Then follow forms for the Baptism of Infants; for the Ratification of the Baptismal Vow (answering to Confirmation); for the Baptism of Adults; for the Lord's Supper; for Marriage; and for Funerals. Most of these services are shorter than the corresponding ones in the forms of the Protestant Episcopal Church. I give an outline of the "Liturgy of the Lord's Supper" as a specimen. On the day of celebration, the pastor, at the close of the sermon, repeats the following prayer: “O Lord our God, as we approach Thy holy table, and celebrate there the memory of Thy Son, we unite in prayer for our country, for the Emperor, and for all the branches of the government; for the Church, its pastors and officers; for the sick and afflicted, and for all who have desired our supplications in their behalf; for ourselves and for our families, in the model of prayer which Thy Divine Son has taught us: Our Father, which art in Heaven," &c. [the Lord's Prayer.] The Pastor then says: "All those who do not intend to-day to partake of the Communion, or who do not propose to remain during its solemn administration, are requested to retire silently and in order, after receiving the benediction." Here follows the benediction and a hymn.— After which the Pastor pronounces the Exhortation, founded on 1 Cor. xi. 23-29. It is too long to be cited here in full. The Exhortation is followed by the Prayer before the Communion, which is about the length of the Prayer of Consecration in the Protestant Episcopal Service The Pastor then pronounces the Invitation, as follows: 66 Approach now, Brethren, the table of the Lord. But come with the humility, the repentance, the faith and the charity which this holy service demands of you. Come also decently and in order, remembering that you are about to present yourselves before God in order to discharge one of the most solemn of religious duties. And let us not remain satisfied with the mere sight and touch of the external symbols, as if Jesus Christ were shut up in them in a carnal way, but let us raise our hearts to heaven, where Christ is now in the glory of the Father, and from whence we look for His coming at the last day to judge the world, and to grant us the full possession of the great salvation which He has prepared for us." The faithful then approach and stand ranged around the table. The Pastor then breaks the bread and says: "The bread which we break is the communion of the body of Jesus Christ our Saviour, who died for us." He then blesses the cup, in the words following:66 The cup of blessing, which we bless, is the communion of the blood of Jesus Christ our Saviour, which was shed for the remission of our sins." The faithful then, successively gathering around the table, receive from the minister the bread and wine: and, each table being dismissed with a brief exhortation, when all have communed, the Pastor says: 66 Brethren, who have now celebrated the death of Christ, we implore you in His name not to have received His grace in vain. May sin no longer reign in you. May you so walk' worthily of your high vocation, that nothing may deprive you of the love of God in Christ Jesus. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. Bear with one another, and if one has complaint of another, forgive each other, even as Christ has forgiven you. May the grace of God, in which you are called to form but one body, reign in your hearts.And let us now, all together, render unto Him most humble thanksgivings. Let us pray.” Here follows a prayer of thanksgiving, after which, the congregation, standing, join in singing the song of Simeon, "Lord, lettest thou now thy servant," &c.; and the final benediction is pronounced. I have now furnished you the means of forming a tolerably correct opinion as to the present condition and usages of the Reformed Church of France. It co.tains many noble ministers. The names of Grandpierre and Monod are held in honor throughout Christendom. These men are faithful to the Gospel of Christ, under the pressure of great and increasing difficulties. May the Lord bless them and deliver them. I am, Dear Doctor, yours very truly, J. MCCLINTOCK. A CHAPTER FROM THE LIFE OF ZWINGLI. ZWINGLI had scarcely been a year engaged in his reforming labors in Zurich, when he was put under the cross, that he might exercise and prove himself in "the imitation of Christ." In August 1519 he visited, for the purpose of resuscitating his exhausted bodily powers, after his severe labors, the mineral waters of Pfeffer, situated in a dreadful ravine of the Galanda mountains. Here he formed a friendship with the poet and professor, Egentius of Freiburg (in Breisgau), who visited the springs with the same object in view. The days, however, of relaxation and recreation were not to last long for