No, no!  If the supply at the Lord’s table were limited, He would let the children come in first and the older ones go without, as a punishment for not having come in while they themselves were children.  If the wind is from the northeast, and the air is full of frost and snow, and part of the flock must be left out on the mountains, let it be the old sheep, for they can stand it better than the lambs.  O Shepherd of Israel, crowd them all in before the coming of the tempest!

Myself.—­Dominie Scattergood, what do yow think of this discussion in the papers on the subject of liturgies?

Scattergood.—­I know there has been much talk of late about liturgies in the churches, and whether or not audiences should take audible part in religious service.  While others are discussing that point, let me say that all the service of the Church ought to be responsive if not with audible “Amen,” and unanimous “Good Lord, deliver us,” then with hearty outburst of soul.

Let not the prayer of him that conducts public service go up solitary and alone, but accompanied by the heartfelt ejaculation of all the auditory.  We sit down on a soft cushion, in a pew by architectural skill arranged to fit the shape of our back, and are tempted to fall into unprofitable reveries.  Let the effort be on the part of every minister to make the prayer and the Scripture-reading and the giving out of the hymn so emphatic that the audience cannot help but respond with all the soul.

Let the minister, before going into the pulpit, look over the whole field and recall what are the styles of bereavement in the congregation—­whether they be widowhood, orphanage or childlessness; what are the kinds of temporal loss his people may recently have suffered—­whether in health, in reputation or estate; and then get both his shoulders under these troubles, and in his prayer give one earnest and tremendous lift, and there will be no dullness, no indifference, no lack of multitudinous response.

The reason that congregations have their heads bobbing about in prayer-time is because the officiating clergyman is apt to petition in the abstract.  He who calls the troubles of his people by their right names, and tenderly lays hold of the cancers of the souls before him, will not lack in getting immediate heartfelt, if not audible, response.

While we have not as much interest in the agitated question of liturgies as would make us say ten words about it, we are interested more than we can tell in the question, How shall the officiating ministers, in all the churches, give so much point, and adaptedness, and vigor and blood-red earnestness of soul to their public devotions as shall make all the people in church feel that it is the struggle for their immortal life in which the pastor is engaged?  Whether it be in tones that strike the ear, or with a spiritual emphasis heard only in the silent corridor of the heart, let all the people say Amen!