Let Christian people feel that worship alone, if there were nothing else, is a sufficient reason for assembling themselves together in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the power of the Holy Ghost. And if, indeed, they meet in the faith of a living Lord, and in the fellowship of one Spirit, their hearts will take fire, and their devotions take wing towards the Majesty on high.

Second, Prayer in the Church. It concerns us very seriously as Presbyterians to know how this part of worship shall be conducted so as to serve the great spiritual interests involved. The majority of Presbyterian Churches throughout the world have hitherto stood identified with the practice of free prayer-that is, prayer without book or form, as we read it was in the primitive times when the president prayed oσa Súvaμis avтe, "as well as he was able." Some have defended the use of a form for baptism, marriage, and the like. Some churches on the continent of Europe have had a partial liturgy -that is, some of the prayers are according to a form, and others are left free. But, for the most part, Presbyterians have looked upon a liturgy as a fossilised worship, and have conducted public prayer without a form. That usage the writer of this paper is content to stand by. And he does so, not because of custom and habit, but from observation and reflection.

Now, we who stand by free prayer are bound to take account of the difficulties and dangers of our position. Our eyes must be wide open to the very great difficulty of conducting this part of the worship well and worthily, and to the great and sore evils resulting from failure. Here, then, are two embarrassments just at the start-the extreme difficulty of framing public prayer and the unhappy consequence of its mismanagement-consequences which have created in some quarters a demand for a liturgy as an imperative necessity. But that, we submit, is to fly from the difficulty instead of facing it, to cut the knot for lack of faith and patience to untie it. We say that, given a man of God whose spirit is touched with the Divine fire, and who has carefully cultivated his faculty, and given a congregation of true Christians already in the spirit of prayer before he opens his lips, and we need not fear for the result. We need not fear, but all the same we must face the facts. And the facts are that in many of our churches the worship by prayer is the least satisfactory part of the service. It often leaves unsatisfied the spirit of the Christian, and it fails to impress the unbeliever or force him to his knees.

The following points, we presume, will be generally conceded :(a) Public prayer is a grace and a gift. So far as it is a grace, it will be attained by a fulness of spiritual life. "Praying in the Holy

And so far as it is a

Ghost" is the significant word of the Apostle. gift, it can be cultivated like any other. An habitual living in the Spirit will furnish the unction, and if to this special training be added, reasonable success will be secured.

(b) Public prayer should be long enough to engage the soul and bring the worshippers up to the high levels of devotion, but not too long, since those high levels are hard to be maintained. A very brief collect may have its place, but in the public assembly time must be taken to give dignity and emphasis to the prayer, and enlist the quickened sympathies of the congregation. On the other hand, the point of tedium is to be shunned, if we would arrest the attention and interest of the young, the unlearned, and the less spiritually-minded.

(c) Prayer should not be extempore in the sense of being never thought of till the moment arrives. Free prayer depends, indeed, on the Spirit, but dependence on the Spirit must not be made an excuse for our indolence and slovenly unpreparedness. Just here is the crux of the whole matter. Nothing in public speech is so difficult as to think out the whole theme beforehand, yet leave the manner of the utterance free and unformulated. But that difficulty must at least be faced by all who offer free prayer. Every idea of the prayer must be present in the mind, but no phrase formulated. If the prayer uses repeated phrases and formulas, it ceases to be free prayer, and becomes the worst of all forms, giving the impression of being slipshod, otiose, unspiritual, and so unedifying.

(d) Prayer should be Scriptural in sentiment, but not textual. It is almost impossible to place together a series of Bible texts or sentences without doing violence to their original sense, and so committing a grave impropriety. Besides, a series of Scripture passages is not a new and original utterance of the Christian's present desires, the ever-fresh, ever-emerging needs of the human soul.

(e) Public prayer should embody the ordinary wants and wishes of the Christian people, and ought not to contain raptures, rhapsodies, and private sentiments altogether aside from average Christian experience. It is a grave mistake if the leader of the Church's worship forgets that he is but the mouthpiece of the congregation. He must sink all private opinion, all unique personal experience, and express only the general sins and sorrows and supplications of the general worshipping community.

(ƒ) Above all, prayer should be devotional, away altogether from the didactic of sermonising; its thought should be spiritual, its language simple, its form a direct dealing with God, its function to be the voice of the Church there assembled, its force deep earnest conviction, touched all over with holy and tender emotion.

It will be acknowledged that such prayer would far surpass the cold correctness of any form, and prove a real transaction with heaven, a true means of grace to the people. In order that this part of church worship shall be so conducted, that all devout souls shall be absorbed and carried along, swept into the current of living devotion, much may have to be done in the Church's arrangements. Whether ministers of the Gospel should undergo a special training for the work we do not undertake to say. But somehow, and by some means, this great function of the Church's ministry must engage the attention of our wisest doctors and leading men.

If there were time we might add a practical suggestion or two, such as that in the service one prayer should be exclusively the expression of the Church's worship, the adorations and supplications of converted Christian souls. Another should contain all the Church's intercessions for others, for the Church at large, for the State, for missions, for the conversion of the unsaved, for the sick, and so forth. Such a course prevents wandering and weary iteration. Again, in all cases, the congregation should signify their consenting will, by the Scriptural and primitive "Amen "; thus adopting the prayer and sealing to it as their own.

