the discipline by which that morality was maintained. Popery has been well said to be the colossal curse of Ireland; and with yet greater truth it may be said that moderation has been the colossal curse of Scotland. Popery merely kept up existing error and evil. Moderation created it. To the latter is reserved the unrivalled distinction of converting almost a whole land from religion to irreligion, from morality to immorality; and of converting a Church from being one of the purest and strictest of the Reformation, to a laxity and corruption, in many parishes, worthy of the middle ages. About forty years ago, we have been told, that in a large section of country in the north, including more than one presbytery, there was scarcely one sober minister. What wonder, then, that there was an immoral people? What wonder, that in so many parishes there should be no discipline? Or what wonder that the Court of Session should be now seeking to wrest out of the hands of church courts the power of discipline altogether, and to convert the Church of Scotland into a mere civil corporation, containing a sufficiency of salaries and sinecures for all who are sufficiently Moderate and Erastian as to renounce the authority of Christ, and sell the discipline of his Church for a piece of bread. Doubtless, there was excessive rigidity in the early church; but still our Moderate brethren might learn something from them in the way of discipline; nay, we have no doubt, that all of us must gather somewhat from their zeal for the purity of the Church. Their discipline was sharp and stern, sometimes superstitious; yet there is much in it that betokens men alive to the value of purity in the Church, even though their ideas of purity may not accord with ours. Thus we read in the volume before us,—

"The discipline of the ancient church, although derived from the Mosaic economy, was an original and peculiar institution, growing out of the peculiar circumstances of the early Christians, and fully illustrates their views of the stern and awful sanctity of the Christian character. It has an immediate relation to the rites of baptism and the Lord's supper, and should be studied in connection with them. In establishing this discipline, the church had respect only to the benefit of the offending member. Like an affectionate parent, she sought, not simply to punish, but to correct. Like a good physi cian, her design was, not the infliction of pain, but restoration to health. This system of discipline is distinguished especially for that protracted and severe probation to which an offending member of the church was subjected, as the only condition of his re-admission to the communion and fellowship of the church. This disciplinary treatment, which was known by the general name of penance, exacted of the offender many acts of humiliation, self-denial, and personal mortification, indicative of sincere repentance, and promising amendment, and a consistent life in future. The institution of penance may therefore be regarded as the most important part of the discipline of the

church.

"The subject may with propriety be introduced by the following remarks:"1. Penance was required only of actual members of the church, who had

become such by receiving baptism and the Lord's supper. No Jew or Pagan could do penance, nor even a catechumen, because he was not strictly a member of the church.

"2. Penance was not a civil, but an ecclesiastical penalty. It affected, not his relations to the state, but to the church exclusively.

"3. Penance was entirely a voluntary duty; instead of being an unwelcome requisition, it was granted as a favour, and cheerfully sought. In this, perhaps, it was distinguished from all other forms of punishment.

"4. In the ancient church, public penance was usually allowed but once. If at any time a repetition of the same was permitted to the same individual, it was an exception to the general rule.

"5. The nature and duration of the penance was varied according to the aggravations of the offence committed. Every general rule on this point was subject to many exceptions, according to circumstances.

6. In many cases, the performance of penance was required through the whole term of the penitent's life; but the severity of this sentence was frequently mitigated.

7. The penitents were divided into several classes, differing according to time and place; but in the primitive church they were carefully distinguished from each other.

" 8. The fulfilment of the prescribed penance restored the offender to his former standing with the church, except in the case of the clergy, whose restoration was not complete and full.

"9. The penance was often excessive and injurious in its tendency to the interests of the church, and, as exercised in the earliest centuries, was open to censure; but on the whole, it was productive of great good. In times of persecution and declension especially, it was admirably instrumental in sustaining in the church the spirit and power of religion." Pp. 147, 148.

From the chapter upon the domestic and social character of the primitive Christians, we give an interesting extract relating to their daily devotions. In these they were patterns to us of apostolic prayerfulness, and simple walking with God. True, the description which we quote refers to the early ages, antecedent to the grievous degeneracy which soon corrupted both the faith and practice of the Church; still it is not the less profitable, because the picture from which it is drawn was so soon, in almost every lineament, to be blotted and effaced.

