Hebrew parallelism, or responsively, between the minister and the congregation, in our colleges as well as in the churches, it would aid the whole object, by giving the laymen something so do, by enlivening the mind, by fixing the eye, by engaging two senses and a tongue in the service, instead of hearing alone. A free use of different methods is better than bondage to any one. Respecting the prayer itself, we feel very sure of this: it should be either expressly and obviously liturgical, or else be strictly extemporaneous, having the natural verbal variety of a spontaneous exercise. What pretends to be the latter, and yet consists of a familiar repetition of clauses, whether following in a certain order or not, is almost certain to become subject, at last, to unfavorable notice, and to fix upon the service a reputation of heartless routine.

Common sense and observation teach that the entire daily service should be short, not extending over twenty minutes, altogether, at the longest. Fifteen are better than twenty. It is idle to attempt settling this matter by abstract notions, or to chafe at necessity, or to expect a promiscuous troop of boys, or men either, to be saints, and to keep positions of discomfort all the more quietly because they fatigue the limbs. Edification is the object, and edification should supply the rule.

And, as to the bodily posture, there is still occasion for experiment. It ought certainly to be uniform throughout the room. Sabbath assemblies may continue to affront decency, by the present mixed and vulgar manners, if they will; but in the decorum of a college or school such irregularity should be forbidden as an offence. If principles of absolute adaptation and correspondence were to govern the matter, there could be no doubt that the three appropriate postures for the house of God would be standing during praise (i. e., in all singing and the responsive readings of the Bible), kneeling or inclining the head and body during confession and prayer, and sitting to hear the discourse, or the lessons read, by the minister. In daily chapel services this order may be found impracticable, on the score of the maintenance of stillness, or the supposed necessity of keeping the persons of the pupils exposed to the eye of the government. Certainly the body during the prayer the most important of the services - should have the greatest degree of ease consistent with a proper dignity, so as to furnish the least possible disturbance to the mind. Trifling accessories are not to be overlooked. Where it can be done, a palpable help would be gained to the silence, and thus to the just impression of the place, by some sort of carpeting on the floor.

The chief perplexities attending the subject arise from what was

just referred to, the connection of the devotions with the discipline. Just so far as it can possibly be accomplished, that connection ought to be at once and completely dissolved. That this has not been more generally done in our colleges betokens an indifference to the highest claims of religion, and the laws of the spirit, painful to think of. In this direction, as it seems to us, is the great call for reformation. The secular administration of a college is one thing, and should rest on its own legitimate resources. The worship of God is another thing, and should have no other relation to the former than that of a morally pervasive and sanctifying influence. The chapel is not a constabulary contrivance, nor the chaplain a drill-sergeant. The Bible is no substitute for a policeman's club, nor for a proctor's vigilance. In some seminaries, it would appear as if the final cause for prayers were a convenient convocation of the scholars, as a substitute for a roll-call. They must be somehow brought together, in order to come under the eye of a monitor and be counted, and so they are summoned to praise God. Now we maintain - and surely it is a case that needs no other argument than an appeal to common Christian feeling that all this should be forthwith changed. A spiritual approach to the Almighty Source of Truth should not be compromised by an extrinsic annoyance. If any students come to prayers reluctantly, their reluctance should not be aggravated by the additional odium of an academic economy put under a sacred disguise. Physical constraint should not thrust its disagreeable features unnecessarily into the sanctuary. And therefore such arrangements should be secured that, by classes or otherwise, the presence of the students on the spot might be certified at the given hour, independently of the chapel service.

On the other hand, one is easily satisfied that the attendance should be universal, and should be required; and also that entire order and a decorous deportment should be positively enforced under strict sanctions. These are indispensable conditions of any proper effect of the service, whether on the devoutly disposed or the reckless. Moreover, the reasons for them are plain, and find a substantiating authority in every human breast. Let the compulsion be exercised in a kind spirit, and be patiently explained. The reverence that demands it should be evident in the officer's own soul and bearing. Only, behind the reasonable persuasion a silent, retiring, but everpresent force should stand the imperative figure of law, always in abeyance, but always there. And above all, as just urged, let not the cause of this compulsion be mixed up with a secular regulation, but depend on its own inherent rectitude and conformity with the Divine Will. The student is to understand that he must come; but then this "must"

has nothing to do with the local policy. It is the combined dictate of revelation, of history, of human want and welfare, and of the ripest judgment of the best men. So an external order must be maintained. The intrinsic right of the matter is satisfied in no other way. Disturbance, levity, whispering, the furtive use of a book or pencil, a slouched dress, or a lounging attitude, should all be prohibited at every

If the pupil pleads that his heart is not in the service, and that an outside compliance is an insincerity, the fallacy can easily be shown him. The rule comes to aid his deficiency, and disposes everything to facilitate an interested participation. Besides, there are others close by who are really and thoughtfully worshipping, entitled to decorous surroundings. There is not the least hostility to free and cordial devotions in such regulations. Every sensible man knows that his strongest and happiest and healthiest labors are braced up and kept in place by law. Every transition from term-time to vacation, or from professional tasks to purely voluntary ones, illustrates that. As we lately heard one of our most faithful and unremitting scientific minds, one where we should have hardly suspected the existence of any such reliance, express it, "Our most spontaneous studies have to be subjected to some form of constraint." We get our freedom under a yoke. Almost every busy man who would acquire an extra language must put himself in bondage to a clock or a doorbell, till habit takes the place of the private teacher. The spiritual motions of man are no exception to this peculiarity of his constitution. They are not discredited by being regulated. Besides, the fundamental idea of a college or a school is that its members are "under tutors and governors;" and the success of every part of the educational process depends on the forming hand of law. Here, then, seems to be the true principle: the secular discipline of an institution has no right to subordinate the devotions to itself, nor to use them for its purposes; but those devotions demand a rational and gracious discipline of their own, in keeping with their dignity, and precise enough for their external protection.