Third, The third point is praise in church. In this part of the worship we are no longer embarrassed by the difficulty of free original utterance. The matter of praise is provided in the inspired Psalms, and in spiritual songs founded on the inspired Word. But instead of that we have a new element to care for, viz. the music, which is at once a science and an art of considerable complexity.

And first as to the matter of praise. The Psalms are plainly intended for chanting, and thus a whole Psalm can be sung at once, giving its full connected sense. The prose Psalms, as they are called, are really the more poetical, and every way preferable to the metrical version. But there are great difficulties of technique in the way. These difficulties of technique can be overcome by the choir with a little training, but we have never found them entirely overcome by the congregation in any church. Musical skill is not sufficiently diffused. The chanting of the prose Psalms will be accomplished only when the whole assembly is trained like a choir, and to this object the Church will have to devote a strenuous effort.

Where a hymnal is employed, the selection should be made with jealous care. We mark two or three canons to be observed.

(a) Only those compositions may be used which are in perfect. harmony with Holy Scripture.

(b) We include only those which have gained through time and

trial a sort of general consent of Christian souls, a quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus of their own.

We include only those which are lyrical-that is, structurally singable. Religious poems may be very good as poems, but are quite unsuitable for congregational worship. Our matter of praise being selected and settled, what about the music? Here we have resources of power in our Church services as yet only half evoked. Music wields an extraordinary influence over both educated and uneducated persons. It touches unseen springs of human feeling, moves and subdues the soul with unexplained witchery. A good tune carries a meaning in itself, and when wedded to words of similar meaning there is a blending of sympathetic forces, a united current which carries all before it. Nothing so stirs a congregation and wakes up its devotional sympathies as a Psalm or hymn well-matched to a melody that expresses its meaning, and that melody harmonised with exquisite chording by a musician who understands his art. That one hymn should be known as "The Marseillaise of the Reformation' shows what tremendous popular sway belongs to this part of religious worship.

The Presbyterian Church in Reformation times made noble use of Psalmody, especially in France and Germany. In later times she had fallen behind somewhat in Great Britain and America. But now the subject is taken up in most places with commendable zeal, and is being worked fairly well in the interests of congregational worship. But much remains to be done. May we venture to suggest to this venerable Council the important service that would be rendered by the compiling of an international praise-book-a book which could be used in this country and America, the Colonies and all Presbyterian stations and centres on the continent of Europe? Only in some such way can the good result be reached that visitors, travellers, emigrants, all who change residence, shall be able to join at once in the Church worship wherever they find themselves. If in any way we could secure a more hearty joining in the service, both of prayer and praise, by all the people, the problem might be considered as solved. This, let me say, is an eminently practical question for a Presbyterian Council. If it be true that some persons secede from our churches on the pretext that the service is cold and bald—they never complain of the sermon, but always of the service-then let every earnest man and loyal Presbyterian remove the pretext and roll away the reproach.

In conclusion, we would re-assert the point with which we set out -let the Church realise her spiritual privilege as a kingdom of priests called to offer continually the sacrifice of praise and prayer to

God in the name of Christ. In the Primitive Church the service was very lively indeed: the prayers were followed by the loud "Amen," and the sermon frequently intermixed with murmurs of applause. Modern congregations might consider that not dignified. "But," said Sidney Smith, "the Church is dying of dignity." There might well be a little more life in the service, without any loss of spiritual earnestness and gracious power. When the prayers are fervent and effectual, being offered in the Holy Ghost; when the praises are musical, hearty, happy, like melodious thunder, or the sound of many waters; when the whole service is aglow with inspirational life and power; then the Church will "worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness," the people of God will feel His service a delight, and confess that a day in His courts is better than a thousand." And while the Christian people with one mind and one mouth glorify God, the Father of our Lord, the unbelieving and unspiritual will be made to see there is a secret of holy peace and heavenly gladness which they have not, and so they may be led to seek it for themselves.

After the reading of the preceding papers opportunity was given for discussing the subject.

The Rev. JOHN M'EWAN, Edinburgh (Free Church of Scotland), said-If time had permitted, he would have proved that the entire system of Popery owed its origin to the false principle that the church has power at her own hand to introduce into the worship, doctrine, and government of the Church that which has not the sanction of the Word of God. He trusted that the churches represented at this Council would adhere to the great ruling principle laid down by our Lord in His last great commission, "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you," as in this way only could they expect the fulfilment of the promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

The Rev. Dr. PETTIGREW (Magee College, Londonderry) said the primary and fundamental consideration in this connection had not been emphasised in any of the papers as it should have been, namely, the question of Divine appointment. Let this touchstone be applied to Christmas, Good Friday, Whitsuntide, as advocated by Dr. Apple. Where were these appointed by God to be kept as religious observances by the Christian Church? In all the papers there was one important portion of Divine worship almost entirely overlooked, and that was the preaching of the Word. That was laid down in the Westminster Confession as part of the worship of the Church, and has always been regarded by Presbyterians as of superlative importAt present there was a desire to exalt the service of song to

ance.