in the pulpit hardly less than that of the most noted among the preachers of former generations.

Why then should we say the former days are better than these? In all ages men have mourned over the barrenness of their ministry. In all ages they have wept because so few believed and so many rushed on to destruction. But we believe that when our posterity come to compare this age with those that have preceded it, when due regard is had to the protracted era of revivals, and to the innumerable conversions under a plain and pungent preaching of the truth; to the earnest Christian effort and the liberal benefactions which have come in response to the appeals of the pulpit; to the prosecution of the missionary work at home and abroad; to the advance of the temperance reformation and of other philanthropic plans; to the utterances for human liberty and human rights;-when regard is had to all these things with which the ministry has had so much to do, we think it will not be the judgment of posterity that the pulpit has lost its power, or has become sadly degenerate in the execution of its work.

But while we thus speak, the admission of the fact that the preaching of the Gospel does not accomplish all that we desire, calls for some explanation of the failure that will not reflect upon the value of the institution itself.

Let us remember then that our impatience may be too great. The truth must often exert a noiseless invisible influence. It is likened to seed: and as that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die, so the truth, to be most powerful, must enter into the heart, and not remain upon the surface. He who casts his bread upon the waters must be content if he finds it after many days. And since he that planteth is nothing, neither he that watereth, and since the harvest for which they both labor is not theirs but the Lord's, it will be no strange thing if they sometimes fail to see how much of the result is really due to their work.

Again, it is not to be expected that the ministration of the Gospel will always convert them that hear it. The discourse that at one time deeply moves an audience and melts them to tears, may at another time be entirely without visible results. While the preacher of the Gospel is a savour of life to some, he is a savour of death to others. Not all that heard our Saviour, believed the Gospel; and the young ruler that came so eagerly to ask what he must do, was soon willing to return to his former life. But God's dealings with men will be justified, and His love be made manifest, even though all should refuse to come

to Him for life. It was no fault of the servants that the persons bidden to the great supper refused to come.

Again, individual characteristics of the ministry will tell on the results of the preached Gospel. If in any case there is a low degree of piety, it will weaken the power of the pulpit. If one lacks confidence in the instrumentality given to him, his words will fail to be with power. If he is not prepared for the work assigned him, or if he cannot vary the style and character of his preaching, so as in some measure to meet the varying wants of his audiences, there will be less good accomplished and less efficiency shown than if he were guided in his work by the richest wisdom. And if he is tasked beyond measure by the frequency of his labors and the urgency of his work, he may be inadequte to the task of preaching with power. But individual deficiencies of this character, however numerous, should not impair our confidence in the superiority of the means which divine wisdom has selected for proclaiming the knowledge of salvation. It has pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe.

Again, when the influence of the preached Gospel seems to us quite small, we must take into account the fact that so few are brought statedly and regularly under its power. Congregations often have been content to have preaching, without putting themselves to much trouble to secure an audience. Preachers have been too well satisfied with having congregations of respectable size, even if vastly greater numbers were left unprovided for, or were never asked to come to the house of God. Hence their ministrations so generally have reference to those accustomed to the sound of the Gospel, who have often listened before, and whom they expect to address again. Under other circumstances they would preach differently. A large majority of our population do not, statedly, hear the preaching of the Gospel. Multitudes live and die without hearing a discourse full of the truth of the Gospel, which they are able to understand. A recent investigation of facts in the State of Maine shows, that while more than half the people of every town might attend public worship, less than one-fourth do ordinarily attend. Two hundred and ten persons out of every thousand make up the various religious assemblies of all shades of belief and of doubt, and the other seven hundred and ninety persons of every thousand are as regularly absent from every place where worship is professedly offered to God. Here, then, we have reason to complain, not of the inefficiency of preaching, but of the neglect to go out to the highways and hedges and persuade men to listen to the Gospel. If, now, in every town and city, there

were more of sympathy and of coöperation between the churches and their pastors, in respect to plans for home evangelization; if there was more earnest and more constant effort to bring the masses outside of the churches under the influence of the preached Gospel, the power of the pulpit, with God's blessing, would begin to be apparent even as in the days of Bunyan or of Whitefield. And whenever any community awakes to effort for home evangelization, the preaching of the Gospel will be the means above all others to promote their ends.

Again, the pulpit may have lost power, apparently but not really, in the breaking up of social restraints, which results from sudden changes of population, and immigration from foreign lands, and fluctuations of wealth. One effect of this is, that men act out their character with greater freedom and boldness than was their wont. The prediction is fulfilled that many shall run to and fro, and that knowledge shall be increased. The minister is no longer the oracle. He is respected less officially than personally. What he says is subjected to scrutiny and criticism. Divers sects contend for the mastery; and sometimes it may seem for the interest of each to disparage the ministering of the other. And there are apostles of error, wolves in sheep's clothing, who bring contempt upon the Gospel by their false doctrine. But in all this there is nothing that can undermine the foundations of the truth, or build up permanent barrier against it. It was long ago foretold that the time would come when men would not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts should heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and should turn away their ears from the truth, and be turned unto fables. Still the truth is powerful, and the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. There is no reason here why we should not desire to have more laborers gathering in the harvest.

