in great, grand, sublime quietude around us-viz: time, space and the new humanity in Christ. Yet with still more minute. detail, and with still more wonderful adaptation, does Cultus consecrate our surroundings, making the natural the medium of the supernatural. This is done by sacred things-by which our faith, through the faculties of our spirits, and the senses of our bodies, hold communion with the supernatural, becoming sanctified by the communion. Here we have the elements of the two sacraments-the sanctifying water, the nourishing bread, and the quickening wine-elements which in their very nature adumbrate their real sacramental power. This-namely their natural adaptation to the natural life--shows their fitness to be media between the natural and supernatural. Thus in the very deepest and most living point of communion between our natural life and matter, has the divine order constituted the mysterious sacramental contact through which the supernatural is unfolded in us. The natural washing, the natural eating and drinking while they remain natural, are nevertheless also supernatural and sacramental. Here is the preached word; which though it asks the mediation of our natural powers, is still a living, creative, and supernatural word to faith. Here are prayers, supplications, intercessions, thanks, and songs of praise. Here, too, are promises and threatenings, acquitals and condemnations, bindings and loosings, rewards given or promised, and salutary penalties applied-which is the beginning and prophesy of that judgment final and to be feared-all of which enters as a sanitive element into Christian Cultus.

In these observations we have designed, by illustrating the range which Cultus takes, to afford the reader a free definition of the sense which we design the word shall bear in this article. It will be felt also, we think, how inadequate to cover such a meaning, are the words Worship, Church-Service.

This bosom of powers and influences, which the Church presents as the Cultus of saints for heaven, though in the deepest sense one, is nevertheless active in three departments or directions-Pedagogically, Sacerdotally and Regally. If we con

template man in his natural condition, as he appears to our view either outside of the Church in Christian lands, or-which gives a fairer representation—as he exists in heathenism, we shall find three corresponding WANTS clearly expressed.

We find, First, ignorance--ignorance especially of God and the relations which man had once, does now, or ought to sustain to him. This want of knowledge was not only always felt among the heathen, but it expressed its desire after satisfaction in the rise of professed prophets or teachers-in pretended revelations derived from gods, from spirits, good and evil, from hidden powers of nature, through sorcery, magic, soothsaying, and divers pretended modes of communication with hidden wisdom, by movements of planets, clouds, and birds, by living oracles intoxicated by the smoke of burning herbs, and by mysterious signs in the entrails of animals slain for sacrifice. In this way did the heathen seck knowledge, not only on one point, but in regard to all that can possibly concern the hopes and fears of the hidden past, the wide and perplexing present, and the awfully mysterious future! The earnestness of spirit, which seeks thus diligently and variously after some satisfying knowledge, declares very plainly its deep need and want of it. Hence we find that in all the religions of pagans the want of knowledge is largely expressed. The pedagogic function is needed.

We find, Secondly, fear, dread-dread arising from a deep sense of guilt. There is the consciousness that men once sustained a right, peaceful, and happy relation to the Great Supreme that that relation does not now exist-but that it may be again restored-restored by the intervention of priestly functions and the virtue of sacrifices. All pagan ideas of religion, all pagan Cultus, has its altar, and centres in it; has its sacrifices. and its priesthood, and feels that only through these is heaven propitious. The sacerdotal function is needed.

We find, Thirdly, a want of that discipline which acknowledges authority and submits to law. An examination of any, and of all pagan systems, will show how largely the fear of penalties, and the hope of rewards enter into their ideas of religion-will show also to what an astonishing extent they are

willing to submit to disciplinary and penitential requirements. Any pain or infliction of body is cheerfully endured for the health of the soul-any self-denial is endured, or any sacrifice is made, either to earn future rewards, or to discipline the spirit for their enjoyment. The Regal function is needed.

Such, then, are the wants which untutored nature expresses, and such are the attempts of a Cultus suggested by that nature to meet those wants. This brings us to a fundamental principle-it is this: A true Cultus, which is that in the Christian Church, must meet the wants which are expressed by unsanctified and unenlightend humanity outside of the Church. The sighs of humanity do not lie, but are a true, though unconscious, prophecy of what is needed; and what is needed the true religion must supply. This Pagan Cultus, which deep wants blindly constructed out of its own resources, adumbrates the true Cultus which Christianity has constructed out of resources from heaven.

