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conceit and spiritual pride. This holds in other matters as well as in religion. The pretender always outdoes the real character. The actor always exceeds nature, and goes beyond the life. In friendship, those, who have the least of the reality, have generally most of the appearance and pretence. Men of the greatest talents and abilities appear in conversation but like other men; whilst fools and coxcombs assume those airs of superiority, and that tone of solemn pedantry, which amazes the ignorant. This holds even in infidelity itself. Those wretches, who set their mouths against the heavens, and profess open impiety, are generally hypocrites in wickedness, who believe and tremble when alone, and are in the horrors whenever they are left in the dark.

Beware, therefore, of a form of religion without the power thereof. The voice of true piety is not heard in the streets. She sounds no trumpet before her, affects no appearances, and lays claims to no distinctions. Those persons are always to be suspected who covet the public eye; who make a show of their sanctity, and who endeavour to dazzle the world with the pomp and the parade of godliness. Let men discover your piety and virtue; do not you discover them yourselves. There is all the difference in the world betwixt being exemplary and being ostentatious. When the angels descended of old, they were in form and appearance like men; but when the devil appeared, he transformed himself into an angel of light.

CELEBRATION OF THE SACRAMENT.

OF

THE LORD'S SUPPER.

In the CHURCH of SCOTLAND the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is celebrated always once a-year, in large towns twice, and in some particular churches more frequently. Except in towns, no particular Sunday is fixed for this solemnity. On the Thursday and Saturday before it, and on the Monday after it, there is public worship. On the Thursday, which is set apart for solemn fasting, no labour is permitted. On the Saturday and Monday, before and after divine service, the people may follow their ordinary occupations. This ceremony is, in general, performed with much so lemnity and devotion.

The singing of psalms, prayers, and an appropriate sermon, precede the celebration of this ordinance. To give a more complete idea of the sacramental service, some portions of such psalms and paraphrases as are usually sung on these occasions are inserted in their places.

MORNING SERVICE.

PSALM IXV.

1 PRAISE waits for thee in Zion, Lord,
To thee vows paid shall be.

2 O thou that hearer art of pray'r,
All flesh shall come to thee.

3 Iniquities, I must confess,
Prevail against me do;

But as for our transgressions,
Them purge away shalt thou.

4 Blest is the man whom thou dost choose,

And mak'st approach to thee,
That he within thy courts, O Lord,
May still a dweller be:

We surely shall be satisfy'd

With thy abundant grace,

And with the goodness of thy house,
Ev'n of thy holy place.

PRAYER*.

"LORD GOD ALMIGHTY! Which was, which is, and which art to come! Thou art the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God. All perfections adorn thy nature: Every attribute of Majesty supports thy Throne. The heavens are thine; thou hast made them bright with thy glory. The earth also is thine; thou art the Lord of universal nature. Thou dwellest in that uncreated light, which mortal eye hath not seen nor can see. Thousands of angels and of blessed spirits stand before thee; Ten thousand times ten thousand minister in thy presence, and perform thy pleasure. The whole host of heaven worshippeth thee."

"Thou hast formed the mountains, and created the wind. With thee are the treasures of the snow, and the chambers of the hail. Thou makest thy pavilion in the dark cloud: Thou sittest on the multitude of waters: Thou walkest on the wings of the wind; and thy voice in the storm makes the nations adore. The sons of men, generation after generation, return to the dust from whence they were taken. The heavens which we behold shall vanish like the cloud which covers them; the earth which we inhabit, shall dissolve like the snows upon its surface; but independent of change, of the revolutions of time, and of the fate of worlds, thou continuest the same, immortal, unalterable, the Ancient of days, from everlasting to everlasting God.

Thou hast given commission unto all thy works, to declare their Maker. The light of heaven reveals to our eyes thine existence: Our ears hear the voice of universal nature proclaiming the Providence which sustains what it made. Thou walkest in the circle of the universe. Thy footsteps are every where seen; Thyself, the invisible God. How powerful is that arm which supports the pillars of the firmament, and keeps the wheels of nature in perpetual motion? How unsearchable that wisdom, which, from the first of time, has conducted all nature? How boundless that goodness which supplieth

In the Church of Scotland the whole congregation stand in a devout posture during prayers,

the wants of the whole creation? How precious are thy thoughts of grace to the children of men!

