^^:">mm'. 6 ,/-V-2_6, 3irnm tlir iCibrar^ of laiffnaiir lenjamin Sr^rkt«r%p MarftHii tijp Uibrarg of BV 176 .P332 1900 Pattison, T. Harwood 1838- 1904. Public worship PUBLIC WORSHIP HELPFUL BOOKS By the Same Author The History' of the English Bible. ^ 121110, 281 pp. Price, $1.25. The Making of the Sermon. 121110, 402 pp. Price, $1.50. Sent on Receipt of price. Am. Baptist Publication Society PHILADELPHIA BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO ST. LOUIS DALLAS ATLANTA Public Worship BY T. HARWOOD PATTISON 'Professor of Homiletics and Tastoral Theoloi^y in the T^ocliester Theological Seminarj/ AUTHOR OF " The CMaking of the Sermon," " The History of the English Hible," etc. He was greatly interested in the effort after greater beauty of holiness, greater attention to fitness and perfection of form in the expression of religions feeling. — CMcmoir of Trinctpal John Caird PHILADELPHIA American JBaptist iPubUcation Society 1900 Copyright igoo by the American Baptist Publication Society ifrom tbc Society's own press ♦ PREFACE There are three strategic points in the work of the minister ; and unless he gives to each of these its due weight he can scarcely hope to make full proof of his ministry. Of these the first is the pas- torate, the second the religious service, and the third the sermon. No doubt the predominance of the sermon in Christian worship from the begin- ning has given to the service its peculiar character. The Protestant Reformation laid great emphasis upon the discourse, and Vinet scarcely exaggerates when he says, " With the Catholics, preaching has little place ; it is almost everything with us." In the case of the fi;ee Churches, which are not bound by any liturgical form, this is especially true. My purpose in this book is to give to all the parts of Public Worship their due importance. It is intended to be complementary to " The Making of the Ser- mon," and to distribute the emphasis which an ex- clusive study of Homiletics might be tempted to concentrate on the discourse. We often hear it said that the sermon without the preacher is the gun without the man at the back of it. With equal justice it may be added that the sermon severed from the entire service is shorn of a large measure of its strength. Not alone is the picture robbed of Vi PREFACE its frame; even the picture itself is marred and dis- figured. It is the peculiar virtue of the Christian religion "that worship and instruction are co-ordi- nate one to the other, they are interpreted one by the other, and so form a whole." Especially is there need that we lay this truth to heart at the present time. The peril with the service in which a ven- erable liturgy is made prominent is that too much attention is attached to the church ; the peril with the non-liturgical service is that too much responsi- bility is laid on the minister who officiates. The one is as mischievous as the other if it does any, even the least, dishonor to the simplicity that is in Christ. T. H. P. Rochester, May i, 1900. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. PUBLIC WORSHIP DEFINED AND DESCRIBED i II. THE Congregation ig III. The public Service 43 IV. Congregational response 65 V. PUBLIC prayer 87- VI. Public prayer (Continued) 107 VII. Public Prayer (Concluded) 127 VIII. The Reading OF the Scriptures 141 IX. MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE 157 X. MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE (Concluded) . 177 XI. THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE ...... igg XII. THE BAPTISM SERVICE 2ig XIII. THE LORD'S SUPPER SERVICE 22g XIV. THE PRAYER MEETING 245 PUBLIC WORSHIP DEFINED AND DESCRIBED SUMMARY 1. Public worship includes the entire service. 2. Too often the other parts of the service are put below the sermon. 3. We must resolve never to do this. 4. in urging the people to attend church, lay stress on the fact that we meet together for worship. 5. Remember that in any part of the service a blessing may be found. CONSIDER THE TERM "PUBLIC WORSHIP." 1. Worship, (i) As to worship in general; (2) As to Christian worship. It includes: a. A true apprecia- tion of God ; b. A recognition of the spiritual char- acter of the worshiper. 2. Public worship. Two features: (i) The special pres- ence of Christ; (2) The presence of others; a Lim- iting and h. enlarging the sphere of worship. NOTE. The Authority for Public Worship. 1. Divine command. 2. Human instinct. . CONSIDER THE PROMINENT FEATURES IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 1. It should be devout: (i) Preparation of leader; (2) Services a heavenward aspect; (3) Services decor- ous ; (4) Services solemn. 2. it should be inspiring : (i) True worship is full of life ; (2) This is the special province of church music. 3. It should be intelligent. 4. It should be restful : (i) Leader to avoid impropriety ; (2) Worship simple and fervid; (3) Worship har- monious. PUBLIC WORSHIP DEFINED AND DESCRIBED 1. Under Public Worship we include the entire service, from the invocation to the benediction. The sermon should not dominate all other parts of the service, as though it were a mountain and they only a plain lying in its shadow. The other parts of the service should not dwarf the sermon, and by their number or length leave no time or vigor for the full delivery of its message. The Protestant Reformation necessarily laid much stress upon preaching. 2. By the very attitude that it assumed that great movement was put on the defensive, and therefore needed to support its claims by a constant appeal to Scripture. " The Christian congrega- tion," Martin Luther asserted, "should never as- semble except the word of God be preached." The same emphatic insistence upon the sermon characterized the churches which, a century or so later, broke away from a liturgy and held by a freer form of worship. The Puritan, in all lands, has been earnest in his plea for the sermon ; and it would be idle to assert that in doing this he has not frequently neglected equally important parts of the service. "In other countries," said Isaac Taylor, 3 4 PUBLIC WORSHIP "the bell calls people to worship ; in Scotland it calls them to a preachment." Charles Kingsley, " with a sneer unworthy both of his genius and his character," found fault with tlie DissenterS of Eng- land because they "went to the church to hear sermons." 3. At the present time the disposition on the part of the non-liturgical churches is toward a reason- able enrichment of the service. It was in the interest of the sermon, as much as of any other part of the public worship of God, that Phillips Brooks declared : " You never can make a ser- mon what it ought to be if you consider it alone. The service that accompanies it, the prayer and praise, must have their influence upon it."^ 4. It is well for us, at the outset, to recognize the importance of each part of the church service, and also of the act of worship as a whole. Not to hear a sermon any more than to read the Bible, to sing, or to pray, does the congregation come together. It meets to do all these as conducive to public wor- ship.'' In urging people to attend church it will be well for us to lay stress upon the fact that we meet for this purpose mainly. "I remember," said Dr. R. W. Dale, " that before I was a minister myself, I was very much astonished when I heard ministers reasoning with their congregations about the duty of attending public worship regularly. I used to think that if I were a preacher and could not make my sermons good enough and attractive enough to 1 " Yale Lectures," p. 142. sps gj PUBLIC WORSHIP DEFINED AND DESCRIBED 5 induce people to come and listen to me in crowds, and because they could not stop away, I should shrink from the humiliation of implicitly confessing my inefficiency by imploring them to come. That was proof of my folly and ignorance. As if Chris- tian people were to meet together principally to lis- ten to a sermon," ' 5. In what part of the service may not a blessing be found ? Insisting upon the care that should be taken in the selection of the hymns to be sung, Mr. Spurgeon recalls the circumstance that an " un- godly stranger stepping into one of our services, at Exeter Hall, was brought to the cross by the words of Wesley's verse : ' Jesus, lover of my soul.' " A country boy unused to public worship goes to a church in Boston, and wearied with his first week of work in the city, sleeps through the entire serv- ice. The closing prayer was almost spoken when the hand of sleep was lifted from him. His open- ing eyes were upon a devout congregation, and his ears caught the four closing words : " For Christ's sake. Amen." "That sleeper was Dwight L. Moody, and the last words of that closing prayer, leading to his conversion, became the motto of a life which alone would be a glory to any church and pastor ; a motto very simple, but covering time and eternity : ' For Christ's sake. Amen.' " ^ I. We may first consider the term " Public Wor- ship." These two words need to be looked at in ' R. W. Dale, D; D., " The Communion of Saints," p. 23. 2 "Life of E. N. Kirk. D. D ," p. 225. 6 PUBLIC WORSHIP their intention and extent. Evidently the second of them is limited by the first ; but we shall do well to think, before going any farther, of I. What is understood by " worship." (i) As to worship in general, then, a good deal can be learned from the mere word itself. It is a contraction of the old Saxon noun " worth-ship," which was applied to a person in recognition of the good qualities or worth which he was supposed to possess. Sometimes more honored in the breach than the observance, it still survives in the title given the English mayor, "Your Worship," as " Your Honor " is used as a figure of speech in America. "Then the noun came to be in the verbal form,^ and to worship was to recognize the worth of the person to whom the worship is ad- dressed. To worship God is to recognize in ap- propriate ways the worth that is in him."* The Book of Common Prayer, preserving this old mean- ing of the word " worthy," reminds the worshipers that they assemble " to set forth God's most worthy praise " ; and when we meet together for worship it is, first of all, to recognize the worth of the God in whose honor it is celebrated. (2) In Christian worship there is a double modi- fication of this idea. a. We must have a true appreciation of God as " the Father of our spirits."' " God is a Spirit," said Jesus to the woman of Samaria, in the discourse which still remains our fullest authority on the true 'Luke 14: 10. 'Dr. John Hall. 3 Heb. 12 : g. PUBLIC WORSHIP DEFINED AND DESCRIBED 7 character of worship, "and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." ^ " God is the mind of the universe. Force, law, harmony, all this is of God, And yet remark the coldness of this, for he is thus revealed only as a God for the intellect, not for the heart. Therefore for the heart he is revealed as a Father."^ Here, then, is the revelation of God by Jesus which is the very core of our Christian worship b. A further modification of the general idea of worship is found in the spiritual character of the worshiper. The true worshiper "shall worship the Father in spirit and truth ; for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers."* The voice which spoke this was the voice of the prophet rather than of the priest.* To worship the Lord in " the beauty of holiness " could never again be made to mean to worship him "in holy array. "^ It was not the Pharisee, correct in dress and posture, but the penitent publican, who went down to his home justified.*^ To pray " lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting"' is to pray indeed. The state of heart of the worshiper will largely determine the acceptableness of his worship before^ God. 2. We pass on to inquire what is meant by public worship, and we notice that it must have two dis- tinguishing features. 'John 4 : 24. ^ F. W. Robertson, two sermons on "Spiritual Worship." ''John4:25. ■• Isa. 1 : 11-17. •'' i Chron. 16 : 29. ^Luke 18 : 14. ^ i Tim. 2 : 8. 8 PUBLIC WORSHIP (i) The special presence of Christ. It is only when we meet one with another that we can claim the gracious promise of our divine Master : '* For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am 1 in the midst of them." ^ " hi entering into perfect union with each other they enter into perfect union with him. The intimacy of their union with each other determines the inti- macy of their union with himself. . . The church is dear to us because in the church is granted to us the special manifestation of the glory and goodness of God." ' To be assured of the presence of Christ should be the first — shall we not say, the chief ? — ambition of the minister. Graduating from the semi- nary. Dr. R. S. Storrs heard words from an hon- ored and eminent pastor in Boston (Dr. N. Adams) which he never forgot, and which we also do well to lay to heart : " In a certain congregation there was a hearer of whose presence the speaker was not aware during the delivery of his sermon. When the fact of that hearer's presence was made known to him it had a great effect upon the preacher. . . Who was the preacher, and who this hearer ? The preacher, I doubt not, may have been any young minister present, and the hearer was Jesus Christ. When the great and the learned and the honored of earth come .to hear you ; when we meet a few of our flock in that distant schoolhouse on a dark and stormy night, in the bungalow, or under the plantain or the palm, or in those South African huts, where 1 Matt. i8 : 20. - Dr. R. W. Dale, " The Communion of Saints." PUBLIC WORSHIP DEFINED AND DESCRIBED 9 you must creep like an animal to get in, remember that you cannot speak in liis name but you will speak in his ear." ^ (2) The second feature which distinguishes public worship is the presence of others. Worship is con- gregational. It is common in the sense in which that word is used in the phrase, "The Book of Common Prayer." This fact both limits and enlarges the sphere of worship, a. It limits it, since because of it the worship be- comes not private and peculiar to any one person ; but, so far as it is possible to make it so, worship in which all may join. The purely personal element must be made subordinate. There are many hymns which are suitable to the heart in its solitude, or to the family circle around the piano at home, or even to the prayer meeting, which are entirely out of place when in the promiscuous congregation every- thing that hath breath is invited to praise the Lord. So of petitions and confessions to be used in prayer, and so of many chapters in the Bible, if our com- mon worship is more than any lonely altar can ex- press, it is also less. h. But the fact that the worship with which we are dealing is public, also enlarges its scope. We join in the rich and varied devotion of the whole congregation. For acceptable worship we need each of us a heart of all conditions. It must be our aim "to pray with the sorrowful for comfort, and 1 Dr. R. S. Storrs, " Preaching Without Notes," pp. 183, 184. 10 PUBLIC WORSHIP with the guilty for mercy, to offer thanksgiving with those whose hearts are filled with music and whose homes are bright with joy. Some part of the service should touch and satisfy each worshiper." ' hi her declining years, when perhaps the memories of her early religious fervor frequently came back to her mind, George Eliot wrote to a friend : "If there were no reasons against my following such an inclination, 1 should go to church or chapel con- stantly for the sake of the delightful emotions of fellowship which come over me in religious assem- blies, the very nature of such assemblies being the recognition of a binding belief, or spiritual law, which is to lift us into willing obedience and save us from the slavery of unregulated passion or im- pulse." Unconsciously to herself, the writer by these words echoed the apostolic injunction : " Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another ; and so much the more, as ye see the day drawing near." NOTE. At this point it may be well for us to notice upon what the authority for public worship rests. 1. it is based upon divine command. The follow- ing passages are only a few among many which might be cited : Exod. 34 : 14 ; Deut. 26 : 10 ; 2 Kings 17 : 36 ; Ps. 95 : 6 ; Acts 2 : 42 ; Col. 3 : 16 ; Heb. 3 : 12-14. 2. It also rests upon our own human instinct. 1 Dr. Dale. PUBLIC WORSHIP DEFINED AND DESCRIBED 1 1 Worship is the satisfaction of a deep-seated im- pulse of our nature. To believe in a God is to feel need, gratitude, yearning, aspiration. To all these worship gives such an expression as will be sought for elsewhere in vain. There is sound sense in the suggestion of Doctor Tucker : " The Puritan churches have made their uninterrupted appeal for many generations to the reason and conscience. Why should they not also make the appeal more distinctively and impressively to the instinct of rev- erence and to the craving for worship ? " ^ By no other human act can we do such full justice to Augustine's golden words: "O Lord, thou madest us for thyself, and our heart is restless until it re- pose in thee." And in no other part of our religious life do we more evidently engage In such rich offices as suit The full-grown energies of heaven II. We are now prepared to glance at some prominent features in Public Worship. I. First among these we place that reverence which is so prominent in the worship of the Old and New Testament ; and we say that public wor- ship should be devout. This is what moved Jacob when he awakened from his dream at Bethel to ex- claim, " How dreadful is this place ! " Mt prompted the psalmist to sing, "Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for evermore" ; ^ in the presence 1 Tucker, " The Making- and the Unmaking of the Preacher," p. 126. * Gen. 28 : 17. ^ Ps. 93 : 5. 12 PUBLIC WORSHIP of the vision of the Lord in his majesty, this brought from Isaiah the cry, "Woe is me! for I am undone ; . . for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." ^ And this it is which inspires the four living creatures in the Revelation who have no rest day and night, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, which was, and which is, and which is to come." ^ To cherish this devout feeling in his own heart and in the heart of the congregation must be the first endeavor of the minister. The essential idea of the church, Wendell Phillips held to be, "the stated expression of devotional feeling." Praise and prayer and preaching should all promote this. In our own time reverence is lamentably lacking in many religious services, and it is probable that to this fact, in part, we must ascribe the trend toward liturgical forms of worship which, whatever may be said of the spirit, anyhow preserve an outward def- erence in the letter. And yet when one recalls the services in which this spirit of reverence was most prominent, it is only fair to confess that they have been oftener than not the services of the free churches rather than those which are confined within the lines of a prescribed liturgy. This needs to be said in order to insist that in this matter, as in so many others, the minister is bound to be an ex- ample to his congregation. On him very largely will it rest to make the public worship devout. (i) Previous to the service let him prepare his 1 Isa. 6:5. 2 Rev. 4 : 8. PUBLIC WORSHIP DEFINED AND DESCRIBED 1 3 spiritual nature by private prayer and meditation, so that he can say, like David, " My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed." ^ (2) During the whole conduct of public worship let him keep in mind that the services have a heavenward as well as an earthward aspect. He stands in the pulpit, as it were, to be the exponent of each of tliese. With angels and archangels, as well as with men and women like himself, he wor- ships God. (3) At the bidding of no transient clamor for the sensational should he allow himself to forget the decorum which ought to mark his conduct of the service. Not reverence alone, but even the sim- plest canon of good taste is violated by the minister of whom a Boston paper reports that, on a national anniversary, one feature in the morning worship was " the playing of ' The Star Spangled Banner ' softly on the organ while the pastor was praying." (4) By his carriage, his tone, his whole conduct, he must impress the congregation with a solemn sense of the most responsible position which he occupies as he leads them in their devotions. Let him pray to be gifted at such times with " a nature at once es- sentially spiritual, and withal truly human in its sympathies." ^ 2. Again, public worship should be inspiring. (i) True worship is stimulating and elevating, because it is affluent in life. " This seems to be the condition on which the Jewish prayer book 1 Ps. 57 : 7. * " Life of Robertson of Irvine," p. 352. 14 PUBLIC WORSHIP (the Psalter) insists beyond all others, the as- sociation of the object of our worship with the idea of life. . . The one thing on which it in- sists is, that its God shall be a living God. That for which the soul of the psalmist thirsts is a foun- tain of life, an object which, by community of life, can commune with his own nature. ' My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.' One would almost imagine that he had in his mind certain prevalent conceptions of God which made religion * a dry, parched land.' " ^ (2) Evidently to rouse and quicken this sense of life, to inspire the worshiper with its enthusiasm, is the special province of church music. It is after in- voking the aid of voice and instrument that the psalmist concludes, "Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord." ^ a. There may be certain parts of the service which are not for the whole congregation, and there seems to be no more reason in the man who cannot play or sing trying to do these than in the man who cannot preach afflicting his brethren with an ex- hortation. The chant, the anthem, the organ solo, rendered for me by others, may express my sense of praise as I myself cannot. b. But because the musical part of the service has in it this element of life to a rare degree, it is desirable that it should be largely congregational. To very few people is the ability denied to join heartily in a hymn or chant. 1 Dr. George Matheson, " Psalmist and Scientist," p. 39. * Ps. 150. PUBLIC WORSHIP DEFINED AND DESCRIBED 1 5 c. It should be added that the inspiring character of our worship will very largely determine which hymns shall be most frequently sung. " Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints." ^ The hymns on which the heart of the church has been set in all ages, and especially in times of religious revival and of spiritual quickening, have been hymns of praise. 3. Further, public worship should be intelligent. This follows from the nature of the God whom we adore. It is the Father whom the true worshiper worships in spirit and in truth. John Stuart Mill gave utterance to a supremely Christian sentiment when he said : " if instead of the glad tidings that there exists a Being in whom all the excellencies which the highest human mind can conceive exist in a degree inconceivable to us, I am informed that the world is ruled by a Being whose attributes are infinite, but what they are we cannot learn. . . convince me of it, and I will bear my fate as I may." * It was the joy of each apostle and early preacher that he could confront heathen darkness and philosophical surmise with the assurance : "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him de- clare I unto you." ' Moreover, that our worship must be intelligent is evident if we remember the purpose which it is in- tended to serve. 1 Ps. 149. ' J. S. Mill, " Examination of Hamilton's Philosophy," pp. loi, 102. 5 Acts 17 : 23. l6 PUBLIC WORSHIP When he conducts the public religious service, the minister aims to do three things : First, he speaks for himself and his congregation to God ; this he does by his words of prayer and by the voice of praise in which he invites the congregation to join. Secondly, he speaks as God's voice to man ; by the reading of the Scriptures. Thirdly, he speaks as a man with a message from God to men ; and this finds its utterance in the sermon. The main pur- pose served by public worship, therefore, is intelli- gent communion with the Father of our spirits. It brings him near to the worshiper, and the worshiper near to him. 4. As a final point, we claim that public worship should be restful. The thing which we intend by this word is perhaps easier understood than defined. It is what the devout worshiper gratefully recognizes when it is present, and wofully misses when, as too often happens, it is absent. It has nothing in com- mon with somnolence or inaction. It is easily dis- turbed and dissipated. It is capable of distinct cul- tivation. (i) We mention only a minor matter, but yet it is one which cannot be passed by without a note of warning, when we say that in public wor- ship the minister should avoid everything which may jar upon that sense of propriety which a re- fined and cultured worshiper possesses. Not by dress or behavior or language should he offend the reasonable good taste of any of his congregation. (2) He should strive that the whole act of wor- PUBLIC WORSHIP DEFINED AND DESCRIBED 17 ship should be simple and fervid and full of spirit- ual unction. (3) He will do well to preserve some meas- ure of harmony between the various parts of the service. Of a minister who gave much care to this matter, it was said : " Whatever the subject of his sermon may be, his prayers, the parts of Scripture read, the hymns sung, are all dominated by the central idea of that subject. The whole service illustrates, as it were, the truth or truths he wishes to impress upon his hearers. There is no haphazard or digression ; all is proportionate and relative." * Of Robertson of Irvine, the poet-preacher of Scot- land, his biographer writes : " The correlatives, as he called them, — praise, prayer, and preaching, — were built up by him on the principle of a progres- sive unity." And of another minister of the same church, a casual worshiper says : " As we listened to him the other day we could not but remark the oneness of the preacher, the service, and the build- ing. All three were instinct with homogeneous reverence and naturalness." Contrast with this conception of what worship should be, the fol- lowing report of a service in another place : "We had solos, congregational hymns, organ voluntaries, the brass band of Salvation Army household troops, the singing of a body of hallelujah lads and lassies, while occasional volleys of loud applause by the audience interlarded the services throughout." it is not difficult to decide which of these services ' Dr. William Pulsford, Glasgow. B l8 PUBLIC WORSHIP would be the more reverent, inspiring, intelligent, and restful. Exceptional circumstances will no doubt lead us to vary the service, and even at special times to entirely alter its character ; but for the ordinary worship in our churches we may surely claim that it be marked by these four features. The test of a service is often found in the impression which it leaves on the mind of a devout person. Coming away he should be solemnized, quickened, enlight- ened, and refreshed. His heart should bear witness to the fine discernment of Wordsworth's lines : I bent before thy gracious throne, And asked for peace on suppliant knee ; And peace was given — nor peace alone, But faith sublimed to ecstasy. II THE CONGREGATION SUMMARY The Congregation is a Unit : 1. Every congregation is apt to liave a distinct character of its own. 2. A congregation can he trained. 3. The minister is largely responsible for the right training of his congregation. I. THE CONGREGATION MUST BE TRAINED IN BEHAV- IOR. 1. Habits to be corrected : Whispering and talking ; laugh- ing ; staring about ; coughing loudly ; unpunctuality ; sleeping ; haste to leave. 2. Correct these habits by raising the general tone of the congregation. 3. In some instances more stringent treatment may be called for. II. THE CONGREGATION MUST BE TRAINED IN REV- ERENCE. 1. Respect for the minister, (i) Mainly because of what he is in himself ; (2) In part, because he is a minister. 2. Respect for the day. 3. Respect for the meeting-house. 4. Respect for the service. How to promote this : (i) By previous religious prepa- ration ; (2) By encouraging devout habits through the service ; a. Silent prayer ; b. Deep reverence ; c. A reverent posture ; d. Response of " Amen." III. THE CONGREGATION MUST BE TRAINED TO HOS- PITALITY. Directions for this training, N. B. Much can be done by the congregation to bring others to the service. Conclusion, a responsive congregation helps the min- ister. II THE CONGREGATION There will be many times in his ministry when the preacher for purposes of instruction or appeal resolves his congregation into its elements, and, so far as it is possible to do so, considers each hearer separately. On the other hand, when he leads the worship of his people the minister will need to remember that the congregation is a unit. 1. There is likely to be a character which belongs to it, and which distinguishes it from other congre- gations. No two are precisely alike. We recognize this as true when we think of various denomina- tions. The Episcopalian congregation is not easily mistaken for the Methodist, or the Baptist for the Presbyterian. But it is also true of congregations of the same denomination, and gathering in the same community. To each belongs its own indi- viduality. One is devout, and another indifferent ; one hypercritical, and another active and earnest. 2. This leads to the further remark that a congre- gation, in common with most other bodies, can be trained. It is as susceptible to the influence of the minister as is the young horse to the touch of its master. There is a congregational spirit, a congre- gational heart, a congregational conscience. 21 22 PUBLIC WORSHIP 3. For the development of these ui a healthful way, the minister is very largely responsible. Let him be especially careful, therefore, as to his own behavior, hi the narrower as well as in the broader interpretation of it, there is fitness in Paul's desire for Timothy: " That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God."* He will do well to study his congregation in its com- ponent parts and as a whole, and then set to work, with tact and judgment, to educate the people to habits of devout conduct during public worship, in his little parish of Bemerton, holy George Her- bert did this, and his biographer writes: "if he were at any time too zealous in his sermons, it was in reproving the indecencies of the people's behav- ior in the time of divine service ; and of those min- isters that huddled up the church prayers without a visible reverence and affection ; namely, such as seemed to say the Lord's Prayer or collect in a breath ; but for himself, his custom was to stop betwixt every collect and give the people time to consider what they had prayed, and to force their desires affectionately to God before he engaged them into new petitions."^ Surrounded by a congregation not so large or even so cultured as that which George Herbert thus molded to a finer behavior, Henry Ward Beecher began his ministry. With eighteen cents in his pocket and a prospective salary of three hundred dollars a year, he faced his Lawrence- ij Tim. 3 : 15. ''Isaac Walton, "Life of George Herbert." THE CONGREGATION 23 burg audience in the little church which on the Saturday afternoon before his own hands had prepared for decent occupancy ; and his wife re- calls the Sunday morning service when he set himself to the harder task of bringing order out of chaos in his congregation : " He read the first hymn and read it well — as they had never heard their own ministers (often illiterate, uneducated men) read hymns. I watched the expressions change on their faces. Then the first prayer ! It was a revelation to them, and when he began the sermon the critical expression had vanished, and they evidently settled themselves to hear in ear- nest."^ By and by, he became so completely the master of the congregation that he would let no interruption during the service pass unreproved, "and when late-comers appeared, he would stop speaking till they were seated." it is with some of the things to which a congregation can be trained that we have now to deal. Before considering them it needs to be said that the full force of a pastor's power in this matter can only be felt by the people to whom he regularly ministers. In the case of an occasional service to a congregation which is strange to him, he can do but little. Under such circum- stances it is not wise to change the existing order of the service, or to draw attention to his own opin- ions and methods ; and he will also need to remem- ber that the support which comes to him from knowing his congregation and being known by those iScoville, " Life of H. W. Beecher, " p. 173. 24 PUBLIC WORSHIP who worship with him, is lacking now. There is less to which he can appeal in the confidence of a ready response. His fingers are on an instrument whose chords are unaccustomed to his touch. 