"Instead of consuming their leisure hours in vacant idleness, or deriving their chief amusement from boisterous merriment, the recital of tales of superstition, or the chanting of the profane songs of the heathen, they passed their hours of repose in rational and enlivening pursuits, found pleasure in enlarging their religious knowledge, and entertainment in songs that were dedicated to the praise of God. These formed their pastime in private, and their favourite recreations at their family and friendly meetings. With their minds full of the inspiring influence of these, they returned with fresh ardour to their scenes of toil; and to gratify their taste by a renewal of these, they longed for release from labour far more than to appease their appetite with the provisions of the table. So far were these sacred occupations from being regarded as mere matters of routine by the primitive Christians, so much were the sentiments and the melody of the sacred songs engraven on their memories and dear to their hearts, that after they had left the family group, and repaired to their respective employments, they were wont to cheer themselves in private,

amid the various processes of labour, with repeating the songs of Zion. Young women sitting at their distaff, and matrons going about the duties of their household, were constantly humming some spiritual airs. And Jerome relates of the place where he lived, that one could not go into the field without hearing the ploughman at his hallelujahs, the mower at his hymns, and the vine-dresser singing the Psalms of David.

"But it was not merely at noon, and in time of their meals, that the primitive Christians read the Word of God and sang praises to his name. At an early hour in the morning the family was assembled, when a portion of scripture was read from the Old Testament, which was followed by a hymn and a prayer, in which thanks were offered up to the Almighty for preserving them during the silent watches of the night, and for his goodness in permitting them to meet in health of body and soundness of mind; and, at the same time, his grace was implored to defend them amid the dangers and temptations of the day-to make them faithful to every duty, and enable them, in all respects, to walk worthy of their Christian vocation. During the day they had, like the Jews, stated seasons at the third, sixth, and ninth hours, corresponding respectively to nine, twelve, and three o'clock, according to our computation, when those who had command of their time were wont to retire for a little to engage in the exercises of devotion. In the evening, before retiring to rest, the family again assembled, when the same form of worship was observed as in the morning, with this difference, that the service was considerably protracted beyond the period which could be conveniently allotted to it in the commencement of the day. Besides all these frequent observances, they were in the habit of rising at midnight to engage in prayer and the singing of psalms, a practice of venerable antiquity, and which, as Dr Cave justly supposes,' took its origin from the first times of persecution, when, not daring to meet together in the day, they were forced to keep their religious assemblies in the night.'

"While the Christians, in their family capacity, observed these periodical seasons of devotion, they laid hold of many opportunities, both stated and occasional, of praying in private. In addition to the secret supplications which, every morning and evening, they addressed to the throne of grace, they were accustomed, on every proper and convenient season, to begin and terminate all their actions with prayer, either audible or silent, according to circumstances. On receiving any personal or domestic token of the divine goodness when engaged in any important undertaking, such as sowing their seed, or reaping their harvest,-laying the foundation of a house, or taking possession of it,-placing a web in the loom, or putting on a suit of new clothes,-entering on a journey, or going into a bath,-forming a new relation, or parting with a friend,-mingling with company,—at the beginning or closing of a letter, they indulged in the aspirations of prayer; and so much did they familiarise themselves with its spirit and its sentiments, that they seemed to have cultivated the habit of constant mental intercourse with their heavenly Father. Prayer, indeed, was the grand element that pervaded the life of the primitive Christians; for that spiritual exercise, being not so much a separate and formal act, as a habit and frame of mind, and consisting of all the various elements of praise and thankfulness, confidence and hope, obedience and love, so these principles of a new nature being established in their minds, and diffusing a sanctified influence over the whole tenor of their walk and conversation, gave vigour to their faith, stability to their virtue, and fed, like a perpetual spring, all the streams of Christian activity and excellence, for which they were so remarkable.

46

The epistle to Diognetus, written early in the second century, contains the following description of Christians:-They are not distinguished from other men by their place of residence, their language, or manners. Though

they live in cities of the Greeks and barbarians, each where his lot is cast, and in clothing, food, and mode of life, follow the customs of their country, yet they are distinguished by a wonderful and universally astonishing walk and conversation. They dwell in their own native land but as foreigners; they take part in every thing as citizens, they endure every thing as foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country; and their native country as a foreign land. They live in the flesh, but not after the flesh. They dwell on the earth, but they live in heaven; they obey the existing laws, bat by their life elevate themselves above the laws. They love all men, and are persecuted, misunderstood, and condemned by all. They are slain, and made alive; they are poor, and make many rich; they suffer want in every thing, and possess abundance in every thing; they are cursed, and they bless. In one word, what the soul is in the body, that Christians are in the world. As the soul is diffused through all the members of the body, so the Christians are spread through all the cities of the world. The soul indeed dwells in the body, but it is not of the body; so Christians dwell in the world, but they are not of the world. The invisible soul is shut up in the visible body; and so men know Christians as inhabitants of the world, but their life is hid with Christ in God. The flesh hates and fights the soul, though the soul does no injury to the flesh, but only prevents its giving itself up to its lusts; so also the world hates Christians; they do it no harm, but only set themselves against its lusts. The soul loves its hating flesh, and so Christians love those by whom they are hated. The soul is shut up in the body, and yet it is that by which the body is held together; and Christians are held to their post in the world, and it is they who hold the world together. The immortal soul dwells in the mortal body, and Christians dwell as strangers in the corruptible world, and await the unchangeable life in heaven. So important a part has God entrusted to them, which they dare not forsake.'" Pp. 165, 166.

