possible before in Christian
Europe--direct communication between the government and the people
without any religious intermedium, and was the first step in that
important change subsequently carried out in America, the separation of
Church and state. Though in this particular the effect was desirable, in
another its advantages are doubtful, for the Church adhered to her
ancient method when it had lost very much of its real force, and this
even at the risk of falling into a lifeless and impassive condition.

[Sidenote: Influence of church services on the people.] And yet we must
not undervalue the power once exercised on a non-reading community by
oral and scenic teachings. What could better instruct it than a formal
congregating of neighbourhoods together each Sabbath-day to listen in
silence and without questioning? In those great churches, the
architectural grandeur of which is still the admiration of our material
age, nothing was wanting to impress the worshipper. The vast pile, with
its turrets or spire pointing to heaven; its steep inclining roof; its
walls, with niches and statues; its echoing belfry; its windows of
exquisite hues and of every form, lancet, or wheel, or rose, through
which stole in the many-coloured light; its chapels, with their pictured
walls; its rows of slender, clustering columns, and arches tier upon
tier; its many tapering pendants; the priest emerging from his scenic
retreat; his chalice and forbidden wine; the covering paten, the cibory,
and the pix. Amid clouds of incense from smoking censers, the blaze of
lamps, and tapers, and branching candlesticks, the tinkling of silver
bells, the play of jewelled vessels and gorgeous dresses of violet,
green, and gold, banners and crosses were borne aloft through lines of
kneeling worshippers in processional services along the aisles. The
chanting of litanies and psalms gave a foretaste of the melodies of
heaven, and the voices of the choristers and sounds of the organ now
thundered forth glory to God in the highest, now whispered to the broken
in spirit peace.

[Sidenote: Influence of village churches.] If such were the influences
in the cathedral, not less were those that gathered round the little
village church. To the peasant it was endeared by the most touching
incidents of his life. At its font his parents had given him his name;
at its altar he had plighted his matrimonial vows; beneath the little
grass mounds in its yard there awaited the