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DUBLIN UNIVERSITY.

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In Latin we read the following authors:-(1.) Cæsar de bello Gallico, books i., ii., iii.; (2.) Sallust's de Catalina; (3.) Cicero's Oration pro Milone; (4.) Livy, book xxi.; (5.) Cicero's four Orations against Cataline; (6.) Virgil's Eneid, book iv., vi.; (7.) Juvenal's Satires, iii., viii., x., xiii.; (8.) Horace's Satires; (9.) Cicero de Officiis, book i.; and (10.) Tacitus' Annals, book xiv.

In Mathematics :-The ordinary rules of Arithmetic; Algebra to quadratic equations; Euclid, books i., ii., iii., vi., together with definitions of book v.; Trigonometry, to solution of plane triangles.

In Mathematical Physics:-Mechanics, Hydrostatics, and Optics. In Astronomy we did Brinkley's work, as recommended by the Senate, and edited by Dr. Stubbs, one of the Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin.

In Logic we used Walker's edition of Murray. We also read parts of books ii., iii., and iv., of Locke on the Human Understanding, and part of Mansel's Metaphysics.

In Ethics we read Stewart's Outlines of Moral Philosophy, and Butler's Analogy, part i., together with his Dissertation on Virtue, and his Sermons on Human Nature.

For English composition we read, (1.) Macaulay's Biographies of Goldsmith, Johnson, and Pitt; (2.) Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield; (3.) Johnson's Lives of Dryden and Pope; (4.) J. S. Mill's Inaugural Address at St. Andrew's University; (5.) Shakespeare's Hamlet and As You Like It; (6.) J. S. Mill on Liberty; (7.) Milton's Comus, and Paradise Lost books i. and ii. ; (9.) Shakespeare's Julius Cæsar; and (10.) Twelfth Night. There were also examinations in Latin prose composition, on which considerable emphasis is laid; also in English History, and Ancient and Modern Geography.

The reader must have observed that considerable prominence is given to the Classics and English Composition; the purpose of this is (as Mr. Mahaffy, Professor of Greek, in one of his courses of lectures informed us,) in order "to develop and improve the speaking power;" and he claimed for Dublin University precedence in this respect when compared with the English Universities.

As in most other Universities, the standard is being constantly raised, and, consequently, failures are more frequent. For instance, in the LL.B. degree examination for last year, out of twenty candidates that presented themselves only two passed; in other words, 90 per cent. were cautioned; and of the names on the roll in which the writer found his name written, fifty per cent. were marked as having failed. Similar severity may not have marked the rolls of other tutors, but of that the writer has no means of judging.

Through the enterprise of the London and North Western Railway Company the journey to Dublin is very enjoyable. Their magnificent steamers that ply between Holyhead and Dublin accomplish the journey in about four hours and a half, and the train service is all that can be desired; and if any one who may read these lines is looking around for a University that will train him and try him, and reward him in the end, let him go to Dublin. J. JOLLY.

The Place of Music in the Worship of the

Church.t

No. I.-HISTORICAL.

THE topic is a wide one. The sentence has no verb, and may be read with reference to the past, or present, or future. We may ask," What place has music held in the worship of the Church hitherto ?" "What is its place now?" Or we may venture to predict what position it will occupy in years to come. Probably, however, in the spirit of grumbling, dissatisfaction, or practical enquiry, we shall be most concerned to ask, "What place ought music to have in the worship of the Church?"

Early in the world's history, Jubal, the father of all such as handle the harp and the organ, caught and brought into order and subjection the sweet sounds produced by artificial means in imitation of the human voice. Poetry and singing had doubtless already been used as a means of conveying from generation to generation the history of events; and it is at least probable that very speedily the faithful who, in that early age, represented the church of the gospel dispensation, found in music, both vocal and instrumental, a helpful adjunct in the worship of the Creator. We know that when the Israelites were delivered from their enemies at the Red Sea, Moses and the people sang that song of wondrous power and beauty which we find in the 15th of Exodus, and Miriam, and the women with her, sounded the loud timbrel and responded with glad acclaim. It is highly probable that during their stay in Egypt, the musically disposed of the Jews gained great proficiency, as the Egyptians were adepts in the musical art, and introduced it largely into their religious observances.

