
 wherever pews are wide enough to sit in with comfort, there 
 is room also to kneel ; and if any one will take the trouble to 
 make the experiment, he will find that such is the fact ; and 
 a very small expense will render almost any pew available 
 
POSTURES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 97 
 
 for kneeling. But if it were otherwise, 1 beg to ask those 
 who state such objections — Whether they think the churches 
 are for tlie worshippers, or tlie worshippers for the churches ; 
 in other words. Whether the worship should be made to suit 
 the pews, or the pews to suit the worship ? 
 
 This may appear all that is necessary to be said upon this 
 subject. But as most Presbyterian writers, and. even some 
 very learned Episcopalians, have held that the weight of 
 examples, both Scriptural and Patristic, is in favour of stand- 
 ing at prayer, it may be proper to add a few words on this 
 question. 
 
 That standing was regarded as the only proper attitude 
 in singing psalms, both among the ancient Jews and in the 
 early Christian Church, is undoubted and evident. (Augustine, 
 Serm. 3, in Ps. 36 ; Jo. Capian., De Instit. Ren., Lib. ii., c. 1 2 — 
 quoted by Piddle, Man. iv. 1. 
 
 "The custom," says Piddle, "of standing at prayer in 
 general is peculiar to the East. No rule respecting posture 
 is laid down in Scripture ; but the examples recorded in Gen. 
 xviii. 22, xix. 27 ; 2 Chron. xx. 13, etc. ; comp. with Luke xviii. 
 11, 13, and Matt. vi. 5, shew that the Jews for the most part 
 prayed standing — a fact which is illustrated by the modern 
 practice of that people, and the testimony of Pabbinical 
 writers. Such is indeed the custom of the Oriental nations 
 also. Our Saviour recognised it at least in saying to his 
 disciples, when ye stand praying (Mark xi. 25) ; and hence 
 Cyprian observes that we comply with the will of our Lord 
 * quando stamus ad orationem.' And from the liturgy in the 
 Aiiostolical Constitutions, as well as from those of Basil and 
 Chrysostom, it plainly appears that, during the early centuries 
 of Christianity, standing at jpraycr ivas the rule, and kneeling 
 the exception'' (ut sup.) Tlie same view is supported by the 
 
 H 
 
08 POSTURES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 high authority of Grotius {Corn, on Matt. vi. 5), and quite 
 recently by the learned Dean Stanley in his Lectures on the 
 Easteom Cliurch, p. 195. 
 
 "One regulation alone," says Dean Stanley, speaking of 
 the Council of Nicrca, "the twentieth Canon, related to 
 worship : that which enjoins that on every Sunday, and in 
 daily worship between Easter and Pentecost, the devotions of 
 the people shall be performed standing. Kjieeling is for- 
 bidden. The almost universal violation of this Canon in 
 Western churches, at the present day, illustrates our remote- 
 ness from the time and country of the ISTicene Fathers. To 
 pray standing was, in public worship, believed to have been 
 an apostolical usage. It is still the universal practice in the 
 Eastern Church, not only on Sundays, but week days. But 
 in the West kneeling has gradually taken its place ; and the 
 Presbyterians of Scotland, and at times the Lutherans of 
 Germany, are probably the only occidental Christians who 
 now observe the one only rubric laid down for Christian 
 worship by the First CEcumenical Council." 
 
 It may appear presumptuous to differ from such authori- 
 ties ; yet — tantoriim virorum iiace — I venture to think that 
 their conclusion in this case may well be questioned ; for — 
 
 Kneeling is also recognised in the r)ible as a posture in 
 prayer; and, what is yet more significant, "to kneel" is 
 again and again used (<ryi/£x3o;^/xwc), both in the Old and New 
 Testament, as a synonym for "to pray;" shewing that in 
 the minds of the writers the two ideas were inseparably 
 associated. " Let us worship and bow down ; let us kneel 
 before the Lord our Maker" (Ps. 95) ; *'For this cause / how 
 my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph. iii. 14). 
 Tliis appears, if possible, yet more clearly from Phil. ii. 10 — 
 "That at the name of Jesus every kvee should boiv" comp. 
 
POSTURES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 99 
 
 with Is. xlv. 23, " I have sworn by myself, that unto nie sliall 
 every knee how, every tongue shall swear." Accordingly, on 
 all occasions of peculiar solemnity, as when sin was confessed 
 and bewailed, when God's judgments were experienced or 
 apprehended — in short, in all those acts of worship in which 
 Jmmiliation was a prominent element, it would appear that 
 not standing but kneeling was used, or even deeper prostration, 
 such as casting themselves down with their faces toward the 
 ground (Gen. xvii. 3, 17 ; Num. xv. 22). 
 
 Of course praise and prayer cannot be entirely separated ; 
 they run into each other. We praise God even in our 
 prayers, and our psalms and hymns of praise often contain 
 confessions of sin, and petitions for mercy and grace. It will 
 probably be found, however, on an accurate inquiry, that 
 whenever the prominent feature of the particular act of 
 devotion was praise or hlessinr/, the ancient Jews were 
 accustomed to stand ; but when it was confession or humilia- 
 tion, or even petition, they generally knelt or threw themselves 
 prostrate. Thus "when Daniel knew that the writing was 
 signed, he went into his house . . . and he hieeled upon 
 his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before 
 his God, as he did aforetime'^ (Dan. vi. 10). 
 
 This is curiously illustrated in the account of the dedication 
 of the temple. From the narrative in 1 Kings viii., it might 
 appear that both king and people stood throughout the solemn 
 act of praise and prayer there recorded, for the standing of both 
 is particularly mentioned (ver. 1 4, 22), not without design. But 
 when we come to the end of the account, we are informed 
 that the prayer, or part of it, had been uttered by the king 
 upon his knees (ver. 54). The parallel passage (2 Chron. vi.) fur- 
 nishes an explanation ; for we are there told distinctly that 
 the king, who had stood while he blessed the Lord (ver. 1-12,) 
 
100 POSTURES IN VVTiUC WORSHIP. 
 
 assumed a different attitude the moment he began the 
 prayer — he then "kneeled down upon his knees before all 
 the congregation of Israel, and spread forth liis hands toward 
 heaven" (ver. 13). Thus we are told that Daniel, on the 
 solemn occasion referred to, used that attitude in prayer 
 which he had hefore been accustomed to use ; and is it credible 
 that this was any other than that which was common among 
 his Jewish compatriots and their ancestors ? And surely it is 
 not conceivable that Kino: Solomon, on an occasion of such 
 peculiar solemnity, should have assumed any attitude but 
 that which was established and recognised as the most 
 emphatic expression of devotion among the Jews of his 
 time. 
 
 In the New Testament we never, so far as I remember, 
 read of standing to pray in connection with Christianity or the 
 Christian Church. Our blessed Lord never prays standing — 
 " He fell on his face and prayed" (Matt. xxvi. 39) ; "he fell on 
 the ground and prayed" (Mark xiv. 35) ; "he kneeled down 
 and prayed" (Luke xxii. 41). 
 
 Stephen, at his martyrdom, "kneeled down and prayed" 
 (Acts vii. 59, GO) ; Peter " kneeled down and prayed" (ix. 
 40) ; Paul " kneeled down and prayed with all the brethren" 
 (xx. 3G) ; and again he and his companions (xxi. 5) at Tyre 
 did the same, in circumstances rather inconvenient, as we 
 might think, and where this attitude might have been dis- 
 pensed with, had it been deemed quite indifferent ; but no — 
 for, says the writer, " They all brought us on our way with 
 wives and children, till we were out of the city, and we kneeled 
 down on the shore and jpraycd^ And what is of even more 
 significance, St. Paul uses language (E})h. iii. 14) which 
 implies not only that he himself liabitually prayed kneeling, 
 but that this was so generally practised among the Christians, 
 
POSTURES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 101 
 
 that the attitude might be named, instead of the act of prayer. 
 " For this cause I bow my knees (Kdi^icru ra yomrd /mou) to the 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 It is indeed true that " the Pharisees loved to pray standing 
 in the Synagogues " (Matt. vi. 5) ; and that in the parable 
 " the Pharisee stood and prayed," and so did the publican 
 (Luke xviii. 11, 13). But I do not see why we should 
 consider these examples better worthy of our imitation 
 than those of our Lord and his Apostles. That the Jews 
 were accustomed to repeat certain devotions, called in a 
 general way prayers, standing, is, of course, not to be 
 questioned ; but these devotions were probably rather of the 
 nature of Ucssing or praise, than prayer, in the strict sense. 
 The example of the Pharisee's prayer (Luke xviii. 11) confirms 
 this : *' God, I thank thee," etc. It contains not a word of 
 humiliation, petition, or confession — i.e., it is a prayer only in 
 that general sense in which all addresses to God may be, and 
 apparently were, so styled. 
 
 No doubt the Jews were accustomed to recite the Psalms 
 standing — as the Christians afterwards did, following their 
 example. And these Psalms constituted the principal part, if 
 not almost the whole, of the devotions used in the Synagogues 
 in the early times. But these, though in a general way called 
 prayers, were recited or cantillated in that posture, because 
 they were in their general character acts of praise, rather than 
 of confession or supplicatioiL 
 
 A curious confirmation of this view is afforded incidentally 
 by the language employed by St. Luke (Acts xvi. 25) in de- 
 scribing what took place in the prison at Philippi — " And at 
 midnight," says the English version, " Paul and Silas prayed 
 and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them ;" as 
 if the Apostles performed two distinct acts of devotion. But 
 
102 POSTURES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 that is not at all what the original says ; but ■■rpo6iuyJ>[Lim uilvouv 
 rhv eso'c, i.e.2yrayin(jy tlicy sang praises, or i\iQU jpraycrs were praises 
 or psalms. So the Latin Vulgate correctly renders, " adorantes 
 lauclabant Deum " — they worshiioped God by p^raises. The note 
 of Alford on this passage (who has no theory on the subject 
 we are now speaking of) is quite to our purpose. " Not as 
 the English version, 'prayed and sang pn^aisesl but ^:>?'<7?/m^, 
 sang praises. The distinction of modern times between prayer 
 and praise, arising from our attention being directed to the 
 shape rather than to the essence of devotion, was unknown 
 in those days (see Col. iv. 2)," where the expression favours 
 
 the same conclusion, — rfj <7rpoGsuyfj 'rr^osxaprspi/rs — £v ily^oL^KSr'ia. 
 
 According to this distinction we are certain that the prac- 
 tice of tlie Christian Church was regulated in this matter. 
 The Church of England follows the custom which, I suppose, 
 w\as universal both in the East and West, of singing or reciting 
 the whole psalter standing — though many portions of it be 
 rather prayer than praise. But that the general posture for 
 prayer, in the strict and limited sense, was universally and 
 always not standing, but kneeling, appears to me highly pro- 
 bable, Dr quite certain, from the following considci-ations : — 
 
 1. Kneeling appears to have ahvays been recognised in 
 tJie West as the appropriate attitude for prayer. We find it 
 universal there, and no mention is made (so far as I know) of 
 any controversy having arisen regarding its introduction, nor 
 any mention of it at any time as a novelty or innovation. 
 
 2. In the Apostolical Constitutions, which work is believed 
 to contain tlie most ancient liturgical forms now extant, the 
 exhortation, Let us pray (dsr}du/iiev), is commoidy followed by 
 another, Let us kneel ! and by Let us rise ! at the end of the 
 prayer ; as cxemplilied in that very ancient prayer, w^hich has 
 evidently been the basis of the Litanies in the Greek and 
 
POSTURES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 103 
 
 Latin Churches, aud which was confined to the faithful, and 
 was strictly a prayer. 
 
 3. Persons under ecclesiastical discipline always knelt, and 
 were not permitted to do otherwise. St. Ambrose thought that 
 catechumens should do so also. This clearly proves that 
 kneeling was esteemed the proper posture for confession of sin, 
 and humiliation, and like. 
 
 4. The great council of Nicsea, a.d. 325, ordained (Can. xx.) 
 that the faithful, i.e., persons " in full communion with the 
 Church," according to our phraseology, should stand at prayer 
 upon the Lord's Day. A Presbyterian divine lately quoted 
 this Canon to show that standing at prayer was the general 
 or universal custom in the Christian Church of the fourth 
 century. It is curious that those who pay so little deference 
 to the Patristic Church in general, or its councils in particular, 
 should think its authority worth invoking in this solitary 
 instance; showing how apt we are to favour arguments and 
 authorities which appear to be upon our side in a dispute. The 
 Canon is as follows : — " Since there are some who kneel on the 
 Lord's Day and in the days of the Pentecost, in order that all 
 things may be observed in the same manner in every parish 
 (or Diocese), the holy Synod has decreed that all the faithful 
 should at those times offer up their prayers to God standing." 
 
 It does not appear that this ordinance produced any effect 
 in the West, whatever influence it might have in the East ; for 
 we find that the common posture in prayer among the Latins 
 continued afterwards to be what, no doubt, it had always been 
 before, and is still to the present day — namely, kneeling. 
 
 Instead of favouring the view in support of which it is 
 adduced, this famous Canon may be held almost to demon- 
 strate that standing had not hitherto been, and was not then, 
 the general attitude in prayer in the Christian Church. For 
 
104 POSTURES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 not to moiition (what the Council itself acknowledges) that the 
 practice of standing on the Lord's Day was not universal, it 
 would evidently have been absurd to ordain that " on Sundays, 
 and in the days of Pentecost^' all Christians should offer up 
 their prayers to God standing, if it had been the practice, or 
 was designed, that at all times they should stand at prayer. 
 The words of this very Canon, therefore, plainly recognise 
 kneeling as the general and ordinary posture. 
 
 5. The custom of standing at prayer on the Lord's Day, 
 and during the interval between Easter and Whitsuntide, is 
 mentioned by many of the Fathers, who also allege, as they 
 are accustomed to do in favour of old observances, that it was 
 derived from the Apostles. But the writer of the treatise 
 Qua^stioncs et Responsiones ad Orthodoxos, printed in the works 
 of Justin Martyr (though not w^ritten by that Father), fur- 
 nishes a clear confirmation of what has now been said. The 
 question (No. 115) is — 
 
 " If kneeling at prayer be more pleasing to God, and more 
 apt to draw down the divine compassion than standing, why 
 Christians do not kneel at prayer on Lord's Days, and from 
 Easter to AVhitsunday ? 
 
 The very form of this interrogation shews that it was a 
 settled point among the faithful of that time, that kneeling was 
 a more solenm, decorous, and even efficacious {'xXiTov IpXxirat 
 rrjv Qiiav d-jiMirakKtv) maimer of prayer then standing. 
 
 The answer is — " Since it becomes us to keep in mind 
 both our fall into sins and the grace of our Christ, by which 
 we rise again from our fall, therefore we pray kneeling six days, 
 as a symbol of our fall into sins ; but our not kneeling on 
 tlie Lord's Day is a symbol of the Resurrection, by which, 
 tluough tlie grace of Christ, we are liberated from our sins, 
 jiud iVuiii deaili oji account of them — which is destroyed. 
 
POSTURES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 105 
 
 And this custom had its origin from the times of the Apostles, 
 as says St. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyous, and Martyr, in his book 
 on Easter, in which he also mentions our not kneeling during 
 Pentecost, because the same reason holds respecting it as re- 
 garding the Lord's Day, as has been explained." — Just. Martyr, 
 02Jcm, t. iii. p. 179, Ed. Otto. 
 
 Not to quote Tertullian, Clement, and other Fathers, who 
 speak to the same purpose, Epiphanius and Hilarius both say 
 it was the custom neither to fast nor kneel at prayer on the 
 Lord's Day, or during the time between Easter and Pentecost. 
 St. Jerome affirms that this was a universal custom ; but St. 
 Augustine confesses he did not know whether the custom was 
 universal — '^utrum uhique servetur ignoro" — though it pre- 
 vailed in Africa. 
 
 6. People who hear of the early Christians standing in their 
 public worship on tlie Lord's Day at prayer, are apt to con- 
 clude that this determines the whole matter ; for in the mind 
 of a Presbyterian, public worship is associated only with 
 Sundays — he knows virtually nothing of public worship at 
 any other time. But the early Church did not make Sunday 
 exclusively a day of public worship, or even celebrate then 
 alone the most solemn of its rites. " In the primitive Church 
 it was a universal custom to administer the Lord's Supper on 
 Thursday in Easter week, and a daily celebration appears to 
 have been recommended, and to a certain extent practised." 
 I*robably following Tertullian, several of the Fathers — par- 
 ticularly Cyprian, Augustine, and Jerome — explained that 
 l)etition in the Lord's Prayer, " Give us each day our daily 
 bread," of the Eucharist — " Eucharistiam," says Cyprian, 
 " quotidie ad cibum salutis accipimus " {Dc Orat. Dom.) ; and 
 under this notion they judged it necessary to have public 
 worship and the Sacrament of the Supper (an essential and the 
 
lOG POSTURES IN PUBLIC WOKSHIP. 
 
 chief part of it) every day : and this custom, as the learned 
 Pamelius has shewn in his Note upon the words now quoted, 
 continued in the chief cities of the empire at least down to 
 the times of Jerome and Augustine {Cyprian., pp. 268, 
 274 ; Edit. Paris, 1632) — so that the ordinary custom or 
 attitude in prayer was that which obtained upon other days, 
 not that which prevailed upon the first day of the week. The 
 practice of kneeling, accordingly, was so common that — as the 
 learned Bingham has noted — ^the author of the Acts of Thecla 
 calls prayer KXiatg yovdruvj " bending of knees," as Paul the 
 Apostle had done before ; and Arnobius, when he would de- 
 scribe to the heathen the manner in which the Christians 
 performed their worship, says, " they all fell down upon the 
 earth, according to their custom — omnes ex more prosternimur — 
 to offer their common prayers to God." — See Bingham, Bk. 
 xiii., c. xiii., sec. 4. 
 
 7. I cannot omit to notice the words of Eusebius, in which 
 he relates the well-known story of " the thundering legion," 
 composed of Christian soldiers, who, by their prayers, according 
 to the theory of their co-religionists, saved from destruction 
 the Eoman army under Marcus Aurelius. These Christian 
 soldiers, says the historian, fell down upon their knees, as is 
 the familiar custom of us (Christians) wlien we pray, yow d'svrag 
 BTri rrjv yrjv xara, to o/xg/ov v}/j.Tv tuv vjyuv s6og — lit nostris orantihus 
 
 mos est, as Valesius renders the words. — EuseK, Lib. v., c. v. 
 See also Eusebii De Vit. Constant., Lib. iv., c. Ixi. 
 
 8. It is evident from their frequent attempts to explain the 
 custom of standing at iirayer on Sundays, and the ingenious 
 reasons they allege for this pui'pose, that this attitude in 
 prayer presented itself to the Fathers of the Greek Church, no 
 less than to tliose of the AVest, as an exception and an anomaly. 
 Neither does it appear, from the language of Augustine and 
 
POSTURES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 107 
 
 Jerome, from the decree of the Council of Nicaea, or (so far 
 as I have obsei-ved) from any other autliority, that, in the 
 fourth century, there existed any difference between the cus- 
 tom of the Latin and that of the Greek Church in this matter. 
 It may therefore be fairly concluded that while the whole 
 Church admitted that kneeling was the appropriate and general 
 attitude for prayer, they deviated from this on Sundays and 
 certain other days, simply in compliance with a custom which 
 was ancient, but of which they knew neither the origin nor 
 the reason. Accordingly, they hit upon that symbolical 
 explanation which was so much in the taste of those times, 
 and so favourite, because so easy, a solution of difficulties, 
 mth the Fathers of the Church, and which also, as is well 
 known, was the reason of many rites and ceremonies, such as, 
 in Baptism, the chrism and the three immersions, the sign of 
 the cross and other ceremonies. 
 
 Upon the whole, we may perhaps conclude that the cus- 
 tom of standing to pray, which prevailed so much in the 
 Greek Church, arose from a very different cause from that 
 ingeniously devised by the Fathers. 
 
 Probably the true reason why standing was so much 
 practised in the public worship of the Christian Church, 
 particularly in the East, is the same which prevailed in the 
 Jewish synagogues — that originally no prayers, or almost 
 none, were spoken aloud or offered up in common, except the 
 Psalms of David, when the people naturally and properly 
 stood. It has been rendered exceedingly probable that the 
 ;prayers, in the proper sense, were made silently or in a low 
 voice by each individual for himself, and then doubtless they 
 knelt. Of this silent prayer, 'jroociuyrri bia (T/wt^^, there are 
 many traces, not only in the Apostolical Constitutions, but in 
 most of the ancient liturgies, including the Missale Pomanum. 
 
108 POSTURES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 And accordingly when prayers, in the strict sense, came to be 
 said aloud, the same attitude of standing was not unnaturally 
 used, though improperly. In the West, where custom has 
 always had a less absolute authority, a more reasonable prac- 
 tice was gradually adopted. 
 
