Miriam the prophetess, they offered to Jehovah, "praise and thanksgiving."

In the country from whence they had escaped, we are consequently led to believe the knowledge of the art of music existed; but whether the character which it then possessed is to be considered by us as the first commencement of the art, or whether it was rising again from a previous age of darkness, is matter of discussion among the learned. From some remains of the greatest antiquity, it is with a fair show of probability supposed, that music had, at a time considerably antecedent to the Exodus, held a higher grade among the arts of Egypt than is reasonably apparent, either from the performance of Miriam, or from the style which Moses (who had been brought up at the court of Pharaoh) introduced into the Levitical ceremonial. Leaving then the date of the far-famed and somewhat scientific Theban harp, of the construction of the Egyptian obelisk, and even the exact æra in which Sesostris reigned, to the determination of chronologers who can minutely dissect those mighty portions of time which fled fast and far before the length of the year was determined, we may briefly advert to the admission of music into the Mosaic ritual. Much it would not be reasonable to expect that we should hear of it, while the moveable tabernacle was the receptacle of the sacred rites,-while the children of Israel were incessantly engaged in establishing their national existence in a land which had been densely peopled by idolatrous enemies; for under such circumstances neither the arts nor the sciences ever rapidly advance. But when by the aid of Providence they had established themselves, and driven out the original inhabitants of the city of the Jebusites; when they had expelled the emblems of idolatry and raised their temple to the service of the one true God; then the ceremonial was fully established, and its musical portion was increased to an extent, which may appear to us of questionable expediency. That it was not of a loftier character is no argument against the sacred influence which it attained. It were unnecessary for me to remind you of its extent, by enumerating the number of instruments and of singers who were appointed to the service of the temple at its consecration. When however we remember that its services were ordained for that nation whose government was a theocracy; when we remember that that service was in after times performed in a temple illumined by the glory of the Lord; when we observe how frequently its hallowed origin was confirmed by the appearance of prophets at its services;—the propriety, or, I would rather add, the obligation of introducing sacred musie into the worship of the true and immutable God, assumes a position which it is not within the province of reason to assail, or of prejudice to undermine: and if we should entertain any feelings of surprise at the little excellency which it attained in the land of Palestine, even up to the time when the religion of Judaism terminated, they will be found to have arisen from a forgetfulness of that great characteristic of the Jewish code, civil and ecclesiastical, individuality. To preserve this, to maintain a broad and indelible line of demarcation between the Jew and the Gentile, rites and ceremonies of singular performance were instituted; and at the same time that their performance was guided by the most minute instructions, any deviation from them was punished by severe and inevi

table penalties. Under such an order of things, with every avenue to innovation, civil and religious, closed by the authority of heaven; it must cease to give surprise, though it should be said that the art of music did not progress amongst the people of Jehovah, as quickly as it may have done in those countries which surrounded them, of whose manners and customs it was not possible for them to be altogether ignorant.

It is, however, in that essentially differing character which the christian dispensation bears to that which it abrogated, that the least prejudiced of our opponents fancy that they possess authority for dismissing instrumental music from its services. Here all are to be, not formal worshippers, but worshippers in spirit and in truth; as if any thing sensual could be discerned in, or encouraged by the sounds of sacred music; as if nothing spiritual required or ought to receive any aid from those external advantages or mental endowments which we possess; as if the spirit had determined to flourish in nothing but what savoured of ignorant simplicity. Here, again, do they present with confidence the example of Christ and his first disciples. But here let us observe the weakness of such assertions, when we find them perverting the evangelical order of judgment; judging according to what a man hath not, and not according to what a man hath. Could it have been possible or expedient for Him who had not where to lay his head, surrounded by unlettered and poor disciples; could it have been expedient for Him to have laid down a costly ritual of devotion? Or would it have been possible for Him to have established any form of public devotion, when even his life was insecure, when every opportunity of popular excitement against Him was laid hold of by the chief priests and rulers of the people? Is the absence of example, under such circumstances, any evidence of the impropriety of its introduction, when those obstacles may be removed, and when science and worldly affluence may be converted to its doctrines? Judging according to what it had, and not, as our opponents would, according to what it had not, from the few examples which Christ and the earlier Christians have left of their disposition towards sacred music, we may pronounce, that it was the will of Him who is the author of our faith, that it should, when possible, be admitted into our worship. His constant appearance in the Jewish temple; His close adherence to the ceremony of the Passover, to the singing of those hymns which had been appointed for its celebration; the opinion deduced from the precepts delivered in some parts of the apostolical epistles; the practice of the earliest Christians, of those who drew their notions of religious exercises from the unadulterated streams of knowledge; from those on whom the Spirit of knowledge had visibly descended;-the practice of these is, when the dangers are contemplated to which their practice exposed them, sufficient evidence to us of the propriety of that practice which has obtained amongst us; which has, since those days of ignorance, for preeminence, designated as the dark ages-continued to increase in sublimity of effect and in chasteness of performance, in proportion as the science of music has been developed, and as the art has approached perfection.