1. Having in mind now the people to whom he ministers statedly, we remark that the congregation must be trained in behavior. By this we mean outward decorum. I. There are habits which need to be corrected. " As you preach the word, my dear brother," writes Mr. Robert Burdette, " cast your eyes around upon the congregation, and you will observe these people, namely : The sleeper, the old-timer from Sleepy Hollow ; the lounger, who falls into the pew and slides easily into the most comfortable corner ; the fidget, who folds his arms across his breast, then crosses them behind his back, then thrusts his hands into his pockets, drops a Bible on the floor, and puts his feet into his hat ; the watcher, whose neck is fitted on a globe-socket and turns clear round, and who sees so much that he has no time to listen ; the time-keeper, who as you pronounce your text, takes out his watch, looks at it carefully, and closes it with a snap that says " Go " clear to the pulpit ; the squeaker, who comes late, sits well up in front, and wears boots that are vocal mon- sters ; and the ' Talking Traveler,' " of whom Mr. Burdette remarks, " This brother is usually a sister. She comes to church Sunday morning careful and troubled about all the unfinished missionary and sewing-circle business of the week, and for pur- THE CONGREGATION 2$ poses of consultation tlits from one sister to another and buzz, buzz, buzz, the talk goes on in the itiner- ant caucus." Underneath the humor of this classification the minister recognizes a vein of kindly reproof. The whisperers are often very good people, and the business which concerns them and disturbs the devout worshiper has frequently to do with the work of the church. The habit of laughing and jesting during the service may have grown chronic for lack of early correction ; and not every minis- ter will venture to adopt the heroic treatment em- ployed by a long-suffering preacher who being annoyed in this way, paused in his discourse, looked at the disturbers, and said : " 1 am always afraid to reprove those who misbehave, for this reason : Some years since, as I was preaching, a young man who sat before me was constantly laughing, talking, and making uncouth grimaces. I paused and administered a severe rebuke. After the close of the service a gentleman said to me : ' Sir, you made a great mistake ; that young man was an idiot.' Since then I have always been afraid to reprove those who misbehave themselves in church, lest I should repeat that mistake and re- prove another idiot." During the rest of that serv- ice there was good order. To survey the congre- gation with a view to see who is, and especially who is not present, is sometimes an office for which some particular deacon believes himself especially qualified. The man who has not elsewhere trained 26 PUBLIC WORSHIP himself to repress, so far as possible, the cough and its accompanying demonstrations, will not be likely to begin that neglected branch of his education in manners in the church. Unpunctuality would seem to be an inherited frailty in congregations, although in no other part of the world (if we may credit the observations of those who have made a study of the subject), is it so completely reduced to a system as in America. In the records of a Baptist church in Yorkshire, England, which date from nearly a century ago, we may read : " Brother E. Crossley is desired to speak as he may have opportunity to such persons as coming too late or walking too fast upstairs disturb the congregation " ; and two hun- dred years earlier George Herbert sang : Sunday observe ; think when the bells do chime 'Tis angels' music ; therefore come not late. Far gone although he be, the late-comer may yet have a conscience which will be brought to time by the answer that a lady gave to the inquiry why she always came early to church : " Because it is part of my religion never to disturb th'e religion of others." The habit of sleeping in church can plead antiq- uity in its support, as can so many other practices which are more time-honored than honored in any better way. That Samuel Pepys attended church so regularly and profited by the sermon so little, is in part accounted for if we note with what fre- quency he owns in his Diary to having preferred THE CONGREGATION 2^ a doze to a discourse ; and the preacher, if he no- tices a general disposition to somnolency on the part of his congregation will do well to lay to heart what a witty Frenchman said to an author who blamed him for condemning his composition when as a fact the critic had been sleeping all the time that it was being read, "My friend, sleep is an opinion." Against the unseemly practice of scrambling for the hat, or even into the overcoat, while the final hymn is being sung or the benediction pronounced, Dr. John Hall remonstrated : " There is no need that you should have your hat in your hand, no need that you should have the greatcoat upon the shoulder, nor yet that, the moment the last syllable is pronounced, doors should be thrown open, as though you were eager and impatient until the thing had come to a close. It would be well — it would be better, more in harmony with outward expressions of reverence — if there were a moment's silence, a silent pause, indicating that, when the service is closed, you have not been eager for its close, and then it is yours to go away in the hopeful confidence that God had been rever- ently waiting upon you, and whose benediction had been pronounced over you in his name and by his authority, would go with you and help you to make the rest of your life, not secular as distinguished from religious, but spiritual and godly through and through." ^ I "Homiletic Review," March, 1885. 28 PUBLIC WORSHIP This is a wiser method of correcting a most un- seemly habit than that of the minister who tried to break it up by remarking : " Those of the congrega- tion who do not get their things on during the prayer can do so while I pronounce the benedic- tion." The loss of temper which betrays itself in a sarcasm is likely to result in a corresponding loss of influence ; and nowhere is influence needed more than when these careless and irreverent cus- toms, which may have gone for many years un- checked, come to be reproved. 2. hideed, no sounder method of reformation can be suggested than to raise the general tone of the congregation, and this will demand patience and tact. Sydney Smith said of the British House of Commons, that as a whole, it had more good taste than any one man in it. This is true also of a con- gregation. There is a body of behavior in it re- sembling the body of public opinion in civil matters. This can be elevated by strenuous and intelligent education, it is wise to notice with words of com- mendation every sign of reformation. Accustom the people to take such a healthful pride in their reputation for devout behavior as will lead them in- stinctively to resent any lowering of the standard. Do not count this matter unworthy of a prayer meeting talk when the time is ripe for it. 3. Without doubt there may be instances of un- seemly behavior which will call for more stringent treatment. But forbear, so long as it is possible to do so, from speaking to an offender in public. Go THE CONGREGATION 2g to him alone, and remonstrate. It is quite possible that his education in the minor moralities of Chris- tianity has been neglected. Neither the home nor the daily work has taught him reverence, and per- haps even courtesy has little or no meaning to him. Sometimes it will remedy the evil if you pause in -- the service until the interrupter becomes conscious of the annoyance he is causing. There may, how- ever, be extreme cases in which it is absolutely necessary for you *'to speak out in meeting" against ill behavior. If there is, then, without losing your temper, do not spare the offender. You may even go further, and secure the presence of a policeman \\hen some long-continued disturbance imperils profitable worship, or which is better, you can have yourself, or some official in the church, sworn in as a special constable with power to en- force order. The early New England church had a recognized authority in the tithing man, equipped with a long staff, heavily knobbed at one end, and furnished with a hare's foot for gentler discipline at the other ; the English beadle divided such duties with the warden, who was also armed with a rod and encouraged to use it when necessary ; and Addison tells us how the stately Sir Roger de Cov- erley was in the habit of occasionally rising in his pew during the service to see that his tenants were ordering themselves lowlily and reverently. We have not yet reached the time when we can entirely dispense with the power behind the pulpit any more than we can with the power behind the throne. 30 PUBLIC WORSHIP II. Secondly, the congregation must be trained in reverence. Reverence lies at the roots of behavior, and powerfully affects it, influencing our treatment of the day in which we gather for worship, and of all that the act itself involves. I. It should be evident, for one thing, in respect for the minister. (i) Mainly, let us hope, this respect will be ac- corded to him because of what he is in himself. His character, apart from his office, must command the confidence of his people, and he, in his turn, must learn to respect them. Without this there can be no satisfactory fellowship and no worship worthy of the name. To minister and congrega- tion alike comes the word : " And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord." ' Well does Phillips Brooks say : " The whole of the relation between the preacher and the congregation is plain. They be- long together. But neither can absorb or override the other. They must be filled with mutual re- spect." ' (2) Yet in part this respect is also due to the minister as the minister. He is the man chosen by the church to conduct the worship. In honor- ing him the people also honor themselves. " There is an authority belonging to the man who holds the ministerial office, an authority hard to define, but the recognition of which is essential to the peace of the church and to its vigorous action." ' While, 1 Ezek. 54 : 31- ^ " Yale Lectures," Lecture VL 3 pr. W. R. Dale. THE CONGREGATION 31 therefore, the minister will avoid all priestly as- sumption, he will never suffer himself to forget that he is in the pulpit as a recognized ambassador of Christ. 2. Reverence should further show itself in respect for the day. The usage of centuries has set Sunday apart for sacred rest, for communion with God, and for his public worship. Independent of all contro- versy as to authority, it is enough for our purpose that this general usage has settled for us the ques- tion of the true purport of Sunday. It cannot be treated as other days are. Certainly the hours set apart for worship are to be spent devoutly. It is of Oliver Wendell Holmes, who pretended to little re- spect for traditional authority in religion, that one of his friends writes : " There was in the corner of his heart a place called reverence, which needed to be watered once a week." 3. We mention as another way in which rever- ence should be apparent, a respect for the meeting- house. He who would not wear his hat in the house of a friend, will certainly not wish to do so in the house of the Lord. There is nothing super- stitious in the feeling which cherishes with respect- ful affection the place which is associated with so much that is sacred in our lives. There we were brought to worship in our childhood, there the mes- sage which led to our conversion reached us, there we were baptized, and there first we sat at the Lord's table with men and women whose memory is unspeakably dear and fragrant to us. The meet- 32 PUBLIC WORSHIP ing-house should, so far as is possible, be employed only for religious purposes. Not willingly should we lower its character by any purely secular usage. It has not been consecrated by ecclesiastical cere- monies, but yet it is holy ground by the fact that to many souls it is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven, 4. We may certainly claim that the spirit of rev- erence will be seen in our respect for the service. (i) To strengthen this it is well to encourage previous religious preparation on the part of the people. At the mid-week prayer meeting you may sometimes urge that special prayer be offered on behalf of the services of the next Sunday. Oc- casionally call the people together during the week to plead for the same object. Some churches have a Saturday night prayer meeting when they "pray on to the Sunday " ; more common is the early Sunday morning prayer meeting ; and, of late years, the five minutes which the minister spends in prayer with his deacons immediately before going into the public service, morning and evening. (2) If this earnest spirit of expectancy has been cherished beforehand it will not be a hard matter to encourage devout habits during the service. a. As the worshiper takes his seat, let there be a few moments of silent prayer. Call the atten- tion of the church to this privilege, of which too little has been made. h. By word, act, and spirit, inculcate deep rev- erence for God and his worship. With what holy THE CONGREGATION 33 awe the patriarchs approached his throne. How one feels the hush of godly fear as the high priest lifts the curtain and passes into the Holy of Holies. It was before the vision of the God whom we adore that Isaiah cried : ' " Woe is me ! . . for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." " Surely," says Lewis Carroll, "there is a deep meaning in our prayer, ' Give us an heart to love and dread thee.' We do not mean terror, but a dread that will harmonize with love ; ' respect ' we should call it as toward a human being, ' reverence ' as toward God arid all religious things." c. Our devotions would be helped were we to assume as far as we can do so, a reverent posture in prayer. "Here," says the Episcopal Prayer- book, " the congregation shall kneel on their knees," but even where provision has been made for doing this, it is too often true, as a French satir- ist has lately remarked, that the " faithful kneel on something else ; they sit down and then with their elbows on their knees, the upper part of the body thrown forward and their faces buried in their hands, they look from a certain distance as if they were all on their knees, whereas they are all comfortably seated." At least it is possible to urge on the peo- ple that during prayer the head be bowed, and face be shaded by the hand, and the eyes closed. d. There seems no reason, also, why the congre- gation should not be trained to say " Amen " after the prayer ; and the quiet moment at the close of 1 Isa. 6 : 5. c 34 PUBLIC WORSHIP the service, when the whole congregation remains in silent prayer, will be secured if the benediction be pronounced with the people seated, and if the minister makes a brief pause between the last words of the benediction and the final "amen." The minister will himself be the gainer, as well as the people of his charge, if he makes a serious business of training his congregation in reverence. A New England pastor, with strong Puritan sympa- thies, finds himself deeply impressed while attend- ing the Protestant churches in Europe with the devout appearance of the congregation. He says: " I used often to find myself in a church where a sacred stillness pervaded the assembly as the min- ister led our devotions. Nearly all bowed their heads in prayer, as they took their places in the pews. They listened attentively, and they joined in singing and chanting as though they desired to have a part in the worship. They were in no haste to leave their seats after the benediction. It is easier to preach in England than at home, because English congregations are so attentive and so re- sponsive." ^ We have been dealing in this chapter with what may be called the externals of worship, with mat- ters which belong rather to its seemly and success- ful conduct than to its deeper purpose. The behav- ior of a congregation and the respect which it shows for the service are indeed of great importance, but ^"The Church of Yesterday, To-day, and Forever," E. H. Byington Smith, D. D. THE CONGREGATION 35 mainly because they are the surface manifestation, outward and visible, of hearts and minds and truth. III. We shall make our subject complete if we add that the congregation should be trained to hos- pitality. A church, as much as other places, has a climate. The atmosphere is sometimes warm and genial, at others it is cold and repelling. The architecture of the building is in part responsible for this. The Gothic cathedral, ingeniously planned to circulate draughts and create echoes, is not so conducive to profitable worship as the building planned on the lines of the old Jewish synagogue, the early basilica, or the familiar New England meeting- house. A good many churches have yet to learn the secret of lighting up more brightly in front, so as to attract the passers-by. The name of the church and of the minister should be plainly ex- posed on a board in a prominent place on the church, where all will be likely to see it. The habit of substituting for this useful information, the name and address of the sexton and undertaker is to be avoided ; it only suggests that the church, like the potter's field, is chiefly used as a place to bury strangers in. The minister should set himself to the work of stimulating the hospitality of the congregation. The following hints may be of use to him : I. Aim to give to the whole church service a social, homelike feeling. " Let three doors be open here," was the counsel of that model pastor. Dr. 36 PUBLIC WORSHIP C. L. Goodell, "the door of the church, the door of the pew, the door of the heart." A partner of Richard Cobden's used to say that he could not work properly in a temperature of less than sixty- five degrees, and in like manner the moral temper- ature should be kept warm in order to profitable worship. 2. Make strangers welcome. It will be well if the church is furnished with an ample vestibule where you can speak to them at the close of the service, if you adopt that method of greeting them, and where, in any case, a welcoming committee should have one or more of its members always present. " An usher at each door is ready for you," says Mr. Robert Burdette ; " there is a perfect picket line of sextons and deacons and ushers along the front of the church of the Samaritans ; not to keep people out but to bring them in ; it isn't a fort, it's a hospital ; it's a man-trap, baited with Chris- tian courtesy, and the man who is caught there never tries to get away." The ushers should be selected with care ; let them be genial, atten- tive, business-like, and instructed to seat the early comers well to the front. A committee on stran- gers may with advantage be appointed in a large church, or one in which the congregation changes often. The duty of this committee will be to re- ceive from the pastor lists of persons who have attended the church service and visit them. He, in his turn, gets these names by means of cards placed for the purpose in the pews, and to which THE CONGREGATION 37 he occasionally calls the attention of the congrega- tion. 3. During the service, keep your eye on the people ; from your position you may see much that will escape the notice of others. Be able to beckon to your side an usher or deacon, by means of a pre- concerted signal, so that he may receive directions or suggestions. Encourage the officers of the church and the members of the congregation to bring occa- sional worshipers to be introduced to you at the close of the service. Be in the study or remain for a while in front of the pulpit for this purpose. More than one minis- ter has adopted the excellent plan of keeping the lecture room or the church parlors open for an hour after the evening service on Sundays, and inviting all who will to remain for a social hour. To num- bers of young people in our cities who have no homes to which to return, this has been a means of permanent good. 4. Let the congregation be trained to be sociable, hitroduce pew-holders to those who occupy seats near them. At one church in a large Eastern city, each member of a certain committee is pledged to make any strangers in the five pews in front of him feel at home in the church.' After each serv- ice he speaks to them and shows them other at- tentions calculated to make them wish to come again. Try to get the members of the church to feel their responsibility in this matter of congrega- 1 " Goodell's Life," p, 375. 38 PUBLIC WORSHIP tional hospitality. To a member of the pulpit com- mittee of a large city church that was in search of a minister who would attract and hold a congrega- tion, Dr. Henry Van Dyke said, with wholesome plainness of speech : " Twenty congregations have passed through your church in the last twenty years ; and they have passed through because you have not had a church that will hold. You want a church that will hold the people when they get into it. The minister cannot hold. Success depends not half so much upon the minister as upon you, the church." Let the pew-holders themselves bring in those whom they may see in the vesti- bules or aisles in need of seats. Have the pews well supplied with hymn books and Bibles, and ac- custom the people to pass them to strangers, even though they themselves may have to go without. He who once finds his way into the church of which Mr. Burdette writes is likely to return : " You get comfortably seated and somebody pushes a has- sock toward you ; a child in the next pew hands you a hymn book ; an old lady puts a Bible into your hand. The minister looks at you as though he had seen you before, and was glad to see you again." One of the first memoranda that Henry Ward Beecher made in his journal when called to his little Western church ran thus : "My people must be alert to make the church agreeable, to give seats, and wait on strangers." Mindful of her early experiences in a city church, of her utter THE CONGREGATION 3g loneliness in a crowd in which there seemed to be no one to sympathize with her lot or to care for her religious needs, a Christian woman writes "to urge that we see to it that there are no strangers left in our church to feel that not one of God's peo- ple cares a thought for their welfare or spiritual growth. In all our large cities there is a mass of moving humanity, men and women who have left their homes at the very verge of childhood, thrown out to drift or struggle along upon the world's toss- ing billows, and it may be that, entering the house of worship, many of them may meet the first true, earnest greeting from a kindly heart that has been given for years. Shall we let them go uncheered } " As a young man Daniel Macmillan was first a Baptist and afterward an Independent. Subse- quently he passed over to the Church of England, and became probably the most influential and pros- perous publisher of the literature of that church that our century has seen. It was with feeling of affection and respect and reverence that he bade farewell to Mr. Binney, the minister of the place of worship in London which he had attended ; but he was careful to add : " As no one there ever spoke to me, as I know no one there, and can have no respect or affection for the church, it costs me no pain to leave it."^ A few years since the minister of another church, in announcing that he had re- ceived a letter from one who had been a member of the church and wished his name erased, quoted I " Memoir of Daniel Macmillan," p. 73. 40 PUBLIC WORSHIP the words with which this request closed : '* 1 esteem your church for its high gentlemanly tone, but I pity those who join it with the expectation of receiving any Christian fellowship." No doubt in many cases similar to these the fault is by no means all on one side ; but with that we are not now concerned. Our duty is to inculcate and to practise the grace of congregational hospitality. If any should go away lonely of heart and unnoticed, let it be through no lack of cordiality on the part of the minister and his people. The one as much as the other is responsible for the hospitable atmos- phere of the church. To a larger extent than is often thought by us, the members of the church can work for the building-up of the congregation, in an old Baptist church-book these words may be found : " Approved of the suggestion from Brother Ackroyd, that all the members use their utmost en- deavor to bring their neighbors to the public meet- ings." The sight of so many empty pews greatly discouraged Mr. Spurgeon on his first Sunday morn- ing at New Park Street Chapel, London. " What can be done ? " one of the deacons asked of his family when they returned from the service. " We must get him a better congregation to-night, or we shall lose him." "So all that Sabbath afternoon there ensued a determined looking up of friends and acquaintances, who by some means or other were coaxed into giving a promise that they would be at Park Street in the evening, to hear the won- derful boy-preacher." Mr. Spurgeon had seen his THE CONGREGATION 4 1 last of the empty pews ; and he never failed to in- sist that his immediate success in London was due, in no small measure, to the recruiting work done from the very beginning by the members of his congregation. In conclusion, let me remind the minister that nothing will help him during the service (with the exception, of course, of the presence of the Holy Spirit), so much as a responsive congregation. Elo- quence in its highest forms is due to an eloquent hearer as well as to an eloquent speaker. In our congregational worship each responsive heart is of substantial service to the minister. And if he has been happy enough to win their affection and to command their respect, he will not appeal to them for this response in vain. The heartiness with which a congregation falls in with the wishes of the pastor in these matters of behavior, reverence, and hospitality is only one proof among many of the love and loyalty which it delights to show to him. "1 cannot help bearing witness," said Phillips Brooks, "to the fairness and considerateness which belongs to this strange composite being, the con- gregation. His insight is very true, and his con- science on the whole is very right. Whether the minister feels the congregation or not, the congre- gation feels the minister. Often the horse knows the rider better than the rider knows the horse." ^ 1 "Yale Lectures," p. 211. Ill THE PUBLIC SERVICE SUMMARY I. THE Minister's CONDUCT OF THE PUBLIC Service. 1. Appearance. As to dress. 2. Manner. 3. Habits: (i) Punctuality; (2) Decorum; (3) Devout- ness. Note. The extremes of assumption and subservience to be avoided, i. Not extreme. 2. The minister to lead. II. The Order of Worship in the public Service. I. The arrangement of the various parts of the service: (i) Pay attention to devotion, praise, edification, rest. Beware of exaggerating the sermon at the expense of the other parts of the service. Formerly more common than now ; still done , encouraged sometimes by pulpit notices in the newspapers; (2) Preserve a settled order ; (3) Do not unnecessarily multiply the parts of the service. Note. i. As to the pastor's register, 2. As to the collec- tion. 3. The length of the service. 4. Proportion to be observed in the service. Note. As to making announcements from the pulpit. Appendix. Examples of orders of services. I. The Puritan model. 2. The Puritan model en- riched. 3. More elaborate forms. Ill THE PUBLIC SERVICE I. Almost a hundred years ago, Sydney Smith said that his countrymen, generally remarkable for doing good things in a very bad manner, seemed to have reserved the maturity and plenitude of their awkwardness for the pulpit. Everywhere else, he said, men were more natural than they were there. To this charge others of us are exposed than those against whom it was originally brought, in consid- ering our present subject, it will be well, therefore, to deal at once with the minister's conduct of the public service. I. That he be careful as to his appearance is a matter of some importance. The simplest rule as to dress is that he must wear nothing that can, by attracting attention to him, divert it from his office. Let him wear in the pulpit what it is customary to wear. The distinctly clerical dress is less common now than it was formerly. Robert Hall preached in a dress suit ; and before his time it is likely that the black Geneva gown was in use in the Noncon- formist pulpits of England, while the white tie has lingered down to the present time. When we learn that during his first regular engagement as a minis- ter, John Foster officiated in a crimson waistcoat, 45 46 PUBLIC WORSHIP and was attended to the pulpit by " Pero, a large and very generous dog, my most devoted friend," we are not surprised that a little more than three months' trial sufficed to reconcile his congregation to dispensing with his services. The answer which Jesus made to the importunity of the Syro-Phoenician woman should have silenced him while it emboldened her. It was not seemly to give the children's meat to dogs. Mrs. Spurgeon, as a girl, hearing her future husband for the first time, failed "to understand his earnest presenta- tion of the gospel and his powerful pleading with sinners ; but the huge black satin stock, the long, badly-trimmed hair, the blue pocket-handkerchief with white spots," attracted her attention by ap- pealing to her sense of the ludicrous. The minis- ter will do well to arrange his coat before entering the pulpit, and to avoid the appearance of slovenli- ness or even of haste in making his toilet. An impression which is favorable or the reverse may often be created by matters as seemingly trifling as these. That Doctor Kirk, of Boston, entered the pulpit with a grace and naturalness which at once pleased the eye, prepared a critic to conclude that "his personal manners gave the entire tone and effect to his discourse." ' We may not go so far as to say with Nathaniel Hawthorne, when lament- ing his own deficiencies, " God may forgive sins, but awkwardness has no forgiveness in heaven or in earth " ; but still we may, without the suspicion 1 "Life of E. N. Kirk, D. D.," p. 318. THE PUBLIC SERVICE 47 of being over-refined, lay stress upon the carriage and bearing of the minister when he comes to oc- cupy a very trying position. 2. Daniel Webster held it to be an evidence of the divine origin of Christianity that it had so long survived being preached in tub pulpits. To the minister, however, the platform of our time is not less exacting. The observed of all observers, he has not the range of resources provided for the actor on the stage. He is alone. The entire service is to be conducted by him. He cannot divert atten- tion from himself. The platform should be fur- nished with a desk, upon which the Bible and hymn book can be laid, and behind which, during the main part of the service, the minister will stand. His chair should be near enough to reach it without taking the Sabbath day's journey which in some churches is suggested by the objectionable practice, now happily falling into disuse, of cumbering the platform with a large lounge placed against the wall and far removed from the desk. The platform is a place for business, not for ease. To banish the pulpit altogether is to suggest a theatre ; to furnish it with a sofa or richly upholstered chairs is to sug- gest a parlor. That minister is happy who possesses the faculty of seeing at once and instinctively the fitness of things. He may even be thankful if he has a quick sense of the ludicrous. Dean Stanley wondered on one occasion that his great audience in Westminster Abbey was so unusually attentive ; but his complacency was shattered at a blow when 48 PUBLIC WORSHIP his wife told him that all the while he was preach- ing he carried on the top of his bald head a black kid glove which had fallen from his hat when he had removed it on entering the church. The con- gregation was speculating how long the glove would hold its place. Guard carefully against all tricks and eccentricities of manner ; let neither nervous- ness nor absent-mindedness betray you into any habit which would mar the effectiveness of the service. It has been said that it is with the esthetic sense that we worship God ; and certainly we should train ourselves to distinguish and to prize at its full value the beauty as well as the strength that ought to be found in his sanctuary. 3. From these preliminary points, of appearance and manner, we pass on to consider the minister's habits in conducting public worship. (i) As the first of these, let us name punctuality. Set an example, where an example certainly needs to be set, and train your congregation to being on time by being on time yourself. It is better far to be too soon than to be too late, and indeed the few moments which you spend in the church previous to the service will be of great use to you. They will help you to become entirely master of yourself, and will give you deliberateness and a sense of readiness. Never start a service in a hurried frame of mind. To do this is to court failure. The five minutes lost at the beginning will be sure to follow you, and throughout the service the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase you. On the other hand. THE PUBLIC SERVICE 49 Doctor Dale testifies that to be in the church before the service and to "think why we are gathered to- gether, and what promise Christ has given to the two or three who meet in his name, is to almost certainly insure his blessing." (2) As another habit to be cultivated, we mention decorum. It was of the house of God that Paul wrote : " Let all things be done decently and in order." ^ On entering the pulpit we commend the habit of silent prayer. In conducting the service avoid any sense of pushing on. Have frequent pauses be- tween the various parts. Since it is not seemly that persons coming late should be shown to their seats during any part of the service, these pauses should be utilized for that purpose. In concluding, be de- liberate in pronouncing the benediction, and pause before the final amen. Be very careful to handle the Bible respectfully. Do not remove it from the desk. Expound, but do not pound it as you preach. In case you prefer to use a Bible which can be car- ried in the hand, treat it with reverence. Do not double the back or turn down the leaves, or throw the book carelessly upon the desk, nor use it as an imaginary catapult to be driven at the people or as a figurative standard to be waved over them. (3) This suggests that we also urge the preacher to be devout in his conduct of public worship. Throughout the entire service be a worshiper your- self. Be thoroughly engaged in it, so that as each 1 I Cor. 14 : 40. D 50 PUBLIC WORSHIP part is attended to, it can be truthfully said of you, " Prayer all his business, all his pleasure, praise." Doing this you will interest and affect your con- gregation from the beginning. Of Patrick Henry pleading in Culpepper courthouse. Doctor Alex- ander writes : " His very manner in rising to his feet, and his attitude before the court, were them- selves eloquence, which made me for the moment believe, in spite of the most damning testimony, that the accused were innocent." To turn to one whose long ministry was devoted to a nobler task than that of Patrick Henry, we may be allowed to quote at length what his biographer says of the conduct of religious worship by the late John Angel! James, of Birmingham, England: "As Mr. James slowly ascended the pulpit, the stranger would see in his calm and solemn countenance that his spirit was awed by a sense of God's presence ; and, after the opening psalm was read, and a hymn sung, he offered a prayer which was generally characterized by the profoundest awe and reverence for the Divine Majesty, and by earnest, sometimes impassioned supplication for spiritual blessings. The Scriptures were then read a second time, and a second prayer was offered, in which intercession was made for "all sorts and conditions of men," for the queen on the throne, for the ministers of the crown, for judges and magistrates, for merchants and tradesmen, for masters and servants, for the rich, the poor, and the troubled, for all Christian churches and ministers, and very often for some THE PUBLIC SERVICE 51 special department of Christian labor ; missions in China and the East being often remembered. And again, at the close of the prayer, there were solemn ascriptions of praise, sometimes swelling into lofty eloquence, to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The- tones of his voice, rich and deep, his manner — never hurried and generally very deliberate — added solemnity to the devotional part of the service ; and many, 1 should suppose, are ready to acknowl- edge with myself that his prayers were often char- acterized by even brighter excellencies than his sermons." ^ Note. At this point it may be well to caution the minister against running either to the extreme of assumption or to its opposite, the extreme of subservience. I. He is no more a priest than is any other de- vout Christian person in the congregation. He never ceases to be one of those who are gathered for worship. " The pattern of Christian worship is not the tabernacle or temple. We see not Aaron entering as God's high priest within the veil, whilst the people are standing without, waiting for the return of their intercessor, but Paul the apostle and servant of Jesus Christ, calling the people ' breth- ren,' saying, 'Let us draw near,' — minister and people, — all entering within the veil with the 'com- mon supplication,' Paul kneeling down and praying ' with them all.' " ^ Not by tone or gesture should '"Life and Letters of J. A. James," by R. W. Dale, p. 618. ^Pearsall, " Public Worship," p. 12. 