less like one another than the worship of the primitive Church and
the worship, say, of one of our congregations. Did you ever try to
paint for yourselves, for instance, the scene described in the First
Epistle to the Corinthians? When they came together in their meetings
for worship, 'every one had a psalm, a doctrine, an interpretation.'
'Let the prophets speak, by ones, or at most by twos'; and if another
gets up to interrupt, let the first speaker sit down. Paul goes on to
say, 'Let all things be done decently and in order.' So there must
have been tendencies to disorder, and much at which some of our
modern ecclesiastical martinets would have been very much scandalised
as 'unbecoming.' Wise men are in no haste to change forms. Forms
change of themselves when their users change; but it would be a good
day for Christendom if the faith and devoutness of a community of
believers such as we, for instance, profess to be, were so strong and
so demanding expression as that, instead of my poor voice continually
sounding here, every one of you had a psalm or a doctrine, and every
one of you were able and impelled to speak out of the fulness of the
Spirit which God poured into you. It will come some day; it must come
if Christendom is not to die of its own dignity. But we do not need
to hurry matters, only let us remember that unless a Church continues
steadfast in prayer it is worth very little.

Now, dear brethren, it is said about us Free Churchmen that we think
a great deal too much of preaching and a great deal too little of the
prayers of the congregation. That is a stock criticism. I am bound to
say that there is a grain of truth in it, and that there is not, with
too many of our congregations, as lofty a conception of the power and
blessedness of the united prayers of the congregation as there ought
to be, or else you would not hear about 'introductory services.'
Introductory to what? Do we speak to God merely by way of preface to