poses, but expend it in furnishing her with "wedding garments.” The wedding commences and continues two or three days at the homes of both parties. The bride is then sent for and conducted to the house of the bridegroom, who, amid music and dancing, gallantly welcomes her arrival, by throwing at her, as she approaches and alights, a few apples, or painted boiled eggs, from the roof of the dwelling, as loving tokens. The marriage-service is performed immediately after her arrival, and the festivities are continued several days, during which she is present among the guests, but is kept closely vailed.

This

That the burden of these long weddings may not be onerous on the parties, it is considered proper for the numerous guests, at the close, to make a liberal contribution, commonly enough to meet the expenses of the wedding, and sometimes much more. equalizing system is perhaps a good one, as weddings thus bear heavily upon nobody at a given time, and the poor can as easily marry as their more wealthy neighbours. The common age at which the Nestorians marry, is from thirteen to fifteen of the female, and from fifteen to seventeen of the male. The bride, on her marriage, becomes a member of the bridegroom's father's family, subject like her husband and their children, when blest with them, to that father's patriarchal supervision and control.

§ 13. DEDICATION OF CHURCHES.

THIS ordinance consists of reading prayers, and crossing with consecrated oil four stones, one in each corner of the church, and a fifth, which is placed beneath the altar.

The Nestorian churches are plain, oblong structures; in Oroomiah they are built usually of mud, but in the Koordish mountains of stone. They are divided into three apartments, viz. 1. The main body, or place of assembly, called "the temple." 2. A small room at one end, called "the altar," a kind of sanctum sanctorum, which none but ecclesiastics enter, and they only for the purpose of consecrating the elements for the celebration of the Lord's supper. 3. The baptistry, where the bread for communion is also made. The doors of the churches are very small, and they can hardly be said to be "lighted." A lamp is almost always employed at their worship, their churches being dark, or nearly so, even at midday. The people are summoned to worship by the sound of the sexton's mallet, struck upon a board.

The Nestorians consider it important to have some sacred relic

to deposit under the altar of a new church at the time of its erection. A bone, reported to be from the hand or arm of some ancient saint or martyr, preserved in all the freshness of life, is a favourite relic for this purpose; but in the lack of such they take a stone from some other church, which they place as a foundationstone under the eastern end of the structure.

While the Nestorians thoroughly reject the doctrine of purgatorial fire, they still say prayers over the dead, three days after interment, which they call "the resurrection service," in memory of the resurrection of Christ on the third day.

Is not the almost miraculous preservation of the Nestorian church from being crushed by the heavy arm of Mohammedan oppression on the one hand, and decoyed and annihilated by the wiles of papal emissaries on the other, an animating pledge that the Lord of the church will continue to preserve this venerable remnant? That He will even revive and build it up for the glory of his name and the advancement of his kingdom? May he not have important purposes for this church to accomplish―a conspicuous part for it to act-in ushering in the millennial glory of Zion? What position could be more important and advantageous in its bearing on the conversion of the world for a Christian church to hold than that occupied by the Nestorians, situated as they are in the centre of Mohammedan dominion, and far toward the centre of benighted Asia! And is it too much to believe that this ancient church, once so renowned for its missionary efforts, and still possessing such native capabilities, as well as such felicity of location, for the renewal of like missionary labours, will again awake from the slumber of ages, and become clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners, to achieve victories for Zion! That it will again diffuse such floods of the light of truth as shall put for ever to shame the corrupt abominations of Mohammedanism, roll back the tide of Papal influence that is now threatening to overwhelm it, and send forth faithful missionaries of the cross in such numbers and with such holy zeal as shall bear the tidings of salvation to every corner of benighted Asia!

CHAPTER XXIX.

OF THE SACRED SEASONS OF THE PURITANS.

THE subject of the Fasts and Thanksgivings of New England is an interesting and neglected portion of the history of our Puritan forefathers, which the author has great pleasure in presenting to the reader, from the hand of a distinguished antiquary and historian, the Rev. Joseph B. Felt, of Boston; who, with his accustomed diligence and patient research has investigated this portion of our ecclesiastical history, and has very kindly embodied the result of his inquiries, in the following treatise, for this work.

§ 1. FASTS AND THANKSGIVINGS OF NEW ENGLAND.