52 PUBLIC WORSHIP the minister assume the office of priest. It is even unnecessary for him to beckon the people to rise to sing ; and certainly the hand should never be lifted in the benediction in the same way in which it is raised by the priest who claims mysterious author- ity by virtue of episcopal imposition, 2. Yet while the minister should not assume the priestly, as little should he fall into a condition of obsequious subservience to his congregation. He is in the pulpit to lead their devotions as truly as a general is at his post to marshal his troops. The officer who should say to his soldiers, "Shoulder arms, if you please," would fail to command their respect. The minister who says, "Sing, if you please," as if it depended on their acquiescence, or, even more feebly, "Shall we sing?" as if there were any question about it, has yet to learn the first lesson in leadership. " He is to direct them, and not to request them, to celebrate the praises of the Lord. Let him not belittle the dig- nity of his office by introducing phrases which belong merely to social etiquette into the worship of Almighty God."i II. We may now deal with the order for worship in the public service. I, As to the arrangement of the various parts of the service. (i) You must see to it that due attention is paid to the four essentials to worship of which we have already spoken in chapter one, namely, devotion, ' " The Evangelist." THE PUBLIC SERVICE 53 praise, edification, and rest. These four things should be met and ministered to by the four ele- ments of public worship : communion with God in prayer ; the reverent ascertainment of his will by the reading of the Scriptures ; the unfolding, appli- cation, and enforcement of that revelation upon the heart and conscience by preaching ; and the united ascription of thanksgiving to God by praising him in song.^ Beware of lengthening any one part of the serv- ice — the sermon for example — at the expense of the whole. In the service, as in the body, the mem- bers should care one for another, knowing that no one can suffer without all suffering with it. The preacher who, one Sunday morning, some fifty years ago, omitted the reading of the Scriptures from the usual order of worship in a Boston church, and afterward explained to one of the deacons that he did so because he wished to do full justice to his sermon, was very properly reminded by that faith- ful official that perhaps his congregation would have consented to forego a portion of the discourse if they could have had instead a portion of God's word. One of Lyman Beecher's hearers in the First Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, recalls how, on one occasion, the preacher, then at the height of his powers, came in late, pressed his way up the crowded aisle with a piece of blotted manuscript in his hand, ascended the pulpit, opened the Bible, i"The Congregational Idea," by Dr. Williston Walker, p. 7. 54 PUBLIC WORSHIP spread his manuscript, took his text, and was about to begin his sermon without any preliminary exer- cises. One of the elders rose from his pew and stood. The elder looked at the doctor, the doctor looked at the elder. The elder came out of his pew, the doctor came down the stairs, and they met. The elder whispered a few words in the doc- tor's ear, the doctor reascended, closed his Bible and said : " Let us pray," That we have not entirely outgrown the fashion for emphasizing the sermon, even though the rest of the service is thrown into the shade by doing so, may be seen by consulting the announcements of Sunday services as they appear in the Saturday journals. How often the notice runs to the effect that the minister will preach at 10.30 A. M. and 7.30 P. M., as though there were to be no other worship than that which is enjoyed by listening to him. The better form would be " Public worship at 10.30 A. M. and 7.30 P. M., with preaching by the pastor." (2) Perhaps it is only necessary to say in passing that it is wise to preserve a settled order. The congregation should not have its attention diverted from the thing itself to the way in which it is done. We further counsel that for the convenience of the ministers strange to the church who will occasion- ally conduct the service, it is well to have the order of worship printed clearly, and a copy laid on the pulpit desk where it can readily be seen. (3) In view of the disposition to multiply the THE PUBLIC SERVICE 55 parts of the service unnecessarily, a word of cau- tion may be in place on this point. Many a serv- ice is spoiled because it is so much broken up. The current of right feeling is arrested by some uncalled- for anthem or some irrelevant chant. The minister obtrudes himself upon the congregation by a need- less announcement or meaningless bit of ritual ; and so the worshiper is set back when he ought rather to be set forward. With a remembrance of the purposeless elaboration in many services, we turn with some relief to the severe plainness of the old Puritan order, as it was formerly observed, for ex- ample, in the chapel of which Dr. R. W. Dale was for so many years tlie minister. Its lines are those of the Grecian temple rather than of the Gothic cathedral, but they are strong in their sturdy sim- plicity : I, The reading of a psalm. 2. Singing. 3. Prayer. 4. Reading the Scriptures. 5. Prayer. 6. Singing. 7. Sermon. 8. Singing, g. Prayer and benediction. Note i. The minister will find it a useful thing to keep a pastor's register, and to post it up week by week, so as to know at a glance when a certain hymn has been sung or chapter of the Bible read. Doing this he will be more likely to insure fresh- ness and variety in his selections. 2. This may be the best place in which to urge that the collection should have a recognized place in the Order of Service and be always considered an act of worship. Christian beneficence is a dis- tinct means of grace. Treat it as such. Come 56 PUBLIC WORSHIP down from the pulpit and distribute the collection boxes to the deacons, or whoever they be that take the offerings. While the collection is being made repeat, either entirely yourself or alternately with the choir, suitable texts of Scripture. When the boxes are brought back to the pulpit receive them and let the congregation rise and join in the doxology, — unless that has been already sung, — and in any case offer a brief prayer presenting the offering to God, thanking him for the oppor- tunity of giving and asking him to accept and bless the contribution. 3. As to the length of the service, not much needs to be said. The age in which we live is favorable to brevity rather than to length. Two hundred years ago — mainly in consequence of the staying power of the minister in the prayers and the sermon — the service would at times last from three to six hours. The order of worship in the meeting-house at Chester, England, where Matthew Henry ministered for a quarter of a century, is thus described: " Every Lord's Day morning, after secret and family devotions, he joined his congregation in public worship at nine o'clock. The service opened with the hundredth Psalm, then followed a brief but fervent invocation : then a portion from Old Testament Scripture was solemnly read and ex- pounded in its order. After a second singing he prayed again at greater length ; then followed the sermon of about an hour, with a closing prayer, singing, and benediction. The service lasted up- THE PUBLIC SERVICE 57 ward of two hours, while that in the afternoon was exactly similar, except that he then expounded from the New Testament Scriptures." When Edward Irving's new church was opened by Dr. Chalmers, the equanimity of the great Scottish preacher was sorely tried. " I undertook," said he, "to open Irving's new church in London. There was a prodigious want of tact in the length of his prayers — forty minutes. He said he would assist me by reading a chapter for me. He chose the longest in the Bible, and went on for an hour and a half." At present we need to guard against falling into the opposite extreme to that in which Irving displayed his gift of continuance. The min- ister must not consent to be entirely governed by the fashion of the hour. Very much depends upon how the service is conducted. It may be short in time and yet seem very long. It may fill up the allotted hour and a half and yet seem only too short. Well-arranged, continuous in plan and pur- pose, fervid and devout, the service will not tax the patience of the congregation so much as if, lack- ing those features, the whole lasts for less than sixty minutes. A railroad journey on an ill-laid track, broken by frequent pauses, and by constant stops at way stations, carries you over a few miles only and yet wearies you more than one swift run of four times the length. Have a clear aim in every service. Toward that aim let it move from the first words to the last. Make Abraham your model when he and his family "went forth to go 58 PUBLIC WORSHIP into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came." 4. This leads me to glance at the question of pro- portion in the service. The minister must secure by previous practice and arrangement the timely and proportional introduction of ail the parts. Re- calling the worship in Trinity Church, Irvine, as it was conducted by Dr. W. B, Robertson, his biog- rapher notes the living form which the service took, "shaped by the artistic mind of the pastor. The three correlatives, as he called them, — praise, prayer, and preaching, — were built up by him on the principle of a progressive unity." ^ This pro- gressive unity does not come by accident, hi order to insure it, and just because you have not the help of a set form (such as a liturgy affords), you are bound to prepare for each service with great care. There are ministers who go through the en- tire service, so far as it is practicable to do so, on the previous Saturday morning. Occasionally this should certainly be done. And always you must keep the various parts of the service and their claims to consideration well in view as the worship proceeds. Do not sing too many stanzas, or read too much Scripture, or prolong unduly the prayers or the sermon. If at any time there is sufficient reason for a longer prayer or a longer sermon than usual, anticipate this by shortening other parts of the service. But as a rule it will not be necessary to do this. The minister is likely to meet the ends 1 " Robertson of Irvine," by A. Guthrie, p. 246. THE PUBLIC SERVICE 59 of public worship best when he practises generosity in psalmody and economy in preaching. And how- ever this may be, the impression which is left by the whole service should be harmonious. Note, a word as to the announcements which the minister needs to make. We counsel that he take this matter entirely into his own hands. He is responsible for the service, and he will do well to claim and to exercise the vetoing power if he chooses to do so. In danger of being snowed under by an onset of pulpit notices, the bewildered pastor will often envy the fearless Dr. Robert Lee, of Edinburgh, when he threw down a heap of them with the ex- clamation, " This pulpit is not the Sunday edition of the 'North British Advertiser.'" Assuredly the minister is under no obligation to announce any meeting outside of his own church which is to be held at an hour when he himself has a religious service. If a notice has to be given, he will do well to be brief and simple in giving it. Do not take the place of advance agent for a show. Do not commit yourself to extravagant laudation. Should you not excel in making announcements, it may even be well to write out what has to be said. The most eloquent of men have blundered over this ungrateful task, it was Robert Hall who gave notice of a missionary meeting in the following words: "Mr. Birt, of Birmingham ; Mr. Dyer, of London ; Mr. Roberts, of Bristol, and other minis- ters will be present. The Rev. Richard Ashe, 6o PUBLIC WORSHIP Esq., will take the chair. Such, my brethren, are the performances to be performed here next week." After a brief pause, by way of escaping from the comedy of errors, he added : " A very important meeting, my brethren, very important indeed, and on a very important occasion. I hope, therefore, you will attend."^ The best plan is to print week by week, or else, if you need to be more economi- cal, to write and put in a conspicuous place, a church calendar, and content yourself by direct- ing attention to it. We must in addition enter a protest before clos- ing this chapter, against the habit of distributing printed matter through the pews. This ought never to be done. Of course it is entirely objectionable when a tradesman is permitted to scatter Japanese fans over the church, with his own advertisements gaudily printed upon them ; and scarcely less so when the offender is the minister himself, inserting in every hymn book a slip of paper puffing his own books. But even literature which is not mercenary or impertinent should have no place in the pews. There must be nothing to distract the mind or di- vert the attention of the worshiper. The rocky banks of the river or the giant trees of the forest ought not to be desecrated by advertising nostrums of the quack doctor or the wares of the pushing merchant, but still less should anything be suffered to intrude upon the hour and place devoted to the worship of God. 1 Trestrail, " College Life in Bristol," pp. 7g, 84. THE PUBLIC SERVICE 6l Appendix. The Order of Worship. — The advance in enrich- ment of worship in non-liturgical churches may be seen from a comparison of the following examples of orders of service. 1. The Puritan model, which is characterized by great simplicity, is not often found to-day in its primitive integrity. i. Singing (sometimes fol- lowed by a brief prayer). 2. First Scripture read- ing. 3. Prayer. 4. Singing. 5. Second Scripture reading. 6. Singing. 7. Prayer. 8. Notices and Collection. 9. Singing. 10. Sermon. 11. Sing- ing (sometimes preceded by a brief prayer). 12. Benediction. The commendable features in this arrangement are the congregational character of the service, — and indeed it is generally conducive to hearty con- gregational singing, — and the two readings of Scrip- ture. 2. The Puritan model, enriched by the substitu- tion of the doxology, followed by the Lord's Prayer repeated by the minister and the congregation, and by a chant, sung by the people led by the choir. I. Doxology and Lord's Prayer. 2, Scripture read- ing. 3. Chanting of a psalm. 4. Scripture read- ing. 5. Chant. 6. Prayer. 7. Hymn, 8. Sermon. 9. Hymn. 10. Concluding prayer and benediction. 3. More elaborate forms, i. Opening sentences repeated by the minister and people. 2. The in- troduction early in the service of a prayer of con- 62 PUBLIC WORSHIP fession. 3. The "amen" sung at the close of each hymn. 4. The use of the "glorias." 5. The introduction of one or more anthems. 6. The reading of the Ten Commandments. 7. The minister hands the offering plates to the ushers, and gives, alternating with the choir, the offertory responses ; the plates are received after the offer- ing has been taken, with a brief prayer. 8. The use of the creed, and of other parts of a liturgical service. Example i. i. Organ prelude. 2. Hymns of adoration. 3. The confession. 4. The gloria. 5. The Lord's Prayer. 6. Anthem. 7. The Holy Scriptures. 8. Hymn. 9. Prayer. 10. Hymn. 11. The offering. 12. The Gospel. 13. Anthem. 14. Sermon. 15. Hymn. 16. Benediction. Example 2. i. Voluntary. 2. Anthem. 3. The Lord's Prayer. 4. Hymn. 5. First Scripture les- son, 6. Chant. 7. Second Scripture lesson. 8. Anthem, g. Announcements. 10. Hymn. 11. Ser- mon. 12. The offering and solo. 13. Hymn. 14. Benediction. Example 3. i. Voluntary. 2. Doxology. 3. Lord's Prayer. 4. Anthem. 5, Reading the Com- mandments. 6. Response by choir. 7. Scripture lesson. 8. Prayer, g. Collection. 10. Notices. II. Hymn. 12. Sermon. 13. Hymn. 14. Prayer and benediction with the congregation seated. In the first of the examples the use of four con- gregational hymns is to be commended. The second example is taken from the City Temple, London THE PUBLIC SERVICE 63 (Dr. Joseph Parker's), and much of the music which in America would be left to the choir, is shared by the whole congrefiation. The third ex- ample is open to objection that the reading of the Scripture is directly followed by the prayer. It is wiser to have a change of voice between these two important parts of the service. The disposition to allot to the choir an undue pro- portion of parts in the service may be seen in : Example 4. i. Prelude. 2. Anthem. 3. invo- cation followed by Lord's Prayer. 4. Psalm re- sponsively by minister and choir. 5. Hymn. 6. Scripture lesson. 7. Anthem. 8. Prayer. 9. An- nouncements and offering. 10. Hymn. ir. Ser- mon. 12. Hymn. 13. Benediction. In some in- stances one of the hymns is assigned to the choir, leaving still less for the congregation to do. IV CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE SUMMARY I. Congregational Worship Must aim at Impres- sion AND Expression. 1. Impression is especially reached through the reading of the Scriptures and the sermon. 2. Expression is reached through other parts of the service. Here comes in the element of congregational response. II. The Neglect of this Responsive element in Public worship. 1. Evidences of this to be found in the service itself. 2. Evidences of this to be found in the congregation, (i) In dissatisfaction and defection ; (2) In indifference and lack of affection for the service. 3. History of Protestantism partly accounts for this neglect. 4. Demand for more expression traced in changes in service. iii. to what the demand for congregational Response is Due. 1. To a natural instinct. 2. To a true conception of public worship. 3. To the growth of congregational culture. 4. To external influences. 5. To the Sunday-school. 6. To an increase in Christian union. IV. HOW THE DEMAND MAY BE MET. NOT WISE TO IGNORE IT. 1. By an intelligent maintenance of the Puritan model. 2. By giving to the congregation a larger share in the service, (i) Congregational singing; (2) The re- sponsive reading of the psalm ; (3) The recital of the Lord's Prayer ; (4) The congregational " amen " ; (5) The more general use of the Bibles in the pews. V. ADVANTAGES ACCRUING FROM THE CULTIVATION OF THIS RESPONSE: I. To the service. 2. The sermon. 3. The minister. 4. The congregation. 5. Religion at large. IV CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE I. Two ends every act of congregational worship must aim to reach. These are impression and ex- pression. 1. The chief purpose served by the reading of the Scripture and by the preaching of the sermon is impression. Through these channels the truth is explained, illustrated, and applied. 2. The chief purpose served by the other parts of the service, by prayer, for instance, and praise, is expression. "All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee. They shall sing to thy name.'" This second purpose is what we have to deal with in this chapter, and it is not easy to over- estimate its importance. Upon it all branches of the church have insisted. The liturgy of the Epis- copal Church is entitled " The Book of Common Prayer." Through the "Westminster Directory for Worship " the Presbyterian Church declares that " since one primary design of public ordinances is to pay social acts of homage to the most high God, ministers ought to be careful not to make their sermons so long as to interfere with or exclude the more important duties of prayer and praise." > Ps. 66 : 4. 67 68 PUBLIC WORSHIP Impression, that is, was not to be indulged at the expense of expression, hi congregational churches the minister by saying, " Let us pray," or " Let us sing," gives expression to the conviction that the congregation must be allowed to utter forth its praise in the hymns and its prayers in the audible "amen." However far in our practice we may have wandered from this early conception of what worship demands, these forms keep before us the true conception. So do our hymns, many of which are entirely inappropriate for any but congregational use. James Montgomery furnishes the model for congregational praise when he sings : Stand up and bless the Lord, Ye people of his choice ; Stand up and bless the Lord your God, With heart and soul and voice. IL The time has come when attention should be called afresh to the neglect of this responsive ele- ment in public worship. I. Of this neglect the service as it is generally conducted furnishes sufficient evidences. A writer on the subject charges the non-liturgical churches with gradually attenuating public worship until it has reached " a painful, sometimes a ridiculous ex- treme of thinness. It is the exception that congre- gations worship. They listen. Their mental atti- tude is unchanged from beginning to end. They not only listen to the sermon, the prayer is listened to. There is no general participation in worship. CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE 69 The result is that only those are attracted to church who are interested in good preaching, and who enjoy the singing of a quartette choir."* Under this arrangement a popular preacher whose service is famed for its fine music decides to introduce a short liturgy, "being more and more struck either by the unintelligence or the miraculous patience of ordinary congregations."^ The Rev. A. K. H. Boyd, of St. Andrews, Scotland, after the experi- ence of a long life in the ministry, declared that "he thought one thing that kept the people from taking a greater interest in the services was that the worshipers had too little to do in them." A number of ministers and laymen discussing the subject are not disposed to charge with much exag- geration the description which one of them gives of the service to which he is accustomed, as " a com- bination from the concert hall and the lecture room, with a little worship thrown in." 2. Further evidence of this neglect of the respon- sive element in public worship may be found in the congregation itself. (i) Very often it happens that persons dissatis- fied with the service as it is now ordinarily con- ducted in the non-liturgical churches, go elsewhere. It is the opinion of many who have studied this sub- ject that it is •' the emphasis on worship that holds the masses of the people in the continental countries of Europe so true to the Papal Church ; and in 1 " Andover Review." Vol. II., Sept.. 1882. -Dr. Joseph Parker, City Temple. London. 70 PUBLIC WORSHIP America it is this that has been the chief reason of the growth of the Episcopal Church, despite its prel- acy and sacramentarianism." Professor Park, of Andover, welcoming the same ritual, refreshed by the same liturgy, and listening to the same chant in Cairo, in Jerusalem, in Boston, gives it as his opin- ion that "the services of this church are faithful to its history, and here is one secret of its power." The service of the Episcopal Church touches the gracious nature of Thomas Erskine, of Linlathan, although bred in Puritanism. He says : " It brings us all so much into one, and it makes the minister so much the mouth and the leader of the people, instead of lifting him out from the people, and mak- ing him the only doer of anything in the church." ' (2) That this natural craving for a responsive share in public worship has not been adequately met by us is further shown by the indifference and the lack of enthusiastic loyalty to the service on the part of so many in the churches. " Congre- gationalists," it is said by one of their own number, "are bound together more by the simplicity, not to say barrenness, of their forms of worship than by the adequacy and richness of their doctrinal teach- ing."^ The young people cherish little affection for the service, apart from their association of it with some one minister whose prayers, reading of the Scriptures, or general spirit impresses them favor- ably. Nor can it be said that their elders regard the 1 " Letters of Thomas Erskine," p. iy6. 2 President Hyde, Bowdoin College. CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE 7 1 service in which they have so slight, a share with the same attachment that is felt by those who are accustomed to a liturgical form of worship. In general it may be true to say that the ordinary service too often leaves the worshiper with a sense of something lacking yet. The aesthetic faculty has very likely been ministered to by the music, and the intellect interested in the sermon ; even the spiritual nature may have been touched by the prayers, if well-compacted, well-worded, and de- vout. But the craving for personal expression has been sparsely met, if met at all, and perhaps the worshiper goes away from the service with the sigh of the psalmist : " As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God ; when shall I come and appear before God.'' "^ 3. It concerns us little at the present time that one main reason for this neglect of the responsive element in public worship is to be found in the history of Protestantism. Without any question. Protestantism represents the revolt of the Reform- ers against the ritual and sacerdotalism of Rome. Even the Reformers, however, were not entirely agreed as to how far this revolt should be carried. Luther held that everything was permissible in the service of the house of God, except what was for- bidden by the Bible, and the Anglicans have shared with the Lutherans the same view.^ Zwingli and ' Ps. 42 : I. 2"Xhe Congregational Idea of Worship," by Williston Walker. Ph. D , pp. 6, 7. 72 PUBLIC WORSHIP Calvin, going a step farther, believed nothing should be practised in public worship but what was ex- pressly sanctioned by the word of God. The Puri- tans represented that view in England, and later in America. The dread of popery need not preclude our using the most praiseworthy secret of its strength. Nor are we haunted, as were the New England churches of the seventeenth century, by a horror of that liturgy which had been forced upon their fathers at the edge of the sword. The demand that this responsive impulse in our natures be satisfied in public worship comes, in many instances, from the descendants of the Puri- tans, from the very men who reverence their his- tory and emulate their spirit.' It is they who crave that more sympathy be shown in our service for this instinct of reverence and this craving for com- mon worship. It is one of them who declares his conviction that "our defects in church service are traceable to the dominance of intellect over feel- ing." ^ "Our services are barren," says Henry Ward Beecher, " not from any want of common forms of devotion, but from the want of common sympathy. A church has a right to the gifts of every one of its members, and the minister is set to disclose and develop them." Others besides George Eliot have shared her feeling at Nuremburg, when she writes:' "We turned into the famous St. Sebald's for a minute, where a Protestant cler- 1 Cf. Dr. W. J. Tucker. "Yale Lectures." p. 126. 2 •■ Life of W. F. Stevenson." p. 84. 3" Life." p. 370. CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE 73 gyman was reading in a cold, formal way under the grand Gothic arches. Then we went to the Catholic church, the Frauen Kirche, where the organ and voices were giving forth a glorious mass, and we stood with a feeling of brotherhood among the standing congregation till the last note of the organ had died out." 4. The successive changes in the direction of a responsive service furnish the most convincing proof of the power of this demand for fuller expression in our congregational worship, it is a far cry, indeed, from the era of Puritan plainness to the order of service adopted in many of our churches at the present time. There is, however, scarcely an inno- vation over which there has not been a struggle. The hymn has won its place in the teeth of an op- position which has objected that no common act of worship should be tolerated in a mixed congregation, composed of professedly Christian persons and those who have made no such profession. The reading of the Bible without any comment was sturdily condemned by the men who, with a bitter remem- brance of an enforced liturgy, insisted that all book worship savored of popery. But in the course of this century the non-liturgical congregations have grown accustomed to the responsive reading of a psalm, or better still, to a chant, in which all are invited to join, to the public repetition of the Lord's Prayer, to the use of the gloria, to the Ten Com- mandments read by the minister and followed by a congregational response. All these are concessions 74 PUBLIC WORSHIP made by the Puritan ideal, not to the spirit which demands an enrichment of service, such as is fur- nished by the anthem, for example, but to the craving on the part of the congregation for a more active part in the public worship of God. III. It may be well at this point to inquire to what this demand for congregational response is due. 1. From what has been already said it may be inferred that, in the first place, it can be traced to a natural instinct. To possess a faculty for the ex- pression of religious emotions and not to use it, is unnatural. The sense of wrong under which the suppression of that faculty labors will be ten-fold increased if it be wakened to vigorous life by the day, the place, and the service devoted to religion. The sufferings of Joseph were aggravated indeed, when, cast into the pit in which there was not even a drop of water to assuage his thirst, he saw his brethren sit down to eat bread. Longing, perhaps, for just such audible expression as we are discuss- ing, Daniel Macmillan found his way into a church which gave him a chance to join heartily in its re- sponses, and almost at once it won his affection. " it seemed," says he, "so true to my nature that my whole heart could find utterance then." ^ 2. Nor need it be denied that we are coming to a truer conception of what public worship must be. hi one word, it must be common worship. The service must be so arranged that the worshiper can 1 " Life," p. 74. CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE 75 give frequent audible expression to his emotions of penitence, gratitude, joy, and aspiration. The temple service in Jerusalem (the one divine model for worship) was highly responsive. " The people had their large vocal part in the worship. A great orchestra of trumpets and cymbals, psaltery and harps, accompanying the trained voices of the Le- vites, swelled the volume of praise. ' All the children of Israel fell down on their faces to the ground, and worshipped and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever.' And as the psalm was chanted describ- ing God's marvelous works of creation and provi- dence, still the people gave back their glad multi- tudinous chorus : ' O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good.' Sang the priests : 'Who overthrew Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red sea ; who smote great kings, and slew mighty kings ; Sihori king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan.' And after each clause, came rolling back the earthquake shout of the people, ' For his mercy endureth for ever.' " 3. Probably there is also among us to-day an in- crease in congregational culture. The eighteenth century and the century which preceded it saw little enough of this, even in the churches where a liturgy v/as used. Often the services, as they are described by George Fox and Samuel Pepys, and later by John Wesley and William Cowper, were lamenta- bly deficient in decorum, to say nothing of devout- ness. The Episcopal Church service of to-day is very unlike that which was familiar to Fielding and 76 PUBLIC WORSHIP Hogarth. It furnishes less food for the pen or the brush satirist, but far more for the heart and mind of the worshiper. Among the churches which use the freer form, this advance in culture registers its growth in the better architecture of the church, in the greater thought and care bestowed on the con- duct of the service, and in the improved selections of hymns which are used. Worship has become, in most cases, statelier and more settled. Our best services are now almost as uniform as though a liturgy were employed. But meanwhile the power of the Methodist revival has died away, the congre- gation is no longer encouraged to give emotional re- sponse to its feelings, the stated as well as the im- promptu "amen " is not heard any longer, and the people often seek in vain for some channel through which their emotions may flow. 4. The lack of this is felt all the more as we are influenced by other forms of worship. At opposite extremes we note two : the liturgical, which is rep- resented by the services in Roman and Anglican churches, and the revivalistic, which in the last twenty-five years has become better organized than it was formerly, and in which the singing of Mr. Sankey and those who have followed him, and the still more rousing choruses of the Salvation Army, whatever else they have done, have certainly given every worshiper an opportunity for response. 5. The Sunday-school is little more than a century old. In the form most familiar to us it is still younger. To the causes which have done much to stimulate CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE -]-] the demand for congregational response, it may be safe to add the unconscious influence of the Sunday- school. In many schools there is now a carefully prepared service, much of which is responsive, the united repetition of the Lord's Prayer is common, and even the Apostles' Creed may sometimes be heard, while the reading of the lesson for the day in response by the superintendent and classes has prepared the people to seek in the congregation at least as much liberty as is accorded to the school. 6. Are we not also warranted in concluding that the growth within our own times of Christian union has disposed each branch of the church to profit by the excellencies of all the rest } The decline in sectarian bitterness, which is widely different from loyalty to the truth as we may hold it, has brought many of the great denominations of Christendom within sight of each other. The baptistery may now be found in Congregationalist, Episcopalian, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches. In the Christian activity which quite as much as Christian thought distinguishes this century, all who love the Lord Jesus Christ have been drawn together. It would be strange, indeed, if Congregationalism, which, being bound by no rubric, is open to adapt what is best wherever it is found, should not have seen that elsewhere and with great power in other denominations than its own, the craving for congre- gational response is happily met, and that beyond its own borders there are materials which it can with advantage build into its public worship. 