controversies fostered by Archbishop Laud began to put on that language a meaning consistent with the theology which he patronized. Mr. Maskell (late chaplain to the present Bishop of Exeter, and a most impartial judge) declares how he had adopted hastily the common mistake on this matter, till the case of Mr. Gorham led him to examine the subject, when he found that among all the Bishops and Doctors of University Professors, who were concerned in setting forth the Articles of Liturgy in Queen Elizabeth's reign, there was hardly one who did for substance hold views irreconcilable with the notion, that regeneration always takes place in the baptism of infants. It suffices us that it is the duty and the privilege of Christians to dedicate to God their children in baptism, that in that Sacrament He may work invisibly in the soul even of an infant, and that parents who, after consecrating their offspring to God in that ordinance, bring them up in "the nurture and admonition of the Lord," have precious promises of blessing. Such promises they are as were made to Abraham when "he commanded his children and his household after him." Parents who are faithful may be assured of the covenant of the Lord with them and their children.

3. As to the Liturgy, here again there is agreement. We know of none (we do not believe there is one) within the bounds of our communion, who does not honestly and heartily choose a Liturgy before all extemporaneous modes of public worship, and who does not especially regard our own as superior to any ever yet framed. There are few points in which Episcopalians are more cordially or more generally united, than in regard to the wisdom of having our Common Prayer Book for public worship. The sentiment among us on this point is not the result of considerations of prudence. The heart in full flow of warm and generous emotion is engaged in upholding our Prayer Book. Years only ripen and strengthen this sentiment. The oldest among us (if there be room for degrees in reference to that about which all are of one mind) are they who most relish our Liturgy. It is wine which improves by age.

A Liturgy, we think, is the form in which public worship, in a settled Church, naturally clothes itself. All public worship has in it the substance of a Liturgy; that is, it is language

uttered by one mouth, in which, expressly or by understanding, many worshippers join. It is not material to the point, whether the language have been framed three seconds beforehand or three centuries. He who offers his prayers by the words of another, whether then for the first time heard from the mouth of the minister, or printed in a book, prays by a form. This form may, in the beginning, be given to the people, as the extemporaneous language of the minister. Need, at the outset, may so require. But as a Church becomes settled, and details of ministration become matters of rule, a proper Liturgy begins to grow up almost spontaneously.

Among all the churches, from the extreme west of Europe to the extreme east of Asia, from the highest north to the most southern point of evangelized Africa, in all languages, and with all varieties of modes, there was not one to be found, till the Reformation, without a Liturgy. Controversies, driving parties into extreme antagonistic positions, may, for a time, keep up in bodies of Christians, prejudices against a Liturgy; but when these subside, the natural course of things begins again. Even now we see some churches, which, for generations, had opposed such forms of worship, inclining to fall back upon them.

The common objection to a Liturgy, that it cramps the spirit of devotion and engenders only formality, history does not sustain. There may be times when the generous and overflowing life of a newly-awakened or revived piety may press against the inclosure of a Liturgy. It may be like the high enthusiasm of a spirit of liberty which sometimes breaks through constitutional and legal forms to gain its end by direct advance. But real liberty, under a settled government, is that which is defined and limited, and secured within constitutional inclosures. In times of quietness, and public order, and happiness, it flows within its proper banks. We can easily pardon a little irregularity in times of high religious emotions, but such are not ordinary in the Church. Our concern is not to provide for extraordinary occasions, but for the daily, or weekly, or periodical cases of public worship.

Among those who have offered their devotions through Liturgical forms, have been some of the most "spiritually

minded" and earnest Christians that ever lived. They have been found in all classes and in all posts in the Church, from the highest peerage to the humblest peasantry, and from the Archbishops and Bishops, doctors and professors, to deacons and laymen. Parish ministers of most sober and chastened piety, and missionaries whose fire of devotion and of zeal has burned with highest intensity, have used and loved to use our Common Prayer.

We are not now, however, about to discuss the general question of a Liturgy, or its grounds and advantages. On that question we know of no differences of mind among us. While that question is not an open one, there are lesser ones about which there have been and are differences of judgment, and considerable discussion, especially within a few years. We refer to proposed changes in our Prayer Book, known among us as the topic of Rubrical Relaxation.

