ART. V.-CHRISTIAN CULTUS.

SECOND ARTICLE.

In a previous article we spake of the basis and range of true Christian Cultus, of its functions and their order, of its developments in history, of its character and defects in the age immediately preceding the Reformation, of the relation which the Reformation Cultus sustained to that in the Roman Catholic Church, of the characteristics of the Reformation Cultus, and of the relation which the two sides of the Reformation, the Reformed and the Lutheran, sustained towards each other in this respect. We gave notice also, at the close of our article, that our design contemplated more. We proceed, therefore, now to say, what want of space then admonished us to defer.

Since the Reformation, as is well known, a vast number of secondary reformations have sprung up in the History of the Church, some on one ground and some on another, separating themselves from the older confessions and organizations, and also springing out of, and dividing from each other, forming themselves into independent sects or communions, constructing their own symbols of faith, or having none at all, forming their own system of government, and, of course, developing also a Cultus peculiar to themselves, and differing from one another, as well as from what existed before. It would lead us too far, to follow historically all these divergent tendencies; nor is this necessary to our purpose. It is enough to characterize the general spirit in which they rise, and which they illus

trate.

The very fact that divergencies and divisions became so easy, natural, and common, is proof that a true conception of the Church, and faith in it as a supernatural and gracious constitution in the world, gradually vanished from the minds and hearts of men. The Reformation was not a protest against the Church, but a reformation of it. The Reformers firmly

believed in the Church as the body of Christ, being in order before its members, over them, and as carrying in its bosom, from the Head, the only hope, and the only resources of salvation for men. Hence their zeal in holding fast to the old power beneath the powerful struggles of the new. Their ministry carried with it the old succession of ordination; their sacraments were adhered to in their true sacramental sense and power; their faith was the CREED, as it reigned from the earliest age; their Cultus owned the objective and sacramental, and had its home in the bosom of the Church; and their government rested, in its ultimate ground, on the authority of the Church.

While they thus, held fast to the churchly, they, at the same time, labored to develop the freedom of the Church. They felt that, although Jerusalem is from above, and "the mother of us all," it is also "free." They believed that the Church, as it then existed, having culminated in absolute power, in the Kingly office, was turning too arbitrary and terrible a side towards the just and necessary demands of individual freedom. They moved in favor of this last interest. Hence, in Cultus, as well as in other interests they made the individual more prominent; and while they most sacredly retained the idea of the objective and sacramental, they nevertheless brought out also in its proper prominence the subjective and sacrificial.

Now, as the Church before the Reformation grew gradually into the extreme of power, the Church after it grew gradually into the extreme of liberty; while the first lost the sacrificial in the sacramental, the latter lost the sacramental in the sacrificial. This tendency towards the latter extreme becomes the longer, the more apparent. The farther down from the Reformation, the less power has the idea of the Church, the easier and more frequent do divisions become, and the more does the individual thrust out the general. On the continent of Europe national and provincial Churches emerge more and more out of unity, and separatists form circles in the bosom of national Churches. In England rise first Puritan Dissenters, then Independents, then Quakers-the final extreme subjective distance from the churchly. Then again, still later, Methodism,

which reaches the extreme subjectivity by a different process, and cultivates it in a different form. Then, in America, in the element of civil freedom, the unchurchly tendencies have exhibited themselves in the most destructive and painful extremes, where we have even new independent productions, either by virtue of direct revelations, or as the products of assumed superior wisdom. Pronouncing all that has been a failure, we have the "New Church," "The Church of God," "The Church of Latter Day Saints," and "Independent Churches" without end, where a belief in "The Holy Catholic Church," is regarded as the mother of heresies.

In the bosom of such tendencies, it is easy to see, that a true churchly Cultus, such as we have in the Reformation period, is not possible. Being unchurchly it must be unsacramental. Having no objective basis to rest upon, it must become the product of individual will, and subjective feeling, and thus exhibit, in time, as it has actually done, all the distraction, weakness, and misery of individual caprice.

The unchurchly character and spirit of the post-Reformation Cultus manifests itself in various ways. We will briefly designate the more prominent.

