tution of the Supper, occasionally adding, with discretion, some other appropriate Scripture passages-such as the following:]

"God so loved the world," &c.

and worthy," &c.

"It is a faithful saying

"Behold the Lamb of God," &c. "Greater love hath no man," &c.

"Christ died the Just for the unjust," &c.

"The blood that speaketh better things than Abel's," &c. [The administration of the communion being completed, the minister shall address the communicants, who shall rise up in their places, as follows:]

Beloved in the Lord, inasmuch as the Lord hath now fed our souls at His holy table, let us praise His name with united thanksgiving, each one saying heartily:

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender-mercies. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is Ilis mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that love Him. Who hath not spared His own Son, but hath delivered Him up for us all: wherefore should he not with IIim also freely give us all things. Wherefore God sheweth His love towards us, in that while we were sinners Christ died for us. Much more then being justified by His blood, shall we be saved from wrath, through Him. For if, whilst we were enemies, we were reconciled unto God by the death of His Son: much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. Wherefore my lips and heart shall shew forth His praise, from henceforth forevermore. Amen.

Let us pray.

us meat.

ness.

Most Holy Triune God-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Creator, Redeemer and our present Comforter-accept of our humble and hearty thanksgiving for all the inestimable benefits which we have this day again received at the Holy Supper of our most gracious Saviour. We came hungry, and Thou gavest We came thirsty, and Thou gavest us drink. We came naked, and Thou, our compassionate Lord, has clothed us with the garments of Thine own dearly purchased righteousWe came as prisoners, and Thou didst release us, breaking our bonds with Thine own bleeding hands. We came as outcasts, and Thou didst take us in, opening Thine own wounded side, that we might enter by faith, and find a safe and peaceful home in Thy loving heart. What shall we render unto Thee, O most gracious God our Saviour, for Thine unspeakable love to us? We have taken the cup of salvation, and made our vows unto Thee. Help us, O Lord, to redeem those solBehold we are Thine, for Thou hast dearly ransomed us. Enable us henceforth to live unto Thee, and show forth Thy praise by constant and cheerful obedience to Thy holy will. May we not only remember Thee, and Thine atoning sacrifice, here at Thy table, but ever carry about with us the dying of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the sanctifying power of Thy most efficacious life, may also appear in us, constraining us, for Thy sake, to crucify the flesh, with its impure affections and deadly lusts, and to offer ourselves up continually, as living sacrifices of love and obedience unto Thee, so that when Thou, who art our life, shall appear, we also may appear with Thee, and be gathered to share with all Thy ransomed saints, the glory which Thou hadst with the Father from everlasting. Amen.

emn vows.

[The congregation shall then sing a few verses of a thanksgiving psalm or hymn, and be dismissed with the Mosaic or Apostolic benediction.]

ART. V.-CHRISTIAN CULTUS: ITS NATURE, HISTORY, AND RELA

TIONS,

WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH.

THE word CULTUS is not yet fully and fairly English; owing, perhaps, to the fact that the Christian interest which is covered by its meaning has not yet engaged the attention of our English Theology with that earnestness and scientific precision which ever seeks to give fixedness to floating conceptions by forcing them to an incarnation in words. Moreover, as we shall see, those divisions of the Church in which the English language prevails, have either never accepted, or gradually abandoned, the interest which calls for such a term. In this remark the Church of England must be excepted. In it there is professedly much zeal in this direction; yet writers upon the subject in that communion, have been satisfied with the words Worship, Church-Service. These terms, however, are inadequate, inasmuch as they exhibit only one side of Cultus, and that the human-they exhibit only what Christians do to God, and not what God does to them. Whatever may be the theory held, the free and natural use of such terminology, and the long continued acquiescense in its use, betrays the existence of a practical heresy or defection, to which we will return at the proper place.

Cultus is a word at home in the German language, and the representative of a Christian interest which has been regarded as high, solemn, and central, from the Reformation until now; and it has, since the recovering process from Rationalism and Sectism manifested itself with power and promise in the Reformation confessions, been fallen back upon with new confidence and hope. It is felt more and more that neither our rational nor our emotional nature can be trusted as leaders of

the momentous interests of our spirits :-the first will run us out into the pure negative, by denying all but itself; and the second by expending its unsubstantial contents. We need . more than a going to God; we need also a coming of God to us. We need more than Service, rationally, and Worship, emotionally; we need that which comes to us from God—which will underlic, and sanctify, and direct both our rational and emotional being-we need supernatural visitations, indwellings and surroundings, such as God has brought to us, into us, and around us, by the Incarnation of Christ, by the gift of the Holy Ghost, and by the heavenly powers which are brought around us in the Church. All that we receive, have, and can do, with our life at home in such a bosom of new-creating and nourishing powers and influences is comprehended in Christian Cultus.

Cultus, as including all that is done for us by Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in the bosom of the Church, takes a wide range. Indeed the supernatural, which thus comes to surround us in the Church, in our present existence, in order to take up us in all our earthly relations and dependencies, must unite itself with the natural in such a way as to make it its own initiatory medium and means-the natural, (and with it we who live in its affinities,) is taken up into the supernatural-the earthly becomes heavenly-the profane is consecrated—the natural becomes sacramental.

To enlarge and illustrate this thought we may remark that , Cultus first of all includes and sanctifies TIME. The seventh day completes the cycle-joins the last again to the first, the end to the beginning-it is the first as well as the last, so that all time begins and ends holy. It is not only the rest of the body but of the spirit-not only the rest of man, but of God. "God rested!" God then rests. God then rests. The greatness, the holiness, the quietude and peace of the infinite dawns in the finite on the Sabbath. God, in Christ, by the Holy Ghost, through the Church, rests, and seeks rest in the spirits of men; and the spirit which is thus brought to reign in the hearts of those in whom God rests, sanctifies all the days and works of the week.

Thus time, the finite and natural, is brought into consecrated relations to the infinite and eternal. This Sabbath is the carnest of that which is to come-that which is natural, earthly, and only in part, will complete itself, and us with itself, in that which is supernatural, heavenly, and complete. Thus it is easy to see how important an element holy time is in Christian Cultus.

Not only is time-sacred seasons-brought under sacred contribution by Cultus, but also space-sacred places. As the infinite and supernatural must touch the finite and natural in points of time, so they must also in points of space. This constitutes sacred places-sacred by those divine transactions where God meets man-and sacred in the associations of fear and hope which such a meeting inspires. As the Sabbath brings God into time, so the sanctuary brings God into space. "The Lord is in his holy temple!"

Farther, God who enters the outward and material world through time and space, enters our humanity through man— at first through THE Man, Christ; and since, through men. God communicates with men, through men. Hence there are included in Cultus offices, functions and influences of sacred persons. Beginning with God in Christ-the God-Man, we have Christ over and in the Apostles-these over the succession of the ordained and authorized with sacred functionsthese over the whole body of saints whom they nurture from Christ and in him-then these over each other and the unregenerate world, by virtue of the office of universal priesthood. Thus every saint in the Church sees before him, above him, and around him sacred persons, grading from THE man down to himself, and including himself-for he is a sacred person, endowed with priestly functions, which he may use in his own behalf!-to whom he is to look with reverence, and from whom, as media between himself and God, he is to receive gracious communications towards the Cultus of his divine and heavenly

life.

So far we have seen that Cultus brings under contribution the mighty three, which though powerfully active, seem to lie