 Commenting upon the famous letter of Pliny containing 
 an account of the Christians of the second century and their 
 worship, an author already quoted says : — " Here is a true 
 representation of the Christian Assemblies at that time : their 
 open worship was nothing but Cantatus, chanting the Psalms 
 of David, etc. . . . Singing was their liturgy in the modern 
 sense of the word, that is, their open divine service, and the 
 chanting still retained in our cathedrals is a venerable relic 
 of the primitive Christian worship. Here is no mention of 
 prayer of any sort, because that was secret worship," etc. — (J. 
 Edward's Dis., p. 56.) 
 
 Certainly it is strange to find extreme Presbyterians seek- 
 ing to draw an argument for one or two of their o\vn customs 
 from the practice of a Church which, in worship, discipline, 
 and doctrine, may appear a continual protest against ours. 
 But if the authority of tlie Greek Church have any weight in 
 regard to postures in prayer, or the absence of instrumental 
 music, wliy not in respect to Episcopacy, Liturgies, a Calendar, 
 Saints' days, Prayers for the dead, and a hundred other obser- 
 vances ? 
 
CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 THE PRAISE OF GOD — INSTEUMENTAL MUSIC. 
 
 And Hezekiah set the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, with 
 psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of 
 Gad, the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet : for so was the command- 
 ment of the Lord by his prophets — 2 Chron. xxix. 
 
 As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there : all my springs 
 are in thee. — Psalm Ixxxvii. 
 
 Ring out ye crystal spheres, 
 Once bless our human ears 
 
 (If ye have power to touch our senses so), 
 And let your silver chime 
 Move in melodious time, 
 
 And let the base of heaven's deep organ blow. 
 And with your ninefold harmony 
 Make up full concert to the angelic symphony. 
 
 Milton. 
 
 To enlightened Christians it may appear incredible that in 
 the year of grace 1864, persons, and even sects, should still 
 be found, that consider it not only inexpedient, but even 
 sinful, to employ an organ, or any other musical instrument of 
 man's invention, in the worship of God. It is conceivable 
 that some particular instrument might be so associated in the 
 people's minds with vulgar, ludicrous, or unhallowed ideas, 
 that it could not be used in the service of God without sug- 
 gesting these, and so obstructing the ends of divine worship ; 
 but in regard to the organ, at least (and the same may be said 
 
110 THE PRAISE OF GOD. 
 
 of the excellent substitute for it, recently invented — I mean 
 the harmonium), the reverse of all this is the case ; for that 
 noblest of instruments is not only specially adapted for sacred 
 music, but it may be said always to have been consecrated to 
 the service of the Church, and so to be associated in the mind 
 of all Christendom with the solemnities of religion. 
 
 Those prejudices put forth in their support such objec- 
 tions as the following : — 
 
 I. That all human inventions in the worship of God are 
 forbidden and unlawful, and instrumental music among them. 
 
 II. The use of instrumental music is inconsistent with the 
 simplicity and the spirituality of Christian worship. 
 
 III. The ancient Christians had no instrumental music in 
 their public worship, nor has the Greek Church to the present 
 day. 
 
 IV. Instruments of music belong to the weak and beggarly 
 elements of the Levitical dispensation. 
 
 V. The argument from the Old Testament wliich sanctions 
 such instruments would equally sanction dancing in public 
 worship. 
 
 VI. The human voice is God's own instrument, and it is 
 superior to any of man's invention, and we should serve our 
 Maker with the best that we have. 
 
 VII. The beautiful in nature or art can never make man 
 holy. 
 
 These are all the objections which I remember to have 
 met with, or which appear to have any plausibility ; and of 
 these the first is esteemed the most weighty of all. 
 
 I. No doubt it is in an important sense true, that human 
 inventions sliould have no place in the worship of God. That 
 our public worship should consist of certain acts, such as 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 1 1 1 
 
 praise and prayer, reading of the Scriptures, and partaking of 
 the Sacraments ; and that it should be conducted with order, 
 decorum, and solemnity — everything being done to edification 
 — these seem the chief circumstances in the ^v^orship of the 
 Christian Church for which we can plead the express autho- 
 rity of the New Testament ; all of which, indeed, may be 
 summed up in these general rules — " Let all things be done 
 decently and in order" (1 Cor. xiv. 40) ; and " Let all things 
 be done unto edifying" (1 Cor. xiv. 26). If we will insist 
 on some Scriptural warrant more particular than these, in 
 order to render our worship lawful, it may probably follow 
 that we neither have, nor can have, any warrantable worship 
 at all. 
 
 Preaching is considered the prominent part of public wor- 
 ship among the sects which urge the above objection, as their 
 actions and their language distinctly shew. They go to their 
 places of worship " to hear sermon," or " to hear the minister 
 preach." But the Church in apostolic times met together " to 
 break hxad /' and St. Paid makes it evident that this was the 
 formal object and principal purpose of Christian assemblies 
 (1 Cor. xi. 20). Among those sects, therefore, the sermon has 
 plainly taken the place of the sacrament. Is not this an 
 invention of men in the worship of God ? It may be hardly 
 necessary to add that the sermon itself, as we now understand 
 the word, is a human invention, contrived apparently by the 
 schoolmen of the Middle Ages. There are many speeches 
 recorded in the New Testament ; but any such thing as a 
 formal discourse, founded upon a text of Scripture, and divided 
 and subdivided after the manner of modern, and especially 
 Presbyterian sermons, is unknown to the New Testament, or 
 to Apostolic or ancient times. Neither shoidd we forget that 
 all prayers and sermons, and all compositions whatever that 
 
112 THE PRAISE OF GOD. 
 
 are not dictated by inspiration, are in some sense luinian in- 
 ventions. 
 
 It may also surprise many devout Christians who go to 
 churcli Sunday after Sunday " to hear the Gospel preached," 
 to be told that none of tlie saints in the primitive times fre- 
 quented Christian assemblies for such a purpose ; and that, 
 so far as we can learn, tlie Gospel teas never 2'>fccLched in any 
 Christian Church, or to any comimny of helieverSy by any of 
 the Apostles, or of their assistants or successors. " To preach 
 the Gospel," sOa/ygX/^go-^a/, is a word that very frequently 
 occurs in the New Testament. In the Acts and Epistles 
 alone, it is found between forty and fifty times, and it never 
 means an address to Cliristians for their instruction, edifica- 
 tion, and growth in grace, but always an address to Jews, Greeks, 
 or other unbelievers, for their conversion to the Christian 
 faith. I speak, of course, of the original Greek of the New 
 Testament ; for our translators, with their usual want of 
 exactness, introduce " preaching" where no such thing is 
 mentioned in the text ; as, for example, in Acts xx. 7-9. 
 
 Can anything resembling the modern Presbyterian Sacra- 
 ment of the Supper — for example, its Preaching days. Table 
 services, and other tedious accompaniments — find authority 
 in the New Testament ? 
 
 They who think instrumental music unlawful because no 
 passages from the New Testament can be adduced to autho- 
 rise it, cannot adduce any such authority for their practice 
 of standing at prayer; and certainly their custom of sitting to 
 sing is contrary to all ancient precept and example whatever. 
 
 But this question of singing includes two points — first, 
 tlie matter — what should be sung in public worship? and 
 second, tlie manner — how it should be sung ? 
 
 As to the first; — Where is the Scriptural authority regulat- 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 113 
 
 ing what compositions we should sing in our worship ? I am 
 not aware either of any rubric directing us what we should so 
 use ; or how — whether reciting, intoning, chanting, or singing 
 in plain tune, according to our old custom. St. Paul, indeed, 
 exhorts the Ephesian Christians to " speak to themselves 
 (XaXoDm; ioLuroTc,, Eph. V. 19) in or with psalms and hymns 
 and spiritual odes ;" — but this seems to refer to their silent 
 meditations or private devotions, rather than to public worship 
 — " singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." 
 
 But suppose it to be a rule for public worship : — What 
 psalms are meant ? The psalms in our present Psalter ? The 
 whole of these ? All the parts of each ? These and no other ? 
 Are all the noble psalms in Isaiah and the prophets to be ex- 
 cluded, not to mention some in the New Testament ? And 
 where are those " hymns and spiritual songs " in which we 
 are to speak to ourselves ? We must either ourselves com- 
 pose such, and then they will be human inventions, or we 
 must want them, and so fail to do what is prescribed. 
 
 The hymn which, as Pliny informs Trajan, the Christians 
 met early in the morning to sing to Christ as to a god, was 
 probably a human invention, for it is not preserved in the 
 New Testament. Our Saviour sang an hymn with his dis- 
 ciples ; but it has not been recorded, and we cannot tell what 
 it was. 
 
 But even though we had been particularly informed what 
 psalms or hymns had the divine sanction for use in the Chris- 
 tian Church, we should be no nearer our aim of excluding all 
 human inventions from the worship of God, unless we had 
 also transmitted to us music commimicated hy inspiration. 
 This was possible, and probably not very difficult. But no 
 such inspirations were ever vouchsafed, so far as we know ; 
 none such, at least, have been preserved or mentioned ; so 
 
 I 
 
114 THE PRAISE OF GOD. 
 
 that at the present day, and ever since the commencement of 
 Christianity, all the music sung in all Christian Churches 
 throughout the world has been a purely human invention. 
 For the same reason, singing in harmony must be forbidden, 
 for the ancient Jews were not acquainted with harmony nor 
 could sing in parts — nor yet the ancient Christians. Even 
 the precentor, on this plea, would need to be extruded, for he 
 also and his office are unknown to the authoritative records 
 of our religion. The most true-blue Presbyterian congrega- 
 tion that refuses to sing " paraphrases," and insists on having 
 the psalm read line by line during singing (if such still exist), 
 however loudly it may feel constrained to testify against 
 them, is compelled to employ a multitude of " inventions in 
 the worship of God" of which the New Testament and the 
 primitive Church know nothing. The Old Hundred, Bangor 
 and St. Paul's, French and Dundee, and London New, are 
 noble airs, grand, solemn, soul-stirring, as they come to us 
 laden with sanctified associations, with hallowed and tender 
 memories ; but they can plead no higher character than " in- 
 ventions of men in the worship of God." 
 
 The English Cathedral service may have more human 
 inventions than are found in our Presbyterian worship ; but 
 it is only a difference of degree ; the latter can no more plead 
 the absence of human inventions tlian the other. It is some- 
 what remarkable, that the very sects which insist most on the 
 necessity of divine authority for the several parts and acts of 
 public worsliip, should in their own practice show the greatest 
 disregard of all that we know of Christian public worship in 
 the earliest times. Tliat worship consisted — 
 
 1. Chiefly in reading tlie Scriptures ; whereas in a large 
 portion of the Presbyterian churches in this country the 
 Scriptures have been always less used, whether in the way of 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 115 
 
 lessons or otherwise, than perhaps in any Churcli whatever, 
 and for a long period (as has been already stated) they wxre 
 generally unused altogether in the Church of Scotland. 
 
 2. The psalms were a prominent part of the earliest Chris- 
 tian worship ; that is, whole psalms, and probably several of 
 them, were said, chanted, or sung, as the prayers, praises, etc., 
 of the Church ; whereas they are only used, in the common 
 Presbyterian worship, in miserable fragments of a few verses 
 in metre, itself a human and modern invention. 
 
 3. In the ancient Church, the Lord's Prayer seems to have 
 been always said, and apparently aloud by the whole Church ; 
 whereas not only was it not used by the more zealous Presby- 
 terians in Scotland, but it was commonly regarded, and 
 sometimes preached against, as not a Christian prayer, and 
 was even abjured as a rag of popery. 
 
 4. We know certainly that the ivhole congregation in the 
 earliest times of Christianity joined loudly in the response. 
 Amen ; as appears to have been the universal custom among 
 God's ancient people in all acts of public worship : but no 
 Presbyterian congregation, so far as I have heard, makes any 
 such response ; they leave the minister to say that like all the 
 rest of the worship. Perhaps they consider the Amen, like 
 organs and psalteries and harps, typical of better things to 
 come. 
 
 5. Another inconsistency, yet more gross, may be added ; — 
 we do not fast upon occasions of solemn supplication and the 
 like, though the ancients, both Jews and Christians, generally, 
 perhaps uniformly, did, and though our Saviour has prescribed 
 rules for the manner of fasting no less than for almsgivdng and 
 prayer (Matt, vi.) ; yea, though our own standards expressly 
 include solemn fastings among '* religious duties to be 
 used in their several times and occasions" {Confession of 
 
IIG THE PRAISE OF GOD. 
 
 Faith, c. xxi. v., and Larger Catechism, Q. 108), and have even 
 taken care to instruct us what constitutes a fast. " A reli- 
 gious fast," they say, " requires total abstinence not only from 
 all food, unless bodily weakness do manifestly disable from 
 holding out ; in which case something may be taken, yet very 
 sparingly, to support nature when ready to faint." — {Directory) 
 So that in these several particulars, which comprehend 
 among them all or nearly all that we know of the most ancient 
 Christian worship, the declaimers against " inventions of men 
 in the worship of God" follow their own inventions, as much 
 in opposition to Christian antiquity as to propriety, decorum, 
 and, in some cases, to their own doctrines. — The pulpit itself 
 is a human invention : borrowed from the theatre. 
 
 II. I have not observed that any of those who objected to 
 the use of instrumental music on the ground that it destroyed 
 " the simplicity of worship, and interfered with its spiritua- 
 lity," have explained what they meant by "simplicity" or 
 " spirituality" in this connection. Spirituality would appear to 
 be an attribute rather of the worshipper than of the service or 
 ritual in which he engages, so that the same outward form or 
 manner of worsliip may be spiritual to one man, which to 
 another is outward and carnal. The sacrifices and ceremonies 
 of the Jewish law were a spiritual worsliip, or rather the 
 vehicles of spiritual worship, to those devout Israelites who 
 were enlightened as to their inner meaning ; while to those who 
 penetrated no farther than the surface, they were "carnal 
 ordinances." We cannot render any worship spiritual apart 
 from the dispositions and characters of those who engage in 
 it ; the most that can be done is so to order the form and man- 
 ner of worship that it shall tend as much as possible to foster 
 spirituality in those that use it, and shall present as few temp- 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 117 
 
 tatioiis and lures as may be to superstition and carnality in 
 their various forms. A simple air, sung in the rudest fashion, 
 without harmony, and with no approximation to correctness 
 in time or tune, is no more a spiritual act of worsliip than 
 an anthem sung by a cultivated quoir, accompanied with an 
 organ ; indeed it is less so, if it be less apt to generate 
 and heighten those emotions and sentiments the production 
 of which is the only purpose or use of music in worship 
 at all. 
 
 Simplicity should be a characteristic of all Church music, 
 and indeed of all Church services whatever. But this, again, 
 is relative to the knowledge and cultivation of different con- 
 gregations. To one that music may be quite intelligible and 
 easy, which would appear intricate, difficult, and even inexpli- 
 cable, to another. But whatever our idea of simplicity may 
 be, or whatever the standard of it, this is certain, and indeed 
 obvious to any one who will reflect for a moment, that the 
 " organ question" has nothing to do with it ; unless it be in 
 helping to attain simplicity, and all other essential qualities 
 of good Church music. All persons who have paid attention 
 to this or to any other form of art, will acknowledge that 
 real simplicity is attainable only through cultivation ; and 
 that the bawlings and screamings of untutored ignorance, 
 inaccurate in tune and tune, deformed by bad taste, and 
 confounded with discords meant for harmony, exhibit not a 
 genuine simplicity, but only a rude vulgarity. Such praise 
 may indeed proceed from sincere and earnest hearts ; those 
 uncouth sounds may express profound religious emotions ; 
 but it must be confessed that the emotions owe nothing to 
 the music ; the vehicle is rather an obstruction than a help — 
 and indeed, when we remember the words which are sung, 
 such singing can only be considered a kind of desecration. 
 
118 THE PRAISE OF GOD. 
 
 If the use of the organ be a help toward correctness and 
 good taste, it will so far conduce to simplicity and every other 
 desirable quality. The simplest psalmody in the world is to 
 be heard in that country where music is most generally and 
 profoundly studied. 
 
 According to that German method, which Carl Engel has 
 so ably and learnedly expounded in his excellent work on 
 Church music, the whole people sing in unison^ with the accom- 
 paniment of the organ, which supplies the harmony. I once 
 heard a hymn sung in this manner in the cathedral at Cologne, 
 and it appeared to me for solemnity, sweetness, and simplicity, 
 the perfection of congregational nmsic. 
 
 Music should be reckoned an essential part of clerical 
 education, so that the minister may be qualified to judge what 
 kind of airs, and what arrangements of them, etc., are proper 
 to be used in Church, and so prevent the use of what is trashy 
 and unsuitable. A great deal of our pretended sim]plicity 
 consists in singing very miserable music in a wretched manner. 
 In this respect we have degenerated since the Eeformation, 
 when a severe but true taste existed in church music. 
 
 III. That the early Christians had no musical instru- 
 ments in their churches is certainly true, for they had no 
 churches. Accordingly, the word ixxXr,ffia is never in the 
 New Testament applied to a building or house, but always to 
 the congregation or society. And, so far as I can find, it was 
 not till the times of Constantino and Eusebius, that the word 
 came to be generally employed in the former sense. Indeed, 
 the ancient Church authors (Eusebius, Chrysostom, Theodoret, 
 etc.) all speak of the general erection of churches as charac- 
 teristic of tlie period when persecution had ceased, and the 
 Christians had liberty and encouragement openly to profess 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 119 
 
 their religion, and publicly to celebrate its rites. It may- 
 be true, that in private houses or other places where they 
 were accustomed to assemble for worship, those early saints 
 used no instrument but their own voices. The persecutions 
 which they often suffered, and the insecurity from which till 
 the reign of Constantine they were never fairly relieved, 
 render it probable that such was the case ; but this, even if 
 ascertained, would form no good argument against the use of 
 such instruments by us, for whom God has provided in this 
 world some better thing than fell to their lot. Else we 
 might raise a scruple even against the building of churches, 
 because they had none. The great mass of Christians at the 
 present day who approve and employ musical instruments in 
 public worship, use none in their private and domestic wor- 
 ship ; because, in the latter, it may not be had, or may not be 
 had without inconvenience. So, if it could be proved that 
 the disciples of Christ in the first three centuries made no 
 use, in their public assemblies, of the psaltery and the harp 
 and the loud sounding cymbals, which are so familiarly 
 named in those Psalms which they constantly repeated, it 
 would establish nothing more than this, that it was not con- 
 venient or suitable in their circumstances to employ such aids. 
 It is a rash inference to conclude, that because something was 
 not judged expedient in the infancy of the Church, and in 
 times of persecution and danger, it must therefore be held 
 unlawful at all other times, and under all circumstances, how- 
 ever different. The Old Testament furnishes an unquestion- 
 able refutation of such argument, plausible as it may appear. 
 In the Pentateuch is contained an account of the public 
 worship of the Israelites as enacted and regulated, down to 
 the minutest details, under the immediate authority of 
 Jehovah. No mention is made of nmsical instruments ; and 
 
120 THE PRAISE OF GOD. 
 
 doubtless none such were then used. How plausibly might 
 it be argued that, as none such were appointed by him who 
 ordered " all things according to the pattern showed to him in 
 the mount," therefore all such were forbidden ; and were thus 
 forbidden because not according to the divine will ; for 
 musical instruments had been invented long before, and were 
 in those times familiarly known and employed (Exod. xv. 20). 
 And yet, at a subsequent period, under the same dispensation 
 of religion, and the same ritual and worship continuing, we 
 find an elaborate system of choral singing instituted, and 
 musical instruments of various kinds freely employed ; and 
 this is expressly said to have been done under the sanction of 
 men divinely commissioned and instructed to that effect — 
 " for so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets. 
 And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and 
 the priests with the trumpets : and when the burnt-offering 
 began, the song of the Lord began with the trumpets, and 
 with the instruments appointed by David, king of Israel. 
 And aU the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, 
 and the trumpets sounded" (2 Chron. xxix. 26, etc.) 
 
 IV. That instrumental music had a divine sanction under 
 the former dispensation cannot, of course, be denied ; but the 
 inference deducible from it is attempted to be set aside by 
 alleging that this was part of that ceremonial and typical 
 system which was abolished by the coming of our Lord, in 
 whom all types were abolished by their fulfilment. "Will 
 any one attempt to show," asks a writer on this subject, " that 
 such instruments were not part of that economy whose meagre 
 types and dim shadows were for ever abrogated by God in 
 the llesh, to make way for the spiritual glories of the New 
 Testament dispensation?" I certainly will attempt to show 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 121 
 
 this — and, unless I much mistake, it will be very easy to 
 succeed in the attempt. 
 
 In the first place, the use of instrumental music, or of any 
 music at all, is no part or element of that Levitical institution 
 which was established by Moses, and which was " a shadow 
 of good things to come." Neither instruments of music, nor 
 any thing connected with music of any kind, were among 
 those "things seen in the mount, according to the pattern" 
 of which the tabernacle and its furniture, its rites and 
 ordinances, were to be ordered and fashioned. So far from it, 
 they are never heard of till the times of the kings, when the 
 people having attained some measure of civilization, and the 
 cultivation of their minds having now qualified them to use 
 and appreciate, and even demand a more refined and perfect 
 method of offering up the spiritual sacrifices of praise and 
 prayer, choral singing and musical instruments, both alike 
 unknown to the Levitical law, were introduced ; and, as being 
 suitable to then existing circumstances, and conducive to the 
 great ends of divine worship, these innovations received the 
 approbation of the Almighty King — though no such inventions 
 or regulations had formed any parts of the "statutes and 
 judgments which the Lord gave by the hand of Moses." 
 
