chapels, or halls, of Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Wesleyans, Congregationalists, and others besides.-His first Sunday was spent in Boston, being the 4th of March. Wishing to see something of the Sunday Schools, he had been recommended to "Warren Street Chapel," a chapel connected with certain schoolrooms, in which the services are entirely for children. "It is decorated with some paintings, engravings, and statuary;" "the seats are cushioned, and the floor carpeted. At one end there is an organ, and seats for a choir; and in the front of the organ, on a raised platform, is a handsome mahogany reading-desk. The room [chapel] was festooned with wreaths of evergreens and everlastings. It is capable of holding about 800 children." (p. 21.)

The minister, who was also the superintendent of this institution, appears to have been one who hovered about the region of Arianism; and there is nothing particularly suggestive in the manner in which the teaching and services were conducted; but the fact itself, that here is a service exclusively for children, is worthy of consideration. The position usually appropriated to the school children in our churches, and the ordinary style in which our sermons are composed, suiting them chiefly to adults, claim much favour for a plan which, we believe, has been recently propounded in our own Liverpool-a better plan than this at Boston, namely, the provision of large churches in populous places for the exclusive use of the Sunday Schools.-Leaving Warren Street, we proceed to " Park Street Church, Mr. Stone's, an orthodox Congregationalist." We certainly have no inclination to return thither again. Mr. Ferguson arrived there about ten o'clock, half an hour before the appointed time of the service. He must tell for himself what he heard and saw.

"By this time, only one or two people had arrived, and they were warming themselves at the stoves inside the church, with their hats on, in the most free and easy way, while the choir was practising with the organ the music for the day. My friends joined me shortly, and the sexton placed us in the front seat, before the pulpit. The pulpit, as in most American churches, is a simple platform, with a table, a sofa, and two chairs. It was of rosewood. The church altogether is very large and handsome, and being painted white has a cheerful appearance. The service did not begin till half past ten, by which time a large and well-dressed congregation had assembled.

"Presently a middle-aged man, dressed in black, with patent-leather boots, and a black neckerchief, with shirt collar turned down over it, walked up the aisle, hat in hand. This he deposited on the communion table, and stepping up stairs, sat down upon the sofa, and the service began.

An anthem was performed by the choir, after which Mr. Stone rose, and saying, Let us invoke the blessing of God on this day's services, offered a short prayer. He then read John xi. 1-27, which was followed by a hymn. After this he rose and said, Parents desiring to have their children consecrated in baptism, will now present them.' Two couples came forward with children, and stood beside the communion table, on one corner of which a vessel with water had been carelessly placed by the sexton. After prayer, Mr. Stone came down from the platform, and taking the children, one after the other, into his own arms, baptized them in the usual

form, after which he prayed again. A hymn followed. Then he announced his text, Job xiv. 14, If a man die, shall he live again? He said, some might deem it strange that he should address them on the immortality of the soul. They all believed in that. Their presence there that day shewed they did. But what would to-morrow indicate? Would not their conduct in their drawing-rooms, in their shops, in their counting-houses, show them under the dominion of utter worldliness? Therefore it was fitting he should strive to impress them with the important truth of the life beyond the tomb. There were four sources of light on this subject, to which Job's question might be addressed. First, to Creation. Did God make all this wondrous world for the mere children of a day? It had been lavish profusion of goodness and bounty to waste such a world upon a creature, unless that creature was undying. Second, to the Soul. It was not bounded by the material. It even strove to burst the bonds of clay that held it in, and soar to the empyrean. Must it be bound always? No! It would yet be free, and rise to undying life. Third, Events. These reply, God's providence is not com plete; justice demands a future state, a period of compensation. Fourth, God Himself. His reply is not doubtful. I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob: God is not the God of the DEAD, but of the LIVING. Then the soul is immortal. And if its future unending state is fixed for joy or sorrow now, is not this, the preacher asked, a consideration of weighty import? Therefore he besought them to let it have full force, and to attend to the things belonging to their peace, before they were for ever hidden from their eyes.

"A prayer followed. Then a hymn, and the bencdiction. The sermon was a highly intellectual one, characterized by fervidity of imagination, and read with rather the extreme of declamation. There was, to my mind, a want of reverence in the whole service, as if the Americans seemed to feel it to be necessary to assert their independence, by displaying it recklessly even in God's temple." (pp. 21—24.)