It is not, therefore, without due and sufficient cause, that music has been admitted to so considerable an influence in our public ministra

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tions. It was neither without the direction of reason nor the authority of revelation, that the framers of our Liturgy have deputed to the choir so many portions of the service. It would seem indeed now to be forgotten, that they drew no distinction, such as now obtains, to separate the service of the parochial from the cathedral church. The Rubric acknowledges no distinction, save that which the ability of the choir may of necessity impose. The compilers of our Common Prayer, when they employed the punctuation of the chant, never contemplated the monotonous saying" " which has well nigh banished from all our churches, the rich harmony of the chant; which has consigned the solemn and hortatoryportions of Scripture, the prayers which speak the wants and the hopes of the Christian to the same manner of delivery, as the psalms of praise and thanksgiving, and the hymn to the Triune Deity. To impute to them this error, which is now so often and so justly alleged against the beauty of our Service, would be to impute to them an effect which they could not have anticipated. For on what can you affix the charge of monotony when those, the intentions of its framers, are fulfilled? It must therefore be held as an incitement to the improvement and support of music, that the beauty of our Service is materially diminished by consigning to one voice those parts which were composed for the voices of many.

As a further encouragement to this duty, we must not forget the spiritual advantages which the congregation might with certainty anticipate, if it would take a more lively interest in its own distinct share of devotion. Here we are painfully compelled to acknowledge that, from some cause or other, the public devotion of our people has partaken largely of a spirit of listless silence. Ought it not to be the endeavour of every zealous worshipper to remove so glaring, so manifest an error? By no more effectual method could this be done than by infusing, through the influential channel of example, a hearty desire to give thanks unto God, and to sing praises unto the name of the Most High. Listlessness would be succeeded by attention, and silence be driven from our churches by the voice of joy and praise from the multitude who keep holyday unto the Lord.

Such becomes an innocent, a religious attraction to the performance of that which it is our interest, which it should be our delight, as it must ever continue to be our duty to do. Hence the individual would be profited, and the public performance of our religious rites enhanced, by a general attention to its musical character :-each would combine to produce one sublime effect, which, descending in increased influence upon the hearts of all, would dispossess the evil, and strengthen and animate the holier affections of the soul.

May it flourish and abound! and while the church of Christ shall continue in its earthly tabernacle, may it worthily contribute its resistless influence to soothe the sorrowing soul of penitence, to cheer the dreary anticipations of affliction, to elevate the aspiring hopes of christian faith, to purify the heavenward affections of the soul! and in this its course may it dispossess the evil spirit of misanthropy, which would envelop in its gloom the day-spring of mercy which, as the bridegroom, cometh out from his chamber, and as the giant, rejoiceth to run his course through our spiritual horizon. E. N. D.

MISCELLANEOUS.

BAPTISM.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANcer.