78 PUBLIC WORSHIP IV. It remains for us to inquire how this demand for Congregational Response may be met. The subject has received much attention of late. As far back as 1886, the Congregational Union of England and Wales discussed the question, " whether, without injury to the simplicity and spirituality of the public worship of the churches, any new methods can be adopted which shall ena- ble the people to take a more active part in the services than at present." To-day the non-litur- gical churches are more alive than they have been in the past to the necessity for giving the con- gregation a larger share in the public worship of God. Of course it is possible to meet this demand for congregational response unfavora'bly. it may be either wholly ignored or frowned down as unworthy of the history and trSditions of the free churches. Those who take this position aver that any attempt to shift the emphasis in worship from the minister to the people is due to an unworthy disposition to imitate the liturgical communions. They further insist that it indicates a decline in vital religion. The fervor, they say, of earlier days has died out, a critical spirit has grown up, which has been en- couraged by wider culture in the home and school, and so with finer churches, more expensive organs and choirs, a wealthier membership, and a closer union with the world, piety has declined. Such considerations as these are deserving of careful no- tice. Undoubtedly the increase in wealth and CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE 79 worldly position is not favorable to spiritual relig- ion. The growth of worldliness has always tended to swell the ranks of the churches which have set a higher value upon position than upon piety. But, on the other hand, those who argue in favor of con- gregational response are by no means to be con- founded with those who advocate what is called enrichment of service. Indeed, the one of these may be in conflict with the other. An anthem enriches the service, but if, by appealing to the aesthetic faculty, it rouses the critical spirit, if, that is, it invites the worshiper to listen rather than to participate, then it distinctly dissipates the ele- ment of congregational response and breaks the continuity of the worship. I. Let it be granted at once, therefore, that the craving for congregational response may be met by a resolute and yet intelligent maintenance of the Puritan model. Admitting the superior stateliness and dignity of the liturgical service, we may well insist that the real object of worship is not to satisfy the sense of beauty in those who take part in it, but to hold communion with God and learn better how to do his will. " The true wisdom of those who have to conduct the free worship of Congre- gational churches," says Dr. R. W. Dale, "is to strive for the kind of perfection which is appropriate to it."^ The objection that in extemporaneous prayer the congregation is too dependent on the mind and mood of the minister, is not met by urging ' See " A Manual of Congregational Principles," by R. W. Dale. 8o PUBLIC WORSHIP that the same may be said as to the sermon. But it is evident that the minister ought to be made to feel that during the whole service so much does depend upon the minister that he will need to live under a most solemn and weighty sense of his ob- ligation. If the service is to retain the Puritan sim- plicity it must retain also the Puritan fervor. It need not pass beyond the limits dear to the meet- ing-houses of the early Noncomformists of Great Britain and the early colonists of New England ; it may confine itself to singing and prayer, and the reading of the Bible and the sermon ; and yet it may be made rich and full. There are still many churches in which this simplicity is maintained, where at the same time it is easy to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness with the intelligent and earnest devotion of heart and voice. 2. The desire on the part of the people for a larger share in the service may be met by a wise infusion of the responsive element. (i) By all means encourage congregational sing- ing. No hymn intended for the people should be usurped by the choir. In the city of Geneva, at the time he so largely controlled its interests, John Calvin, fearing for the fate of any service in which the congregation having nothing to do would be- come critical, cultivated congregational singing. The experience of subsequent centuries has justi- fied his foresight. The less a congregation does, the less devout it is apt to become. It is tempted to put itself outside of the service and play the part CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE 8l of the connoisseur. So the spirit of devout com- munion dies out before the chill breath of discern- ing criticism. At the present time there is among us a wholesome reaction in the direction of the congregational psalmody which gives such hearti- ness to the services in many Lutheran churches. " The simple and ancient tunes which the German people sing in their churches," to quote from an intelligent student on this subject, " are very beau- tiful. There is an increasing tendency in the best churches, in this country and abroad, toward a style of church music that is nearer the wants of the people. The more of reality in the service of song, the less need to multiply tunes and to give them highly artistic character. I asked a cultiva- ted German, who had spent some years in the United States, why it was that so many were accus- tomed to join in singing in the German churches. He replied, 'It is because we use the old hymns and the old tunes.' " ' (2) The congregation may be trained to the responsive reading of the Psalms. Originally antiphonal, we take one step toward restoring the Psalter to its true place when we use it respon- sively. 1 say one step, because finality is by no means reached when this is done. The Psalms should be chanted, and the congregation should have their full share in this exercise. In passing, it may be said that to the alternate reading by the minister and the congregation of I " The Christ of Yesterday, To-day, and Forever," E. H. Byington, p. ijj. F 82 PUBLIC WORSHIP Other parts of Scripture than the Psalms, there are serious objections. The responsive reading of the Psalms was probably at first a compromise made by the Reformed Anglican Church. It was in- tended to set the people to doing what in the older service had been done by the singers. " Respon- sive reading in the Anglican communion was a mere expedient of necessity. So that church has re- garded it, and has sought earnestly and persistingly to remove this necessity, and in England, it is un- derstood, with success. So that to-day, in general, the responsive reading of the Psalms has ceased, and singing has been restored to its rightful function in this part of worship." * But the other parts of the Bible were not intended to be sung. They are to be read by one voice, so as not to break up the continuous sense, and so as to preserve the charac- ter of this part of the service as impressive rather than expressive. (3) The recital of the Lord's Prayer aloud by the minister and the people will also conduce to congregational response. To this the people need to be trained. Already it is common in the Sunday- school. Let it be used in the week-evening prayer meetings. Request the deacons and those who are accustomed to speak, to lead the congregation in clear and distinct tones. It may be interesting to note that in the " Directory for the Public Worship of God," issued by the Westminster Assembly in 1643, and intended to take the place of the Episco- 1 "New Englander," January, 1882. CONGRKGATIONAL RESPONSE 83 pal rubric, " no stated prayer was commended ex- cept that given by our Lord." In early New Eng- land, however, " so great was the dislike to any- thing that savored of the bondage of the Church of England that even the Lord's Prayer was seldom employed." The objection in this instance seems not to have been to the use of the prayer in public worship, save as it was associated with a political tyranny which had driven them and their fathers into exile ; and this objection happily holds no longer. (4) Certainly it would be well to restore to the people the use of the congregational amen. That the original intention was for all the people to say amen is evident from Scripture,' it has been con- jectured that in the New Testament a reference to the same custom among the early believers is to be found in the words, " That with one accord ye may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," and it is certain that in another passage the apostle alludes to it as custom- ary.* The early church grafted the practice into its congregational worship. In the second century Justin Martyr wrote : " Then we all rise together and pray, and when our prayer is ended, bread and wine are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayer and thanksgiving, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying, 'Amen.'" In our own times, while the use of the amen has bee4i more characteristic of the Methodist congre- gations, it is certain that it has also been encour- ' Deut. 27 : 14, 15 ; i Chron. 16 : 36 ; Ps. 106 : 48. " Rom. 15:6; i Cor. 14 : 16. 84 PUBLIC WORSHIP aged by individual Baptist ciiurches. In the records of a church in Yorksliire, England, in the year 1800, we read : " Desired that those who approve of the prayers signify their approbation by an audible ' Amen ' ; " which leads us to say that this re- sponse will naturally be called forth by prayer which is congregational. Let the minister be careful so to pray that all the people may say " Amen." (5) Congregational response of the truest sort, that is to say, of the heart and mind, will be pro- moted if congregational interest is maintained. To tliis end encourage a more general use of Bibles among the people. During the public reading of the Scriptures train them to follow you from their own Bibles. Accustom them to look up the text of your sermon when it is announced, and during the discourse to follow your references to passages of Scriptures confirmatory of what you are saying. Not the least advantage in doing this will be that you yourself will be delivered from handling the word of God deceitfully, from taking a text only to leave it, and so exposing yourself to the same con- demnation as the Scottish preacher of whom one of his hearers complained that " he had lost his ground an hour before, and had been just swimming ever since." V. In closing our consideration of a subject upon which the last word has by no means been spoken yet, it may be well to glance at the benefits which will follow the cultivation of the responsive ele- ment in public worship. CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE 85 1. The whole service will feel its influence, and will become hearty, continuous, and measurably complete. 2. The sermon will also be the better for it if it helps to cherish more of that sympathy which should exist between a speaker and his hearers. If the congregation comes to the sermon in a de- vout, exalted frame of feeling, the preaching cannot be what it is when the exercises preceding the ser- mon only consume so much time and power of at- tention.^ For the minister himself, the responsive tones of the people will do much to remove the sensation of isolation, and to banish the nervous- ness due to a feeling that he is not one of the peo- ple so much as one apart from them. 3. The sound of many voices will be as stimu- lating and bracing as the sound of many waters. The minister will himself worship with his people and not only on their behalf. As it is, he is often startled at hearing any other voice than his own, and the amen of a worshiper more devout than de- corous is as disturbing to him as was the response of the old Duke of Cambridge to the chaplain who was conducting the service in his presence, when in answer to the minister's words, " Let us pray," he replied with a voice stronger than his mind, " By all means," 4. By such changes in the service as we have suggested, the sane and wholesome instinct to join in audible expression will be largely satisfied. 1 "Andover Review," Sept., 1884, p. 296. 86 PUBLIC WORSHIP "We need," as Horace Bushnell says, "to keep fixed times, or appointed rounds of observances, as truly as to be in holy impulses ; to have prescribed periods of duty as truly as to have a spirit of duty ; to be in the drill of observance as well as in the liberty of faith."' And the congregation will feel that thrill of fellowship without which, indeed, it is no congregation, but only an accidental as- semblage of individuals. Recalling his sensations when Frederick Denison Maurice conducted divine worship, Thomas Hughes expresses what many of us who remember Maurice felt: "The way in which we all joined in the responses (irresistibly, I suppose, because we felt it was a privilege which we must exercise) gave me a strong feeling of fel- lowship which 1 have rarely felt in any other con- gregation." 5. It need hardly be said that this fellowship must be of great service to the cause of religion at large. Our personal enjoyment of the life that is hid with Christ in God is very much influenced by the general expression of religion among those who are about us. When these congregational utter- ances express the united testimonies of many de- vout souls, our own faith will be quickened and the earthly worship in wiiich we engage will be rich and full in the very elements which give to the elders praising the Lamb such a mighty volume of harmonious testimony. ' Horace Bushnell's Sermons : " Routine Observances Indispensable." V PUBLIC PRAYER SUMMARY THE PREPARATION FOR PUBLIC PRAYER. A careful preparation for public prayer is urged : 1. From the importance of the act itself. 2. From the unsatisfactory character of many public prayers. 3. From the effect produced when public prayer is what it should be. I. Devotional Preparation. 1. Personal preparation. 2. Preparation Godward. 3. Preparation manward. Counsels. 1. Have a special time in the week reserved for this prepa- ration. 2. Have within easy reach books which will help your devotions. 3. Let your mind be free from the routine of church work. II. INTELLECTUAL PREPARATION. 1. In the language to be used : (i) Analyze the prayers of the Bible; (2) Study models of prayer; (3) Form a collection of materials for prayer; (4) Sometimes it may be well to write out a prayer. 2. In the subjects to be touched upon: (i) The principal prayer should be very inclusive; (2) To insure this, foresight will be needed; (3) Train people to send notes, to make notes during week. Note, a list of books which may be recommended. V "^ PUBLIC PRAYER Upon no parts of the public service should the minister bestow more pains than upon those which are distinctively devotional. A careful Preparation for Congregational Prayer may be urged for the following reasons : I. From the importance of the act itself. The definition of prayer in the Shorter Catechism is admirable: "Prayer is an offering up of our de- sires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies." To Coleridge the act of praying was "the very highest energy of which the human heart was capa- ble, praying, that is, with the concentration of the faculties." Emerson touches on another aspect of the prayer, but one not less important, when he speaks of it as " the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view." Evidently to pray with profit and power is by no means easy. An English bishop considered that no man was likely to do much good in prayer who did not begin by looking at it "in the light of a work to be pre- pared for and persevered in with all the earnestness which we bring to bear on subjects which are, in QO PUBLIC WORSHIP our opinion, at once most interesting and most necessary." The same estimate of the true char- acter of the act is summed up in fewer words by Chalmers when he speaks of the intense business- like spirit of the prayers of Philip Doddridge.^ 2. Nor, we are bound to add, is the need of a careful preparation on the part of the minister less evident if he considers the unsatisfactory character of very much public prayer. So impressed with this was one of the ablest pastors of the past gener- ation in New England that he feared that "public prayer was fast becoming a lost art."'^ The crav- ing for a liturgy is not often found when public ex- temporaneous prayer is what it should be, but only when it is full of vain repetition, devoid of unction, unsympathetic, inadequate to the needs of the con- gregation, and lacking in reverence and dignity. These are the blemishes in extemporaneous prayer against which the Westminster Directory of Wor- ship as long ago as the seventeenth century warned the ministers of the Presbyterian Church, even going so far as to recommend that manuals be studied "that the prayers may be performed with dignity and propriety, as well as to the profit of those who join in them, and that this important service may not be disgraced by mean, irregular, or extravagant effu- sions." In the discussions on the subject at the time when this utterance was made, it was clearly recognized that there was a middle way betwixt set forms and extemporaneous prayers. "I plead 1 Stanford, "Doddridge," p. 175. - Dr. Leonard Bacon. PUBLIC PRAYER 9I for neither," said one of the leaders in the debate, "but for studied prayers."* Dr. Edward Payson, whose ministry was marked by such rare spiritual power, found reason for saying, " Our devotional performances are too often cold and spiritless ; as the heart did not assist in composing, it disdains to aid in attuning them. They have almost as much of a form as if we made use of a liturgy, while the peculiar excellences of a liturgy are wanting." Without doubt what his biographer remarks about William George Ward is true of many other wor- shipers : " A public prayer which did not appeal to him led to irritation and distraction." ^ When an outraged and outspoken Western man went swing- ing out of a famous Eastern college chapel one Sun- day morning, exclaiming "Great Scott, what pray- ing," we can more readily forgive his bluntness than the petition which provoked it, and which ran thus: "We thank thee that all men are thy children, and that when we love men we love thee, when we think highly of human powers we praise thee ; when we worship human genius we are not idola- ters as our fathers thought."' No country has more resolutely opposed set forms of prayer than Scotland ; but Dr. A. K. H. Boyd urges, with reason, that they are to be preferred to the prayers which are purely impromptu, and he illustrates his conten- tion by extracts from the prayers of contemporary 1 "The Westminster Assembly," A. F. Mitchell, D. D., p. 22g. - " Memoirs of the Oxford Movement," Wilfrid Ward, p. 93. 3 " Life of Dr. S. Wells Williams," p. 480. 92 PUBLIC WORSHIP ministers, which certainly warrant his protest. The proverbial caution of his countrymen found expres- sion in one instance in the words : ** it must be ac- knowledged that hitherto thy people have been in a sad minority, but we look on to the day when they shall be in an overwhelming majority" ; and patriotic pride dictafed a version of certain words of Jesus which were neither authorized nor revised, when the same minister said, "For, as thou knowest, men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of the national emblem." 3. But when public extemporaneous prayer is what it should be, without question no part of the service is more profitable. " People learn more what prayer is and how to pray," said Dr. Kirk, " in hearing one real prayer than by all the sermons and talks they ever heard or will hear, and all the tracts they will ever read on the subject." ^ " With- out any straining after oratorical effect," says one of his occasional hearers, " Dr. Maclaren's voice and manner at once arrested attention ; the stillness that prevailed seemed a matter of course. The preliminary prayers were so fresh and thoughtful as at once to suggest careful preparation. They had the ring of genuineness, and must have passed for the spiritual currency of very many present." We cease to marvel at the power in prayer of John Knox when we fmd that he considered it to be " an earnest and familiar talking with God," and the spiritual influence which George Fox exerted is to 1 " Life of Dr. Edward Kirk," p. 328. PUBLIC PRAYER 93 a large part explained when we hear William Penn saying of him : "The most awful, living, reverent frame 1 ever felt or beheld, I must say, was his in prayer. And truly it was a testimony he knew more and lived nearer to the Lord than other men : for they that know him most will see most reason to approach him with reverence and fear."^ A lady going to Dr. Payson's church in the expecta- tion of seeing Lafayette, was lifted far above curi- osity by an intercessory prayer which "differed from all she had ever heard, in richness and appropri- ateness of matter as well as in fervor of utterance," and when she ventured to ask Dr. Payson for a copy of it, she was surprised to learn that it had vanished with the breath which gave it utterance.^ In the same way, Sir James Mackintosh, led by some unexpected circumstance to hear Edward hwing just after he settled in London, was arrested by the phrase, "thrown upon the fatherhood of God," which the preacher used in pleading for an unknown family of orphans belonging to the obscure congregation. He repeated the words to Canning, the first statesman of his time, who in his turn went to hear Irving, and a few nights after, in the House of Commons, spoke in such high terms of his eloquence that the rank and fashion of London flocked to listen to him.' A prayer which Irving's earlier associate. Dr. Thomas Chalmers, offered ' " George Fox," by Thomas Hodgkin, p. 275. 2 Cumming's " Memoir of Payson," p. 240. 2 Oliphant's " Life of Irving," p. 120. 94 PUBLIC WORSHIP when Edinburgh was threatened with cholera, brought a note from one of the judges of the Court of Session, begging that it might be given to the press, so that general prejudice against the means taken to avert the scourge might be allayed "by the solemn appeal to Almighty God put by one so justly entitled to public confidence and respect.'" In his prayers it was said of Robert Murray Mc- Cheyne that "he held such reverential and endear- ing communion with God, — he pressed so near the throne, there was something so filial in his ' Abba Father,' so express and urgent and hopeful were his supplications, — that it was awakening to hear him pray." Of McCheyne's friend and fellow- laborer, William C. Burns, his biographer remarks : " During the first prayer you felt as if the light of the other world struck his face." Using though he did a liturgy, Frederick Denison Maurice was mani- festly conscious that he was leading the prayers of the special congregation then present, while at the same time " his whole manner and voice showed that he was completely absorbed in the actual com- munion of thought with the unseen." Robertson of Irvine was but a stripling when he succeeded to a venerable pastor: "When I saw him mount the pulpit stairs," said one of his hearers, "1 felt indig- nant that one so young should presume to teach a church, but when I heard his prayer, I felt that the most aged might sit at his feet."' President Way- 1 Manila's "Life of Chalmers," Vol. II., p. 250. - Guthrie's " Robertson of Irvine," p. 56. PUBLIC PRAYER 95 land, spending a Sunday in Liverpool and attending the service at Dr. Raffles' church, wrote: "In prayer Dr. Rattles was delightful ; devotional, calm, earnest, but solemn, particular, but not familiar. It raised the souls of the people to God, and kept them near the throne." An old woman who was a member of Dr. Dale's church, at Birmingham, v/hile she confessed that she could not understand his sermons, added, " But his prayers do me so much good that I always come."' This was the testimony of one who had worshiped at that church until use had become a second nature ; but how the casual hearer also may be affected is illustrated by the fact that Dr. C. L. Goodell, of St. Louis, who excelled in congregational prayer, once received at the close of a morning service the following note, written in pencil on the back of a telegram blank, and sent by the hand of one of the ushers : " God bless you for your prayer for the strangers present. Three of us, and many miles from home, God bless us all. Excuse the pencil and paper. Signed, An Operator."^ Enough has been said in urging the great im- portance of careful preparation on the part of the minister before engaging in public prayer. This preparation should be both devotional and intellec- tual. 1. There should be Devotional Preparation for public prayer. I. Your first duty will be to make your own 1 " Life of Dr. Dale," p. 644. -" Life of C. L. Goodell, D. D., p. 374. 96 PUBLIC WORSHIP heart ready by private communion witli God. This personal preparation is indeed of the utmost im- portance. With King David you must go in and sit before the Lord.' With Daniel the prophet be- fore the Lord you must pray and confess your sins, and present your supplications.^ Spurgeon com- mends the preparation of the heart, the solemn con- sideration beforehand of the importance of prayer, meditation upon the needs of men's souls, and a remembrance of the promises which we are to plead. ^ Even more than the sermon, Dr. W. M. Taylor thinks that "the prayer requires prepara- tion. It needs the culture of the heart. The de- votion of the pulpit must have its roots back in the closet. The habits of the life will fill a reservoir from which the exercises of the sanctuary will be easily supplied." * 2. This personal preparation will also give you preparation Godward. To utter the resolve, " I will sing, yea, I will sing praises even with my glory," Ms to have already gathered up all your powers in the glad declaration, " My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed." 3. From this point you can survey the whole world, lying in the light of God's purposes. Do not be satisfied with your preparation until you find yourself in full accord with his will. Charge your soul "with the most exalted conception of a con- 1 2 Sam. 7 : 18. 2 Dan. 9 : 20. 3 Spurgeon, " Lectures to My Students," I., IV. * Taylor, " Yale Lectures," p. 241. & Ps. loS PUBLIC PRAYER 97 gregation of people, filled with the vision of God's glory ; each heart overawed, elevated, enraptured with the sight, like Abraham and Moses speaking with the Eternal, face to face."' This three- fold preparation — selfward, Godward, manward — should be your first and chief occupation in the an- ticipation of leading the people in public prayer. It is almost impossible to insist too strenuously on this preparation of the heart, or to exaggerate its value, in his quaint way, John Trapp, the com- mentator, puts the matter with refreshing clearness when he says : " God respecteth not the arithme- tic of our prayers, how many they are ; nor the rlietoric of our prayers, how neat they are ; nor the geometry of our prayers, how long they are ; nor the music of our prayers, how melodious they are ; nor the logic of our prayers, how methodical they are ; but the divinity of our prayers, how heart- sprung they are. Not gifts, but graces prevail in prayer." There is force as well as beauty in Payson's thoughts upon the same subject : " That public prayer may produce its proper and designed effects upon the hearts of our hearers, it should be, if I may so express it, a kind of devout poetry. As in poetry, so in prayer, the whole subject-matter should be furnished by the heart ; and the under- standing should be allowed only to shape and ar- range the effusions of the heart in the manner best adapted to answer the end designed." ^ 1 " Memoir," p. 246. * " Dr. Kirk's Life," p. 329. G 98 PUBLIC WORSHIP COUNSELS. 1. We counsel, therefore, that you reserve a special time in the week for the preparation. Let your Sabbath begin with the sunset on Saturday, and keep the hours of that evening sacred from social or even public engagements, 2. It may be well to have near at hand books which will help your devotions. Catch the glow of Samuel Rutherford from his matchless " Letters," and the fire of Richard Baxter from his " Reformed Pastor." Bring yourself anew under the spell of that classic in the literature of prayer, " The Still Hour," of Professor Austin Phelps, Let the devout thoughts of A, J. Gordon, or F. B, Meyer, or An- drew Murray, stimulate or soothe your heart, 3. This season of preparation, on the eve of the Sunday's work, must find you with a heart at lei- sure from itself. You must have the sermons ready, all the arrangements for the services com- pleted. The routine of church work must not in- trude here, nor the shadow of any needed mental discipline be suffered to fall across your spirit. IL This is not to say that the quiet hour on Sat- urday evening may not in part be given to Intel- lectual Preparation for public prayer. It may. Now is the time to tune the lips as well as to in- spire the heart. Your intellectual preparation should be to the full as conscientious for the prayer as for the sermon. PUBLIC PRAYER 99 I. First, let us observe that there should be prep- aration in the Language to be used, (i) To this end it is wise to make a collection of the prayers of the Bible. Arrange them in order in a note book. Begin with the prayers of the Old Testament. Abraham, Moses and Jabez, David and Solomon, Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah, Ezra and Nehemiah, with the prophets Isaiah, Daniel, Jonah, and HabakkuR. Then study the prayers of Jesus, Let them fall under the three natural divisions of those that have special reference to himself, those that he offered for believers, and the Lord's Prayer, In the Lord's Prayer, if carefully analyzed, you will find in germ almost all the material for your con- gregational prayer. Some one has said, " It em- bodies a catholic spirit in its 'Our Father,' a rev- erential spirit in its 'Hallowed be thy name,' an obedient spirit in its ' Thy will be done,' a depend- ent spirit in its ' Give us this day our daily bread,' a penitent and forgiving spirit in its ' Lead us not into temptation,' and an adoring spirit in its ' Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,' " ^ Go on to gather together for the same purpose the other prayers of the New Testament ; the prayers offered by the early church as found in the Acts of the Apostles, and the prayers of Paul, Then complete your collection by adding the large number of benedictions which are to be found in the Old and New Testament, 1 See Baldwin, "Forty-one Years' Pastorate," p. 212. 100 PUBLIC WORSHIP (2) Later models will also be of assistance. There is a stately and majestic movement in the Collects of the Episcopal Prayer-book. Theodore Parker has left prayers which, if too florid, are rare- ly out of tune with the natural world, George Dawson, of Birmingham, England, used language which he carefully selected by a study of the great writers of the golden age in English literature. For their entire absence of any rhetorical artifices the prayers of Henry Ward Beecher are worthy of study, and much can be learned from the direct and vigorous language of C. H. Spurgeon. (3) It will be well to have a manuscript book into which you can paste selections from these and other prayers, so as to be able to use them in your preparation for public worship ; the foun- dation of the collection being laid in the prayers of the Bible already enumerated. (4) There may even be times when to write out a prayer will be a profitable exercise. Certainly phrases, sentences, and special words for special occasions may need to be composed beforehand.^ The prayer thus studied will not be read in public, but the drill and discipline of writing it will influence the minister when he leads the devotions of the people. We need not differ with Mr. Spurgeon when he declares that " ready-made prayers always seem very much like ready-made clothes, which being meant to fit everybody very seldom fit any- 1 G. A. Smith, D. D., " Life of Henry Drummond," p. 56. " Life of C. L. Goodell, D. D.," pp. 189, IQ4. PUBLIC PRAYER lOI body," but on the other hand we do well to re- member that Dr. Chalmers prepared, wrote out, and even read the brief prayer which preceded his lectures when he was a university professor. " It does not follow," says Dr. McCrie, among the most intelligent and uncompromising defenders of non- liturgical worship in later times, "from our not praying by a set form that we must pray extem- pore."^ To write out their prayers, "was the practice of some of the most godly ministers the Church of Scotland has ever had, who, though gifted with readiness of utterance and facility of devotional expressions, and satisfied if in their more private ministrations they could arrange their thoughts and prepare their hearts, yet in the stated services of the sanctuary made conscience of writing down beforehand the substance of their prayers as well as their sermons, though they were no more in the habit of reading the latter than the former." ^ Probably we should be disposed to agree with Dr. S. M. Hopkins when he says : " The conclusion reached by eminent members of both liturgical and non-liturgical churches is that a system that should unite the propriety and dignity of venerable form with the flexibility and adaptation to occasions of free prayer would be superior to any existing method."^ And certainly the wise words of the author of " The Tongues of Fire " should put us on our guard against forming any hasty judgment on ' Mitchell, "The Westminster Assembly," p. 230. ' Ibid., pp. 230, 231. 3 See " Kern, " p. 31. 102 PUBLIC WORSHIP this subject, " He who never uses a form in public prayer, casts away the wisdom of the past. He who will use only forms casts away the hope of utter- ance to be given by the Spirit at present, and even shuts up the future in the stiff hand of the past. Whatever church forbids a Christian congregation, no matter what may be their fears, troubles, joys, or special and pressing need, ever to send up prayer to God except in words framed by other men in other ages, uses an authority which was never delegated. To object to all forms is narrowness. To doom a Christian temple to be a place wherein a simple and impromptu cry may never arise to heaven, is superstition."' 