ther;--they are
apt to nod familiarly, and have even been known to whisper before
the minister came in. But it is a relief to get rid of that old
Sunday--no,--Sabbath face, which suggests the idea that the first day
of the week is commemorative of some most mournful event. The truth
is, these brethren and sisters meet very much as a family does for its
devotions, not putting off their humanity in the least, considering it
on the whole quite a delightful matter to come together for prayer and
song and good counsel from kind and wise lips. And if they are freer in
their demeanor than some very precise congregations, they have not the
air of a worldly set of people. Clearly they have not come to advertise
their tailors and milliners, nor for the sake of exchanging criticisms
on the literary character of the sermon they may hear. There is no
restlessness and no restraint among these quiet, cheerful worshippers.
One thing that keeps them calm and happy during the season so evidently
trying to many congregations is, that they join very generally in the
singing. In this way they get rid of that accumulated nervous force
which escapes in all sorts of fidgety movements, so that a minister
trying to keep his congregation still reminds one of a boy with his hand
over the nose of a pump which another boy is working,--this spirting
impatience of the people is so like the jets that find their way through
his fingers, and the grand rush out at the final Amen! has such a
wonderful likeness to the gush that takes place when the boy pulls his
hand away, with immense relief, as it seems, to both the pump and the
officiating youngster.

How sweet is this blending of all voices and all hearts in one common
song of praise! Some will sing a little loud, perhaps,--and now and
then an impatient chorister will get a syllable or two in advance, or an
enchanted singer so lose all thought of time and place in the luxury
of a closing cadence that he holds on to the last semi-breve upon his
private responsibility; but how much more of the spirit of the old
Psalmist in the music of these imperfectly trained voices than in the
academic niceties of the paid performers who take our musical worship
out of our hands!

I am of the opinion that the creed of the Church of the Galileans is not
laid down in as many details as that of the Church of Saint Polycarp.
Yet I suspect, if one of the good people from each of those churches had
met over the bed of a su