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many-coloured vestments and sensuous music. To adapt the words of Paul, "When ye come together" to enjoy a scenic performance, "this is not to eat the Lord's Supper."

We generally commence this service with a hymn. Now on the grounds of Christian expediency, for the strengthening and elevating of our faith and hope and love, there can be no objection to this custom. We all know that some pathetic plaint, in which we utter our sense of sin and need, or some exultant strain, wherein we tell our joy in God, is a great help to the cultivation of devout and appropriate feelings.

In this we are guided by our sense of the fitness of things. We strive to realise our oneness in Christ, and to bring our hearts into living contact with Him, and to do this we can find nothing more directly and immediately helpful than devout and earnest singing. But, on the other hand, I am not quite sure that the practice is warranted by Scripture. Our Lord and His disciples did not sing until the close; and I would suggest that commonly it might be as expedient as it would be scriptural for us to defer the service of song till the end.

In the other parts of the service we have the express guidance of Scripture. Nothing could be calmer, simpler, or more explicit than the four accounts we have of the institution of this ordinance, so that it is not difficult to keep up its primitive simplicity. For instance, what could be more comely or suitable, before taking the bread or the wine, than to repeat the very words of Scripture, and merely act them out. Let the minister say only, "The Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks :' let us give thanks."* And so again : “And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks :' let us give thanks.”† This was the invariable custom of the honoured John Burnet, whose conduct of the Lord's Supper was eminently devout and impressive; and, indeed, is the custom of many of our most esteemed fathers and brethren in the ministry. But let our ministers mind that they do give thanks. I have sometimes been disappointed when a laboured and comprehensive prayer has followed the invitation to join in a thanksgiving, and when the thanks have been omitted. Some ministers set apart the closing prayer for supplications and intercessions, and I think the custom good and comely.

* 1 Cor. ii. 23-24.

+ Mark xiv. 23.

I have seen the distribution of the bread and wine done in various ways, and have noticed considerable variety with regard to the time for the minister and deacons to receive them. To me the most decorous manner seems to be as follows: When the minister is prepared to give the plates to the deacons, let them all rise at once to receive them. Then let the minister resume his seat, not helping himself, but waiting until one of the deacons presents to him the bread. The same order may be kept with the cups and the wine. The advantage of this method consists not only in its orderliness and smoothness, but also in the seemly and becoming respect it pays to the minister as the chief officer of the Church. The best time for the deacons to receive the "elements" is at the close of their distribution to the Church. In some places the minister helps the deacons first of all, but this is objectionable because it keeps the rest of the Church waiting in a somewhat doubtful manner. Let the deacons, the servants of the Church, wait until last. Then let them either help themselves as they resume their seats, or, which is better, let the minister, after they are all seated, serve them as they have served the Church. The bread and wine having been distributed, thanksgiving for each having been duly offered, and all done with exceed. ing deliberation and gravity, and the address having been delivered, if there be one, I like to hear the minister then quote the words of the Evangelist: "And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives,"" and then add, "Let us sing the hymn." The following of this simple and beautiful precedent always seems to me eminently becoming and suggestive.

It is only by careful attention to such details that everything can "be done decently and in order." In acts of Christian fellowship and Divine worship, nothing is trivial. "Often has the devout feeling been chilled," says Mr. Pearsall,* "by a hurried commencement; by an unsuitable tune from a leader with a cold undevotional voice; by the noisy footsteps of an elder; by the unsuppressed cough; by the harsh sound of a cup struck against another when replaced on the table. If less time were occupied in taking round the bread and wine, and longer pauses allowed for silent meditation, the devotion would be deeper. The perfect hush, when not a voice nor a footstep is heard; the solemn stillness during the intervals, is much to be desired. The institute appeals to the eye and to the ear."

* "Public Worship," by the Rev. J. Spencer Pearsall. London, 1867.

SHE LOVE OF PLEASURE.

BY THE REV. R. WARDLAW THOMPSON.

IT T is not my intention to discuss the legitimacy, or enlarge on what I conceive to be the dangerous tendencies, of particular forms of amusement. Nor am I in the very least degree an advocate for the revival of disciplinary laws respecting any of them. If a truly vigorous, high-toned spiritual life be maintained in our Churches, the enactment of stringent rules will not be needed, because all that is really impure or questionable will separate itself from us. If there is no life, though a certain pharisaic propriety be maintained by the exercise of a rigid discipline, it will be the propriety of a whited sepulchre-outwardly, indeed, fair to look upon, but within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. And the only safe and healthy principle in dealing with those things, the evil of which is in their tendencies and special surroundings, is to leave the decision as to what ought or ought not to be done to the action of individual conscience, aided, so far as we can aid it, by friendly but not dogmatic counsel. "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind,” in this as in other matters.