 Secondly, Several regulations and some institutions, 
 suggested by new circumstances, are mentioned in the Old 
 Testament as having been introduced after the times of 
 Moses ; but I am not aware that any of these have ever been 
 regarded as parts of the ceremonial or typical system of the Old 
 Testament ; and, accordingly, the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 from which we derive almost all our knowledge of the typical 
 meaning of the Old Testament rites, makes no allusion to any 
 such. The writer expounds, " as shadows of good things to 
 come," the Tabernacle and its furniture, its servants and their 
 
122 THE PRAISE OF GOD. 
 
 offerings and services ; but it never occurs to him that any- 
 thing is typical, or indeed belongs properly to the Levitical 
 dispensation, except what had been ordained and established 
 by the great prophet "who saw God face to face ;" and there- 
 fore he never hints or imagines that any thing else was 
 fulfilled in Christ, or is abrogated by his coming. 
 
 Thirdly, It is not easy to understand what may be meant 
 by those who talk of the timbrel, the harp, the trumpet, the 
 psaltery, or the pipe (Ps. cxlix., cL), as types, or as parts of a 
 typical system. By a type we commonly understand some 
 institution or action which shall exhibit, in a lower form, the 
 resemblance or image of something else to be exhibited in a 
 higher form, and of which it is intended to suggest the con- 
 ception, the desire, and the hope — thus " going," like John 
 the Baptist, " before the face of the Lord to prepare his way." 
 Thus the lustrations and washings, the offerings of bulls and 
 goats, etc., were all premonitory of that spiritual sacrifice to 
 be presented in the fulness of time by him " who put away 
 sin by the sacrifice of himself;" and who, being holy, harm- 
 less, undefiled, entered once for all into the holiest places, 
 whither we are commanded to follow him, " presenting our 
 bodies living sacrifices in the power of the Eternal Spirit." 
 The type is thus merely a lower form of the antitype, which 
 latter exhibits the same thing, accomplished in the Spirit, 
 which before was set forth in the flesh. But how the musi- 
 cal instruments employed in the Temple should be types, 
 or what they may have stood related to as their antitypes or 
 fulfilments, I neither know nor can imagine, nor has any 
 word been written by those who were bound to do so, to cast 
 light upon this strange conception. 
 
 We are taught in the New Testament that the sacrifices, 
 offerings, priests, etc., of the Old Testament were typical and 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 123 
 
 " shadows of good things to come ; " but no hint is given that 
 the choruses of singers, or the instruments they used, were 
 typical or shadows of anything under the New Testament. 
 This seems evident, that if their harps and psalteries were 
 typical, so must their voices have been ; for both were used for 
 the same purposes, and in the same exercise. 
 
 That the Christian Church was modelled not after the 
 Temple but after the Synagogue, may be true, and yet it is 
 nothing to our present purpose ; for — 
 
 1. It cannot (I believe) be proved that so early as the 
 beginning of the New Testament period singing was used in 
 the Synagogues at all. 
 
 2. Singing can hardly be said to be used now, or to have 
 been at any time in the Synagogues. Their cantillating much 
 more resembles intoning than singing, as we understand and 
 practise it. 
 
 3. The Synagogue (so far as we know) was altogether a 
 human invention, though undoubtedly a very useful one, and 
 in the most ancient times was intended chiefly, if not exclu- 
 sively, for reading the Parashioth^ and afterwards the Haph- 
 taroth — the Sections of the Law and of the Prophets. If so — 
 
 The Synagogue and its usages can have no authority in 
 the Christian Church, except in so far as we may think fit 
 to copy them : they themselves, from all we can learn, had 
 no authority except their utility. And — 
 
 The Synagogue was only, in the first instance at least, a 
 help to those who had not a temple. So that upon the whole — 
 
 The fact remains undeniable that the only worship which 
 is said to have had an express divine authority , employed all 
 the instruments of music then known. 
 
 The absence of instrumental music in the primitive 
 Christian Churches no more proves that it was in itself un- 
 
124 THE PRAISE OF GOD. 
 
 lawful, or should remain always inexpedient, than the absence 
 of it in the Tabernacle shews that it was in itself prohibited 
 at a later period ; for we know that it was actually introduced 
 and sanctioned, under the Old Testament dispensation, "accord- 
 ing to the commandment of the Lord by his prophets." 
 
 We have in the Old Testament the names of various 
 instruments of music ; for example, the Kinnur and the Ncbel, 
 the TJgab or Symphonia, the Clmlil, and several more ; and 
 we know very little of them except this, that some were 
 stringed and others wind instruments, and that they were, and 
 must have been, very rude and imperfect. Had any mystery 
 lurked under their construction or use, some explanation, or 
 at least some hint, of the fact would doubtless have been 
 supplied by some one, at least, of the sacred writers either of 
 the Old Testament or of the New ; but none such is found. 
 
 Prayer to God, and praise, were the same things in the 
 Jewish as they are in the Christian Church. We sing the 
 very same Psalms which Asaph and David composed for, and 
 sung with, the harp, the psaltery, and the organ, and which 
 are frequently directed to be so sung, not only in the titles, 
 but sometimes in the body of the Psalms themselves (Pss. 
 cxlix. and cl.) Wliy we should think it wrong to comply with 
 these directions, while yet we say or sing the directions 
 themselves, seems difficult to explain ; except on this principle, 
 that aU churches and sects have their superstitions, and that 
 among the silliest superstitions is to be reckoned the fear of 
 superstition ; while one of the commonest forms of fanaticism 
 is hatred of those superstitions which happen to be contrary 
 to our own. 
 
 Here I must note a singular unfairness with which those 
 men are chargeable of whose views I am now speaking. 
 When the question is respecting the Christian Sabbath, the 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 125 
 
 baptism of infants, a Church establishment, or any of those 
 things which they advocate, but of which the New Testament 
 says nothing, or even appears, by silence, to discredit them, 
 they eagerly fly to the Old Testament. Koio it is enough for 
 them that infants were circumcised under the law ; that the 
 fourth commandment was inscribed upon the tables of stone 
 by the finger of God ; that among the Jews a Church estab- 
 lishment had divine sanction, etc. etc. But when, with 
 much plainer reason, we quote the Old Testament to justify 
 our employing musical instruments in our Church ser\ice, we 
 are told that the Old Testament is a heap of ceremonies and 
 symbols, and, in short, that it can prove notliing in such 
 matters. It is not decent thus to bring in the Law and the 
 Prophets when we need them against our adversaries, and to 
 throw them out the moment our adversaries may employ them 
 against ourselves. 
 
 But we must not take it for granted that the New Testa- 
 ment contains no allusion to instruments of music in the 
 worship of God. Not to mention that the word psalm, both 
 in the Greek of the New Testament and in the Hebrew of the 
 Old, means something to be sung to the harp or other instru- 
 ment (-vj^aX/xoc, and "liCiTp, from iipr, to touch or twang the 
 chords), John the Theologos saw, in the Apocalypse, the four 
 and twenty elders " having every one of them harps ; and he 
 beheld them that had gotten the victory, standing upon the 
 sea of glass, having the harps of God, and they sing the song 
 of Moses and the song of the Lamb" (ch. v. and xv.) 
 Whether these descriptions apply to the Church triumphant 
 in heaven, or victorious over its enemies upon earth, the 
 conclusion is the same — that in the mind of the Tlieologos, in- 
 struments of music were inseparably associated with the 
 worship of God under the Christian dispensation, in its liighest 
 
126 THE PRAISE OF GOD. 
 
 glory and most spiritual exercises. Indeed, such prohibitions 
 as some men dream of are alien from the spirit of the New 
 Testament, as they are not to be found in the letter of the 
 Christian Scriptures. They are the offspring of those narrow 
 bigotries which have often been mistaken for purity or zeal — 
 a shallow purity of that ancient type — " touch not, taste not, 
 handle not," and a zeal, though often great, never " according 
 to knowledge." 
 
 V. If we may judge by the frequency with which it is re- 
 peated, the following argument appears much to please those 
 who would prove from Scripture that instruments of music 
 should not be employed in the worship of God. '' The same 
 reasons," they say, " which are adduced from the Old Testa- 
 ment to justify the use of musical instruments in the 
 Christian Church, would also sanction dancing ; because the 
 Jews praised God *with the timbrel and dance^ as well as 
 * with stringed instruments and organs' (Ps. cl.)" *' And 
 Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in 
 her hand ; and all the women went out after her with timbrels 
 and with dances" (Exod. xv. 20). Many similar examples are 
 found in the Old Testament, generally of women — though 
 David also " danced before the Lord with all his might," when 
 the Ark was brought to Zion ; though we may gather from the 
 disgust of his wife that such exhibition was considered inde- 
 corous in men, at least in men of station (2 Sam. vi. 14, 20). 
 
 This objection, though much relied on, will be found on 
 examination to bo very weak; for — (1.) We are only in- 
 formed that the ancient Jews, in the excitement of their joy, 
 actually danced on certain special occasions, such as after 
 some great victory or some wonderful deliverance (Exod. xv. ; 
 Judg. xi. and xxi. ; 1 Sam. xviii.) ; but we never read that 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 127 
 
 dancing was any regular or ordinary part of their religious 
 worship. (2.) Accordingly, while we are told expressly that 
 the use of " cymbals, psalteries, and harps " in the temple- 
 worship was " according to the commandment of the Lord hy 
 his prophets " (2 Chron. xxix.), we have not a word to shew 
 that dancing enjoyed any divine sanction, or that any such 
 thing was ever admitted or thought of as part of that ritual. 
 Also, while "singers and players on instruments" are repeatedly 
 spoken of in connection with the temple-service, no mention 
 is ever made of dancers. " And David spake to the chief of 
 the Levites to appoint their brethren to be singers with instru- 
 ments of music, psalteries, and harps, and cymbals, sounding, 
 by lifting up the voice with joy" (1 Chron. xv. 10). " As well 
 the singers as the players on instruments shall be there : all 
 my springs are in thee " (Ps. Ixxxvii.) — but no hint that any of 
 the Levites were appointed to occupy the place of " dancers 
 before the Lord." The Seer of the Apocalypse also beholds 
 " the elders," and " them that had gotten the victory," with 
 ** the harps of God " (chap. v. and xv.) ; but he says nothing of 
 dancing; for no such thing was known in the temple-worship, 
 which forms the basis of his imagery. It is in vain, there- 
 fore, to pretend that dancing holds the same position in the 
 Old Testament ritual as the use of musical instruments. It 
 would be much more just to reason that instrumental has the 
 very same authority, in the Old Testament, as vocal music ; 
 and if playing on instruments be not sanctioned there, neither 
 is singing. This is the argument of the Quakers against 
 singing ; and it is far better founded than the other. " As to 
 their artificial music," says Eobert Barclay, " either by organs, 
 or other instruments, or voice, we have neither example nor 
 precept for it the New Testament." — (A2)ology for the True 
 Christian Divinity/, Prop. xi. sec. 26.) 
 
128 THE PRAISE OF GOD. 
 
 It will be quite evident to any one who looks at the 
 passages in which dancing is mentioned, that it was confined 
 to those religious processions which were common among the 
 Jews, as they were among all other ancient nations, and which 
 have been perpetuated in the worship of all those Christian 
 churches — both in the East and West — which have derived 
 their rites from antiquity. As we know nothing of 2>rocessions 
 in our worship, we want not only the occasion but the possi- 
 bility of any such manifestation of that religious emotion — 
 to which only the Jumpers and Shakers among Protestants 
 appear to have made any approximation. 
 
 But even though dancing had possessed for the ancient 
 people that sanction which it thus plainly appears to want — 
 this would not prove that we must adopt that custom as part 
 of our worship. It does not follow that we must imitate 
 their religious customs in every particular, hovever incon- 
 venient or unsuitable to our circumstances, or however repug- 
 nant to our ideas, feelings, and habits, because we follow them 
 in those particulars which appear to us convenient, comely, 
 and decorous, and so conducive to the great ends of worship. 
 We kneel and stand in our public devotions, as the ancient 
 Jews did, not simply, however, because they did so, but because 
 these postures express respect and reverence among us, as they 
 did among them ; but we do not, in our humiliation, cast our- 
 selves down with our faces upon the ground, or rend our gar- 
 ments in our affliction, or scatter dust upon our heads, or wallow 
 in the ashes, or walk barefoot with our heads covered. 
 
 In aU these cases, and in others which might be named, 
 we not only consider what was practised by the ancient Jews, 
 even under the sanction of Divine authority, but what may 
 be decent and reverent in us, in our different climate, with 
 our different institutions, customs, manners, and associations, 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 129 
 
 and national character ; lest what was calculated to excite 
 reverence and promote piety among a simple Oriental people, 
 three thousand years ago, should be found to produce not the 
 same, but rather opposite effects among us. And being now 
 both qualified to judge of all such matters (1 Cor. x. 15), and 
 commanded (Phil. iv. 8) to consider and determine for our- 
 selves what things are proper and decorous in our circumstances 
 (o(ra ciiLMCL raZra XoylZ^iek), we must not make ourselves the 
 slaves of Jewish customs or institutions, either in the way of 
 imitation or of avoidance : remembering that these things 
 belong not to the essence of religion, but are merely means 
 towards an end, and are therefore to be judged of, in all cases 
 and at all times, accordiug to their fitness for promoting that 
 end. So that, even if dancing had an express divine sanction, 
 as instrumental music had, under the old economy, we should 
 feel quite at liberty to reject the one and adopt the other, on 
 the ground of suitableness and propriety, according to our cir- 
 cumstances, customs, and ideas ; such freedom being no pre- 
 sumption, but rather the privilege and duty of the spiritual 
 man whom (1 Cor. ii. 15) the Son hath made free, so that he is 
 free indeed — o hs 'Trvsvfianxhg dvax^hsi (ih '^rdvra^ aurhg hi li^ ovdsvog 
 dvax^iveTai- 
 
 VI. The next argument, that " the human voice is God's 
 own instrument, and it is superior to any of man's invention ; 
 and we should serve our Maker with the best that we have ;" 
 is founded upon so gross a mistake, or rather, it involves so 
 many gross mistakes, that it perhaps hardly deserves notice 
 or refutation — 
 
 1. It assumes that the use of instrumental music implies 
 and necessitates the banishment or disuse of vocal music in 
 the worship of God, so that, hecav^e we have an organ or other 
 
 E 
 
130 THE PRAISE OF GOD. 
 
 instrument, we must therefore cease to sing ; as if the Psalmist 
 had uttered a contradiction, or recommended an absurdity, 
 when he said — '^ Let them sing praises unto him ivith the 
 timbrel and harpP (Ps. cxlix.) Whereas, every one knows 
 that the most perfect music, or all but the most perfect, and 
 certainly the best for public worship, is the result of a combi- 
 nation of instruments with the human voice ; and that the 
 very purpose for which instruments are advocated is to aid the 
 human voice, and enable it better to perform its part in 
 praising the Lord, instead of superseding it ; as says the sweet 
 singer of Israel — " Awake up, my glory (tongue) ; awake, 
 psaltery and harp." (Ps. Ivii) 
 
 2. What is meant by the assertion that " the human voice, 
 being God's own instrument, is superior to any of man's in- 
 vention?" Does it mean that any and every human voice is 
 superior to any or every musical instrument which human 
 ingenuity has ever contrived ? — that, for example, any single 
 human voice whatever is superior to any violin, or that a 
 number of human voices of any sort, singing, or attempting 
 to sing together, are superior to the organ in York Minster, or 
 to that which reigns in silent majesty in the Music Class- 
 room of the University of Edinburgh ? 
 
 Some one voice indeed — that of Lablache, Formes, 
 Pasta, or Catalani — may excel any single instrument of 
 man's device ; but that is a rare exception — one in a 
 hundred millions — and it reaches its perfection only through 
 a life-long cultivation. The caiiadty is a gift of Providence ; 
 the actual power and perfection, a work of art, and the result 
 of man's skill and labour. As wolves can howl, lions 
 roar, asses bray, serpents hiss, and monkeys chatter, so 
 man can make noises by nature ; but he can no more sing 
 than he can speak without education — imitation and training. 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 131 
 
 The Creator has conferred upon some men and women — 
 not upon all — the gifts of musical ear and voice ; but the 
 power to sing is as tmly a matter of science and art, as is 
 the construction of a piano, or of a harmonium, or the ability 
 to play upon such instruments. If singing were a divine 
 inspiration, and 'playing a work of the flesh, such objections 
 as we are considering would be intelligible ; but they appear 
 simple absurdities, if we remember that the two operations are 
 indeed two arts, both of which owe their origin and perfection 
 to human skill ; and that the one art is just as divine or 
 human — just as spiritual or carnal — as the other. 
 
 3. It is not denied that the human voice — that is, some 
 exceptional human voices — may reach a perfection unattainable 
 by any other instrument that has yet been produced by man's 
 ingenuity ; and that there may be combinations of voices 
 which shall produce effects surpassing any that are otherwise 
 attainable. But, as was said above, such results can never be 
 hoped for — are indeed impossible — in ordinary circumstances. 
 His holiness the Pope has the perfection of music in his 
 private chapel, and employs no organ — not because he is 
 oppressed with the miserable superstitions which still possess 
 some people among us on this point, but because his choristers 
 are so well selected, so elaborately educated, and so constantly 
 exercised, that they can dispense with any assistance. If each 
 of our congregations could afford to spend prodigious sums of 
 money, they might no doubt procure very fine vocal music, as 
 the Pope does by this means. 
 
 Our musical deficiencies, our general ignorance, want of 
 education, training, and taste, in this department of knowledge, 
 are the very circumstances which render the aid of an organ 
 or harmonium peculiarly necessary for us ; and it is in vain 
 to hope for any decided or solid improvement by other means. 
 
132 THE PRAISE OF GOD. 
 
 in the vast majority of cases. Even the Cathedral choirs in 
 England find it necessary or advantageous to use the organ 
 accompaniment in the whole, or nearly the whole, of their 
 service. 
 
 An objection has often been made to the use of the oi^an 
 — that it tends to make music too prominent and important 
 an element in religious worship — to exalt a means into an 
 end — to silence the congregation — and in some cases to turn 
 the Church into an opera-house. These are gxeat evils — and 
 they have often been committed both in the old world and 
 the new. Such scandals, however, have seldom, I believe, 
 resulted from the predominant or exclusive use of instru- 
 mental, as distinguished from vocal music. On the contrary, 
 it will be found that choirs may accomplish all the mischiefs 
 complained of, quite as effectually as organs — or perhaps even 
 more so. But this is only to say, that the most useful things 
 and the best may be, and often are, abused. But as we do 
 not propose to banish learning and eloquence because some 
 men have perverted them to unhallowed ends ; or to dispense 
 with prayer, preaching, and sacraments, because these ordi- 
 nances have frequently been abused to pui-poses of supersti- 
 tion ; so we shall display only ignorance and folly if we shall 
 deprive ourselves of a great aid in our religious worship be- 
 cause some of our brethren may have employed it injudi- 
 ciously and unwarrantably, so as to defeat rather than furtlier 
 the great object in view. To this danger man is constantly 
 exposed in all religious matters, and in many other things 
 besides religion. But the possibility of exciting the vanity of 
 clothing should not tempt us to strip either our persons or our 
 worship naked ; for clothing, which is conducive to decency 
 and health, may also be made subservient to grace and 
 beauty. 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 133 
 
 The purpose of music in the worship of God is to solemnize 
 our minds, and to give a loftier and more intense expression 
 to the thoughts and emotions which the words express. The 
 words, therefore, or rather that which is signified by the words, 
 must be considered the chief matter. Unless the music secure 
 that more perfect expression, it fails of its only end and pur- 
 pose, as a great deal of the singing heard in our churches 
 undoubtedly does ; so that it is worse than useless, it is in 
 some sort profane, as obstructing the very end for which it 
 is introduced. It does in one way what too elaborate and 
 artificial music may do in another — obscure or nullify the 
 sense of what is sung. It would be better in every point of 
 view to recite the Psalms than to sing them in that manner ; 
 and if it be wrong to sacrifice the words to even the sweetest 
 and grandest music, how much worse to sounds that can pro- 
 duce neither pleasure nor solemnity, nor anything but pain. 
 
 It is too evident that, in a large number of our churches, 
 we have no music that deserves the name, or that accom- 
 plishes, in any tolerable degree, the legitimate purposes of 
 music. For tliis only pretends to be a better, that is, a sweeter, 
 more solemn, more impressive, way of uttering certain words — 
 clothing the naked words in a garb oi feeling; for music is the 
 language of emotion : but when it is such as to form a worse 
 way, it should be disused ; for it is not an end but a means, 
 in itself not obligatory or desirable. We should therefore 
 resolve either to have such music as shall attain the legitimate 
 object aimed at, or to banish music as an obstacle to devotion, 
 a nuisance, and an indecorum. 
 