Although no mention is made of music in the arrangements for worship in the tabernacle erected in the wilderness, it seems likely that as soon as the Israelites became somewhat settled in the land of promise, the Levites, being relieved of their work of carrying from place to place the sacred vessels, with the boards and other parts of the tabernacle, devoted their time to the singing and instrumental music of the daily service.

When David caused the Ark to be brought out of the house of Abinadab, it was done with music on " all kinds of instruments made of fir wood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and on cymbals." When, a few months after, it was removed to the Royal City, the chief of the Levites set apart certain of their brethren "To be the singers with instruments of music, psalteries and harps and cymbals, sounding, by lifting up the voice with joy." (1 Ch. xv. 16).

Solomon, at the dedication of the temple, appointed, in addition to the Levites who were singers and played on cymbals and on harps, 120 priests to "Sound the trumpet ;" and when they lifted up their voice with their trumpets, and cymbals, and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, "For he is good; for His mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God."

+ Paper read at the Warwickshire Conference, and printed by request.

MUSIC IN THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH.

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But we must hasten on through the period when the harps of the captive Jews were hung on the willows of Babylon,-past the building of the second temple and the restoration of the service therein, as Nehemiah tells us. (xii. 46,) with songs of praise and thanksgiving unto God, to the advent of the gospel dispensation, when the multitude of the heavenly host were heard by the wonder-stricken shepherds praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.'

Our Lord himself sanctified the use of music by joining in the hymn sung in the upper room at Jerusalem where the Lord's supper was instituted; and I should be far from supposing that this was the first and only occasion on which our Divine Master had sought in song the solace and communion which it could afford so well. From the prison cell at Phillipi sounded forth the praises of Paul and Silas, who, with feet fast in the stocks, and backs bleeding and sore, found in music the fitting expression for their joy that they were counted worthy to endure persecution for their Master's sake.

Among the early Christians, music was an important element in all their religious services. Often at their meetings, held under the cover of midnight darkness, they would spend several hours in singing, or reading together in a chanting tone, the Psalms of David. These, with the hymns and spiritual songs mentioned by the apostle Paul, served to keep alive and fan into enthusiasm the sparks of new-born Christian life in the hearts of the adherents of the new religion. After a time, alternate psalmody was practised. The congregation was divided into two parts, and repeated the psalms in response one to another, verse by

verse.

In the course of years, there seems to have been a decline in the performance of this part of sacred worship, and the council of Laodicea, in the fourth century, undertook to revive and improve the psalmody. This was attempted by the introduction of an inferior order of clergy, or canonical singers, to whom alone the musical part of the services was entrusted. We have here, doubtless, the origin of the surpliced choir of to-day. But there is evidence that the council who instituted this arrangement intended that it should be only temporary. Several of the fathers mention the practice of the people singing all together as existing in their time.

The first regular Christian choir is said to have been established at Antioch, in Syria, and the practice soon spread westward. Gregory the Great took much interest in the cultivation of sacred music, and composed the Gregorian chants or tones. In the year 620, he attempted to introduce them into Britain, but met with much opposition, as many as 1200 of the clergy being reported to have fallen in the violent dissensions which arose.

From this time till the latter part of the 13th century, little change seems to have taken place in the music of the church. The organ is said to have been brought into use in divine service about 1290. After this, and until the Reformation, increasing interest was taken in sacred music. The highest importance was attached to it by the Popes as adding solemnity and effect to the church service; while the leading sovereigns of Europe, and among them our own Henry VIII., did all they could to encourage its cultivation, and treated musicians with marked favour.

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MUSIC IN THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH.

The Romish service was in many places entirely choral, and on the occasion of great festivals large choirs of men and boys were employed. The Council of Trent attempted to regulate the service, into which many abuses had crept, profane and improper hymns having been used, to the discredit of the truth and its professors.

After the Reformation much diversity of practice as to music existed amongst the different sections of the Reformed Church. Whilst some abandoned instrumental aid, and confined their singing, as did Calvin, to plain metrical psalms, others, like the Lutherans and our own church, under the direction of its Royal Head and Defender of the Faith, retained the organ and the choral service. The latter has remained in England to the present day in much the same state as to order and arrangement as it was left in by Henry and his assistants.

