occasion was performed by the attending clergy, and an appropriate sermon preached by the bishop. On the same day eighteen persons were admitted by the bishop to the holy rite of confirmation.

On the following day, Thursday the 26th, an ordination was held, and the Rev. John Rodney, jun. deacon, minister of the church, admitted to the holy order of priests. The service being performed by the same gentleman, and a suitable discourse delivered by the Rev. Bishop.

Trinity Church is an elegant structure, 46 feet in front and 53 deep, built of stone, and neatly rough-cast. Its front is a beautiful specimen of the Gothic; and joined to the rear of the building, it has a Gothic tower, (56 feet high,) which is at once an ornamental and useful appendage. The zeal and liberality displayed by the small congregation of Episcopalians in this place, in the expeditious erection of their church, is highly commendable. Its erection was undertaken within a year after the congregation was organized, and the building completely finished and furnished with an excellent organ, five months after the laying of the corner stone.

Christ Church, Gardiner. On Wednesday, the 18th of October, the festival of St. Luke the Evangelist, Christ Church at Gardiner, in the state of Maine, was solemnly consecrated to the service of Almighty God, by the Right Rev. the Bishop of the Eastern Diocess. Notwithstanding the badness of the roads, occssioned by heavy rains, and the unfavourable state of the weather, there was a large and highly respectable congregation. The Rev. Mr. Olney, the rector of the new church, read the deed of consecration, by which the founders devoted it forever to the service of God, according to the usage of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. The

bishop's sentence of consecration was read by the Rev. Dr. Jarvis, of Boston, who also preached a sermon adapted to the occasion. Morning prayers were read by the Rev. Mr. Morss, of Newburyport, and the communion was administered by the bishop. We were gratified to see some of our dissenting brethren, and particularly two of the congregational ministers, approach the Lord's table, and devoutly receive the sacrament from the hands of the bishop. We hail with pleasure all such indications of the abandonment of those prejudices which originally led to the unhappy separation from Episcopacy. May this returning desire to promote "the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace," become continually more and more extensive! We cannot omit noticing the excellence of the singing, and particularly, because it is so rare, the excellence of the chanting. The Te Deum, though the choir were not much accustomed to chanting, we have never heard with so much pleasure.

On the following day (October 19) the bishop administered confirmation; but the heavy rain prevented the greater part of those who were to have received that rite, from attending.

Christ Church is built of unhammered granite, divided into blocks of nearly equal size, and is of the simplest and purest style of Gothic architecture. The walls are crowned by battlements which partially conceal the roof, and instead of a cornice, there is merely a band or rib of stone corresponding with that of the water table below. The arches of the windows form an equilateral spherical triangle, which is the most perfect proportion. Each of the side windows is divided by three principal mullions, and the spaces between these in the arch of each window are subdivided by smaller mullions, resting on the intersections of small arch

very grand, the whole width being upwards of 14 feet, is divided by four principal mullions. These, together with the quantity of wood in the sashes, arising from the small size of the diamond glass, darken the windows so as to produce an agreeable light. It is intended, we understand, to increase this effect, by an orna mental screen behind the altar, on which will be inscribed the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Commandments.

The spire is of brick, and, together with he tower, forms an elevation of 120 feet. In the tower immediiately over the door, is a large window nearly 30 feet high, which lights the staircase leading to the organ gallery, and which, when seen from the church, through an opening over the gallery door, produces a noble and sublime effect. By this double light it was intended to give an idea, though a faint one, of the effect produced in Gothic cathedrals by the lady chapel, seen from the choir, through a door, or, what is technically called, the artificial infinite.

There are no pillars within, excepting those supporting the gallery, and two at the corners of the chancel; but the arches of the ceiling terminate in corbels, and those over the side aisles are ribbed and groined with roses in the intersections. The pulpit is placed at one corner of the recess for the chancel, and the reading desk at the other; and the floor of the chancel is raised so high, that when the clergyman is at the altar, he may be seen in every part of the church.

We have been thus minute in the description of this church, because we wish to see a better taste, as well as a more convenient arrangement, prevailing in the structure of our places of worship. In this church, the whole congregation see the clergy

man in the performance of all the sacred offices. The altar especially is in full view. We wish this might be more generally the case, and that the cumbrous reading desks, which were introduced only on account of the great size of the cathedrals, might either be dispensed with in small buildings, or made so light and small, and placed in such a point of view, as not to obstruct the sight of the chancel.

We are decidedly of opinion too, that, for country churches especially, and we are inclined to make the remark still more extensive, the Gothic or pointed form of architecture, is the most solemn and interesting.

Extracts.

"Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near," and beware of trusting in any transient impressions, which leave no abiding effect on your general temper and conduct; for no persons are more hopeless in their impenitence, than they who groundlessly think that they have repented. Yet be thankful for any degree of feeling, and disposition to relent and submit to God, but give diligence and exercise watchfulness, that these convictions may be rendered deeper, and made more effectual in producing works meet for repentance.

A slothful christian is like a fearful soldier. Sloth is the soul's sleep. Many, instead of working out salvation, sleep away salvation. Such as will not labour, must be put at last to beg; they must beg as Dives for one drop of water. God never made Heaven an hive for drones. Sloth is a disease apt to grow upon men; shake it off. A sluggish soul is a prey to Satan. While men are asleep in sloth, the devil enters and devours them.