The section immediately subsequent to the above contains an equally interesting account of the religious education of their children.' In this respect also the early Christians were exemplary patterns of parental duty. To the Christian parent or teacher the following extract will, we doubt not, prove instructive and animating:

"There is not among the many interesting traits of Christian character with which the history of the early Christians abounds, one that stands out more frequently in beautiful and prominent relief than the tender solicitude and the winning arts which they employed to imbue the susceptible minds of the young with the knowledge and the faith of the scripture. While they were fondled on the knee, and still watched by the careful eyes of their nurse, the first words they were taught to lisp and articulate were the sacred names of God and the Saviour. And the whole range of nursery knowledge and amusement was comprised in narratives and pictures, illustrating episodes in the life of the holy child, or parables the most simple and interesting in the ministry of Christ. As their minds expanded, they were taught, along with the grand doctrines of scripture,-which, according to the approved fashion of those days, were rendered familiar by apposite similitudes from nature,-the Proverbs of Solomon, and those passages of the sacred volume which relate particularly to the economy of life.

"Religion, in short, was the grand basis of education, the only subject which, during the first years of life, they allowed their children to be taught; and in order to present it to their minds with the greater attractions, and entwine it with their earliest and purest associations, they adopted the happy

expedient of wedding it to the graces of poetry, and rendering it more memorable by the melody of numbers. From the earliest period of Christian antiquity there were authors who, like Watts in modern times, 'condescended to lay aside the scholar, the philosopher, and the wit, to write little poems of devotion, adapted to the wants and capacities of children,' and these, set to well-known and favourite airs, borrowed from the profaner songs of the heathen, were sung by the Christians at their family concerts, which enlivened their meals, and by which alone the still and peaceful tranquillity of their homes was ever broken. Ere long, their children were taught common, and frequently short-hand writing, in lines taken from the Psalms, or in words of sententious brevity, in which the leading doctrines of the gospel were stated; and at a later period, when the progress of toleration allowed Christian seminaries to be erected, the school books in use consisted chiefly of passages of the Bible versified, and of the poetical pieces which illustrated or enforced the great subjects of faith and duty. The most celebrated of these were compositions of the two Apollinares, grammarians of high reputation in Syria,-the elder of whom, in imitation of Homer, wrote the Antiquities of the Jews in heroic verse, down to the reign of Saul, while the first of the sacred story he described in such metrical forms as corresponded to the verses of the Greek tragedians, and the lyrical ballads of Pindar. The department undertaken by his son was that of reducing the history of the evangelists and the epistles of Paul into the form and style of Plato's dialogues; and with so much taste and elegance were both of these works compiled, that on their first appearance they took their place among the most esteemed productions of the Fathers. Besides these, there was a collection of miscellaneous poems on sacred subjects, and in all sorts of verse, by the famous Gregory Nazianzen, in very extensive circulation. By means of these, and of many other evangelical books which have long ago become the prey of time, the Christian youth were introduced to the elements of pure and undefiled religion, and their taste for knowledge and the beauties of learning, created and formed by works in which salvation was held up as the one thing needful, and no achievements described, no characters lauded, but such as were adorned with the fruits of righteousness. Thus did the pious care of the primitive Christians intermingle religion with all the pursuits and recreations of the young, and never allowed them to engage in the study of science, or to plunge into the business of the world, until they had been first taught to view everything in the spirit and by the principles of the word of God." Pp. 166, 167.

In a succeeding section we have a few interesting paragraphs regarding their love to the souls of men.' Here also they appear to great advantage. Indeed, in almost all those things which flow from disinterested, self-denying, self-sacrificing love, they were immeasurably the superiors of every later age. To believe, to suffer, and to love,' Milner remarks, was the primitive taste. And though, in some of their opinions, we trace the germs of subsequent error, and in some of their practices the germs of that superstition which soon overshadowed the church, still in their simple, unselfish, unearthly love, they have had few equals since.

"Love for the souls of men.-This was another manifestation of the benevolence of the primitive Christians that deserves a particular notice. It was a remarkable feature of their character, and though inseparable from the anxiety they displayed on every occasion to promote the best interests of men, it yet occupied exclusively the minds of some of them, and gave rise to exertions