1. It manifests itself in an undervaluing of the Sacraments. That there has been degeneracy from higher to lower views of the Sacraments since the Reformation, is manifest to any one who has examined this subject historically with any degree. of care. The idea of sacramental grace, both in Baptism and the Holy Supper, which was so central and familiar an idea in the sixteenth century, is now regarded as a dangerous heresy. The transaction is not regarded as something which God does to us, but something which we do to God-not sacramental but sacrificial. The extreme in which these divergencies have fallen, in reality meets the extreme of the Roman Church, making the sacraments virtually a work,-an offering to God, instead of a grace, an offering from God to man.

We may remind ourselves of the truth of this undervaluation of the sacraments, and a still farther divergency in the same direction, since the Reformation, by many considerations. Notice the fact in regard to the Lord's Supper, that it is far

less frequently administered-that the same solemn preparation for receiving it is no more made-that its administration to the dying is ridiculed-that so large a number, even of professing Christians, are not communicants-that some sects, as Separatists, fanatics, and Quakers, regard it as a mere outward form, at war with the Spirit, one of the "beggarly elements' of a carnal dispensation, and have set it entirely aside. Notice, too, how little power and solemnity, to the masses outside of the Church, have the momentous words: "Do this." "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in !"

you

In regard to Baptism, let the fact be noticed, that by some sects, as the Quakers, it is not practiced at all. In some of our American fanatical sects, it is left optional with the "converts." In some sects it is denied to infants; and generally, even when infant baptism is practiced, the solemnity is deferred much later than formerly. It is only necessary to compare the number of infants with that of adults in the baptismal statistics of those denominations where infant baptism is professedly practiced, to be convinced that there is a fearful and growing tendency to defer the administration of this sacrament; all of which is significant, and shows that its true original sacramental importance is not felt as it was formerly. Notice the fact, too, that in the whole shelves of books and pamphlets that have been written on the subject, they are all occupied with the subject, the mode, the outward, while you can scarcely find a single volume in which the substance of the sacrament is earnestly treated. All this indicates that the true sacramental substance is lost sight of, and that what has first diverged from the centre, is fast flying off from the periphery.

2. Closely allied to this growing indifference to the sacraments, and growing out of it, is a losing sight of the Priestly and Kingly functions in the Church. Sacred persons are no more regarded as ministers, only as "preachers." Christ's priestly office is not regarded, as in any sense, perpetuated in them. There is a tendency to regard them merely as chosen, authorized, and sent by men to men, instead of regarding them as coming from God to men, as being the functionaries of the

supernatural, and as having all their authority, responsibilities, and resources from the Head to the members. It is not regarded as a divinely gracious function, but only as a humanly wise arrangement. As to the kingly office, it is not to be thought for a moment, that any authority whatever is connected with the ministerial office-the solemn announcement of absolution, the binding and loosing, which is so prominent in the Cultus of the Reformation Churches, is regarded as next to blasphemy. Synods and symbols are alike put into the category of tyrannies; and though, by a kind of dead tradition, Church authority is acknowledged, yet there is but a feeble and restless submission to it. In the outer extremes of this tendency we have free independency, where every Church is its own authority, where the heights and depths, the lengths and the breadths of divine mysteries are measured, moulded, or voted out by the wisdom of the majority!

In some sects ministers are not needed-in others they are only needed as "preachers "-in others, again they are superseded in much of their ministrations by a thrusting forth of an unordained laity. There is growing the spirit of dictation, criticism, irreverence, and a general disposition to bandy the holy office upon the democratic level. Here the priestly function is virtually ignored; the minister's acts are viewed as personal, not official, and the solemn words are not felt: "He that heareth you, heareth me;" and "he that despiseth you, despiseth me!" His acts are transactions and suggestions, but not administrations and communications. In these conceptions no altar is needed, because there is no priest. Thus while the Roman Catholic Cultus sets aside the Prophet, this dispenses with the Priest and the King.

3. Still farther, we have in this unchurchly Cultus a great disrespect for all symbols of faith and forms of worship.

The Reformation Cultus made much use of the Creed, the commandments, the Lord's prayer; it had its liturgical forms of confession, prayer, intercession, and praise. The worshipper listened to these, and was moved by them, as the voice of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost to them through the Church. These gave a holy order, and a subduing unction to