God's acceptation, as the fire upon the altar separated the airy and finer parts of the sacrifice from the terrene and earthly. All that we have from God streams through His blood; so all we give to God ascends by virtue of His merits. All our worship, therefore, must be bottomed on Christ. The creatures present their acknowledgments to God by man, and man can only present his to God by Christ. It was utterly unlawful, after the building of the Temple, to sacrifice anywhere else the Temple being a type of Christ, it is utterly unlawful for us to present our services in any other name than His.-Charnock.

WORSHIP.-The Commencement of

Loud rang the bells already; the thronging crowd was assembled
Far from valleys and hills, to list to the holy preaching:
Hark! then roll forth at once the mighty tones from the organ,
Hover like voices from God, aloft like invisible spirits:
Like as Elias in heaven, when he cast off from him his mantle,
Even so cast off the soul its garments of earth; and with one voice
Chimed in the congregation, and sang un anthem immortal,
Tuned to the choral of Luther; the song on its powerful pinions
Took every living soul, and lifted it gently to heaven,

And every face did shine like the Holy One's face upon Tabor.

WORSHIP.-A Condition respecting

Bishop Tegnér.

If we do not endeavour to imitate Him whom we worship, we do not worship Him in sincerity.-H. More.

WORSHIP.-Congregational

Oh! must it not be a sight at which angels rejoice-to see crowds of worshippers pressing into the courts of the Lord? Rank is, or ought to be, forgotten; disagreements are laid aside; the world thrust back for a season. We meet as brethren, to pray together, to pray for each other, to kindle the flame of devotion in one another's hearts, to confess our sins as with one voice, to put up our petitions together to God's throne, to sing the praises of Him whom we love, and to receive that message from heaven which God is pleased to send us. Let us pray heartily; respond heartily; sing heartily; receive the Word into our souls heartily.-Bishop Oxenden.

WORSHIP.-A Day Spent in

A day truly so spent, is preferable to a sinning immortality !—Cicero. WORSHIP.-A Dead

A dead worship is not proportioned to a living God. The separation of heave: ly affections from our souls before God, makes them as much a carcass in His sight as the divorce of the soul makes the body a carcass. When the affections are separated, worship is no longer worship, but a dead offering, a lifeless bulk; for the essence and spirit of worship is departed.—Charnock.

WORSHIP.-Definitions of

Just as spring is the outburst of summer, so worship is the cutburst of the divine life in man.-Dr. Davies.

Worship is man's highest end, for it is the employment of his highest facnl is and affections on the sublimest object.-Dr. Channing.

WORSHIP.-Divine

Divine worship is one of the chiefest jewels of God's crown, which He will by no means part with.-Swinnock.

WORSHIP.-Earnestness in

He is a profane person that performs the duties of sacred worship slightly and superficially; all our duties ought to be warmed with zeal, winged with affection, and shot up into heaven from the whole bent of the soul. Our whole hearts must go into them, and the strength and vigour of our spirits must diffuse themselves into every part of them. Truly all our Christian sacrifices, both of praise and prayer, must be offered up to God with fire; and that fire which alone can sanctify them must be darted down from heaven-the celestial flame of zeal and love, which hath a natural tendency to ascend thither again, and to carry up our hearts and souls upon its wings with it.-Bishop Hopkins.

WORSHIP.-Edenic

The intercourse which existed between our first parents and their Maker was carried on by personal interviews, as well as by prayer and praise. So long as they remained obedient to the divine comman, the path from earth to heaven was cheerfully pursued; man was an angel in the garb of flesh, waiting for the time when he should be allowed to join kindred spirits in yon fairer world on high. God was then not afar off; but He was one with whom from "morn to dewy eve" mun held sweet converse.-W. G. Moore.

WORSHIP.-Faith in

Faith, as it hath relation to Christ, makes every act of worship a living act, and consequently a spiritual act.-Charnock.

The eye of faith looks through the prospect of a promise, and so makes greater and more glorious discoveries; passes through the mean outside, to the discovery of a special, an inward glory; sees a special blessing, a special assistance, a special presence, a special advantage, in public worship.-Clarkson.