Again, the fact that this is an age of intense excitements presents a reason why the pulpit does not exert a uniform power. We live and act under high pressure. The minds of men are swayed hither and thither under the influence of strong emotion. Sometimes they are carried away with religious excitement, and then they are left high and dry upon the shore as the wave of emotion recedes. No two things can monopolize the mind at once. Strong excitement respecting slavery, or intemperance, or local politics, is unfavorable to the influ ence of the truth; denominational zeal may run so high as to interfere with godliness; and the race for wealth in which so many competitors are found, carries many a man out of the

reach of the Gospel. With such excitements, preaching is heard only by sufferance, and the moment it is over, the thoughts fly away to other themes. And yet this is only admitting that the heart of men is fully set in them to do evil; that it is deceitful above all things, and to be despaired of for its wickedness. But how shall such hearts be reached if not by the kind warning of danger and the announcement of glad tidings by the living preacher testifying of a way which he himself has proved?

Finally, the influence of the periodical press upon public opinion seems at times to rival the influence of the pulpit. This has suddenly come to be one of the greatest forces operating on society. Its influence for evil or for good is incalculable. The prejudices and partialities which are fostered by a newspaper which has been regularly read for years, become deeply rooted in the mind: the tone of the paper may change, its character may vary, new editors may supplant former ones, but unless the transition be too abrupt, its opinion will be adopted, its word will be believed, its guidance followed. Is it possible, then, for the periodical press to exert an influence for evil which shall make preaching powerless? or to exert an influence for good which shall make it unnecessary? Whatever might be accomplished if all those connected with the press were arrayed against Christianity, it is obvious that any attack. now made can be resisted with the same weapons. The press may silently teach infidelity, and to a limited extent create prejudice against the pulpit; but it is under too great restraints to carry such opposition very far. Public opinion controls the press in many points quite as much as the press directs and moulds it; and public opinion is in favor of the institutions of the Gospel; so that before any successful thrust can be made against the pulpit, the whole current of public sentiment must be turned aside. There is reason to hope, however, that the great battle is over, and that Christianity has won the day. Once the secular press ignored religion, but of late years it has come more and more to recognize Christianity as a fact. Now the proceedings of religious meetings are extensively reported, and sermons, ordinary and extraordinary, find a place in the columns of the daily newspaper, to be scattered most widely through the land.

Can it then supplant the pulpit, and prove it more efficient and more economical as a means of good? A sectarian journal cannot, because it cannot gain the attention of many, unless they are already committed to its views. The secular press cannot espouse and defend the minor peculiarities of belief, or be de

voted mainly to religious instruction. Nor can a paper conducted by way of compromise between denominations accomplish this, because each one would feel that some supplementary views must be added by the living teacher. In fine, then, however great the power of the periodical press to mould the mind, and to combine and unite public sentiment, it cannot supersede the utterance of the heart through the lips. Politicians do not expect this of it. They rely, and they must rely, on the power of eloquence; and so must it be with religion. God's way is the best way. The press shall be the auxiliary of the pulpit. But first and foremost in our efforts to advance the kingdom of our Lord, we will follow His example and preach the Gospel. The feet of the messengers that bring good tidings of good shall stand on every hill-top. To the isles of the sea shall go the living messenger to tell the story of redeeming love. Human lips shall perform a duty which angels would gladly undertake; and while each laborer stands at his post of duty, there shall go up from every quarter of the world the glad song of "Harvest Home."

ART. X.-THE PURITAN RITUAL.

Eutaria, or the Presbyterian Liturgies: Historical Sketches. By a minister of the Presbyterian Church. New York: M. W Dodd. New Haven: F. T. Jarman.

The

"UNDER which king? Bezonian! speak! or die!" writer who calls himself merely "a minister of the Presbyterian Church," is liable to be challenged as not dealing fairly with the public. He is not ignorant that there are in the United States two great sectarian organizations, not very unequal, each with a kind of dogged arrogance, calling itself "the Presbyterian Church," and each ignoring the other, or, more exactly, each refusing to recognize the other as a church at all, but only as a "body." Such a writer therefore imposes upon his readers a needless task of conjecture, induction, and inference in or der to ascertain what sect he really belongs to. From various indications we have inferred that the author of this book is connected with "the Old School Body" as it is called by the adherents of what in its turn is called "the New School Body,"