MR, EDITOR, In a former number of your valuable periodical, there appeared a Letter from a Clergyman, complaining greatly of the prevalence of low and inadequate notions on the subject of baptism. I lament the fact equally with your correspondent; but I by no means agree with him in the causes to which he ascribes it. He seems to think it is mainly attributable to the doctrines unhappily preached by many, both in the Church and beyond its pale, whereby baptism is almost degraded from the dignity and efficacy of a sacrament, instituted by Christ himself, as 66 generally necessary to salvation," into a mere outward form. That such opinions are held, and occasionally preached, we all know; but I believe they are very seldom brought forward so prominently as at all to account for the fact. In short, baptism is a subject, as far as my own experience goes, very rarely preached upon; and in the various sermons which are constantly issuing from the press, we hardly ever meet with a discourse on baptism, except it be in sermons avowedly controversial. To this want of proper instruction on the subject, some of the evil complained of may fairly be attributed; but, I fear, it is chiefly to those practices regarding baptism which have crept into the Church, contrary to the rubrics and canons, and which it is beyond the power of any single individual wholly to remedy, that it must be ascribed. One of these abuses is the facility with which the Clergy have been accustomed to administer private baptism. Instead of confining its administration in private solely to cases of extreme danger, it has been a common practice to half-baptize (as it is absurdly and profanely called) any infant, even in the Church, merely for the convenience of the parents, or for the sake of an early registration.

By this departure from the wise and salutary rules of our Church, the people have been taught to look upon baptism merely as a matter of registration; and till the civil act of registry is separated from it, I fear an efficient remedy will not be found.

Another abuse regards the time of the administration, which was designed to be public, in the face of the congregation. In this respect much might be done by administering it publicly only once a month, or at some stated times, during the service on Sundays, and the great festivals, whereby we should imitate that practice of the primitive Church, which confined its administration to the eves of Easter and Pentecost; and we should thus bring it into a nearer resemblance to the other sacrament, (which is now usually administered about once a month,) and teach the people really to regard it in the light of a sacrament. Again, baptism should be administered only at the font. This rule is very commonly neglected. In some places the fonts are placed anywhere but in a commodious, honourable, and conspicuous situation. Many of the new churches have been consecrated without VOL. XVI. NO. XI.

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any fonts,* and baptism is administered at the communion table. water, instead of being poured into the font itself, is almost universally held in a small bason, which is merely placed in the font, or sometimes on it or near it. I would not only suggest that all these things should be remedied, but I would beg to add a precaution as to the mode of treating the water itself. Baptism being a sacrament, the element of water therein used ought to be treated with the same care and reverence which is prescribed with respect to the elements of bread and wine in the holy communion. I would, therefore, suggest the decency and propriety of having proper vessels for the conveyance of the water to and from the font, and that it should always, after use, be poured on the earth near to the outside of the Church. These matters may, at first sight, appear of no importance; but, as we should shrink from the very idea of offering any irreverence to the bread and wine of the eucharist, so I can see no reason for neglecting such rules and regulations regarding the water in baptism, as would instil into the minds of the people an adequate sense of that holy sacrament. I have said thus much on this point, because I have frequently witnessed great profanations arising from the ignorance of clerks and sextons, and the want of some express rules and regulations in this respect. Some of the things here suggested, are doubtless in the power of the Clergy, and much might be done towards a remedy of existing evils; but, after a very extensive acquaintance with the subject, forced on my attention by the frequent administration of baptism in a populous district of the metropolis, I could earnestly wish that such rules and regulations were framed, by our ecclesiastical superiors, as would insure uniformity of practice among the Clergy, and prevent those collisions on the subject of baptism, which frequently arise between them and the dissenters. I have, more than once, been requested to baptize adults who had the indecency to ridicule the very notion of our baptism, when questioned as to their fitness for it. The parties alluded to were of the sect called Baptists, and merely wished for registration. I, of course, did not comply, and got much abused and threatened with legal proceedings in consequence.

Again, I am sorry to say, that unless a Clergyman shuts his eyes, he must often offend even his own people on the score of their choice of sponsors. In some places, the clerk or sexton is ready to undertake this duty for half the parish; in others, the parents themselves, or mere children, or some proxy for an absentee, must either be accepted, or the child be unbaptized.

I have one more caution to add, the necessity of hypothetical baptism, or rather of using the form, " if thou art not already baptized," &c., wherever any length of time has elapsed between the baptism and the public reception into the Church, unless the most positive testimony as to the due performance of the rite can be obtained; or wherever the baptism was performed by dissenters. The dissenters do not always baptize in the name of the Trinity, and of course such baptism is invalid. And, on one occasion, I found, on inquiry, that the child brought to be publicly received into the Church, had been baptized (as the

* Query-Can this be the case?-ED.