1. Preliminary Remarks.—Natural religion, as enlightened by original revelation however deteriorated, has long instructed man that he has sins enough for humility and mercies enough for gratitude. Hence it is, that ancient as well as modern nations, the history of whose worship has come down to our day, have had their seasons for giving expression to such affections of the soul. Hence, also, the wisdom of God in requiring this service from his once favoured people. In accordance with such example, the primitive Christians adopted days commemorative of events as full of interest to them as others had been to the Jews. These days were so far increased by the Catholic church and so far observed by the Episcopal church of England, as to meet, for the most part, with the disapprobation of Dissenters. Among the last denomination, who sought for greater simplicity in the forms of worship, was the celebrated John Robinson. His church in Leyden believed with him, that no other holy days should be observed; except Sabbaths and occasional fasts and thanksgivings. The portion of his flock, who resolved to forsake Europe and make their home in America, for the sake of purer society and the spread of the

gospel, had several seasons of fasting and prayer, as preparatory to so important an enterprise, within a few months before they sailed for South Hampton.' So disposed; they would sooner have thought of parting with all their worldly substance, than of omitting duties of public thanks and humiliation before their Maker. The same times, which they hallowed in their European pilgrimage, were engraved too deeply on the calendar of their sacred occasions, to be thus forgotten in their more perilous, needy, and changeful pilgrimage in this country. Hence, with their hopes and fears, their purposes and piety, they brought hither the observance of fasts and thansgivings.

2. Reasons for such days.-As well known to those who have investigated the history of the planters at Plymouth, they had reasons for preferring these days to similar ones of the Episcopal order. They discountenanced the rubric, clerical robes and bands, marriage with a ring, baptism by the sign of a cross, and such particulars enjoined by canonical rules of England-because adopted from the Papal forms, and fitted to turn back the liberty of Protestantism to the bondage of Romish hierarchy. So, for a like cause, they cast off the confinement of holy seasons, except the Sabbath, to particular days and months of each successive year. Their arguments for such an alteration had much force to their perception, when they saw how much the high church party, in their native land, leaned toward Papacy, and how bitter were their prejudices against those who were nonconformists, but who earnestly sought for greater purity in doctrine and more simplicity in ceremonies. As an additional weight in the scale of their judgment, they had not forgotten that adherence to Romish rules was. one of the chief means, under the reign of Mary, which contributed to the relapse of Protestantism to Papacy. They were not so far unacquainted with human nature as to be ignorant that it possessed a principle which is wrought on by the association of appearances, and which, when having repudiated error, and still retaining its forms, is far more likely to fall back upon it, than if having altogether renounced both one and the other. Their reason for deviation from established custom, as now in view, was much stronger in their time than it was subsequently, when Congregationalism had risen from its infancy and numerous depressions to the stature and energy of manhood, so as to have little fear of an inroad upon its privileges. They well knew, that the fasts and thanksgivings of the conformists were designed, like their. own, to improve the moral affections and keep man within the salu

tary restraints of duty; and that the effects of these seasons, when properly observed by any sect, were of so desirable a kind. Hence it was that serious Episcopalians consider the distinction which the Puritans made, relative to this subject, as more the result of needless fear than of real cause.

Thomas Lechford, a respectable lawyer, who resided several years in Massachusetts and returned to England in 1641,-made the subsequent remark on our ecclesiastical usages. "There are dayes of fasting, thanksgiving, and prayers upon occasions, but no holy dayes,* except Sunday. And why not set fasting dayes and times, and set feasts, as well as set synods in the Reformed Churches? And why not holy dayes as well as the fifth of November, and dayes of Purim among the Jews?" This author hereby seems to imply that there could be no more harm in complying with the prescribed religious seasons of Episcopacy, than there was in keeping similar days, appointed by Presbyterian synods, as those of Geneva,-or in the Jewish observance of the stated Feast of Lots, or in obedience to the law of King James, which required every fifth of November to be spent as a national thanksgiving for the discovery of the gunpowder-plot in 1605. But had the primitive settlers of our soil met this argument, they would probably have replied in the following train of thought: We have no serious objections to these occasions. The synods of Reformers were calculated to keep them from papal hierarchy. The commemoration of deliverance from the powder-plot was fitted for a like effect. The celebration of the Jews' being preserved from the machinations of Haman, guarded them against idolatry. The fixedness of these seasons was suited to produce opposite results from the fixedness which belongs to most of the holy days kept by the established church;—and, therefore, we do not reject the former as exerting a bad influence,-while we do the latter for such a tendency.

3. Continuance.-With views of this sort in relation to fasts and thanksgivings, the colonists of Plymouth felt obligated to continue them in their newly-adopted residence, as suited to benefit them and their posterity. In a purpose so consistent with their profession, and expectations of help mainly from the hand of Om

* Lechford here appears to mean those holy days that were kept in the established church. The Puritans so far held their fasts and thanksgivings holy, as to require, by penal enactments, that they should be spent with the sacredness of the Sabbath.