 I see no means of reaching our aim but by judiciously 
 employing instruments, if not to accompany the singing in 
 public worship, at least, in the first instance, to train choirs, and 
 through them (or with them) congregations, to bear a part in 
 
134 THE PRAISE OF GOD. 
 
 this exercise. It so happens that iii this country a knowledge 
 of music is not common among men, but is almost universal 
 among women of the higher and middle classes. So that 
 while it is often impossible to find in a country parish a com- 
 petent male precentor and teacher — for to be anything he must 
 be both — there is, perhaps, hardly any parish or congregation 
 which does not contain some female thoroughly qualified 
 to instruct the people to sing, and who would be not only 
 willing but delighted to make herself useful in thus contribut- 
 ing to the comfort and solemnity and beauty of the Church 
 service. But to do this she must use a harmonium. This 
 delightful instrument is admirably adapted for the purpose ; 
 and it is so cheap as to be within the reach of almost any 
 congregation. It is quite capable of rendering effectively any 
 music that can ever with propriety be introduced into presby- 
 terian worship, and is, when well played, a good precentor, 
 and an excellent substitute for that most noble and perfect of 
 instruments — the organ. By means of it a lady may train 
 first a few female voices to sing correctly and with good taste, 
 the Tnelody of some few psalm tunes ; and — with her instrument 
 to accompany them, to regulate the time, to keep them up, and 
 to supply the harmony — may produce real micsic where such 
 a thing never was heard before. Thus the minister's wife or 
 his daughter, or some other pious and accomplished lady, may 
 turn her laboriously acquired skill to the most valuable use — 
 may diffuse among the young a pleasing and refining taste, 
 and hallow it by association with the worship of God and the 
 comfort and edification of his people. 
 
 By this means the general want of musical taste and 
 knowledge which is characteristic of so many of our congre- 
 gations may be compensated, and many persons be made to 
 feel an interest in the worship of God who cither despise or 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 135 
 
 neglect it, or at least have too much temptation to exclaim, 
 " Wliat a weariness it is !" 
 
 " Blest pair of sirens, pledges of heaven's joy. 
 Sphere-bom harmonious sisters, voice and verse, 
 Wed your divine sounds, and mix'd power employ 
 Dead things with inbreathed sense able to pierce, 
 And to our high-raised phantasy present 
 That undisturbed song of pure concent, 
 Aye sung before the sapphire-colour'd throne, 
 To him that sits thereon, 
 With saintly shout, and solemn jubilee ; 
 Where the bright seraphim in burning row 
 Their loud up-lifted angel-trumpets blow. 
 And the cherubic host in thousand quires 
 Touch their immortal harps of golden wires, 
 With those just spirits that wear victorious palms, 
 Hymns devout and holy psalms. 
 Singing everlastingly ; 
 That we on earth Avith undiscording voice 
 May rightly answer that melodious noise. 
 O may we soon again renew that song, 
 And keep in tune with heaven, till God ere long 
 To his celestial concert us unite. 
 To live with him, and sing in endless mom of light." 
 
 After all, the great difficulty consists in the apathy and 
 the prejudices of many of the clergy, or in their weak timidity. 
 I am sorry to say this, but it had best be said ; for, though it 
 may be offensive to some of them, it is true. " They fear the 
 people," whom they fancy such innovations might offend and 
 drive out of the Church. No doubt it is possible to make the 
 greatest improvements in so injudicious a manner as to occa- 
 sion evils for which their accomplishment could never com- 
 pensate ; but my experience of the Scotch people has taught 
 me to conceive a very different idea of their intelligence and 
 
130 THE PRAISE OF GOD. 
 
 good sense from that which dictates such apprehensions. It 
 is, I suspect, very much with us at present as it was among 
 the Jews eighteen hundred years ago — the people " feared the 
 rulers," and " the rulers feared the people," and so they neu- 
 tralised and paralysed each other. I am strongly inclined to 
 think that any congregation in Scotland would be very soon 
 persuaded to tolerate, and presently to welcome, instrumental 
 music, or any other of the changes advocated in this essay, if 
 only the minister himself have a clear conviction, be a person 
 whom they respect, and have courage to state plainly his 
 opinion and the grounds of it ; and if he, at the same time, 
 show no disposition to thrust anything upon them contrary 
 to their wishes. The case is so clear that it wants only a 
 little good-tempered explanation to convince all those who are 
 not impenetrable to reason, that the feeling against the use of 
 an organ or harmonium in church has no foundation but 
 custom and senseless prejudice. A man must indeed be a 
 thorough simpleton, who, having the ear of the people from 
 week to week, and opportunity to reason with them, without 
 reply, fifty or a hundred times in the year, does not soon suc- 
 ceed in persuading them of anything that is in itself right, 
 reasonable, expedient, and necessary. Those who fail while 
 possessing such advantages should not blame the people, but 
 themselves. 
 
 In short, we shall never succeed in raising the Church of 
 Scotland above her present depressed condition by succumb- 
 ing to ignorant prejudice, or fostering and flattering the 
 narrow-minded bigotries which have descended to us from 
 rude, illiterate, and fanatical times. We have tried this too 
 long ; but we shall only fail more and more the longer we 
 persevere in it. Others will beat us in this wretched compe- 
 tition, do what we can. 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 137 
 
 Not to speak of duty, it is our evident policy, as an Estab- 
 lished Church, to throw aside such antiquated scrupulosities, 
 and rise above that miserable purity — " Touch not, taste not, 
 handle not." We must lean upon the people's growing know- 
 ledge and increasing liberality ; and we must, by all fair 
 means, study to promote these — for " knowledge is power :" 
 and " the wise man is strong ; yea, a man of knowledge in- 
 creaseth strength" (Prov. xxiv. 5). 
 
 The following passage is from Dr. Bushnell's Essay on 
 Eeligious Music, which has just been republished in this 
 country : — 
 
 " Some persons have a very decided prejudice against instruments 
 of music, and even fancy that, on that account, they are more spiritual 
 and more strictly Christian in their views of religion. Such a preju- 
 dice is greatly hurtful to themselves, because it takes them off in a 
 kind of schism from this part of the worship, and a share in its 
 benefits. Can they imagine that they are borne out in their prejudice 
 by the Scripture ? Or have they never read the Psalms of David ? 
 What instrument was there which he did not bring into the temple, 
 and command to open its voice unto God ? Even the trumpets, after 
 a week's battle, must come and change their note to an anthem of 
 victory. Imagine this great singer of Israel, and the vast company of 
 the Levites, hearing, for the first time, in the temple of God, a newly 
 invented organ, such as the instrument now perfected by modern art. 
 What emotions roll over his soul and the souls of his great choir of 
 performers ! No breath will blow ! No hand will strike the strings ! 
 All the instruments and voices are dumb ! He rises, when the experi- 
 ment is over, and goes forth, saying in himself, ' I will alter now my 
 Psalms, I will say no more of trumpets and comets, I will caU no 
 more for psalteries and instrimients of ten strings. Profane all these, 
 and trivial ! But this is the instrument of God !' And so, in fact, it 
 now is. The grandest of all instruments, it is, as it should be, the 
 instrument of religion. Profane uses cannot handle it. It will not go 
 to the battle, nor the dance, nor the serenade ; for it is the holy Naza- 
 rite, and cannot leave the courts of the Lord. Wliat room is there for 
 a reasonable prejudice against such an instriunent ? And if it be true, 
 
138 THE PRAISE OF GOD. 
 
 as I have been showing, that God has voiced the dead substances of the 
 world to sing his praise, if he has made the round earth and all things 
 in it to be an organ of sound about us, what should more delight us 
 than to bring into concert with our voices an instrument that is the 
 type of an appointment so sublime ? A true Christian feeling, it 
 seems to me, will ever turn thus to things without life giving soimd, 
 and hail their assistance in the praise of God ; finding half the 
 sublimity of praise in the concert of the inanimate works of the 
 Almighty Creator. It will even cry with David, to the fire and the 
 hail, snow and vapours, stormy wind fulfilling his word, mountains and 
 all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars, to join their voice with his and 
 praise the Lord. And what harm will it be if they join him in the 
 shape of an organ ? 
 
 " Let me also suggest, in this connection, the very great importance 
 of the cultivation of religious music. Every family should be trained 
 in it ; every Simday or common school should have it as one of its 
 exercises. The Moravians have it as a kind of ordinance of grace for 
 the children ; not without reason, for the powers of feeling and imagi- 
 nation, and the sense of spiritual realities, are developed as much by a 
 training of cliildhood in religious music, as by any other means. We 
 complain that choirs and organs take the music to themselves in our 
 churches, and that nothing is left to the people but to hear their 
 imdistinguishable piping, which no one else can join, or follow, or 
 interpret. This must always be the complaint, till the congregations 
 themselves have exercise enough in singing to make the performance 
 theirs. As soon as they are able to throw in masses of sound that are 
 not barbarous but Cliristian, and have a right enjopnent of their feel- 
 ing in it, they will have the tunes and the style of the exercise in their 
 own way, not before. Entering, one day, the great church of Jesus, in 
 Rome, when all the vast area of the pavement was covered with wor- 
 shippers on their knees, chanting in full voice, led by the organ, their 
 confession and penitence and praise to God, I was impressed, as never 
 before, with the essential sublimity of tins rite of worship, and I could 
 not but wish that our people were trained to a similar exercise. The 
 more sorrowful is it that, in our present defect of culture, there are so 
 many voices which are more incapable of the right distinctions of 
 sound, than things without life, and which, when they attempt to 
 sing, contribute more to the feeling of woe than of praise." 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 139 
 
 VII. The last objection, *' that the beautiful in nature and 
 art can never make man holy," is in a certain sense true ; but, 
 as applied to the present subject, it is so false, and even 
 so absurd, that I believe it is quite unnecessary to say 
 a word upon it in this place. This objection, though 
 not so intended, appears to me also to cany a deep reflection 
 upon the wisdom of God, as displayed in the constitution of 
 the world, as this is related to the capacities of the human 
 mind ; and also upon those arrangements for " glory and 
 beauty " which were made at the divine command under the 
 Law. " But all these were ceremonial and typical ! " Typical 
 of what ? Was the " glory" typical of meanness, and the beauty 
 of deformity and ugliness ? Surely glory and beauty should be 
 esteemed as possessing in themselves some excellence, and 
 we should believe that the lower forms of these are designed 
 to* raise our souls to higher forms and loftier manifestations of 
 the same — even to the beauty that is ineffable, and " the glory 
 that excelleth." 
 
 But if " the beautiful in nature and art can never make 
 man holy," are ugliness and meanness endowed with the 
 power of making him so ? The ignorance and rudeness of 
 barbarism have not hitherto been found conducive to that end ; 
 they have not anywhere proved " effectual means" or condi- 
 tions " of grace and salvation." On the contrary, it has passed 
 into a maxim that Christianity must " either find men ci\nl- 
 ized or it must make them so." Mean, filthy, and uncom- 
 fortable churches — such as were general in this countiy 
 not long ago — are not understood to have produced any 
 salutary effects upon the people's souls any more than upon 
 their bodies ; and the wild screaming, which was miscalled 
 music, did nothing towards bringing them into harmony with 
 Grod, their neighbour, or themselves ; and the general absence 
 
140 THE PRAISE OF GOD. 
 
 of external beauty in everything connected with the worship 
 had no influence in checking the deformity of sin and the 
 ugliness of vice. Art, which is the perception of the beauti- 
 ful in God's workmanship, and the attempt to copy it, indi- 
 cates and promotes civilization. It is a result and a cause of 
 refined perceptions, a proof that man is rising above mere 
 animalism, and soaring into the region of Ideas ; and it is also 
 a help towards his further elevation. Not only, therefore, 
 should it be esteemed a means towards those results which 
 Christianity contemplates, and which it alone can effectually 
 secure, but without such refining influences Christianity never 
 has produced its proper effects, and never can. This is, indeed, 
 the old question of the advantage and lawfulness of human 
 learning in one of its branches ; as if men would be better 
 Christians by knowing nothing but the Bible, than by being 
 made acquainted also with all those other works of God which 
 lie within our ken. This question is for ever settled in all those 
 minds, at least, which are capable of comprehending it. Aii; 
 may doubtless be used as the handmaid of religion, as all our 
 knowledge and acquisitions should be. We must make our 
 wealth and our possessions of every sort pay tribute to the 
 Heavenly King, under whose beneficent providence they are 
 enjoyed, and whose gifts and property they truly are. Like 
 the Jews, we must tithe all our riches and our spoils for the 
 service of the Tabernacle : " they all are thine ; and with thine 
 own serve we thee." 
 
 "But let my due feet never fail 
 To walk the studious cloister's pale, 
 And love the high einbowed roof, 
 With antique pillars massy proof, 
 And storied windows richly dight, 
 Casting a dim religious light. 
 
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 141 
 
 There let the pealing organ blow, 
 
 To the full voiced quire below, 
 
 In service high, and anthems clear, 
 
 As may with sweetness, through mine ear. 
 
 Dissolve me into ecstasies. 
 
 And bring all heaven before mine eyes." 
 
 I have endeavoured to argue this matter entirely upon its 
 own merits, and not at all as a question of authority. 
 
 A host of quotations, however, not only from Protestant 
 Eeformers, but from Fathers and even Schoolmen, have been 
 collected to show that the above practice is not allowable or 
 expedient in the Christian Church.* Whether those passages 
 really prove what they are designed to establish, I shall not 
 at present inquire ; I will only ask why the opinions of 
 Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine, Basil, and even Thomas 
 Aquinas, should be allowed to have weight on this particular, 
 by those who attach no importance to them upon other cir- 
 cumstances of Christian worship ? As to Luther, Calvin, and 
 the rest, whose judgments are quoted against the use of an 
 organ, it is sufficient to reply that all the Churches which 
 they founded, with one small and not very influential excep- 
 tion, have continued to employ musical instruments in wor- 
 shipping God ; so that the Protestant churches have treated 
 those scruples of the Eeformers as superstitions; and so have 
 shown that they were, like the psalmist, '* wiser than their 
 teachers." 
 
 To quote the opinions of the Fathers on this point is little 
 less absurd than it would be to appeal to their authority 
 respecting the merits of Mozart's Masses, or Handel's Orato- 
 
 * See ** Statement of the Proceedings of the Presbytery of Glasgow relative 
 to the use of an Organ in St Andrew's Church," Glasgow, 1808 ; and ** Letters 
 in reply on the Subject of the Organ, etc. " (said to be by Rev. Dr. Fleming of 
 Neilston), Glasgow, 1808. 
 
142 THE PRAISE OF GOD. 
 
 rios. The organ did not exist, and they could not judge or 
 anticipate what its character or effects or suitability, as an 
 aid to church singing, would be. 
 
 As to the authority of those doctors — whether Patristic, 
 Mediaeval, or Protestant — it is requisite we should under- 
 stand what it is worth, and how far it shall go. Shall it 
 determine the question of liturgies, and the other matters 
 here discussed, or shall it be pleaded on that one point only 
 wherein their opinion or superstition chances to coincide, if 
 really it does coincide, with ours ? The Greek Church shall 
 have authority with us in standing at prayer, and Basil and 
 Jerome in disliking instrumental music — but why should their 
 authority be restricted to these points ? If it be good for any 
 thing, it must be good for a great deal more. Unhappily, 
 however, we take those Fathers as our guides and teachers 
 only where they happen to be wrong, being oppressed with 
 the same weak scruples as ourselves. 
 
 This shows, however, that we should be just as ready as 
 our adversaries to make the Fathers our oracles, if we found 
 them upon our side ; but we depreciate them, " and embase 
 their authority," as Lord Bacon phrases it, because in general 
 they are against us. 
 
CHAPTEK X. 
 
 PSALMS AND HYMNS. 
 
 And when the burnt-offering began, the song of the Lord began also with 
 trumpets, and with the instruments ordained by David king of Israel. 
 And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the 
 trumpets sounded. . . . Moreover, Hezekiah the king and the princes 
 commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of 
 David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, 
 and they bowed their heads and worshipped. — 2 Chron. xxix. 
 
 The other question, indicated at the beginning of the last 
 chapter, remains to be considered — What should be sung in 
 church ? What words, or what compositions should be used 
 as Psalms or Hymns in the worship of God ? 
 
 This is a point of great importance, and one respecting 
 which there are so great differences of opinion, that it would 
 require a much fuller consideration than can be given it in 
 this place. 
 
 There is a great demand in most churches, in recent 
 times, for Hymns. This feeling has manifested itself in 
 various ways ; and many attempts have been made to satisfy 
 it, though I may venture to say that few of these can be 
 reckoned successful. Our " Paraphrases" may be mentioned 
 among these attempts — and they show how ill the authors 
 and compilers understood what was required. Perhaps the 
 greater part of the Hymns which have been introduced at 
 a later period in different churches prove, in like manner, 
 
144 PSALMS AND HYlVfNS. 
 
 that the nature and purpose of this kind of composition were 
 only imperfectly apprehended. 
 
 Those who call for a great number and variety of Hymns, 
 seem to be moved by a desire that the Church should have 
 the means of expressing all the varieties of Christian doctrine 
 and duty in verse — of singing the substance, at least, of each 
 sermon at the end of it. This is thought to be an appropriate 
 conclusion to the discourse. It implies, however, two condi- 
 tions — first, a very extensive collection of Hymns ; and second, 
 that the Hynms be didactic, historical, instructive — in short, 
 themselves little sermons^ differing from the long ones cliiefly 
 in being composed in rhyme. It is surely obvious that this 
 view is quite a mistake ; and yet it has been very generally 
 entertained, and frequently acted on. For example — 
 
 It cannot be denied that many of our Paraphrases are 
 beautiful ; but they are in general quite unsuitable for wor- 
 ship. Several of them are history turned into metre (i. xxxv. 
 xxxvii. xxxviii. etc.) Many others are moral discourses — 
 reasonings of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to 
 come (x. xii. xvii. xxi. etc.) Some are doctrinal discussions 
 (xlvi. xlvii.); or prophetical warnings and denunciations (Ixii.) ; 
 one at least is a poetical version of a parable (xl.) ; and very 
 few, indeed, are what everything that is sung in Church should 
 be — acts oj worship, i.e., of adoration, praise, blessing, depend- 
 ence, humiliation, and the like — addressed to God. Of these 
 few, however, two (ii. Ix., and perhaps also Ixi.) may be reckoned 
 perfect Hymns. Two- thirds of the Paraphrases should never 
 be sung in Church, and an accurate appreciation of the nature 
 and means of worship would exclude more than three-fourths 
 of them. However good, or even excellent, they may be, in 
 some regards, a great majority of them do not possess the 
 qualities of Christian Psalms. 
 
PSALMS AND IH'MNS. 145 
 
 The Psalter contains, by univei-sal consent, the noblest 
 poetry, the sublimest devotion : nothing equal to it in these 
 respects ever has been written, or ever will be ; and no lan- 
 guage can be found so proper to be employed in praising and 
 blessmg the Lord, who is our Shepherd Its long consecra- 
 tion also to tliis use — not only in the Christian Church, but 
 many centuries before — among the ancient people, whose in- 
 spired bards and prophets composed those odes, as they were 
 moved by the Holy Spirit, gives to the Psalms a solemnity 
 and a power to touch our hearts and raise our souls to heaven 
 which no other compositions can pretend to equaL Our own 
 version in metre, though sometimes rugged, and occasionally 
 sinking to doggrel, is, upon the whole, faithful, \agorous, and 
 good — equal, if not superior (I believe), to any other ; while 
 it almost never fails to render well those psalms which in 
 themselves are of the highest character as compositions, and 
 best adapted for the service of song in the Church of the New 
 Testament. 
 
 It ought, however, to be very evident, that as all portions 
 of this collection are not of one character, so all are not equally 
 suitable for Christian psalmody, as, indeed, there is no proof 
 or likelihood that all of them were intended to be sung, or 
 ever were sung, in the Temple, or elsewhere, among the Jews 
 themselves. As some things were " said to them of old time" 
 which have been superseded by higher things said to us, so 
 many words may have been spoken by them of old time, even 
 in their most solemn addresses to the Almighty, which are no 
 longer appropriate in our mouths, who are grown " to the 
 stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus." " When I was a 
 child I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I reasoned as a 
 child ; but when I became a man, I put away the things of 
 the child." 
 
 L 
 
14G PSALMS AND HYMNS. 
 
 Not for this reason only — that many of these divine odes 
 breathe rather the spirit of the law than of the Gospel — but 
 because a considerable number of them are historical, moral, 
 and didactic, it seems evidently proper that a selection should 
 be made, from which all those psalms and portions of psalms 
 should be excluded, which, either for the reasons now men- 
 tioned, or for other good reasons, shall appear less suitable as 
 vehicles of Christian worship. A rich abundance and an ample 
 variety will remain. These portions should be carefully ar- 
 ranged in lengths proper for singing, and care should be taken 
 that an appropriate tune should be sung to each, and that the 
 same tune should be always sung to the same words. In 
 this way hallowed associations are created and intensified in 
 the minds of the worsliippers. 
 
