poetry, music, and eloquence tell the same story to other sense-perceptions and fill the storied temple with the words and spirit of worship.

In studying the Fundamental Principles of Worship the following outline was pursued:

I. There is a divine purpose for instruction and edification in worship.

II. It appears in the association and fellowship of worship. III. It is accomplished by the means of grace employed in worship.

1. The Sacramental character, or the divine elements of

worship:

(1) It is Christo-centric;

(2) It uses the Word of Scripture;

(3) It is the Means of Grace;

(4) It conserves doctrinal purity.

2. The Sacrificial character, or the human elements of

worship:

(1) Eucharistic offerings;

(2) Variable forms;

(3) The Times and Places;
(4) The use of Art.

Scottdale, Pa.

J. C. F. RUPP.

OUR DISTINCTIVE WORSHIP

THE COMMON SERVICE AND OTHER LITURGIES,

ANCIENT AND MODERN.

PRINCIPLE and Form are related as Soul and Body. The latter is the medium through which the former is able to express itself. The intellect, the will, the emotions, in fact the SOUL LIFE of the human personality is only able to reveal itself, and indeed only possesses objective existence, in the physical life. So abstract principles may have some quasi existence within the realm of the metaphysical, but in order to our real apprehension of them in time and space they must have a concrete, formal expression. The animating principles of Christian faith constantly appear in the several spheres of Christian life, and nowhere more clearly than in the department of Christian Worship. The distinctive differences in doctrine held by different Churches may not be evident in the private lives of their members, but they will inevitably appear in the public worship of their congregations. Doctrines and principles of worship are proclaimed not only from the pulpit, but from the altar, from the pew, from the organ bench and choir room; in Liturgy as truly as in Confessional Symbol; in rubric often more clearly than in text; in manner, gesture, posture as surely as in spoken or printed word. Everything is pregnant with meaning when one learns to read it aright. We understand not the mannerisms of strangers, but the simple tone of voice, the glance of an eye, or the most trivial

gesture of a dear friend conveys deep significance. So greater intimacy with the forms of devotion may reveal to us many qualities hitherto unperceived.

It is a very superficial opinion, oft expressed, that there is little difference between Churches. "We all are going to the same place," it is said; as if it were immaterial in undertaking a journey to a distant city whether we kept in the King's highway with its signboards and places of refreshment, or stumbled in danger and discomfort through the woods and swam swollen streams. Or as if because we all live upon what we eat, there were no difference in foods! A Lutheran is not a Romanist, a Quaker or a Methodist. We have a distinctive doctrine, a distinctive apprehension of God's revelation, as have they; and our cultus, or form of worship, as expressing our belief, is just as distinctive in character. It is our purpose, therefore, by a study of our Service and a comparison of it with others to see wherein this distinctiveness lies.

We may look first at the Service as a whole. The first impression we gather is that it is not only in the language of the people, but that the latter actively participate in every portion of it. There is no suggestion of a vicarious performance, but of a personal participation. Pastor and people together enter the Holy of Holies and commune with God. Here is the living embodiment of a cardinal principle of the Reformation, and indeed of the New Testament,-the Universal Priesthood of All Believers. Hear what Dr. Rock, a most eminent Roman Catholic divine, says with reference to the celebration of the Roman Mass. "In the performance of this sacred service no office is assigned to the people. The sacrifice is offered up by the priest in their name and on their behalf. The whole action is between God and the priest. So far is it from being necessary that the people shall understand the language of the sacrifice, that they are not allowed even to hear the most important and solemn part of it.... They do not act, they do not say the prayers of the priest, they have nothing to do with the actual performance of the Holy Sacrifice." (Hierurgia I:314.)

Hear again the words of Dr. Boardman, one of the most prominent Baptist divines in this country, as he laments the vicarious character of worship in his own and other nonliturgical Churches. He says, "No voice but the preacher's is heard in adoration, thanksgiving, confession, supplication, intercession, aspiration, communion. So far as the vocal act of homage goes, the preacher alone worships.... Alas! this individual privilege of each member of the congregation we

allow the minister to appropriate to himself. He alone lifts the veil, and enters the Holy of Holies, and communes before the mercy-seat; while the congregation stands mute in the outer court. The New Testament doctrine of the rent veil and the priesthood of all Christians gives way to the Old Testament doctrine of a sacerdotal order; or what is worse, to the Roman heresy of a priestly caste and a priestly worship. Even the pulpit has been removed from the side to the centre; so that the preacher is perpetually in the foreground, while the worship of Almighty God is consigned to a comparatively subordinate niche. How painfully true this is, may be seen in the fact that while it is not considered rude to enter the sanctuary during the earlier part of the service, such as the singing or the Bible reading,-that is to say, be it observed, during that part of the service which is distinctively liturgical or worshipful,—it is considered rude to come in or go out while the minister is preaching, as though, forsooth, the main thing in worship were ignorant, feeble, sinful man, instead of Jehovah of Hosts." (Christian Worship, p. 291 sq.) Out of their own mouths they stand convicted, the Romanist asserting the doctrine of the vicarious work of a priestly order, and the Baptist admitting its virtual practice. Take the Common Service and see pastor and people unite in common confession, and appropriation of God's forgiveness; see them direct to the throne of grace common praise and petition in the Gloria Patri, the Kyrie, the Gloria in Excelsis, the Collect, the General Prayer, the Preface, Sanctus, Agnus and Nunc Dimittis; hear their common confession of belief in the Creed as well as many other parts of the service; see them together honor and reverence and use the Word and the Sacrament, uniting in all that pertains to the administration and the reception of both. In its every line our Service is vocal with the principle of a Universal Priesthood engaging in a Common Ministry.

Worship is a transaction between God and Man; in it therefore are two active elements, the divine and the human. Theories of worship fundamentally differ as the emphasis is placed upon either of these elements. The Roman, and perhaps to a less degree the Greek Liturgy, reeks with the human, the sacrificial element. God is still to be appeased, His wrath averted by the work which the Church, through its priesthood, must do every day. All service centres about the work, the sacrifice of the Mass. It is not what God brings to man in worship, but what man does for God. The Reformed, by which we understand the other Protestant Churches except the Lutheran, also emphasize the human or sacrificial side.