is insufficient for the spiritual growth of that which is to follow The forms and ceremonies which to-day, being relative to us, bes enable us to experience and express our religious faith and worship to-morrow become inadequate and a hindrance. Hence the ph losophy of the successive Revelations of the Divine will. Th Mosaic followed upon the Patriarchial; the Prophetic supplemente the Mosaic; and then the Mosaic gave place to the Christian. Eac was necessary in its place, but, having given birth to its successor, was necessary that it should perish. "For there is verily a disannu ing of the commandment going before, for the weakness and unp fitableness thereof." Hence, too, the successive revelations in hun experience. Roman Catholicism was a sad unmeaning piece of ce monialism, but it was a great advance everywhere upon the heath rites which it superseded. Established Protestantism (if such thing be possible) is now, to many of us, little better than a we Roman Catholicism; but, nevertheless, it is to be preferred to religious expression which went before it. To some of us, polity and mode of worship even of the denomination to which belong is becoming antiquated and lifeless, and the probabili are, that, if we will spiritually prosper, we must seek a yet sim form of worship, and originate a polity more relative to oursel Certain it is, that nothing is more injurious to men's spiritual than the attendance upon religious ordinances which have lost t relative value, and do not accord with their religious percepti The time immediately preceding the advent of the Saviour was time when, owing to the age and consequent unfitness of the Mo economy, infidelity and irreligion most abounded in Judæa. T is more infidelity on the Continent than in this country, not so m because Roman Catholicism is the religion of those countries, as t Roman Catholicism is now antiquated and no longer a realit those who profess it. The same in this country: the infide which exists, exists where, owing to parliamentary enactm adaptation of former arrangements to the progressive natur man's spiritual wants, is least possible; and is almost, if not a gether, unknown, where there is the greatest facility for conform the external manifestation to the inward spirit of a man's faith. under which set of circumstances, will provision be best made for necessity of man's spiritual progress-by many incorporations one? Whether will the individual voice be best heard, and individual faith of the man be most likely to be responded amongst few or many? Surely, there is more hope that we s be able to meet and worship with those who are like-minded, no proportion as distinct religious societies are absorbed into one anot but in proportion as they are multiplied; and that if the succe the church is dependent upon the spirituality of its members

ust look for it in the direction of an increase, and not in the minution of the number of distinctive religious bodies.

We think we are justified in this conclusion by the religious story of the world. When, morally, "the earth was without rm and void," and "darkness covered the face of the deep," then as the time that large incorporations were most possible. "Dead trespasses and sins," there was no spiritual life to lead men to estion or depart from any form of worship, which either came to em by descent from their forefathers, or was imposed upon them those who ruled over them. The strictest uniformity was ssible, because personal conviction and responsibility was unfelt. course of time, amongst the people to whom a special revelation d been vouchsafed, we begin to see the stirrings of spiritual life, d Daniel, notwithstanding the King's commandment, prays to his d as aforetime, and the Hebrew youths refused to bow down to the image which Nebuchadnezzar, the king, had set up." But, til the pouring out of the spirit upon the Christian converts, on the day of Pentecost, national incorporations are tolerably fe: after that, all existing ones are impossible. The new faith. eaks in pieces the hugest masses of heathen worshippers, and sorbs their parts, one by one, into the Christian church. Then process of disintegration begins, from the same spiritual force, the Christian church which has absorbed all other religious commities. Lutherans, Episcopalians, Independents, Baptists appear the scene; and these again begin to disintegrate. And now, ere is perhaps not a single congregation in which there is not ne man who does not wish that there was another church to ich, based upon some further light, he could more conscientiously d more profitably attach himself. And spiritual progress, and propagation of the Christian faith, has been dependent upon, d proportionate to, such disintegrations. There was little comrison between the spiritual force of those congregations which ew nothing of Lollardie, and those out of which Wycliffe could m a party. The preaching and the life of the ejected of 1662 s a very different sort of thing, and produced very different ects from the preaching and the life of the men who could give eir "assent and consent" to all that was required of them. John esley exerted a far mightier influence by the rejection of old rms and the adoption of new agencies, and forming, in spite of mself, a new sect, than he could have done, if he had abided by e old forms, and originated no new society. The same in Scotnd. Every secession was an indication of, and led to, an increase spiritual life; and, now, the Free Church alone, which has had 1 existence of but twenty years, is equal in its machinery, and astly superior in its use to the incorporation out of which it me, though the product of many generations. Why, then,

suppose that large incorporations are either profitable or possible? Why assume that God's will is, or the accomplishment of his pur poses can be, in the direction opposite to that in which, so far, it uniformly has been found? Rather should we not accept our past experience as confirmatory of the opinion, that, in proportion a Christianity accomplishes its mission, it will multiply, not decrease. the number of distinct religious communities, until all such com munities fade away into the individual man?

A. B. C.

CONGREGATIONALISM AT ST. ETHELRED'S.

DEAR MR. SPECTATOR,-I am a Nonconformist. If you h asked me twelve months ago, why I was one, I should have paus for a reply, and should probably have answered,—“I was born on and so bred." Now, thanks to last year's Bartholomew agitatio I hope I can give a good reason for my Nonconformity.

Although a Nonconformist, I can see many things I should li altered in Congregationalism. We are too independent, and oft go to foolish extremes, on one side, simply, I do believe, becau the church errs on the opposite side. Then we have bad habi that have nothing to do with our free-churchmanship, but ari from this extreme independence, and equally bad habits that a common to churchmen aud nonconformists.