 On the other hand, those psalms which are of a moral and 
 didactic character should be employed accordingly — i. e., in- 
 stead of being sung, as if they were addresses by us to God, 
 they should be read as lessons, i. e., as words of warning, re- 
 proof, encouragement, instruction, addressed by God to us, 
 which they are. When we use them otherwise, we do indeed 
 abuse them. » 
 
 But we should serve ourselves of the ^>?'osc Psalms also iii 
 our public worship ; selections from which, on the principle 
 stated above, should be made and carefully arranged accord- 
 ing to the parallelism, or rather the responsive construction of 
 the composition. The real characteristic of Hebrew poetry, I 
 am persuaded, is not j^ciralkiisviy but respo7ise. These Psalms 
 should be chanted, where it can be done, which is not easy 
 or even very practicable without the help of an instrument. 
 AVhere they cannot as yet be chanted they may be said — 
 if this be judged not too great a departure from established 
 custom — the minister repeating the former or initial clause 
 
PSALMS AND HYMNS. 147 
 
 of the verse, and the people answering in the parallel or 
 responsive clause. The structure of the Psalms appears 
 clearly to indicate that they were intended to be used in 
 this manner; and unless we advert to this we always lose 
 somewhat, and often a great deal, of their beauty. For 
 example — 
 
 Vers. — God be merciful unto us and bless us ; 
 Rcsp. — And caiose his face to shine upon its. 
 
 That thy way may be known upon earth ; 
 
 Thy saving health among all nations. 
 
 Let the people praise thee, God ; 
 
 Let all the people praise thee. 
 
 let the nations be glad and sing for joy ; 
 
 For thou shall judge the people righteously, and 
 govern the nations upon earth. 
 
 Let the people praise thee, O God ; 
 
 Let all the people praise thee. 
 
 The earth shall yield her increase ; 
 
 Godf our oum God, shall bless tos. 
 
 God shall bless us ; 
 
 And all the ends of the earth shall fear him. 
 
 Ps. Ixvii. 
 
 We cannot account for this peculiar mode of poetical com- 
 position, according to which the second clause or verse of the 
 distich uniformly repeats the first, except by supposing that 
 it is a response on the part of another person, or number of 
 persons, possessed with the same feelings, and re-echoing, yet 
 with variety, generally in the way of climax, the same 
 sentiments. 
 
 If we will listen to two persons earnestly talking together 
 upon some subject in which both are deeply interested, and 
 
148 PSALMS A^^D HYMNS. 
 
 respecting wliich they agree, we shall (I imagine) find not 
 only an illustration but an explanation of that peculiar mode 
 of composition which not only distinguishes the Psalms, but 
 characterises in some degree all Hebrew composition. The 
 first speaker utters a sentence, to which the second responds 
 in substantially the same sense, but always labouring to 
 express it with some variety of phrase, some amplification, 
 some circumstance additional or transcending that expressed 
 by the former interlocutor. By this natural device the 
 ancient prophets and psalmists " stirred up their souls, and 
 all that w^as within them, to praise and bless God's holy 
 name." Upon this, too, is founded that antiplwnal method of 
 singing or saying the Psalms introduced first, it is said, by St. 
 Basil, and generally practised in the ancient Church, whence 
 it has been derived to the Church of England : by all of 
 whom, however, it is imperfectly, because uncriticalhj done ; 
 no account being taken of the sense or composition of the 
 Psalm, except so far as one verse may happen to be the re- 
 sponse of the former, which it seldom is, and only accidentally. 
 Their mode of chanting the Psalms also appears to be 
 censurable ; because, how^ever beautiful it may be, it fre- 
 quently sacrifices the w^ords to the necessities of the music. 
 According to the theory, I am aware, the first or chanting 
 note should always be so prolonged as to allow time for all 
 the syllables belonging to it to be distinctly pronounced, yet, 
 according to their custom of dividing every verse, however 
 long it may be, into two lines, so many words sometimes require 
 to be included under that note, that they are run together in 
 such a way as to confound them, and to render them inaudible, 
 or at least unintelligible ; while prepositions, conjunctions, and 
 other less important words are sung fully, and even sometimes 
 divided and prolonged into two notes. Now, no system of 
 
PSALMS AND HYMNS. 149 
 
 singing sliould be tolerated in the worship of God, which does 
 not make music completely subservient to the sense of that 
 which is sung ; its legitimate end being only this — to give to 
 the language a more intense, noble, impressive, and affecting 
 expression. I add nothing here respecting their custom of 
 singing or reciting all the psalms, and all parts of each indis- 
 criminately ; which, surely, is . a very grave error ; and was 
 one of the objections which the Puritans, in the time of 
 Elizabeth, made, and with obvious reason, to the Psalter as 
 employed in the Episcopal Church. In both these respects 
 we may much improve upon the practice of the Catholic 
 Church. 
 
 But there is no reason wdiy we should seek our hymns 
 and psalms only in that collection which is styled the Psalter, 
 or " The Psalms." Many of the noblest specimens of Hebrew 
 poetry, and those best adapted in every respect for Christian 
 worship, are to be found in other parts of the Old Testament, 
 especially in the prophets ; and some also, besides the Bene- 
 dictus, the Nunc Dimittis, and the Magnificat, in the New 
 Testament. For example — 
 
 Lord, I will praise thee, though thou wast angry with 
 
 me : 
 Thine anger is turned away, and thou didst comfort me. 
 Behold, God is my salvation ; 
 / will trust and not he afraid ; 
 The Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song ; 
 He also is hecome my salvation. 
 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water — 
 Out of the wells of salvation. 
 Praise ye the Lord, 
 Call upon his name : 
 
150 PSALMS AND HYMNS. 
 
 Declare his doings among the people, 
 Make oiicntion that his name is exalted. 
 Sing unto the Lord, for he hath done excellent things ; 
 This is known in all the earth. 
 Cry aloud and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion ; 
 For great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. 
 
 Is. xii. 
 
 In the same book are several others, equally lofty in 
 matter and tone, and equally suitable, from the truly Christian 
 spirit which pervades them, for the service of the New Testa- 
 ment Church : such are ch. ix. 2-7; ch. xxv. 1-9; ch. xxvi. 1-8; 
 ch. li. 9-11 ; ch. lii. 1-8 ; ch. Ixi. 10, 11 ; ch. Ixiii. 7, 8, 9, 15, 16 ; 
 ch. Ixiv. 1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 12. 
 
 In Daniel and Nehemiah, also, are some solemn and noble 
 prayers and psalms. What can be more perfect as an act of 
 praise than the following : — 
 
 Thou, even thou, art Lord alone : 
 
 Thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all 
 
 their hosts : 
 The earth and all that is therein, 
 The seas and all that is therein. 
 And thou preservest them all ; 
 And the host of heaven worshippeth thee." 
 
 Neh. ix. G. 
 
 Surely it is a strange blindness that we have overlooked 
 such words as these, furnished to us by the Spirit of God, or 
 have dressed them up in the gaudy tinsel of our paltry rhymes, 
 and deformed them with our vulgar paraphrases and additions. 
 Such proceeding betrays, if not a great want of reverence, at 
 least a deplorable absence of taste. 
 
 rerhai)s tlie grandest Psalm in the whole Bible is that 
 
PSALMS AND HYMNS. 151 
 
 glorious passage which concludes the 8th chapter of the Epistle 
 to the Eomans, and wliich, though in outward form it may- 
 appear didactic, is truly and eminently poetical, and even 
 intensely lyrical in its spirit, so that it may be considered not 
 only a Psalm, but the Psalmus Psahurrum of the Gospel 
 dispensation. 
 
 If God be for us, 
 
 Who can he against its / 
 
 He that spared not his o^vn Son, but delivered him up 
 
 for us all. 
 How shall he not with him also freely give lis all things ! 
 Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? 
 It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth / 
 It is Christ that died. 
 Yea, ratluTj that is risen again ; 
 Who is even at the right hand of God, 
 Who also maketh intercession foi" ics, etc. etc. 
 
 Eom. viii. 31-39. 
 
 May we not exclaim, with the great Doctor and Preacher 
 of the Eastern Church, " What lips of Seraphim ever spake 
 such words as these ? " and we leave them all unsung, and 
 betake ourselves to modern, sentimental, puling hymns ! We 
 have, it is true, a Paraphrase upon this sublime lyric ; but 
 it requires neither paraphrase nor metaphrase, nor does it 
 admit such without being destroyed ; it is polluted by tawdry 
 ornament and \T.ilgar finery, such as " days of darkness fall ;" 
 " time's destroying sway ;" '*the sacred chain that binds the 
 earth to heaven above ;" and such miserable stuff. 
 
 A hardly less noble ode is that contained in Heb. xii. 18, 
 19, 22, 23, 24'. We have only to change the second person 
 into the first, to render this a perfect Psalm, even in form, as 
 
152 PSALMS AND HYMNS. 
 
 it already is in all but form ; and like all the poetry of both 
 Testaments, it falls naturally into the responsive form of 
 composition. 
 
 We are come unto ]\Iount Zion, 
 And unto the city of tJie living Gody — 
 The heavenly Jerusalem ; 
 A7id to an innumerable companTj of angels, 
 To the General Assembly and Church of the fust-born, 
 Which arc written in heaven. 
 And to God the judge of all, 
 And to the spirits of just men made perfect ; 
 And to Jesus, the ^lediator of the New Covenant, 
 And to the hlood of sprinhling that spcaketh better things 
 than that of Abel. 
 
 Not to mention several passages of similar character in 
 tlie Apocalypse, the 15th chapter of the 1st Epistle to the 
 Corinthians contains more than one example of the same ; 
 for instance, ver. 20 to 26 inclusive, and especially, ver. 51 to 
 the end. 
 
 "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed ;" 
 ending with these solemn strains, which should thrill every 
 Christian heart. 
 
 Death, where is thy sting ? 
 
 Grave, where is thy victory ? 
 
 The sting of death is sin, 
 
 And the strength of sin is the law, — 
 
 But thanks be unto God, 
 
 That givcth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 No doubt these passages are parts of epistles which deal 
 with matters explanatory, hortatory, didactic, and practical. 
 
PSALMS AND HYMNS. 153 
 
 But they are not the less true poetry and real psalms. For 
 intense emotion always rises into poetry, at least in essence ; 
 and such is the fashion of Hebrew composition, which largely 
 influences the New Testament also, that the divine fervour of 
 the apostolic Spirit utters its oracles in the very form of 
 psalmody ; as the sermons of Isaiah and the ancient pro- 
 phets also do : their prophecies, or rather sermons, are indeed 
 poems ; as much lyrics^ even in form, as any of those compre- 
 hended in the Psalter. 
 
 To express my own opinion freely, I do not see any neces- 
 sity or much advantage in going beyond the Scriptures them- 
 selves for our psalms and hymns. If we only know how to 
 adapt and use them, the contents of the Old and New Testa- 
 ment are abundantly sufficient for expressing every feeling of 
 faith, hope, love, patience, submission, and every holy aspira- 
 tion which we should seek to express and cherish in our songs 
 of praise. No words are so appropriate, so solemn, so beau- 
 tiful or so touching as the words of Holy Writ. Even if other 
 expressions, equally good and suitable in themselves, could 
 be found, none other can ever possess the same power to 
 move our hearts, for none other can ever come to us charged 
 with the same associations. 
 
 Many of the hymns which are current among different 
 churches appear to me good, and some beautiful in them- 
 selves, and in a certain point of view. For some uses they 
 may be well adapted ; but for the use of public worship, I 
 doubt if the most diligent search could discover a score of 
 really excellent modern hymns in the English language. 
 A committee of the General Assembly has sat many years, 
 and has collected a considerable number of hymns — the best 
 they could find after diligent and extensive inquiries. As a 
 member of that committee, I so far approve of the collection 
 
154 PSALMS AND HYMNS. 
 
 as to think that most of the compositions included in it are 
 good in some points of vieiv, and some are excellent in ever}^ 
 point of view ; such as the metrical version of the Te Deum 
 (xlii.), which is by a minister of the Church of Scotland, and 
 is really admirable, with the small exception of one very 
 feeble line. 
 
 But the pivse psalms contain the best materials for wor- 
 ship : they furnish the true basis of the Christian Liturgy, 
 both for prayer and singing. Those portions of the collec- 
 tion which are didactic, being addresses from God to his 
 people, should be separated from the rest, and employed 
 according to their true intent, i.e. — read as lessons. Those 
 portions again which are properly or predominantly prayers 
 should be arranged by themselves, and used as prayers, either 
 separately or mingled with the other prayers ; and lastly, those 
 psalms which are properly acts of praise should be set apart 
 to be chanted, or, if that be inconvenient, to be recited 
 rcsiwnsively as psalms, or acts of adoration, blessing, and 
 praise to God. With these should be classed all those por- 
 tions of Scripture, whether of the Old or the New Testament, 
 which partake of the same character, and are therefore appro- 
 priate for the same sacred use. 
 
 These passages should be all carefully arranged according 
 to the parallelism, or rather, as I consider it, the response in 
 each case ; so that, whether the hymn were said or sung, the 
 sense and spirit of the composition might always be pre- 
 served ; and they should be carefully set to appropriate 
 chants, which the people would, with a little trouble, soon 
 learn to sing, with the aids formerly suggested. 
 
 This has indeed been, in a good degree, accomplished 
 already by Mr. Geikie, in his " Songs of the Sanctuary," a 
 judicious and useful little book, which is employed in the 
 
PSALMS AND HYMNS. 155 
 
 Greyfriars Church and in some others in which chanting is 
 practised. A new and more complete edition of this book 
 will soon be published by Messrs. Nelson and Sons, Edin- 
 burgh, which will contain not only the Psalms, but those 
 other portions of Scripture of which I have spoken, also judi- 
 ciously arranged for chanting. 
 
 I should add, that some of the sacred odes, both in the 
 Psalter and elsewhere, are less fit to be chanted than to be 
 sung as anthems or doxologies — i.e., not to have the same air 
 repeated from verse to verse, but with the higher aim of follow- 
 ing the sense through all its modifications, descending with 
 it into the depths, and rising with it up to heaven, so as to 
 interpret the successive emotions as they rise in the mind of 
 the Psalmist. Upon this principle the Chevalier Neukomm 
 composed music for twenty Psalms, at the instance of the 
 Association in Scotland for the Eevival of Sacred Music. 
 These are noble — indeed wonderful — compositions, though for 
 the most part rather difficult. The organ or the harmonium, 
 which, we may hope, will soon be generally used in our places 
 of worship, will enable us to hear in our worship such music 
 as this, which is indeed worthy of the glorious words which 
 have been furnished us for the praise of God. 
 
CIIAPTErt XL 
 
 THE DIRECTORY, THE BOOK OF COMMON ORDER, AND THE 
 BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 
 
 And what is said of Liturgy is said also of Directoiy, if it be imposed ; although, 
 to forbid the Service Book there be much more reason, as being of itself 
 superstitious, offensive, and, indeed, though Englished^ yet still the Mass 
 Book. — Milton. 
 
 The Kirk of Geneva keepeth Pasche and Yule — what have they for them ? 
 They have no institution. As for our neighbour Kirk of England, it is an 
 evil said mass in English, wanting nothing but the liftings. I charge you, 
 my good people, stand to your purity ; and I, forsooth, so long as I brook 
 life and crown, shall maintain the same against all deadly. — King James to 
 General Assembly^ I590- — Calderwood. 
 
 It is to be expected that great differences of opinion as to 
 what should be substituted may prevail even among those 
 who are agreed that some changes in our public worship are 
 necessary and even inevitable. Some seem to think that the 
 Westminster Directory should be revived and enforced ; others 
 have mooted the opinion that it may be advisable to recur to 
 Knox's Book of Common Order ; and there are not wanting 
 those who favour a more daring innovation, and advise the 
 adoption of the Book of Common Prayer itself. In the 
 debates regarding innovations, which took place in 1859, two 
 Fathers of the Church, conspicuous for their zeal against 
 novelties, went so far as to declare that, " if the Church of 
 Scotland ever adopted a Liturgy at all, it would adopt the 
 venerable Liturgy of the Church of England." This surprising 
 
THE DIRECTORY, ETC. 157 
 
 notion seems to have been adopted by some few of the 
 younger clergy whose letters have appeared lately in the 
 newspapers, but whose zeal outruns that of the two doctors 
 alluded to. Perhaps the most general opinion is, that all 
 that can be done, or should be attempted, is to endeavour 
 to make the clergy more careful in regard to their prayers — i.e., 
 virtually to leave matter's in their present state. Others, 
 again, urge the plausible objection that it is vain to exhort 
 men to do more carefully what many of them want the quali- 
 fication to do as it ought to be done, who have always been 
 accustomed to follow bad models, and who have not con- 
 ceived a true idea of the work they are called upon to perform. 
 The last General Assembly appointed a committee to inquire 
 into the manner in which public worship is conducted over 
 the Church. They will find no difficulty in ascertaining 
 in what order the different acts of pubKc worship succeed each 
 other in the different churches. This, however, is nearly all 
 the information they can lay before the Assembly : what are 
 the matter and manner, the tone and style of the prayers, they 
 will not discover, and cannot report. The labours of this 
 committee, however, will lead to a discussion, and this may 
 probably issue in some resolution on the subject of public 
 worship, especially of the public prayers. In view of such 
 discussion, it may be prudent to consider some of those pro- 
 posals which may possibly be submitted to the Assembly. 
 
 Any motion, the general effect of which is not to interfere 
 with the clergy, in regard to the conduct of public worship, 
 further than by enjoining them to be careful and diligent in 
 preparing themselves for performing this part of divine ser- 
 vice, will probably be supported by many judicious men who 
 are alive to the present dangers of the Church — in the hope 
 that this may work some immediate improvement, and also 
 
158 THE DIRECTORY. 
 
 prepare the minds of the more candid and reasonable at least, 
 for something better and more thorough hereafter. This upon 
 the whole may appear the safest and wisest course for the 
 present. 
 
 As to the adoption of any of the antiquated formularies, 
 more and greater difficulties will be met with than readily 
 occur on a first view of the subject. If either of the three 
 forms of worship named above were perfect in its kind, or 
 even approximated to perfection, the case would be otherwise; 
 but no one who is not blinded by prejudice will impute this 
 quality to any of them. 
 
 The Directory. 
 
 As to the Directory, it cannot be said to be a successful 
 specimen of liturgical composition ; indeed, properly speaking, 
 it does not pretend to this character. The summary of its 
 defects and faults, given in the preface to Jeremy Taylor's 
 "Collection of Offices" (1658), is no doubt exaggerated and 
 malicious ; and yet it is impossible to deny that several of 
 those thirty-one objections are founded in truth, and many are 
 not devoid of apparent reason. No form of worship surely 
 can be complete that never " thanks God for the redemption 
 of the world, by the nativity and passion, resurrection and 
 ascension, of our blessed Saviour Jesus ;" " that hath no forms 
 of blessing the people any more than of blessing God, which 
 are just none at all ; " " an office that never thinks of absolv- 
 ing penitents, or exercising the power of the keys;" "a 
 liturgy that recites no creed, no confession of faith, so not 
 declaring to angels or men according to what religion they 
 worship God ; " " an office that takes no more care than 
 chance does for the reading of the Holy Scriptures ; " " an 
 office that does by implication undervalue the Lord's Prayer ; 
 
THE DIRECTORY. 159 
 
 for it never enjoins it, and does but once permit (recommend) 
 it." It is impossible to deny that there is some appearance 
 of reason at least in several of these charges. The gravest 
 defect of all, however, is one which is not mentioned in this 
 summary, exhaustive as it may appear. The Directory makes 
 no provision for the people taking any formal part in the 
 public worship of the Sanctuary. They are neither to join in 
 repeating aloud the Lord's Prayer, that "oratio legitima et 
 ordinaria" — " publica nobis et communis oratio," of the ancient 
 Church — nor are any Kesponses provided in which they are 
 to join ; nor, what is more strange, especially in such strict 
 scripturists as the compilers were, are the people enjoined or 
 recommended to express their assent and concurrence in the 
 devotions by repeating the Amen aloud, according to precept 
 and example of both the Old and New Testament — not to 
 speak of the universal Christian Church, or the reason of the 
 thing. They are regarded and treated throughout the whole 
 service as a mere audience^ the hearers of the minister. 
 
 It is not a little remarkable that the Directory evidently 
 supposes extempore preaching, so far at least as language is con- 
 cerned, as appears from the conclusion of the " public prayer 
 before sermon ; " but it neither supposes extemporary prayer, 
 nor forbids set forms, if only made by each minister for him- 
 self. This appears to be indicated in the preface, where an 
 " idle and unedifying ministry" is censured, " which contented 
 itself with set forms, made to their hands hy others, without 
 jputting forth themselves to exercise the gift of jpraycr, with 
 which our Lord Jesus Christ pleaseth to furnish all his ser- 
 vants whom he calls to that office." 
 