the Reformer.From Zurich he received the harrowing intelligence that the plague, which was traversing Europe from the eastward, and which had not spared the highest valleys of Switzerland, had invaded his own parish. The zealous pastor, mindful of the duties of his high calling, hasted homewards, to extend to the afflicted members of his flock the consolations of the Gospel. His brother Andrew, whom he had living with him in his own house to guide his studies, he sent off to Wildhaus, that he might thereby the better escape infection, Zwingli himself, with heroical courage, visited the sick and the dying without intermission, and supplied them, in this the hour of their extremest need, with the rich consolations of the Gospel. In his sermons he raised the sinking hearts of his terrified congregation with the promises of the Word of Life, and pointed them to Christ, who quickens the weary and heavy laden. Many among his people trembled for the life of their faithful pastor, as they saw him moving about amidst the thickly flying darts of death, himself bearing round the cup of salvation; for "the great death," as the name of this pestilence is, in the mouths of the common people, cut down in Zurich alone, from August 1519 to Candlemas 1520, two thousand five hundred. "I rejoice greatly," wrote Conrad Brunner (of Wesen), from Basle, "that thou standest untouched and unharmed by the arrows of death which are flying around. But my joy will not be free of anxiety so long as thou daily exposest thyself to great peril by visiting the sick of the plague. Forget not, while bringing consolation to others, to take care for thine own life." The anxiety of Zwingli's friends was but too well-founded, for, at the end of September, he himself became a victim to the disease. What a grief to his flock, when they saw their faithful pastor chained to a sick, it might be a dying bed! The feelings which oppressed the friends of evangelical truth at a' distance by the intelligence of his sickness are thus expressed in a letter which Dr. Hedio wrote to Zwingli: "We were deeply afflicted when we heard that this murderous disease had seized you also, for who would not grieve if the saviour of his country, if the trumpet of the Gospel, if the courageous herald of the truth should be struck down in the prime of life, high in hope, and in the midst of his usefulness!" The feelings of his own soul on his being seized, the Reformer poured forth in the following Hymn: ON THE COMMENCEMENT OF HIS SICKNESS. My humble prayer, O Father, hear, O help me in this strait; With heavy foot grim Death draws near, O Thou, who in the stormy fight, Did'st hold in check his power; My Father, if it be Thy will, Do Thou ordain once more, That the destroying angel still Pass me in safety o'er. O cause mine agony to cease, Pull out the dart that burns, But if my sun is to descend, At mid-day to the tomb, What doom? Thou shalt then from this earth And death itself shall be my birth Into the bliss above. As in the potter's forming hand Thus life or death's at Thy command-- My soul in resignation "Do all Thy pleasure" saith, Thy will shall be salvation, Be it in life or death. His complaint increased, his strength left him, but his heart sought and found consolation in God through Jesus Christ, and he again sings, in the midst of his calamity: ON HIS SICKNESS, INCREASING. Comfort, O Lord, I seek in Thee, With comfort from Christ's wounds. Yes, Great Redeemer! at death's gates My tongue is withered and dumb, Is, then, the end of all things come, I see, indeed, with dreadful rage, too weak the war to wage, The faithful, as Bullinger mentions, were deeply distressed at the sickness of their dear pastor, and called on God in earnest prayer that He would be pleased to raise him up again. The Lord heard the prayers of His people, and raised His servant from his bed of sickness, that he might further contend for the honor of God and the salvation in Christ Jesus. The joyous feeling of gratitude which filled his bosom on his recovery he gives expression to in the following Hymn of grateful praise: ON HIS RECOVERY TO HEALTH. I'm sound-through Thy great goodness; | Now it remains again My God, Thou'st made me whole, Will loudly Thee extol; But had death in his fetter Securely captured me, I were now where 'tis better The bands of life to sever, Yet on I go with gladness, To wage 'gainst sin the strife, The intelligence of his recovery filled his friends far and near with the greater rapture, because they had shortly before received the report that he had sunk under the virulence of the malady. Hedio wrote from Basle: "Like a suddenly appearing angel of consolation came Rudolph Collin to us, assuring us that we had no canse to be cast down on your account, for you were