communion, is a real accession of strength to the enemies of the best interests of civil society. Besides, when those who have families, make a transfer of their ecclesiastical connexion from some Protestant denomination, to the Roman Catholic communion, they throw their children, and all committed to their authority, into a corrupt body, and into a system of radical error, for perhaps, many generations.

If, regardless of these dangers, those who ought to instruct and warn, will not perform their duty; if Protestant parents will send their children to Seminaries conducted by Romish ecclesiastics; if Protestant, and even professedly pious, females will consent to únite themselves in matrimonial bonds with Roman Catholics, with the hope of finding little or no evil on the score of religion, to result from the union; if those who profess to know and love the truth, will send their children, and other beloved relatives, to reside in families or neighbourhoods, where they will be exposed to much intercourse with proselyting and plausible Romanists; and, finally, if ministers of the Gospel, whose duty it is to "cry aloud, and not to spare, to lift up their voice as a trumpet," to warn men of danger, and arm them against it,— will not give themselves the trouble to gain information of the real character and designs of this insidious foe of God and man, and of the proper means of exposing his anti-christian claims, and refuting his superstitious doctrines-we know of no remedy. The consequences must be deplorable; but the evil will be required at the hands of the indolent and unfaithful delinquents.

THE SACRED POETRY

OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS.

POETRY and music are intimately related, and are both natural expressions of human thought and feeling. The first efforts of rude nations towards the creation of a literature are poetical in their character. The talk of the Indian orator only requires rhythmical measurement to transform it into poetry, occasionally rising into strains of genuine sublimity. No nation was ever found without its appropriate popular songs and music, rude or refined, according to the degree of intelligence and cultivation attained; and perhaps a more powerful engine has never been employed to control the feelings and energies of a people. Hence the patriot and the demagogue have alike exhibited the attractions of their country or faction, in the stanzas of a popular song, and taught the people to sing it in the streets and by the fireside. The followers of the Lamb, and the advocates of error, have always been accustomed to condense the spirit of their sentiments into psalms and hymns, and enjoin upon their disciples to sing them unceasingly in the public convocation, and in the private hours of devotion. The strains of the poetry when invested with the colouring of genius, and the tones of the music when judiciously adapted, always touch a chord, which vibrates to the soul of sensibility. There is a fascination about a well performed piece of music, which even a barbarian will feel; and there are strains of Christian psalmody, which possess power to charm the cold ear of in

fidelity itself. In most consummate wisdom, therefore, did he, who established the religion of the Gospel, ordain poetry and music as an essential part of its services. Well he knew what was in man, and what was best adapted to make its way to the heart of man, which, like a hostile citadel, is barricaded against all more direct and less attractive modes of address.

From the Jewish synagogue, sacred music very naturally passed over into the Christian sanctuary. Our blessed Lord himself, on that memorable night, when he instituted the Sacramental memorial of his dying love, furnished the transition act by concluding the solemnity with a hymn. As the first Christians were drawn from the synagogue, they natu rally brought with them those songs of Zion, which were associated with all their earliest recollections, and best feelings, and appropriated them to the services of the new dispensation; at least so far as they deemed them applicable to the circumstances and the wants of Christian worshippers. But to what extent the biblical psalms were adopted in the Christian Church, and what transformations they underwent in the hands of apostles, or of Christian poets in apostolic times, we have no information. At a later period we find them in general use in the Churches, and esteemed by the fathers the most inestimable portion of their religious services. The apostolical canons contain this injunction: "Let another sing the hymns of David, and let the people repeat the concluding lines."* "The presiding priest," says Dionysius Areop. "begins the sacred melody of the psalms, the whole ecclesi

*

Έτερος τις (sc. ἀναγινώσκων) τοὺς του Δαβίδ ψαλλέτω ὕμνους, καὶ ὁ λαὸς τὰ ἀκροστίχια ὑποψαλλέτω. Not merely the singing of the psalms is here intended, but also the repetition of the concluding words, (rà á×gooríxia, i. e. extrema versuum, and not as the old Latin translation falsely renders it, initia versuum.") Augusti, Denkwürdigkeiten aus der christlichen Archäologie. Bd. I. p. 236.

