the poetry of nature, of devotion, of the Scriptures. If we would have the songs of Zion come from the heart, the offspring of pure and deep emotion, if we would have them stir the souls of the whole assembly for heart-felt, sympathetic worship, they must be indited in the simplicity of pure devotion. And let the notes of sacred music have the same delightful simplicity. Let them be adapted to Congregational singing. Let all be trained to sing as early and as universally as they are taught to read; and if we would have the soul ascending in the song, let the whole assembly join in the solemn hymn which they raise to God. The primitive church knew nothing of a choir, set apart and withdrawn from the congregation, for the exclusive performance of this delightful part of public worship. "The Bible knows nothing of a worship conducted by a few, in behalf of a silent multitude; but calls upon everything that hath breath to join in this divine employ." Have we done well, then, in substituting for the voice of all the people in the praise of God, the voice of a few in a choir? For the sweet simplicity of ancient melodies, hallowed by a thousand sacred associations, have we wisely introduced the musical display of modern airs? Have we done well in substituting, even for the rude simplicity of our fathers, if such you please to call it, the profane and secular airs of some modern harmonies? After admiring those noble portraits of the great and revered reformer which adorn the galleries of his native country, clad in the easy, simple and appropriate costume of his age, who would endure the sight of that venerable form dressed out in the modern style, so trim and sleek, of a fashionable fop? With the same wretched taste do we mar, in attempting to mend the music of the great masters of another age, by conforming it to the style of the present. It is exceedingly gratifying to observe in the public journals and current literature of the day, the return of the public mind to a better taste in sacred music; and to notice that several of the ablest masters in the country have entered in earnest upon the work of reform. Heaven speed their work, and hasten on the day, when, with sweet accord of hearts and voices attuned to the worship of God, all shall join in singing to his praise in the great congregation. CHAPTER XIII. HOMILIES IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. UNDER this head we shall direct our attention, I. To the discourses of Christ and of the apostles. I. The discourses of Christ and of the apostles. The reading of the Scriptures, in connection with remarks and exhortations, constituted a part of the social worship of the primitive church. The apostles, wherever they went, frequented the synagogues of the Jews, where, after the reading of the Scriptures, an invitation was given to any one to remark upon what had been read. In this way they took occasion to speak of Christ and his doctrines to their brethren. Their addresses were occasional and apposite; varied, with consummate skill, according to the circumstances of the hearer, and addressed, with great directness and pungency, to the understanding and the heart. In the Acts, we have brief notices of several of the addresses of Peter, and of Paul, and of one from Stephen, from which we may gather a distinct impression of their style of address. The first from Peter was before the disciples, who, to the number of one hundred and twenty, were assembled to elect a substitute in the place of the traitor, Judas. Acts 1: 15. It is calculated to soothe the minds of his hearers, op pressed by the melancholy end of this apostate, by showing that all had transpired according to the prediction of God's word, and to fulfil the counsel of his will. The second was delivered on the occasion of the shedding abroad of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2: 14. After refuting the malicious charge of having drunk to excess, he proceeds to show from the Scriptures, that all which the multitude saw was only the fulfilment of ancient prophecy; he charges them with having crucified the Lord Jesus Christ, whom God had exalted as a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel, and remission of sins. Such was the force of his cutting reproof, that three thousand were brought to believe in Christ crucified. His third address, on the occasion of healing the lame man in the temple, Acts iii, was of the same character, and attended with a similar result. His fourth and fifth were delivered before the Sanhedrim, in defence of himself and the apostles. Acts 4: 7. 5: 29. Of these we only know that the subject was the same as in the preceding,-Christ, wickedly crucified and slain by the Jews, and raised from the dead for the salvation of men. Before Cornelius the centurion, Acts 6: 34, after explaining the miraculous manner in which his Jewish prejudices had been overruled, and how he had been led to see the comprehensive nature of the gospel system, he gives an outline of its great truths, attested by the Scriptures, relating to Christ, to the resurrection and the final judgment. All these discourses manifest the same boldness and fervency of spirit, and are directed to produce the same result-repentance for sin, and faith in Christ. Stephen, in his defence before the Sanhedrim, Acts vii, traces the history of God's dispensations to the Jews, and of their treatment of his servants the prophets, whom they had rejected and slain, and charges them with having finally consummated their guilt by becoming the betrayers and murderers of the holy and just One. Paul, in his address at Anti 6 och, pursues the same style; showing how, from age to age, God had been unfolding his purpose to give salvation to men by Jesus Christ, and finally bringing the whole to bear with tremendous force in its application to his hearers. "Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish; for I work a work in your day, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.'" Acts 13: 40, 41. Time would fail us to follow the apostle in his masterly address before the Areopagus at Athens, Acts 17: 22,-to attend to his affecting interview with the elders of Ephesus at Miletus, Acts 20: 18, and to his admirable defence before the Jews, and before Festus, and Agrippa the king, Acts xxii, xxiii, xxvi. With the Greeks he reasoned as a Greek, making no reference to the Jewish Scriptures; but, from their own poets, and the natural principles of philosophy and of religion, convincing them of the vanity of their superstitions. With the Jews he reasoned as a Jew, out of their own sacred books, and testified to all, both Jew and Greek, the great doctrines of repentance, and faith in Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the general judgment. The addresses of the apostles are remarkable at once for their simplicity and their power. None ever preached with such effect as they. Wherever they went converts were multiplied and churches reared up, in defiance of all opposition, and in the face of every conceivable discouragement. Strong in faith and mighty in the Scriptures, these few men, in a few short years, were instrumental in making greater conquests over the kingdom of Satan, and winning more souls to Christ, than all the missionaries of all Christendom have gained in half a century. Whence, then, this mighty power? Without venturing into this interesting field of inquiry, we may offer a few suggestions in relation to the characteristics of the apostles' preaching. 1. They insisted chiefly on a few cardinal points, comprising the great truths of the Christian religion. |