Says another:

"Blame us not then, if we value our Liturgy. It embodies the anthems of Saints. It thrills the heart with the dying songs of the faithful. It is hallowed with the blood of martyrs. It glows with sacred fire. Long may it resound in the temples of the crucified. Loud be its seraphic strains. Mighty its swelling chorus. Eternal the angelic hymn, Gloria in excelsis Deo."-Staunton's Ch. Dic., p. 320.

But beautiful and exalted as is the language of the Liturgy, there is one word which we would write with the point of a diamond in the heart of every one of our readers. That Liturgy can never find its way to the heart's deepest affections, it can never accomplish that object for which it was in God's providence designed, unless its language is made our own. Well doth the Church call upon all worshippers within her walls, "with a pure heart and humble voice," to accompany the minister of God unto the throne of the Heavenly grace. Thousands of nominal Churchmen never know the value of the Liturgy, because they never devoutly employ its language. Many a voice which echoes long in the festive hall, which is heard in merry tones of joy and mirth amid scenes of worldly pleasure, is yet silent in the temple of God when our Maker's praise engages our songs. Many a congregation, where wealth, refinement, and fashion are assembled, scarcely lisp their Redeemer's praise with audible voice, who yet make the tem

ple dedicated to the god of this world, echo and re-echo, in praise of some poor, ofttimes degraded, worm of the dust!

Churchmen, is this right? Is it just towards God? Is it due honor to the Son and to his Church? It was not so in ancient times. The old Christians lifted up their heart, and they lifted up the voice with one energy, which both showed and enkindled the ardor of their pure devotions. Let us bring back again those old days into the Church. Let parents and sponsors, godfathers and godmothers, train up their little ones, whom God hath given them, for Christ's service. Oh if the Martyrs in olden times, who shouted the "TE DEUM" in the Church, till the walls rang again, and then, when driven out into the cold dark glens, made the very caves and rocks resound with that same seraphic hymn-could those old saints of God come back again to the Church below, would they not ask, "Where is the spirit of love and holy zeal, which enkindled the Church of old ?"

Let us remember even in our worship, that it is "out of the abundance of the heart, that the mouth speaketh." Matt. xii. 24.

CHAPTER X.

POPULAR OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE CHURCH

ANSWERED.

HAVING, in the preceding chapters, presented the Church in her organization, ministry and worship, we propose in this, the concluding chapter, to notice a few objections, which, in these days, are commonly urged against her. So far are these objections are accompanied by an earnest desire to know the truth, we hope to be able to remove them. But the Holy Scriptures tell us too much of the deceitfulness of the human heart (Jer. xvii. 19), and we have witnessed so often the kind of warfare with which Churchmen at the present time have to contend, that we have no expectation of banishing these objections from many minds.

Still there are many persons, thoughtful and serious-minded, who, having given up those old dogmas which were once held, and having witnessed the revolutions going on in theological opinion in the United States, during the last quarter of a century, are now afloat upon a world of uncertainties, and they are now asking with the deepest earnestness, "What is the truth?" "What, and where, is the Church of God?" The Providence of God,

has doubtless brought some such persons within the notice of the reader, as it has of the writer; and could the human heart be read, we have no question, that the number of such inquiring minds among us is greater than is commonly imagined. It is for this class of persons, that we offer a few thoughts in the present chapter.

Besides, there are also, within the bosom of the Church, many of her members who are exposed from time to time to the most wild and foolish objections, and who, though now conscious of their invalidity, will not be unwilling to glance at the following pages.

The following are four objections which we propose to notice:

First objection: That the Church is tyrannical and oppressive in its government, and hence, opposed to the spirit of Free Institutions.

Second objection: That the Church system is not adapted to promote the cause of vital godli

ness.

Third objection: That the Church's adherence to ancient Creeds and Confessions of Faith renders her necessarily opposed to what is called "the spirit of improvement."

Fourth objection: That the Church in this country is closely allied to the corrupt Church of Rome.

We suppose we address few Churchmen who have not heard one, or another, or all of these ob

jections urged against the Church, around which are entwined their strongest affections and brightest hopes.

I. We will commence with the first objection, which, because it is of least intrinsic importance, shall be dispatched in few words :-That the Church is opposed to the spirit of our free civil institutions.

We answer this objection by simply asking, what if it could be shown that the objection is well grounded? What then? It would simply prove that the Church and civil government do not harmonize with each other on a particular point; that the state grants more liberty, or is more licentious than the Church, in their several spheres. But this would not prove that the state was right, and the Church wrong. It is not a self-evident proposition, that the form of civil government in any country-a form liable to constant change-is the model by which Jesus Christ organized his own Holy Catholic Apostolic Church. Such a principle has no foundation in Scripture, reason or comIt would be a most ridiculous idea, that that Church which has outlived every government existing in Christ's day, which has survived the wreck of mighty empires and kingdoms, which shall live on, assuming a more and more commanding place in the history of the world, that this ever living Church of God must bow in servile homage to every narrow system of despotism, or to

mon sense.