f one comes forward before the rest,
it is not because he is entitled to this distinction, in virtue of an
office or of a previous agreement, nor because pride and conceitedness
have given him presumption; it is rather a free impulse of the spirit,
a sense of the most heartfelt unity of each with all, a consciousness
of entire equality, a mutual renunciation of all First and Last, of
all the arrangements of earthly order. He comes forward in order to
communicate to others, as an object of sympathizing contemplation, the
deepest feelings of his soul while under the influence of God; to lead
them to the domain of religion in which he breathes his native air;
and to infect them with the contagion of his own holy emotions. He
speaks forth the Divine which stirs his bosom, and in holy silence the
assembly follows the inspiration of his words. Whether he unveils a
secret mystery, or with prophetic confidence connects the future with
the present; whether he strengthens old impressions by new examples,
or is led by the lofty visions of his burning imagination into other
regions of the world and into another order of things, the practised
sense of his audience everywhere accompanies his own; and when he
returns into himself from his wanderings through the kingdom of
God, his own heart and that of each of his hearers are the common
dwelling-place of the same emotion.

If, now, the agreement of his sentiments with that which they feel be
announced to him, whether loudly or low, then are holy mysteries--not
merely significant emblems, but, justly regarded, natural indications
of a peculiar consciousness and peculiar feelings--invented and
celebrated, a higher choir, as it were, which in its own lofty
language answers to the appealing voice. But not only, so to speak;
for as such a discourse is music without tune or measure, so there
is also a music among the Holy, which may be called discourse without
words, the most distinct and expressive utterance of the inward man.
The Muse of Harmony, whose intimate relation with religion, although
it has been for a long time spoken of and described, is yet recognized
only by few, has always presented upon her altars the most perfect
and magnificent productions of her selectest scholars in honor of
religion. It is in sacred hymns and choirs, with which the words
of the poet are connected only by slight and airy bands, that those
feelings are breathed forth which precise language is unable to