We need now only turn to Judaism to see the truth of this remark verified and illustrated. These three prevailing elements or functions, are at once seen to constitute the fundamentals of the Jewish Cultus. We see it in their laws, which are Moral, Ceremonial, and Judicial. In their sacred functionaries, Prophets, Priests, and Kings. We see it in the worship of the tabernacle. There the people were taught the law, statutes, and ordinances; thither sacrifices were brought and offered to God; there too justice and judgments were dispensed as from the Lord. The entire Old Testament now bears upon its face, and carries in its substance, these three elements of its Cultus-the Law, judicial, the Prophets, educational, and the Psalms, sacrificial or devotional. Thus Judaism takes up the longing wants of Paganism, and furnishes in its Cultus, the earnest and promise of their fulfillment.

The fulfillment of what Judaism foreshadowed, came in the fulness of time by Christ. In Him was fulfilled all that was foreseen "in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms." He came in these three offices. He was a PROPHET anointed by the Holy Ghost, a teacher sent from God, one

who spake as having authority, as never man spake, and His words which He spake were spirit and life. He was a PRIEST, not by call, like Aaron; not by succession, like Levi; "not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life"-a Priest from after the order of Melchizedeck. He was a KING, not in the carnal sense understood and hoped by the Jews, but a King in His own kingdom, which came not by observation, which though in this world was not of this world, and which, in the Church and in the hearts of saints, by the power of the Holy Ghost, should endure through all time on earth, and through all eternity in Heaven.

These offices, and their functions, our Saviour intended should continue in the Church, which is His own body, and consequently the tabernacle of his continued presence, power, and grace in the world. This is evident from the words of their commission given them just before His ascension into heaven. "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations "-the authority to teach nations involves and implies that their power to teach was higher than the nations" baptizing them"-dispensing sacramental power-"in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." He then adds, that in the exercise of all these functions his continued presence, and its accompanying power, shall be their warrant: "And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. AMEN."

It is not necessary, nor have we time in this part of our article, which contemplates only general historical principles, to pass through the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles in detail, in order to exhibit the fact that the ordained and commissioned of Christ exercised these functions-Educational, Sacerdotal or Sacramental, and Regal. Any number of confirmations in detail will at once suggest themselves to the reader. Neither need we enter into details to show the perpetuation of these functions through the whole subsequent history of the Church. It is sufficient to remark that Church History is made up of these three, Doctrine, Liturgy, Government.

The Reformation saved and perpetuated these three fundamental elements of Cultus, only aiming at delivering them, as we shall hereafter more fully see, from distortions, and attempting to restore them to proper harmony and unity of power. The Reformation took with it Word, Sacraments and Liturgies, and ecclesiastical government and discipline. The Prophetic office they continued in the use of publishing and preaching the word of God to the old, and in the use of catechisms among the young. The Priestly office was continued in the administration of sacraments, and use of liturgical worship. The Kingly office was carried forward in synods, consistories, and in the exercise, in a proper way and in the proper sphere, of ministerial power and authority, held by virtue of the office received by ordination. The sacred books of the Reformation Churches are these three-symbols of doctrine--liturgies of sacramental forms, prayers and hymns-and books of discipline. The very construction of churches has owned the power of these ideas; and sanctuaries have shaped themselves for the convenient and appropriate exercise of the functions of this Cultus-Pulpit, Altar, and Elders' seat. These remain to this day in those churches where the power and conception of the true Cultus have not vanished before another spirit and another way. The excellent Catechism of the German Reformed Church, uttering its steady and unceasing confession through troubled ages, amid the proud dictations of carnal reason, and the lawless imaginings of emotional caprice, still holds up the glorious trinity in unity of the true Reformation Cultus-Doctrine and Duty: Sacraments and Service: Law and the Keys.

Thus have we reached the true substance and nature of Cultus-it gives to man Prophet, Priest, and King, and affords him, for the perfection of the spiritual nature, the advantage of their functions. We must now proceed to a second principle. It is this: These three functions are not merely to be exercised over man, or before man, or to man; but they are to be exercised in man, by man, and through man. He is not merely to be arbitrarily confronted with them, but to be