2. We may further observe that there should be preparation in the Subjects to be touched upon. (i) The principal prayer in the morning service should be very inclusive, and in order to insure this and at the same time to avoid prolixity, careful preparation is necessary. An American writer says of Mr. Spurgeon's prayer : " He will rivet the at- tention and catch the ear of his hearers by speak- ing of that which has been uppermost in their minds during the week, and then lead them to those which ought to be of all importance to them while engaged in the service of the sanctuary, Spurgeon prays as if he were in the presence of Him whom he addresses, and the hearers melt into silence, for they feel that the Ruler of the universe must be present, and that the place is indeed holy. When 1 Arthur, " Tongues of Fire, " p. 21. PUBLIC PRAYER 103 he prays for London, It seems as if the portals of his soul were all thrown open, and every power were brought into living fellowship with the mighty Spirit of God, and that he is making that soul every moment mightier in its apprehension of God. Mr. Spurgeon evidently studies his prayers, as to subject- matter, before coming to the service, and then they are delivered with the greatest freedom of expres- sion." (2) To secure inclusiveness in this prayer some foresight is needed. It will be well that you train the people to send you notes during the week speci- fying the things which they wish mentioned by you in public prayer. Sickness, recovery, bereave- ment, new experiences in life, these, and many similar incidents in the daily course of members of your congregation should be remembered at this time. Cotton Mather took " the bills that were put up for prayer " to his study and prayed for each person separately. The Episcopal prayers include special petitions for members of the congregation and their friends. Within the m^emory of many of us such personal requests were sent up to the minister before the morning prayer, to be included in his supplications. A custom so worthy of pres- ervation ought not to have fallen into disuse. The pastor's letter box, in the vestibule of the church, may be of good service in receiving these special requests for prayer. 3. In addition to this, we counsel that during the week you note down matters which you should re- 104 PUBLIC WORSHIP member in prayer, such as will be furnished by your pastoral calls, by the daily newspapers, and by the life of the community in which you are set- tled. A sheet of paper lying on your study table may be used on which to make these occasional memoranda, and on Saturday evening or Sunday morning, you will find that it will be an easy matter to divide up and classify your material. The retro- spect of the week will enable you to pray with point as well as power for things which are personal in the life of the home, or of interest in the life of the church, or momentous in the life of the nation. We would further recommend that you study such aids to public prayer as are furnished by the literature of the subject, hivaluable hints may be found in Mr. Spurgeon's "Lectures to my Students," and among other books on prayer to be recom- mended are the following : " Thoughts on Prayer," by W. E. Winks, London, Religious Tract Society; Beecher's "Aids to Prayer"; "Aids to Public Prayer," by Ambrose D. Spong ; while from the prayers of Jeremy Taylor, " Holy Living and Dy- ing," Matthew Henry, "Method of Prayer," George Dawson, H. W. Beecher, C. H. Spurgeon, " The Pastor in Prayer," and Dr. Joseph Parker, you may gain both guidance and stimulus for your own public ministrations. Writing to a brother minister, when he himself was laid aside from active work. Dr. R. W. Dale commends a " Manual of Intercessory Prayer," by a High Churchman ; and his sturdy Protestantism PUBLIC PRAYER 105 does not prevent his saying : " I have found it help- ful for devotional purposes in solitary prayer, very helpful. But it may also be of use in suggesting topics for prayer in public, a matter in which I think, nay, I am sure, that I was wretchedly at fault when I was young, and am not much better now that I am old. The High Churchmen, with the use they make of the liturgical and devotional literature of many centuries, have much to teach us." In prayer, as in psalmody, the various members of the church of Christ have in all the ages come nearer to one another than they have in their Confessions of Faith or their sermons. VI PUBLIC PRAYER (CONTINUED) SUMMARY PRELIMINARY SUGGESTIONS. 1. As to posture. 2. As to voice. 3. As to language. Guard against: (i) Florid language; (2) The language oftompliment and flattery ; (3) Conventional phrases ; (4) Inaccurate quotations from Scripture; (5) Inelegant - expressions; (6) Tiresome repetition of the same form of address ; (7) Over-familiarity ; (8) Tendency to preach. CHARACTERISTICS OF PUBLIC PRAYER. 1. Solemnity: (i) Do not be hurried; (2) Avoid all per- sonalities. 2. Sympathy : ( i ) With the purposes and dealings of God. (2) With the congregation. 3. Devout confidence, 4. Directness. Avoid: (i) Being too general ; (2) Being too minute. VI PUBLIC PRAYER (CONTINUED) I. At this point it may be well to make some suggestions as to the minister's demeanor in con- ducting the devotions of the congregation, and as to the language to be employed. I. The first thing to be considered is posture. During public prayer it seems best that the minis- ter stand. There is no question of reverence in- volved, for almost every attitude can appeal to historical precedent. Kneeling, which may seem the most devout posture, is open to the objections that it is tiring to the body, hurtful to the lungs, exhausting to the voice, and of all attitudes the worst for sending out articulate sound clearly. Al- though our congregations no longer stand, yet this was the ancient mode, and it lingered down to this century. " Daniel Webster," says his biographer, "stood up with the minister and congregation, after the manner of the Pilgrim Fathers, with great devoutness of manner." In Scotland it probably remains to this day the correct posture in prayer with many congregations. Formerly the minister kept his eyes open, and an early writer on the subject counsels that they be fastened on the clock in the front of the gallery, 109 no PUBLIC WORSHIP SO that the prayer should not be made too long. On his first coming to London, Mr. Spurgeon prayed thus, and the letter apprising him of the vote of the meeting which called him to supply the New Park Street pulpit, with a view to a permanent settle- ment there, tells him that five hands were held up in the negative : " They object to you on the ground that they consider you do not use sufficient reverence in prayer."^ \n rising to pray, clasp the hands over the Bible, and by all means avoid ges- ticulation. The habit of lifting them with an up- ward sweeping gesture as a summons to the people to unite in prayer is in part a relic of priestly as- sumption, and in part a piece of childish dictation. Rise with deliberation, and say, simply, " Let us pray." 2. This suggests the further counsel that you pitch your voice low rather than high. At first speak slower than your usual preaching rate. Ar- ticulate very clearly. " He who cannot properly pronounce the vowels," says the Persian Sh^hr, — a book of directions for the right conduct of life, — " shall not lead prayers." Let there be no violent variations in your tone. The roar is scarcely more objectionable than the whisper. Do not be rhetorical, or elocutionary, in your voice. 3. Of still greater importance is the question of the language to be used in public prayer. The ju- dicious study of models to which reference has been made in the previous chapters, may prepare 1 "Autobiography," Vol. I., p. 347. PUBLIC PRAYER III you for the follovving suggestions. Use words which are well established in our language. Adopt the Horatian principle, and strike a happy mean between these which are fading out of use and those which have not yet obtained an accredited foothold among us. George Dawson, whose prayers are perfect in the simplicity and beauty of their form, told Dr. Dale that " he thought no word should be used in prayer that had come into the language since the time of Queen Elizabeth." ^ This is an extreme view, but it errs in the right direction. Employ very largely Scripture phraseology, for it is dear to the heart of Christian people. "Why," exclaims Edward h'ving, " do not men talk of spirit- ual matters as much like the Scriptures as they can, and especially address God in their holy language ?" Let the sentences be short rather than long, simple rather than complex. Avoid the style which the old lady who listened to his prayers, characterized as " John Forster's stand-up essays." hi a word, be simple. The minister who desired to air his Latin certainly chose the wrong time in which to do it when he began his prayer, " O Lord Jesus Christ, thou art the ne plus tiltra of our de- sires, the sine qua non of our faith, and the Ultima Tiiule of our hopes." ^ This was to violate the first canon of good style, as well as to offend against other things of still greater moment. At all events speak, as Walter Bagehot advises you to write, " like a human being." 1 Dale, "Yale Lectures," p. 173. ' S. H. Cox, D. D. 112 PUBLIC WORSHIP (i) Avoid, then, florid language. " 1 do not ap- prove," said Dr. Samuel Johnson, " of figurative expressions in addressing the Supreme Being ; and I never use them." The caution which is implied here is not unnecessary, and especially will the young preacher do well to heed it. With an old Scottish minister speaking to his grandson who was preparing for the same vocation, we may say, " Oh, preserve simplicity in prayer. God does not need to be told that he made the constellations." We understand with what good reason the news- papers on one occasion credited Theodore Parker with uttering "the finest prayer ever addressed to a Boston audience," when we hear him say : " We thank thee for the new life which comes tingling in the boughs of every great or little tree, which is green in the new-ascended grass, and transfigures itself in the flowers to greater brightness than Solomon ever put on. We thank thee for the seed which the farmer has cradled in the ground, or which thence lifts up its happy face of multitudinous proph- ecy, telling us of harvests that are to come. We thank thee also for the garment of prophecy with which thou girdest the forests and adornest every tree all around our northern lands. We bless thee for the fresh life which teems in the waters that are about us and in the little brooks which run among the hills, which warbles in the branches of the trees and hums with new-born insects through- out the peopled land." This is rhapsody ; but is it prayer ? And yet the dictum of Dr. Johnson seems PUBLIC PRAYER I^ to be too severe when we join in a prayer of Mr. Spurgeon's in wliich figurative language is used with rare beauty : " Come in, O strong and deep love of Jesus, like the sea at flood-tide ; cover all my powers, drown all my sins, sweep away all my cares, lift up my earth-bound soul and float it right up to my Lord's feet, and there let it lie, a poor broken shell washed up by his love, having no vir- tue or value, and only venturing to whisper to him that if he will put his ear to me he will hear within faint echoes of the vast waves of his own love, which have brought me where it is my delight to lie, even at his feet forever." (2) Preserve yourself from using any phraseology in prayer which savors of compliment and flattery. You may be occupying the place of a brother min- ister. Do not indirectly congratulate him on his achievements, or his people on their activity and usefulness. We are all in the presence of God, and the time is far distant in which any minister or any church can afford to do other than be very humble and self-abasing there. Even had we done all the things that are commanded us, our fittest language would still be that which our Lord taught us to use: "We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which it was our duty to do." ^ (3) Even more than in preaching, there is a ten- dency in prayer to fall into the habit of using con- ventional phrases. Although they may not in every instance be so unmeaning as the prayer of a New 1 Luke 17 : 10. H 114 PUBLIC WORSHIP Jersey minister one very hot day in July, for those who, " instead of joining in the worship were sitting at their own firesides," yet, in any case, they should be repressed. "The ecclesiastical phraseology of the pulpit is to be avoided, and especially in prayer." * Equally, set phrases, the stock in trade of dullness, should be conspicuous only by their absence : "Each and every one," "fit and prepare us," "guide and direct us," "a realizing sense," "the act and article of death " — these are phrases out of which any meaning which they once may have possessed has faded by reason of constant use and abuse. (4) Still more objectionable are inaccurate quota- tions from the Bible, such as " Where two or three are met together in thy name, there art thou in their midst, and that to bless," and " The valley and the shadow of death," and "As earthly parents give good gifts to their children," and "Run and have free course and be glorified." (5) hielegant expressions are to be avoided. Some of these survive in prayer although everywhere else they are counted obsolete. Such as "We commit us to thee," "We do pray." Others are illus- trations of clumsy English, such as : " Grant to bless," "Do thou be present" (for "Be thou present,") and "Divine Presence," instead of " The Divine Presence." It ought not to be neces- sary to warn the minister against such inaccuracy as "Forgive us of our sins," and he who has not lA. S.Hill, "Our English," p. 155. PUBLIC PRAYER II5 learned to avoid such closing phrases as " When thou art done with us here," or even worse, "When thou art through with us here," lacks either schooling or sense. (6) Against nothing should the minister guard his speech in prayer more jealously than the tiresome repetition of the same form. In beginning the prayer avoid the monotonous use of the words, "We thank thee," such forms as "We pray," "We beseech thee," "We ask thee," " Will the Lord be pleased," become wholly unmeaning by incessant iteration, while the word "bless" at the beginning of each petition, — " Bless the Sun- day-school," "Bless the Bible classes," "Bless the sewing circle," — is intolerable. " How many prayers," says Spurgeon, "are like the grocers' bills, 'Ditto, ditto, ditto,' or 'As per usual.'" Remember that the monotonous soon becomes the unmeaning. The objection to read prayers that they lose their power by frequent repetition, holds with still greater force against numbers of prayers that are not read. Only a vigorous effort delivers us from the bondage to the letter in prayer as in other matters. Dr. A. K. H. Boyd gives the case of an aged minister at Arbroath, in Scotland, who had used the same prayer during all his pastorate, so that a deaf woman who used to stand on the pul- pit stairs had committed it to memory, and she had got into the habit of uttering it, always a few words in advance of the minister, without being conscious that she was heard by the congregation. As a still 1 1.6 PUBLIC WORSHIP more serious illustration of the peril with which we are dealing, he says that a minister of the Presby- tery on a visit to a neighbor's house was asked to pray in the family, and while doing so he fell into the prayer of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and was not arrested till he had consecrated the ele- ments of bread and wine. (7) At the present time we seem to be in danger of running to an opposite extreme from the stately rhetoric of earlier days, and it is therefore neces- sary to warn the young preacher against over- familiarity in prayer, and especially against what have been called "amatory phrases."^ The con- stant use of the epithet "dear" — "Dear Lord," "Our dear Father," "Dear Jesus," — and the multiplication of terms of endearment, such as, "Our dear heavenly Father," are to be avoided. Use no phrase in prayer which misrepresents the character and will of God. He is willing to answer us, he is waiting to bless. The language of ur- gency — " Do Lord " — is a libel on his nature and purpose. Perhaps it may be well to add that Scripture precedent and authority are in favor of the rule that prayer should be addressed to the Father, with a recognition of the intercessory office of the Son, and of the mission of the Holy Spirit. There is good authority, both in the New Testament and in the practice of the early church, for direct address 1 Kern, " The Ministry to the Congregation," p. 75. Fairbairn, " Pastoral Theology," p. 318. PUBLIC PRAYER II7 to Christ ; but in the ordinary prayers of the con- gregation the fuller order seems preferable.^ (8) The tendency to preach in prayer should also be avoided. John B. Gough recalls the words with which a minister, having opened the meeting with prayer, introduced him as the lecturer of the even- ing : "Ladies and gentlemen: as I have informed you in my prayer, the temperance cause is in a healthy state." Would that he had been the only sinner in this way ! The disposition to give information in prayer, and so by an indirect route to reach the congregation, is so common that a word of warning is needed. Ask yourself, for instance, for whose ear such a prayer as the following is in- tended : " Of light, thou art the Fountain and the Center. God said. Let there be light ; and there was light — himself shone upon the brooding dark- ness. Shine in our hearts ; be the morning of our lives ; be the summer of our soul. Jesus Christ, thy Son, is the Light of the world. As long as he is in the world he is the Light of the world ; he abideth with us forever, therefore are we living in the day of light and in the presence of light." In the days when the principal prayer took up the better part of an hour this habit of preaching may have been excusable. But these days are past ; and now the minister will do well to be on his guard against the intrusion of it with the sermon. 1 Porter, Homiletics," p. 287. "Life of Lyman Beecher," Vol. IL, p. 112. "Life of Charles Hodge, D. D.," p. 163. "Life of Bishop Wilberforce," p. 205. Il8 PUBLIC WORSHIP II. We may glance at some general characteris- tics by which Public Prayer should be distinguished. I. Among these we must certainly mention solem- nity. The exclamation of Lyman Beecher in his old age, "We have seen thee, heard thee, felt thee! God, thou art God!" should express our profound conviction as we pray. Let there be seriousness in spirit and there will also be serious- ness in tone. (i) Do not allow yourself to be hurried. Pause before beginning to pray, until there is perfect si- lence on the part of the congregation, hi your line of thought, as of language, move with dignity and composure. (2) It need scarcely be added that, under no pro- vocation or excitement, should the minister allow himself to indulge in personalities in prayer. To do this is always cowardly and often profane. The patriotic passion of the hour did not condone the offense when a New England divine who lived in the days of the Revolution prayed on a public occasion : " O Lord, have mercy on the sovereigns of Europe ; convert their souls ; give them short lives and happy deaths ; take them to heaven, and let us have no more of them." The stately Eng- lishman who always came late to his church, and walked up the aisle during prayer, transgressed more than one of the commandments by doing so ; but that did not excuse his pastor, Father Moody, of York, Maine, for breaking out : " And, O good Lord, among thy other kind dispensations, cure thy serv- PUBLIC PRAYER II9 ant who has just entered thy house, of that un- godly strut." In the same way Whitefield prayed openly for a minister who himself could pray neither freely nor well, that "God would open his dumb dog's mouth." It was after Emerson had deliv- ered an address during commencement before a New England college that a neighboring minister, being called upon to pray, freed his mind thus : " We be- seech thee, O Lord, to deliver us from ever hear- ing any more such transcendental nonsense as we have just listened to from this sacred desk." After the benediction, Mr. Emerson asked his next neigh- bor the name of the officiating clergyman, and on learning who he was, remarked with characteristic suavity : " He seems a very conscientious, plain- spoken man." The minister must have a pastoral experience of rare felicity who under the conviction that he has been maligned or misunderstood, or brought face to face with some flagrant case of meanness or bad faith on the part of one in whom he has trusted, has , not needed to fight the temptation to be personal' in public prayer. Under no circumstances must he yield to it. It is unpardonable, also, to suggest ludicrous ideas in prayer. A minister in London prayed probaby before a disappointing vision of the offertory : " Forgive us, O Lord, if at any time we have given pence when we should have given sil- ver, if we have given silver when we ought to have given gold, and if we have given gold when we might have given bank-notes." This was not in 120 PUBLIC WORSHIP worse taste than the prayer with which a minister at one of the fashionable summer resorts is credited, when the advancing season had left his resident congregation more at leisure for religious exercises : "O Lord, now that our summer visitors have de- parted, wilt thou take their place in our hearts." These prayers are sufficiently condemned if we con- sider that they were not intended for the ear of God. A due sense of the solemnity of the exercise will set bounds about it, as about Mount Sinai, so that the unsanctified hand and heedless foot shall not touch it. 2. No prayer in the congregation can be effective which is lacking in the quality of sympathy. In some special sense the minister in public prayer stands with his hand resting on the human need and his eye lifted to the divine sufficiency. Conse- quently he must be in close touch alike with God and with man. (i) Certainly his first endeavor should be to bring himself into complete accord with the purposes of God, and with his dealings with men. Edward Irving puts this well when he says: " The scope and spirit of our prayer should be limited by the promises of God. This is to make prayer a matter of serious premeditation. And, to keep it progres- sive with an understanding of the Scriptures, a knowledge of the purpose of God must precede it; and without that knowledge it is an empty form, or rather a sinful liberty taken with the ear of God. As if you would go to a judge and ask him to favor PUBLIC PRAYER 121 your case, or to a friend and ask him to do you a wrong ; or it is as if, having received intelligence from a distant correspondent, you should presume to write back to him upon the subject without be- ing at the pains to peruse what he had said. It is most lamentable to hear very often how this neces- sary rule of prayer is broken through, and with what rude, unprepared language the ear of God is vexed." (2) Scarcely less important is it that the minister be in very close sympathy with men. Let him be, as was his Lord, touched with the feeling of our in- firmities. He himself must have suffered, being tempted. As with the high priest so should it be with him; he must be "taken from among men." Previous preparation wfll have helped him to gather up the varied circumstances and conditions of the congregation. He will have in mind, as he prays, the conflicts, the victories and the defeats, the hopes and joys, the fears and sorrows of those who are worshiping with him. He may not have at com- mand such language as clothed the prayer of Robert Louis Stevenson on the evening before his death, but the tender human spirit of it he may well emu- late in the larger household to which he ministers : '• We beseech thee. Lord, to behold us with favor, folk of many families and nations gathered together in the peace of this roof, weak men and women existing under the covert of thy patience. Be patient still ; suffer us yet a little longer — with our broken purposes of good, with our idle endeavors 122 PUBLIC WORSHIP against evil ; suffer us awhile longer to endure, and (if it may be) help us to do better. Bless to us our extraordinary mercies ; if the day come when these must be taken, brace us to play the man under affliction. Be with our friends, be with ourselves. Go with each of us to rest ; if any awake, temper to them the dark hours of watching ; and when the day returns, return to us, our sun and comforter, and call us up with morning faces and with morn- ing hearts — eager to labor — eager to be happy, if happiness shall be our portion — and if the day is marked for sorrow, strong to endure it. Amen." 3. This suggests a third characteristic of public prayer, namely, devout confidence. Let there be much thanksgiving and praise. Be courageous. Be truthful. Be expectant. Quicken the heart of every true worshiper with the spirit of hope. " To him," says a friend of Dr. Constans L. Goodall, "prayer was no mere intellectual rhapsody or emotional ecstasy ; it was the mighty power that moved the arm of Omnipotence ; the outpouring of a soul that touched the heart of Omniscience ; the outgoing of a faith that was boundless as Omnipresence, for it had its origin and root in God himself." Such prayer as this is strong in the confidence which is expressed by the old English divine : " Good prayers never come weeping home. I am sure I shall re- ceive either what I ask or what 1 should ask." No nerveless fingers can discharge the "strong bolts shot up to heaven " by which Luther and Knox and Whitefield prevailed in prayer. " A man that PUBLIC PRAYER I23 could pray like that," exclaimed one minister to another after hearing Spurgeon, "could intluence the world." 4. To the characteristics of solemnity, sympathy, and holy confidence, we must add one more — dliect^ness. Come at once to the mercy-seat. A few words of invocation at the beginning of the serv- ice will often do this. The old soldier charged at the battle of Edgehill with the prayer of which Hume said that no doubt there were many longer but hardly one so good offered that day : " O Lord, thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget thee, do not thou forget me." We recall this, because it illustrates the grace of directness which we are commending. To come to practical counsels, we advise that in his language, while not too familiar, the minister be specific and plain. Do not pray : " Bless that invaluable institution which has for its object the bringing up of the young in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." No; say rather, " Bless the Sunday-school." The late George Gilfillan, of Dundee, dared to use the word " potato " freely in his congregational prayers dur- ing the blight of 1848. He refused to indulge in allusive references or circumlocution. And so at last he was able to say : " We thank thee, O Lord, that there is no potato blight this year ! " (i) Cultivate minuteness without triviality. Avoid extremes. Do not be too general. The subject- ive prayer which resolves itself into a rhapsody or a reverie has no precedent in Scripture. Channing 124 PUBLIC WORSHIP "never prayed for anything outward."' But Paul writes to tlie Philippians : " In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." ^ (2) On the other hand, beware of trivial minute- ness. A minister returning to his weekly prayer meeting after having had a new set of teeth put in, was more amused than gratified when one good brother prayed : " Lord, we thank thee that thou hast brought back our dear pastor, and now that thou hast given him his new artificial members, bless them to the proclamation of thy truth."' This was perhaps pardonable in a simple peasant, but the minister in Glasgow should have restrained his tendency to detail when he offered up a prayer for " the safety of those taking part in the exhilara- ting but lawful enjoyment upon the ice." The mi- nuteness of the Episcopal Prayer-book is not offen- sive when it pleads with much particularity for " thy servant for whose preservation on the great deep our prayers are desired." A prayer in Edward the Sixth's prayer-book does not hesitate to deal with great social wrongs : " We heartily pray thee to send thy Holy Spirit into the hearts of them that possess the pastures and ground of the earth, that they remembering themselves to be thy ten- ants may not rack or stretch out the rents of their houses or lands, nor yet take unreasonable fines or moneys after the manner of covetous groundlings ; 1 Peabody's " Reminiscences of Channing," p. 14. 2 Phil. 4:6. 3 w. Williams, " Reminiscences of C. H. Spurgeon," p. 33. PUBLIC PRAYER I25 but so let them out tliat the inhabitants thereof may be able to pay the rents and to live and nour- ish their families, and remember the poor." There must have been a fearlessness of particularity in the prayers of Father Wilson, of the First Church of Boston, when his hearers once begged him to stop praying for rain, because since he began to do so some of the neighboring towns had been flooded. And to come to later instances, one re- calls as excellent in spirit and language the prayer in which Henry Ward Beecher pleaded for the life of President Grant when he was on his death- bed ; and the prayer with which Dr. Maclaren be- sought for the queen of England, under the shadow of a great domestic loss, that cheer and calm might be granted, and that "the thrill of passion and sympathy which has moved this great nation may not pass unimproved, but that it may help to lead many more wisely to consider how vain is the show of earth, how solid the realities of heaven." Nor would the member of his congregation in a great mill-town of England fail to be touched as Dr. Fairbairn prayed : " Many of us live by the sweat of the brow ; some of us by the sweat of the brain ; and many by the sweat of the heart. That, O Lord, thou knowest is the hardest sweat of all." VII PUBLIC PRAYER (CONCLUDED) SUMMARY I. The Invocation. 1. The Lord's Prayer. 2. Words taken from Scripture and inviting to worship. 3. Verses of Scripture followed by the Lord's Prayer or by a prayer of invocation. 4. A Prayer of Invocation. II. The Principal Prayer. 1. As to its length. 2. Parts of the Principal Prayer: (i) Adoration and thanksgiving ; (2) Confession and intercession ; (3) Petition. Counsels : 1. Aim to make the prayer inclusive. 2. Remember objects likely to be overlooked. 3. Vary the prayer. 4. Yet do not fear to repeat. 5. Train the congregation to conclude with the " amen." III. THE Prayer after the Sermon. r. Must have a special bearing on the sermon. 2. Should touch on the whole service, and commend the congregation, in dispersing, to God. 3. This prayer may sometimes be omitted. IV. THE Benediction. 1. Study variety of form. 2. Be very solemn and deliberate. 3. By attitude and phraseology show that you are one of the congregation. 4. Keep the people in the attitude of devotion for a few moments after the conclusion of the prayer. VII PUBLIC PRAYER (CONCLUDED) I. Although by no means universal, yet it is a very general practice to begin the public service with some form of Invocation, and we may, there- fore, consider this first. 1. The simplest method of commencing the serv- ice is by repeating the Lord's Prayer with the congregation. Unless this is done heartily, how- ever, it had better not be done at all. The people will need to be trctined, and even then it will be needful now and again to remind them of their duty. 2. Much can be said in favor of opening the service with passages of Scripture inviting to worship,^ the congregation standing meanwhile. The gloria, sung by all the congregation, may very well follow. 3. Sometimes these verses are succeeded by a prayer of invocation, or by the congregational use of the Lord's Prayer. The order may be further varied if the service begins with the doxology, to which succeeds a prayer of invocation, closing with the general repetition of the Lord's Prayer. 4. Perhaps to the majority of ministers the invo- cation is the most difficult, as to the people it is the ' Such as Num. 6 : 24-26 ; Eph, i : 3, 4 ; Phil. 2 : 9-11 ; Heb. 13 : 20, 21 ; 2 Peter i : 2, 3 ; Rev. i : 5, 6. I 129 130 PUBLIC WORSHIP least profitable of all the prayers in the public serv- ice. The congregation has not fully assembled. In a chilly atmosphere the voice may seem thin and unsympathetic. There has as yet been no con- scious interchange of feeling between the minister and the people. For these reasons a hymn, or some other such form as we have suggested, may be preferred, A common act of worship in which all the congregation joins strikes the keynote for the service more happily than does the prayer, un- less it be singularly fortunate. No one who once heard it will forget the prayer with which Mr. Spur- geon opened his morning service. Brief though it was, we can understand why a minister from America should declare that to hear that and nothing else was alone worth crossing the Atlantic. The invocation should be true to its name. Call down the blessing of God upon those who are present, and upon all worshiping congregations everywhere, and do not fail to remember those who in the suf- fering of the sick chamber or the loneliness of the house of mourning have their windows also open toward Jerusalem, Be concise, fervid, and sympa- thetic, and use largely the words and thoughts of Scripture. II. We pass on to consider the Principal Prayer. In some cases this prayer has with advantage been divided into two parts, with a hymn or chant be- tween. This has been intended to obviate the ob- jection that the prayer is apt to be long, and yet to give an opportunity for embracing in it the va- PUBLIC PRAYER 131 rious matters which needed to be mentioned. It might be well to consider whether this arrangement has not very much to be said in its favor ; but our present duty is with the prayer as a whole. I. And first, let us deal with its length. It is significant that for two centuries it has been gener- ally known as "the long prayer." With the Puri- tans this was no figure of speech. The prayer was really long. "The warning legend, * Be short,' which Cotton Mather inscribed over his study door, was not written over his pulpit ; for he wrote in his diary that at his own ordination he ' prayed for an hour and a quarter.'"' That the people loved to have it so we may infer from the fact that when the Rev. Samuel Terrey, of Weymouth, Massachu- setts, prayed two hours without stopping, upon a public fast day in 1696, it is recorded that his " au- dience wished that the prayer had been longer." Professor Phelps, in language which has a suspicion of humor in it, records of Father Wilson, of the First Church of Boston, that he " often prayed two hours at a stretch." Within a few years a prayer of forty-five minutes was delivered by the assist- ant pastor in a Scottish parish, and then only con- cluded because " his superior pulled his coat-tails to draw his attention to the fact that the congregation were leaving the church." Perhaps we ourselves may be able to agree with Dr. N. I. Burton when he says : " The moment I closed my eyes, time was cheap. In the bliss of amplification I took not 1 Earl, "The Sabbath in Puritan New England," pp. 79, 81. 132 PUBLIC WORSHIP note of time ; and what is so blissful as amplifica- tion ?"