The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1866-10-10

censer in every part of the inner and
outer chancel, causing the little golden
bells on it to tinkle; and having conse
Grated the host, he shut the doors, and
drew the curtain, while s4ie choir walled
out a tender and beautiful dirge. Then
he opened the doors, and carried the host
around in two golden vessels, with satin
napkin on his shoulder, while the choir
rang out magnificent kallelujah chorus.
After great many more genufexions
and attitudes, in which he sometimes
wore his cap, and sometimes laid it aside,
he finally threw open the doors of the
sanctum, and came to the front of the
chancel with a jewelled crucifA, which
the worshippers, old and young, came up
and kissed, and this ended the service.
Afterwards private mass was said for
the lady in mourning, which | did not
stay to witness; and consecrated bread,
connected with masses for the dead, was
sold at the door.
Such was.this strange service, seeming
to me so like something | might see in a
Persian temple. but nothing like what
one would expect in the church of Chry-
sostom. There was not a word of in
struction, not thing that l could see
but this gorgeous and elaborate mum
merry, which if you could forget that it
was intended as worship of God, was GER
tainly an impressive spectacle with these
splendid walls, cleaning with gold, and
marble, and hung with the loveliest pro-
ducts of the chisel and pencil, all com
bining to produce the effect But when
one thought of Paul witnessing such wor-
ship in the places where he founded
churches, or even Athanasius or Chrys-
ostom, the words of burning rebuke that
they would have uttered can hardly be
conceived. AS | looked at the proud and
high-born worshippers sweeping out of
the door with such a sense Of satisfac-
ton on their faces, as if their religion
was now attended to for week, | felt
how sadly this form of Anti-Christ had
fastened itself on its votaries.
We walked home by the Kursaal, and
saw through the windows the crowds
around the gambling tables and heard
the chink of the money as the croupiers
raked it in, and felt that we saw another
worship more terribly real than that we
had just left, the worship of the god of
this world, whose reward to his worship
pers, is damnation in the next
In the afternoon the band gave a con-
cert in front of the Kursaal, and played
waltzes and operas to large crowd who
sat under the trees drinking and smok-
ing, &c. At night the fountains are il
Illuminated by gas lights inside of the
jets and the light shining through the
water has very beautiful effect This
spectacle is only exhibited on Sunday
night. l walked through the gambling
rooms and saw the same eager crowds as
before, and among those at the tables
gambling were some of the same Rus
slams / had seen in the morning going
through their prostrations and prayers
with so much devoutness. / fear the
evening worship in the temple of man.
mon was more hearty one than the
morning service in the chapel. You can
Judge from these statements how much
of the Sabbath is left in the life of one at a
German watering place.
The next Sabbath was spent at Berne,
in Switzerland, in the very sight of the
Bernese Alps. 1 will not trust myself
to begin to write about these magnificent
masses of rock and ice and snow, that as
[ gazed on them from my chamber window
in the Bellevue seemed like giant affairs
reared for that morning and evening sac
rifce that is laid on them in such sur
passing splendor of reddening crimson or
glittering gold by the rising and setting
sun, or as they stood so stainless and pure
in the white light of the noon-day, made
me think of those everlasting hills of un-
setting brightness when the Lamb shall
lead us to the fountain of living waters,
and God shall wipe away all tears from
our eyes; and as [ thought of the dear
ones far, far away, who would that day
be worshipping God in our stricken and
sorrowing land, 1 felt how sweet a thing
it is have hope of meeting on those AL
pine heights above, where there isno chill
ing frost, no beetlingprecipice, nosternsol-
itudeof eternal snow, but where there shall
eallthesplendorof these glittering peaks,
without anyof theirperil, and fatigue, and
where even the footsteps of the little
lambs who have gone before us shall find
nothing to impede them. [ know that
my dear Brother Hogc, who has looked
on these overland giants will enter fully
into my feelings, when [ say that they
spoke to me of heaven as few sights on
earth have ever done, and that | gazed
and mused until my eyes grew dim with
tears, which only made more vivid the
hope of those hills of light above, on
which we can gaze and muse forever
without tear, for Gods own gentle
hand shall have wiped them all away,
world without end. But | am doing just
what [ wanted to avoid, beginning to
speak of these mighty heralds of the
the glory of God, that preached to me
that day as man never could, preached
by their very silence and awful solitude,
of the peopled splendor of that upper
world of which they were to me the au-
gust proclaimers.
began to tell you of the Sabbath
spent in Berne, the bear city of Switzer
land, as one will soon find out who walks
its quaint and antique streets, where the
bear in every attitude and form meets