CV.

WRITTEN AFTER HAVING ATTENDED THE FUNERAL

OF C. T.

"O spare me, that I may recover my strength, before I go hence and be no more."

O "TIS an awful thing to die,”

To go we know not where;

To hear the warning angel cry,

To meet thy God prepare!

Come, come to judgment, come away,
There stand before thy Lord:

In thy defence, what canst thou say,
To avert the vengeful sword?

Thou call'st upon the hills in vain,

To hide thee from his sight;

Each sin, how foul soe'er its stain,
Must then be brought to light.

Tremendous day! yet it will come,
Though its approach seem slow;

And finally 'twill fix our doom,
In endless bliss or woe!

Dear Jesus, hear our suppliant cry,Thy pardoning love we crave;

Blot out our sins before we die,—

Our souls redeem and save.

ON SILENT WORSHIP.

SINCE Friends allow of no audible administrations in connexion with public worship, except such as arise out of the immediate impressions of the Holy Spirit, it is evident that when those impressions are withheld or withdrawn, and at all times, except during the actual utterance of ministry, their assemblies must continue in a state of silence. When they meet together for the solemn purpose of worshipping their common Lord and Father, they dare not rush into his sacred presence with offerings of confession, prayer, and praise, prepared beforehand or extemporaneously invented. They sit down, therefore, in reverent stillness before him, and whenever it happens that no one present possesses a gift in the ministry, or that the individuals who possess such a gift are not called into the exercise of it, the silence with which the meeting commences, continues uninterrupted until the time arrives for its separation.

R3

During the earlier periods of the society's history, the number of its ministers was very large, and I cannot but think it probable, that in the present day, were our religious body in a more lively, healthy, and vigorous condition, the gifts of the Holy Spirit would be more abundantly poured forth upon us, and would be exercised more generally in our assemblies for worship, to the edification of the people, and to the glory of the Great Giver. But although this allowance may, I believe, be safely made, it is certain that those who have imbibed the religious principles of Friends, will ever place a high value on the opportunities so often afforded them in that society, for the public yet silent worship of God. While much of silence in our religious meetings is the necessary consequence of our sentiments respecting the ministry of the gospel; it is a consequence which we are far indeed from regarding as a hardship or disadvantage. On the contrary, such silent worship is in complete harmony with the whole tenor of our principles, and we believe that to those who rightly avail themselves of it, it seldom fails to become the means of unspeakable usefulness.

Our profession and our desire, when we meet together to worship the Father, is to perform this sacred duty in spirit and in truth. To this end we conceive that a condition of outward silence is preeminently adapted. For worship in spirit and in truth consists neither in the practice of typical ordinances, nor in the forced or formal use of words, which may

or may not be accordant with the feelings of those who utter them, or in whose behalf they are spoken; but in the communion of the soul with God, in inward prostration before him, and in those heart-felt offerings of supplication and thanksgiving which, in order to enter into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, need not the intervention of any vocal utterance.

In order to unfold this interesting subject with some degree of clearness, it will be desirable to advert to a few of its principal particulars.

I. Were the enquiry addressed to me, "What is the first and most essential qualification for a right and spiritual worship of the Almighty-for such a worship as would at once edify the creature and glorify the Creator"-I should feel but little hesitation in replying, A deep humiliation and subjection of soul before the divine Majesty. True worship may often be properly expressed by the services of the lip; but it is, in itself, the homage which the soul offers to its Maker;—it is the reverential communion of man with his God. Now this homage can never be acceptably offered this communion can never take place in a right or perfect manner-until the mind of the worshipper is made in some degree sensible of the real relative situation of the two parties concerned-of himself and his God. The worshipper is the creature; the object of his worship is the Creator: the former is finite, ignorant, weak, and helpless; the latter is omniscient, eternal, and omnipotent: the former, with