* Certainly we shall do well to lay to heart his wise counsel in reference to this prayer : " While you keep on calling it long, take care that it never is long." But we must refuse to regulate the length of this prayer entirely by the watch. Dr. C. L. Goodell, who excelled in congregational prayer, rarely exceeded seven minutes, and was often not more than five. Mr. Spurgeon often prayed fifteen minutes, and then, says one of his hearers, " you would by no means wish him to stop, or think that he had yet prayed long enough." * " Everything depends upon the spirit, the range, the appropriateness, and the purpose of the prayer." The noble words of Dr. Dale are a sufficient vindi- cation of this view : " in our public prayer we must think less than we have been accustomed to think of the taste, the criticism, the impatience of the men who do not pray. In the presence of the aw- ful perils from which we ask to be redeemed, of the infinite blessings we desire to obtain, and of the bright perfections we adore, we must not be troubled by the indifference and the weariness of those to whom these transcendent terrors and glories are all unreal. When we pray, our great design is not to move men, but to move God ; and if we fail to do that, we fail altogether. We must appeal to the Holy Ghost." ^ • Burton, "Yale Lectures," p. iqi. - Dr. Joseph Parker, " AJ Clerum." Chap. IX. ' R. W. Dale, " The Holy Spirit in relation to the Ministry, Worship, and Work of the Church," p. 37. PUBLIC PRAYER 1 33 In passing, it may be well to caution you against long preambles, diffuseness, and repetition in your prayer. Confine yourself to such subjects as are relevant. Have always in mind the congregation on whose behalf you are praying. Tennyson's words, true of all prayer, are especially true here : " Prayer is, to take a mundane simile, like opening a sluice between the great ocean and our little channels when the great sea gathers itself toge- ther and flows in at full tide." ^ He v/ho opens the sluice needs to do so with promptness and decision. Give no occasion to your congregation to say with Dr. C. H. Parkhurst, " The world would have been badly off if the Almighty had not known bet- ter how to answer prayers than do men to make them." 2. We come now to parts of the principal prayer. These are three : First, adoration and thanks- giving ; second, confession and intercession; third, petition. These parts may be recalled by the acros- tic : A, Ascription and Adoration ; C, Confession ; T, Thanksgiving ; S, Supplication ; the letters com- bined forming the word ACTS. A friend of Mr. Spurgeon's quotes him as saying, in conversa- tion : " in a single verse old Dr. Watts has admira- bly taught the art of prayer. 1 will give it to you : Call upon God, adore, confess, Petition, plead, and then declare You are the Lord's. Give thanks and bless. And let Amen conclude the prayer." * " Tennyson's Life," Vol. I., p. 324. 134 PUBLIC WORSHIP (i) While it seems natural to begin this prayer with words of adoration and thankfulness, yet this need not be done at any great length, because the gratitude and joy of the people can be expressed even better in the hymns, and especially in that with which the worship is begun. The fashion for opening the prayer with elaborate ascriptions of praise to God, (often in the language of the schools rather than in that of Scripture), has passed away. Yet within bounds the use of the various names and attributes of God as incentives to adora- tion is surely to be commended. Schoolman though he was, there was much of the saint in Thomas Aquinas when he prayed before resuming his studies : " Ineffably wise and good Creator, illus- trious Original, true fountain of Light and Wisdom, vouchsafe to infuse into my understanding some ray of thy brightness. Thou that makest the tongues of infants eloquent, instruct, I pray thee, my tongue likewise ; and pour upon my lips the grace of thy benediction." (2) It has been charged upon the non-liturgical churches that they do not as a rule confess their sins. The Episcopal Prayer-book, following the traditional order, places confession first, and recurs to it more than once as the service proceeds. Prob- ably there is reason for the criticism that too little space is given to confession in the ordinary extem- poraneous prayer. Confession is central in the Lord's Prayer, and whatever place it occupies in your petition, certainly that place should be dis- PUBLIC PRAYER 1 35 tiiict and prominent. At the same time, distinguish between the things which are seemly in a general prayer and those which should be confined to prayer offered in private or in the weekly meeting for prayer. Do not let the confession of sins hinder the confession of sin. It is possible to be too spe- cific, when you are acknowledging the transgres- sions of an entire congregation. (3) Passing to petition, we would suggest that you make this a very prominent feature of your prayer. " Prayer is," as the Westminster divines put it, "the offering up of our desires to God." " Our wants," said Rutherford, " best qualify us for Christ." The Lord's Prayer is chiefly petition, and petition is also the staple in our Lord's direc- tions for prayer : " Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."^ The prayers of the New Testament have the same character. Because in this part of the prayer so much has to be remembered, it is well to pursue some order ; such as, personal petitions (experimental in their character), petitions bearing on our relations to others ; church interests ; missions ; national mat- ters (our rulers, magistrates, and lawgivers) ; the people at large ; the nations of the world ; the future of the race. The order may be reversed, so that from the outermost circle you can move inward to the individual life. We give the following Counsels : ^ Matt. 7:7; Acts I : 24, 25 ; 4 : 24-30 ; 7 : 59, 60 ; Eph. i : 17-19 ; 3 : 14-21 ; Phil. I : g-n ; i Thess. 3 : 10-13. 136 PUBLIC WORSHIP 1. Only, in any case, aim to offer up such a prayer as either by statement or suggestion shall in clear and reverent language embrace the wants and circumstances of all. 2. Now and then remember in this prayer the objects which are likely to be overlooked ; such as prisoners in jails, and those who are in reforma- tories ; those bereft of their reason, inmates of alms- houses, patients in hospitals, Christian associations, colleges, and schools of sacred learning ; and often make mention of the public schools and of the teachers who are engaged in them. 3. Further, we counsel you to vary your prayer. You are under no obligation to pray the world over at every service. A sentence may be sufficiently comprehensive to embrace many wants and touch on many experiences. To say, "We thank thee for the sweet souls which have made it easy for us to believe in God and Christ and immortality," is to suggest the whole household of faith. To say, " Deep calleth unto deep, — the depth of our ignor- ance to the depth of thy knowledge ; the depth of our need to the depth of thy fullness ; the depth of our weakness to the depth of thy strength," is at once to set the entire congregation on the thresh- old of God's treasure house, it is wise to study for freshness the prayers of others. After a lapse of twenty years a minister recalls the prayer with which Mr. Spurgeon began a morning service, and often it must have incited him to a new note also : " Our Gracious God, we, thy children, bless thee PUBLIC PRAYER 1 37 for this thy day ; placed not now at the end of a week of toil, but at the very beginning of it, for we have not to labor to obtain the day of rest, but thou dost give us to rest first, and then bid us go to work in the strength received." ' 4. And yet, while studying freshness and variety in the forms of your prayer, be not unduly afraid of repetition.' Because human nature is always the same, therefore substantially the same things need to be often prayed for. The author of " Rab and his Friends," tells us that his father. Dr. John Brown, invariably used the same prayer in church on Sunday mornings, giving as his excuse for doing so, that he could not improve upon it. There may be a change i)f tune, but the same peal of bells will have to be rung, week after week ; it was across the very harp which had made music during many a melodious hour in the past that the psalmist ran his fingers when he cried, " O sing unto the Lord a new song ! " 5. To these counsels we add one more. Train the whole congregation, if possible, to join with you in the " Amen " when the prayer is ended. The rabbis were wont to say that by so doing the people set their names to an epistle written by the hand of another. Thus they adopted it as their own. For this reason the leader was instructed to pronounce the " Amen " with a grave and distinct voice, avoiding any appearance of haste ; and in their turn the people were bidden to utter it in a 1 Williams, " Reminiscences of Spurgeon," p. 26g. 138 PUBLIC WORSHIP tone subdued and solemn ; and to use it not form- ally but as the expression of their belief that God would indeed hear and bless them. ill. Not much needs to be said as to the Prayer After the Sermon. It should be very brief. Nat- urally it will have a special bearing upon the ser- mon which has just been preached. To this this prayer furnishes, as it were, a heavenward setting. It carries the discourse, the preacher, and the peo- ple up to the throne of grace, as the high priest bore Israel on his heart when he passed within the veil and stood before the Mercy Seat. A wider note may be struck by it if you touch in few words upon the entire service, and commit to the love of God the congregation now about to disperse. There is no reason why the prayer should not occasionally be omitted. Especially when the sermon has been of a searching character, when it has appealed to the individual conscience, when it has set the alter- natives of life and death before the people, let that be the last word. Under these circumstances much might be gained if the congregation would quickly disperse, and " depart every one to his house." IV. As to the Benediction, the following points should be noted : I. Study to acquire variety of form. The bene- dictions of Scripture are numerous, although the majority of ministers may use only one or two. From the Old Testament take the one benediction which comes direct from God : " And the Lord spake unto Moses, sayini^, Speak unto Aaron and PUBLIC PRAYER 139 unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them. The Lord bless thee, and keep thee : The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee : The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." ' A selection from the benedictions of the Bible may very well be prepared, and printed on a card, and pasted into the hymn-book, or kept near at hand for pulpit use.* 2. in the use of the formula, just because it is a formula, be solemn, impressive and deliberate. Haste is never more irreverent in public worship than it is here. And nowhere is it so fatally easy to fall into formalism. The way of escape from this is through the sensibilities. The benedictions are all of them rich in devout feeling. It was Dean Stanley's custom " to give a three-fold benediction : The Lord bless you and keep you, etc.. The Peace of God, etc., and The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, etc.* His wife. Lady Augusta Stan-" ley, greatly admired this triple blessing, and begged him always to think specially of herself when pro- nouncing it. "None who were present at her fu- neral can forget the tremulous yet decided voice, the suppressed emotion, the triumph of love, as standing at the end of the nave, the Dean closed the service, and with quivering accents made this 1 Num. 6 : 22-26. 2 Such as : Rom. 16 : 27 ; i Cor. i6 : 23 ; 2 Cor. 13 : 14 ; Gal. 1:3-5; Phi'. 4 : 23 ; I Tim. i : 17 ; Heb. 13 : 25 ; Jude 24, 25 ; Rev. i : 5, 6, 3 Num. 6 : 24-26 ; Phil. 4:7; 2 Cor. 13 : 14. 140 PUBLIC WORSHIP benediction of prophets and apostles heard through- out the Abbey." ' 3. By posture and phraseology avoid giving the impression that you are a priest occupying an offi- cial position and exercising a sacerdotal function. " There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." ^ The hands should not be lifted and spread out in the posture of blessing the people. The form employed should not even use the apostolic " with you," but rather the congregational "with us." 4. For a few moments after the benediction has been uttered, keep the congregation in the attitude of devotion. This may be done by pausing after the last word of the benediction, and before say- ing amen. It may also be done by having the choir chant the "Amen" in low tones, the people, meanwhile, remaining with bowed heads. Proba- bly the best arrangement of the concluding part of the service is to have the hymn immediately follow the sermon, and the prayer which succeeds it close with the benediction, the people remaining either kneeling or seated, in any case, " when the bene- diction is pronounced let there be a moment of silent, prayerful response in the congregation. Then let them quietly disperse." * ' Dr. Newman Hall, " Reminiscences." 2 j jjm. 2 : 5. 3 Kern, " The Ministry in the Congregation," p. 77. VIII THE READING OF THE SCRIPTURES SUMMARY The Value of the public Reading of the Bible. This may be learned : 1. From Scripture : (i) Ezra; (2) Jesus. 2. From later history : (i) The early church laid much stress upon it ; (2) Has been a powerful agency in great religious awakenings; (3) Permanent im- pressions often made by it. Note. As to the reading of the Bible without note or comment. , Directions for the public Reading" of the Bible. 1. Carefully prepare beforehand : (i) Read Authorized and Revised versions; (2) Read in private for your own personal profit ; (3) Read alone when alone with a view to reading in public ; (4) Read with a view to mastering the precise thought of the original. 2. Have sufficient reading of the Scripture in the public service. 3. Do full justice to the whole Bible. 4. Select the passages to be read with a view to the whole service. 5. Take this part of the service yourself. 6. While reading concentrate your thoughts upon the work which you are doing. 7. Announce the passage to be read intelligently and dis- tinctly. 8. Use, if you think well, some brief form in introducing and concluding the reading. 9. Occasionally it may be well to expound the Scripture which is read. VIII THE READING OF THE SCRIPTURES The subject with which we now have to deal is The Reading of the Scriptures, a part of public wor- ship in which, for lack of thought or training, 'golden opportunities are lost by the majority of ministers. I. In order to do justice to this subject we may begin by considering the value of the Public Read- ing of the Bible. I. The first illustration of this comes, as we might expect, from Scripture itself. (i) The model for us to copy is found in Ezra, when from his pulpit of wood, one September morn- ing during the feast of Tabernacles, he unrolled before the eyes of the expectant multitude the scroll of the law, and not only read from morning until evening, but read so well that his hearers re- mained standing for six hours "attentive unto the book of the law." ^ But already the reading of the sacred books was a familiar exercise with the He- brews. In the audience of all the people, Moses had read the books of the covenant.^ Entering into the land of Canaan, as leader of Israel, Joshua read to them all the words of the law, "the bless- ings and cursings, according to all that is writ- 1 Neh. 8 : 1-9. 2 Deut. 29. 143 144 PUBLIC WORSHIP ten in the law." ' The book of the law which was recovered when the temple was repaired in the reign of Josiah, he himself read in the ears of " all the people great and small.'"' And stronger than any of these must have been the influence of the parental example in cases where the father was faithful to the divine injunction : " These words which I command thee . . . 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."^ (2) The service in the synagogue was largely composed of the reading of the Scriptures. To it Jesus gave a new lustre when one day, during worship in the city where he had been brought up, he took the book from the minister, and opening it read the great prophetic words which only at that moment received their fulfillment. No wonder that " the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him." * 2. Another illustration comes from later history. (i) The early church evidently laid great em- phasis upon this part of the service. In the very ancient church of St. Clement at Rome are still io be seen the two marble ambons, or pulpits, from which the Scriptures were read. " A place of honor was made for them in order to mark well the importance which was given to the book of God in public worship. The ambon of the Gospel was 1 Josh. 8 : 34. ^2 Chron. 34 : 30. 3 Deut. 6 : 6, 7. ■* Luke 4 : 20. THE READING OF THE SCRIPTURES 145 higher than that of the Epistles, as if to witness that the source of all religious authority was in- deed he who is greater than all the apostles — Jesus Christ the Son of God, These two pulpits of the basilica of St. Clement remain as monuments of the great epoch of primitive Christianity, witnesses against the worship in which the Holy Book, instead of being read in a manner that can be understood, becomes a monotonous mimical chant in a language which is dead, and which carries only its sounds to the ear, without giving a single thought to the mind or heart." ^ (2) It would be easy to prove from history that the reading of the Scriptures has once and again been a powerful agency in great religious awaken- ings. It was so when Savonarola read from his little Bible before the thousands crowding about him in the Duomo at Florence ; and when Wycliffe's "Poor Preachers" carried the word through the villages of England ; and when Luther's Bible roused the conscience of Germany ; and when "doctors and abbots, men of all ranks and titles flocked with the students"^ into Colet's lecture hall in Oxford, to hear him read and expound the Epistles ; and when crowds gathered about the chained Bibles in St. Paul's Cathedral and persisted in reading them aloud, even during the public services. (3) But there is no need to appeal to the past. The same book lies open in the hand of the minis- ' Pressense. 2 Seebohm, " The Oxford Reformers," p. n. K 146 PUBLIC WORSHIP ter to-day, and the records of the pulpit witness that permanent good has repeatedly been effected by the serious and intelligent reading of the Bible in public worship. In this exercise William Jay, of Bath, " never forgot that he was enunciating the words of the Most High " ; his contemporary, Dr. McAll, of Manchester, testified that it had come to his knowledge that " some of the most powerful impressions which had been made on the hearts of his hearers had been wrought by the simple read- ing of the word of God," and he added, "If the Lord had appointed two officers in his church, the one to preach the Gospel and the other to read the Scriptures, and had given me the choice of these, I should have chosen to be a reader of the inspired word of Jehovah." The reading of the Bible in church, by Bishop Jacobson of Chester was, says of one of his hearers, " in itself a com- mentary, the commentary of a deep theologian." In the same way, by emphasizing the proper word Dr. Maclaren "often throws a flood of interpreta- tive and homiletic light upon the passage in which it occurs." His reading of Nathan's words to David, "Thou art the man," not loud and denunciatory, but like oil upon the fire of the king's indignation, slow, distinct, intense, made for at least one wor- shiper in his congregation "an epoch in his spirit- ual life." Who shall say how far back these in- fluences which determine the reader's tone and emphasis have their source ? He was an old man, and had for many years been known as himself an THE READING OF THE SCRIPTURES 147 admirable reader of the Bible in public worship, when, with tears rolling down his cheeks, Henry Ward Beecher read to his family the matchless, immortal story of Joseph, as he first heard it from his Aunt Esther, when he was only a young boy, and her wonderful readings from the Bible in his father's parsonage made many an hour radiant and cheerful.^ At the opposite extreme to the Puritan manse is the English rectory ; but there a visitor recalls Sydney Smith taking down the Bible from the book-case that he might illustrate the beauty of its style from the Psalms, and a worshiper in his church remembers his powerful countenance and melodious voice as his reading of the lessons for the day became " a commentary on every word, bringing out the rich, deep meaning of the sacred page." ^ Note. That this important part of the public worship of God has received less attention than it deserves is in a measure accounted for when we remember that the reading of the Bible without note or comment was practically prohibited by the early settlers in New England and by their descend- ants. " It cannot be proved," says Increase Mather, " that Dumb Reading, or public Reading of the Scriptures without any Explication or Exhortation, is part of the Pastoral Office."' The teacher in the meeting-house in these primitive times read a ' Barrow's " Beecher," p. 22. - Sydney Smith, " Memoirs," pp. 218, 25;;. ^ Dr. Williston Walker, " The Congregational Idea in Worship," p. 15. 148 PUBLIC WORSHIP passage of the Bible, expounding it section by sec- tion. " This form of Scripture reading was deemed the only fitting method by the New England fathers, reading without comment being supposed to savor of the liturgical usages from which they had fled." ' II. We proceed to give some Directions for the Public Reading of the Bible. I. It should go without saying that there ought to be careful preparation in private for this public exercise. (i) By all means read both the Authorized and the Revised versions, and compare the two. There are places in which the later version should be used, A pulpit Bible with the two in parallel columns will be of service ; and in your prepara- tory study of the passage to be read you can de- termine where to substitute the one version for the other. For the present, however, it seems wiser, as a geiieral rule, to keep to the older version. It has still the ear and heart of the people. It rarely differs so materially from the Revised version as to necessitate much correction. It will always remain incomparable in its noble diction ; and by virtue of its musical and sonorous English it is better adapted for public reading than any other book in our litera- ture. Moreover, every year that passes bears witness that the Revised version is neither the final nor the generally accepted rendering. (2) In private, and with due deliberation, read the selected passages for your own private profit. ' Ibid., p. 238. THE READING OF THE SCRIPTURES 149 This, which was one secret of the impressive read- ing of Frederick Denison Maurice and of John Henry Newman, will save the public exercise from formality and lifelessness. The passage will be- come to you, when you read it before the people, what Melanchthon said Luther's words were, " born not on his lips but in his soul." (3) Read aloud when alone with a view to intel- ligent and impressive reading in public. Avoid being either too conversational or too dramatic. Everywhere objectionable, the mere elocutionist is especially so here. Although it lacked in variety l and perhaps merited the frank criticism of a trans- Atlantic visitor that it was " not of a kind which would pass muster on our American platform," "the reading of Tennyson was considered by good judges as almost perfect, because it had the supreme merit of entire distinctness, of true emphasis, of fine intonation, and of perfect naturalness."^ To a mouthing clergyman, John Kemble said : " Allow me, sir, to advise you when you read the Scrip- tures, or any other book, to think more of what you read than how you read it." And Archbishop Whately, with characteristic bluntness, told a cleri- cal friend who insisted on eliciting from him his opinion as to his rendering of the church service, that there were only two parts where he read well, and those the words " Here endeth the First Les- son," and " Here endeth the Second Lesson." " I mean," added he, "that these parts you read in 1 F. W. Farrar. 150 PUBLIC WORSHIP your own natural voice and manner, which are very good ; the rest is all artificial and assumed." Much may be learned from the pains which the actor and the public reader take with their parts. Sarah Siddons invariably read over the play on the morning of her performance, and never failed to discover some fine point which had hitherto escaped her ; and Charles Dickens, when giving a reading from one of his own novels, used to repeat it to himself often twice a day, and with just as much care as when he stood before his audience at night. " He felt that nothing could be done well, that no great perfection could be reached, without taking pains." (4) Read in private with a view to mastering the precise thought in the original. Find the antithe- sis, not only in the words and sentences, but also in the thought. The late Dr. Deems, of New York, once wrote : "A man who can read properly the first chapter of John's Gospel, can read properly anything in the Bible. The first verse is crucial. I confess to have spent a quarter of a century in striving to read it, but I am not now so confident of my reading as to insist upon it." Pay special at- tention to emphasis. Emphasis is exposition. When Ezra read in the book of the law "distinctly," whether he interpreted its meaning or not, he made the people understand by clear utterance and intel- ligent emphasis. Of Bishop Mcllvaine, of Ohio, one of his hearers, recalling after many years how when a lad he listened to him, says : " His reading THE READING OF THE SCRIPTURES 151 was interpretation in tlie highest degree, hitlection, emphasis, and chastened tone, rightly divided the word of truth, illumined obscure passages, and brought to light the hidden riches of secret places." All this does not come by a sudden flash of intelli- gence during the public reading. It may be well to mark passages in your study Bible with the appropriate emphasis. 2. Arrange the order of service so as to have sufficient reading of the Scriptures. The people are perishing for lack of the Bible. The book of which a secular journal can write, " its variety of style, its marvelous felicity of phrase, and its dig- nity and impressiveness early entered into the very fibre of our literary expression," ^ is the book which we are not only permitted but bound to read in public. At a time when "the systematic reading of it in the family has much declined, and has already largely disappeared from the schoolroom," it is all the more incumbent upon us to make the ear familiar with the treasures of this greatest land- mark of the English tongue. Apart entirely from its literary excellence, and of course of far greater moment, is the fact that the Scriptures are the word of God. Herein lies the superior authority of the Bible over the sermon. If any part of the serv- ice has to be curtailed, do not let this part suffer. There should certainly be two readings from the Bible in the morning service, besides the responsive reading of the Psalms. ' " The Nation," Nov. 16, i8gg, p. 369. 152 PUBLIC WORSHIP 3. Do full justice also to the whole Bible. Keep a list of the passages which you read. See that you deal fairly by less known parts. The oc- casional use of the Lectionary of the Episcopal Church may be recommended. A minister return- ing from his vacation, after worshiping in various churches, found himself wondering whether the Old Testament consisted wholly of the Psalms and the prophecies of Isaiah. The pulpit Bible of a very doctrinal preacher of a past generation, after being in use twenty-seven years told its tale of use and abuse. " The first part remained as clean as on the day it left the press ; the Psalms and Isaiah had certainly been turned over many times ; the Gospels must have been often read ; but the Epistle to the Romans was fairly worn through constant reference, and the eighth chapter was in holes." ^ This was for that minister to have left undone the things that he should have done. The whole counsel of God had not been declared. 4. The passages to be read should be selected with a view to the entire service. There is no need to read the chapter from which the text is to be taken, unless it will be needed in the expository part of the discourse ; or unless it be a chapter with which the congregation is not suffi- ciently familiar. On the contrary, it is often better to select two independent passages, one from the Old Testament and one from the New, illustrating the subject of the discourse, but not necessarily 1 Dr. John Howard Hinton, London. THE READING OF THE SCRIPTURES 1 53 containing the text. This will impress upon the people alike the scope and the unity of Scripture. Occasionally it is profitable to make a selection of from ten to twenty passages in the Bible throwing light upon the theme of your sermon. Of a Lon- don preacher, an occasional worshiper notes : " The reading of Scripture consisted of a selection of Paul's prayers from the Epistles. ' Paul,' said he, ' is al- ways good, but Paul on his knees is at his best. This is a little constellation of prayers ; if you study them well you will know what to pray for.' " 5. Take this part of the service yourself. You are under no obligation to invite into the pulpit any minister who happens to be present. If he is wise he will prefer to be allowed to remain in the pew ; if he is not wise that is the best place for him. And certainly this reading of the Scriptures, for which we are presuming that you have made care- ful preparation, should not be thrust without pre- vious warning into strange hands. Nor do we recommend the responsive reading of the Bible. Even the Psalms ought to be sung and not read. But referring now to other books of Scripture, we would urge that no good end is gained by their ' being read responsively. The sense is broken,, and often lost, and attention is distracted from the word to the readers. 6. While reading, concentrate your thought upon the work in which you are engaged. Mr. Beecher once found that he had unconsciously read nearly a whole chapter of the Bible in the course of his 154 - PUBLIC WORSHIP service, while at the same time he had been led off into an intense study of the sermon that was to come soon after it.^ hi avoiding this, your devout preparation in private for this part of public worship will be very helpful. And as you read remember that it is God's word to which the people are lis- tening. For this reason it is held by some that the eyes of the minister should never be lifted from the page which he is reading. Not even by the slight- est glance or gesture must he divert attention from the message to the messenger. 7. Never fail to announce the passage which you are about to read. The announcement after the reading is unmeaning. Your object should be to induce the people to have Bibles and use them. Announce in the right order, first the book, then the chapter, and then, where necessary, the verses which are to be read. Announce in good English, and with the true emphasis. It is not correct to say " First Corinthians." Time is not so precious that you are forced to be ungrammatical. Rather say, " The First Epistle to the Corinthians." An- nounce the reading as you would any other matter of interest. Look up ; speak up ; pause after an- nouncing, and before you begin to read. Do not commence until there is perfect quiet. Let no one be shown to a seat while God is speaking through his word. 8. Use, if you think well, some short form when you introduce and when you conclude the reading. 1 Abbott's " Beecher," p. aog. THE READING OF THE SCRIPTURES 1 55 In introducing it a brief invitation is seemly : " Tlie morning lesson will be found," or " Let us read from God's word"; concluding, the words "The Lord bless to us the reading of his word " form a suitable prayer. By all means be reverent in the way in which you open and close the book. Of Summer- field, the young minister whose early death took from the pulpit one of its most promising preachers, it is said that " his manner of laying hand upon the Bible increased the observer's reverence for the inspired volume." 9. Occasionally it may be well to expound the portion of Scripture which you read. As we have seen, many of the early churches of New England would not tolerate the reading of the Bible in their pulpits without such comment. "That state of feeling," says Professor Phelps, "led to a vast amount of exposition of the Bible outside of ser- mons." Much can be said for and against the practice. In favor of it, we should urge that when words have become at all obscure, or when any statement needs a few sentences to make the mean- ing clear, the practice is to be commended. Should you be the one in a thousand who is able to put in short and pithy sentences the gist of a whole pas- sage, if, unlike the majority of preachers, your mind and your style be more favorable to compression than to expansion, then by all means expound. Your gift may lie there. Spurgeon's exposition was often superior to his sermon ; and he himself said that as a rule he spent more time over it. But 156 PUBLIC WORSHIP how rare is the art ! It will scarcely be questioned that as a rule expositions fail to expound. "It is far better," said Luther, "to see with our own eyes than with the eyes of other people." A frank if confused preacher in a Western State, after read- ing a verse over which there had been much con- troversy, startled his congregation by observing : " Brethren, I won't comment on this passage ; I am afraid 1 might make it worse than it is." All nerv- ousness apart, it must be owned that few ministers make the passage any better, Oftener than not they darken counsel by words, and confuse what would otherwise be clear. Certainly the expositor breaks the continuity of the sense. What other writers would survive such treatment .-' How irri- tating it would be were Shakespeare or Bacon or Hooker or Ruskin bidden stand aside while in the full flow of their great sentences, that their words might be inflated by irrelevant amplifications. There are expounders of the Bible in the pulpit who some- how recall what Martin Luther says in another connection : " I am a great enemy to flies. When I have a good book they flock upon it, and parade up and down upon it, and soil it." It was the prince of pulpit expounders himself who closed his running comment one morning with the confession : " I feel the feebleness of my exposition, but I also feel the strength of the love of God. Well, that is right, for we do not wish to taste the cup when we drink the waters of eternal life."^ * C. H. Spurgeon. IX MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE SUMMARY Preliminary Counsels. 1. Let the minister liimself appreciate the importance of the subject. (i) The instinct to express devout emotion in song is very general. (2) The power of song has been constantly felt in great religious movements. (3) The benefit of musical culture to a congregation is very great. (4) The service as a whole is much affected by the way in which this part of it is rendered. 2. Let the minister take a personal interest in the music of his church. Why has church music been neglected, despised, or even condemned ? (i) From prejudice: a. Ecclesiastical ; b. Doctrinal. (2) From ignorance or indifference. Note. The minister and the choir. 3. Let the minister educate himself in this subject. ( 1 ) Study lyrical poetry. Why so few great poets have written hymns. (2) Learn something of the various kinds of music. (3) Study the literature of hymns. (4) Examine and compare hymn-books. {5) Make a list of the best hymns. (6) if possible cultivate a taste for singing. 