Our Puritan forefathers had an unconquerable objection to the choral service, especially to what they called "The tossing of the psalms from one side to the other." The first act of Uniformity left them free to adopt the plain psalmody of the Calvinists, or to continue to use the choral service. In the reign of Elizabeth, however, and her successor James, they suffered much persecution for their non-conformity in this and other respects, to the established religion. These persecutions culminated in the reign of Charles the 2nd, in the passing of the second act of Uniformity in 1662, which drove 2,000 faithful ministers from the pulpits of the land, and finally alienated from the Church the affections of a large section of the people.

These sought to find in a simpler form of service something which should satisfy the intense yearnings of their souls for spiritual communion with each other and with God. It is not surprising to find, while rejecting an elaborate ritual and the doctrines and principles it was intended to teach and to establish, they went too far, and discarded some things that would have been helpful to them. The chant and the anthem were considered inconsistent with the simplicity which ought to characterize Christian worship. The organ was silenced, and the organist had to find a new vocation. The singing was a drawl, and the tunes so limited in number that there was no fear of the congregation being obliged to be listeners only, because the melody was new and untried. Doubtless we are to-day somewhat removed from the rigid simplicity of those stern yet stirring days. The flute and the fiddle, the bass viol and the french-horn, have been pressed into the service, and have charmed the ears and led upwards the praises of many a congregation, particularly in our villages and small towns. But their day is past. Rightly or wrongly they have been politely shown to the door, and their place in the singing-gallery is filled by the organ or the more humble harmonium. In many cases, however, and in some notable ones too, even these are dispersed with, and the human voice alone is engaged in the service of praise. O. EDMUNDS.

THE DOCTOR'S ADVICE.

HEAR the lament of a high medical authority. Dr. Munroe said:"It is a great sorrow to me now to think that for twenty years I have recommended the drink. It makes my heart ache, even now, to see the mischief I have made in years gone by-mischief never to be remedied by any act of mine."

Conference on the Conditions of Church

Membership."

X. THE ASSOCIATION LETTER WEIGHED AND FOUND WANTING.

DISCUSSION or no discussion, many of our churches have made up their minds to receive into full membership those who are unbaptized. Some of them have done so for many years; and it is no exaggeration to say that there are in our denomination at the present moment hundreds of church members who are unbaptized. Those who have introduced this state of things are more conscientious than consistent, for they are using the Baptist label to cover that which is not all Baptist. Our friends are perfectly aware of this incongruity. They know, too, that this anomaly is liable to create legal difficulties, but they are not without hope that when they have converted us all to "open fellowship" views, then "legal consent" will be given us to haul down the genuine Baptist flag, and to run up in its place the banner of Union churches.

The conference we are now having is practical to this extent, viz., that we cannot long remain as we are. We stand before the world as a denomination professing to believe" that it is the indispensable duty of all who repent and believe the gospel, to be baptized by immersion in water, in order to be initiated into a church state: and that no person ought to be received into the church without submission to that ordinance (Articles of Religion, No. 6). But this is no longer believed by a considerable section of our people. It did very well for 1770, but it is of no use under "the conditions of the kingdom of heaven in the year 1883." Consequently our churches are now taught that baptism is not the indispensable duty of those who would enter into a church state; that it is hardly to be called a duty, but only a privilege; and that if it be deemed a privilege not worth having, he who so deems it is to be received into the church all the same, and is to be accounted quite as good a Christian as one who hails it with unquestioning loyalty, and observes it with unfaltering fidelity.

Rev. W. Chapman (General Baptist Magazine, 1882, p. 411,) goes farther than this. He knows that the Holy Ghost lighted upon Christ at His baptism; but he seems to think that now the Lord reserves His honours for those who care little for baptism. He asks us Baptists to draw the inference that we love our Saviour "not wisely, but too well," and that when we care less for baptism, the Lord will care more for us.

It

With the Editor of this Magazine "the question is one of interpretation" (G. B. Magazine, 1882, p. 392). A startling statement, that, when we rightly apprehend its meaning. It means that neither we nor our fathers have interpreted the New Testament as we should. means that Dan Taylor, and those who signed the sixth article abovenamed, were utterly wrong in their view of Christ's teaching, and that Baptists generally have been wrong from the beginning until now. I, for one, await the new interpretation with profound solicitude.

* For articles on this theme see General Baptist Year Book, 1882, and General Baptist Magazine for 1882, pp. 245, 298, 825, 881, 407, 447, by Revs. J. C. Jones, M.A., C. Payne, E. W. Cantrell, W. Lees, W. Chapman, W. Orton, and W. Sharman; also page 8, 1883.

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