Questions on Chapter 6.

fact overturns all the proud claims we might urge as being THE Church with which it is the duty of all to unite. This admission demonstrates that we do not occupy a platform from which we may consistently call upon all others to rally to our standard. It proves that, however illustrious the line through which we may trace our descent, nevertheless we now occupy a sectarian basis.

The plain truth on the subject is, that the Scriptures abundantly authorize both the liturgical and the extemporaneous modes of public worship. Both methods have their advantages and their disadvantages. A judicious blending of the two is more in accordance with Scripture, antiquity, and reason, than a rigid adherence to either, to the exclusion of the other. Hence we conclude that, as God has sanctioned both, and left all at liberty to use them at discretion, this liberty cannot be restricted or destroyed without violating the great principles of Christian charity and laying the foundation for schism.

It is to be lamented that some, who are the loudest in their pleadings for that great and glorious unity of “all who profess and call themselves Christians,” for which our Saviour so earnestly prayed, are the greatest sticklers for mere modes and forms, and the first to erect effectual barriers in the way of that unity they profess so much to desire. Let these unscriptural principles and practices tending directly to sectarian exclusiveness, whether connected with the mode of worship, of baptism, of ordination, or of whatever else, which have so long kept asunder those whom God originally joined together, be at once and forever abandoned, and soon “there shall be one fold and one Shepherd.”

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER 6.

QUESTION 1. What has characterized the controversy as to the form of prayer?

2. What has been generally admitted on both sides of the question?

3. Which do the Scriptures sanction, liturgical or extemporaneous worship?

4. Which of these modes of worship did the Jews practice?

5. Which of these modes of worship is sanctioned by the New Testament?

6. Do both Testaments sanction both modes of worship?

7. Can we require as a condition of membership, what the Scriptures do not authorize as a term of communion, without encouraging schism?

8. What are the main advantages and disadvantages of liturgical worship?

9. What of extemporaneous worship?

10. What would be preferable to the practice of either mode, to the exclusion of the other?

11. What great barrier to Christian union has been erected in connection with this subject?