 We must, in reading such language, not forget that the 
 Churches for whom the Directory was intended had, both of 
 them, been accustomed to read prayers, the Presbyterians as 
 
IGO THE DIRECTOIIY. 
 
 well as the Episcopalians, though the former used also extem- 
 porary prayers. Considering the former habits and the known 
 feelings of at least the Ej^iscopalians, that is, of the great 
 majority of those whose conduct of public worship the 
 Directory was meant to regulate, the compilers could not 
 doubt that prayers would be read still, unless this were 
 stringently prohibited; and not only the absence of any 
 such proliibition, but the use of the language just quoted, 
 seems to prove that they anticipated, even if they did not 
 mean to suggest, this result. Indeed, it may be safely con- 
 cluded, from the whole drift both of the Preface and of the 
 Directory itself, that the authors had two great objects in 
 view — (1) To suppress the Book of Common Prayer ; and (2) 
 To induce each minister to compose his own prayers upon 
 the model supplied ; whether by mere meditation, or by 
 writing, or even printing, is not hinted, and therefore is left 
 open. Any one, however, who attempted to comply with the 
 injunctions of the Directory, must have been compelled to 
 write. No memory could retain the particulars of those long 
 prayers, so as to translate them into his own language, para- 
 phrase, condense, expound, or otherwise deal with them. If 
 the operose directions of this document had ever been gene- 
 rally or seriously complied with, which they seem never to 
 have been anywhere, the inevitable result must have been the 
 introduction of a set form of prayer by each minister. 
 
 The marked reference to " tlie other Reformed Churches" 
 favours the conclusion that a liturgy in some form was in the 
 mind of the AVestminster divines ; for they knew well tliat 
 all those churches wliom this new Reformation was to content, 
 and whose expectation it was to satisfy, had liturgies, and 
 were accustomed to read prayers in their public worship. 
 
 The form of expression in wliicli they sura up their reso- 
 
THE DIRECTORY. 161 
 
 liition favours the same conclusion : — " After much earnest 
 prayer, they resolve to lay aside" (not a liturgy absolutely, 
 but only) " tlie Liturgy used in the Church of England," and 
 **the former Liturgy, with the many rites and ceremonies 
 formerly used in the worship of God." 
 
 Though the authors profess that their work is a Directory 
 for all the parts of public worship, it is noticeable that many parts 
 are omitted. For example, besides the other omissions already 
 noticed, they virtually leave " the praise of God " optional. 
 The singing of the ^rs^ Psalm is hinted at only in a parenthesis ; 
 and the second is to be sung only " if with convenience it may 
 be done." What is more serious is the omission of all direc- 
 tion or mention of what is to he simg, whether Psalms alone, 
 whether all the Psalms ; and whether in metre, or in prose, 
 or in both. 
 
 These omissions, besides many others, seem clearly to 
 show that as .the projected Church was to comprehend a great 
 variety of Sects (besides the two great bodies, the English and 
 Scotch National Churches), whose customs in worship differed 
 widely from each other — it was found by the Divines expe- 
 dient, or rather absolutely necessary, to leave a great many 
 things open and undetermined ; and that they never aimed 
 at any such uniformity in worship as obtains in the Church 
 of England, and can be secured by a strict ritual alone. 
 It is true they speak of *' uniformity in Divine worship," but 
 it is only that " promised in our Solemn League and Covenant ;" 
 and this consisted only in the banishing of the Book of 
 Common Prayer, and compliance with that general scheme 
 which they have laid down in the Directory, and which (as 
 we have seen) admits, and was doubtless intended to admit, 
 great varieties in practice. Such uniformity as some now talk 
 of is plainly not countenanced by the Directory, and indeed, 
 
 M 
 
162 THE DIRECTORY. 
 
 as was before said, is not according to tlie spirit of our Church. 
 It could only be secured by new and stringent rules rigor- 
 ously enforced. 
 
 We may add this remark : — Any one who reads the Di- 
 rectory may wonder why so many and such extensive direc- 
 tions, for prayer especially, should have been thought needful 
 for ministers, '* all of whom," according to the authors' theory, 
 had been " furnished by our Lord Jesus Christ with the gift 
 of prayer." 
 
 Upon the whole, the Directory is not easily vindicated in 
 theory, and its rules would be absolutely impracticable, if the 
 attempt to carry them out should ever be seriously made ; 
 which is not probable. It was a failure at first, and any 
 effort to revive it would be equally a failure : we must do 
 either a good deal less or a great deal more than is prescribed 
 in the impracticable compromise of the Westminster Divines, 
 if we would reform the worship of God in the Church of 
 Scotland. 
 
 It may seem a question, whether the Church of Scotland 
 be not now fairly relieved from obligation to comply with the 
 Directory, and at liberty to fall back upon her more ancient 
 forms and customs ; or, in short, to do in the matter as she 
 may see fit. 1. The Directory has long been practically of 
 no authority. 2. It was adopted by the Church of Scotland 
 as part of a covenanted (Presbyterian) uniformity of Church 
 government and worship in all the three kingdoms. But the 
 project failed, and was repudiated in the other two kingdoms. 
 The conditions of the compact, therefore, being not complied 
 with by the other contracting parties, it might appear that the 
 Church of Scotland also was fairly relieved, and at liberty to 
 proceed in her public worship as if no Directory had ever 
 been composed or adopted. 3. The same would have been the 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON ORDER. 1G3 
 
 case in respect to the Westminster Confession of Faith, unless 
 it had been recognised in the Eevolution settlement and 
 at the Union — which the Directory was not. 
 
 The Booh of Common Order. 
 
 This book was republished by Eev. Dr. Gumming in 1840. 
 In a preface the editor speaks as follows : — " I have no hesi- 
 tation in observing that we have a Liturgy little less beautiful 
 and impressive than that of England, long used by the devout 
 congregations of our National Church, never interdicted, and 
 not only worth resumption, but in all respects calculated to 
 improve our service. It may also be observed of this vener- 
 able form, that it presents at once liberty and assistance. 
 When the preacher feels he can pour out his heart in extem- 
 poraneous prayer, it gives him this power ; but when he feels, 
 as most men occasionally feel, it presents beautiful and ex- 
 pressive formula}" (p. xxiii.) 
 
 If this appeared to me a correct character of what is often 
 called Knox's Liturgy, I should have no suggestion to offer on 
 the subject before us, but that this Liturgy or Order be revived, 
 and restored to use, according to its design, in all our churches. 
 
 I venture, however, to think that this description is very 
 nearly the reverse of the truth. The Book of Common Order 
 is singularly, almost absolutely, devoid of beauty ; the sense of 
 which, if not wanting, was at least sadly uncultivated in its 
 framers. It ceitainly is in some sense "impressive;" but its 
 impressiveness is of a kind which would not be tolerated by 
 any modern congregation, or by any congregation which had 
 learned to distinguish Christianity from the law of Moses ; so 
 that, instead of being " calculated to improve our service," its 
 introduction would render this much worse than it is at pre- 
 
164 THE BOOK OF COMMON OEDEK. 
 
 sent in almost any of our churches ; for it would bring in a 
 deeper and worse fault than any that now exists. Instead of 
 being worthy of comparison with the Book of Common 
 Prayer in " beauty and impressiveness " I hope and believe 
 that the generality of our public prayers, extemporaneous as 
 they are, and faulty in many respects, are yet superior to this 
 Order, in those qualities which are most essential. 
 
 It has appeared to many an unaccountable circumstance 
 that the Church of Scotland, both laity and clergy, should so 
 quietly have relinquished that venerable form of worship, 
 which, from its authors and from association, had so many 
 claims on their reverent affection. It is almost unprecedented 
 for people thus to surrender a form of words which had for 
 generations been the vehicle which carried their united desires 
 to heaven. In England, thousands, as well as King Charles, 
 were ready to peril everything for the Book of Common 
 Prayer ; but in favour of Knox's Liturgy, which was commonly 
 read in our churches some sixty, seventy, or eighty years,* no 
 one stands up to speak a word ; it is allowed to perish without 
 
 * Tlie following curious passage from James Gordon's History of Scots Affairs 
 (vol. iii, p. 250), may seem to prove that the Book of Common Order con- 
 tinued longer in use than has been generally supposed. Prohahly, however, 
 the Parson of Kothiemay describes the state of things in the north, where 
 tliere was less fanaticism than in other parts of Scotland. 
 
 •' About the tyme of this Assembly lyckwayes, sett formes of prayers in 
 publicke bcganne to lie dishaunted by all ; and such as used them wer looked 
 upon as not spritwall eneuch, or as not weall affected to the worke of reforma- 
 tione. The Lordes Prayer lyckewayes beganne to grow out of fashione, as 
 being a sett forme ; and Gloria Patrj, which had been constantly used in the 
 churche, since the reformatione, to be sung at the closure of the psalmes, be- 
 ganne to fall into a desuetude ; and not long after this, the saying of the Crecde 
 at baptismc was cancelld by many, and celebrating baptisme refoosed, except 
 upon Lords day at sermon, or at weeke dayes conventions. Two or three was 
 not looked upon as a congrcgatione ])ublickc eneuch for bai)tisme, though 
 Chryst sayed that he was in the midst of such a number. Finally, all wer 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON OIJDEK. 165 
 
 a sigh ; and it is buried, as itself appointed that the dead 
 should be, without solemnity or ceremony. 
 
 Any one who attentively peruses them will find in these 
 prayers themselves a satisfactory explanation of this curious 
 fact. They had never taken hold of the people's minds, or 
 touched their hearts ; and they could not do so, for they are 
 destitute of the requisite qualities — of pathos, tenderness, and 
 unction, of beauty and sublimity ; of the meekness, gentleness, 
 mercifulness, and sweet charity, which are the true character- 
 istics and living power of Christ's religion. This Book of 
 Common Order is so destitute of these that one might fancy the 
 writers had taken for their model the prayers found in Ezra 
 and Nehemiah, and the cursing Psalms, and that they were still 
 standing in terror before Mount Sinai, under " the fiery law,'* 
 and knew only Jehovah as " a consuming fire" and " a jealous 
 God." In short, the Book of Common Order is too cold, hard, 
 and dry — too fierce in its spirit, and too declamatory in its 
 style — to be ever thought of as a Liturgy for the modern Church 
 of Scotland, or to be tolerated by any congregation which has 
 learnt how widely the Christian religion differs in its spirit 
 from " that which is abolished." " Sin and wrath," " iniquity 
 and vengeance," " impenitence and destruction," are the pain- 
 fully predominating ideas in this composition ; and the 
 hyperbolical vehemence with which they accuse themselves 
 and their co-religionists of all manner of enormities, is equalled 
 only by the hearty zeal which they show in denouncing their 
 opponents, " but chiefly the wicked rage and furious uproars 
 of that Komish idol and enemy of thy Christ, and his most 
 
 urged to fiimily worshipp, but tlier prayers behoved to be extempore, not sett 
 formes. . . . Finally, whatever the bishopps had established, it was their 
 worke to demolishe." The date of the above is 1640. 
 
1G6 THE BOOK OF COMMON ORDER. 
 
 cursed idolatry and superstition." — (Prayer for the whole 
 estate of Christ's Church.) 
 
 ** Our kings, princes, and people in blindness have refused 
 the word of thine eternal verity ; and in so doing, we have 
 refused the league of thy mercy offered unto us in Jesus 
 Christ thy Son, which albeit thou of thy mere mercy hast 
 offered to us again in such abundance, that none can be 
 excused by reason of ignorance ; yet nevertheless, to the 
 judgment of men, impurity overfoweth the whole face of this 
 realm ; for the great multitude delight themselves in ignorance 
 and idolatry ; and such, alas, as appear to reverence and em- 
 brace thy word, do not express the fruits of repentance as it 
 becometh the people to whom thou hast shewed thyself so 
 merciful and favourable," etc. The book abounds with un- 
 charitable declamation of this sort, running out very often into 
 downright sermonizing, composed in sentences of enormous 
 length, sometimes occupying whole pages. 
 
 The following specimens are from The Prayer in the Time 
 of Persecution from the Frenchmen, But principally when the 
 Lord^s Table is to he administered : — 
 
 " Thou knowest, Lord, that their crafty wits in many 
 things have abused our simplicity, for under pretence of the 
 maintenance of our liberty, they have sought and have found 
 the way (unless thou alone confound their counsels) to bring 
 us in their perpetual bondage. And now, the rather, Lord, 
 do they seek our destruction, because we have refused that 
 Koman Antichrist, etc. etc. Thine hand drowned Pharaoh ; 
 tliy sword devoured Amalek ; thy power repulsed the pride 
 of Sennacherib, and thine angel so plagued Herod that worms 
 and lice were punishers of his pride," etc. 
 
 "Now though thou shouldst punish us much more 
 grievously than thou hast hitherto done, and that whereas 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON OKDEK. 167 
 
 we have received one stripe tliou shouldst give us a hundred ; 
 yea, if thou wouldst make all the curses of thy Old Testa- 
 ment, which came then upon thy people Israel, to fall upon 
 us, we confess that thou shouldest do therein very righteously ; 
 and we caimot deny that we have fully deserved the same. 
 Yet Lord, for so much as thou art our Father, and we be but 
 earth and slime," etc. (p. 30. — Prayer before Sermon.) 
 
 There is some apology to be found in the times, and in 
 the dangers which surrounded those earnest and zealous men 
 — " oppressed with fear and wounded with sorrow," as they 
 say they were ; " confounded in ourselves, as the people that 
 on all sides are assaidted with sorrows" (p. 35); but there 
 would be none for us, who no longer "go to Church to 
 pray against our enemies," should we follow their example in 
 offering up such railings and cursings as prayers to the God 
 and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — who hath taught us 
 after this manner to pray for our enemies, " Father forgive 
 them, for they know not what they do.'^* 
 
 It is worthy of remark that, as a general rule, the special 
 services in the Book of Common Order are much superior to 
 the forms for ordinary worship. The Order of Baptism 
 and the Order of administration of the Lord's Supper both 
 contain fine passages, which, with some retrenchment, might 
 be advantageously used at the present day. The latter service, 
 especially, is a refreshing contrast, in its conciseness and sim- 
 plicity, to the endless preachings and insufferable tediousness 
 
 * The Book of Common Order distinctly recognises the propriety and the 
 custom o{ kneeling at prayer ; as a preparation for which it calls upon the con- 
 gregation not "to stand up;" but, "inasmuch as before our Lord Jesus 
 Christ all knees are compelled to how, let us humbly fall down before him, and 
 in this manner pray ;" and again "prostrate yourselves before God," etc. (p. 
 165). And accordingly it thus describes the congregation engaged in prayer, 
 " We thy children and people here prostrate before thee" (p. 162). 
 
168 THE BOOK OF COMMON ORDER. 
 
 that have so long afflicted the Church in the dispensation of 
 the Lord's Supper ; while the Blessing and Exhortation which 
 conclude the form of the " Election of the Superendendent" 
 are, in appropriateness, vigour, and solemnity, not inferior to 
 anything found in any Ordinal whatever, ancient or modern * 
 The order of ecclesiastical discipline, especially the order of 
 excommunication, is an awful composition in the lofty claims 
 to divine authority which it makes for the Church — that is, the 
 ministry — for whom it arrogates a divine commission and a 
 direct authority, to resist which is even more presumptuous 
 than to transgress the law of God itseK : — " We give over into 
 the hands of the devil this forenamed obstinate contemner 
 N , and that not only for the crime that he hath com- 
 mitted, hut much rather for his proud contempt and intolerable 
 rebellion," etc. ; i.e., it was in their esteem a much greater sin 
 to despise the Kirk, or resist the authority of the ministers, 
 than to commit adultery or murder ; the crimes specially con- 
 templated in these excommunications. This is, of course, the 
 
 * There are several commendable features besides those already noted in the 
 Book of Common Order. Thus it appoints the Apostles' creed to be recited, not 
 only at Baptism, but at morning and evening prayer. It admits a godfather 
 to take the vows in the absence oi tJie father ; but even wlien this is not tlic case, 
 *' the child is to be brought to the Church accom2>anied with tlic f oilier and 
 godfather ;" and, instead of the overstrained strictness which afterwards be- 
 came customary and still obtains, in many cases, it "judges them only un- 
 wortliy who contemptuously refuse such ordinary means," etc. "For infants 
 be of the number of God's people, and remission of sins doth also appertain to 
 them in Christ ; therefore, without injury, they cannot be debarred from the 
 common sign of God's children." 
 
 It is remarkable that the Order for administration of the Lord's Supi>er 
 does not go beyond the Zuinglian doctrine, and contains a bold protest against 
 that mystical jargon wliicli Lutlier employed on this subject, and from which 
 Calvin was not free. The introductory exhortation is admirable — a refreshing 
 contrast to those "Fencings of the Tables," which liave so long ])cen a scandal 
 and an olluncc to sincere and enlightened members of the Prcabytenan Churches. 
 
THE liOOK OF COMMON ORDER. 169 
 
 doctrine of the Church of Koine ; and it is easily proved, if the 
 priest or the minister be the authorised representative of 
 Christ ; if not, the claim is as dangerous as it is impious. 
 Men are to be regarded with suspicion, whether they be 
 Catholic Priests or Presbyterian Ministers, who conceive 
 themselves authorised by the Almighty to perform his solemn 
 function, and doom their fellow-creatures in the following 
 awful fashion : — " And his sin we hind, and pronounce the 
 same to be hound in heaven and earth. We further give over 
 
 into the hands and power of the devil, the said N , to the 
 
 destruction of his flesh, straightly charging all that profess 
 
 the Lord Jesus ... to repute and hold the said N 
 
 accursed," etc. etc. (pp. 166-67). 
 
 Upon the whole, in composing special services for the 
 Church of Scotland, if that should ever be attempted, some 
 good use might be made of the Book of Common Order. For 
 the ordinary worship on Sundays, it affords neither materials 
 nor examples which could assist us. The efforts of Calvin 
 and his disciples in this department cannot be considered 
 otherwise than unsuccessful. It was not a subject they had 
 studied with sufficient attention, nor had they formed a just 
 idea of what is required in a good Liturgy. They were so 
 much occupied with the doctrinal side of Christianity that 
 they never appreciated its devotional element ; so that they are 
 always preaching even when they pray ; and intending to com- 
 pose a Liturgy, and address God, before they are aware they 
 are composing sermons, and haranguing, often with all their 
 overstrained vehemence, their fellow-sinners, accusing, up- 
 braiding, and damning them. 
 
170 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 
 
 Tlie Booh of Common Prayer, 
 
 It may seem quite beyond the scope of this inquiry to 
 introduce any consideration of the Book of Common Prayer, 
 except as a formulary which the Kirk at a very early period 
 rejected after a few years' trial, and towards which she has 
 ever since displayed only aversion, and a persistent opposi- 
 tion. It is only the grossest prejudice, however, that can 
 deny that the Book of Common Prayer is distinguished by 
 many conspicuous excellences. Its general tone is singu- 
 larly humane and charitable, marvellously so, considering 
 the period when it was compiled. This is to be explained 
 by the fact that its contents are principally derived from times 
 which were not agitated by keen and bitter theological con- 
 troversies, and when jpcacc was still reckoned among the 
 number of Christian graces and blessings. It breathes 
 throughout a spirit of pure and elevated piety. It is suffi- 
 ciently comprehensive without descending to too great particu- 
 larity. Some of its services throughout, and many passages in 
 most of them, are truly noble compositions ; and it very seldom 
 offends against good taste, or genuine Christian feeling. 
 For the most part also, it is moderate in its tone, temperately 
 recognising Christian doctrines, rather than obtruding or 
 preaching them : the chief exceptions being the doctrines of 
 tJie Trinity and the Divinity of our Lord ; in regard to which 
 tenets it is dogmatical and vehement, and sometimes even 
 intolerant and damnatory. On these subjects it reflects too 
 much the keenly controversial spirit and dogmatism of the 
 fourth and fifth centuries. 
 
 " Tlie English Book of Common Prayer," says a learned 
 and able Episcopalian clergyman, " is such a medley of con- 
 tradictions, both in letter and tone, that it is quite impossible 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 171 
 
 for any school to endure long which builds itself upon it/' — 
 (Rev. G. Forbes, On the English Book of Common Prayer, p. 4.) 
 
 One of the most commendable features of the Book of 
 Common Prayer is the abundant introduction of the Scrip- 
 tures in Lessons, Gospels, Epistles, Psalms, etc. This is be- 
 coming in a Protestant Church, and is indeed a Protestant 
 characteristic : though some Protestant churches, and these 
 most vehement in maintaining the highest dogmas respecting 
 Scripture, have proved quite negligent in this regard ; so that, 
 in their public assemblies, the Old and New Testaments, how- 
 ever often quoted and lauded, are yet seldom and little read, 
 and then only with comments and explanations, as if the 
 clergy feared to let the Word speak for itself and teach its 
 own lessons. 
 
 Nor must we omit to notice the becoming position in 
 which that Eitual places the congTCgation. Like the Catholic 
 Church in general, of which it retains many of the best 
 features, the Church of England assumes that the assembled 
 people are not a mere audience, or a dumb crowd to be 
 spoken for and spoken to, but the living members of Christ, 
 each of whom is privileged to say for himself — 
 
 " Lord open thou my lips ; 
 
 ^^ And my mouth shall show forth thy upraise :" — 
 And is therefore called upon to take an articulate part in all 
 acts of worship whatever, whether of prayer or praise ; either 
 repeating the words aloud after the officiating minister, or 
 assenting to them by a response, or adopting them as his own 
 by uttering the Amen at the conclusion of each prayer or 
 petition. This practice, dictated by the plainest propriety, 
 sanctioned by Scripture, both in the Old and New Testa- 
 ment, and recommended by the most ancient usage, teaches 
 or rather compels each person to regard himself as a wor- 
 
172 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 
 
 shipper, and not a mere hearer; and lie can never feel or 
 speak as if the public prayers were "the minister's prayers'* 
 (which is the common language, because the prevailing feeling, 
 in this country) ; or were other than his own addresses to the 
 throne of the heavenly grace. 
 
