it is well adapted for this purpose, shedding a sweet and benignant influence over the intercourse of friendship and drawing loving hearts into closer fellowship, is too much a matter of general experience to require proof. Intelligent conversation ought, perhaps, to take precedence of it, and 'tis a pity when there is such poverty of soul or inaptness of expression among a party of friends that profitable and elevating talk cannot be kept up. But even intellectual people find it difficult sometimes to bear the strain of thoughtful converse very long; and 'tis desirable in every such instance, to rouse and refresh the flagging spirits of a social party by the enlivening strains of music. I am sorry, however, to say that the social uses of music are frequently perverted and abused. Music of a high quality is frequently employed as a decoy, as a syren charmer to lure the thoughtless and giddy to scenes of bacchanalian revelry; and when the deluded victims are fairly drawn into the flowery labyrinths the same dulcet enchantments are used to lull their conscience, until they become involved in the abyss of drunkenness and debauchery. I am sorry also to think that music is often used as a provocative to and as a means of gilding the wine-bibbing revelries occuring at many private social parties. Our poets have contributed to augment this evil of associating music with drunken orgies. As they have linked wine and women together, a monstrous conjunction, so they have coupled wine and music, in violation of all moral congruity.

The several points of secular interest upon which I have touched, and others of a similar nature which I am obliged to forego, must all yield in importance to the one I now introduce. Music finds its highest use in the service of religion. Religion in itself is essentially musical. The religious affections, when in a state of intensity, naturally and inevitably find expression in melody. And the nature of the inward emotion gives form and complexion to the musical expression. Feelings of penitence are uttered in low, plaintive, pathetic strains; feelings of adoration in deep, grand, rolling measures; feelings of gratitude and joy in warbling, carolling cadences. And when these various kinds of religious melody are wedded to appropriate thought, they become by erflex influence a potent means of producing and nourishing the emotions from which they spring. Penitential melodies tend to produce penitence, or to intensify it if already produced. Melodies of adoration lead to a prostration of soul before the Divine Majesty. Melodies of gratitude and joy chase away the gloomy vapours of doubt and discontent, and fill the soul with the sunshine of heaven. It holds good of religious truth as of all other truth, that it is never so powerful to affect the mind as when expressed in the harmony of verse and in the melody of sweet sounds.

Music finds in religion its richest themes, its loftiest sphere, its

most perfect expression. Secular melody, the melody which springs from and is consummated in secular interests, is tame and even mean in comparison with that which is religious. But in judging the merits of sacred music don't fix your attention upon the miseralbe jingles-and their name is legion-which are produced by the joint action of religious shallowness and conceit. As it would be unfair to form an opinion of man from the dwarfed Esquamaux or the squalled Australian, 'twould be equally unfair to judge of sacred music from the bald and insipid tunes which often usurp a sacred name. Bring the productions of the great masters of sacred music to the test of judgment, and then form your opinion. When, some few years ago, I first heard "Handel's Messiah" performed, I felt as if I never had listened to music worthy of the name before. The secular melodies which I had been wont to admire, and which were really admirable in their way, seemed like the chirpings of sparrows in comparison with a full choir of the noblest birds of song. Till then I had no conception, no adequate conception, of the vast, the illimitable capabilities of music. I felt as if borne up on the billows of melody above the paltry interests of earth and time into fellowship with the grand, the god-like, the infinite. And I thought then, as I think now, that the unsurpassed grandeur of the music was owing to the grandeur of the subject quite as much as to the genius of the author.

Music has always performed high service in religious life. Nothing is said of it in man's paradisiacal state-owing, I presume, to the extreme brevity of the account furnished; we may, however, be quite sure that the bowers of that sinless abode were often enlivened by strains of sacred melody from the lips of unfallen man, probably surpassing anything subsequently produced by his lapsed posterity. Between the Fall and the Flood musical instruments of various kinds were invented, and though they would for the most part be prostituted to the service of lust, yet the few people, who during that degenerate period called upon and were called by the name of the Lord, would probably use them in connection with and as an assistant to the vocal celebration of the Divine praise. The first distinct account we have of music employed in religious life is in connection with the deliverance of the Hebrews at the Red Sea. On that occasion, "Moses and the children of Israel sang unto the Lord, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and the rider hath he cast into the sea." On the same occasion, "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; and Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.” From being an occasional utterance of Divine praise, prompted by

some great deliverance, as in the instance mentioned, or by the swellings of emotion in the individual heart, music became, by successive steps of growth, a regularly organised part of public worship among the Hebrews. The service of sacred song reached its culmination in the time of David. Not only was David richly endowed with a lyrical genius, which brightens and beautifies the glorious songs which bear his name, he also possessed in high degree the musical faculty, so that it may be difficult to say whether he excelled more in poetry or in music. All the wealth of his poetical and musical genius he devoted with enthusiasm to the service of God, and to him more than to any other man, has the church of succeeding ages been indebted for the inexhaustible and imperishable contributions he made to the service of sacred song.