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The change of feeling respecting amusements is the result, to a very great extent, of a wider change in the conditions of social life. The rapid increase and wide diffusion of wealth, which has been the result of the development of our great manufacturing industries, has produced a very marked alteration in the social condition of all classes in the community. It has brought within easy reach more abundant means of enjoyment. It has created and fostered a taste for comforts and luxuries of various kinds. It explains the production and the success of the endless variety of popular entertainments which now nightly offer amusement to the multitude in our large towns. And it has been the chief, if not the only, agency by which the change of opinion and of action among professing Christians with reference to popular amusements has been produced. Hitherto the rich have been a comparatively small and distinct class, and fashionable society has not been much known at Congregational churches. Now, however, there are large numbers of our people who have become sharers, in a greater or less degree, in the national wealth, and who have thereby been brought into contact with a mode of life with which men in the same station would have been strangers in the past. They have in

their new social condition come within the circle of that mysterious, undefined, but powerful organisation known as "society," and are expected to conform to its law, commonly called "fashion." Society approves of pleasure, encourages expense, develops a sensitiveness to public opinion in matters of dress, of furniture, of food, of entertainments, and has a wondrous power of exacting obedience to its claims. And as there are in this new age many almost indefinite gradations from wealth to poverty, this mighty social influence is felt over a very wide circle, each grade feeling the influence of that above it, and striving to imitate it in all things as closely as circumstances will permit.

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To discuss the lawfulness or unlawfulness of certain amusements is, in the present state of things, to raise a mistaken because too narrow an issue, and thus to run the risk of diverting attention from the point at which danger is really to be apprehended. The danger lies in the unrestrained indulgence in legitimate things.

Changed social position has not relaxed the claim of Christ. To seek to grow in grace, to labour for the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom, are still the first duties of the Christian's life. But to multitudes, these claims now come balanced by the strong counter-attractions of new provision for ease and enjoyment; and it is to be feared that the claims of religion, the claims of self-denial, of worship, of spiritual culture, suffer in many cases very grievously.

Does any one think that I lay too much stress on these altered circumstances of society, and magnify unduly the danger which threatens the Church as the result of them? Let him consider some of the effects already produced. One result is apparent-often conspicuously apparent-in the worship and work of the Church. The simple change to fashionable hours in the time for dining effectually prevents many from attending the house of God oftener than once on the Sunday; and a large number, especially of the younger people, seem by their position in society to be unavoidably occupied with social duties and engagements so frequently that it is impossible for them to exhibit much interest in the life of the Church. We get few representatives from this class at our meetings for prayer; we get little help from them in our ragged-schools and other organisations for Christian work. Surely, this state of things must be bad for those who have fallen into it, and injurious to the spiritual interests of the Christian community.

What means are being adopted by those whom the supposed exigences of social life prevent from taking their proper share in the worship and work of the Church to meet the needs of their own souls and to influence their fellow-Christians? Do they seek at other seasons opportunities for earnest communion with God, such as shall compensate for the loss of the blessings of the sanctuary? Do they find other means of fulfilling the obligation of service which they owe to their Lord? A life of strong social attractions requires the operation of spiritual influences of peculiar power to preserve the tone of the spiritual life and to ensure growth in grace. Are they alive to this fact? and, though prevented from using the opportunities of spiritual improvement which other Christians employ, are they faithful to the interests of their own souls?

And is not the state of things which endangers the spiritual life of the most prominent and socially influential part of our community already a source of weakness to the Churches to which they belong? They are fitted to take the lead in the active life of the Church; their culture and the general estimation in which they are held, would enable them to give a tone to its meetings which is often altogether lacking; the example of their earnest piety exhibited in worship and in work would be powerfully influential on many who are disposed to look up to them as leaders. But the Church does not get the benefit of this influence-the presence, the counsel, the earnest personal aid in Christian work of those who are best fitted to influence their neighbours and friends, is all but unknown.

Another evidence of the altered state of society, already very conspicuous in many quarters, is the growing restlessness and love of excitement among the younger members of Christian families. The complaint is constantly heard, that quiet home-life seems to have almost disappeared from many circles: there is a craving for society and excitement which manifests itself in the endeavour to fill up the evenings as thoroughly as possible with special engagements for pleasure. The members of families cannot be content with each other's society, and the quiet companionship of books, even for a single night. They must have other company at home, or must go out for company, or must seek some place of entertainment in order to pass a pleasant evening. It is somewhat difficult to touch the exact point of danger here, for we are met at once with the incontrovertible statement that the social enjoyment thus obtained is perfectly legitimate and innocent; yet there is a very real and very

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