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The Churchman's

Monthly Companion.

JANUARY, 1844.

ON RELIGIOUS WORSHIP,

Religion cannot be preserved without forms.

THE want of religion in the generality of the common people, does not appear owing to a disbelief or denial of it, but chiefly to thoughtlessness and the common temptations of life. The chief business, therefore, of the Clergy is, to endeavour to beget a practical sense of it in their hearts, as what they acknowledge their belief of, and profess that they ought to conform themselves to. And this is to be done by keeping up, as well as we are able, the form and face of religion with decency and reverence, and in such a degree, as to bring the thoughts of religion often to their minds; and then endeavouring to make this form more and more subservient to promote the reality and power of it. The form of religion may indeed be, where there is little of the thing itself; but the thing itself cannot be preserved amongst mankind without the form: and this form, frequently occurring in some instance or other of it, will be a frequent admonition to bad men to repent, and to good men to grow better; and also be the means of their doing so.

B

How the forms of religion have been, and are, kept up in other countries.

That which men have accounted religion in the several countries of the world, generally speaking, has had a great and conspicuous part in all public appearances, and the face of it been kept up with great reverence throughout all ranks, from the highest to the lowest; not only upon occasional solemnities, but also in the daily course of behaviour. In the heathen world, their superstition was the chief subject of statuary, sculpture, painting, and poetry: it mixed itself with business, civil forms, diversions, domestic entertainments, and every part of common life. The Mahometans are obliged to short devotions five times between morning and evening. In Roman Catholic countries, people cannot pass a day without having religion recalled to their thoughts by some or other memorial of it; by some ceremony, or public religious form, occurring in their way; besides their frequent holidays, the short prayers they are daily called to, and the occasional devotions enjoined by confessors. By these means their superstition sinks deep into the minds of the people, and their religion also into the minds of such among them as are serious and well-disposed.

The conduct of our reformers in abridging ceremonies.

Our reformers, considering that some of these observances were in themselves wrong and superstitious, and others of them made subservient to the purposes of superstition, abolished them, reduced the form of religion to great simplicity, and enjoined no more particular rules, nor left any thing more of what was external in religion, than was in a manner necessary, to preserve a sense of religion itself upon the minds of the people. But a great part of this is neglected by the generality amongst us; for instance, the service of the Church, not only upon common

days, but also upon saints' days; and in several other things that might be mentioned. Thus they have no customary admonition, no public call to recollect the thoughts of God and religion from one Sunday to another.

The state of things under the Law was far otherwise.

"These words," says Moses to the children of Israel," which I command thee, shall be in thy heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." And as they were commanded this, so it is obvious how much the constitution of that law was adapted to effect it, and keep religion ever in view. And without somewhat of this nature, piety will ever grow languid even among the better sort of men, and the worst will go on quietly in an abandoned course, with fewer interruptions from within than they would have, were religious reflections forced oftener upon their minds; and consequently with less probability of their amendment.-Indeed, in most ages of the Church, the care of reasonable men has been (as there has been for the most part occasion) to draw the people off from laying too great weight upon external things, upon formal acts of piety. But the state of matters is quite changed now with us. things are neglected to a degree, which is and cannot but be attended with a decay of all that is good. It is highly seasonable now to instruct the people in the importance of external religion. - Bishop Butler. (A. D. 1751.)

"AND THEN?"

These

A story is told of a very good and pious man, whom the Church of Rome has enrolled among her saints on account of his great holiness. He was

living at one of the Italian Universities; when a young man, whom he had known as a boy, ran up to him with a face full of delight, and told him that what he had long been wishing above all things in the world was at length fulfilled, his parents having just given him leave to study the law; and that thereupon he had come to the law-school at this University, on account of its great fame, and meant to spare no pains or labour in getting through his studies as quickly and as well as possible. In this way he ran on a long time; and when at last he came to a stop, the holy man, who had been listening to him with great patience and kindness, said, "Well! and when you have got through your course of studies, what do you mean to do then?"

"Then I shall take my doctor's degree," answered the young man.

"And then?" asked St. Filippo Neri again.

"And then," continued the youth, "I shall have a number of difficult and knotty cases to manage, shall catch people's notice by my eloquence, my zeal, my learning, my acuteness, and gain a great reputation."

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"And then?" repeated the holy man.

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"And then.... replied the youth; "why then, there can't be a question, I shall be promoted to some high office or other: besides, I shall make money, and grow rich."

"And then?" repeated St. Filippo.

"And then," pursued the young lawyer,

"then I shall live comfortably and honorably, in health and dignity, and shall be able to look forward quietly to a happy old age."

"And then?" asked the holy man. "And then," said the youth,

then.

...

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then I shall die."

"and then.... and

Here St. Filippo lifted up his voice, and again asked, And then?" Whereupon the young man made no answer, but cast down his head, and went

away. This last "And then ?" had pierced like a flash of lightning into his soul, and he could not get quit of it. Soon after he forsook the study of the law, and gave himself up to the ministry of Christ, and spent the remainder of his days in godly words and works.

My brethren, the question which St. Filippo Neri put to the young lawyer, I would put to all of you. I would urge you to put it frequently to yourselves. (From Archdeacon's Hare's Sermons.)

THE RESURRECTION.

"Christ, though He be risen only, yet He is not risen wholly, till we be risen too."-St. Bernard.

Though Thou, O Lord, hast risen alone,
Thou art not wholly risen;
For still Thy captive members groan
In this their earthly prison.

Then, O ye members of the Lord,
To Him, your sacred Head,

United by love's holy cord,

Awake ye from the dead!

Awake, awake! that Christ may rise

Again, ye saints, in you;

And raise to glory in the skies
His mystic body too!

WHAT WOULD A PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN THINK OF AN ENGLISH SACRAMENT SUNDAY?

What would have been the feelings of an Apostle, or of any faithful Christian of the first ages, if he had been enabled to see prophetically the conduct of English Christians of this age, with respect to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper?

To make out what his feelings would have been, let us first consider what his own conduct was, and what

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