Christianity was inaugurated with an outburst of heavenly melody. Angelic symphonies heralded the birth of Christ. The event was also fittingly, though much more humbly, celebrated in sacred melody by Mary the virgin mother, by Mary's cousin Elizabeth, and by other persons then living. Probably Christ himself and his apostles often joined together in holy song, not only in the public worship of the synagogue, but also in private, though only one instance of the kind is recorded. On the night of the betrayal, that night of treachery and sorrow, they sang a hymn before going to their wonted haunts on the slopes of Olivet. Afterwards the apostles and early Christians had little opportunity of paying much attention to the art of music, for their life was one of constant jeopardy and trouble. Nevertheless, though plunged in noisome dungeons, though exposed to the grossest outrages from magistrates and mobs, though expatriated in distant lands, and in many instances dragged to summary execution, their profound religious fervour, the mighty emotions which swelled their hearts, found frequent and fitting vent in the beauties and sublimities of sacred song. In their social gatherings, also, they were wont to speak to each other and to their God in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in their hearts and with their voices to the Lord. The younger Pliny, when writing to the emperor Trajan respecting the Christians, says, among other things, "that they were accustomed, when they met together, to sing hymns of adoration to Christ as their God." In subsequent ages, when christianity had taken root in the earth and the church had become a great corporate body, sacred music was cultivated on scientific principles, and the service of song received all the embellishments which the highest art could bestow. In the Roman Catholic church the utmost attention has ever been paid, and is still paid, to the cultivation of sacred music. I do not say that this cultivation is carried to excess, as I scarcely think it possible to render the artistic form of God's praise too perfect; but I will say that in consequence

Even

of the Roman Catholic church separating the music of public worship from an intelligent expression of devotional thought, and thereby making it appeal exclusively to the imagination and the passions, it has become an instrument of superstition, and has had the effect of leading the souls of men from the spiritual to the sensuous. The art of sacred music has been too much neglected in Protestant churches; but past neglect is now being redeemed, and from the increase of general intelligence, bearing upon the subject, it may be expected that in Protestant churches generally, sacred music will yet be carried to a high pitch of perfection. The strong prejudices which have hitherto existed against the use of instrumental music in public worship are now dying away. Presbyterians are becoming more reasonable on this point, and in some of their churches, the "Kist of whistles," as they contemptuously called the organ, has been introduced with good effect. Before many years are gone it is probable there will be few churches of importance without this instrumental assistant in the service of song. But 'twill be well to remember that the organ is only an assistant in divine worship. When it is made a substitute for vocal melody, it becomes a clog and hindrance rather than a help. God's people assemble together in God's house, not to witness and enjoy a grand artistic display, but to join in the celebration of divine worship; and as every one present who has a heart ought to feel impressed with devotional sentiments, so every one who has a tongue ought to use it in the celebration of God's praises. Vocal melody ought ever to be the principal element in the service of sacred song; the true use of the organ is to guide and sustain, to give body and force to the utterances of the human voice.

The service of God on earth is preliminary to the service of God in heaven, and it is the design of him who made us, that along with the cultivation of our intellectual and moral faculties we should also cultivate the faculty of sacred song as a preparation for the services and enjoyments of the heavenly world. The life of heaven is a life of melody. All kinds of harmony, the harmony of thought, of speech, and of action, the melodious outflowings of the soul through every channel of expression meet and commingle there in highest perfection. The descriptions given in Holy Scripture of the service of song in heaven are truly sublime. Heaven's vast population, comprising the hosts of angelic beings together with the innumerable throng of the redeemed, a number beyond number, free from sin, free from sorrow, free from defect of every kind, with their faculties strung to perfect harmony, led on by the elders with their golden harps, unite in singing, singing in cadences of transcendant sweetness and sublimity, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing," while all other

virtuous beings in every part of the universe catch and prolong the grand acclaim, singing, "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb."

ART. III.-SOME OF THE DISTINCTIVE ELEMENTS OF MIND.

HOW various, wonderful, and great, are the forms, combinations, and organizations, with which infinite wisdom and power have studded creation; but the highest manifestations of creative wisdom and power do not consist in suns, moons, stars, plants, seas, beasts, birds, air, and water. Mind is the crowning glory of God's creative wisdom and power. Mind is the highest, noblest, and greatest thing in the universe. Mind is the highest state of being, the noblest sample of Divine workmanship, and the richest gem in creation's treasury. The great orb of day, as he pours light, life, and beauty, upon the hills and dales, seas and rivers, shows his superiority to all surrounding objects; so mind, as it pours forth the light, life, and power of living, burning thoughts, shows its superiority to every other thing that lives, moves, and breathes upon earth. In the vast universe of matter there is magnificence, beauty, melody, and changeless order, but in mind there is intelligence and moral capacity, which are greater, sublimer, and more worthy of God. The empire of knowledge has its seat in mind. The intelligent power which guides the hand of the artist, the author, the mechanic, and the husbandman, has its centre in mind. All the wisdom of the philosopher, the legislator, the barrister, and the prince, has its origin in mind. Arts, science, law, government, commerce, and navigation, are the offspring of mind.

How insignificant is the world, with all its gold and jewellry, pomp and pageantry, crowns and thrones, when contrasted with the intrinsic value and peerless dignity of mind. Mind gives symmetry to the statue and beauty to the productions of the pencil, clears the primeval forests, clothes the barren mountain sides with verdure, converts the wild waste into lovely vales of plenty, invents the beautiful textures of the loom, crowds seas and rivers with industry, exhumes the treasures of earth and ocean, and surrounds the dwellings of princes and peasants with grandeur, loveliness, and comfort.

To what does the world owe its progress in every department of