WORSHIP.-Family

Its effect will greatly depend on the sincerity of the head of the family, and on his mode of conducting it. If his household do not see his prayers exemplified in his temper and manners, they will be disgusted with religion. Tediousness will weary them: fine language will shoot above them: formality of connection, or composition in prayer, they will not comprehend: gloominess, or austerity of devotion, will make them dread religion as a hard service. Let them be met with smiles: let them be met as friends: let them be met as for the most delightful service in which they can be engaged. Let them find it short, savoury, simple, plain, tender, heavenly. Worship thus conducted may be used as an engine of vast power in a family. It diffuses a sympathy through the members: it calls off' the mind from the deadening effect of worldly affairs: it arrests every member with a morning and evening sermon in the midst of all the hurries and cares of life: it says "There is a God; there is a spiritual world; there is a life to come!"-R. Cecil.

WORSHIP.-The Glory of

The glory of divine worship consists in its freedom, its simplicity, and its spirituality.-Dr. J. Hamilton.

WORSHIP.-God's

God's worship is

That only He inspires, and His bright words,

Writ in the red-leaved volume of the heart,

Return to Him in prayer as dew to heaven.-P. J. Bailey.

WORSHIP.-The Heart in

:

The law of acceptable Christian worship is briefly this—that it must be the worship of the heart. Not of the voice merely: not of the hands merely: not of the bended knees merely: not of the decorously and comprehensively expressed prayer merely not of the gorgeously arrayed high priest, nor yet of the simply robed minister merely: not of feelings touched by old memories of our own departed days, and of those who used to worship with us long ago, but who will worship with us on earth no more: not of any or all of these things merely-but of the heart. Just as a boy, learning his lesson, if he is to do any good, must do it heartily and with a will; or just as a man at his work, hand-work or head-work if he is to do it well, must do it heartüy and with a will; so when we worship God, we must give ourselves to the work: I say not that we must fix our attention on it; but we must put our heart into it; pray, and thank, and praise, with real purpose and intention; collect our thoughts and stir up our affections; and really mean the thing we say and do. We must rise to the very act of devotion— of true communion with God.-Dr. Boyd.

WORSHIP.-The Heavenliness of

What can be more like heaven upon earth than a company of devout souls met in one place, having God in the midst of them, and there partaking of His communications, devoting themselves to His service, professing their faith and hope in Christ, and their dependence upon Him; and joining hearts and voices with the heavenly hosts of angels, in singing the everlasting praises of their Creator and Redeemer; in declaring His wonderful works of love and mercy, and in adoring His infinite wisdom, and power, and goodness, which are conspicuous to all the world? He that once tastes the sweets of these, cannot forbear crying out with David-“Oh, how amiable are Thy dwellings, Thou Lord of Hosts!"— Archbishop Sharp.

WORSHIP.-Helps in

There are those who say that to rise to the highest pitch of devotion they must have the sublime Gothic vault, with "the dim religious light” of storied windows: they must have the pealing organ, the choristers in white, the magnificent music of choral prayer and praise. And who that has ever shared in that inexpressibly noble worship, but must have been constrained to think that truly this seemed like the house and like the service of Almighty God? Here, indeed, men have rendered Him of their very best! Still, the enjoyment of noble architecture and music is not worship, and may be mistaken for it. The best help is that which is derived directly from heaven.-Dr. Boyd.

WORSHIP.-Hindrances to

There are many little ontward circumstances which distract us from our worship just like the thorn in the hand or foot, and which we may fitly try to remove. We need not deliberately try to worship at a disadvantage. We may well provide that everything about God's house shall be seen to with scrupulous

care, that nothing may come jarringly across our devotion; that the decorous Church, the decent praise, the simple and devout prayer, the manifest reverence attending all the service, may afford no temptation to unbefitting thought or feeling. Dr. Boyd.

WORSHIP.-The Immortality of

Men may assail it, may reason against it; but sooner can the laws of the outward universe be repealed by human will, sooner can the sun be plucked from his sphere, than the idea of God can be erased from the human spirit, and His worship be banished from the earth. Worship has survived all revolutions. Corrupted, dishonoured, opposed, it yet lives. It is immortal as its Objectimmortal as the soul from which it ascends.-Dr. Channing.