On the Liturgy.

ESSAY 1.

O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness"....

Psalm xcvi. 9.

WHEN we appear before the Lord of Hosts in the attitude of worship, both his holiness and his majesty require, that our carriage should be decent and humble, our affections elevated and chastened, and the sentiments we utter, such as becomes the character of the dread Being in whose presence we are. There is an indecent and unholy familiarity, with which some men dare to talk to their Maker, as they would talk with a fellow worm, which is enough to make one tremble for the honour of his God and there is also a cold and distant reverence, which has nothing of worship but the name. Both extremes are unquestionably far removed from that holy and reasonable service, which is acceptable in the sight of God.

It was the injunction of the Apostle on the Corinthian Church, when he wrote concerning their worship, "Let all things be done to edifying: let all things be done decently, and in order." Unless the public services of the temple are spiritual, animated, and edifying, they cannot produce that beauty of holiness in the worshipper, which the Psalmist had in his eye; and unless they are decently and orderly arranged, confusion and tumult will follow.

A Father defined the Church of Christ to be," an image of heaven;" VOL. I. No. III.

9

[No. 3.

and the image is doubtless the most perfect, when it bears the nearest resemblance to its prototype. Now, as in the service of the celestials, sublime devotion, and exquisite harmony and order, move with equal pace, and produce that " beauty of holiness" which constitutes acceptable worship, so that branch of the church militant which comes nearest to the heavenly pattern, presents the most perfect image of the church triumphant.

As the tabernacle and vessels of the Jewish ministry, were made according to the pattern which God showed to Moses in the Mount, and in all their complicated ritual, nothing was left to human invention; so are we under obligations to frame our social worship as near as possible, to the example of primitive times, before the inventions of men had stolen into the worship of God. If it be said, that the form of religion signifies nothing, provided the spirit exists; I answer, the remark may be true; and still it may be true that one form is better calculated to excile, and perpetuate the spirit of devotion, than another.

I propose, in this and in one or two following Essays, to point out to the readers of the Magazine, some of the distinguishing properties of our Liturgy; properties, with which it is necessary they should be acquainted, if they would know its excellence, and offer in it their prayers and praises to God. Some of them have al

the Liturgy is a very light consideration with many, but I confess it has weight with me. There are few new things in religion which are good; the very nature of the subject rendering it impossible. The fields of science and of nature are open to new discoveries: there we may expatiate at will, and put our ingenuity on the stretch to bring hidden things to light, and unveil the mysteries of creation; but till God is pleased to give a new Revelation, religious novelties must involve a portion of error. Many of the prayers and confessions we use in our public service, are those which trembled on the lips of dying martyrs and confessors of early times, and we feel their value enhanced by these sacred associations. They have been incorporated in many other Liturgies; they have stood the test of time; holy men have often sat in judgment on them; and it was not till they had been rendered as perfect as perhaps any human composition can be made, that they were inserted where we find them,-in the Book of Common Prayer. Liturgies were very early composed by the most eminent saints of the primitive Church; and the last of the Apostles had scarcely left the earth, to join the church triumphant above,when forms and orders of prayer were instituted, to be the vehicles of public devotion, St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, and St. Ambrose, composed each his forms of prayer, which have come down to us. To these may be added, the Lectionary of Jerome, and the Sacramentary of St. Gregory; which last person seems to have brought the Offices of the Latin Church to a more perfect form than it possessed before. Popery, however, advanced apace; and new Liturgies were compiled from the old, mingled with the newly invented corruptions; so that at the time of the Reformation, almost every diocess of the Roman Church in England, had its separate Liturgy. It was the business of the Reformers,

not to introduce a new form of worship, but to correct and purify the old, till it was reduced to a consonance with the Scriptures, and the practice of the purest ages. In this work, they proceeded with the utmost temper and moderation. They knew that what was excellent in itself, was not the less so for having been used by the Church of Rome; and that if any thing must be rejected merely because the Papists had once been in possession of it, the Scriptures, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, must all be condemned, since they were used in the worst ages of the Roman Church. The work of reforming the Liturgy commenced in the reign of Henry VIII. (1537,) and received its final completion in the time of Charles II. (1661;) so that it was more than 120 years undergoing the process of purification. Thus it had every chance of being rendered as perfect, as human frailty will permit. The men, to whose hands this work was entrusted, were giants in learning, and saints in piety. They inserted in it the prayers of the holy men of old, when Christianity was pure; they rejected the inventions of later ages; they added offices of their own composing; they submitted it to the revisal of the learned and good of other churches, and they sealed their testimony to the truth of its doctrines, by their blood.

The alterations it received when it was accommodated to the Church in this country, were mostly of a local nature; for it is declared in the preface, that "this Church is far from intending to depart from the Church of England, in any essential point of doctrine, discipline, or worship; or farther than local circumstances require."

This is a brief historical view of the Liturgy. Its seeds were sown in the early Church, and they were ripened at the Reformation. We do not believe it is a work of inspiration;