Though perfect order, or the nearest possible approximation to it, ought to be insisted on, after the form of the exercise is determined, we hold that Christian pains should be taken to remove every burdensome element and circumstance pertaining to it. A principal one is often found in an unseasonable hour. The lessons and lectures of college, especially when the numbers of students are large, require a long day. It is a common impression that the day should begin with public prayers. This often brings that service so early that the prayer-bell acts as a wrench to pull the reluctant attendants out of

their beds. This is laying upon a duty, which needs every accessory to make it agreeable and attractive, a foreign and extrinsic load, giving it a bad reputation. During our own college course, rooming nearly half a mile from the chapel, we attended prayers, through the whole winter, at six o'clock, both that duty and a succeeding recitation of an hour being performed by candle-light. The hardship was not at all too great for a vigorous training, and we never got an absence-mark. But, taking the habits of the people as they are, and especially of the more luxurious classes, this hour, or anything like it, would be accounted barbarous and cruel; and therefore we should consider it inexpedient. We account it an irreverence to bring inevitable and superfluous dislike on any worship. Morning prayers should be held at an hour when every healthy student may be reasonably expected to be up and dressed. Otherwise, a habit of feeling and of speaking is gradually engendered incompatible with due veneration.

In Harvard University the experiment has been tried, within a year or two, of assembling for morning prayers after breakfast, and indeed at two or three different times, in the first part of the day. The result, on the whole, has been favorable to making the prayers the first exercise, before breakfast; and this appears to be the preference of the students themselves, both on the score of natural fitness and personal convenience. The subject justifies an extensive comparison of different judgments and experiences.

At Harvard, at Brown, and perhaps at other institutions, the custom of an evening service has been suspended. It was thought advisable to concentrate the interest on one daily assembling for prayers. There were various reasons. The appointments of the buildings generally require that, if held at all, that exercise should come at night-fall, and not at the more intrinsically suitable time of retiring to rest. But, during the winter, night-fall comes in the midst of the day's work. At all seasons, that part of the day is commonly appropriated to out-of-door exercise, and by many to distant walks. Frequently the students are engaged, in large companies, in their noisiest and most exciting sports. From these stirring and jovial games, altogether proper and wholesome in their place, the tide of animal spirits running at its height, a stroke of the bell summons them suddenly to a reverential homage of their Maker. It is not in human nature to make that quick transition with entire dignity, and to the honor of the homage. At any rate, it is observable enough that the evening worship is far less impressive and edifying than the morning. From these and other causes, the change has been instituted, and, so far as we are informed, with such manifest and

unequivocal advantage, that the officers in these colleges would be slow to return to the former usage. But here again a longer experience must finally decide.

This seems to us quite clear, that whatever sacrifices of comfort, or effort of the will, this attendance may demand, the sacrifices and the effort ought to be borne by the board of government and instruction along with the pupils. With a few allowances, the prayers are indeed just as important for the one class as the other. If the officers are absent, it is at least natural that the pupils should tacitly ask why they are obliged to be present. The great law of voluntary self-denial comes into action here, as in so many of the relations of teachers to their scholars. Say what we will about universal principles, the ethics of a college and a school are peculiar. They exempt from no general duty, but they impose special and local ones of their own. The great universal principle is to do the most good in all circumstances. So sensitive are the moral sympathies of these seminaries, that a conscientious, high-principled Christian teacher will put away from him many an indulgence otherwise harmless, and cheerfully take up many a task otherwise needless, solely from a reference to the moral purity of those under his care, and in deference to that grand ethical law so nobly interpreted by Paul in the fourteenth chapter to the Romans. We are persuaded that very much of the present disaffection in these institutions at the exacted attendance would gradually disappear, if it were seen that the officers all regularly came of their own accord. Nor should they come merely to use an oversight of the under-graduates. That may be done incidentally. The prime purpose should be to engage honestly in the worship, to offer praise and supplication to the Lord of life, to learn that august lesson of faith and love toward Him, of whom "day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge," which is just as necessary for the strong and the wise, as for the weak and simple.

We come back from the details of method, none of which can be insignificant where the end is so high,- to the spiritual forces involved, and the infinite object contemplated. God, who alone is true, has promised that he will hear the prayers of his people, and has conditioned the bestowment of his richest blessings on their being sought in singleness of heart. The history of our country is all bright with evidences how he watches over the nurseries of a pure learning, and from the very beginning has turned the seats of Christian education into fountains to gladden the wilderness and the city of God. Such prayers

as Dr. Dwight poured forth in the Chapel of Yale College, when, in the agony of his spirit, he wrestled with God, as well as struggled No. 10. [Vol. IV. No. 1.]-3