There is no question as to the excellence of the Liturgy, nor of its admirable fitness in general for public worship. There is not an office in it (so far as we know or believe) which any one among us wishes to dispense with or cast out. The main point agitated is the length and the want of flexibility in our offices, or rather in provisions of our rubrics for occasions which are not regarded in our regular morning and evening prayers. Worshippers accustomed from infancy to our Liturgy, in its order for the regular times of worship, can not always sympathize with those in different circumstances. Places and occasions of worship are often found which render relaxation of strict rule, in the highest degree desirable. It may be said that such cases fall under the maxim, that mercy is before sacrifice. That would be well said, provided there were no mode of relief but that of trusting such cases to every man's judgment and discretion. Something, indeed, after all, must be left to discretion, for cases are constantly occurring which no sagacity can foresee or provide for. But what can be easily and well provided for, it is well to regard. As our rubrics stand, there may be, indeed there are, honest differences of opinion, as to what is left to the discretion of the minister, and what is not. Public authority may relieve some who, desiring relief, honestly think themselves, as the laws now are, without

liberty. All agree that if any change be sought, it must be in a very temperate spirit, with great moderation and judgment. Great or violent changes are not, for a moment, to be thought of. Even if any rash measure were proposed, (a thing we have not the slightest fear of,) it would be resisted by the compact body of the Church.

We do long and pray for a more simple preaching of the Gospel, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. This is matter of first concern to every Church. Nothing should have place before it. Through this, prosperity, in the best sense, must come to any Church. Even with defective organization, and inconvenient, cumbrous, or, perhaps, faulty rites, the preaching of the Gospel with the power of the Holy Ghost, will quicken life within it, and give it power and energy for diffusion. Let this be carefully looked to, and whatever stands before it will give place. It is the sound of the horns before the walls of Jericho, or the pitchers and lamps of Gideon's three hundred against the hosts of Midian.

What is the Gospel thus preached? It is Christ Jesus, in his Person, the incarnate Son of God, Eternal Son of the Father, this Person crucified for sin, and risen to glory, to give repentance and remission of sins, and to send forth the Holy Spirit to quicken the souls of men "dead in trespasses and sins." In preaching this Gospel, we affirm the three ancient creeds, holding them on the ground of their being derived from Scripture to be the substance of the Christian faith. They contain this faith implicitly, but they are not expressly the definitions of the Gospel, and were not fitted nor intended to anticipate or supersede all questions and errors of later times. In defining or discriminating the Gospel now, we must have respect (as has been intimated) to the corruptions or errors which have arisen since the early ages of the Church, to those especially which face us in our own days. Next to the supreme importance of the doctrine of the Person of the Saviour, and of his Priesthood, in which he offered himself for sin, is the doctrine concerning the condition and need of man as fallen in the progenitor of its race. Between these two points must come in the doctrine, that the Saviour dispenses life as a matter of simple grace. The Saviour being contemplated in the

fullness and all-sufficiency of his Person, and in the unsearchable riches of his grace, and man contemplated in his fallen state, in which he lies under sin and the divine judgment unto death, the question arises, How do they come together, or how is the sinner to be joined to the Saviour? We answer, all is of grace. The Saviour moves toward the sinner, or rather sends his Word and Spirit to call him to himself. In order to save, he seeks or goes after the lost. The sinner lost, blind, and under the bondage of Satan, would never bethink himself of his soul's life, unless the Saviour should first "apprehend" him through his Word and Spirit. Called by such visitation, the sinner, by the grace given him, turns, repents, and believes, and so is saved. On the part of the Saviour, the righteousness of God, that is, full pardon and a perfect title to life, is offered freely on the part of the sinner, simple faith or trust, which is the extending of the hand to receive the gift, are the grand points in salvation. While the Saviour is set forth offering life as a gift, the sinner is to believe, that is, receive the gift, that he may live. Nothing is to come in between the two, no works of man, no sufferings, no sacerdotal medium, as needful to bring to pass the union between the Saviour and the believing soul. When the Saviour, in his sovereignty, has received the believing soul, and has sent his Spirit to dwell therein and beget the new life, then is that soul a true living member of his body. After birth, the nurse is allimportant to the child. In the family of the Church, divinely ordained and constituted, the new-born child of God is received, and there is to be fed and nurtured, in order to its growth to ripeness for the service and for the enjoyment of God. Insist much on the importance and efficacy of the Sacraments, and we assent, provided it be understood that it is the Word and Spirit of God which make them efficacious, and provided also that it be understood that there must be a prevenient or antecedent grace to prepare for the worthy receiving of them. Food is needful to life; but what avails it, unless the life first exist? What can it profit a dead body? Souls dead in sin can be quickened by nothing but the Word and Spirit of God. Being quickened, they can feed on the bread of God and live for ever.