now safe." Wilibald Pirkheimer, of Nurnberg, says, in a letter to Zwingli: "If my mourning over your sickness was great, my joy at your recovery was greater. Let us sing praises to God, who inflicts the wounds and who heals them again, who kills and makes alive, and who has called back your soul from the grave. His name be praised for evermore." William de Falconibus, the legate's secretary, writes: "If the gratification of a wish ever filled me with pleasure, it was far exceeded by what I felt when I heard of the return of one from the gates of death, for whom I have so great a longing, that I feel as if a part of my soul would tear itself away from me to go to you." The Vicar-General, John Faber, also, who afterwards became one of Zwingli's most virulent enemies, joined himself to the crowd of congratulating friends. "I heartily rejoice," dearest Huld. reich, “that you have been delivered out of the jaws of the murderous plague, for I entertain towards you so lively a friendship that nothing in this world would pain me more than the intelligence that any calamity had befallen you, which God in his mercy avert. And this love you well deserve, for you work with such zeal in the vineyard of the Lord that when you are in danger a calamity impends the community. The Lord himself knows, however, whom He will stir up by bitter trials to a more earnest striving after a better and a more enduring inheritance. Such a trial you have experienced from your heavenly Father."-LIFE OF ZWINGLI, by Christoffel. CHRIST AND HIS LAMBS.-In a Chinese Christian family at Amoy, a little boy, the youngest of three children, on asking his father to allow him to be baptized, was told that he was only a little boy. To this he made the touching reply" Jesus has promised to carry the lambs in his arms. I am only a little boy; it will be easier for Jesus to carry me." The logic of the heart was too much for the father. He took him with him, and the dear child was, ere baptized. Miss. Magazine. fong, THE POPE AT HOME. FLORENCE, DEC. 22, 1862. THE readers of the "WORLD" may be interested in knowing something of the private life of the present Pope. Though in these days he is a very public character, and his reign is likely to mark an epoch in the history of politics and religion in Italy, and though as a public administrator he may have much to vex him, yet as an old bachelor at home, he evidently enjoys life, and has a "good time" generally. It must be known as preliminary, that the private apartments of the Vatican are very beautiful and very rich, overloaded with gold and silk. There are, however, occasionally seen a few painted wooden chairs, very simple, not to say miserable souvenirs of the apostolical plainness of another age. The same may be said of the Quirinal, Castle Gandolfo, and all other pontifical residences. The Pope usually rises at six o'clock in the morning; about seven he says mass in a chapel which joins his sleeping room. The Cardinals and Roman Bishops generally have the same habit. At Rome, when a prelate rents a furnished apartment, he places in a closet a small portable altar, where he says mass. In many of the apartments now rented to strangers, the remains of these temporary altars and vestiges of these masses are found. The valet-de-chambre makes the responses on these occasions for the Pope, this valet is a prelate, a priest or a deacon. In the Vatican there are ten private valets-de-chambre-the most intimate are classed according to age, passing from the eldest to the youngest. Monsignors Stella, de Mérode, Talbot (an Englishman) and Ricci, are the four persons always near him. They keep him company, and amuse him, and make him laugh; which is not a difficult thing, for in private life Pius IX. is always laughing and happy. At eight o'clock the "holy father" takes breakfast, which consists of coffee and some very simple accompaniments. At that time Monsignor Stella alone is present; he opens the correspondence, reads it or gives a summary of it. It is the most private moment of the day. At nine o'clock, breakfast being finished, he reads his private correspondence. Then Cardinal Antonelli comes down from his rooms above and enters the apartment of the Pope; he is very gentle, very humble, a real treasure,―he addresses the Pope sometimes as "holy father," sometimes AC 'most blessed father," he praises the genius of the Pope and his wonderful knowledge of affairs: he is indeed his very humble servant.— This political conversation, this labor of the king and the minister continues an hour or two. The valets-de-chambre sometimes interrupt them; but Antonelli is very kind with them. About half-past ten or eleven, the receptions begin. The Pope, dressed in white, sits in a large arm-chair, with a table before him. |