 Being compelled by the conditions under which they 
 worked, to adhere pretty closely to the ancient forms of w^or- 
 ship, and to reform the Church service, instead of constituting 
 it anew after their own ideas, as the Calvinistic divines did, 
 the fathers of the Anglican Church were prevented — perhaps 
 against their own inclinations in some instances — from com- 
 posing continuous, lengthy, and often declamatoiy and dog- 
 matical orations, after the Eeformed or Calvinistic model. 
 Their work might be called " fragmentary and disjointed" 
 by those who think of prayer as of a speech ; it was, however, 
 based upon the true idea, which had been tested and approved 
 by the long experience of all Christendom, and which has 
 justified itself by the fact that, while the Calvinistic Liturgies 
 have, without exception, come to satisfy less and less those who 
 used them, the Book of Common Prayer has constantly gained 
 upon the minds and hearts of the English people, and of all 
 who speak the English language over the whole earth, not- 
 withstanding many defects and some grave faults, which have 
 always been imputed to it, and from which only blind preju- 
 dice will contend that it is altogether free. 
 
 A Calendar, in retaining which the other Eeformed Churches 
 generally concurred with the Anglican Church — at least to a 
 certain extent — is surely natural, decent, and edifying, pro- 
 vided none but important events and eminent personages be 
 commemorated. It seems proper to connect the great facts of 
 the Christian religion with the seasons of the year, so that by 
 the recurrence of these, those may be periodically recalled. For 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 173 
 
 US who celebrate Christ's resurrection fifty-two days in the 
 year, not to set apart even one day to commemorate his death, 
 appears at least unnatural ; and to have no special time for 
 commemoration of the birth of our Lord, or his resurrection, 
 or the descent of the Holy Ghost — the very inauguration of 
 the Christian Church — is to lose valuable means of impres- 
 sion and edification. It is true that none of these festivals has 
 any sanction in the New Testament ; but no Church has been 
 able in practice to carry out the doctrine, which many of them 
 have professed, that only such observances are lawful in the 
 Church as have that sanction. Sacramental fasts. Preparation 
 days, Thanksgiving days, and many other customs, may plead 
 a human expediency, but they have no more a Scriptural 
 suppoit than Christmas, or Easter, or Good Friday, or Whit- 
 suntide ; and to shun such ancient and general observances 
 through fear of superstition, is nothing else than to indulge 
 one superstition through fear of another, and a less. 
 
 Tliat the Book of Common Prayer has many serious faults, 
 as the organ of a national worship, the more enlightened 
 members of the Episcopal Church not only acknowledge but 
 many of them loudly proclaim. Perhaps there is no party in 
 that Church which it altogether satisfies, nor is it possible 
 that any formulary should do so, which embraces so many 
 incongruous elements, and speaks sometimes the language of 
 Puritanism, and much oftener that of Catholicism. It is 
 indeed difficult to obtain a just estimate of the merits and 
 demerits of this work ; the generality of its critics being 
 either too little familiar with it fairly to judge of its spirit and 
 effect ; or, what is more common, so familiar with it, and so 
 little accustomed to other forms of worship, that itself has be- 
 come for them the perfect type, and the standard of judging. 
 
 Besides the more prominent faults of tediousness, excessive 
 
174 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 
 
 repetition, mingling of services, the indiscriminate nse of the 
 Psalter, the shocking intolerance of the Athanasian Creed, 
 the enjoining of certain ceremonies which should be left free ; 
 to say nothing of certain questionable doctrines which it 
 teaches or recognises — the Book of Common Pr(iyer has for 
 us these insuperable objections, that it takes the public wor- 
 ship altogether out of the hands of the officiating minister, 
 leaving him no discretion to add, omit, alter, or modify any 
 part of the service, whatever may be his own circumstances 
 or those of his flock. Such restriction, as the \Yestminster 
 Divines justly say {Preface to Westminster Directory), " is a 
 great burden ;'* in particular cases, it must prove extremely 
 inconvenient and unsuitable, as incidents and occasions some- 
 times occur for which appropriate prayers cannot be provided 
 beforehand ; and it appears to us a degradation of the minister. 
 Some medium, we persuade ourselves, may possibly be found 
 between two such wide extremes, as entrusting cverytliing in 
 public worship to the capacity and discretion of the minister, 
 (as the Church of Scotland now does) ; and entrusting nothing, 
 like the English Church, which does not recognise her clergy 
 as to any extent qualified to offer up public prayer according 
 to their own judgment, or in their own words. 
 
 Many of us have come to be of the opinion that every- 
 thing should not be left, as it now is, to the discretion of eacli 
 minister ; that some assistance should be afforded, some 
 public formulary prepared, which may be used in certain 
 parts of the Churcli service, and especially in administering 
 the Sacraments, and on some other special occasions ; but I 
 can hardly believe that any number of our ministers have 
 adopted the opinion that free prayer should be abolished in 
 our Church, that a public Liturgy should supersede altogether 
 the prayers which each minister may occasionally see fit to 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PPvAYER. 175 
 
 introduce from his own mind and of his own composition. 
 In short, even those who are most resolute in their opinion 
 that some public formulary should be introduced, and used to 
 a certain extent, would probably be found nearly unanimous 
 in their opposition to any ritual — such as the Book of Common 
 Prayer — which should take away altogether the right of free 
 prayer from the ministers of the Church. 
 
 There is another objection which lies against the English 
 Prayer Book, in common with all rituals of the same class — 
 namely, their uniformity, or rather sameness. Some variety 
 is indeed secured in the Psalms, Lessons, Collects, and in the 
 prayers provided for particular festivals, etc. ; still, the great 
 body of the service is identical from day to day ; the same 
 words are repeated without variation for ever ; and not only 
 so, but even the Evening Service is in considerable part iden- 
 tical with the Morning Service. The introductory Sentences, 
 the Exhortation, the Confession, the Absolution, and down 
 to the Venite, are all the same, as are also the five concluding 
 prayers in each ; so that not only is the same Service re- 
 peated from day to day, with only trifling modifications, but 
 a great part of it is repeated twice, or even thrice, if there 
 be so many services the same day, as is often the case. 
 Surely such sameness is not needful ; and we cannot help 
 thinking that it is inexpedient and hurtful. It shows poverty 
 in a Church, that it must thus confine itself to one form of 
 words in offering up its worship, however excellent that one 
 form may be. One might expect that a distinct Service might 
 at least be prepared for Morning and for Evening Prayer, 
 without the one plagiarizing half of the other. We are in- 
 clined to go further, and maintain that it would be better 
 that several Morning and Evening Services were prepared — 
 say one for each of the Sundays of the month — that some 
 
176 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 
 
 freshness might be added to the solemnity which undoubtedly 
 attaches to set forms (solennia verhd), familiarly known by 
 long and frequent use. It is, we conceive, undeniable, that 
 some bad consequences are apt to arise in many minds from 
 the constant repetition of an unvarying form of public worship. 
 Words so familiar are apt to be heard and repeated without 
 making any impression, or almost exciting any attention ; as 
 many bodily acts become so familiar as at last to be per- 
 formed even without consciousness. Besides, is it not a fact, 
 that the constant use of one form of words is apt to create, if 
 not an opinion, at least b. feeling^ that there is some peculiar 
 virtue or sacredness in these words ; that the repetititon of 
 them has more value — more merit I had almost said — than of 
 any other words, though these were equally good, or even 
 better, in themselves ? Hence, a considerable portion of the 
 English people, and these not the lowest or least educated, 
 have come to regard their Prayer-book with feelings which it 
 would not be easy to distinguish from sujjerstition ; and many 
 hardly seek to dissemble their opinion, that nothing is worthy 
 to be considered public worship which is not according to 
 that form, and that the Book of Common Prayer is, in fact, 
 that which makes the Church. We do not esteem of it as 
 King James did — " an evil-said mass in English without the 
 liftings." We have a very different opinion ; yet we cannot 
 see that its excellences are so peculiar, so sublime, or so un- 
 approachable, that it should attract such peculiar worship. 
 Something even nmch superior might, without miracle, be 
 produced. Itself might be greatly improved by numerous 
 omissions and other changes ; but this, we venture to maintain, 
 is a fatal defect in it, and in all Liturgies of its class — that 
 they are too nuich one and the same perpetually ; and hence, 
 they give to mere words and forms of expression an import- 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 1 77 
 
 ance which is not healthy or beneficial, and which is apt to 
 generate superstition in the minds of the ignorant at least, 
 who are always a large proportion of the people in every 
 Church. 
 
 This is one of the points of objection urged by the West- 
 minster Divines ; and without going all the lengths they go, 
 it would not be easy to deny that there is, at least, some 
 ground for what they allege. " Prelates and their faction," they 
 urge, " have laboured to raise the estimation of it (the Book 
 of Common Prayer) to such a height, as if there were no other 
 worship, or way of worship of God among us, but only the 
 service-book, to the great hindrance of the preaching of the 
 Word ; and in some places (especially of late), to the jostling 
 of it out as unnecessary, or at least as far inferior to the 
 reading of common prayer, which was made no better than an 
 idol by many ignorant and superstitious people ; who, pleasing 
 themselves in their presence at the service, and bearing a part 
 in it, have hardened themselves in their ignorance and careless- 
 ness of saving knowledge and true piety." — Pref. to Directory, 
 
 The introductory portion of the Daily Service is singularly 
 excellent. It proceeds according to what appears the natural 
 order of thought and feeling — first, God's Call in the Scripture 
 sentences ; then the Exhortation by His minister to His 
 people ; next, their common Confession, followed by the 
 Absolution assuring the penitent of pardon and grace ; after 
 which they are prepared with confidence {rralhriaia) to enter 
 into the Holiest, and say aloud, in the words which our great 
 High Priest hath taught us — "Our Father which art in 
 heaven,'' etc. 
 
 This portion of their Liturgy has been much admired and 
 highly extolled by the more sober and judicious expounders 
 
178 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 
 
 of it in the English Church ; and with good reason. But it 
 greatly scandalises the Catholic party ; who are deeply 
 offended, not only because the Catlwlic form of Introduction 
 should have been departed from, but chiefly that this inno- 
 vation should have been effected — as it appears undoubtedly 
 to have been — under the influence of Protestants and l^resby- 
 terians. It appears first in the second of the Liturgies of 
 King Edward VI., A.D. 1552. One of the writers of the Tracts 
 for the Times (No. 86), goes so far as to consider such 
 tampering with the Church's offices, by such hands, as no 
 less than a judgment : — he does not explain upon whom 
 or for what ; though, as he admits, it has been a judgment 
 not unmixed with mercy. These gentlemen show very clearly 
 that, in their view, the Protestant elements in that composi- 
 tion were all of them defilements ; and they do not attempt 
 to conceal that impatience of the control of the State, which 
 was remarked on in an early part of this essay, as character- 
 istic of the High Church clergy in England. The genuine 
 Priest is always jealous of the civil power ; he naturally 
 resents any interference between his heavenly function and 
 the flock upon whom he has received divine authority to 
 exercise it. Accordingly, he is supremely happy when the 
 State will condescend to act as his minister ; but he resents it 
 as a desecration, and a rebellion against God, if the civil power 
 presume to judge and act for itself, and so curtail his autho- 
 rity and perhaps thwart his action. This is our own doctrine 
 of spiritual independence, dressed in a surplice instead of a 
 Geneva go^^^l. It is the same everywhere — 
 " New Presbyter is but old Priest, writ large." 
 It is not necessary to add that ice do not approve this part 
 of the Book of Common Prayer the less on account of its 
 Presbyterian origin and character: though we wish all the 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 179 
 
 contributions which came from the same quarter had been 
 equally worthy of approval — which we do not think they are. 
 It is curious that the Book of Common Prayer should 
 carry out the Presbyterian idea of the proper introduction to 
 public worship (in opposition to the Catholic idea) more per- 
 fectly than either Calvin's own Liturgy or any of its descen- 
 dants, though that idea is recognised in them all, including 
 even our own Directory. 
 
CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 THE ARRANGEMENT OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 Tiavra evcxVP-^^^^ x^*- Kara tcl^lv yLviaOu). — I CoR. XIV. 
 
 The order in which tlie different acts of worship should suc- 
 ceed each other is a matter of great importance, though among 
 us it has received very little attention, or rather none at all. 
 But as arrangement is a capital consideration in rhetoric — 
 the effect of any discourse depending much upon the proper 
 disposition of the parts — so the impression which the various 
 acts of Divine Service shall produce will always depend in a 
 great degree upon their being presented to the minds of the 
 congregation in a natural succession, so that one part of 
 the worship may prepare the way for that which is to follow, 
 and all abrupt transitions being avoided, no part may appear 
 disjointed or detached. Thus the different acts which com- 
 pose the Service shall support each other, so to speak ; and 
 the whole will be seen, or rather felt, to constitute one 
 organic whole, in which there is nothing superfluous on 
 one hand, nor, on the other, any thing wanting or defective. 
 Let us not disguise the matter : a good Church Sei^vice is a 
 work of art — as a good sermon is — and they who imagine they 
 can produce either without thought, labour, and skill, have 
 either a very exalted idea of their own abilities, or a very 
 mean conception of what they are called to do. No doubt 
 " it is the Spirit that quickeneth ;" but the Spirit quickens and 
 
THE ARRANGEMENT OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 181 
 
 blesses those who use and improve His gifts, aud leaves those 
 who are negligent and slothful to unfruitfulness and reproof. 
 
 Some may even be shocked by the very mention of art in 
 connection with things so sacred as prayers and divine wor- 
 ship ; but such persons should consider that we need not be 
 barbarous, rude, or unskilful, because we are Christians : also 
 that in speaking to men, the Holy Ghost has conformed to 
 the laws both of logic and of rhetoric ; of which more perfect 
 examples can nowhere be found than in the Holy Scriptures 
 themselves — in the Psalms, the Parables of our Lord, the 
 Speeches of St. Paul, and the Lord's Prayer. 
 
 The Catholic mode of beginning public worship, is gener- 
 ally with a psalm. The Eeformed, or Presbyterian mode, is 
 different, and is founded upon a rather different order of 
 ideas — namely, that the first act in the service should be a 
 solemn admonition or Call ; something to solemnize our hearts, 
 and to remind us where we are, and what we are about to do ; 
 or, as a learned divine of our Church once expressed it, " the 
 first word should come from God.'' Calvin's Liturgy, the Book 
 of Common Order, the Directory, all recognise this principle 
 more or less distinctly ; though curiously enough, in the Book 
 of Common Prayer, as we have seen, it is most fully and com- 
 pletely carried out. 
 
 This solemn Invitation should evidently be followed by 
 prayer ; and, I suppose, it will not be doubted that prayer 
 sliould be succeeded by praise. Thus, the three acts of wor- 
 ship are complete — the word, prayer, praise — and they consti- 
 tute the first part of the Service. 
 
 The reading of the Old Testament naturally opens tliQ 
 second part of the Service ; it is followed by the Second prayer, 
 and by praise : and the reading of the New Testament begins 
 the tliird part of the Service, followed by the Third prayer and 
 
182 THE ARRANGEMENT OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 by praise. This completes the worship iu the strict sense of the 
 word. The sermon comes after, followed by an appropriate 
 prayer ; the whole concluding with a doxology. 
 
 The First prayer, immediately following the Invitation, is 
 the prayer of faith — containing the acknowledgment of God, 
 confession of our sins, thanksgiving for his mercy through 
 Christ, and supplications for pardon, grace, etc. 
 
 The Second prayer, following the reading of the Old 
 Testament, has reference chiefly to the duties, trials, and 
 temptations of life, and to the cultivation of godliness, righte- 
 ousness and sobriety. 
 
 The Third prayer, which succeeds the lesson from the 
 New Testament, is the prayer of hope and charity. It relates 
 to our peculiar position and prospects as Christians, the 
 second coming of Christ, death and judgment ; also to the 
 welfare and salvation of our brethren and of the world at large, 
 and to our country, civil rulers, etc., etc. 
 
 The above order of Service is unquestionably logical in its 
 structure. It is founded upon and agreeable to the general 
 principles of Presbyterian worship. It is perfectly simple; 
 it requires no violent change from present customs ; and, 
 unless I mistake, this arrangement of a church service secures, 
 besides, the following objects : — 
 
 (1.) That the three acts of worship shall uniformly succeed 
 each other in the same, and that the natural or logical order — 
 1. The Word ; 2. Prayer ; 3. Praise. 
 
 (2.) That each of the three prayers shall have a general 
 relation to the Wordy which immediately goes before it, 
 whether Sentences, Old Testament, or New Testament. 
 
 (3.) That all tlie three acts of worship shall proceed from 
 a lower to a higlier ground ; from Faith, which is the beginning, 
 to Charity, which is the end of the commandment ; — the word. 
 
THE ARRANGEMENT OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 183 
 
 the prayers, and the praises, all rising towards a climax at 
 the end of the Service in the Doxology, or act of unmingled 
 praise ; bringing us at the close of our earthly worship nearest 
 to the worship of heaven. 
 
 This arrangement, among other recommendations, has this 
 one, which will not be esteemed trifling by men who are 
 called to conduct a long service, perhaps twice each Sunday, 
 without any assistance ; that while the common custom of 
 beginning with singing (in itself indefensible, apparently 
 introduced by mere accident, and continued without any 
 public authority) allows them only one respite from speaking 
 during the whole service, the above order always secures 
 three. This interrupts the tediousness of the service, and by 
 introducing a greater variety, relieves the pressure upon both 
 minister and congregation. The worship in country parishes, 
 and even in towns, very generally extends to two hours, and 
 often exceeds that length ; the whole of which time — as 
 matters are now generally arranged — the minister is engaged 
 in speaking, except the four or five minutes which are con- 
 sumed in singing the second Psalm — the first being sung 
 before his exertions begin, the third after they are finished. 
 In a mere physical point of view, this is surely an injudicious, 
 and for all parties an oppressive arrangement. 
 
 To some these may appear small matters, and unworthy 
 of serious study ; but nothing should be esteemed small or 
 trivial which concerns the propriety, beauty, solemnity, and 
 impressiveness of divine worship in the assemblies of the 
 saints. Indifference to such things is not a proof that we are 
 really animated by his spirit who said, " The zeal of thine 
 house hath consumed me.'' 
 
CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Quod ad formulam precum et rituuni Ecclesiasticorum valde probo, ut certa 
 ilia extet, a qua Pastoribus discedere in functione sua non liceat ; turn ut 
 consulatur quorundam simplicitati et imperitiae, quam ut certius ita constet 
 omnium inter se Ecclesiarum consensus ; postremo etiam ut obviam eatur 
 desultoriae quorundam IcN-itati qui novationes quasdam affectant. . . . 
 Sic igitur statam esse oportet Sacramentorum administrationem, publicam 
 etiam precum formulam. — ^JoH. Calvinus, Protectori Anglic, 22 
 Oct. 1548. 
 
 Upon the whole it seems now time for the Church of Scotland 
 to consider whether some great reform in lier public worship 
 has not become necessary ; and particularly whether she 
 should not resume the use of a Liturgy — to some extent at 
 least. 
 
 Besides the reasons already stated or suggested, we may 
 add that without some authoritative form of worship, a Church 
 has no standard of doctrme, nor any profession or confession 
 of faith, so far at least as the people are concerned. Confes- 
 sions of faith, as we employ them, are merely standards for tlie 
 clergy — to regulate tlieir teaching, or to ascertain or fix their 
 opinions on theological dogmas, many of whicli are of a 
 speculative character, and a great proportion of which never 
 are, and some of which never should be, made subjects of 
 sermons. But the Liturgy is a confession of faith to all who 
 join in it — laity no less than clergy. According to this rule 
 and in these words tlwj pray and praise. These acts — whether 
 
USES OF A LITURGY. 185 
 
 supplications, hymns and psalms, or creeds — tliey present 
 together, as one body, before the Divine Majesty. For, what- 
 ever they may think, men are of one religion and of one faith 
 when they can heartily join together in the same prayers. 
 
 The Liturgy is therefore the real confession of faith : 
 nor can the Church have any other for all its members. 
 It may also be doubted whether it needs any other, even 
 for its ministers ; as also whether without this any body 
 can, properly speaking, be a Church at all. It was noted as 
 a fatal defect in the Westminster Directory that " it recited 
 no creed." Probably every writer De Be, Liturgica, of whatever 
 age, country, or sect, is agreed that the reciting of a creed is 
 indispensable on every occasion of public worship or common 
 prayer ; and this is so essential, in the administration of the 
 Sacraments in particular, that without it these ordinances 
 cannot be regarded as performed in a regular, legitimate, and 
 proper manner. 
 