4. Let the minister endeavor to interest his congregation in music, (i) The singing school may be helpful. (2) Occasionally lecture on the subject. (3) Make it prominent in the public service. IX MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE We now proceed to consider the musical part of the public service. The time has passed in which by this was meant only the singing of hymns. To- day, giving a wide range to the word " music " in connection with the worship of God, we must in- clude not alone congregational music, — meaning by that the singing of hymns by all the people, — but also concerted music, such as is performed exclu- sively by members of the choir ; and instrumental music, such as the organ voluntary and accompani- ment, hi dealing with this branch of worship, we will first offer some general Preliminary Counsels, and then discuss more at length the hymn as a dis- tinct and important feature in the public service. I. As one preliminary counsel, I would urge that the minister himself learn to appreciate the impor- tance of the subject. Writing to a friend of his who had enriched the psalmody of the church, Dr. Dale said, " For myself, I feel that to give people hymns to sing is one of the noblest services which a man can render to the church."^ The minister in his measure does for his congregation what the hymn- writer does for the whole church. \The thought > " Life of R. W. Dale, D. D., p. 227. 159 l6o PUBLIC WORSHIP and care which he bestows on the selection of a hymn or of an anthem may influence his fellow- worshipers almost as powerfully as his prayers or sermons. Such considerations as the following may serve to enforce this : (i) The instinct to express devout emotion in song is very general. Listen, for instance, to the outburst of Basil :' " Psalmody is the calm of the soul, the response of the spirit, the arbiter of peace. It silences the wave, and Qpnciliates the whirlwind of our passions, soothing the impetuous, tempering the unchaste. Psalmody repels the demons ; it lures the ministry of angels ; a weapon of defense in nightly terrors, a respite from daily toil. To the infant it is a presiding genius ; to manhood a crown of glory ; a balm of comfort to the aged." Or re- call the pathetic confession of Augustine: "Yet again, when I remember the tears 1 shed at the psalmody of Thy church, in the beginning of my renewed faith ; and how, at this time, I am moved not with the singing, but with the things sung, when they are sung with a clear voice and modula- tion most suitable, I acknowledge the great use of this institution." ^ We can understand the glowing enthusiasm of a preacher who was also a poet, when he claimed that of the three correlatives in public worship, Preaching, Prayer, and Praise, the last is the great- est. " Preaching stands related to faith, and when 1 B. c. A. D. 330 2 "Confessions," Book X.. § 33. MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE i6l faith shall be lost in sight, preaching may be dis- pensed with ; Prayer stands related to hope, and when hope shall be finished in fruition, prayer may be superseded ; but Praise stands related to charity — and it shall never fail. Love and song shall be eternal." ' (2) Your study of church history may further remind you that the power of song has constantly been felt in great religious movements. You will remember how Chrysostom developed the psalmody of his own church that so he might counteract the influence of Arius, who had put songs embodying his views of Christian doctrine into the mouths of sailors and millers and pilgrims ; and how with the same weapon Ephraem Syrus fought the Gnostics, and Augustine the Donatists ; and how the Cru- saders' hymns " rolled forth their truths upon the Oriental air, while a thousand horses' hoofs kept time below, and ten thousand palm leaves whispered and kept time above." ■^ You listen to Luther as with his noble version of the forty-sixth Psalm he flings defiances at his enemies ; or as in his pleasant garden in Wittenberg he takes his lute, and con- fesses that to him music is "the best solace for a sad and sorrowful mind."' The opponents of the Reformation did not exaggerate when they de- clared, " Luther has done us more harm by his songs than by his sermons" ; and Coleridge was no doubt right in claiming that they " Did as much ' Robertson of Irvine, " Life," p. g?. * Dale, "Yale Lectures," p. 272. ^ H. W. Beecher. L l62 PUBLIC WORSHIP to advance the Protestant faith as even his transla- tion of the Bible." ^ Not less did Calvin estimate the power of psalmody, when, while insisting that the ear should not be more attentive to the har- mony of the sounds than the soul to the hidden meaning of the words, he decreed that in Geneva music should be taught to the children in the day school, so that when they had learnt the psalm thoroughly there, it might be sung heartily in the public worship on Sunday. The foremost champion in America of the theology which is associated with the name of Calvin is Jonathan Edwards, and in writing of the great revival in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1735, he testifies that "there has been scarce any part of divine worship wherein good men amongst us have had grace so drawn forth and their hearts so lifted up in the ways of God, as in singing his praises,"^ in the last cen- tury alike the Calvinist and the Arminian recog- nized the power of song, as in the earlier era did the Orthodox and the Arian. It is impossible to say how much Methodism owes to its hymn-book. The fiercest opposition often melted away before one of Charles Wesley's lyrics, and his brother took heart when, starting for the interior of Ireland to confront furious mobs and hostile magistrates, he heard the Methodist tunes whistled by Catholic children on his route. ^ Episcopalian though he was, Walter Scott discouraged the proposal to mod- 1 Guizot, "St. Louis and Calvin," p. 265. ' Allen's " Edwards," p. 143. ^ Stevens' " History of Methodism," p. 2og. MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE 163 ernize the psalmody so dear to the people of his native land. " They contain the very words which were spoken and sung by the fathers of the Ref- ormation, sometimes in the wilderness, sometimes in fetters, sometimes at the stake."* How closely allied in evangelistic work are the rousing address and the stimulating song will be apparent to any one of us who will recall the other name which rises at once by the law of association in connection with that of Mr. Moody. To Mr. Sankey, and to many others who have in our generation illustrated the ministry of music in the service of Christ, be- long in some substantial measure the words which Dr. Austin Phelps addressed to the author of " My faith looks up to Thee " : "I cannot but congratu- late you on the eternal inheritance which a man receives in being made the author of one good hymn which lives in the hearts of God's people." * That to the devil do not belong the best songs and tunes, the religious movements of our own time bear abundant witness. They have arisen and ad- vanced and conquered on tides of popular melody ; illustrating if not always with taste yet rarely with- out effect, the favorite saying of holy George Her- bert as he prepared to sing to his viol, " Religion does not banish mirth, but only moderates and sets rules to it. "^ "The holy alliance between sweet sounds and a saintly life," was one which John Stuart Blackie loved to proclaim, as he insisted ' " Scott's Journal," p. 704. 2 " Life of Austin Phelps, D. D.," p. 216. ^ Walton's " Life of Herbert." 164 PUBLIC WORSHIP that " no sermons ever preached so powerfully bring forth the fullness of devout emotion in the soul as the oratorios, anthems, and hymns of our great composers." ^ (3) This suggests that the benefit of musical culture to a congregation is very great, it refines, elevates, and in the most wholesome way diverts the mind. " There are," as Dr. Stalker says, "three delights in praise. The foundation of praise is the thought or sentiment ; the second element is poetry; music is the third." The singing school in the New England village did a work for which the traveling minstrel troupe and even the struggling lecture course offer an unworthy substitute. A reformation in taste as well as in morals was regis- tered in Kidderminster, when under the powerful ministry of Richard Baxter the streets of an even- ing were full of the sounds of hymn-singing, float- ing from open door or casement. Whole districts in the remoter parts of England have been transformed by the introduction of good congregational hymns among the people ; and the minister w'.iO knows his opportunity has often been able to reinforce his choir from the musical talent — almost amounting at times to genius — which during his pastoral visits he has discovered in the homes of his flock. (4) Obviously, also, the service as a whole is much affected by the way in which this part of the service is rendered. A hymn or anthem will very likely either deepen or dissipate the impression 1 " Life of Prof. Blackie," by M. A. Kennedy, p. 258. MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE 165 made by the prayer, the reading of the Scriptures, or the sermon. There are sensitive people in every congregation who have suffered very much as did Longfellow when he wrote in his diary : " The choir at church to-day absolutely howled, instead of singing ; all harsh and out of tune. Important ! but who likes to sit in those narrow pews, with his knees crooked, and then have every nerve in him quiver in agony ? "^ As for the minister himself, his experience will be that of the congregation, only with an added intensity. Henry Ward Beecher never failed to recognize the service which his or- ganist rendered him, " by his ability to express and interpret religious ernotion," and he claimed that " no efficiency in the leader of the choir, or in the machinery could atone for the lack of appreciation of the devotional element in music." ^ Many a time the sympathetic rendering of a solo, or the enthusiastic singing of a hymn opened the flood- gates of the orator's heart, and a sermon of rare power and beauty followed. 2. As a second counsel I would advise you to take personal interest in the music of your church. Why, let us ask, has this part of the public wor- ship of God been so often neglected, despised, or even condemned } Sometimes from prejudice, and sometimes from ignorance and indifference. (i) The prejudice on the part of many good people against music as an aid to devotion can be traced to more than one source, a. At times it is 1 " Life," Vol. I., p. 296. 2 Scoville's " Life of Beecher," p. 600. l66 PUBLIC WORSHIP ecclesiastical. For centuries we have associated an elaborate ritual and tine music with the Church of Rome. The chant, the antiphonal rendering of the psalms, the Te Deum, the Gloria Patri, have for this reason been looked at with suspicion, h. Then, again, this prejudice has had its roots in doctrinal convictions. Since the congregation consists of converted and unconverted persons, it has been said, it is not right that hymns sacred to the use of believers should be sung by all in common. Pushed to its logical extreme this objection, of course, would exclude the common use of prayer, of the Bible, and of public worship itself. Further, it has been objected that the singing of hymns has no warrant in the New Testament. The constitution of the United Presbyterian Church declares that the use of the Psalms in the worship of God both public and private " to the end of the world " is in accordance with his will, and that these songs "should be employed to the exclusion of the devotional compositions of uninspired men." "Human hymns" are only slowly winning their way into many of the remoter Presbyterian churches in Scotland, and the advance of the organ has been slower still. Among the many controversies of the seventeenth century in which the English Baptists engaged, — often little to their profit, — this question had a prominent place: "Whether the singing of psalms in public worship was according to the mind of Christ."^ For twenty years Benjamin Keach 1 Dr. Culross, " Memoir of Hansard Knollys." p. 102. MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE 167 (whose church was the precursor of that which a century and a half later became famous under the ministry of Mr. Spurgeon), contended for the use of a hymn at tlie communion and another on the dismissal of the congregation ; and he only won the day at the cost of a painful schism which carried away some of the most conscientious members of the fellowship.^ The schism was healed after a time, and now the churches no longer insist that those who desire to make melody unto the Lord should do so exclusively in the heart ; being per- mitted, that is, to sing only so long as they consent to be silent. (2) More often, it is to be surmised, the neglect of music in the public service arises from ignorance and indifference. The minister (as an old writer complains) wants "not only skill but good-will to this most excelling part of divine service."^ He magnifies preaching at the expense of everything else. This is due in a great measure to the fact that he has been drilled in the art of preaching but not in the art of singing. Certainly we are almost at the opposite extreme to that of Martin Luther when he declared that "we should not ordain young men as preachers unless they have been well exercised in music." Hitherto little or no at- tention has been paid to musical instruction in the theological seminaries. Every school of sacred learning should have a Chair of Ecclesiastical Music ^ Dr. Stanford, " Homilies on Christian Work," p. 64. - Stanford's " Doddridge," p. 128. l68 PUBLIC WORSHIP and Hymnology. As it is, there is only too much reason for the charge that while music has become a most important agency in the worship of the church, the average minister, as a rule, knows as little about the art as the proverbial chairman of its music committee. It is our present purpose to offer some suggestions which may help to dissipate this ignorance. Before proceeding to do this, a word as to the choir will be in place, in nothing does the minister need grace more than in his man- agement of the choir, and in his influence upon it. In the country church, where the music is volun- tary, and where family ties are many and close, this is especially the case. The words of David, spoken when the wicked were before him, the young country pastor learns to repeat under other circumstances: " 1 was dumb with silence, I held my peace even from good."' No doubt Luther was right when he said that " music was one of the finest and noblest gifts of God in the world " ; but there are times when those upon whom the gift has been bestowed are a sore trial to patience. Yet under all circumstances you will do well to keep before the choir and the congregation the true and noble purpose served by music. Musicians, however sensitive, are thankful for a sympathetic, intelligent interest shown by the minister in this part of the service. And above all cherish a high tone of spiritual life. The organist, the leader, every member of the choir, should be a Christian 1 Ps. 39 : 2. MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE i6g person. " In the elder days of the church when the Presbyter invested with his singing robes the Psalmista, he said to him : ' See that what thou singest with thy mouth, thou believest also in thy life.'"^ Especially should the organist be a man of character as well as ability. " The minister and the organist should be as captain and lieutenant of a regiment, each anxious to back up the other, working shoulder to shoulder with all earnestness." It may be well to advise that you be slow to make any sweeping change in the music. Choirs are commonly apt to be thin-skinned. Each church has its own peculiarities, so that what is good in one place may be the reverse of good in another. Questions of expense, also, have to be weighed, and the committee on music must be controlled in its expenditure by the committee of finance. And you will do well to remember that no one arrange- ment — a precentor, a quartette, a chorus, what- ever it may be — is free from objections. Your wiser plan in most cases, is to take what you find, and gradually to modify and improve it, as the de- vout taste of the congregation rises in its demands. 3. I pass on to the next counsel, which is, that you educate yourself in this matter of sacred music. You will be chiefly concerned with the choice of hymns, and in what has now to be said we will confine ourselves in the main to them. (i) Study lyrical poetry and decide just what constitutes a hymn. The opinion of one of the 1 "Longfellow's Life," Vol. IL, p. 106. I/O PUBLIC WORSHIP latest authorities on the subject that " a hymn is any copy of verses that has been included in a hymn book, or designed or adapted for congrega- tional worship," ^ may well be challenged. This criterion furnishes us with not less than four hun- dred thousand hymns, and leaves to the claims of humble prose a secondary place in literature. Over against this we may put Augustine's brief but in- clusive definition of a hymn as "A song of praise to God." Perhaps it will be adequate for our pur- pose if we say that a hymn is the expression of spiritual emotion in lyrical form, adapted for sing- ing. Make yourself familiar with the best lyrical poems, sacred and secular, in the English language. Some good collection, such as F. T. Palgrave's " Golden Treasury," will be of service here. It is much to be regretted, but little to be wondered at, that so few great poets have written hymns. "For music," said Jenny Lind, "we must have one feeling, one harmony." For the good hymn also we must have these, but in a yet higher sense than she intended. The poet's affections " must be kindled by the fire of Christ's love, before his soul will be able to mount up toward Christ in the music and the service of God." The hymn puts piety before art, and worship is its first essential. Those hymns which the heart of the church cher- ishes have been written by preachers rather than by laureates. Milton, Addison, Whittier, Long- fellow, have scarcely given us half a dozen which 1 John Julian, M. A., " A Dictionary of Hymnology," Preface. MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE 171 live, and to Shakespeare, Tennyson, Browning, we look in vain for even this small number. Cow- per alone among the poets has really added to the substantial treasury of sacred song. Honest John Newton, who himself sounded the depths of poor poetry and only at rare intervals rose above medi- ocrity, says with truth : " There is a style and manner suited to the composition of hymns which may be more successfully, or at least more easily, attained by a versifier than a poet. Perspicuity, simplicity, and ease should be chiefly attended to ; and the imagery and coloring of poetry, if admitted at all, should be indulged in very sparingly, and with great judgment." That Newton practised what he preached, his hymns are the best evidence. There are many times when he strikes a worthy level, but we may be forgiven if we prefer the sober prose of the Bible narrative to the uneasy movement of his rhyme when he invites us to sing : Poor Esau repented too late That once he his birthright despised, And sold for a morsel of meat What could not too highly be priz'd. (2) You will do well to learn to distinguish the various kinds of sacred music : The classical kind as represented by the masses and other sacred compositions of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven ; the German, as we have it in their noble congregational chorals ; the Anglican, as it has found a place in our service in anthems and chants and some of the 172 PUBLIC WORSHIP most solid of our h\Tnn tunes ; the Puritan, as it still holds its place in our books in tunes which while not rising to the highest level of psalmody have nevertheless struck the happy mean between the over artistic and the merely popular ; and then the popular itself as it occupies an uncertain place in permanent church music in the tunes associated with the Gospel Songs of Moody and Sankey. (3) The literature of hymns is constantly in- creasing ; and it is quite worthy of study. " The Library of Religious Poetry," by Schaff and Gil- man ; " The Dictionary of Hymnology," by Julian ; Butterworth's "Story of the Hymns," and "Story of the Tunes " ; Hattleld's " Poets of the Church " ; Miller's " Our Hymns, their Authors and Origin " ; Duffield's " English Hymns," and " Latin Hymns," illustrate this branch of literature, while Lord Sel- borne's " Book of Praise," Palgrave's "Treasury of Sacred Song," and Neale's " Hymns of the Eastern Church," may introduce us to the best h\'mns of ancient and modern times. (4) It is likely that in the course of youi ministry you will find it necessary to change the hymn book in use in your church. For this reason you should keep yourself well abreast of the times in this mat- ter. Such a change should not be made unless with good cause, but when it is decided upon you should get from the various publishers specimens of their books, and have a committee appointed (of which you may be one) to examine them carefully, and report when a conclusion has been arrixed at. MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE 173 (5) Meanwhile, make for yourself a list of the best hymns. Gladstone considered Cowper's hymn, "Hark, my soul, it is the Lord," the finest in the language for sustained devotional feeling and per- fection of expression. To Dean Stanley, Jacob's sublime experience at Peniel found its best ex- pression in the noble hymn of Charles Wesley, " Come, O thou Traveler unknown " ; Matthew Arnold, within an hour of his sudden death, de- clared that Dr. Watts, in " When I survey the won- drous cross," had reached an incomparable degree of excellence. " Rock of Ages, cleft for me," seems by common consent to be the hymn to which the heart of Protestant Christendom gives the first place in its affections. The subject of the best hymns is a good one for a prayer meeting talk ; and a little collection by W. T. Stead, " Hymns that have Helped," will furnish you valuable hints for the address. (6) Besides making a careful study of the sub- ject of church music, it will be well that you culti- vate a taste for singing. At all exents be able to raise the tune in an emergency. With reasonable complacency John Comer, the Baptist pioneer in Rhode Island during the eighteenth century, writes in his diary : " There was no public singing till I came and by the blessing of heaven introduced it." It is not, however, an unmixed advantage when a minister is a connoisseur of music. Dr. Priestly wisely deprecated the very fine ear and exquisite taste in men who must inevitably listen to so much 174 PUBLIC WORSHIP that is indifferent. By reason of a fortunate defi- ciency in this respect, "they will be more easily pleased and be less apt to be offended." Singing is one of the cases in which a little learning is not a dangerous thing. It is mortifying to be unable to start a tune at a prayer meeting. To join heartily in the singing of a hymn may be a means of grace even to him who is imperfectly acquainted with music, although it must have been humiliating to the English bishop who is like Charles Lamb, "sentimentally disposed to harmony but yet or- ganically incapable of a tune," to be told by a working man at an evangelistic meeting when he was singing with lusty though discordant enjoy- ment, " Here, dry up, minister ; you're spoiling the show." Recalling a Sunday morning service at Northampton during the long ministry of Dr. Dodd- ridge, John Ryland writes : " The doctor himself gave out the hymns, but could not set the tunes, for he could never change two notes." ^ Dr. Dodd- ridge's hymns are as melodious as any in our language, as easy and musical as indued is the prose of John Foster, who himself also suffered from the same deficiency of ear. That Foster's taste was limited we may infer from the fact that it was his custom frequently to ask for the lines : Forgive, blest shade, the tributary tear That mourns thy exit from a world like this ; Forgive the wish that would have kept thee here And stayed thy progress to the seats of bliss. 1 Stanford's " Doddridge," p. 128. MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE 175 This was his favorite hymn, and set to suitable music it seemed to afford him a tranquil rather than a stimulating satisfaction. I may add that a prac- tical knowledge of singing will aid you in selecting hymns that will sing well, and will enable you to exercise some intelligent control over the music that is sung. 4. In case you appreciate the importance of the subject, take a personal interest in this part of the service, and by some of the various ways which have been suggested, educate yourself in sacred poetry, it will be tolerably certain that you will use every opportunity to bring this matter of church music liome to the minds and hearts of your congregation. (i) The singing school has already been rec- ommended ; and if this is not practicable, you must resolve that in one way or another you will pro- mote congregational practice. "In order," says a music teacher, "to have good congregational singing there must be congregational practice ; this is just as imperative as that the choir should practice for the proper rendering of its part of the music. Prayer meeting and Sunday-school singing should also, as far as possible, make use of the same hymns and tunes that are sung in the church." (2) Occasionally lecture on some aspects of the subject. These addresses will be more suitable for a week evening than for Sunday. Your organist and choir will help you in dealing with such topics as " Sacred Music " ; " The Music of the Bible " ; 176 PUBLIC WORSHIP " Early Christian Hymns"; "The Older Hymns and Tunes"; "The Twelve Best Hymns "; "Hymns with Stories " ; " The Ministry and Mission of the Choir." (3) Keep the subject of church music prominent in the public service. Make the announcement of the hymns clear and impressive. Now and then refer to the hymn, either before or after it is sung. Occasionally preach on church music or some kin- dred topic. Of Cotton Mather, who seems to have made a practice of doing this once a year, we read on one occasion, "At night Dr. Mather preached in the schoolhouse to the young musicians, from Rev. 14 : 3, * No man could learn that song.' House full, and the singing extraordinarily excellent." At the prayer meeting, open with a short service of song. Within proper limits, encourage those who attend to call for their favorite hymns. And always insist upon the great importance of this part of the worship of God. In his "Directions for self-examination preparatory to communion," Jonathan Edwards has this question, ''Do you live in sin by erring in the neglect of singing God's praise, for if it is God's command that we should worship him in this way, then obviously your duty is to do it. Inasmuch as it cannot be done without learning, therefore, he who has neglected opportunities of doing so is living in sin." MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE (Concluded) SUMMARY Two Preliminary Observations. 1. The minister is as responsible for this as for any other part of the service. 2. He should therefore reserve to himself some control over all the music in public worship. THE HYMN. 1. The minister should be careful in the selection of hymns which are used, (i) The doctrine should be sound. (2) The sentiment should be wholesome. (3) The prevailing spirit should be one of praise. (4) Hymns which are too subjective should be avoided. (5) And also hymns which preach. (6) The literary style of the hymns should be consid- ered, a. It must be poetic in expression and in composition, b. It should not confuse or mingle metaphor. (7) Variety in the selection should be arrived at. 2. The minister should pay attention to the arrangement of the hymns in the service. 3. He should be careful in announcing the hymns. (i) No introductory phrase. (2) Reading the hymn. 4. He should form one of the congregation throughout this part of the service. 5. He should encourage the congregation to take as large a share as possible in the musical part of the service. X MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE In this chapter we shall deal chiefly with The Hymns which are sung in public worship. Two points need to be noticed before doing this. I. The minister is as responsible for the musical part of the service as he is for any other part of it. That it may be the means of rousing religious feel- ing, of deepening conviction, and even of reaching hearts that the sermon may fail to touch, we have already seen. Doddridge received as much pleas- ure as he gave when he wrote to Watts : " After a sermon from Heb. 6: 12 we sang one of your hymns, and in that part of the worship I had the satisfaction to observe tears in the eyes of sev- eral of the people. After the service was over, some of them told me that they were not able to sing, so deeply were their minds affected."^ In this instance the hymn intensified the feeling which the sermon had first created. No minister can afford to lose this powerful aid to his preaching. Yet there seems to be a very general impression (shared alike by the minister and the musicians) that the responsibility for the music rests entirely upon the leader of the choir or the organist. For 1 Wilmott's " Sacred Poets," Vol. II., p. 129. 179 l80 PUBLIC WORSHIP this impression the minister has often himself to blame. He has consented to share his responsi- bility with another, and then surrendered it alto- gether. But you should remember how in the temple service the whole charge of the music was in the hands of consecrated Levites. They con- ducted the great choral services of the national sanctuary, and often composed alike the words that were sung and the music which was performed. Following this precedent, the liturgical churches have priests especially set apart for this purpose. And, besides, without appealing to ecclesiastical authority, as a matter of expediency it is desirable that the whole service be under one supervision. 2. The minister, therefore, should reserve to himself some control over all the music which is to be used in the service. Of course this control must be exercised discreetly. As the leader of the music and the organist grow familiar with the minister's taste and choice, they will instinctively consult them. And he, for his part, will make his share in the musical selections advisory rather than arbitrary. He will interfere as little as possible, but his wishes will naturally be consulted, and his judgment will be conclusive. We may note in passing that the words of the hymns are not made for the music, but the music for the words. Because a tune is attractive, that is no reason for its being'^sung, unless a hymn suit- able to the occasion calls for it. Any piece of music which does not promote the worship of the MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE l8l congregation, hinders it. By all means cultivate, in yourself, in the choir, and in the congregation at large, the spirit which prepares the heart before it tunes the voice or the instrument/ If this be done the widest range can be given to the musical re- sources which can be pressed into the service. The only question which you need ask as to the instru- ment, the voice, the piece of music, is : Does this help the majority of the people to worship God ? Others (to take an example) besides the Rev. Dr. Dale might be disposed to say, " I don't think that any sermon on the words, ' The Lord is mindful of his own,' could do so much for me as the anthem when it is well sung." ^ So much being premised, we will deal with The Hymns which are sung in the Public Service. I. The minister should be careful in making his selection of hymns. He should choose them him- self, and do so intelligently. The course pursued by an old New England pastor of the last century of reading Watts' psalms and hymns right through, and requesting his brethren who occasionally preached for him to hold by the accustomed order, whatever the relevancy, or want of relevancy, of the hymn to the sermon, is not to be commended.' This was to sacrifice everything else to routine. And often it must have been hard to fmd either rhyme or reason in the selection. 1 Ps. 57 : 7, 8. - " Life," p. 552. ' Dorus Clarke, " Saying the Catechism," p. 14 ; Elson, " National Music of America," p. 46. l82 PUBLIC WORSHIP (i) To go into detail in this matter, let us say, in the first place, that the doctrine of the hymn should be sound. The hymns which hold a permanent place in our own books are very doctrinal. Most of them are rich in those great central truths which refer to the person and work of our Lord. And, as a rule, they were born in the times when the heart of the church has been most deeply stirred by great doc- trinal convictions. Oliver Wendell Holmes was a very pronounced Unitarian, and yet he wrote : " There are very few modern hymns which have the old ring of saintliness about them. Sometimes when I am disinclined to listen to the preacher at church I turn to the hymn book, and when one strikes my eye I cover the name at the bottom and guess. It is almost invariably Watts or Wesley." No one will question that very often deep im- pressions have been made by hymns containing either questionable teaching or an unfair emphasis on certain doctrines of Scripture. Michael Wiggles- worth, who came to New England in 1638, must have caught his conception of the divine wrath from medieval sources, rather than from the New Testa- ment, when he could write the following words about the lost, which burned themselves into the memories of the generation of the early settlers in this country : They wring their hands, their caitiff hands, And gnash their teeth for terror ; They cry, they roar, for anguish sore, And gnaw their tongues for horror ; MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE 183 But get away, without delay, Christ pities not your cry ; Depart to hell, there may you yell And roar eternally. " Who," asks Dr. Austin Phelps/ " ever received from the scriptural imagery of Christ's relation to the Father in the work of atonement that concep- tion of the Father's vengeance which Doctor Watts has versified in a stanza which, if it had been sung of the Greek Nemesis, would have surpassed any equal number of lines in Homer ? " Rich were the drops of Jesus' blood. Which calmed the frowning face ; Which sprinkled o'er the burning throne, And turned the wrath to grace." On the other hand, the child who commits to memory the fine hymn of " Praise for Creation and Providence," from the same writer's "Divine and Moral Songs," carries with him a conception of God which may elevate and inspire his whole after life. The doctrinal teaching embodied in such noble hymns as "What equal honors shall we bring ? " and " Jesus, lover of my soul," and " Rock of Ages, cleft for me," may quicken and direct the faith which the sermon has failed to touch. (2) The sentiment of the hymn should be whole- some. This many of the popular hymns are not. Avoid the frequent use of what have been called amatory hymns. "Safe in the arms of Jesus" is 1 Phelps, " Men and Books," p. 261. 