WORSHIP.-The Joy of

There is a joy which angels well may prize-
To see, and hear, and aid God's worship, when
Unnumbered tongues, a host of Christian men,

Youths, matrons, maidens join. Their sounds arise
Like many waters; now glad symphonies

Of thanks and glory to one God; and then,
Seal of the social prayer, the loud Amen!

Faith's common pledge, contrition's mingled cries.

WORSHIP.-Meaning of the Word

Bishop Mant.

The word-to worship, means to stoop and bow down the body with external gestures;-to serve in the work. But to worship God in spirit is the service and honour of the heart; it comprehends faith and fear in God. The worshipping of God is two-fold-outward and inward.-Luther.

WORSHIP.-Pagan

The Pagan myths through marble lips are spoken,
And ghosts of old beliefs still flit and moan

Round fane and altar overthrown and broken,
O'er tree grown barrow and gray ring of stone.
Blind faith had martyrs in those old high places—
The Syrian hill-grove and the Druid's wood,
With mothers' offerings to the fiend's embraces,
Bone of their bone, and blood of their own blood.

Red altars, kindling through that night of error,
Smoked with warm blood beneath the cruel eye
Of lawless power and sanguinary terror,

Throned on the circle of a pitiless sky,—

Beneath whose baleful shadow, overcasting

All heaven above, and blighting earth below,

The scourge grew red, the lip grew pale with fasting.
And man's oblation was his fear and woe!

Then through great temples swelled the dismal moaning
Of dirge-like music and sepulchral prayer;

Tale wizard priests, o'er occult symbols droning,
Swung their white censers in the burdened air:

As if the pomp of rituals and the savour

Of gums and spices could the Unseen please;

As if His ear could bend, with childish favour,

To the poor flattery of the organ keys!—Whittier.

WORSHIP.-Places of

The meeting together of God's people for public worship seems to have been always observed. We can certainly trace it back as far as the time of the Israelites, above three thousand years ago. By the command of God, they used to assemble together in a place set apart for His worship, called the Tabernacle-a moveable tent, just suited to the wants of the Israelites during their journeyings in the wilderness. Here it was the delight of every pions Hebrew to meet his fellow-worshippers, and to draw near with them to the throne of grace. Soon after the days of David, the Temple was built at Jerusalem. This was a much more substantial buil ling-something like one of our great Cathedrals, only much larger and more magnificent. In this Temple all the scattered Jews used to meet together at certain times in the year to offer up prayers and sacrifices. There were several smaller places of worship besides, called Synagogues, both at Jerusalem and in other Jewish towns. We often real in the Gospels of Jesus and His followers being present in these houses of prayer.-Bishop Orenden.

How great is the mercy of God in providing these houses of prayer, where two or three may meet together in His name, and find their gracious Lord in the midst of them, saluting them, as in the days of His flesh, with His accustomed benediction-" Peace be unto you!" What a relief is it to come into these hallowed walls, out of the strife and turmoil of the world, and commit our cause, and our hopes, and our fears to the care of God! What a comfort to leave behind us for a brief interval all the conflicting interests, and the entangled devices of perishable life, and to raise our thoughts to that happier time when brother shall no longer strive with brother; when men shall be all of one min 1 in one house; when none shall hunger or thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them by day, nor the cold by night! What a miserable scene of incessant struggle and worldliness would this land be without its Sabbath and its house of prayer! Abused are these blessings by so many, despised and trodden under foot, and desecrated, as are too often the holy things of this house and of the Lord's own day, they yet shed a light and a religious cheerfulness over this world's scene, even in our imperfect observance of their duties, which those who value Christian privileges prize as their bread of life, and the best sustenance of the soul. They are the salt of our land; they keep alive the fire of religious feeling on the altar of the heart, they give a respite from earthly cares, and open a glimpse of heaven to our sight; they speak, as it were, a perpetual protest against infidelity and vice; they set up a standard for the Gospel; they oppose a temporary chek to the foes of the soul; they remind man that there is no peace or spiritual prosperity but through reconciliation with God, and in communion with Him.Archbishop Sumner.

WORSHIP.-Postures Adopted in

Various postures have been adopted, in various ages, by devout worshippers. Sometimes standing. Thus spake Jesus to His disciples-"When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye bave ought against any; that your Father who is in heaven may forgive you." Sometimes bowing. When Moses and Aaron had conveyed