* No

astical choir accompanying him in the holy psalmody." other testimony is required to prove, that the Book of Psalms was early used in the Christian Church, and a single extract will suffice to show the estimation in which it was held. "In the perusal of other books," says Athanasius, "we generally think of the persons of whom they treat, we admire them, and even set them before us for imitation; but in the psalms, every one imagines he reads his own thoughts and emotions, and he is as much affected by them as if they were his own. I believe also, that a man can find nothing more glorious than these psalms; for they embrace the whole life of man, the affections of his mind, and the emotions of his soul. Whether he seeks repentance and conversion, or suffers in tribulation and temptation, or is undergoing persecution, or has escaped from some ambush, or is filled with sorrow and inquietude, or has experienced any similar affliction, or if he discovers that he grows in holiness, or desires to praise and glorify God, he can select a psalm suited to every occasion, and thus will find that they are written for him." We can hardly conceive it possible that the psalms of David could have been so generally adopted in the Churches, and so highly esteemed by the best of the fathers, unless they had been introduced or sanctioned by the apostles, and inspired teachers.

We have reason to suppose however, that they were not exclusively used, at least, in the Gentile Churches; for the apostle distinctly mentions psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, as known and used among them. Whatever may be the precise meaning of these several terms, or the definite character of the several classes of sacred lyrics indicated by them, it seems hardly probable, that so many appellations

* ὁ ἱεράρχης απάρχεται τῆς ἱερᾶς τῶν ψαλμῶν μελωδίας, συνοδούς σης αυτῷ τὴν ψαλμικὴν ἱερολογίαν ἀπάσης τῆς ἐκκλησιαστικής διακοσ μίσεις.

De Hierarch. Eccl. c. 3.

vor with the

would be applied to the Psalms of David, however they might be classified and arranged in the Christian psalm-book. Jerome, it is true, explains them all of different classes of poems in the psalter; calling those pieces psalms, which pertain to some moral theme, (ad ethicum locum pertinent,) -those hymns, which exhibit the power and majesty of God, and his works of wonder and grace, to which hallelujah is prefixed or appended,—and spiritual songs are those which treat of superiour beings and the harmony of the universe. The same opinion substantially has been held also by some modern writers, who suppose the aλuoi to correspond with the Dn, the 1, and the dai veμaTxa with the of the Old Testament psalmody. Another ancient explanation, equally probable and ingenious, may be given. "The psalm, properly speaking, is harmoniously sung with an instrumental accompaniment, the psaltery the ode is a musical and harmonious piece, intended only for the voice; and the hymn is an elaborate doxology, referring to the blessings we have experienced, or the evils we have committed."" Others have reduced the signification to two classes, embracing only psalms and hymns; while Le Clerc applies all the terms to one class. "Malim ergo dicere, Paulum idem tribus verbis significasse."+ Still it seems more correspondent to Scriptural usage to consider the term psalms here, as meaning the Book of Psalms, as used in Luke xxiv. 44, and equivalent to Bios Lauv, Luke xx. 42. Acts i. 20, to which the New Testament writers so frequently refer for prophecies, proofs,

* Ψαλμὸς μὲν κυρίως, ὁ μετὰ ὀργανικου ψαλτηρίς ἐμμελῶς ἐκφωνούμενος· ὠδὴ δὲ φωνή τις μουσική σε καὶ ἐναρμόνιος, ἀπὸ μόνου στόματος· ὕμνος δὲ ἡ ἐπιτεταγμένη δοξολογία, ἤ καλῶν ὧν πεπόνθαμεν, ἤ κακῶν vdsôpáxausv. Euthymii Zigabeni Prefat. in Psalmos.

+ Not. Ad. Hammondi N. T.