1 84 PUBLIC WORSHIP the later representation of this type, which in former generations found expression in Dear Saviour, let thy beauties be My soul's eternal food. Faber's "His huge tenderness" and "His sweet blood " are objectionable phrases of the same kind. Equally with this defect, extravagance and insin- cerity of expression are to be deprecated. Apart from the imperfect rhyming, good taste objects for this reason to Lord, what a barren land is this That yields us no supply ; No cheering fruits, no wholesome trees, No streams of living joy. Even if the religious teaching is sound the senti- ment is not in the lines : This robe of flesh I'll drop, and rise To seize the everlasting prize ; And shout, while mounting through the air, " Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of praytr." The florid hymn is to be avoided. Often it is not worthy of the name of literature. " Shall we gather at the river ? " is a sample of this kind of doggerel. The fashion for introducing repulsive imagery into hymns is, we may hope, passing away. We no longer use Doctor Watts' lines : Here every bowel of my God With soft compassion rolls, MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE 185 although the lines Earth from afar hath heard thy fame And worms have learned to lisp thy name, still baffles the ingenuity of natural history to ex- plain them intelligently. Good taste will also decide that some things which need to be said in the sermon can find no place in the hymns. It is possible to read but not to sing My thoughts on awful subjects roll, Damnation and the dead. (3) As a general rule, the prevailing spirit of the hymns for congregational use should be one of praise. Always have one hymn of praise in the service. There is some reason for the complaint of Doctor Dale that "the hymns which have been written for the last quarter of a century have no faith or hope or joy in them. They are all tears and sighs. They might have been written by peo- ple who never heard of the liberty with which Christ made his people free."^ The psalms of David, the hymns of the early church, the best strains of the hymns that really help, are oftener than not jubilant. This history of sacred song is a history of joyful expression. There was gladness in the song that was sung with timbrels and dances by the enfranchised Hebrews on the banks of the Red Sea, when they had escaped from Egypt, and in the resounding refrain with which the nation cele- 1 " Life," p. 223. l86 PUBLIC WORSHIP brated the opening of Solomon's temple. " Praise tlie Lord, for lie is good ; for his mercy endureth for ever." The Christian church was born in joy- ful songs/ the psalm which accompanied the insti- tution of the Lord's Supper, the outburst of holy confidence with which the little company met the threatenings of the chief priests and elders, even the hymns which Paul and Silas sang in the jail of Philippi '^ — all had in them strains of gladness. The same observation holds true about the hymns which Luther sang at the time of the Protestant Reformation of the fifteenth century, and Wesley, during the evangelical revival two hundred years later. And do not all these and many others an- ticipate the time when the circle of praise shall be complete and the songs of Moses and the Lamb shall celebrate the first victory of the Lord God Almighty .-' Augustine may almost be justified in claiming, as he does, that the hymn has a three-fold office to perform — it must praise, and it must praise God, and it must praise God in the foim of a song. (4) Further, we would say, be sparing in the use of subjective hymns. The hymn which ap- peals to the greatest number is likely to be the hymn best suited to the congregation. There is reason in the criticism of Dr. George Adam Smith, when, contrasting the Psalter with the modern hymn book, he says : " The defect of modern hym- nology is that it fails to strike the national note." Certainly the note should be one in which the joys 1 Matt. 26 : 30 ; Acts 4 : 24. ^ Acts 16 : 25. MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE 187 and sorrows, the aspirations and the confessions of the church at large find expression. Channing "never read any but the devotional hymns in a Sunday service," and Emerson "selected those that were of a purely meditative character, without any distinctively Christian experience." But your ex- perience as a pastor will lead you to do the very reverse of this. The hymn in Protestant worship has a distinctively objective office to perform. As Oliver Wendell Holmes says : " The imagination wants help, and if it cannot get it in pictures, statues, crucifixes, it will find it in words." ^ Many of the hymns of Lynch, Faber, Frances Havergal, and Bonar are invaluable for private use, but they are not suited to the general congregation. New- man's "Lead, Kindly Light," is now generally recognized as a touching fragment of autobiography, but not a hymn. (5) Distinguish between the hymn and the ser- mon. A hymn should praise, but it should not preach. A good hymn, it has been said, "should embody Scripture, not dogma ; it should contain universal truths without being didactic." The pious sentiment. Religion is the chief concern Of mortals here below, is not suitable for singing any more than is one of the proverbs of Solomon. The eccentric hyper- Calvinist, William Huntingdon, put the five points 1 •■ Life," Vol. II., p. 254. l88 PUBLIC WORSHIP of his favorite creed into as many stanzas, all of them possessing to the full the complacent satisfac- tion with self and indifference to the rest of man- kind which is expressed in these lines : Election is a precious truth, But, Lord, I wish to be Assur'd by thy own Spirit's mouth, That thou hast chosen me. At the opposite extreme in doctrine, John Wesley is equally guilty of sacrificing the hymn to the ser- mon when, in his "Hymns on the Trinity," he would have his congregation sing : Triune God of pard'ning love, Thy divine economy All our thanl^cful hearts approve. Thee adore in persons three. After this we can almost forgive Ralph Emerson for embodying his theology in the once famous " Gospel Sonnets," of which one couplet may suf- fice us : Faith's certain by fiducial acts,^ Sense by its evidential facts. (6) Although not many great poets have left us hymns, yet the question of literary style must not be entirely set aside, a. The hymn should be poetic in expression. The father of Isaac Watts was a deacon of a Congregational church at South- ampton, and there it was that the young man was impressed with the poverty of the hymns which i"Encyc. Brit.," Art. " Hymns." MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE 189 were sung. He, as Lord Selborne says, was the first to understand the want at that time of good hymns, and the EngHsh Independents, as repre- sented by him, were "the real founders of modern English hymnology." ^ " Consider," says Watts' brother, writing to urge him to publish his hymns, "how very mean the performers of this kind of poetry appear in the pieces already extant."^ "One hymn writer," he says, "reduces us to yawning indifferency," while another "chimes us asleep." Watts was too modest as well as too conscious of his own limitations to pretend to being a poet. He never, as he puts it, set himself up " among the numerous competitors for a poet of the age. He had only sported with rhyme." Some- times, it must be confessed, the sport was not very successful. One of his noblest hymns is marred by an unfortunate adjective when he bids any creature Rise and sing Peculiar honors to our King. Such expressions as " How decent and how wise," " He sits on no precarious throne," are common- place enough. The hymn which ranks among his finest, " When 1 survey the Wondrous Cross," is disfigured by a stanza — rarely sung now — in which a repulsive simile is abandoned for an un- meaning couplet : His dying crimson, like a robe, Spreads o'er his body on the tree ; 1 " Encyc. Brit.," Art. " Hymns." - " Isaac Watts," by E. P. Hood, p. 85 igO PUBLIC WORSHIP Then am I dead to all the globe, And all the globe is dead to me. But a comparison with earlier hymns shows how immeasurably superior was Watts to his predeces- sors. The hymns sung by the Puritans on both sides of the Atlantic were certainly not marked by much beauty of poetic expression. It must have been no easy matter to line out or to sing such a stanza as : Why dost thou withdraw thy hand abacke, And hide it in thy lappe ? Oh pluck it out, and be not slacke To give thy foes a rappe. The pastor of the Maze Pond Baptist Church in London, must be credited with more grace of heart than grace of utterance, when he invited his people to celebrate the renovation of the chape! by singing But oh the want of salt, O Lord ! How few are salted well ! How few are like to salt indeed ! Salt thou thine Israel ! The common-place of expression is reached in such lines as : As shepherds in Jewry were guarding their sheep Promiscuously seated, estranged from sleep ; and however much one sympathizes with him in his sufferings it must have been no easy matter to sing : King Hezekiah lay diseased, With every dangerous symptom seized. MUSIC iN THE PUBLIC SERVICE 191 A minister in one of tlie midland counties of Eng- land was startled, not fifty years since, by discover- ing this stanza in the hymn book of a little chapel : ^ Clipt are the greedy vulture's claws- No more we dread his power ; He gapes with adamantine jaws, And grins— but can't devour. Even in the fine hymn in which Fawcett gave ex- pression to the joy of Christian fellowship, " Blest be the tie that binds," occurs one couplet which is ludicrous in its suggestion of a tragic misfortune : When we asunder part, It gives us inward pain. Then again the hymn should not contain dis- cordant or unmelodious rhyme. To harmonize "joined " and " find," " alone " and " begun," as is attempted in one stanza of a well-known hymn, is a sin against euphony. b. Although many of our best hymns sin against the law, yet it remains a law in force that a hymn should not be disfigured by confused or mingled met- aphors. Oliver Wendell Holmes speaks of "Rock of Ages" "as by repute the best hymn in the Eng- lish language, and finds the secret of its acceptance in the fact that of all Protestant hymns it is the richest in material imagery."^ This is probably true, yet in what hymns are the metaphors more mixed } Robert Robinson was a great master of 1 " Life of R. W. McCall," p. 126. = " Life," Vol. IL, p. 254. 192 PUBLIC WORSHIP English, but his noble hymn, " Come thou Fount of every blessing " ' is full of incongruous figures. The same is true of " There is a fountain filled with blood," and others scarcely less popular with Protestant congregations. Plainly the law which forbids mixed metaphors has often been more hon- ored in the breach than in the observance ; and yet it is well to respect it. (7) Aim at variety in your selection of hymns for congregational use. Study freshness. " Sing unto the Lord a new song." Have a large number of hymns on your list from which to choose. Master thoroughly the contents of the hymn book, and mark those which you consider good or which find general acceptance. Do not indulge your personal taste too much. Keep a careful record of the hymns which are sung, and frequently revise it. 2. The minister should pay attention to the ar- rangement of the hymns in the service. As a rule, three will be sung ; and they should all be sung by the congregation. The choir need not do for us what we can do for ourselves. The first hymn will naturally be one of praise. Let the keynote be strong and inspiring. Do not begin with a hymn which applies to any one part of the congregation only. The hymn before the sermon may be on the general theme of the service, but it should not be on the special verse from which the sermon is to be preached. This is to anticipate the theme of discourse, and rob it of freshness when it 1 Kern, " Ministry to the Congregation," p. 61. MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE 193 is announced. The hymn that follows the sermon may deal very closely with the subject of your discourse ; it may, if wisely selected, deepen any impression that has been made. At the evening service, however, this hymn will frequently be one suitable to the close of the day and of the worship. As a rule, Lyman Beecher's judgment seems to be sound.' " it is better that the first and second hymns be those of direct worship, and that the sub- ject of the sermon be not distinctly alluded to in either of them; but that the last hymn, sung after the sermon, shall always be closely connected with the sermon, following exactly in its wake — follow- ing out and deepening, if possible, the state of mind or emotions awakened by the preacher." 3. The minister should announce the hymn with care, (i) There is no need for any introductory phrase. Read the number once or twice, very dis- tinctly. Do so accurately, and in full : " The hundred and first hymn." (2) As to reading the hymn, there seems to be some prospect that in time this will be abandoned altogether ; certainly you are under no obligation to do so, and if you have the numbers printed in large figures and placed in con- spicuous parts of the church, the necessity for read- ing is much lessened. The days in which hymn books were few have, or ought to have, passed away. The reading of each verse before singing it dates from that time, or from still earlier date when few in the congregation could read. To read the > Lyman Beecher, " Life," Vol. H., p. 152. N 194 PUBLIC WORSHIP hymn, and line it out, was tlie privilege of the dea- con in the Nonconformist churches, as it was the office of the clerk in those of the Establishment. The practice was brought here by the early settlers and " deaconing the hymn " was a current phrase. The practice survived in the churches of Scotland to the present generation, and possibly in remote parishes lingers yet. To Watts we are indebted for a successful onslaught on the habit. " It were to be wished,"^ says he, ''that all congregations and private families would sing as they do in foreign countries, without reading line by line." In New England the deacon clung to his peculiar privilege tenaciously ; and there were cases in which the peace of the church was threatened over the question of abandoning it. When the deacon surrendered his office, and the minister took this, as well as all other parts of the serv- ice, the reading of each stanza before singing it remained one among those traditional usages to which men cling with unreasoning tenacity.''' Mr. Spurgeon did this to the last ; but probably in his case the character of his congregation made it al- most imperative. The objections to doing so, under ordinary circumstances, are that, apart from the fact that it is no longer needed, the reading often retards the progress of the service, and breaks its devout continuity, while it is also true that many a hymn well adapted for singing is not suited to ' Duffield. "English Hymns," p. 63. 2 Elson, " The National Music of America," p. 48. MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE 195 reading. If, however, you read, do your utmost to read well. Practise the reading of hymns aloud, in your study. When Channing read the line Angels, roll the stone away ! the congregation "thought they heard the move- ment of the stone in the air." An American wor- shiper at the Metropolitan Tabernacle was impressed with Mr. Spurgeon's reading of the hymn. "He shows very clearly that he has studied those hymns thoroughly before entering the pulpit and deter- mined just how to best bring out the truths they contain." 4. During this part of the service the minister should form one of the congregation. By this is meant that he should stand and join in the singing. Even though he is not capable of leading the people in a tune, he should "make a joyful noise to the Lord." He is no less capable of doing this than the majority of his fellow-worshipers, and his dis- tance from them will prevent his disturbing the finer sensibilities of those who are easily distracted by a false or feeble note. 5. Certainly he should encourage the congrega- tion to take as large a share as possible in the musical part of the service. We have already advocated the frequent practice of tunes by the congregation. In Salem, where the " Bay Psalm Book " was first used, the elder " stayed the church after the public worship was ended " to learn the new tunes, and " the church readily consented 196 PUBLIC WORSHIP thereto." The suigers, in their turns, were bidden " so to begin the tune of your first note as the rest may be sung in the compass of your and the peo- ple's voices, without squeaking above or grumbling below." ' Psalm singing was looked at as a distinct act of worship in the early New England times. When any psalm tune was sung anywhere the caps were doffed, and the Plymouth Colony was yet in its infancy when Robert Bartlett, " having spoken con- temptuously of the ordinance of psalm singing, was censured by the General Court." The secular powers can be appealed to no longer, but the min- ister may by example and precept lead his congre- gation to rise and join heartily in the singing of all the hymns, and he can lead the way to the time (not far distant, we may hope) when the Psalms will be chanted by the wliole congregation. We would suggest tliat the people generally join in the Gloria Patri and in the Doxology. The progress of church music in America has been slow. The first settlers in the New England colonies were fol- lowers of Calvin, who discouraged anything save the singing of psalms, rather than of Luther, who believed in praising God with all the resources of voice and instrumental music. Every step in ad- vance of the one psalm, or at most two, allowed by the Pilgrims in Holland has been met with protests and ban. Now, our danger is rather in excess than in deficiency. We have perhaps laid too much ^ Elson, ante, pp. 40, 42, 44. MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE I97 stress on the artistic rendering of our church music. Assuredly we have traveled from the time when a writer in the " New England Chronicle," in 1723, could utter his lamentation over singing by note in this woful strain : " Truly, 1 have a great jealousy that if we ever begin to sing by rule the next thing will be to pray by rule and preach by rule, and then comes popery."^ No doubt safety is to be found in the happy mean. Congregational singing — so far as practicable by note, but by no means exclusively so — is what the minister should en- courage among his people. " Let the people praise thee, O God, let all the people praise thee," should be the high aim toward which he is continually working. 1 Elson, ante, p. 44. XI THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE SUMMARY I. Reasons for Considering the subject. 1. The change in popular feeling. (i) The same people formerly attended both services. (2) Now to attend two services is rare. (3; Causes for this change: a. Altered conditions of life. b. The present mission of the pulpit, c. Prev- alent conception of Christian duty. d. A modified view of the sanctity of the Sabbath, e. The tax upon the minister. 2. The evening service must be maintained. ( 1 ) A favorable time for preaching the gospel. (2) The only time available in many cases. (3) Two sermons every week possible to the minister. (4) The character of the discourses to be varied. II. Suggestions for Conducting the Evening Service. 1. In case two sermons have to be preached, (i) Vary the subjects of the discourses. (2) Vary the treatment of the subjects. (3) Vary the method of delivery. (4) Put good work into the evening discourses. (5) Make the evening service largely evangelistic. 2. In case a freer service can be adopted. (i) An illustrated lecture. (2) A service of song. (3) A lecture on some special subject. (4) A Sunday-school concert. (5) A Bible class. (6) A Bible reading. III. Counsels. 1. Keep the evening service short. 2. Let the seats be free to all. 3. Print a full order of service. 4. Have good music. 5. Have a frank understanding with vour church. XI THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE What to do with the Sunday evening service is a question which most ministers have to face at the present time. A combination of circumstances, due in great part to the age and land in which we live, has militated against the traditional service of a former generation. ,The ministry, naturally and wisely conservative, is more apt to cling too long to the old order than too readily to adopt the new. But the change in the importance attached to the Sunday evening service and in the attendance on it forces the pastor to review the whole subject, so as perhaps to give even freer play to fresh methods here than elsewhere. The old order changes, giv- ing place to the new. In making full proof of his ministry he is wise if he also modify his methods of Christian work. I. Let us first glance at the two chief reasons for considering this subject at length. These are the change in popular feeling, on the one hand, and, on the other, the necessity for still maintaining the evening service. (i.) As to the change in popular feeling. For- merly it was the custom to have two services every Sunday, and these were, as a rule attended 202 PUBLIC WORSHIP by the same people. The morning service was followed by an intermission of an hour or two, during which the Sunday-school (where one had been established) convened, and to this succeeded the afternoon service. The whole concluded be- fore dark, and the evening was spent at home, in catechizing the household, in religious reading, and, although only in moderation, in social visiting. The Sabbath at this period was wont to last from sundown on Saturday to sundown on Sunday. (2.) Now, for the same person to attend two services on Sunday is the exception rather than the rule. An English statesman says, " Once a day is orthodox, but twice a day is Puritan," and many who would not accord with this sentiment are nevertheless more orthodox than Puritan in their practice. The popularity of the minister does not materially affect the matter. Those who love to listen to sermons are apt to argue that if the ser- mon is a good one it is as much as can be digested with profit, and that if it is not, then the discretion which is the better part of valor counsels against venturing to hear a second. The congregation to which Henry Ward Beecher preached on Sunday evening was as large as that which assembled in the morning, but almost wholly different. "The pewholders," says his biographer, "are absent; strangers have taken their places. The service and the sermon are modified accordingly." (3.) it is not difficult to account for this change. We may attribute it to the following causes : THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE 203 a. To the altered conditions of life. The trend toward the cities was never so strong as it is to-day. A quarter of our population is to be found in them. The farmer who went to church with his family and stayed through both services, meeting his neighbors in the interval and discussing the crops and the weather, found that to do so was a social as well as a religious necessity. His son, a mer- chant in the city, is conscious of no such obligation. He has other sources of information than his father had, and he does not need, as did the Athenians, to tell or hear some new thing. The "crack i' the kirkyard," which formed a substantial feature in the old Scottish Sabbath, has no parallel in his Sunday. Often, also, he lives at some distance from the church which he attends, and to carry his family there a second time is costly to a limited income as well as inconvenient. Nor is it to be forgotten that the stress and strain of modern life is in most cases so severe that the mind as well as the body craves rest. We may almost be disposed to agree with one writer on this subject when he says that the people are often tired, " not tired of the church, or public worship, nor of the minister, but just tired, and want to stay at home and rest";^ and with him we may add : " Now what is the law of the Sabbath } it is rest — rest for everybody and for the beasts of burden. It appears to us that here we have encountered a divine law which operates throughout all nature." 1" Outlook," April, 1899. 204 PUBLIC WORSHIP /'. Again, we need to take into account the pres- ent mission of the pulpit. It is now only one voice among many. The preacher is under no obligation, as perhaps he once was, to discuss political crises and national questions for the benefit of his congre- gation. Clerical opinion is not any longer fortified by any mysterious ecclesiastical authority. The minister cannot now speak (?:v cathedra. The news- paper and the political orator and the social re- former are sources of popular information to-day. The opinion of the minister, when he descends to the arena of subjects not distinctively religious, is worth no more than the opinion of any other man. And these added sources of information are a dis- tinct advantage to him. Now he can confine him- self to his own theme. " A preacher of the gospel is a man whose duty is to declare the mind and spirit of Jesus Christ."' "it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master."^ The fashion set by some preachers, for invading the province of the platform and the newspaper leader, has not tended to increase congregations permanently ; it has not augmented the popular respect for the min- ister ; nor has it quickened the spiritual forces by which the world is to be drawn to Christ. c. The change in popular feeling as to the second service on Sunday may also be traced to the con- ception of Christian duty which is now prevalent. The church of the present time, if it is wise, will be aggressive. It will not consent to be bounded by I Dr. C. H. Parkhursf. ^Matt. lo : 25. THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE 205 the walls of the meeting-house. Mission schools and mission services will engage its attention. Mr. Spurgeon computed that a thousand members of his church were occupied every Sunday evening in one form or another of evangelistic work, and therefore absent from his ov/n service. The Sun- day-school adds to the labors and exhausts the nervous energies of multitudes of Christian people. hi the various forms of Young People's Meetings tens of thousands now find the stimulus and nour- ishment for which they formerly looked exclusively to the sermon. The idea that the whole duty of a Christian person is to be in his pew twice every Sunday is forever exploded. d. To these considerations must be added the modified view now so prevalent of the sanctity of the Sabbath. The change in this regard during the past fifty years has no doubt come about large- ly in consequence of new tides of population pour- ing into the country. The German, the Canadian French, the Italian, the Pole, the Hebrew elements, have never been brought under the influence of the traditional Puritan Sabbath. The need for a day of rest is stronger than it ever was ; but the sense of obligation to keep that religiously was probably never weaker. e. Nor can we omit to mention the heavy tax upon the minister which is entailed by the second service. Sermons are, we may presume, worthier of the name than formerly. The average of ex- cellence is a higher average. Very likely congre- 206 PUBLIC WORSHIP gations are more critical than they used to be, and they are harder to please. Certainly the minister is heavier laden with work than was his predeces- sor of a hundred years ago. Besides his pastoral visiting, he is on committees, he has to organize and arrange for meetings in the interests of various religious societies, and his own church is a center of business as exacting and important as the busi- ness of any member of his congregation. Under this strain he has to prepare his two sermons, and he will often appreciate the truth of Mr. Moody's statement : " I was settled at one period of my life for two years in one place, and I worked harder when 1 was there, preaching two sermons in the week, than 1 have done since, all the time I have been going up and down through the country." ^ Under this combined pressure on body and mind and heart, the minister breaks down more fre- quently than he used to, so that it is not hard to account for the death, almost in their prime, of some of the most conspicuously active -'.nd success- ful ministers of our generation. 2. The subject demands to be considered, also, because the evening service in the majority of cases needs to be maintained. (i) The evening is the most favorable time for preaching the gospel. It may be true that " the worship of one Sunday morning is equal to that of half a dozen Sunday evenings — it is of so much more genuine color and free from excitement"; 1 " Parish Problems," p. 414. THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE 207 but it is equally true that the majority of people are reached through their emotions rather than through their intellects, " 1 have found," said Mr. Moody, " Sunday night the best time to preach gospel ser- mons, because people seemingly do not expect to be converted by a Sunday morning sermon." The evangelical awakening under Wesley laid much stress on the evening sermon. At that period there were parts of England in which the day finished with outdoor sports in accordance with the decree of King James the First, and the clergy of the Es- tablished Church oftener than not encouraged the practice.' Certainly the majority of them pre- ferred this way to closing the day with a service such as the Methodists everywliere established ; and they would have sympathized with the Swiss clergyman who was wont to cap his argument against the propriety of evening services by grave- ly quoting "the fall of Eutychus." '■^ (2) It may also be noted, as another point in favor of a continuance of the evening preaching service, that it is then that the young people are especially apt to be present, while to many persons it is the only possible time for attending church. In the poorer districts of cities, and in the great centers of industry, people come out more readily in the evening. (3) We may add that to compose and preach two sermons a week is possible for any minister of • " Life and Letters of Adam Sedgwick," Vol. L, p. 41. 2 Lane's " Life of Vinet," p 40. 208 PUBLIC WORSHIP ordinary ability. Chrysostom and the early Fathers did so, and from their day to the present the custom has prevailed. There have been protests, but it is to be noted that they have come from the men who by a sermon have intended a finished oration. If we are familiar with the elaborate sermons of Bishop Lancelot Andrews, we shall not wonder at his saying : "When I preached twice on the Sun- day, 1 prated once."' Robert Hall had his own exacting ideal in mind when, being asked how many discourses a minister could get up each week, he answered, "If he is a deep thinker and a great condenser, he may get up one ; if he is an ordinary man, two ; if he is an ass, sir, he will produce half a dozen."* Dean Hook considered one sermon a week to be enough for an ordinary man, and yet on one occasion his own diary records, " Three sermons written this day." But Phillips Brooks puts the matter in its true light, when, after depre- cating " great sermons," he says : " But that a man who lives with God, whose delight is to ctudy God's words in the Bible, in the world, in history, in hu- man nature, who is thinking about Christ and man and salvation every day, that he should not be able to talk about these things, seriously, lov- ingly, thoughtfully, simply, for two half-hours every week is inconceivable, and I do not believe it."' 11. We proceed to offer some suggestions for conducting the Evening Service. ' 1555-1626- - Davies. "Successful Preachers," p. 182. 5 " Lectures on Preaching^," p. 152. THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE 20g I. First, we will take the case of the minister who is expected to preach two sermons on the Sunday. (i) You will do well to vary the subjects of the two discourses. Beware of going twice over the same or similar lines. Occasionally, of course, you will take two subjects which are complemen- tary, and which together set forth a complete and' well-rounded truth. As a rule, however, the two sermons should differ as much as possible. By this is not meant that in the evening there should be any abandonment of the distinctly religious character of the exercise. Addresses on literary subjects — studies of great poems, and the like — seem to be out of place here. Nor do we mean that the preacher in his search for variety should fall back on an appeal to sensational themes, or throw a tub to the whale in the shape of what he calls a prelude, in which he discusses current politics and kindred subjects. An appeal to such methods does not hold the people, but "it does cheapen the pul- pit and set the house of God in the same row with the drygoods stores, millinery shops and other in- stitutions that put big head-lines in the newspapers, and flaming placards in the front windows." ^ There is quite range enough in the message of salvation for the minister of Jesus Christ to find variety in the subjects of his discourses Sunday by Sunday. (2) Vary, also, your treatment of the subject in the evening. The Scottish method is admirable, » Dr. C. H. Parkhurst. O 210 PUBLIC WORSHIP where a sermon is prepared for one service and a lecture or exposition for the other. People and preacher alike rebel against monotony, and this can be avoided by having a running series of ex- pository lectures or studies of Scripture characters for one part of the day. " By parting with ex- pository preaching," as Doctor Phelps says, "the pulpit has parted with its most important aid and a stimulus to variety. No other one thing gives to preaching so wide a range of religious thought as the exposition of the Scriptures, when it comes forth as the fruit of a rich, full mind — rich in schol- arly resources and full of.intense, practical aims."^ The advice of Dr. R, S. Storrs is weighty from his own long and honorable experience : " If one dis- course is preceptive and hortatory, let another be narrative in its structure. If one is closely argu- mentative, let the next be a careful yet free expo- sition of a parable or psalm. So you will find that the mind releases itself from the one subject by taking another entirely distinct ; its natural resil- ience is helped and stimulated, and you cease to be weighted with your previous processes." ^ Greater freedom should be given to the evening sermon. The members of the congregation have in some instances been trained to assist in preparing it by looking up material bearing on the topic to be discussed, and the Rev. C. M. Sheldon, who has ' "Theory," etc., p. 2og. 2 " Preaching Without Notes," p. 57. See also " Yale Lectures," by Doc- tor Crosby, p. 193, and " Parish Problems," p. 410, et scq. THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE 211 tried the method for series of discourses, finds that " the interest excited in the preaching of the ser- mons is in proportion to the number of persons en- gaged in their preparation." The plan of preaching two sermons which are alii