"Thine is the power, and the victory, and the majesty. Whatsoever pleaseth thee, that thou dost in the heavens and in the earth, and in the sea, and in all deep places. Thou weighest the mountains in scales; thou takest up the isles as the dust of the balance; the nations are as the drop of the bucket before thee. At thine altar, Lebanon is not sufficient to burn; nor the cattle upon a thousand hills, to be a burnt-offering.

"Thou inhabitest time and eternity, and the praises of Israel. Thy goings forth have been of old; thy love to the human race before the birth of time. Before the

mountains were brought forth, when no deep arose from beneath, and no fountains abounded with water, even then were we present to thy mind. Thou didst rejoice in the earth that was to be inhabited, and thy delights were with the children of men. We thank thee for the rank thou hast assigned us in thy creation. Thou hast given us a portion of thine own light; thou hast opened to us the source of intellectual joy, and hast made us capable of becoming it for heaven, and like unto thee. Above all, we rejoice in Jesus Christ, who redeemed us from death, and washed away our sins in his own blood.

"As we now come before thee to commemorate the sacrifice of the Lamb which was slain from the foundation of the world, we recal with joy what ancient days beheld, and the wonders thon didst work of old. To the fathers thy presence appeared, and to the prophets thine inspiration was given. On mount Sinai thou didst descend to give the law; by types and figures thou didst shadow forth good things which were to come. In these last days thou hast spoken unto us by thy son. Thou hast

performed thy holy covenant, and raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of thy servant David. Our souls do magnify the Lord; our spirits now rejoice in God. our Saviour.

"But, whilst we adore thy goodness and mercy, we lament our own unworthiness and guilt. We are less than the least of all thy mercies. We are transgressors from the birth. We are unworthy to lift up our eyes to the place where thine honour dwelleth. Thou whose pure eye discerns darkness in the sun, and charges thine angels.

with folly, thou beholdest the multitude of our iniquities. We have sinned, and what shall we answer unto thee, O thou who triest the heart. We have neglected the good which it was in our power to perform, and done the evil from which we should have abstained. Deaf to the voice of wisdom, we have turned aside to folly; forgetting heaven and immortality, we have set our affections upon the earth; we have looked up to the fashion of the world rather than to thy laws. Alas! when we consider what we might have been; when we think upon the talents that we have abused, the means of improvement that we have neglected, the opportunities of doing good that we have lost: when we reflect how long it was before we began to form a serious thought; we tremble at the footstool of thy justice.

"We confess our sins to thee, O Lord! Our iniquities are now before us. Thou who knowest the heart; thou knowest the sorrow of our souls. Trampling upon conscience, undervaluing the joys of heaven, and braving the pains of hell, we have surrendered ourselves to delusions which, under the colour of good, have left us to misery and remorse. We have turned our glory into shame; we have defaced thine image, and the lineaments of heaven. Woe unto us for we have sinned. Every way have we sinned; ungrateful for mercies bestowed; insensible of blessings promised; impatient under the smallest evils; provoking the friend who loves us. Our condemnation is aggravated, when we think against whom we have sinned. Hadst thou been a hard master, less had been our crime, and less had been our sorrow; but we have offended against the most indulgent goodness, against the tenderest mercy, against the fondest love.

"O thou, who madest us, have mercy upon us. thou, who redeemedst us, lift up again the light of thy countenance. God of infinite perfection, we humble ourselves before thee in the dust. Suppliant at thy throne, we plead for mercy. In the meritorious life, in the atoning death, in the prevalent intercession of our great High Priest, we place our claims of life, and our hopes of salvation. Hide not thy face, O God! Shut not thine ears against the prayer of the miserable. Shine forth in our redemption, and let thy glory appear in saving thy people. from their sins.

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