Will you allow me to give my story in your pages? The mor may still apply at other places besides St. Ethelred's.

I was born of congregational parents, and my earliest associatio are connected with St. Ethelred's Meeting-House. As a boy, n mother used to take me with her to the Sunday morning praye meeting at seven. Then I went to the morning Sunday schoool. 9.30, I should rather say at half-past nine, for we had no railwa or Bradshaws in those days, and this style of marking time was n invented. At a quarter to eleven morning service began; and th afternoon school was at half-past two, so there was not much tim for dinner. Once a month there used to be a teachers' praye meeting in the vestry at the close of the afternoon school, and this my mother often took me. The evening service commenced half-past six, and we had another prayer-meeting at its close, in t vestry, to ask God's blessing on the services of the day. Will yo readers be very much shocked when I tell them, that Sunday w ofttimes a very dreary day to me?

I was always naturally of a restless disposition, and of a live

nagination, and often in the midst of the most sacred things would onjure up the most absurd ideas. In many of the services I have luded to, I fear there was much to foster my sense of the ridiculous. he singing, the prayers, and the preaching, in those days, too often ggested thoughts that were not grave, and, even now I can member many things that then amused, but which have since, hen I have witnessed the like, annoyed and pained me.

Our singing used to be outrageous. I remember very well, a ne we often had at the Sunday morning prayer-meeting. I think. was called "Drayton." The words it was sung to were-

"Lord, in the morning Thou shalt hear,

My voice ascending high;

To Thee, will I direct my prayer,

To Thee, lift up mine eye."

e tune was but one of many specimens of musical gymnastics ith which the worship of God was disgraced in those days. As ing to that tune, the words I have quoted would be as follows:

"Lord, in the maw-aw-or ning-tha-ah-how shalt he-he-hear, Law-ord in the maw-aw-or-nay-in Thou shalt hear,

My voice ascend

My voice ascending high.

My vaw-aw-aw-aw-aw-aw-oice ascending high.

To Thee will I; di; raa-haa-ect my prayer.

To Thee lift up—

To Thee lift up mine

To Thee lift up mine eye.

To Thee will I direct my prayer.

To The—he lift, up; mine eye.”

e good folks, in those days, thought nothing of the nonsense ses they made by the dreadful tunes we sang. In public worship was the same, and oft-times the sense of a hymn was either iled or altered by the custom of giving out two lines at a time; d the beauty of the words always marred, either by the frightful ks in the music, or the breakdowns, which were not unfrequent, ing to the absence of the leader who poured his sorrows into a lancholy flute. But if any one with better taste than his fellows ggested improvements-pleaded that a whole verse at a time was tter than two lines, or that the whole hymn was better than either; was denounced as an imitator of the Church of England:-if he commended the Gregorian style of music in lieu of the gymnastic, was an innovator, and we would have none of his "new-fangled nes:"-if he suggested an organ; oh! horror of horrors, it was nk Popery!

And so we went on. The "worship of song "-the only form of orship we shall carry from the earthly tabernacle to heaven, was ndered carelessly, and in a slovenly manner :-nay more, was often rtailed by the omission of the last hymn, when the sound of the

preacher's voice had been so pleasant in his own ears, that he had over-run the clock, and was warned by one and another of the servants in the gallery leaving the chapel, that the dinners of his flock were spoiling. In that case, the last hymn was dispensed with, and the service concluded by the benediction. Worse still, if we had a collection. Then the time taken in singing God's praises, after sermon, was usefully occupied in carrying about the begging boxes, and the ascriptions of praise were accompanied by the jingling of money! "We will sing to the praise and glory of God," sai our minister," and while we do so, the friends will go round with the boxes!" I remember once saying to my father, who was deacon-when we came home from chapel after one of these scenes -"Why don't you make the collections sometimes when Mr. is preaching?" and was very properly reproved for my trifling wit sacred things!

But if the highest form of worship-singing, was performed i this objectionable manner, the praise was not worse, too often, the the prayer. If any one had advocated " forms of worship" in the days, and suggested the use of a Prayer-Book, even if it had bei confined to the language of the Bible itself, I verily believe I would have been "expelled the church." And yet we had nothi more or less than set forms of prayer; with this disadvantage, th they were composed of strings of scriptural mis-quotations, p together without any regard to sense, or any view to suitableness the occasion on which they were used. I could now name a doz "male members" who used to "engage" at our prayer-meeting and be the occasion what it might, we could always tell what w going to be said. Scripture figures would often be mixed up mo ludicrously; and generally such figures were mainly used, as we illustrative of Eastern manners and customs, and not at all appl cable to the present time or place. Thus we would have one go man praying, that our "cords may be lengthened and our stak strengthened;" or a lament that we were "cisterns, broken cistern that could hold no water." God would be asked to bless us, for had promised that "where two or three were gathered together i His name, there He would be, and that to bless them." worthy old man used always to follow up this mis-quotation, wit "And although we now, exceed that number, &c., &c.," as if th promise could only be claimed when " two or three" were presen Then I have heard a deacon pray that "the minister may see the travail of his Redeemer's soul, and be abundantly satisfied Into whatever form this passage was put, the word "abundantly was sure to be imported into it.

Or

But what shall I say of the length of these prayers? week-night prayer meetings began at seven o'clock, and often we not concluded until half-past eight, and then only three praye had been offered. On Sundays it was much the same; the "lon