and power of the Methodist camp-meeting music-is far more like worship than the exquisite quartette singing in the "uptown" churches of New York, or even the singing in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican.* But in order to the restoration of congregational singing, in any place of worship, more is necessary than a mere resolution that so it shall be. Several conditions are requisite to the success of the experiment. (1.) The choir, organized as we have just proposed, must give a hearty coöperation-which a choir made up of professional singers will not do. (2.) The tune s selected must be few and easily performed, familiar to the ears and to the voices of the congregation. Generally they should be just the tunes which are continually sung in the prayer meetings and on other occasions where there is no choir. (3.) As far as practicable, certain psalms and hymns should be wedded to familiar tunes, so that the announcement of the psalm or hymn shall call up by association the tune which belongs to it. (4.) The words selected should be appropriate to this use generally they should be words of praise. (5.) The congregation should be invited and urged to sing, one and all, not in a feeble murmur, but with distinct and loud voices; to sing heartily, and every one according to his several ability; and to remember that, in the theory of the performance, there are no hearers to be pleased or displeased, or to criticise, but every one is simply to do his own singing. (6.) When the congregation are to sing, they should "stand up and bless the Lord," (the minister or ministers in the pulpit not being excepted ;) for they are far more likely to sing, and to sing heartily, when they stand, than when they sit. (7.) If there is an organ it may be made a help rather than a hindrance to congregational singing; but in order to do this the organist must understand his duty, must perform with modest simplicity, and must be positively prohibited from wearying the people by long and flourishing interludes between the stanzas. (8.) Meetings for the practice of congregational singing, with familiar instruction from the leader of the music and from the minister, and diversified with performances by the choir, will not only help the musical training of the congregation, but will help all parties to appreciate exactly the distiction between the two Apropos of Church Music in Scotland, we may say that in the Argyle Square Chapel (Congregational) at Edinburgh, where Dr. W. L. Alexander is Pastor, there is evidence that Scotland is capable of better things. The singing there, and in the Taitbout Chapel, at Paris, is simply the singing of a congregation that know how to sing, and that are neither afraid nor ashamed to use their voices in the worship of God. kinds of singing and the legitimate place and usefulness of both.* 6. Modern usage has assigned to the reading of the Scriptures, in the order of public worship, a place entirely inappropriate. Selected sentences of Scripture may, indeed, be fitly interspersed among the exercises of prayer and praise, to guide and stimulate devotion. But when the Scriptures are read for instruction, their proper place is in connection with the ministry of the word. We would therefore place the reading of the Scriptures (one or more chapters as the time may serve) where the Pilgrim church at Amsterdam placed it when Henry Ainsworth was its Teacher. After that part of the service which is properly worship has been performed, let the Scriptures be read for instruction with brief exposition or application at the discretion of the minister, and so let the sermon or "exercise of prophesying" be put in its natural relation to the word of God. Perhaps it is a mere fancy to think that such a restoration might tend to the improvement of our modern style of preaching. 7. Our suggestions, hitherto, have related only to a service for the Lord's day morning. The order of afternoon or evening services has long been in all our congregations a somewhat different thing from the order for the morning service. Nor is there anything unreasonable in such a difference. The reassembling of the congregation in the afternoon and evening may properly enough be considered as a sequel to the morning service, rather than a repetition of it. For that reason the devotional services may fitly be shortened and otherwise modified. The prayer, instead of comprehending all the topics of worship, may be made more special to the theme and aim of the sermon. The same may be said (for somewhat different reasons) of a lecture service on a week day. On all such occasions the assembly may be regarded as convened chiefly for instruction, or, as the case may be, to offer special prayer, and the whole order of the services may be arranged accordingly. We sum up our suggestions by offering to the consideration of pastors and churches the following schedule: See Congregational Church Music, with 150 Psalms and Hymns from the collection of the General Association of Connecticut. New Haven: Durrie & Peck. We commend this little manual to the attention of congregations desirous of restoring the old practice of congregational singing. It contains about forty easy and familiar tunes. A much larger number would be too many for such a use. Order of Public Worship on the Lord's Day. MORNING SERVICE. I. Prayer, (invocation, with confession of sins and supplication for pardon and grace.) II. Chanting of Scriptural Selection, or singing of metrical Psalm or Hymn, by the choir. III. Prayer (general and special intercession) introduced by select sentences of Scripture. IV. Psalm or Hymn, sung by the congregation. 1. Reading from the Scriptures. 