There is something unutterably shocking in much of this. We cannot use a milder expression. The assembled congregation showed no signs of any preparation of heart for the worship of God, and the whole service displayed a painful want of reverence, perceptible even in the prayers. Then the dandyism of the officiating Minister,—his hat deposited on the communion table, his sofa occupied at once, without his bending the knee for prayer, seem to be at issue with all that we desire to perceive in one who is to conduct us to the Throne of grace, and afterwards to speak to us of the things of God. As for the sermon, its four points may have been treated cantiously; but, as put before us by these Notes, it seems to presume to fix the laws upon which God must needs act, in a way which betokens a forgetfulness that man's judgment may err. In the whole scene, we think that we discern an unhealthy fruit of the Voluntary system, which tempts men to bid for the world's favour, either by startling eccentricities, or by concessions to prevalent tastes, in order to attract supporters. We also think we see an ill consequence of being left altogether free from fixed modes of conducting divine service, and of repudiating that respect for established customs which is felt by the greater part of the people of England. But this contempt for old usages, and taste for innovation, is only partially prevalent in America. The Protestant Episcopal Church retains, with few alterations, our Liturgy in its devotions

our Church arrangements, and our ecclesiastical dress. We believe that several of the Presbyterian bodies still follow the Directory. And it is observable that, after the first two Sundays, Mr. Ferguson, where he notices his attendance at public worship, shows that he did not frequent the "Congregationalist's Services," (repelled, we infer, by his earlier experience), but that he attended the Protestant Episcopalian, the Episcopal Methodist, and the Scotch or other Presbyterian services; and we cease to hear of grotesqueness and irreverence, but rather learn that there was spiritual worship, and edifying instruction, combined with external propriety. For ourselves, we know not that we ever felt more thankful for, or more thoroughly adhesive to, endowments, rubrics, the surplice, the gown, the white neck-tie, the custom of private prayer before the service by each in his place,-and, above all, the Liturgy (and such a liturgy !) than after reading Mr. Ferguson's description of the first Sunday's service which he attended in Boston. A more singular scene, though less to be wondered at, was the service in which the celebrated Pantheist, Theodore Parker, officiated. Mr. Ferguson did not hear him; but he received the following particulars from a member of his party who was present :

"We went, a little before ten o'clock, to the Music Hall, to hear Theodore Parker. The hall will seat 2500 persons. By half past ten, we suppose there were from 700 to 1000 persons present. They came in, as persons ordinarily would go into a concert-room. Not a few had secular newspapers, which they sat and read till the service commenced. There were bows of recognition across the hall, and everybody seemed quite at ease. The sexton set a vase of beautiful fresh flowers on the speaker's desk. The organist came in, and threw open the doors of an instrument of tremendous power. Presently a grave, serious-looking man, of medium size, slightly bald and sprinkled with grey hairs, came in, ascended the platform, laid his manuscript on the desk, and took the hymn-book, or psalm-book, or book of some sort. It was Theodore Parker. He read a psalm of thanksgiving. It was sung by the choir, with the organ, to an appropriate tune. The deep bass notes of the organ shook the great hall like mighty thunder.

"After the psalm was ended, Mr. Parker offered a deeply-impressive and eloquent prayer to the Great God, in which there was not the slightest reference to a Mediator. He called God, our Father and our Mother;' and the strain of thanksgiving for mercies temporal, was unsurpassed by anything we have ever heard. His discourse was an Independence discourse. He announced no text. His theme was, America, and her Opportunities.' It was marked by great originality; and many passages in that discourse would compare most favourably with the finest things in the annals of oratory. There was nothing flippant-no attempt at display; but his whole manner was marked by the greatest solemnity, gravity, and earnestness. His feelings were frequently excited,-tears came to his eyes,-and he trembled with deep, unaffected emotion. But who ever heard such ideas? Ile thanked God that in Boston all religions, and creeds, and sects, were tolerated. He thanked God that a club of Atheists could assemble, and enjoy the rights of conscience, and none dare to molest them. He thanked God that there was a Mormon temple in Boston. Theodore Parker is a polished Pantheist. He sees God in everything, in the flowers, blushing at their own images, reflected from flowing streams; in the trees and in the stars, the geometry of the Divine mind.'

"Strange that this cold faith should be dominant in Boston! (pp. 28, 29.)

Our surprise is less than that of Mr. Ferguson; our sorrow as great. We mourn that a creed, which has dispensed with the only true foundation, should have multitudes of adherents; but even the scene before described, in "Park Street Church," sug-. gests the prevalence in America of a tone of mind which may easily be drawn on into aberrations from the truth, which finds great attractions in extravagance of action or of thought, puts a display of intellectual smartness or imaginative power above truth, and concerns itself more with opinions than with principles.