 It appears to me also that the want of all liturgical forms 
 is one of the chief reasons of that singular want of coherence, 
 and of that disastrous tendency to separation, which have so 
 remarkably distinguished the Presbyterians of Scotland during 
 the last two hundred years — i.e., ever since the Book of Com- 
 mon Order was laid aside. 
 
 The explanation is very obvious. In our worship the 
 Church is not in any way represented ; it is neither visible 
 nor audible in any sense or to any degree. The minister is all 
 in all. He alone appears ; he does, or directs everything. Not 
 only is the sermon the minister's discourse, as it should be, 
 but the prayers are the minister's prayers ; the Psalms which 
 are sung and the lessons which are read (if any be read) are 
 those which he selects ; the Sacraments are administered in 
 the manner and with the language he chooses ; so that the 
 
186 USES OF A LITURGY. 
 
 CMirch has no function, authority, or operation at all in the 
 business of public worship. If the minister happen to be a 
 person distinguished for talents, acquirements, eloquence, or 
 taste, these distinctions do not in any way redound to the 
 aggrandizement or credit of the Church, but rather the con- 
 trary ; for the people naturally consider such a person as 
 an exception to the general average of his brethren ; so that, 
 instead of being attached to the Church, they are rather 
 separated from it, by his peculiar gifts. Accordingly, when 
 ministers secede, the bulk of their congregations naturally 
 secede with them. This is the almost universal rule, and it is 
 easily explained : in adhering to their minister, they adhere 
 to the only Church practically that they either love or admire, 
 or in fact care or know about. 
 
 Keeping this in view, we need not wonder why the 
 Scotch people make the choice of a minister such a matter of 
 life and death ; and why the mode of electing or appointing 
 ministers has always excited among Presbyterians so profound 
 an interest. This appears unintelligible to Christians of other 
 countries : but it will be easily understood by those who 
 consider what has now been said — that among us the choice 
 of our minister is indeed the choice of our Church. In liturgical 
 communities the worship is the same, whoever may be the 
 minister ; that is, the Church continues one and the same, for 
 the worship is the essential element of the Church ; but 
 among us it is quite otherwise — everything depends upon the 
 minister. He is all in all for doctrine, and worship, and every- 
 thing. No wonder we feel an interest in the appointment of 
 ministers, whicli others can neither feel nor comprehend. 
 
 The next point to be considered is — What sort of a Liturgy 
 would appear to be desirable ; and whence it should be de- 
 
USES OF A LITURGY. 187 
 
 rived. Upon these topics I shall offer the follomng obser- 
 vations : — 
 
 Any committee, or any individual, that may be charged to 
 prepare any draft of a form of public worship, should attain 
 a general acquaintance with the ancient liturgies — as well 
 Greek as Latin ; as also with the principal liturgies of the 
 reformed churches. But my distinct opinion (which I ex- 
 pressed some years ago, and now reiterate with greater assur- 
 ance) is, that none of those formularies furnish a model which 
 it would be wise in us to follow — though particular passages 
 may be appropriated or adapted. Though ancient, they are 
 not venerable to us, because they are to us neither familiar nor 
 known. The same may be said of Calvin's forms, and all their 
 translations and modifications. They are not ancient to us. 
 We know nothing about them : on the contrary, their lan- 
 guage and modes of expression sound strange in our ears ; 
 they wear a foreign and outlandish air, so that they are neither 
 venerable nor solemn to us, but the contrary. 
 
 A form of worship, adapted to our wants and suitable for 
 our times, should be simpler in its structure — less theological 
 and dogmatical, and more religious and spiritual, than any either 
 of the Patristic or Eeformed rites — not to say that it must 
 eschew their superstitions and their intolerance, both of which 
 are sometimes grievous. It should exhibit forbearance and 
 charity ; should make nothing essential which the Xew Tes- 
 tament does not make so ; be content to set forth the doc- 
 trines, especially the mysteries of our holy faith, as much as 
 may be, in the language in which the Scriptures themselves 
 set them forth ; and not presume to know more, or to speak 
 more confidently or emphatically or particularly, than our 
 Lord and his apostles have seen fit to speak ; so that all men 
 who profess the Christian faith may be able to join in it, 
 
188 USES OF A LITURGY. 
 
 notwitlistanding many and even wide differences of opinion 
 among themselves, respecting the manner in which Christian 
 doctrines and mysteries are to be explained. For a national 
 Church must not, in its worship at least, contract itself into a 
 sect, and exclude all who are not upon one side of a theolo- 
 gical controversy, but should aspire to be Catholic in a good 
 and Christian sense — comprehensive and tolerant of all dif- 
 ferences of opinion that do not touch the essentials of the 
 Christian religion as laid down in the New Testament. 
 
 Whenever any ecclesiastical body so contracts itself, as to 
 assume the position and character of a sect, it denudes itself, 
 by so doing, of the character and legitimate position of a 
 national Church : this must aim at being as comprehensive 
 as possible, and exclude nothing that can, by a candid and 
 liberal interpretation, be considered Christian. 
 
 After all, the language of Scripture is for this purpose the 
 best — the simplest, the purest, the truest; and also for us 
 the most venerable and impressive. It comes to our minds 
 with a weight and solemnity which no other language has or 
 can have ; and therefore I cannot help thinking, that the 
 prayers, as well as the praises of the Church, should not only 
 be framed upon that model, but should consist in great mea- 
 sure of well-chosen expressions from that sacred magazine of 
 divine wisdom, grace, and love. The ideas should be scriptural; 
 so should be the manner of thought and expression : and 
 all this may be attained without making prayers nothing else 
 but a string of quotations from the ]]ible. In particular, the 
 Book of Psalms furnishes a rich abundance of the finest ma- 
 terials for Christian worship, both for prayer and praise ; but 
 it nmst be used wisely, not indiscriminately — as it has often 
 been ; for the Spirit of God still dwells in his Church ; and 
 tliis is a spirit of wisdom, as well as of love and power. 
 
SUGGESTIONS. 189 
 
 The style of our authorised Englisli Bible has become 
 the standard of language for religious compositions, and it 
 should be taken as the model in all prayers for Christian 
 congregations. Excellent in itself, it has the inestimable 
 advantage of being associated in the people's minds with 
 Christian thoughts and sentiments : its very tone is to them 
 solemn and holy. 
 
 I cannot tell whether the General Assembly will take 
 any action in this important matter at present ; certain I am, 
 that if the Church is to keep her footing, it must be at- 
 tempted, and that at no distant day. 
 
 But whatever else may for the present be resisted, 
 delayed, or neglected, I do hope that some steps will be 
 immediately taken to have a service, or more than one, pre- 
 pared for administration of the Sacraments, as also for the 
 celebration of marriage, and (though this be a violation of 
 our old rules) for the burial of the dead. It appears intoler- 
 able that in the same Church, and that recognised and 
 established by law, one minister shall demand of candidates 
 for Baptism or the Lord's Supper, a different profession of 
 faith from that which another demands; that one shall 
 require assent to almost nothing ; another to the Apostles' 
 Creed ; jvhile a third requires assent to " the Scriptures 
 of the Old and New Testaments, with the Confession of 
 Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms." In " Fenc- 
 ings of the Tables," as they are called, the same and even 
 greater discrepancies prevail. Some make the way to the 
 Sacrament very wide and easy ; others make it so narrow 
 with theological opinions, and so rough with practical 
 scrupulosities, that if the people believed what the minister 
 taught, not one of them would attempt to enter it. Surely 
 those are, in fact, different churches between which such 
 
1 90 SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 differences prevail ; but as tliey all profess to be one 
 church, some effectual measures should be taken to secure 
 their unity and agreement at least in matters of such great 
 importance, and of such obvious necessity. Wliatever there- 
 fore may be done, or left undone, in regard to our ordinary 
 Sunday services, it appears indispensable that for adminis- 
 tration of the Sacraments especially, some formula or order 
 be provided without delay. 
 
 Without such provision, these solemn ordinances can 
 never be expected to be celebrated with sufficient decorum 
 and reverence ; and I believe that, in point of fact, they 
 never have been so. The judgment of John Calvin should 
 have some weight with Presbyterians. In his celebrated 
 letter to the Pi*otector Somerset, Calvin writes as follows : — 
 " As to what concerns a form of prayer and ecclesiastical 
 rites, I highly approve that there should be a certain form, 
 from which the ministers be not allowed to vary : Firstly, 
 that some of these, who are simple and unskilful, may be 
 provided mth some help ; Secondly, that the consent and 
 harmony of the churches (or congregations) one with another 
 may be made to appear ; Thirdly, that the rambling and 
 levity of such as affect new and original modes of expressing 
 themselves may be checked. . . . Therefore there ought 
 to be a stated form of prayer and administration of the Sacra- 
 ments." 
 
 It may seem too daring to propose that all the people 
 should be exhorted to say Amen aloud at the conclusion of 
 all prayers in church, or to sing it. This is not forbidden by 
 any law ; and it is recommended by evident reason, as well as 
 by a host of scriptural authorities. To pretend (as some liave 
 done) that in Presbyterian Churches congregational dnying 
 
CHRISTMAS AND GOOD FRIDAY. 191 
 
 comes ill place of the responses iii the Catholic Churcli, is 
 nonsense. For Christian worshippers responded long ages 
 before they ceased to sing ; as the Jews always did in their 
 religious assemblies. Besides, we respond to the Psalms that 
 are sung, by joining in them, or by singing or saying the 
 response ; but that is no assent or response to the prayers, 
 during the saying of which, and after it, we remain as dumb 
 as if we could neither hear nor speak. That Calvin introduced 
 or rather revived congregational singing may be true ; but 
 that does not make up for the want of responses in his Liturgy 
 and in all its descendants. This is a radical and fatal defect 
 in all of them. 
 
 The time has perhaps come when it may be proper 
 seriously to inquire whether there be any good reason why 
 we should not celebrate such festivals as Christmas, Good 
 Friday, Easter, Ascension Day, and Wliitsunday, with all 
 or nearly all our Christian brethren over the whole world. 
 It is uncomfortable to dissent from Christendom upon such 
 points, especially when we dissent also from the very men 
 who taught us our theology, and gave us our ecclesiastical 
 government, and were in short the fathers and founders of 
 our peculiar church polity. The festivals named above were 
 retained by Calvin, and by all or nearly all the Eeformed 
 or Presbyterian Churches abroad, "among whom Christmas 
 and Easter are celebrated with peculiar solemnity, as two 
 out of the four sacramental occasions in the year." The 
 rejection of these festivals, moreover, gave scandal and 
 offence to the foreign Protestants, who expressed to the 
 Church of Scotland their dissatisfaction that, by this singu- 
 larity, they should have created a kind of schism among the 
 Eeformed or Presbyterian Churches. 
 
192 CHRISTMAS AND GOOD FRIDAY. 
 
 I cannot persuade myself that any miscliief would accrue 
 to our faith or practice, or to our soundness and safety as 
 Protestants and Presbyterians, though we should consent to 
 follow the example of nearly all other Protestants and Presby- 
 terians throughout the world, and commemorate, on the same 
 days as our brethren, the birth, the death, the resurrection, 
 and the ascension of our Lord, and the descent of the Holy 
 Ghost, according to His promise. The non-celebration of 
 Christmas, in particular, is in every respect uiniatural, and a 
 blunder. Our ignorance of the true day of our Lord's birth, 
 is a paltry and ridiculous objection. We often celebrate the 
 births of our sovereigns on days other than the true ones — 
 for some reason of convenience or necessity ; and Christmas 
 has been so long solemnized, as to give it a firm prescription. 
 We celebrate the births of our princes, our kindred, our friends 
 and benefactors — of those who have cheered a little this sad 
 and weary journey ; and we fear it would be a superstition, 
 if we should unite with all other Christians in commemorating 
 the birth of the Prince of Life, our elder Brother and Saviour, 
 who has dispelled for us the great darkness, and cast cheering 
 light upon the valley of the shadow of death. Let us lay 
 aside such weak scrupulosities : here also our fear of other 
 men's superstitions only reveals our own. What makes the 
 case worse, is that now it is become general, even among 
 Presbyterian Scotchmen, to keep Christmas as a day of 
 domestic festivity ; but the reason of this day being celebrated 
 is a religious reason ; and surely it is not edifying to dis- 
 tinguish the day, and yet omit the religious distinction ; to go 
 to a feast, and not go to Church. Some, I am aware, consider 
 tliese two incompatible or discordant ; but none of us, I hope, 
 so feast, as to forget tliat we are Christians, or go to Church, 
 as a cloak or licence for our making provision to fulfil the 
 
FAST DAYS. 193 
 
 desires of the flesh. We believe that it is possible to hold a 
 feast, " and eat and drink to the glory of God," as we are com- 
 manded to do. And we must not forget the frequent in- 
 junctions of the Law, that God's elect under the old Covenant 
 should " eat and drink and rejoice before the Lord their God.'' 
 No doubt, we live under a higher dispensation ; but God and 
 man are both the same under the Gospel as under the Law. 
 For my part, I cannot see that any damage would be done, if, 
 in all our Churches, we had public worship on those five days, 
 or at least upon Christmas day and Good Friday ; and I 
 imagine there would be considerable convenience in our cele- 
 brating the Lord's Supper, all over Scotland, upon Easter 
 Sunday, and making Good Friday the Fast-day for the whole 
 country. This would make the Fast-day virtually a Sunday 
 for the whole community, and people would universally cease 
 from their business and also from their pleasure — as much, at 
 least, as they do on Sundays. I earnestly hope this will be 
 taken into serious consideration. Our Fast-days are becoming 
 quite a scandal, and some remedy must be found, and that 
 speedily. 
 
 At present, we are in this strange position, that "the 
 English holidays " and our own " preaching days " are both 
 observed, at least in all our towns, to the unnecessary inter- 
 ruption of many important operations, and the great incon- 
 venience of the community. 
 
 A simultaneous communion all over the country would 
 of course prevent ministers assisting each other at the 
 Sacrament. But this is one of the strongest arguments in 
 favour of such a reform ; for thus the people would be de- 
 livered from the grievous burden of so many " preaching days,'* 
 and also from the intolerable sermons, styled Table Services, 
 of Sacrament Sundays. Each minister, being compelled to 
 
 
 
194 FAST DAYS. 
 
 perform the whole service liimself, would at last come to 
 understand that one man commonly is able to speak as long 
 as men in general are able to listen, and often much longer ; 
 and that a service which is too much for the minister's lungs, 
 is far too much for the people's patience, piety, or profit in 
 any way. A communion service five or six hours long would 
 soon come among us to be reckoned as irrational, unedifying, 
 and preposterous, as it is esteemed by all mankind besides. 
 
 The inconveniences also, of the Sacramental Fasts being 
 held in different parishes on different days, have been so much 
 felt, as to have formed the subject of numerous complaints 
 of late years. There is good reason in such complaints ; and 
 accordingly, they will become more frequent and louder, as 
 intercourse increases between the different parts of the country. 
 A change is inevitable. Would it not be best to make it at 
 once, and so anticipate dissatisfaction ? 
 
 Suggestions for the amendment of such things should not 
 be esteemed eccentric imaginations : the things themselves 
 are eccentricities, in which we differ from all the world. 
 These are our singularities, which we should maintain only 
 if they were excellent, and not persist in simply because they 
 are our singularities. 
 
 The reforms advocated in this essay may appear to some 
 revolutionary, and to surrender the characteristic principles 
 of the Cliurch of Scotland in the matter of public worship. 
 ]>ut indeed they only tend, for the most part, to restore those 
 customs and practices which the fathers of Presbytery thought 
 expedient, and which they established, and themselves prac- 
 tised. John Calvin has been charged, both by wisdom and 
 by wit, with liaving stripped the Church naked ; but others 
 went nmcli further in the same course than Calvin either 
 
FAST DAYS. 195 
 
 wished or imagined. We cannot think such extreme denu- 
 dation necessary or desirable now, if it ever was so ; and no 
 one should raise an outcry against ritualism, formalism, or 
 any other ism, when nothing more is suggested than a return 
 to some practices which the universal Church has sanctioned, 
 which our earliest and wisest Keformers approved, and which 
 the more enlightened portion of the Scottish people at least 
 are prepared to welcome. It is not necessary to perpetuate 
 for ever the results or symbols of ecclesiastical and civil 
 feuds — which happily have themselves passed away, or to 
 separate ourselves longer from the general Christian Church, 
 by distinctions which are not better, but rather worse in 
 themselves, and less suitable for us at the present day — what- 
 ever they may have been for our ancestors two hundred years 
 ago. 
 
 We are not always surely to continue the slaves of our 
 forefathers* superstitions, prejudices, or other peculiarities. 
 Our circumstances are different; our experience is incom- 
 parably wider, and our lights are far greater than theirs. For 
 them neither church history nor civil history had been 
 written ; the age of criticism had not come in any of its de- 
 partments ; the light which shines around us from this source 
 had not dawned upon them : so that we possess numerous 
 means of understanding and judging, in all departments of 
 knowledge, as well sacred as profane, which were not granted 
 to those men — pious, sincere, and earnest as they were. Let 
 us venerate their Christian virtues ; let us imitate their 
 earnestness and zeal and self-devotion ; but let us not be 
 guilty of the narrowmindedness of following them in the 
 letter rather than in the spirit of their conduct. We shall 
 deserve to be condemned as fools if, in many things, we be 
 not much wiser than they. To us far more has been given, 
 
196 FAST DAYS. 
 
 and of us also far more will be required. How deep a dis- 
 grace, not to say how great a guilt, shall we incur, if it shall 
 appear that, with all our superior advantages, we are less 
 enlightened, liberal, and wise than they were ! 
 
 END OF PAKT I. 
 
In post 8vo, price 6s. 6d. 
 THE 
 
 FAMILY AND ITS DUTIES. 
 
 WITH OTHER 
 
 ESSAYS & DISCOURSES FOR SUNDAY READING. 
 
 By ROBERT LEE, D.D., 
 
 MIXISTER OF GREYFRIARS, 
 
 PROFESSOR or BIBLICAL CRITICISM IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EUINBl.RGH, 
 
 ETC.. ETC. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 " The invariable justness of observation, the clear and reasoned 
 conviction that gives weight to Dr Lee's judgments and counsels, 
 the forcible and appropriate illustration, and the charming lucidity 
 of diction, give to these Essays a value, not only for Sunday reading, 
 but for every-day guidance, which, it would be difficult to over- 
 rate." — Scotsman. 
 
 " Excellent in the calmness, breadth, and wisdom of its contents. 
 No book recently published could with more safety be added to the 
 every-day library of the family. Dr Lee's style is beautifully clear 
 ind simple, and, being charged with the wisdom of large experience, 
 it is eminently fitted to attract the young, satisfy ripe maturity, 
 and nourish thoughtful age with the sweetness, richness, and 
 solidity of its varied treasures." — Glasgow Citizen. 
 
 " No man alive can express himself with more clearness tlian 
 Dr Lee, few with more elegance and precision; and the dehghtful 
 Essay on the Family, which is at once the largest and the best in 
 the volume, will have as many admirers as readers. . . . There are 
 lumps of good sense in his book, a great many good things, obvious 
 
})n>(jfj5 of profound tliinkiiig. and passages of I'eal eloquence."' — 
 Daily Revitiv. 
 
 " This l>ook of professor Lee's has this very great advanfcig^ over 
 Inost otlier religious books that we have seen for some time past, 
 that it speaks chieHy of dutu, not of dogma a or of dogma, only when 
 it helps to duty. Its aim is not to make the reader an expei-t 
 theologian, but a better man— to enlighten bus mind in the know- 
 ledge of those truths which, if remembered and irraclised, make 
 life wise, beneficent, and strong. 
 
 "'The Family and its Duties' occupies the first place in the 
 volume : which, however, embitices much more than its title strictly 
 implies. . . . Those points which are selected are treated with a 
 fi-eshness, and vigour, and comprehensive common sense, and withal 
 in a style of singular clearness and compactness, which stand in 
 grateful contrast to the vague and abstract discoursings and tawdrily 
 decorated periods of too much of our current religious literatiu-e ; 
 while the book has also the charm for the cultivated reader (and 
 with such chiefly will it be a favourite and friend) of indicating at 
 every turn, though nowhere obtruding, the practised scholarship 
 and refined cultme which the learned Profess<.)r is well known to 
 possess. 
 
 " The clear sense, earnest piety, and high-toned sentiments of 
 J'rofessor Lee's volume, conveyed, as they are, iii a style of imcom- 
 nion precision and gracefulness, will, we feel confident, secure for it 
 a distinguished and permanent position in every well-chosen lihi-ary." 
 — Glasgoiv Herald. 
 
 " I)r Lee's volume is practical without being peddling, thoughtful 
 without any mere intellectual pedantries, earnest in tone, yet free 
 from any stilt or straining after effect ; and although we difier from 
 the author on several of the topics handled by him, we are bound 
 to add that he nowhere lU'ges his opinions in an offensive manner, 
 lint oljserves toward his opponents the 'charity' tliat thinketh no 
 I'vil. . . . The volume is replete \nth passages of beautiful, serious 
 writing, some of which are worthy of a poet,"«S:c. — Dumfries Herald. 
 
 EDlXBrWdll : WILLIAM V. NIMMO. 
 
f 
 
 
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