2. Sermon. VI. Prayer appropriate to the Sermon. VII. Psalm or Hymn, sung by the congregation. AFTERNOON OR EVENING SERVICE. I. Chant from Scripture, or metrical Psalm or Hymn by the choir. II. Prayer, introduced by sentences of Scripture. III. Psalm or Hymn, sung by the congregation. 1. Reading from the Scriptures. 2. Sermon. V. Prayer appropriate to the Sermon. VII. Psalm or Hymn, sung by the congregation. We have omitted in this discussion all questions concerning the orderly and edifying administration of the sacraments. On that branch of the subject we may offer some considerations in a future number of the New Englander. ART. XI.-BOOK NOTICES. Uhlemann's Syriac Grammar, translated from the German. By ENOCH HUTCHINSON. With a course of Exercises in Syriac Grammar, and a Chrestomathy and brief Lexicon prepared by the Translator. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 346 and 348 Broadway. Edinburgh: T. & J. Clark, 30 George street. 1855. pp. 367. 8vo. THE Compendious Syriac Grammar of Dr. Frederic Uhlemann, Professor in the F. W. Gymnasium, and Licentiate of Theology in the F. W. University of Berlin, Prussia, was published in 1829; and has been very generally regarded as the best Syriac Grammar for the use of schools and academies quite to the present time. In composing the latter part of his work, Dr. Uhlemann had access to the more copious Grammatica Syriaca, Libri III, of Andrew Theoph. Hoffmann, D. D., Prof. of Sacr. Lit. in the University of Jena. This noble Thesaurus of Syriac Grammar, printed at Halle, in 1827, pp. 418, 4to., stands unrivaled for thoroughness of research, and for fullness and clearness of illustration. It is truly a Thesaurus, a Treasurehouse in this department of Literature, and, being written in good and perspicuous Latin, it must continue to be indispensable to a thorough knowledge of the Syriac language. Both Uhlemann and Hoffmann belonged to the linguistic school of Gesenius; and it was by advice of that great Hebrician, that Hoffmann attempted to do for Syriac Grammar what Gesenius had done for Hebrew. Like de Sacy, the great Arabic Grammarian, Gesenius and Hoffmann were more distinguished for untiring industry and vastness of acquisition, than for original and philosophical views; and, like most of the grammarians that preceded them, they confined themselves very much to collecting together all the grammatical phenomena of a language, and skillfully digesting them under general and particular rules with exceptions, rather than searching for the first and fundamental principles of the language and assigning intelligible causes for all its phenomena. The consequence is, their Grammars contain a multitude of rules and exceptions, which appear arbitrary and strange to beginners, and which tax their memories more than their intellect. Subsequent to these erudite and indefatigable grammarians, a very few ingenious and learned men have attempted to supply their deficiency, by composing what the Germans call Critical, and the English Philosophical Grammars. The most successful of these, in our view, was the late Dr. Isaac Nord heimer, whose Critical Grammar of the Hebrew language, in two vols., 8vo., was published at New York, by Wiley & Putnam, 1838, 1841. This learned Jew attempted to explain everything, by a recurrence to first and fundamental principles, true or imaginary. He therefore gives constant employment to the intellect, and renders the whole subject comprehensible to the student, and easily retained in the memory. Happy would it be, if some competent person would compose a similar Grammar of the Syriac language. Dr. Uhlemann's German work contains most of the grammatical phenomena of the Syriac language, in a very condensed form, and tolerably well arranged. Like the mass of Syriac grammarians, he supposes his reader to be already familiarly acquainted with Hebrew grammar, and therefore not needing that fullness of explanation and illustration, on many points, which would otherwise be necessary. The chief fault of the original, is the obscurity of its statements. Too much matter is heaped together in single sentences, which are of course long, complicated, and abounding in parentheses, abbreviations, and departures from the natural order of thought to all but Germans. Mr. Hutchinson, more judicious, has faithfully given us all the matter of his author, without copying his fault. Many of the long sentences of the original he has broken into two, three, or more, by differently arranging the matter of them, and then separately clothing each thought in perspicuous English. The translation, therefore, especially the first half of it, is vastly preferable to the original, for all but native Germans. The Grammatical Exercises of Mr. Hutchinson, and his Chrestomathy, will be found useful for beginners. They add considerably to the value of the work. On the whole, we hail the appearance of this meritorious work, as supplying a real desideratum to American and English students; and we earnestly hope that the sagacious translator, and the very worthy publishers, may find the work to be duly appreciated both in this country and abroad, and, at the same time, remunerative of their praiseworthy labors. The Sinless One, or the Life Manifested. By JOSHUA T. TUCKER. Boston: S. R. Whipple & Co. 1855. The author of this volume (an octavo of 324 pages) is Pastor of the Congregational Church (Orthodox) in Holliston, Mass. This, we believe, is the first volume which he has published; though many occasional sermons have been given by him to the press. His success in this beginning is such as should encourage him to persevere; for he has given to the Christian |