Before leaving Boston, we are told (p. 40), that out of one hundred "churches" in that city, twenty are "Congregational Unitarians," and that six are "Universalists ;" and among the other denominations which are mentioned, some, besides these, may be of questionable orthodoxy.

Mr. Ferguson spent his second Sunday in New York, and the morning service which he attended ministered little to his comfort or edification. He crossed the ferry to Brooklyn. His destination was the chapel of Mr. Henry Ward Beecher, a brother of Mrs. Stowe. He does not tell us to what denomination Mr. Beecher belonged, and we cannot supply the information which our Author omits. Evidently Mr. Beecher was independent of Liturgy or Directory. Mr. Ferguson must again describe for himself what he witnessed :

"Mr. Beecher's church, which is a large one, was full. We were accommodated very comfortably with chairs in one of the aisles. We had little more than taken our seats, when the organ began to play, and Mr. Beecher came in. His pulpit is a reading-desk on an open platform. He has a great arm-chair, and a small table placed beside it. He brought his sermon-notes in his hand, and placed them on this table. Then he began to open and read a little pile of notes which were lying there; and as he had not read them all when the voluntary was finished, he went on doing so, during which time there was silence. All this while, and even during the reading of the Bible, he kept on his great-coat.

"After the anthem came the invocation, and then he read Acts xxv. 13-27, and xxvi. At the 27th verse of the 25th chapter, he stopped, to remind his hearers that this was done under the Romans; that if Festus had been a Christian, he would have released Paul, when he found that, as there was no crime against him, he had a right to be free,-adding, For there were no modern doctors, in those days, to preach other doctrine,’— a hit at the fugitive slave law." (pp. 54, 55.)

Some infants were then baptized, "the usual prayers" being "replaced" by the choir chanting, Suffer little children, &c., and other passages. Was there then no prayer? None is mentioned. Then the minister "made a great many intimations," one of which related to the defacing of the walls of the church, and the passages to it, which, he said, had been converted into "the Devil's own damnable exhibition-room," using other painful language besides.

"I never," says Mr. Ferguson, "heard such strong expressions. It looked awfully like swearing, and would have been termed so, had the

words been used in ordinary conversation. It did not prepare me favourably for deriving good from the sermon." (p. 56.)

After another hymn, he gave out his text, Acts xxvi. 28., Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. The sermon was "a masterly exhibition of the various classes of almost Christians;" it was "characterized by great power of language and closeness of thought; but," continues Mr. Ferguson,

I

"To my mind there was an utter want of refinement, and too much declamation. It was essentially vulgar. He walked about on his platform and acted. He also used a great many slang expressions, as well as spoke through his nose at times, when he wanted to point an Americanism. cannot think that this is effective pulpit eloquence, although it draws crowds of a certain sort. The dignity of the pastor's office, as an ambassador of heaven, requires no histrionic art to set it off. The Gospel, spoken as if the speaker believed it, will always be effective, and will then, when it owes least to the preacher, be most likely to manifest itself as the power of God unto salvation." (p. 57.)

The singing was confined to the choir, as was also the case in other places of worship, in which any member of the congregation, who may venture to join in the psalms of thanksgiving, is liable to be requested to keep silence. The children belonging to the Sunday classes came in "with copics of the Child's Newspaper, and their reading-books, and read these papers, or conned their lessons, all through the service." (p. 57.)

In the afternoon, Mr. Ferguson attended the service at Grace Church (Episcopalian), "the beautiful Gothic church at the angle of Broadway," where the congregation was small; and in the evening at St. Thomas's Episcopal Church, where he heard "a most excellent sermon from Dr. Neville, on the suitableness of Jesus as a Saviour, from Luke xv. 4-6, the parable of the man who went to seek and find the lost sheep." (p. 58.)

Mr. Ferguson spent altogether twenty Sundays in the United States, and one at Montrcal. Of seven of these he has given the reader no memoranda; on the rest he selected almost exclusively the services of the Episcopalian Church, or of some orthodox section of Presbyterians, and we hear no more of dramatic performances or obtrusive eccentricitics. We trust that those who have hitherto abstained from unseemly methods of attracting congregations, may always continue to maintain unbending resistance to their snares. It would be well if we had not to lament over a few imitations, in this country, of the bad example set by some of the preachers in the States.

Lest a false impression should be diffused, by the instances of extravagance and irreverence already quoted, we feel it due to the better portion-we hope it may be the larger portion-of Christian communities in the States, to say, that Mr. Ferguson generally speaks of the services at which he was present with satisfaction, as if he felt it good to have joined in them; that he often gives outlines of the sermons, and describes them as admirably filled